Back to Zumba

During the summer, Zumba is reduced to just one day a week on Fridays for me because the center is being used for summer time programs for children who are on vacation.

Children in our area are now back to school so I can go to Zumba twice a week on Mondays and Fridays again.

This was our first Monday and I can't believe how hard it was for me to get myself out the door.  Then I thought about Myrtle, Pat, Diane, Irene, Lynette, Alyce, Joanne, June, Naomi, Renee, Esther, and everybody else.  I got my zumba bag and headed for the center.

Seeing everybody's smiling faces confirmed why I love to go.  It's not for the exercise alone, that's for sure.  It's not just because our Zumba Gold (for seniors) teacher, Stephanie is excellent. It's really for the friends who add so much to my week.

I wish I could be motivated to run or exercise alone.  Art does all the time and so does Tiffany and Jonathan, but not me.  I guess the kids must take after their father.

They're also better at math and science like their father so that's a good thing too.  What do you do for exercise?

Celebrating Summer Birthdays

(This is my last family birthday post.  I promise.... for this year anyway... unless I forget.)

We have six summer birthdays in our family.  This year we decided to consolidate and celebrate them all at once on Sunday.  I used to do this with my class before we parted for the summer vacation because I really did understand how sad it was not to have your birthday acknowledged during the school year.  The parents went all out and our celebrations used to be pretty incredible.

It was incredible that we were able to actually find a date when every birthday person was able to come despite their busy work and school schedules.

We started the day before cutting all the burdock roots to make kinpira gobo which everybody loves.



Then on Sunday, mom made the namasu (pickled cucumbers) and the Hawaii staple, macaroni salad.

I marinaded the red peppers, teriyaki beef and chicken for Art to grill.  I knew I'd packaged zucchinis for purchase also and searched everywhere for it.  Art checked the receipt and said it wasn't listed.  Uh oh...  This means somebody else has the bag of zucchinis that I placed in their shopping cart by mistake.  Yikes!

Everybody brought their wonderful specialties to add to the feast.




Cody is Mom's youngest grandchild.  He's also the tallest and does dwarf Mom when he stands next to her.

She's always telling him that he's grown even taller.

Everything was fabulous and everybody was able to bring home a lot of left overs which we love.  My sister-in-law, Nancy made the scrumptious chocolate bundt cake.  We had four candles to celebrate the birthdays of the people who were in attendance.

The birthday people are Miho (my nephew's wife),  Dennis (my brother), Art and me.  My son, Jon and his Sarah were not here since they are in Bangladesh and Gabon, but they were in our hearts.

Who knows?  Maybe they can come next year and add their candles to our cake also.  That's my birthday wish.

Forwarded Mails

I do get quite a few forwarded e-mails from several friends.  I enjoy some of them.  However, I do often get duplicates which can clutter my mailbox.  What has worried me are the forwarded pieces that have misinformation.  I check them out on Snopes and have often found many that are totally False.

When I write back to friends to tell them, most are happy to know. Others seem affronted saying I'm taking it too seriously or that I should have  known the e-mail was a joke.

There was one a while back about the origin of the middle finger.  It was supposed to be about the Battle of Agincourt between the English and the French and how it came about from the term "Pluck yew".  It wasn't true.


Another e-mail showed a photo of a man who was supposed to be the real Trayvon Martin.  It said Trayvon was really 6'2" tall and 175 pounds with tattoos on his face and neck.  When I checked, I found it wasn't really Trayvon at all, but a 33 year old rapper.

The problem I see with these sort of e-mails is that if people see them enough and don't check, they will believe it.

When I was teaching first grade, we were told that we needed to be careful about allowing children to use inventive spelling too long because it would imprint the incorrect spelling in their brain.   We needed to allow children to write their creative stories, but we also needed to teach them the correct spelling of the simple sight words.

I think that even as adults, if we have something shown to us too many times, we'll believe it.  It doesn't help that I'm often gullible.  Many of the forwarded mails also have enhanced photos using PhotoShop or some other program.  You just can't believe them all.

If I get a forwarded mail with no message and only a link, they get deleted right away.

On the other hand, I've gotten some great tips from quite a few of those forwarded mails and many of them have made me laugh.  The others... well... yes... they just get deleted.

The First Famous Honokaa Boy

Art was stunned to hear last week that the older brother of one of his best childhood friends had passed away.  Actually Poncie was much, much older than Art's friend, Del.

I remembered Ponciano "Poncie" Ponce from his 1959-1963 role as Kim, the cab driver on the long ago detective show, Hawaiian Eye.  Granted I was a very little girl when the show was popular.  OK, never mind.  I wasn't that little.  He acted with Connie Stevens and Robert Conrad.   Do you remember them? I know you were little then too.  Actually some of you weren't even born.

That show must have been the precursor to Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum P.I.  I used to love watching it even though the sets seemed very fake and were filmed mostly in Hollywood.  It was still fun to see a show that was supposed to be about Hawaii. Of course Poncie was the only person who spoke or looked like he was from Hawaii.

Actually, when you think about it, the only person who is really from Hawaii in the present Hawaii 5-0 is Teila Tuli who plays the chubby Kamekona.

I sure wish there was someone like Poncie Ponce who could have been on Hawaii 5-0 now.  If there were, I know I'd be enjoying the show much more.

Tonight Art is remembering the "Honokaa boy" who made it big in Hollywood and is feeling the pride that Poncie brought to the Big Island. We send Del and his family our deepest condolences.

POSTSCRIPT:  I used the term Honokaa Boy because of the movie that was filmed in Honokaa a few years ago by a Japanese studio.

Not That Great a Deal at Hawaiiantel

I got a call around dinner time from Hawaiiantel.  They are our phone and Internet providers and I've been happy enough with them.  Apparently Hawaiiantel has put cables in and can now provide cable TV for people in our area.  The caller said we could get a "bundle deal" for cable TV, higher speed Internet and our phone."  It would cost $115.  She said all our TVs could be connected to the cable.  I was ready to sign up, but I had her talk to Art first because he's the technical person around here.

After a while I heard him say, "No, we never sign up for anything by phone without thinking about it first.  Yes, I realize I get a better deal if I sign up now, but I would prefer thinking about it."

What????  Why????  It sounded like such a good deal.  We already pay about $56 for a slower Internet and phone.  It'd be great to have cable instead of relying on our temperamental TV antenna in our attic.

Well...  the next day I decided to call Hawaiiantel and get the answers Art wanted to more questions he thought of and here's what I learned.

1.  The $115 is only for the 1st year.

2.  There is a $150 installation fee which they would waive.

3.  The HD (high definition) is ONLY for the first 6 months.  You'd have to pay more for it after that, but I forget how much more.

4.  The first TV is free.  After that it's $4.95 a month for each additional TV.   There's a box that goes with each TV which would make it hard for our wall mounted TV in the kitchen.

5.  Although we only have three TVs since mom and we have small ones and then the wall mounted one in the kitchen, I was planning to get a small one for the guest room.  Scratch that idea.

The bottom line was when I asked her how much it would cost the second year.  She answered $181.00!  YIKES!  We'd be jumping from $56 to $181 a month!!!


Art smiled.  "You don't need to watch more TV", he said.  "You should be composing on your blog and reading."

So that's what I'm doing tonight.

Sigh...

Jon's Impressions of Bangladesh

I received a comment from Kay Davies of Canada about Bangladesh.  She wrote:

"I know I can Google Bangladesh, but it would be great to know Jon's opinion. I know what great people you and Art are, and I'm sure Jon will tell the truth."

Sally of Retired English Teacher also has a son who lived in Bangladesh.

I know Jon is very busy right now.  However, when I asked him to relate his observations, he took the time to quickly write back his thoughts. (I think it was because it was my birthday at the time.) Here is what he wrote along with some photos he sent:

As for my overall impressions of Bangladesh.  I'm always surprised at how much it reminds me of Africa.  

There are open sewers, markets selling cheap plastic junk, and incredible poverty. There is choking dust until it rains and then deep puddles and mud everywhere.  

The city is congested with streets full of rickshaws, auto rickshaws, motorcycles, buses and cars.  The pedestrians dart in and out of traffic and there are basically no lanes. Collisions are a regular occurrence which lead to a lot of shouting and arguing.  The sound of honking horns is ever present.  

It was nice to be out on the river away from all the traffic noise and exhaust. 

(I was so impressed with these photos he took.)

No one particularly likes being in Dhaka, but once you get out into the countryside, it is very different. There is not as much traffic and it is lush and pastoral.

(Doesn't this 7 layer tea look great?  I'd sure love to try it.  I need to remember to ask Jon if he liked it.)

Ramadan has made things difficult in Bangladesh.  The restaurants which are normally open until very late, have only a few available items in the evenings.  

During the daytime everyone fasts.  I am told I don't have to, but I find it better to not eat in front of others who are fasting.  I fast, but it is a much shorter fast than everyone else.

The role of women is interesting.  You could make the argument that women are making advances, the prime minister is a woman and there are 50 seats in the parliament reserved for women, but in reality, there is complete oppression of women.  All women are expected to be completely covered up, even at the beach when swimming, and once married they are allowed few freedoms.  It is a very poor situation for almost all women here.
  

Map courtesy of Wikipedia

The political situation here is simmering.  There are two major parties in the parliament, similar to the US.  They are moderately conservative/liberal and secular, but need to form coalitions with more extreme parties to win elections.  These more extreme parties seem to be the ones responsible for the national strikes(hartals) which are called periodically.  These were much worse earlier in the year, with violence on the street lasting for weeks.  Since I have been here, there have only been a few, with one lasting almost a week.  It is bound to get worse as we approach the next election.  

The current administration has been accused of corruption and oppressing opposition party leaders. The liberation war, fought against Pakistan in 1971 to create the sovereign nation of Bangladesh, was bloody and full of atrocities.  Like the American War of Independence, there were those that sided with the rulers, but unlike the US, these people are still alive.  

During the last hartal, one of the leaders of a more radical Islamic party was accused of siding with Pakistan during the war and committing atrocities.  These trials are surely politically motivated and lead to instability.  Add onto this, a very high unemployment rate and a dissatisfaction with the government and it makes for a potentially unstable situation.  For us it means being overly cautious during work stoppages and sometimes staying home instead of going to work.

  
Jon has also told me that he's enjoyed meeting the people of Bangladesh who have been friendly and kind.  It's weird to think of my son being so very far away and even a day ahead of us.

Reusing and Recycling

(Title change courtesy of L...w)

We had fun this past Saturday.

 We went to the Richardson Super Garage Sale next to the Aloha Stadium at the 8:00 opening time.  They don't have this sale all the time and we've enjoyed getting a few things every so often so we decided to have a look.

I'm afraid all I brought home this time was a $1.00 stamp.

Funny how spending $1.00 could add a little cheer to my day.

Our next stop was Going Green Recycling which was at the old Aiea Sugar Mill.  The problem for us was that we didn't know where the Old Aiea Sugar Mill was because it's gone.  The map we had didn't list Halewiliko Street and our Prius GPS was no help.  Google mapping finally helped us locate where they were doing the collection.

We brought clothes, an old laptop, old eye glasses, toys and towels.

They were also collecting computers, printers, cartridges, cellphones, scrap metal, appliances, propane tanks, fire extinguishers, heat pumps, used cooking oil, batteries, bicycles, HI-5 beverage containers, hearing aids, white socks for Afghanistan, prom dresses, women's business suits, pet food, blankets,  household items, incandescent light bulbs and canned food for the Hawaii food bank.

Apparently this was their first event.  There's going to be another one at McKinley High School on August 24th from 9 AM - 1 PM.

I guess what made it the most fun of all was seeing our friend, Claire who was helping to collect and organize.  I really admire people who give their time to make their community a better place to live.

A Happy Birthday

It was truly a happy birthday for me.

Our son, Jon left a happy birthday e-mail for me to wake up to saying that he would call later when he woke up in Bangladesh.

Then my daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law called from Illinois with their birthday wishes.  I loved hearing 6 year old, KC chime out, "Happy Birthday, Grandma!"

Art then took me for my free Anna Miller birthday lunch.  I forgot to take a photo.  I remembered only when Art and I were finishing the lemon meringue pie that we shared.

When we got home I opened all the cards I'd gotten from my loving teacher friends in Illinois and Art's sister and brother-in-law from California.  I was tearing up when I read my teacher friends saying they'd be waiting for me to return so we could get together again.

The phone rang.  My brother and sister-in-law, Nancy said they were stopping by. They brought my favorite Ted's Bakery pie!  I love their chocolate haupia (coconut pudding) pie.  It would be our dessert tonight.

No sooner did they leave when my high school buddy and college roommate, Joanne showed up with another birthday surprise.  She brought healthy favorites, edamame and boiled peanuts!  Art and mom were very happy to see that.  Joanne had wrapped it with a candle on top. 

Joanne has an utterly busy life.  I was so touched that she made time to surprise me with this.  She laughingly called it a pupu (not poopoo) cake.  Pupu is what we in Hawaii call hors d'oeuvres. 

As soon as Joanne left, our son, Jon called from Dhaka, Bangladesh.  He needed to get to work, but he spent time telling me about his life there.  He then wrote me a wonderful email allowing me to picture his life in this poor country because I told him I wanted to include his impressions in a post soon.

As soon as that call ended it was time for our dinner out at Gyotaku (Mom's favorite Japanese restaurant.  She had broiled eel over rice.  Art had a crab bowl with vegetables and I had the shrimp tempura.  It was great!

We ended the evening with a slice (rather large) of that chocolate haupia pie that Dennis and Nancy brought over.

All in all, it couldn't have been a happier birthday.

As much as I enjoyed this day, I wouldn't mind it if the next one didn't come so soon.

The Best Birthday Present

Art and I don't exchange birthday presents.  We celebrate our special days by going out to a restaurant and/or buying something frivilous we'd love to have but wouldn't normally buy.  Art's sister and brother-in-law always sends us a generous birthday check so we like to spend it on something special.  Granted, sometimes I'll buy that birthday gift a month or two before before that check arrives. 

Art and I have birth dates that are very close together so we've been tempted at times to celebrate them on the same day.  However, that would deprive mom of a night out at a restaurant.

So what birthday gift did I buy this year?

Shoes for Zumba!  Yup!  I saw these Reebok Studio shoes and couldn't resist them.  They really support my feet.  That round disk at the ball of the foot allows you to pivot your feet easily.

But do you know what was the best birthday present of all?

While I was at Zumba and before Art left for his Meals on Wheels volunteering, he cleaned the entire bathroom.  When I came home hot and sticky from the humid Zumba class I could take a shower in a clean bathroom.   I loved it!

Woo hoo!!!

POSTSCRIPT:  Art said I should explain how I took this photo in the dark outside the house and didn't realize there was a moth on my shoe until I saw the photo on the computer.  I didn't step on it.

I'll be writing about my birthday tomorrow.  (Oops!  I meant Monday.  I forgot I wasn't posting on the weekends now.)

Judging the Album By the Cover

My brother, Dennis is a master computer techie.  He also happens to be a much too modest and amazing artist.  I don't think even his children realized just how talented he was until I showed them the drawings he did for me a long, long time ago.

Well, I finished our China album and made the cover.  Granted... I didn't put a huge amount of time on it.  That's my excuse.

I wasn't thrilled with it, but I couldn't come up with anything better.

Since mom came with us on the canyon trip, I told Dennis that he should do the cover for his mother. And this is what he came up with below.

He did it pretty quickly after I gave him all the photos we took.  I was floored.  How does he do this... so fast?  He is extremely busy at work so I feel guilty asking him to redo the China cover for me. 

I'm thinking of bribing him with some mango or zucchini bread or maybe cornbread...

Then again, maybe he'll just do it because he's my favorite brother.

Thoughts About Blogging

I thought I'd share some random, meandering thoughts about blogging.

I've been writing on this blog for five years but started posting everyday three years ago from July of 2010, missing only about three days.  It started as a challenge because I enjoyed writing and especially loved the feedback.  What a heady feeling to be connected to new friends around the world and my cousins and friends here in Hawaii and the mainland. And for everybody reading, but not commenting please know that bloggers LOVE comments.  It's the fuel that keeps us posting.

There are difficulties with maintaining the blog because I don't want people to know when we're gone on trips.  There is that security issue since we don't know who is reading our posts.  My brother works for the police department and I've been warned.

Therefore I have to schedule posts to go up while we're gone.  That isn't always easy.  But it's another challenge.  My children are also concerned about the privacy issue and want me to be careful about revealing too much or my actual identity.

When I don't know what to post, doing this blog can feel like a job.  I was beginning to think I would stop posting everyday despite those wonderfully encouraging friends who told me they read my post with their morning coffee. 

Then I saw in the news that people who kept on working instead of retiring were able to stave off dementia much longer.  My daughter has told me she likes the fact that I do the blog because she knows it forces us to go out and do something we normally wouldn't do just so I'd have something to blog about.

I also love all the advice and feedback I get.  I have gotten very valuable information from all of you and a lot of spirit lifting cyber friendship.

It's true.

And then I happened to read Len's blog, Lenman when he placed a comment on a recent post I wrote.  He said he thought I was posting Monday-Friday.  This is an excellent compromise.  I'm going to start doing that from tomorrow when I actually reach my three year mark of posting every day.

This is what I mean about blogging.  You get ideas from all over the place. 

Flossie Fizzled

It's 8:00 PM as I write this and I'll add my updates until Flossie actually does hit us.

We saw this map at 7:16 AM while we were having our breakfast.  It looked like Flossie swerved away from the Big Island.

It also appeared that we on Oahu were now in the direct line of fire from Flossie.  It hit Maui first and pelted the island with a deluge.  I've heard there were power outages there and on Molokai.

After hearing all the warnings, Art set up a tarp to prevent rain and wind from drenching our patio area where we have our washing machine and dryer.  Yes, it's common in Hawaii to set up your washer and dryer outside the  house.


At 3:00 PM all city workers on Oahu were sent  home and people were told to stay off the streets after 6:00.  Ummmm... nobody listened it seemed.  There was a huge traffic snarl.  

At 5:00 PM, just as Art was serving his special omelet dinner this rainbow appeared outside our door.  It was pretty darn awesome!  My camera just didn't do it justice.  Could that terrible a storm really be headed our way?

Uh oh... It's 8:30 PM and I'm seeing flashes of lightning and hearing a rumble of thunder.

We saw this map online at 9:45 PM on The Weather Channel showing the storm going south.   However, when we checked the network news on TV, they were still telling us to expect something.

We think we can go to bed now without worrying too much since the bulk of the storm seems to be moving away... we hope.

POSTSCRIPT:  Sheesh! I heard some gusts of winds around 1:00 AM and some rain, but not much else.  I'm even seeing patches of blue above at 9:00 AM and have already gone to the farmers market.  We were lucky.

Getting Worried

I wasn't worried yesterday.  I'd heard that Tropical Storm Flossie was weakening when it hit our cooler waters.

Our skies are gorgeous and the temperatures were lovely today.  It's been a peaceful Sunday. 

However I've been getting a ton of weather warnings all day.  There have been special news broadcasts telling us to get our prescriptions filled, stock up on 3 + days of food, look at our insurance papers, etc.  I thought this was a tropical storm, not a hurricane.

Our neighbor just cut down his tall palm tree today for fear it could fall on the house.

OK, now I'm starting to worry.

We brought our shoes and slippers in.  We moved our smaller potted plants away from the wind.  I checked our food supply.  (I've got 4 mini loaves of mango bread and Art's tuna cans.)  We've got a case of bottled water.

It's going to hit the Big Island first tomorrow.  I'll be reading Hattie's Web to see what happens.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her and her family because they are pretty exposed.

Judging from what she says, I'll see if I need to get out to stock up on more supplies.

Meanwhile, we went out today to get more shingles and Art used roof caulk to secure our roof.  I'm hoping our solar panels are OK.  I'm hoping the tree outside our house doesn't fall. 

We've had warnings before and things have fizzled out.  I keep expecting the same thing to happen, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It's hard to imagine something awful could happen when it was so beautiful today.

Planting Morris' Pineapple

Art's classmate, Morris gave him the biggest, heaviest, juiciest, sweetest pineapple we've ever had and was advised to plant it. 

Art's pineapples have been very sweet, but of modest size, unlike Morris' so he decided to give it a try.

We twisted the crown off and Art put it in a bottle of water until the roots grew pretty long.

Then we had to shop for a pot and some dirt because we really have run out of places where we can plant anything.

The pot cost about $4 and the dirt was almost $6.  Art then mixed in some local dirt since the pineapples do grow in Hawaiian soil.

As you can see we do have a pineapple that's looking like it's beginning to ripen.  It's another miniature fruit.  I hope it doesn't feel intimidated.

Art has great hopes for Morris' pineapple.  I didn't want to bring up the fact that he's paid $10 in supplies for this one fruit.  Granted, we have great expectations for it to produce a monster sized fruit.

Then again maybe that's counting our chickens, I mean pineapple before it pops up.

Need to be Framed

When we were in Xian, China in May we went to the Buddhist Temple Park to see the Wild Goose Pagoda. 

There was a shop at the park where paintings done by farmers were being sold.  We learned later that these farmer's paintings are pretty famous.

Art said he'd let me choose.  It was very, very difficult. I loved the vibrant colors and primitive design.

I finally chose a painting with children because... well...  I am a retired first grade teacher after all.

I have a feeling it's not what Art would have chosen.  He would have selected something with more trees.

When we got home we considered our options on how to get it framed.  I checked into prices and found that the mat alone would cost about $40 to $50.  Sheesh!  That's without the frame!  The painting cost us $32 US dollars.  So we laid it flat in the guest room and forgot about it.

Then we happened to be at Panda Express here in Hawaii and saw several of these farmer type paintings and loved how they look.

What to do, what to do?  Does anybody in Hawaii know a reasonable place to get this framed so that it doesn't cost five times as much?  Sheesh!

Losing Sleep Over Losing Hair

Every so often I start worrying and picturing myself going bald.  One morning I woke up and found I'd lost this much just combing my hair!

I know, I know.  I've read about how you can lose between 40-120 strands a day.

I know, I know.  But it still freaks me out.

I see spaces now between roots.  Sigh...

I remember my grandmother losing her hair when she got older.  My brother laughs ruefully about his hair loss.  It's probably genetics.  Which only freaks me out even worse.  We have Alzheimers and hair loss in our genes.  Arrrghhh!

I asked my nurse practitioner, Kathy about it and she smiled kindly.  She said the only explanation could be a thyroid problem, but my tests are showing that I'm fine in that department. 

"Is it the age thing?" I asked.

She smiled again.  Oh darn!

Finally Finished!

After our trip to China in May, we had just three weeks before we left for the Canyons National Park road trip.  That gave us very little time to work on our China photo album.  We took about 4,500 photos in China since Art and I both carry our own cameras and take a LOT of photos.

Our first task which falls to me is to select all the photos that I think should go into the album.  Then Art goes through it and marks the ones he thinks should be removed or added.  We debate the choices.  I format the photos and add in notes from my journal.  Art adds his information.  I fine tune the formatting, add research on the different places, edit, and check for errors.  Then Art checks for errors.  Then I check for errors and print the album to a PDF and JPG files.  We bring the PDF file to Office Max and have it printed and we put the pages into sheet protectors.  Finally, the pages go into a binder and the cover and spine label are added.

We did the photo selections and some formatting on China before we had to leave for the canyon trip.  When we got home, we finished the canyon photo album first because mom couldn't wait to see the photos.  We had her add her own notes so that her relatives in Japan would be able to understand the trip better.

Yesterday we finally finished the China album!  There were 164 pages with excruciating details of every step of our 16 day China Tour.  It holds our thoughts, some of our speech, every day's schedule, things we learned and saw, what we ate... everything.

Until the trip album is finished, nothing else really gets done.  I haven't cleaned the bathroom in..... hmmmm.... I don't think I'll write that.  We work on the pages almost every day and night, sometimes stepping on each other's feelings as we work through the wording.  It's a good thing our marriage is strong enough to withstand this joint project.  Once it's done, there's this feeling of euphoria and satisfaction which we're now feeling.

We were really complimented when our neighbor asked to be the last one to see the albums so that she could leisurely read everything that's written and see each photo closely without worrying about someone else's turn.  We're sending digital copies to mom's siblings in Japan and her sisters here in Hawaii will get to see the actual albums along with her notes about the canyons.

Oh my!  What a feeling!  It's done!

Now I'd better go clean that bathroom.

POSTSCRIPT:  My friend, Hank Chapin has recommended for the longest time that I look into those bound books that look so much more professional and take up less space.   I thought it was cost prohibitive and wouldn't allow us to write all the text we always add. 

We happened to be at Costco today and I asked about Hank's advice in his comment.  What a HUGE surprise!  The prices had come down from when I first looked into this option years ago and the format would allow us to do all the things we like to do in our albums.

We will definitely publish our next album this way.  Thank you, Hank!  I'm so grateful to you for not giving up on me.

Art's Perfect Birthday

It was a perfect birthday for Art.  He woke up at 4:15 and went for a four mile jog. It did not rain.

In the middle of breakfast, Our son, Jon sent a message from Bangladesh asking if we could Skype. We rushed upstairs and turned on our computer and spoke to Jon for about 20 lovely minutes.  It was nearly midnight and he was exhausted from a weekend trek, but he regaled his father with stories of his visit to a hillside tea farm as well as tramping through leach filled streams in a forest.  I was aghast.  Art was fascinated!

Our daughter, Tiffany called to give Art her birthday wishes and we loved hearing our cheerful granddaughter, KC sing out "Happy birthday, Grandpa!"

Lunch was at Anna Millers and Art got a lovely free birthday meal.

We went to the BX with our little discount scratch card and the parking lot was almost full, but we found a lucky space.  We always manage to only get 5% off with these scratch cards.  This time I asked the salesgirl to choose.  She scratched off 10%!  Wow!  We scratched off the other two when we got home and saw that the other two was 5% off.

My brother stopped by and we had a wonderful chat.  Then it was time for dinner.

We went to our favorite place for butterfish, Maguro-ya.  I asked our waitress to take our birthday photo.

Then they brought out an ice cream surprise for us to share and sang to Art and everybody clapped for him.  We left the restaurant to a chorus of "Happy Birthdays".

When we got home, Art had his birthday watermelon.  It was sweet and wonderful!  I sent this photo to the kids and Jon wrote back right away saying that it felt rather weird because he'd talked to us at midnight his (Bangladesh) time before going to bed and now it was the following day (he was at work), but we were still celebrating Art's birthday on the same day.

What a day!  What a wonderful birthday!

POSTSCRIPT:  Thank you for all your kind birthday wishes, everybody.  Art read them all and was truly touched.  You've made his day, his week, his year!

Mango Bread Mayhem

My uncle and aunt have two mango trees.  One is a Pirie and the other is a Hayden.  I remember reading that they are the two main types of mango trees in Hawaii... or used to be anyway.

Uncle recently stopped by and dropped off two bags of mangoes.  Most of them were Piries this time.  The Piries tend to get very soft when ripe.  We like our mangoes on the firmer side so I thought I'd make some mango bread.  Let me tell you relatives with mango trees are golden!

I was able to get four cups of diced mangoes so I thought I'd make a double recipe of mango bread.

I got my ingredients together and then thought we should share some of the bread with uncle and auntie.  This would mean we'd need smaller sized loaf pans.  The recipe makes only one large loaf.

We went to Walmart, found these cute pans and I got started.

And then... arrrrrrghhhhhh!  I opened a brand new package of flour and found this!  I usually use unbleached flour so I thought at first that these tiny dots were just particles of wheat or whatever.  Then they started to MOVE!  Arrrrghhhh!

When we were living in Illinois the kids used to laugh at me for putting everything in our basement freezer.  I soon relaxed and stopped doing that.   This taught me a lesson!  All my flour things will go into our 2nd fridge or freezer from now on.  Sheesh!

We went back down to the market to get more flour.

At last, I got it done and they went into the oven.  I was able to make seven of these little loaves.  I shared them with our neighbor, uncle and auntie and brother's family.

Uncle and Auntie called to say they loved it.

I have to say they weren't too bad.

Art says the bugs would just have added a little more protein.  Riiiight....

If you're interested, here's the recipe I used from the Hawaii Baptist Academy Family Cookbook.

Mango Bread

(Makes 1 large loaf, but I made 7 mini loaves.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift together into a large bowl:
2 cups flour
2 tsps. baking soda
2 tsps. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt

Make a well in bowl and add:

3 well beaten eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup salad oil
2 cups diced mango
1/2 cup nuts and/or raisins  (I used walnuts and cranberries.)

Grease a loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees F. for 1 hour.