Help for Haiti

Photo by Daniel Morel in CBS article:


I received an e-mail today from the White House calling for support from Americans to help the people of Haiti at this horrible time of disaster.

I just can't post about anything else today with this on my mind. This is an earthquake that happens once in 200 years. It really unnerves you to know that a disaster of epic proportions could happen to any nation, anybody at any time.

We are sitting in our homes comfortable while people are crying in agony in Haiti. My heart goes out to them. I feel such sadness.

And yes! Definitely! We'll be sending our contribution to the effort. It's just hard to decide where to send it. President Obama suggests the Red Cross as a good place to start. We've been partial to Doctors Without Borders. I guess it doesn't matter. It's just important to try to help our neighbors in their time of need.

Trip to Egypt #1

I couldn't think of anything to post today so I thought I'd share some experiences from our trip to Egypt.

It was November, 2007 and Art found a good deal (no luxuries) tour to Egypt. This was the 2nd tour we'd taken. Our first was to Turkey which we enjoyed so much that we thought we'd try a tour again. Besides, we weren't confident about going to Egypt on our own so a tour seemed the best, safest bet.

On this day we got up at 4:30, rode a water taxi across the Nile (Can you believe it? We were on the Nile River! The Nile!) and walked a bit to rent our donkeys.

I've never ridden an animal before so this was a bit daunting!

He seemed nice enough...


...but then I discovered he had a mind of his own. I named him Lefty because he kept wanting to swerve left onto the road. (I think he knew I didn't like to drive.)


We were supposed to keep our mounts on the shoulder of the road on the right because big tour buses would come rumbling by, but Lefty didn't seem to know I was the boss.

It was an hour ride to the Valley of the Kings and I wished I had a gel seat. I'm at least grateful that Lefty didn't run away with me like his friend did with another Chicagoan who was part of our group. Our guides had to go charging after her. Yikes!

Since we'd all seen the Pyramids of Giza I was expecting the Valley of the Kings to be sort of... well... fancy. That was silly, of course. The tombs were meant to be hidden and secret, safe from grave robbers (not that they were).

They told us that 63 royal tombs had so far been found and 11 were still unaccounted for.


One of the amazing things we were able to experience was King Tut's tomb and his actual mummy. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the tomb.


We also went to de Deir el-Medina where the workers, artisans, artists and craftsmen lived to work on the tombs. They told us that it wasn't slaves that built the tombs but workers who were paid and treated with respect.

As much fun as it was to ride Lefty, it was even nicer to ride an air conditioned bus back to our boat!

Microfiction Monday: My First Time

Welcome to Microfiction Monday. Susan at Stony River is our wonderful host. The rules are simple. You are to use the picture that Susan posts and compose a story up to 140 characters including spaces and punctuation. Then go to Susan's blog and leave your name. She has a character counter to help us count. I've loved reading them but never thought I'd do one myself. So here goes!



"It's the portal to the next world. No wars, no hate!
We'll all be identical in mind and body.
Will you come?"

Replacing our Termite Infested File Cabinet

We've been looking everywhere for a light gray METAL 2 drawer file cabinet for Art's office ever since we had to take our good deal termite inhabited Craig's List wooden file cabinet to the dump. Everybody is out of them. (gray file cabinets NOT termites. Termites we've all got lots of them.) We've checked Office Depot, Office Max and a couple of other office furniture type places. Not only do they not have them but they're expensive! Yes... yes... I understand the shipping cost and all, but sheesh! $250 for a 2 drawer legal file cabinet? Puuuhlease!

Both Office Max and Depot advertised sales in the Sunday paper on the file cabinets but when I called they said they didn't have the light gray in stock. My brother tells me light gray is now the out color and that putty is in. Sigh. But we want the gray. I don't know why, but we just prefer the gray. They didn't have it last week either.

Office Max told me that the Hon cabinet would be $163 (the SALE price!). I told her it was listed as $109 on the Office Max website. She said it was because of shipping. Made sense... I guess.

HOWEVER... I decided to try out the site anyway. I put the cabinet in my cart and started to check out just to see what the shipping cost would be. Surprise! It said FREE SHIPPING. Riiiight! I've been fooled by that before. After you hopefully put in your address, a warning will come out that it's free shipping only in the contiguous U.S.. NOT applicable for Alaska or Hawaii.

Instead, when I put our address in, it said that shipping would take 6-8 weeks for Alaska and Hawaii. I was still holding my breath looking at the shipping order and waiting for the added cost. Then it appeared! $5.18 for TAX. Hmmmm? And shipping still says FREE.

I click the ORDER button and off it goes. Can it be? We're actually buying the Hon, light gray, legal, 2 drawer file cabinet for $115.17? Free shipping? This is a first!

I wonder if I should have gotten the putty... or maybe the black instead... I wonder how light that gray is... I wonder if it'll be dented when we get it... Will it be the right size?... ARRGHHHHH! I hate buying things on-line.

Buddhism and Tiger Woods

I just read an excellent article by Tamara Lush (Associated Press) in the Star Bulletin this morning concerning Fox sports analyst, Brit Hume saying that Tiger Woods should look to Christianity rather than Buddhism to gain redemption and forgiveness. He is referring to the fact that Woods said he applies a lot of what he learned from his mom's Thai Buddhism to focus his game...meaning golf.

I'm tired of this. I'm really tired of anybody trying to impose their belief systems on others by saying their system IS better than ALL the others. Wars often start for just this reason.

I'm thrilled that you have a religion or belief system that works for you, but please don't look down on what other people might believe, especially when you don't really understand their beliefs.

Here is an excerpt from Lush's article in the Star Bulletin. I tried to find the link but it's not there yet so I'm copying it off the paper.

..."Adultery is as much of a sin in Buddhism as it is in Christianity," Thurman (Robert Thurman, professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University) said. "The ethics are the same in both traditions. Adultery is a sin and cause the kinds of problems that Tiger Woods is in."

Where many Westerners stumble is that Buddhists' definition of sin-- and what happens after it--differs from the Judeo-Christian tradition, as the consequences of Buddhists' actions are a result of a person's thoughts and deeds rather than divine punishment. Believers have to look to themselves and turn to an ethical way of life for redemption, although there are savior figures to help a Buddhist in need. There is no one, omnipotent "creator god" to bestow redemption as in Christianity.

You have the law of karma, so no matter what Woods says or does, he is going to have to pay for whatever wrongs he's done," said Stephen Prothero, a Boston University professor on Buddhism and the author of "Religious Literacy: What Americans Need to Know." "There's no accountant in the sky wiping sins off your balance sheet, like there is in Christianity." ...

I guess that's what surprised me when I went to college and met a dorm mate who told me she slept with her friend's boyfriend but she wasn't worried because she was going to church that evening to confess her sins and be fine again. Then there was that other dorm mate who was crying hysterically for a whole bunch of us because she said we were all going to hell for not belonging to her church even though she knew how nice we all were.

Sigh...

Avatar!

We took Mom, my aunt, uncle and their daughter-in-law to see Avatar at the IMAX in 3D. I have to tell you it was just awesome. It was worth the extra money we paid to see it in 3D at the IMAX. Wow! I don't think I've ever really seen a 3D movie and this blew me away. Wow! The CG or whatever they call it... WOW!

I even got motion sickness for a while from all the jumping, soaring, running around the planet, Pandora.


We recognized actress, Michelle Rodriguez from the TV series, Lost that is filmed in Hawaii. I'm glad to see she's in such a great movie after leaving Lost. Sigourney Weaver did a great job, too.

Then came a big surprise. As Art was entering the Men's restroom after the movie, who should pass him by but actor, Jorge Garcia from Lost. His character on Lost is Hurley. I would have given him my camera but he didn't want to accost the actor in the restroom. Art says "Hurley" really does look just like Hurley on TV.

The two and a half hour movie went by in a flash. We all had a great time!
Wow!

Postscript:
I just found a little video trailer about Avatar. No 3D glasses but it gives you an idea what the film is about.

Project: Pinbag

My mother's clothes pin bag has gotten raggedy and holey so after a few hints I decided to make one. I bought a yard of sturdy material for $5.69 and measured the old pin bag on the right. Then I made a pattern using the old measurements.


I cut the material out and started. It was rather a lot of fun and took me just a couple of hours at most.


I added a couple of pockets to store ties that she keeps to secure the hangers onto the clothes line on windy days. She's happy with her new bag although she says it's a little too fancy for a pin bag. The sewing doesn't show much finesse but I do believe it'll be functional.

Next project: Painting more doors! Yuck!

Why He Likes Being Married to Me!

I already had a post for today which I had postdated last night after I gave myself a haircut.

Then, as I was having my oatmeal this morning that Art prepared with cranberries and heaven knows what he put in it, I reminded him that it was the 6th when he scheduled his dentist appointment. That's when it occurred to me that there was something else familiar about today.

Aha! I stared at my husband reading the paper. He looked up and said, "What?" I stared some more. He started looking around the kitchen for a clue.

"HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!" I told him.

He looked at the calendar which just said Dentist 2:30. Then he stood and gave me a hug.

That's the nice thing about being married to me. I forget our anniversary, too (and lots of other things)! This time the kids did not come through and remind me.

37 years!

We're having crab to celebrate tonight and no, it's not any sort of symbolic crabby thing about our marriage. Crab is just special...like our marriage has been.

Gave Myself a Haircut

I keep my hair pretty short these days but somehow every so often, it begins to bother me and I have to trim it back further. This is often a risky proposition since I never know how it's going to end up. However, since I'm doing it to myself there's nobody else to blame if I don't like it. My three way mirror helps me see my back but that's no garantee. Art usually checks what I can't see to correct any massive damage I might do.

Through the years my hair has gotten shorter and shorter.

I had long hair and Art had no hair (under his nose, that is) when we met.


This would be around 1972 when Art and I were engaged.


When Jon was born in 1978 my hair had gotten a little shorter. He was about a month old when this was taken. I often tease Jon that he also added gray hairs to my head through the years.


1991: I was teaching, the kids kept growing, Art sprouted something under his nose and my hair length inched upward.


One of my teacher friends, Joan told me a long time ago that I would look best with my hair either long or in a boy cut. I was aghast! A boy cut? Never! Instead, I kept it at the medium length for the longest time.

When Art saw me hacking away at my hair yesterday, his eyebrows shot up and he said, "Hmmm... pretty short, hunh?" Actually he says that almost everytime I give myself a hair cut. True, my hair is now shorter than his. I wonder what Joan would think.

Cleaning the Bathroom

As I recall, Art used to clean the bathroom when we lived in Illinois. Maybe it's because he retired before I did and had more time. Or maybe he felt he could do a better job.
Unfortunately, in Hawaii he's been too busy with house renovation projects so it's become my job. It's not something I am all that eager to do, especially when I've got somebody behind me ready to do the white glove check.

I remember reading a book somewhere that was written by ladies who were professional house cleaners. One thing that stuck in my mind was them saying they don't use sponges because it just spreads bacteria. They use paper towels. I can never remember which paper towel is strongest. It's either Brawny or Bounty. It takes me only 3 to 5 sheets to do two bathrooms. My mother swears by the soap scum remover in Scrub Free products.

I also read that you can remove hard-water deposits on shower enclosures with a solution of white vinegar and water. I always have that problem around faucets. I wonder how good it is because I've tried to get hard water marks off of cups and it hasn't worked all that well.


I just read about cleaning the toilet bowl with a half cup of chlorine bleach. That's a new one for me. I've never used bleach to clean the bathroom. I've not liked the idea of putting bleach into the water system but is it any worse than the other bathroom cleaners that we put down the drain? I've always liked the smell of Pine-O because I've learned to associate it with being disinfected. Art doesn't.

The website also said you should clean your bathroom once a week. My mom most certainly cleans her bathroom every Monday. It probably drives her crazy to think I don't clean ours as often. I clean ours whenever it gets dirty. Granted, my eye sight is not what it used to be and I don't quite see the grime as quickly, but don't worry, it's clean.... sort of.

Adjusting Your Car Mirrors

My line dancing teacher, Jan just sent me this forwarded video that I found pretty interesting. It explains how you should be adjusting the mirrors in your car. Art has often complained about blind spots and this method seems to take care of that.



Safe driving, everybody! I guess it's just one more little thing to fix for 2010.

Ricochet Cold

Mom is not feeling well again. I was just feeling like I'd gotten the cold licked when mom started coughing. Now she's got a headache and is not feeling well again. I made another huge pot of chicken soup for us. I'd like to get her some congestion/cold medicine but they all have warnings about being bad for people with high blood pressure and she's got quite high blood pressure readings. I don't think we need to get back to the doctor yet but I'm wondering if anybody knows a good cold and cough over the counter medicine that's OK for somebody with high blood pressure.

Craigslist Buy Into the Household Disposal Facility (City Dump)

There is a benefit to my mother's New Years cleaning mania. We've now got very clean bathrooms, very clean windows and screens, dustfree surfaces, immaculate floors and organized shelves.


We have also prevented the spread of more termites! As I was vacuuming around that fabulous $30.00 Craigslist oak 2 drawer file cabinet we bought several months ago, I noticed a pile of teeny tiny... NO!!!! Termite droppings!!! When I pulled the cabinet out I saw a BIG pile of droppings! NO!!! NO!!! NO!!!

I called the termite company to see what it would cost to fumigate the file cabinet and they told us it would be $75.00. Hmmmm.... What to do?


Off we went to the city dump and tossed the file cabinet. That was very painful to do. We were really tempted to pay the money for fumigation but this was a cabinet with 3 holes and stains on the side and ... oh what the heck!

Art says no more wooden stuff from Craigslist for me. I'll be checking the Office Depot ads tomorrow. I can't believe what they charge for metal file cabinets in Hawaii. Sheesh!

Traditional New Years Eve

We celebrated New Years Eve with my brother and his family last night and it was great! Miho is from Japan and is familiar with all the traditions. Between her and my mom, we got to have a lot of the traditional foods.

While living in Illinois we did just a few of the Japanese traditions. We cleaned the house. We ate mochi. We made sushi and gave them to all our friends who enjoyed them. We miss doing that together.

Miho made ozoni soup for us.


It was as delicious as it was beautiful. According to Wikipedia, ozoni had its roots in samurai cuisine. I didn't know that.

My sister-in-law, Nancy also brought over deviled eggs and fudge which we loved! The banana cream-macadamia nut pie was pretty darn amazing, too! Wow!

We all dug right in and enjoyed every single delectable bite! What a way to welcome the New Year!

Then came the fireworks! Do you know my mom slept through the WHOLE thing. Art and I suspect it was those TWO full glasses of plum wine that she and my brother imbibed quite happily. I had a glass, too but when I happened to misspeak a few words Art took some gulps out of my glass while I was distracted to make sure I stayed sober (I mean...focused). Mom? Didn't faze her a bit!

We woke up this morning to an eerie quiet in the neighborhood. I guess everybody must have slept late.

We had a bowl of traditional kinako mochi for a new year of good luck this morning.

And now... hmmm... what was that resolution I made about exercise?

Wishing You a Happy New Year Once on a Blue Moon

Did you know that it's a Blue Moon tonight? Here's what I got from the ABC network website:

..."The term "blue moon" generally refers to the second full moon in a month and occurs just once every 2.7 years. The last blue moon to shine on New Year's Eve was 19 years ago, in 1990."...

We're having my brother and his family here to celebrate the start of the New Year. My mother is happy to celebrate the day with traditional Japanese New Year foods (osechi). The photo at right is from the Tokyo Food Page website.

We're going to have some noodles today at lunch time. The long noodles signify long life. We're making chicken and beef teriyaki sticks (not because it's traditional but because my brother's family likes them), kazunoko (herring roe), rice, kabocha (pumpkin), ogo (seaweed), kamaboko (fish cake), mizu yokan (sweet azuki bean dessert). My brother's family, nephew and wife will be bringing the sushi and a dessert.

I hope we'll be able to hear each other in the din of the explosions, I mean celebrations. I'll try to videotape it to give you a very small taste of Hawaii New Years fireworks.

Happy New Year, everybody!

I need to get downstairs and help my mom with the cooking.

Illegal !^%!&# Fireworks!!!

Enough is enough! I feel like I've been hearing fire crackers go off since after Thanksgiving and it's ridiculous! Some of the fire crackers aren't fire crackers. They are explosions! Horrendous! The walls of the house actually shake and I've heard more than one car alarm go off from the shock waves.

Each year the smoke from the fireworks sends people with respiratory conditions to the hospitals. I have one friend who actually went to stay at a hotel with more air tight rooms and air conditioning because she has asthma. It also injures and sometimes kills people who were playing with or near others who were exploding the fireworks stupidly.

This has been a problem since before we left the islands over 35 years ago. Setting off firecrackers to ward off evil spirits going into the new year is a Chinese custom. Hawaii is a melting pot for different worldwide customs. So why not set off a few state regulated fireworks at Chinese (lunar) New Years?

Here's the Law:
§132D-3 Permissible uses of consumer fireworks. Consumer fireworks may be set off, ignited, discharged, or otherwise caused to explode within the State only:

(1) From 9:00 p.m. on New Year's Eve to 1:00 a.m. on New Year's Day; from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Chinese New Year's Day; and from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on the Fourth of July;...

Well... I'm thinking there's a WHOLE lot of crazy people out there who don't know the law or don't care.

I just saw this article in the Star Bulletin this morning.




Fireworks are on sale EVERYWHERE we go. It really IS ridiculous! Maybe I'm just cranky from having explosions go off at 2:30 in the morning. The police can't catch the culprits because by the time they get there, the crazy perpetrators are gone.

I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit these past few days. I've had insomnia and my cold is not 100% gone yet. I thought I had it licked and we went for our usual walk in the evening. Doing too much along with the irritating fireworks explosions in the middle of the night may have caused a bit of a relapse. I have one day to shape up for New Years!

Such a STEAL!

There was an article in the Star Bulletin about a crime of opportunity at the Pearl City Walmart. A man put down his keys for a moment while shopping and a thief stole it, went to the parking lot clicking at cars until he found the right car and drove off in the borrowed BMW. I told Art, "Isn't it crazy that you could put car keys down and not pay attention long enough for somebody to steal it?"

Well.....


Art just reminded me about something that happened at the After Christmas sales. We were at the SAME Pearl City Walmart looking at Christmas tree garlands. It was pretty busy and there was a shopping cart in the way. I wanted to ask the shopper if I could move it a bit but she was busy talking on her cellphone. Therefore, I had to lean over her cart to get to what I wanted to look at it. That's when I looked down and saw her wallet and car keys lying at the bottom of her basket with several bills sticking out. I was dumbfounded! I turned around and she was looking on the other side of the aisle still talking on her cell. I looked at Art and saw that he was surprised to see it, too. I could EASILY have taken her wallet bulging with money and car keys and walked down the next aisle without her knowing.

I wanted to warn her so I waited a few moments to tell her but she was still so busy on her phone that we just had to leave.

Incredible! Some people are such easy pickings!

Clip Art for Christmas!

I asked my daughter for a clip art collection for Christmas so I could use it for my blog. I have the worst time finding what I want free on the web that's not copyrighted. Tif always likes for her mom to be happy so she sent me the ART EXPLOSION set with 300,000 images. Actually it wasn't really 300,000 cartoons. There were 100,000 vector (hunh?) images, 30,000 raster (HUNH?), 25,000 classic images (that was OK), 5,500 (didn't need it) backgrounds, and 57,000 (unnecessary) photographs on the DVDs. Somewhere in there were clip art.

HOWEVER, the files were all something called .wmf!!! What the heck! Blogspot refused to accept it.

Art tried to find a way to change the file to a .jpg, .gif, .bmp or .png that Blogspot said it could upload but when he tried changing it to a .bmp file it came out with a black background instead of white.

(Later) Art just reminded me that he did figure out that I could do it through Office Picture Manager but it required more steps than I was happy to do.



I was seriously ready to do something horrible. It wasn't the computer's fault but I didn't care.


Finally I remembered my brother advising me earlier about what I could do to change the file. 95% of what he said went right over my head at the time. I am NOT a computer geek. However, I did remember him telling me I could try opening it on Adobe Illustrator. I opened the Illustrator for the FIRST time since I've had this computer, got the clip art and saved it to .bmp. Same thing happened with the black background. And then I tried SAVING IT TO WEB and BINGO! It turned the clip art to a .gif file. Success! Yesssssssssss!

I wonder how many thousands of clip art I really have at my disposal now. Be prepared to see a few.

Upside Down Pineapple

Art's wonderful cousin often brings super sweet Hawaiian grown Dole pineapples for us. We love it! It's usually sweeter than sweet in summer. In winter, it tends to be a bit more tart but I love to use it in my smoothies. My mom insisted the other day that I need to turn the pineapple upside down to let the sugar run down to the top of the pineapple. Sounded like an old wives tale to me but then my neighbor told me the exact same thing and added that I should put it in sunlight. So I did.





Is it sweeter? I don't know because I didn't taste it before I cut it but it was not bad for a winter pineapple.


Postscript:
OK, before anybody tries this I must tell you that mom also insists that when I cut the ends off of cucumbers I need to rub the ends with the part I cut off to somehow suck all the bitterness away from the rest of the cucumber. I've told her time and again that it doesn't make sense but she insists!

Christmas is Done...On to New Years!

Our Christmas party was wonderful last night. My brother, Dennis, his two sons, Cody and Barry and Barry's wife, Miho joined us to celebrate the happy occasion. Mom especially loves having Miho here because Miho is Japanese and can speak with mom in their native language. Our only unhappiness was that my sister-in-law, Nancy had to work. I should boycott Walmart for doing this to us.

We had traditional ham for the first time because it happened to be extremely reasonable (cheap) at Foodland. WHAT a deal! I think it was 97 cents a pound for the shank and $1.17 a pound for the butt. We picked up the shank but a shopper stopped us and insisted we should get the butt because we'd get a lot more meat without contending with the bone. After that long conversation, we decided to go with the butt and put our shank back. Just then, the store staffer watching us said, "Did you know that the butt is better? ....." OK, OK!!! We bought the smallest butt which was still a huge 11.6 pounds. We looked on line for a pineapple glaze recipe. Then Art hacked that humongous hunk of butt in half to make cooking it faster, and stuck it covered in the turkey roaster. We added the glaze a half hour before it was done.

And you know.... it was great! Everybody loved it. Mom made kinpira gobo (teriyaki burdock) and macaroni salad. I added a somen noodle green salad. Dennis brought a green bean casserole. Everybody took home a TON of left overs. We had some tonight and it was just as yummy!


Miho and Barry brought two adorable and utterly delicious Christmas cakes.


Barry, Cody and their brother, Shawn who is performing in Waikiki and could not be with us are all very close. It does my heart good to see the three handsome brothers, so very different but so devoted to each other. Whenever they're together, they act like it could be their last time in each other's company. It's beautiful. My children, Tif and Jon have a very close relationship, too. Siblings are such a wonderful, glorious thing.


My dear friends, Dave and Diane brought over a fruit tart pie that was out of this world.


Dennis did the honors. Are you wondering why I'm only posting photos of the desserts? I don't know. That's when I remembered to take a photo, I guess. I totally forgot to take a photo of the butt of ham.


This morning something occurred to me. I asked mom if she always made us put away the tree each year right after Christmas. In Illinois, I always insisted the tree be taken down right after the holiday. I don't know why. There was just this compelling force that made me insist on it. The kids wanted to keep it up longer but I felt it had to be put away.


"Of course," she said. "It's important to put things away and clean up everything before the New Year. You don't want to take old debts, celebration things, grudges, (dirt?) into the New Year. You must go into the New Year clean."



Now that I'm living with my mom, I'm finding an explanation for a lot of the things I do. All those quirks I have... it's Mom's fault.




So there you have it, we took down the tree and put it away in the closet. It was amazingly quick.



Everything was put away so we went to the After Christmas sales today and got some fabulous deals! I bought a NEW $79.99 12-quart stock pot at Macy's for $34.99. Woo hoo! I also bought a NEW $16.00 calendar at Borders for $7.00 and NEW holiday wrapping tissue for the NEW coming year.

OK... that's that.

Sigh... now comes the old cleaning.