Biking to Friendship

We met Mike and Jean when we were on a biking trip across the Netherlands and Belgium. I had not been on a bike in 30 years.

“Don’t worry” Art cajoled. “You’ll be fine. Just think of biking along roads lined with swaying tulips.”

He got me padded underpants, padded seat covers and we were on our way. Granted, he did everything he could think of to get me ready, but I am not in as good a shape as he is and this trip could have caused a divorce.

The roads of the Netherlands were not lined with tulips, but we did see the most magnificent tulips in the world at Keukenhof Tulip Garden. That and meeting Jean and Mike are probably what saved our marriage.

Throughout our Netherlands trip, Jean was truly the wind beneath my wings, keeping me upright on my bike even when I thought my legs could not pump another mile. She wasn’t a seasoned biker either, but she is a teacher with unflagging spirit and put me to shame. Mike and Art were with the faster bikers so I became Jean’s “student” to watch over. She probably stopped me from pushing Art into one of the canals or hanging him off a windmill for putting me on the bike in the first place.

We’ve been on a couple of other tours and met people we really enjoyed getting to know. We thought we would keep in contact, but the relationships did not last more than a year after the trips.

Jean and Mike were different. We became real friends. When we drove cross country to drop off our van at the coast, Jean came to pick us up and take us to our hotel even though the area was far and not familiar to her. Mike couldn’t come because he’s a pilot and was flying.

We loved getting to see Jean and Mike again last week, along with Jean’s mother in California. I wish they lived closer, but at least we get to see them whenever we go to visit Art’s sister and brother-in-law.

I’m so glad that some friendships can stand the test of time and distance.

California Fruits

I have to tell you that one thing I love about California are the fruits. Granted, my sister-in-law loved the Dole pineapple we brought her from Hawaii, but the fruits here seem bigger, sweeter and cheaper than in Hawaii.


Kay and Kent's backyard is filled with all kinds of fruit trees from oranges and grapefruits to persimmons, apples, Japanese pears, apricots, etc. They also have a whole array of chili, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. It's late in the season so there's no more watermelon or cucumbers. They love growing things and it's so much fun to see what new thing they've harvested.

One thing that Art’s been really looking forward to is eating his sister’s persimmons. She’s got a wonderful tree that produces the sweetest fruits we’ve ever tasted.


Unfortunately, the birds know about her tree so she’s had to cover each fruit with a newspaper bag. She and Art went out together to harvest the fruits she’s been saving for her baby brother.




They were every bit as sweet and luscious as we imagined. We love the variety of fruits and vegetables that you get to have in California.

Since we couldn’t do much visiting or sight seeing, we did spend a lot of time eating a whole lot of persimmons. I wouldn’t be surprised if we returned to Hawaii with our faces tinted a little shade of orange.

When Things Go Wrong

We came to California to help my sister-in-law, Kay celebrate her birthday. Her husband has a respiratory ailment and cannot be near people who are ill. Art and I were in fine health when we left Hawaii.

And then things went very wrong.

We arrived safely enough and went to bed tired. When we got up the following morning, we discovered that our brother-in-law had vomited and was bleeding during the night. Kay had to take him to the ER during the night.

He was in the hospital for three days with what turned out to be a massive bleeding ulcer. Meanwhile, I got up the following morning with a scratchy throat which became a cough, and then a monstrous cold. I had to be quarantined in the bedroom when Kent returned. I left the room only with a mask on. Poor Kent stayed in their bedroom. I did not see him until the day we left.

I was terrified to leave any errant germ that could infect Kent. Kay’s birthday was a whole lot different than what we imagined with both her husband and sister-in-law in virtual quarantine.


On the other hand, Kay and Art went to a bakery giving out free birthday cakes to anybody celebrating their birthday. It’s a promotion that was ending the following day.

It was one little bright thing that lightened the day a little even though we were too tired to eat it. Kent, of course could not have any.

Still.. we had to laugh just a little bit saying it would be a birthday she would never forget.

California or Bust!

I've been in California for the past few days. (My previous entries were post-dated since I knew we'd be busy.) We came to visit Art's sister, Kay and brother-in-law, Kent. Yes, she's a Kay also and she's his older sister and only sibling as well.

Unfortunately, the night we arrived Kent became very ill with a bleeding ulcer and ended up in the hospital. You can imagine the shock when we woke up the following morning to find Kent gone and poor Kay worrying about us!

While Kay was at the hospital, we spent the time going shopping because...good gosh! It's cold over here. I went from tank tops to jeans, long sleeves and a fleece jacket. I didn't bring enough warm clothes so we hit Ross and TJ Maxx, etc. and got more clothes. Well... I did. Art says he's able to handle the weather.

I'm sorry, but I can't sit at the computer for long enough periods so I'm not able to visit you all though I am smiling at your comments. I'll have to catch up when we return to Hawaii soon.

Like Father, Like Son

Remember me saying Jon used to be able to sleep anywhere in any position?

He could do this since he was born. I always envied him because I need to read to make me drowsy enough to fall asleep.

A hard tile floor was not a problem for Jon. He didn't need memory foam.

He could fall asleep doing homework with the pencil still gripped in his hand.


The other day, I caught Art asleep with his hands on his head after a 20 mile jog. Even my flash didn't wake him.

Now my daughter, Tiffany... on the other hand? She needs to read to fall asleep.

Duvet or Not Duvet? That is the Question...

OK... Now we've got our bed but no pretty covering.

Another decision.

Because it is a platform bed, a bedspread wouldn't do. We had to look for a comforter. We looked high and low at Target, Walmart, Macy's, Ross, Sears. Art and I just couldn't agree on anything. We wanted to keep our Master bedroom simple. Very simple. We finally found a comforter we could live with but it was dry clean only. When I checked around at all the dry cleaners in the area, they said it would cost between $35.00 and $55.00 to clean a king comforter. And I really would like to clean it before we use it so we decided to think about this some more.

Ummmmm...


Well gigi-hawaii just happened to do a post about choosing a bed covering. I wrote a comment about our problem and somebody came out with a great idea. A duvet cover! I never considered doing a duvet because it's so hot in Hawaii. The thought of down would make me sweat.

Well, I went to Ross and found washable polyester comforters that I could use with a duvet cover. The comforters were only between $29.00 - $39.00. Not bad.

Then I saw this duvet cover on Overstock.com. I liked it. Art liked it. Normally, it costs an arm and a leg to have things shipped to Hawaii. However, since we plan to be in California soon, I can have it shipped there and bring it home to Hawaii with us.

That's the beauty of blogging. There are so many great minds out there to help you think outside of the box... or covers, so to speak.

JVC DVD Video Recorder/Video Cassette Recorder

Art and I decided to convert a bunch of our VHS family tapes to a DVD. After all these years, technology has created what I needed!

We bought this JVC DVD Video Recorder/Video Cassette Recorder Combo. Happily, we found that the recorder did indeed convert one of our VHS tapes to DVD form. Unfortunately, my computer and Blu-ray Player will not recognize it. You can only play it on the original machine. Therefore, I cannot make copies for the kids.

I sent an e-mail to JVC and asked them if there is a way to allow my computer to see the DVDs I make. I'll be waiting to hear what they say.

Granted, these DVDs would only be for us because NOBODY will want to sit through 8 hours of our trip to France, especially the part where we forgot to turn off the camcorder and recorded several minutes of cobbled road.

Oooooopsies!
Art just read the manual and has ruefully said there's a military accronym for this. RTFM (Read The F..... Manual)! He just did and discovered that the JVC recorder REQUIRES you to FINALIZE the disk as a last step before your computer or DVD player can read it.

Ummmm... so it's working fine now... The picture quality is not fabulous, but it's enough if you go with the highest setting.

Let's see. I think I've got about 40 VHS home movies to digitalize to DVDs. I hope they're not too painful to watch. I think there's also several hours of the kids swimming back and forth during their swim meets. THAT should be loads of fun! Maybe I should play it at the next cousins party.

Kidding....

Cousins Pot Luck

Saturday was our Cousins Party. We call it that, but of course, it includes the aunts and uncle also. Maybe we should have called it a Family Party. Ah well...

Dennis and I passed out the albums and DVDs of our family history, The Tales of Three Sisters. We are really happy it's done... again.

We were missing a number of the cousins, but everybody who came outdid themselves again... foodwise!

There were 18 of us, but food for 30. That's the whole point of a Hawaiian pot luck. Everybody gets to bring home a little of something to enjoy the following day. Here, mom is fluffing the rice.


Here I am tossing the dressing into my new/old salad bowl. You can see several kinds of sushi, shrimp and vegetable tempura, hummus on crackers, spaghetti and meatballs, pork katsu (breaded and fried), sweet and sour pork with veggies, Portuguese sausages, Filipino lumpia (spring rolls), chips and salsa, crab casserole, kinpira gobo (burdock), Hungarian beef goulash and rice.

Here's everything from the other end of the table.

Dessert was a pumpkin mochi (yummm), flan and coco puffs (cream puffs with chocolate filling) from Liliha Bakery.

I'm finally getting the routine down for these pot lucks to make it run more smoothly.

1. E-mail everybody and ask what they're bringing so that you can have a varied menu. Otherwise, you might end up with 10 desserts.
2. We no longer barbecue because it causes us too much stress to get things ready and kept hot for the party. Instead we choose things that we can prepare in advance and will taste good when quickly reheated or kept cool in the fridge.
3 Prepare tea or coffee ahead of time in hot pots.
4. We bought carry-out containers for everybody to use to take home whatever they want instead of me or mom going nuts trying to prepare the plates to send home.
5. Get lots of utensils (tongs and serving spoons).
6. Put all kinds of drinks in an ice chest.
7. Set up paper towels for the bathroom so people can wipe their hands easily.
8. Set up a long buffet table. It's never long enough to hold the food everybody brings.
9. Set up a place where people can put their drink cans to be recycled. Forgot to do it this time.
10. HAVE FUN!

Collection Completed!

We went to the Richardson Field Garage Sale on Saturday. We didn't find a whole lot to buy just because we're really trying to minimize our household "collections."

However we did not come home empty handed.

Remember that clear giant mug collection I had? It was very difficult to find big clear mugs, which made it good to collect because I couldn't accumulate too many.


Well, I found these two really gigantic clear glass mugs for $1.00 a piece. They're so big you could use them as a vase for a bouquet of flowers. They now take up a whole lot of room on my shelf so I won't be collecting anymore clear mugs. That's it. Done! I'll be really aggravated now if I find a perfect mug on one of our trips.

I also found this pretty glass leaf salad bowl for $3.00!


It was big enough to hold a WHOLE LOT of salad for our Cousins Party that evening. I used green and red leaf lettuce, spinach, carrot shavings, mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, diced D'Anjou pears, imitation crab (it's really fish) and dried cranberries with Brianna's lemon poppyseed dressing.

I was thrilled that the cousins, aunts and uncle enjoyed the salad so much. You know it was because I served it in my brand new, gorgeous $3.00 salad bowl!

It Must be in the Genes

Since we've moved to Hawaii, my brother, Dennis and I have been able to spend more time together and compare notes on our lives and our health.

We learned that we both get stress hives. I figured out in college that my hives were caused by stress. I told the nurse at the emergency center that, but she refused to believe me. I used to get hives if I ate shrimp, but even without it I could get hives if my resistance was low and I was overly agitated about something.

Now, if I see even one raised spot, I have to stop, take a nap and relax.

I discovered that I'd passed this trait on to my daughter, Tiffany and now KC gets them, too. I believe Jon also has this unfortunate irritant.


Imagine my surprise when I learned that Dennis gets them, too! He says he's learned that slowing down and taking a nap is the only way to get rid of them and it's actually been a good early warning sign to take it easy.

Dennis and I also share pre-diabetes, high cholesterol and frozen shoulders!

I overdid it in Tai Chi the other day and my left shoulder is killing me. I know it wasn't the painting because it's my left shoulder. Dennis' bursitis has had his shoulders frozen for nearly a year. So we both have a tendency toward bursitis or adhesive capsilitis (frozen shoulder). Now I found my knees can become painful...just like my brother and mom.

To my children who will be aggravated to read this post, I say, "Blame Grandma."

Just Another Rainbow

I have only one memory of seeing a rainbow in the 35 years we lived in Illinois. I'm not counting the times we saw it in a water hose spray.

The neighbors all came rushing out of their houses to look at it. We all stood there with our eyes unable to turn away from the skies, marveling at the beautiful colors. By the time somebody thought to go and get a camera, it was gone.

Now that we're in Hawaii, we see rainbows all the time. Still, I can't help but be fascinated by them. I often see the colorful ribbons of light stretching across the sky just by looking out my window.


A couple of days ago, I saw the strangest rainbow since we've moved to Hawaii. This rainbow seemed to be glowing from the ground.


We've been having a series of fall showers so rainbows are even more prevalent. They change as the drizzle or the angle of the sun alters. As I walked closer toward this rainbow, the colors seemed to strengthen.


Art ran home, grabbed his camera and took this photo from the 2nd floor.

One of our neighbors asked what I was doing and I pointed to the flat rainbow.

"Isn't it amazing?" I asked.

He laughed and walked away shaking his head. I guess he must think his new neighbors are a little lolo. (Hawaiian pidgin for Not smart or crazy)

Grandpa is My Best Friend

My daughter, Tiffany just called to tell me that out of the blue KC said, "You know what, mommy? Grandpa is my best friend."

We've known this since the week she was born. KC was sometimes a fussy baby, but Art would patiently carry, cuddle and comfort her until she would go back to sleep.

He never tired of giving her his undivided attention. If the rest of us were too tired, Grandpa was always there to love her and let her know he would always be there for her.


At first she called him "Papa," but now she can clearly say "Grandpa." When she sees him appearing on Skype, her face lights up.

In Illinois, Art would take her around our village for walks even though he'd end up having to carry her at times when she'd decide she had enough exercise.

I have to laugh because when our kids were growing up, Art was the one who could exert more discipline. He almost never raised his voice. It just took one little exhale and you'd hear Jon say, "Why is Dad mad? He's mad, right?" When I'd explain that Art was just tired from a long day at work, Jon would say, "I don't think so. He just did THE SIGH."

Tif said, "I hope you don't mind, Mom."

Of course, I don't mind. How could I be jealous that Art is KC's best friend? Not at all. Not one remote bit, because he's my best friend, too.

Sitting is Dangerous to Your Health?

Well, of course I knew that not getting enough exercise is bad for you.

However, I've been at my computer for such a long time doing the family history thing that I've spent probably 10 hours a day sitting. It was even starting to hurt my back and my eyes.

I saw an article in AARP magazine that unnerved me. Here's what it said:

"Sitting for long period of time raises your risk of dying--no matter what your physical activity level is. New American Cancer Society research found that women who sat for six hours a day were 37 percent more likely to die during the 14-year study period than those who sat less than three hours a day (for men, the risk was 18percent higher). Study author Alpa Patel, PhD., says we can forestall the deleterious effects of sitting by getting up hourly--Gabrielle deGroot Redford."

Well, this is pretty spooky. So I'd better sign off for today.

Granted, I did spend today patching, sanding and painting. I now have aching fingers from gripping the paintbrush, a sore back from crouching down and reaching up to paint and a sore toe (no, I didn't kick the paint can). Still... maybe it will help me live longer?

I Hate to Paint!

I'd already voted by absentee voting last week, but I was on edge wondering what direction our country was going to take.

To keep me busy I decided to finally...FINALLY paint a couple of our doors. It's taken me a couple of years to get to it, but what the heck. All in good time.

I hate to paint.

It's not the painting itself that I don't like, but the preparation and clean-up. I had to get the supplies, clean the dust off the louvers, scrape off rough edges, choose the brushes, protect the hinges with painting tape, take off the knobs and lay the plastic ground cloth.

I primed the linen closet door in our master bedroom first.


Then I primed the walk-in clothes closet door. I plan to put on the first top coat tomorrow and I'm hoping, hoping, hoping that one coat will be enough.


I've got FOUR sets of these folding doors and I'm wondering if I should paint it white also or varnish it with a clear sealer. What do you think?

Then I've got five entrance doors, but maybe that could wait another couple of years...

Square Bed?

We have an Eastern (regular) King bed. It's different from California King which is the more popular size in the islands.

What's the difference?

Eastern (Standard) King Size Mattress: 76 inches wide x 80 inches long.

Western (California) King Size Mattress: 72 inches wide x 84 inches long.

Art helped me remember which is which by saying the King is for shorter, chubbier people. The California would be for thinner, taller people.

Art and I figured the Eastern would be better (OK... never mind, it was me all along) because we'd have more space between us. I go to bed later than he does because he's up early to do that marathon training thing in the dark when the sun isn't beating up on you. I also like to read to make me drowsy. Being a little farther apart, the light won't bother him as much.

The added bonus is that we don't have to turn the mattress around. Don't even get me started on what mattress to buy. All I can say is don't get the Serta Vera Wang latex mattress because all the hype they tell you about it springing back and not sagging... not true. Latex is a layer of the mattress. The padded part on top of it sags. Sheesh! Like I said... don't get me started...


Anyway, because the Eastern King is almost square, we just turn ourselves 'round and 'round with each sheet change to prevent the sagging to get too deep in one area.

Granted when anybody comes to our bedroom, they must think we're odd to see our pillows facing in every direction.

Ah well...

Testing Sunscreens

There was an article in the Star-Advertiser last week about sunscreens. It reported that sunscreen efficacy tests were done at the Honolulu Community College Cosmetic Chemistry class. I've provided the link to the article.

The students discovered that even with claims of 50 SPF, none of the sunscreens actually tested more than 8 SPF. I thought that was very surprising if not aggravating, especially for Hawaii where the sun's rays are really strong.

The more you know, the more frustrated you can get!

Rally to Restore Sanity

Honolulu was the last city to Rally to Restore Sanity yesterday. The rally was held at the State Capitol. Art had to meet his classmates in Ala Moana for a luncheon so my brother, Dennis took me to the rally and kept me company until Art could come and pick me up to go home.


As we walked to the Capitol I wondered what kind of turn out there would be since I hadn't heard a whole lot of publicity about it. I didn't see much of a crowd walking toward it and we were only about 15 minutes early.


Dennis wanted me to see the renovation work that was being done on the Capitol.


I liked the dramatic look of seeing the sky in the center of the roof.


We passed the Iolani Palace to get to the Ewa (west of the capitol) side lawn. East, west, north, south directions are never given in Hawaii. It's always mauka (mountain), makai (ocean), or the direction of a town which is what Ewa is.


The Capitol really is a beautiful building. It's supposed to look like a volcano at the center with palm trees, and the ocean around it.


Dennis taught me to do a panoramic a while ago. I was afraid to try it on my own with Photoshop. He took a series of photos of the Capitol and told me to go home and photomerge it as homework. Well... it's not perfect. But it's a start. (Please click on the panoramic for full effect.)


OK... Dennis stopped by this afternoon and fine tuned it a bit. And do you think I remembered what he taught me?

The 11:00 AM start time came and went. Organizers arrived shortly and set up a tarp and the sign. That was hopeful.

More people showed up. Dennis and I had a prime spot under a shade tree (thank goodness!) and set up our goza (straw beach mat) and had our Panda Express lunch.

More people gradually arrived. The organizers said we they were starting on Hawaiian time... about a half hour late.

Now it was getting quite interesting. Was that lady supposed to be a pregnant hula dancer with a plant growing out of her head?

I was going to take a photo of this couple, but decided to take a photo of the news people taking a photo of them instead.

The signs were a lot of fun.

I thought we weren't supposed to bring signs, but they were all respectful and added to the festivity.

These guys were having a great time.

And then the show started. There were comedians, politicians and musicians.

The crowd grew.

Christina Gomez sang a song about birds while the DJ held the mic for her.

And then... too soon, Art came to pick me up to go home. Dennis went to do some work at the office. As I was leaving I could see more people had shown up and the rally was in full swing.

Our next stop was Leeward College to drop off our laptop at the E-waste site.

We topped it off with a trip to Waikele Mall where Art went to get some energy gels for his marathon training. They were all out at Sports Authority, but we consoled ourselves by sharing a large shave ice. I still think the little Mountain Magic stand has the best shave ice on the island.

It was such a super, sunny, satisfying, SANE Saturday!