Spotting Fraud

We went to another AARP sponsored event, geared to seniors to teach us how to spot fraud and we learned a lot.

It was a sad eye opener on what could happen if you are cheated of your life savings by professional con people.

They said one of the big problems in Hawaii is our trust of our Ohana (family) and friends.  When friends recommend someone, we are often so trusting that we don't do the "Due Diligence" (checking out the person ourselves before signing away anything).

Tung Chan, Security Commissioner of Hawaii from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs talked about Affinity Fraud.  These are "scams that prey on identifiable groups, often religious or ethnic communities".

Christine Kieffer (FINRA Investor Education Foundation) was here from Washington D.C. to tell us that if somebody tells you to invest with someone, you should check them out with FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) and go to SaveAndInvest.org to check on the broker.  The other speakers were also fabulous strengthening our resolve to be careful.  (Remember those Rainbow vacuum cleaner salesmen?)

Con artists are experts at persuasion.  They will use tactics called:

Phantom Riches: guaranteeing wealth or prospect of large gains

Source Credibility: They will lead you to think they belong to a creditable firm or have extensive experience.  They often join church groups and clubs to gain the trust of members.

Social Consensus:  They will lead you to think that other savvy investors have already invested and that you should too.

Reciprocity:   They are counting on your reciprocity (giving you a free luncheon or dinner and making you feel like you have to buy something). "I'll give you part of my commission so you can have this great deal."  The speakers said it's perfectly OK to throw away those address labels you get in the mail and not send money back to them.

Scarcity:  They tell you that an opportunity is very scarce and soon to disappear.  Create a false sense of the great bargain or investment opportunity being lost.  "If you don't buy now I have several buyers waiting to pick this up now."

The interesting thing is that con artists don't target who you think they would.  They have been going after people (often but not always men) who have a savings, think they know what they're doing, educated, etc.  It's a scary world out there.

But the fun part of the day was to see ourselves on the evening news.  OK, so you can't really see me, but that's me over there taking notes for this post.

Pope Francis

I may not be Catholic or Christian, but I was really happy about the election of the new Pope.  I liked the fact that he chose the name Francis.

Scott Pelley, newcaster for CBS said it was probably a happy omen when they all saw seagulls perching on the chimney that would signify with black or white smoke whether a new pope had been chosen.  St. Francis is often shown with birds.  He is the patron saint of animals and the environment.

Photo was taken with my iPad of the evening news on TV

What I've heard of the new Pope is that he is compassionate and respectful of other religions.  He is humble, travels by public transportation, ministers to AIDs victims and seems to be a reformer.  What I don't agree with is his adherence against gay marriages, and abortion.  I wish the church would end the celibacy rules for its priests though.  Still, I'm liking him for now.  And wow!  He's from South America which is different from all the other popes who were from Europe.

I'm wishing Pope Francis a successful, peaceful reign.  He has so much on his plate to deal with.  The church is wracked with scandal and so much corruption and misery.  Pope Francis sounds like a good candidate to reform what needs to be corrected.

It is truly a time to celebrate with all our Catholic readers.

Olive Oil Make Up Remover?

I saw an article in the Star Advertiser written by Terri Bennett recently reporting a number of uses for olive oil beyond cooking and salad dressing.

Furniture polish:  Two parts olive oil to one part vinegar is supposed to clean wood products well.  They said you could substitute lemon juice for the vinegar.  Ah hah!  That's something else I could use our lemons for.

Stainless steel shine:  You can make your stainless steel appliances shine using olive oil.  Ummm...  I don't know about this.  I'm not that particular.

Preventing hairballs in cats:  One teaspoon of olive oil to your kitty's food once a week should prevent hair balls.  I don't know about this because I don't have a cat.

Moisturizer:  I've heard this before that you can use olive oil to moisturize your hands.  I'm not one for liking my hands to be oily though.

AND here's the best.  I tried it out and it does work.  I also looked it up online and it is recommended by several sites.

Makeup Remover:  No kidding!  You're supposed to sop up a little olive oil in a cotton ball and swab it across your eyes to remove eye make up.  It's also supposed to condition your eye lashes.   I dribbled a little olive oil on a tissue and wiped it across my eyes.  It worked!  I used baby oil before, but maybe this is better.

If you don't like using it for any of these things, you can always use it for cooking.  I know for a fact, that works great!

Impulse Satsuma Buy

I've received those California Meyer lemon seeds from my sister-in-law.  I tried putting them on a wet towel to see if they would germinate.  Nope.  They sort of molded.

I decided to plant them instead in little paper egg carton cups.  However, I thought we should do it right and get some special seed starting soil from Home Depot.

When we got to Home Depot and started walking around I saw this gorgeous Satsuma tangerine tree with all these gorgeous buds.

I remembered our daughter, Tiffany telling me how much she loved the Satsuma tangerines.

We even ate some in California two months ago.

"There's no place to plant it," said overly practical Art with a frown.

The tree cost $29.00.  I told Art he could just look at it as if he was buying me flowers and it would make me so happy.  I did write a post a bit ago about how he never buys me flowers.

He let out a heavy sigh.

And yes, he did buy it for me.

When I brought it home mom said, "Where are you going to plant it?  There's no room.  You shouldn't plant it close to the house because the roots will hurt the foundation."

Ummm... But that's where I was planning to put it.

I called my brother, Dennis and a chuckle escaped before he could contain it.  "You could just keep it pruned and have a little Satsuma bonsai."  I could tell he was wanting to laugh.

I'm going to dig up that Mickey Mouse plant which doesn't produce any fruit and put in this Satsuma tangerine tree.

Art is warning me not to get over confident.  He says I shouldn't count my fruit before they hatch (I mean appear).

We did also get the bag of seed starting soil.  If the California Meyer lemon seeds grow, I wonder where I could possibly plant it.

I don't think I'll ask mom.

Hapalua Half Marathon #2 Monsoon

Gosh!  I hate waking up at 3:15 in the morning.  But we did.  We picked up my brother, Dennis at 4:30 and headed out to Waikiki for the 2nd Annual Hapalua (Half Marathon).  Art thought it would be safer to have Dennis with me since we'd be there before the sun rose.  I'm so grateful I have my brother to help me and my sister-in-law for sharing him on one of her rare weekend days off from work.

Last year, Jon ran this race with Art.  This year Art would run it alone.  Our children Jon and Tiffany will be running in their own Half Marathon in Washington, D.C. next week.

We parked at the Honolulu Zoo (which is in Waikiki) a little before 5:00.  By around 5:15, the lot was full.  It had stormed furiously during the night and we were glad the rain appeared to have stopped.

"Let's bring umbrellas", I said.

"You just need one", said my optimistic brother.  "I doubt it'll rain anymore."

We passed Port-a-Potties with already long lines.

We walked toward the starting gate around 5:30.  Art had given us detailed notes on what time and where he would be during the course of the race.  We knew he would be passing the starting gate area around 7:28 which would be about the half way mark before heading up Diamond Head and then the finish line around 8:23.

We wished Art good luck as the race was starting.

Our kids texted their encouragement from Chicago and Baltimore.

Hawaii's elite runners ran first.  They had an earlier race start handicap.  This is called a Chase.  Almost half an hour later the super fast Kenyan runners would "chase" them to the finish line.

Just as the Hawaiian blessing was given and the Star Spangled Banner and our state song, Hawaii Ponoi were sung, it started to rain.  The race coordinator joked that the rain was a Hawaiian blessing.

And then it poured!  Deluged! Cats and dogged! Cloudburst! Drenched!  Torrential!  It was unbelievable!  We've never been in a race where the skies just opened up and let loose like this.

Dennis and I stood under a store awning on Kalaukaua Avenue waiting for the rain to abate when I realized my feet were getting wet.  Good grief!  The storm sewers were backing up.  I hate to complain because Art was running past us without an umbrella, but sheesh!

Art had planned for Dennis and me to wait comfortably at a restaurant and grab a breakfast while he ran the first half of the race, but it was raining so much that we decided to wait there for a little more than an hour when he'd be passing us again so I could take some photos.

I got to cheer for some runners and clapped my encouragement.  It felt a little odd because there was only one other person who was out in the rain making noise.  Still, it was nice to see runners suddenly grin or wave their appreciation.

Oops!  This wasn't Art. Just kidding.

And then, there he was, close to the time he predicted. He's flashing his LOVE hand signal for our granddaughter, KC.

It was hard to get a great photo of Art as he whizzed by.

And then he was gone, heading toward Diamond Head.

When the rain became a drizzle, Dennis and I went back to the car to wait out the weather.

At about 8:00 we decided to walk toward the Kapiolani Park finish line since we were expecting Art around 8:23. 

Oops!  Art miscalculated!  He came in earlier than expected.  As I was jockeying for a good place to stand to take the photo, there he was!  Doggone it!  I almost missed him.

The rain started to fall even harder so we decided to just head home instead of staying for any of the after race treats.

I was concerned when Art told me that he'd gotten a nosebleed running up Diamond Head.  I've never known him to get one before.

Surprisingly, Art's race time was a mere 44 seconds slower than last year despite the fact that he was carrying extra weight from his drenched shirt, shorts, shoes and hat.  He came in #10 out of 27 runners in his 65 to 69 age group.

The drive home showed us that the Hawaiian monsoon was all over the island.

Well, that's another Hapalua done.  I'm sure he's planning to do a 3rd one, rain or shine.

Hapalua Half Marathon Interview

Saturday was a day that had us feeling like we were constantly on the go.  We hit the road by 8:45 and didn't get back until the afternoon.

One of the most important things we needed to do was pick up Art's running gear for the Sunday Hapalua Half Marathon in Waikiki.

We went to the Hawaii Convention Center where Hapalua racing bags with t-shirts and bib numbers were being passed out in a rather small room.

Some people stopped us and talked to us in Japanese so Art pointed to me.  Oh brother...  My mother has always warned me to try to avoid speaking Japanese.  It's deceiving because like a child I can sound fluent if you don't know the language, but I'm actually using ungrammatical, sometimes nonsensical vocabulary and sentence structure.

They said they wanted to interview us about the Hapalua for a Japanese TV station.  I told them that Art was running, but could not speak any Japanese.

No problem!  They had a translator.  Thank goodness!  All we needed was for all Japan to hear my Japanese and my mother having a heart attack and collapsing from the shame of it.



It was such fun to see Art being interviewed about how he trained, where he lived, if he'd participated in any other races, etc.

When we got home and told mom, she asked which station had interviewed him.

We'd forgotten to ask.

While you are reading this, Art will probably be running the Half Marathon.

I will try to get some Half Marathon photos even though it will be dark when we head out on Sunday morning.

Hey... I wonder if the television crew will be out there on Sunday.  Wouldn't that be fun if they caught Art coming in?  Hopefully, I won't fall asleep in the car like I did last year while waiting for him to finish and miss the excitement.

Problem With Sunetrics

When we decided to buy our solar panels from Sunetrics, they told us we should actually get a little less than we need because what we don't use would only go to HECO (Hawaiian Electric Company).  They reassured us that we could always get more later if our needs should rise.

We bought 16 panels and sure enough discovered after a couple of years that it would have been nice to have 2 or more panels.  We called and e-mailed Sunetrics and they didn't get back to us for a long time.  When we finally talked to our original salesperson, he said that it's true they only did large orders now and weren't doing small add-ons.  He said that when their business slows down, perhaps they would consider doing small orders.

Unh hunh...

Meanwhile I'm talking to quite a few people who have put 20 or more panels up on their roofs.   I wish we had too.

We were considering having another company put up a few more panels, but our electrician friend said we could be causing a problem because it might negate any warranty we have with Sunetrics.  If something were to go wrong they would say that the last company we used caused the problem.

Sheesh!

So now I'm thinking we should perhaps install a solar water heater.  I see a lot of neighbors with solar panels for their water heaters on the roofs.

The only problem is that you need a gigantic water heater which we don't have room for and Art is worried about leakage which my parents had at their old house.

What to do?  What to do?

Lemons Going to Rest

Our Meyer lemon tree has been very bountiful this season. 

 We've finally convinced mom to let them ripen a bit longer on the tree instead of picking them when they're barely yellow.

We've got so many ripening at the same time that we've been able to happily share them with neighbors, friends and relatives.  I love it that there are quite a few people who enjoy lemons.

The only problem now is that there are very, very few lemon blossoms on the tree. Although the lemon trees seem to be bearing fruit continuously they do rest.  Therefore I've started squeezing a lot of lemons and freezing them in ice trays.

 I can then add some lemon juice cubes into my iced tea or water when there are no fruit on the trees.

My sister-in-law is now carefully selecting some super sweet California Meyer lemon seeds to see if I might be able to grow them in Hawaii.  I can't wait to try, but I'm feeling a little pessimistic.  If they can be grown in Hawaii, why haven't any of the neighbors planted it?  Ah well...  It'll be fun to try.

Facebook Security?

Before reading this post, please go down to the POSTSCRIPT.  Kathy G has just told me in her comment that she checked this out on Snopes and it wasn't true.  Aggravation.  I do often check things out on Snopes, but I didn't do it this time.  I'm so sorry about this.

One of my good teacher friends posted this on her Facebook page. (I added the diagrams for this post.)

JUST SO EVERYONE ON MY FRIENDS LIST KNOWS THAT I COMPLETED THIS AND I AM DONE!!!

FACEBOOK HAS CHANGED THEIR PRIVACY SETTINGS ONCE MORE!!! DUE TO THE NEW “GRAPH APP” ANYONE ON FACEBOOK (INCLUDING OTHER COUNTRIES) CAN SEE YOUR PICTURES, LIKES, AND COMMENTS. I will be posting this for the next two weeks, and once you have done it please post DONE!

Those of you who do not keep my information from going out to the public, I will have to DELETE YOU! I want to stay PRIVATELY connected with you. I post shots of my family that I don't want strangers to have access to!!! This happens when our friends click "like" or "comment"... automatically, their friends would see our posts too.  Unfortunately, we cannot change this setting by ourselves because Facebook has configured it that way.

PLEASE place your mouse over my name above (DO NOT CLICK), a window will appear, now move the mouse on “FRIENDS" (also without clicking), then down to "Settings".

Click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK on "LIFE EVENTS" and "COMMENTS & LIKES".

By doing this, my activity among my friends and family will no longer become public. Now, copy and paste this on your wall. Once I see this posted on your page, I will do the same.

I've just done this and can only hope my "friends" will do it for me.  I only do Facebook with some close friends and relatives.  However, they have friends who have many friends and I think privacy then becomes a problem.

In this technology age it's hard to know if we're doing all we can to protect our privacy.  I'm getting the feeling that Facebook isn't exactly the most secure site around.  It can't hurt to do this, but the problem is I'd have to ask every friend on Facebook to do this and most probably don't want to be bothered. 

Ah well... Like my blog, I'll just have to be careful what I put out there.  I will also stop "Like-ing" and commenting on those who do not change their settings and let me know.

POSTSCRIPT:  Snopes said the above advice will NOT provide you with Facebook security.  In order to be safe you have to do this and make your friends do this too:

*  Stop using the "Friends of friends" setting.  This is what is broadcasting widely.
*If you use the "Public" setting, explain that you are doing so.  Then people can decide if they want all of their friends to be informed of their comments.
*Encourage your friends to restrict their setting to "Friends" or custom lists too.

There are a lot more advice about security but I decided to just let you go to Snopes to check it out.  Here is the link:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/facebook/timeline.asp

All this has aggravated me enough that I just won't be using Facebook much from now on.  I don't think I want to tell my friends and relatives in Facebook what to do with their posts. 

Snow!

Art just went for a walk wearing shorts and a t-shirt this evening.  I didn't go because I'm going to our line dancing class with my friend, Diane.  It seems so weird because my daughter, Tiffany just sent me this photo earlier.

Looks like the Chicagoland area is being hit by a lot of snow.  KC and her friend, Brady were out shoveling their walkway.  Looks like they're doing a pretty good job.

The most aggravating thing I remember when we lived in Illinois was when we had perfectly shoveled our driveway and the snow truck would plow our street and completely block it again.

And yet...  I don't think we wished we were in Hawaii.  Mom would often ask me how we were coping when she heard about our challenging Midwest weather.  The truth of it was, we dealt with our winter aggravation, but delighted in the fun and beauty of the snowy weather too. 

Besides...  It made spring that much more precious and magical. 

And you know what?  I miss that feeling.

Even as I appreciate the warmth of our life here in Hawaii now.

The Season of Mango Flowering

Last year was not a great year for mangoes.  I love mangoes. I especially love Hayden mangoes.  My uncle and aunt have two huge trees and they are so wonderful about sharing some with us.  They say it's extremely expensive to keep them trimmed and I have a feeling they may one day have to chop it down.

Sigh....

Lately, I'm noticing that the mango trees around the island are all blooming abundantly.

Everywhere you go, you can see trees sprouting these flowering spikes.

I'm so excited!

Each one of these stalks or whatever you call them are full of baby mangoes.

My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

I can hardly wait.

Passport/Visa Photos

We were needing photos for our Visas to go to China later in the year.  I  know we got them at AAA (Auto Club) for free a long time ago.  Now they cost $8.00 a person.

How wonderful to learn that Passport Photos cost only $4.99 at Costco for four of them, not that you need four.

I loved the person who took our photos!  She looked at my image, frowned a little and said, "Would you like to try again?"

I knew right away why.  It's because one side of my face has a little loss of feeling due to a jaw operation I had several decades ago.  If I smile with my lips closed, it looks like a sneer because only one side of my lip goes up.

She suggested showing a little teeth.

"I thought you weren't supposed to show teeth or smile," I said.

"Nope,  it's OK so long as your eyes don't crinkle up", she assured me.

I did as she said.

"You see!  It's much better", she laughed happily.

When we went to pick up the visa photos 10 minutes later she smiled and said, "See how pretty you look.  The foreign official will definitely let you into the country cause you look friendly."

As we were leaving the store, Art sighed and gave me a mournful smile.  "She didn't tell me my picture was pretty."

POSTSCRIPT:  I sure hope the Costco technician was right because I just looked it up on line and it's very unclear what is acceptable or not for passport/visa photos.  Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to go back and get a photo of me sneering.

Happy Girls Day!

My Kansas buddy, DrumMajor asked me to explain what Girls Day was about when I did a post about the card I'd painted for our granddaughter.  I know quite a bit about this holiday because my mother explained a lot of it to me over the years.  However, I didn't know what it was like in Japan right now.  I decided to go to an expert I know in Japan.  Bob is an American who lives in Tokyo with his family and has a blog called Tokyo Five.

He keeps me current, so  I decided to have a guest blogger for the first time since Bob could explain it all so much better than I could.  He says he even did a blog post about it a couple of years ago.  Here is the link:  http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/girls-day/

In Japan, there are many unique holidays and events.  Some of them are 祝日 (public holidays), ie: a "day off", and others are not.

The next one on the calendar is March 3rd (3/3).
It is ひな祭り (literally, "Princess Festival").  It's often called "Doll Festival" in English, or sometimes by it's former name "Girls Day".

It's not a 祝日 (public holiday); therefore it's not a "day off" from school or work.

How is it celebrated? And why was it called "Girls Day"?

In late February, families in Japan with daughters will set up an elaborate doll set (which is why this day is often called "Doll Festival" in English).

The doll set is on a red stand that is elevated like a staircase and the dolls are of the Japanese Imperial court. The Emperor and Empress sit at the top and each step down has lower-ranking members.

Many kindergartens and shrines in Japan also set up a doll display at this time of year.
There is a shrine not too far from Tokyo that is famous for it's huge doll display that covers each of the eighty or so steps up to the shrine!

There is a superstition that the set must be taken down by March 4th or that family's daughter won't find a husband in her future.

Also, on March 3rd, families with daughters usually eat a special type of sushi called "Chirashi-zushi".

As I mentioned, March 3rd (3/3) is called 「ひな祭り」 ("Princess Festival" or "Doll Festival"), but it used to be called "Girls Day".

So, on May 5th (5/5), there is a holiday called 「こどもの日」 ("Children's Day").
This day is a 祝日 (public holiday), so most people have the day off from work or school.
In fact, it's the final day is three-in-a-row series of consecutive holidays that are collectively known as "Golden Week".

May 5th, 「こどもの日」 ("Children's Day") used to be called "Boys' Day".

So, March 3rd was "Girls Day" and it wasn't a day off, but May 5th was "Boys Day" which is a day off.
Kinda unfair. So, many people suspect that is the reason the names were changed.

Although, May 5th is now "Children's Day", it is celebrated by families with sons.
On this day, families with sons will fly 「鯉のぼり」 (Carp streamers) outside their houses. And they put a display of a samurai, sword, or something similar in their homes.

A special type of rice cake is eaten on this day.

Thank you for this wonderful lesson, Bob! 

I sure didn't know about taking down the Girls Day dolls by the 4th.  My mother had my dolls (and my brother's) up year round. We both got married anyway though.  I was shocked to see how much these dolls cost at the supermarket (above) a couple of weeks ago.

1979: A doll from her great-grandmother

Interestingly, my grandmother in Japan sent this special doll to our daughter, Tiffany a few decades ago for Girls Day.  She did send another Japanese doll a few years later that was more traditional and exquisite.

On May 5th, I shall have to walk around the neighborhood and take some carp photos for Boys Day.

Runners: Nature vs. Nurtured?

Jonathan was 12 years old when Art was startled to discover that his young son was actually able to beat him in a race.  He'd already beat me in a race when he was 7 years old.  That was disconcerting enough even though I'm not a runner and never was.

1990  Art and Jon

This photo was taken in 1990.  Jon was entered by his gym teacher to represent his school in a district race and Art thought he should take Jon to the track to make sure he could do it. 

1990  Jon receiving his 1st place ribbon

Jon came in first and that was the start to his cross country running career in middle and high school until he gave it up for swimming.

Jon and Art were always the primary runners in the family.

Tif and I watched and cheered.  We're good at cheering.

But now it seems Tiffany has inherited those running genes also.

Tiffany sent us this text photo on Thursday when she completed running 12 miles along the WINDY lake shore of Chicago in the bitter cold in preparation for that Washington, DC Half Marathon later this month. Her brother, Jon will be joining her for the race.

Good grief! 

She told me earlier that her feet and knees hurt when she ran 10 miles and that she might not be cut out for long distance running.  Now she called to say that she'd bought a new pair of shoes and it made all the difference.  She was exhilarated and couldn't wait to talk to Art describing every detail of the run and how good she felt.  Her running partner and friend, Jane is a doctor who is encouraging and advising her throughout her training.

Sigh...

I guess that leaves just me to cheer them on because there is no way on this green earth that I would run more than one block.... and a short block at that.

Blogaversary #5

It's my 5th Blogaversary today.  I wrote my first post in a Leap Year on February 29, 2008.

It seems such a long time ago.  We were beginning a new phase of our lives and anticipating being separated from our family and friends in Illinois.  The blog became a way to keep our children updated on our comings and goings.

However, along the way I've met and made so many wonderful friends around the U.S. and the world.  Your caring, empathy, advice, humor and friendship have added a broader, warmer dimension to my life and I thank you with all my heart.

Here is my very first 2008 post.

Moving Madness

We're planning to leave Illinois in June and I'm walking around the house daily trying to organize what things will go to Hawaii, what will be sold at a house sale, what will be going to New Mexico for our son (we'll be driving there in our van on our way to LA to ship our van to Hawaii), what will be donated, what will be stored here in the attic with our daughter, etc. I don't know how people do it.

I've laughed at the things that my 29 year old son wants to keep like old toys and school items. And yet I'm keeping his old baby shoes, some of his soiled t-shirts, blankets, etc. I've even got his casts from his two broken arms!

At first, the idea of moving so far away was really more than I could bear. But now that we've finally secured a mover (Hawaii is considered a international move.), a person to conduct the house sale, reserved a space for the van on a ship and bought the one way tickets to Hawaii, I'm feeling a bit more in control.

And yet, there's that sorting of precious items accumulated over 34 years that is so painful. How do you give up things that people have given you over the years? Unfortunately, we have a huge attic and we kept everything. EVERYTHING! Are pack rats born or are they raised that way?

And now... on to Year #6!

POSTSCRIPT:  Olga of Confessions of a Grandma asked in her comment how many blog posts I've written.  I checked and was surprised to find I'd written 1,678 posts.  Since July of 2010, I wanted to see how long I could write something everyday.  We'll see.

Borrowing Books on Kindle

The Hawaii State Library System just upgraded their online library site and it is wonderful!  I'm amazed because frankly the previous format was hard to negotiate.  This is so much easier and there are a ton more books.  I am so impressed.  I love it that it also provides a synopsis of many of the books and a customer rating.  Wow!

Hawaii does not have adequate funding for its library system so I can imagine what kind of fantastic library sites the rest of you have on the mainland.

The only problem I have now is trying to find time to read the books that I download onto my Kindle.

I also found that I can go to my Amazon account to Manage My Kindle and Return books as soon as I finish them.  I can also delete the books that I don't want on my account. 

There's so much to learn, but I'm slowly picking up things as I go along.

Training for the Hapalua

Coincidentally, both of our children, Tiffany and Jonathan will be doing a Half Marathon in Washington, D.C. in March also.  I'm totally amazed!  It will be Tiffany's first Half Marathon.

2012 Hapalua, Jon and Art

Jon was here last March just when Art was scheduled to do the first Hapalua (Half Marathon) in Waikiki.  Art signed Jon up and they (sort of ) ran together.  Jon used to be on the cross country team in high school and is in good shape.  He turned in a very good time even without training which surprised Art.

Art was finally able to run 13 miles a couple of days ago so he's feeling pretty confident that he can handle the Half Marathon on Sunday, March 10th.  It's been difficult to train with all the rainy weather we've been having.

After his training run we took a trip to Burger King just because we happened to have a Buy One Get One Free coupon.  Art felt he could use the calories.  No, I didn't need the calories at all but I benefited from his hard work.  For some reason, we've been getting hungrier lately and I don't know why.  I must be having sympathetic hunger pangs or something.

The only problem is that he's burning his calories off.  Mine is still in me and finding wrong places to call home.