Techie Turned Landscaper

My brother, Dennis is not just my Hawaii based techie for my computer needs (not to mention Photoshopper), but is also my master landscaper.

Ever since we planted our Satsuma tangerine in March of this year, I've been unhappy with the appearance of its surroundings.

Dennis tried to help by rearranging a few rocks, but he said we needed more.








So we went to Home Depot and bought a couple of bags of heavy medium sized rocks.

We had a hard time picturing what his vision was as he progressed, but it soon began to take shape.  Art had to go back and pick up two more bags of those medium rocks.  The heavy bags were broken so they gave him 25% off.  Wonderful!

Once he was done, we could see his yin-yang concept.  Mom was thrilled and so were we.  Here you can see the wet and dry version of the garden spot.

Eventually, the tangerine tree is supposed to grow to be about ten feet tall.  I'm already picturing how beautiful it will look with the lovely rock garden below it.

Did I tell you Dennis is also a good mechanic? 

Angel Tree 2013

It's that Angel Tree time of year again.

We went to the 2nd floor of the Pearlridge Mall and chose a boy and girl to buy gifts for.

We have learned to choose children who ask for something general such as a doll, educational toys, musical instrument, fire trucks, etc. 

There was one year that we went to every store we could think of to find a particular toy and finally had to go back and select another child.

The parking this year was so terrible that we ended up walking from the mall to Toys R Us rather than giving up our parking space because we'd have to return to turn in our gifts.  Needless to say, I got my exercise!

This year my 6 year old girl asked for Little People or Rainbow Bright.  We discovered that Toys R Us doesn't even carry Rainbow Bright toys.  Luckily they did have Fisher Price Little People.

Art's 3 year old boy wanted a fire truck or race cars.  That was so easy, we were able to get everything he asked for.

We bumped into our friends, Rodney and Carol at Toys R Us who were doing the same thing as us.  It was fun comparing what we had found.  It was great to see so many people participating in the sharing of  holiday joy.

We walked back to the mall and turned in our toys.  On the way out of the mall we passed by a smoothie store called Robeks.  We'd never been there before so we decided to treat ourselves to a small dish of acai sherbet and granola.

It was delicious and a lovely way to end our day.

Holiday Luncheon at Cajun King

We met our friends, Calvin and Kay and Calvin "Cal" and Myra at Tai chi a couple of years ago.  We thought it was rather humorous that there are two Calvins and two Kays.   Cal suggested our going to a new seafood restaurant called Cajun King in Waimalu Shopping Center (on the island of Oahu).  He and Myra had gone there for their anniversary and enjoyed the experience.

It was rather pricey, but since we asked for separate checks, I felt free to splurge a little.  It's true that Art was surprised to see me order the $25 Alaskan King crab legs and a $12 plate of green beans but I figured it wasn't something I did often and wanted to try ordering what appealed to me.

Unfortunately I ordered the butter and garlic crab legs.  It was a large serving that arrived in a big plastic bag full of butter and garlic.  I've never experienced that before.  It was extremely messy and somewhat difficult to eat when you're wearing plastic gloves, even with all the different crab cutting instruments they give you to use.  Still... it was tasty and I needed the green beans to balance out the richness of the buttery crab.  I really loved those crispy green beans. 

Art's Cajun lobster and shrimp with fried rice looked good.  However, he said his lobster had very little lobster meat.  I had a couple of his shrimps and it was very good.

The best part of the meal was being with such lovely friends.  It was great fun chatting, and we even made a tentative decision to take a trip together in summer of 2015.  It will take quite a bit of  planning.  We haven't even decided whether to go to the west or east coast, but we would like to see Canada again so that's a possibility.  It's fun to think about.

Loving Labeling

I have the worst time seeing the teeny tiny expiration dates on cans and boxes of grocery items. I know that the dates aren't always accurate and that a lot of food do last much longer.  However, I had spices that expired in 2008.  That's got to be too old, right?

When I was in Illinois my daughter showed me how she labeled everything in her pantry, cupboards and refrigerator with Post-it tapes.

It's a paper tape so you can easily write on it.

When we got back to Hawaii I saw it at the store and decided to buy it.

I labeled all our spices so I can clearly see the expiration date.  I labeled a few canned goods too.  Hmmm.... maybe I should look in the fridge tomorrow and see what else I can label.

KC's Storm Preparedness

This is something that happened on November 17th.  I wanted to post it then, but I had other posts already scheduled so I had to write it for December.

A storm was barreling through the Midwest and my daughter, Tiffany and her husband were talking about what to expect as they watched the TV coverage.  KC overheard it all of course, even though they kept their voices and words calm.

It was after the storm had passed and KC and her dad had gone to a science exhibit that Tif who had some place else she needed to be went up to KC's room.

Tiffany was surprised to find that KC had shut her door, closed all the blinds and carefully covered her favorite stuffed dog under blankets in the middle of her bed.

Tif wondered if some of KC's preparation was done because of the school drill in case of an "emergency".   That emergency was probably in the event of an armed intruder.  KC had transferred that knowledge of preparedness to include tornadoes.

KC is fine.  The storm passed south of Chicago and Tiffany sent this photo from her iPhone of the rainbow she saw after the clouds rolled by.  I do believe that's only the second rainbow I've ever seen in Illinois.

And now I'm sitting here hoping that there will only be rainbows in KC's life and that all the storms will pass through without causing her any harm.  Whatever the case, I'm glad she knows how to prepare for it.

Finally Taking Hank's Advice

Hank Chapin, one of my favorite Hawaii based commenters has been advising me for the longest time to print my travel or family albums at Costco.  I didn't think it would work for our situation because we like to really record things in detail.  I also like using thought and speech bubbles.

Most of the photobooks I've seen didn't give us the option to write so much text.  They were also too small, the fonts too big, etc.

However, at Hank's urging I looked into the possibilities.  We checked the cost at Snapfish, Pickaboo, and Costco and found Costco had the best price for additional pages.  They also allowed me to print 8.5" x 11" pages.

 Now there was just the formatting problem to worry about. 

Thinking outside of the box, I realized that I could still create my pages on PhotoRecord and save each page as one jpg photo which I could format onto the Costco page as a single image.  Goodness!  I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, the book arrived, and we were absolutely amazed!

It is gorgeous!  The binding is beautiful and takes up much, much less space than our binders.

The photo pages were also crisp and clear.  We can still hardly believe it.

Now I'm truly sorry I didn't do the other albums this way. 

Hank, thank you so much for nudging, encouraging, advising, dragging me by the hair to do this.

And this, everybody, is why I love to blog.  You make so many friends who give you such fabulous ideas, even if it sometimes takes me a long time to follow through.

Hank "You're The Man" Chapin... if you have any more ideas, I'm listening.

Black Friday

Yes.  Yes.  I have to admit we did go out on Black Friday at an ungodly hour.  It's just that the NEX (Navy Exchange) was having such a great sale that we couldn't pass it up.

Besides, it was an adventure of sorts... and we do still want to support our economy.

We woke up at 3:30 AM and arrived at the NEX around 4:30. Art felt we needed to get there early because the parking lot would be full if we came later.

I know it's called Black Friday because that's when the merchants' profit margin is once more in the black, but I'm beginning to think it's so named because it's pitch black when you get out to the stores. 

"Let's just wait in the car until the 5:00 opening time," I yawned hopefully.  "Maybe I could just take a short nap."

"We should go and see what it looks like out there first," insisted Art.

What a shock!  There appeared to be more than 200 people already lined up.  Uniformed officers and sailors were on duty to make sure everything was orderly and it was.  Everyone was warned NOT TO RUN.  Since this is a military store, we figured there wouldn't be too much of a problem.  Everybody is expected to behave themselves and they did. 

We sauntered right in, picked up our things and walked out happily.  Unfortunately, I noticed that the cashier forgot to charge us for a couple of things so we had to go back to the customer service to make the additional payment which didn't take that long.  All in all it took us only half an hour and then we headed home.

We considered eating breakfast out to celebrate, but we till had turkey and pumpkin pie sticking to our ribs so we continued home to have our cereal.

The blue box is a KitchenAid stand mixer that I'd been coveting, but didn't need.  However, it was such a good price that Art treated me to it.

The big box is for mom.  I know she'll be surprised.

I thought we should put the tree up next, but took a nap instead!

So did Art.

Haircut By Luciano

I'd been thinking about cutting my hair for a long time now.  As it grew longer, it was even more unmanageable in the humidity.  I looked around at my Tai chi and Zumba classes for women whose haircuts I thought were done well. Then I asked where they went and how much it cost.  I was shocked to find that nice haircuts were going for between $50- $60.

I've always maintained my haircuts by myself, but this time it would be a drastic cut and I didn't trust myself to do it on my own.

Eventually, I decided on the Premier Salon at Macy's.  Their haircuts go for about $31.50.  With styling it's about $48.00.

When I met Luciano, well.... I was a little surprised.  I'd never had a guy do my hair before.  On top of that, he was movie star gorgeous!

"You have pretty hair," he was kind enough to say.

I showed him a photo of myself with the shorter cut from a year or two ago and  he looked at it very carefully.

"Can I ask why you want to do this?"  I had the feeling he wanted to dissuade me from cutting it all off.

After washing my hair, he started to snip and I have to confess I was a little nervous.

Luciano put me at ease.  He told me he was originally from Brazil and how he was enjoying living in Hawaii.

It was so easy talking to him.

He really worked a long time on my hair giving me advice as he styled it.

I told him I needed a cut where I didn't have to do anything with it because I am extraordinarily lazy about my hair in the morning.

Still, he showed me how to blow dry my hair in the opposite direction that my hair roots were leaning to give it a fuller look.

When it was over, I was happy and relieved with the result.  He gave me a hug as I was leaving and I had the feeling I might just be back for a touch-up.  Yes, I could do it on my own, but let's face it.  He does a much better job than I ever could.

If you go to see Luciano, do tell him Kay with the blog sent you and that I said, "Obrigado."  (Portuguese for "thank you")

A Most Happy Thanksgiving Day!!!

It was a most wonderful Thanksgiving Day with my brother's family and a friend of my nephew's wife, Miho who we were very happy to welcome to our gathering. Carina is also from Japan and mom enjoyed talking to her.   

We started a full day of cooking on Wednesday by brining the turkey.  I then started the process to make a very special, rather unhealthy, downright decadent mochi rice (sticky rice) stuffing with lup chong, bacon, shiitake, cilantro, green and round onions.

I then cut the broccoli for broccoli casserole so I'd have more of a head start.  Art and I helped mom cut the gobo (burdock root) for her kinpira gobo.  We were exhausted by the end of the day and it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet.

Thanksgiving Day started with Art making his pumpkin pie.  I then got started on the bread stuffing and we prepared the turkey for roasting.  Mom took a good part of the day to make her "famous" macaroni salad.  I got the broccoli casserole ready so that it could go in as soon as the turkey was done.

My brother, Dennis brought the mashed potatoes, and I assigned him to make the gravy.  I'm really a klutz with gravy, and he is such a good cook.

Barry and Miho brought a scrumptious green salad and Carina brought white and red wines.  Mom had three glasses of white wine.  They were tiny glasses, but she did have three and loved it.

Before our meal, we did something we've never done before.  Usually I would ask one of my nephew to say a little Thanksgiving grace.  This time Art asked mom to recite a Buddhist sutra of thankfulness.  She was quite pleased to be asked to do it.  She is the daughter of a Buddhist priest, after all.  Still, I was amazed that she remembered the rather long prayer of thankfulness.

With all the food we prepared and the food that everyone brought, we had enough left overs to last all of us for a couple of days.

 We also had fun celebrating my nephew, Barry's birthday.  We'd all been too busy with work, studies and our travel to celebrate during his real birthday.

It was a truly wonderful Thanksgiving.  The only thing that would have made it more perfect was if my sister-in-law, Nancy could have been with us as well as my other nephew, Shawn and his family.... and of course... Tiffany, Ed and our granddaughter, KC.  If our son, Jon and his Sarah could have been with us, it would have been miraculous since he's still in Bangladesh.  However, just knowing everybody is happy and content this Thanksgiving is something we are more than grateful for.

I hope your day was equally wonderful....

Now on to Black Friday!

The Last Day

This trip has had an abundance of good fortune and coincidences.  Surprisingly, our son-in-law was going to be leaving on the same airline just 10 minutes ahead of us.  We would be able to catch a taxi ride with him to O'Hare Airport.

But the parting was even more difficult than I counted on.  Tiffany was crying and KC looked so wounded.

First of all, you have to understand how big an airport O'Hare is.

Somehow Ed's gate was B18 to St. Louis and ours was B17 to Hawaii.  We were able to wait together.

As we were passing through security check, I heard my name being called.  It was one of Tiffany's childhood friends.

The last time I'd seen Seetha, she and Tiffany were in high school.  Now she was leaving for Cincinnati on business.

Of all the many security checks at O'Hare it was amazing to bump into her in the same line.

Our eight and a half hour flight to Hawaii was uneventful.  I was misty eyed as we flew past the Chicago skyline.










And then, there it was!  Pearl Harbor below us and blue, sunny skies.

Mom was happy to see us again and had prepared a huge meal of Art's favorite Japanese stew, nishime.  It was good to  be home.

On this day of Thanksgiving, I would like to wish you all a most wonderful holiday with your families.  We'll be spending this special day with our family in Hawaii while thinking of our loved ones in Illinois, Washington, D.C. and Bangladesh.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!! 
AND
Happy Chanukah to my Jewish friends!!!

A Good Bye Walk in the Woods

November 3rd, Sunday would be our last full day in Illinois.  KC was already showing the strain of knowing that we would be leaving.  Compounding that was the added pain that her dad would also be leaving on a business trip to St. Louis.  It was a double whammy and certainly not something we had planned on. 

When we woke up on Sunday morning we found orange signs all around the house that said, Bye bye with a sad face next to it.

Actually KC thought we were leaving that day.

When she found out we'd be there another day she was thrilled.

Since Tiffany had gone for a run with her friend Jane, we decided to go to the woods with our son-in-law, Ed and granddaughter, KC.  The fall colors were now alive in all its golden glory and we all had cameras!

I don't know for sure who took these photos.  If it's super clear and sparkling it would be Ed's photos with his new camera.

KC loved being outdoors and had even learned how to do videos with her camera.

The cold finally forced us home where we picked up Tiffany and went to lunch at their favorite Chinese restaurant, Chef Ping.

Oh yes!  It was absolutely wonderful!!!

As the day came to a close, we cleaned the bathroom we were using, packed up our clothes to store in the attic and checked our suitcases a final time.

We would be leaving in the morning and it was not going to be easy...

Storing Memories

All of a sudden there were only two more days left before we'd be returning to Hawaii.  There was a driving compulsion to have as much quality time as we could possibly fit into the time remaining.

Our first stop on November 2nd, Saturday was Home Depot for their kids workshop.

Although KC has gotten very good with the hammer and sand paper, I have to tell you Art is brave to hold those wooden dowels for her.

KC's Mayflower type ship was very beautifully done.

The next stop was the public library where they were having a kids craft experience to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

KC had a wonderful time creating a diorama with Tiffany and coloring photos to learn about this Mexican holiday.

The next stop was the last farmers market of the year.  I couldn't believe we were doing three activities in one morning.


The warm Nutella chocolate crepes on this cold morning were wonderful.

Tiffany also picked up some tamales for us to have for lunch with Ed who waited patiently at home.

I made some teriyaki beef and chicken sticks for dinner with a salad and grilled vegetables.

Art and Tif went out to get a French silk pie from Baker's Square that I suggested Ed would love since it's his favorite pie.  I didn't have to tell them it was my favorite too.  I was really suggesting it for my favorite (if not only) son-in-law!

It was a very full, very wonderful, very memorable day.

Happy Halloween!

I'm so very thankful for your patience with me as I chronicle our trip to Illinois. It helps me to remember if I forget something.

October 31, 2013 Thursday was Halloween Day.

I remembered that Tif had bought me a Merrells shoe that I love at DSW a few years ago.

I'd gotten so many great  buys and poor Art had not yet found his perfect minimalist shoe that he wanted for tai chi.  Art wears a 9.5 EEEE so it's very hard to find his size much less the color and style he wanted.

Incredibly, the fairies of bargains must have been looking out for us on this trip.  There in the clearance rack was a Merrells minimalist shoe in his size!!!  Unbelievable!  It was an originally $110.94 down to $89.94 with a 40% discount.  On top of all that Tiffany had two $10 and one $5 discount coupons.  She figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if she could apply them to the purchase.  Would you believe they did?  The shoes cost $28.96!  With tax it was $31.57!!!   Totally blew me away.  Did I mention that my daughter has shopping down to a science?

In the afternoon Tif had agreed to do a fall art project with the class.

Halloween is no longer celebrated at their school so everything is just fall related.

Their teacher knew I taught 1st grade so she asked me to read a Halloween story to the class.  I guess books are OK.

That caught me by surprise, but I didn't embarrass my granddaughter, thank goodness!

Back at home the skies opened up to a downpour.

It did not dampen KC's Halloween excitement or her friend's.

They managed to trick or treat at EVERY house that had their lights on in the neighborhood and there were MANY!

Although we saw some fall colors there wasn't the profusion we saw last year when we came earlier in the season.

We saw this in the Chicago Tribune.  They reported that due to the weather the colors were happening later, but would last longer.

As we continued our trick or treating we noticed one house where the owner had left candy in a basket with a note admonishing to take just one.

The squirrel that raced up the roof was not following the rules.  There were candy wrappers strewn around the steps.

The neighbors were really in the Halloween spirit and it was fun to go trick or treating even if we did come back drenched despite the umbrellas and raincoats.  It didn't dampen the festive spirit for all the children that came to the house either.

I asked mom how many children came to our home in Hawaii.  She said just one.

Ah well, my nephews benefited from the left overs she gave them.  All in all, it was a very Happy Halloween!

Outlet Mall Bonanza!

October 29th, Tuesday was one of my favorite days.

We'd gone to the Pleasant Prairie Outlet Mall early in our trip and I'd bought a wireless bra from the Hanes Outlet and a light weight travel capri (50% off of $38.00) from North Face.  The corningware small casserole that mom liked to use was not on sale at that time, but they said it might go on sale at the end of the month.  When I'd brought the bra and capri home I realized that I should have bought another pair.  It's so hard to find capris that fit well at my size and are not way below my navel causing an abundance of muffin tops.

Since it was nearing the end of our trip, I called North Face to ask if they might still possibly have the capris in my size.  The person I spoke to said they'd had a very busy weekend and there were no more capris.  I called the Corningware outlet and she said the casserole dish was on sale for $19.99 which is still quite a bit better than the $28 we saw earlier.  I told Tiffany and Art we didn't have to go all the way up north just for the small casserole.  The cost of gas would outweigh any savings we might find.

They insisted on taking me all the way up there anyway.  We walked through the North Face store and sure enough it didn't appear to have any capris.  And then I saw a little rack and there they were!!!  I couldn't believe it!  It was exactly what I was looking for and in my size and still on sale for $18.99 and only two left!  There was another one hidden in a clearance rack in my size, but I left that behind for somebody else to enjoy.

We then went to Corningware, but the covered dish we wanted was not on sale.  The manager felt so sorry for us that she gave it to us for the price quoted, threw in the separate covers and gave us the senior discount as well.

Art looked everywhere for his minimalist shoes that he was hoping to find for tai chi, but couldn't find any.  Tiffany found some lovely bargains and we headed home in a jubilant mood.

I know both Tiffany and Art were feeling happy for me.

And I was very, very happy!

Birds Nest, Friends and Pumpkin Seeds

October 28th, Monday was another wonderful start to the week.

KC insisted her teacher wanted the bird's nest that was long vacated on the gingko tree in front of the house.  Her teacher did indeed have a project giving her first grade class the experience of working in teams to create a bird's nest.

We saw this in the classroom a few days later.

Lunch was with Bill and Sandra at the Walker Brothers Pancake House.  Sandra is an ordained minister and Bill was once a seminarian and now an anthropology professor.  And yet they both know more about Buddhism than we do.  Bill has been a dear friend since our children were  KC's age.  Sandra and I have so many health issues in common that it was wonderful to compare notes.

In the afternoon, we roasted the pumpkin seeds.  I did the less healthy version with butter and salt.  Art chose to make his tray with olive oil, oregano and I forget what else.  At first I wasn't that crazy about it, but eventually I got hooked and couldn't stop eating them.  I'll definitely make it again next year.  Do you have a good recipe for pumpkin seeds?