Skeletons and Math Answer

Saturday is Art's day for his 7 mile jog so I wasn't able to take a photo of that skeleton I showed you earlier in the week coming slowly out of the ground.

However, nice guy that he is, he added a mile by taking a different route home so he could take a photo for me in the dark.

So, nope.

No change. 

Maybe tonight?

And here is the answer to that Halloween problem yesterday.

Most of you have already figured it out.

4👻 + 4👻+ 4👻= 12

4👻 + 8🎃  + 8🎃= 20

8🎃 + 3🦇 (1s) + 3🦇(1s) = 14

Therefore:

8🎃 + (4👻  x 2🦇) = 16

If you were looking at this problem on your phone, it was easy to miss that X. 

OK, it's true I didn't know about having to do the multiplication first. (I hate algebra!)

Then there's the problem of the missing bat.

OK, did that take your mind off the election for a minute?

Consistent Signatures

Can you write your signature the exact same way every time?

I can't. In fact, my signature is completely different from how I signed my name in college. I don't know when it changed. It just did. Art, on the other hand has the same signature since high school. I can't show it to you, but it's quite impressive. Lawyers, bankers, and others have all marveled at his special style whenever they see it. He's told me that it used to take him some time when he had to sign so many papers for the U.S.E.P.A. when he worked there.

When I saw a news warning on my cellphone, I found it rather alarming. I've read that ballot counters have about 5 seconds to check signatures. Sheesh!

It's a good thing you can check online to see if your ballot has been counted. I've already seen that my signature was confirmed and my vote would be counted.

But wow! I need to practice writing my signature.

I know that the school district I was teaching at in Illinois had removed the teaching of cursive from the curriculum. It's the new thinking that everything is done on the computer these days so you don't have to teach print penmanship or how to write cursive.

I insisted on helping my granddaughter with her handwriting when she was in kindergarten. I didn't need to stress it because little KC just loved writing and her letters to this day are beautiful. 

One of the lessons from my mother's father, a zen priest was to be conscious of your writing because it would show your intelligence. Well... I don't know about that, but I really think it's important to teach both print and cursive to elementary school children. How in the world will they develop their signatures? My daughter tells me she knows a child who can't even read cursive.

Good grief!

Hmmmm.... I think I'll go practice my signature for a bit so I'll be ready for the next election.

FOR HALLOWEEN FUN:

Here's an Halloween equation for you. Did I tell you I hated algebra? Anyway, Art got this equation from a friend and it was misleading because it didn't have the parentheses. I added it for you.

Technically, Art says you're supposed to do the multiplication or division first and then the addition or subtraction so you don't need the parentheses.

Well...

Like I said. I hate algebra.

Did you figure it out?

I'll give you the answer later.

Halloween Fun

It's definitely a quieter Halloween this year. Well... actually, we haven't been getting many trick or treaters in recent years. I'm sure coronavirus will definitely dampen the occasion this year.

However, we did see this outside a neighbor's yard during one of our early morning walks a couple weeks ago. I didn't know what it was at first and had to go in for a closer look.

And yes, it did make me laugh.

POSTSCRIPT 1: We were doing our morning walk on Monday and was surprised to see this.

I should go find some candy and stick it on his hand. 😂

POSTSCRIPT 2: On Wednesday, there was another change!

I can't wait to go walking tomorrow morning to see what other surprises await us.

Peculiar Priceless Plant Pot

 Art and I go for early morning walks before the sun rises and we often see things that make us stop and take a second look. This sight catches our eye every time now.

You have to admit that someone with a real sense of humor lives in this house.

Bone Soup? Really?

OK, I've said it before that I'm a lazy cook. I also try to leave cooking to mom and Art. Why Art? His parents owned the Sweet Shoppe on the Big Island. It was a mom and pop operation. When Art and I got married, so many people came up to me and commented how my new mother-in-law was the best cook/baker on the Big Island. This was rather daunting. I only knew how to make 5 dishes because I shared an apartment with three other girls in college and we were all in charge of cooking dinners for one week in the month.

But I digress.

Anyway, I'm just saying Art watched his mom and he does cook/bake. He used to cook for me before we married. I didn't cook for him which was probably a good thing.

I remember getting a lot of cookbooks from my girlfriends as wedding and shower gifts.

All this is a prelude to something I discovered which you all already probably know.

You can make bone soup which is quite tasty. 

During these coronavirus lock down days, I'm always trying to find a way to stretch our food so we don't have to think about what to have for dinner or need to go grocery shopping. We buy rotisserie chicken from Sam's Club or Costco, cut them up and store them in the freezer. I have a good friend I've often passed down the chicken bones to because she makes jook (Chinese porridge) with them.

This time, I thought I'd try cooking the bones myself for about 2-3 hours in water.

Maybe I added too much water. Anyway, I ended up with a lot of broth which I froze. I used the big one to make soup right away.

And what do you know...

It was quite tasty. There was a lot of flavor. I didn't even add chicken to it. I just added vegetables and a little of Sam's Club Tone chicken base.

I'm really sold. I'm going to do this again. Have you done this too?

A Bevy of Bougainvillea

Since I'm pretty much stuck at home or in the neighborhood, I have to keep hoping for something interesting to catch my eye during my short forays near neighbor homes so I have a topic to blog about.

So today it's bougainvilleas. Gosh! That's hard to spell.

I've always noticed that there's a vast array of bougainvillea colors in Hawaii. I decided to try and see how many different types I could find. 

Here's the common fuschia color, but it's got more petals so it's some kind of hybrid.

Then there's this white one. The petals are a little bigger and pointier. Hmmm... the leaves are pointier too.

The shape of the petals and leaves are pretty common, but the flowers are redder.

OK... Here's the one we usually see. 

And this one has variegated leaves.

I was looking up the spelling of bougainvillea online and saw this. I don't think I've seen this orange color in Hawaii. Then again, maybe if I walk a little farther a neighbor might have one.

But my all time favorite bougainvillea color?

My cellphone couldn't quite capture the color perfectly because I was taking it in twilight.

The pinkish white color reminded me so much of cherry blossoms.

Perhaps it's just making me long for the times when we traveled to Japan in spring to see the gorgeous cherry blossoms in bloom.

Someday...

What Would You Do?

We'd just arrived at the Open (farmers) Market when a jogger passed by us about 6:30 in the morning. He called out asking if we knew who the car (with keys and remote in the door handle) parked behind us belonged to. Art said he'd seen that car parked in the carport across the street another time.

The jogger walked across the street to the house, called out and banged on the window. We went to the Open Market and came back a half hour later to see that the car still had the key sticking out the door.

So what to do....

I went across the street, but there was so much stuff in the walkway leading to the house that I couldn't get to the door easily.

So I went to the neighbor's house and rang their doorbell. 

No one answered so I walked away figuring we would have to give up.

I felt bad about it since it's just asking to be stolen.

As I got back to our car, a couple called from the house I'd been at. I explained what the problem was with their neighbor's car and they were a tad bit exasperated but said they'd take care of it.

As I walked back to our car, the woman called out, "Thanks for waking us up." 

Oops!

I thought they were mad, but as I drove off they were both waving at us so I guess it's OK.

Was there something better I could have done? Sigh...

Chicken Attack!

Art and I go for walks early in the morning before the sun has not quite risen up very high off the horizon.

I've written a number of times about feral cats and chickens we have everywhere on Oahu. In fact, I just saw in the news last night that a number of our feral cats were being shipped to the mainland for new homes by some organization. The cats are a problem because they are a serious threat to our endangered Hawaii birdlife.

One birdlife that is not endangered is chickens. And somebody must be feeding them. On one occasion we were doing our morning walk when I looked up to see a large flock of chickens wandering around a playground.

I didn't take a photo of them then because I was startled when they suddenly came charging my way in breakneck speed. Seriously. Don't laugh because if a swarm of hummingbirds came swooping after you, I'm sure you'd be unnerved too.

When they finally got too close I yelled, “Yiiiikes!”  and they enmass turned around and scattered the other way. It was hilarious and we burst out laughing.

There's not as many chickens now or maybe we came at a different time.

I was ready to take a photo of them if they ever came after me again, but there was only a half dozen of them this time.

Hmmm...

Is it the cats?

And now that the feral cats are being shipped off, would the chicken population explode again?

And will they come after me again?

A Truly Unusual Puzzle!

Our daughter has sent Art several Ravensburger puzzles which are very well made that Art has enjoyed putting together. 

They are all about 1,000 or more pieces and keep him quite occupied.

And then our son decided to also send him some puzzles.

We were stymied by this. How would a sphere hold together?  

The pieces were numbered on the inside so it wasn't tooooo difficult to contruct.

And here it is! The pieces were plastic and held together well. I wondered how he would press in that last piece and not have it collapse. By golly! It fit right in.

This is so unusual that Art decided to display it in our china cabinet.

Ummm...

Our son didn't stop there.

Here's the other puzzle he sent! 

Good gosh! 3,000 pieces? That should take him into 2021.

Brown Thumb

 We went out for our early morning walk and saw this weed which looked like a stalk of sugar cane growing right out of a sign.

I mean seriously.....?

I have such a brown thumb that I can kill plants just by staring at them even though they’re planted in the garden, watered and given lovely sunshine.

And yet here are plants growing out of the storm drains, and now even on top of signs. I also see plants growing out of gutters, roofs and all kinds of weird places in Hawaii.

Maybe they thrive better with benign neglect or just plain neglect.

I should go out and get a pipe, stick it in the ground and see what grows.

Or I can just leave all the gardening to mom.

What is QAnon? Did You Know?

I've heard about QAnon in the news and knew it was some sort of conspiracy group with ties to domestic terrorism. Then I saw the following on the Skimm which is a free daily newsletter you can have sent to your email. I saw the two women who write the Skimm posts on Trevor Noah so I signed up for it. 

"QAnon. It's a far-right conspiracy-theory group that emerged on Internet message boards shortly after President Trump was elected. The group believes (with zero basis) that Democrats, celebrities, and other high-profile figures are part of a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles. And that they run a global child sex-trafficking ring. Among the accused: Hillary Clinton, Tom Hanks, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey, and many more. QAnon supporters also believe Trump is waging a war against this cabal, also referred to as the "Deep State."

Where is this even coming from?

It all started when an anonymous user – known only by the name of "Q" – posted cryptic messages on 4chan (a now-destroyed message board) alleging the existence of this cabal. Q claimed to be a high-ranking government official with a "Q clearance" access to top-secret information. And things spiraled out of control. QAnon supporters now believe in an array of unproven theories: that Bill Gates is using the coronavirus so he can inject people with a microchip hidden in a vaccine, that the cabal is made up of Democrats who drink children's blood, and that they all will be arrested and punished during an event called "The Storm" – led by Trump.

Nobody believes this, right?

Um, you'd think so. But during the pandemic, their baseless content has exploded online. In just the last four months, membership to QAnon groups on Facebook reportedly rose 700% (they now have millions of members). And it's not just happening online. Some QAnon believers have shown up at Trump rallies, donning Q merch. But they're not always harmless. Some have been linked to violent incidents, like "pizzagate" in 2016 (which some believe was the precursor to QAnon) as well as things like trespassing, armed standoffs, and even murder. Despite all this, they're also getting some high-profile support.

From whom?

Some estimates say over a dozen 2020 candidates are QAnon believers. That includes Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. In August, she won the primary runoff for Georgia's 14th Congressional District, and is likely to win in November. The president congratulated Greene on her primary win, and has also praised the theory's supporters. Yesterday, NBC's Savannah Guthrie pressed Trump on sharing conspiracy theories linked to the group on Twitter "like someone's crazy uncle." But he defended his retweets and refused to denounce the group. The FBI, on the other hand, says QAnon poses a potential domestic terrorism threat. And after years of leaving QAnon largely unchecked on their platforms, social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and now YouTube want to put an end to its fake news."

And there are a shocking number of people who are believing this?!? How can this be? 

I got this on CNN: 

"NBC Town Hall moderator Savannah Guthrie asked Trump if he would "disavow QAnon in its entirety." Instead, Trump falsely said "I know nothing about QAnon," adding, "I do know they are very much against pedophilia."

And I got this from BBC News:

“At its heart, QAnon is a wide-ranging, unfounded conspiracy theory that says that President Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.”

Just as Trump would not disavow White Supremacists, he won't condemn QAnon either.

This is so darn scary! What the heck is going on in our country?

POSTSCRIPT:

Did you hear that Trump was in Michigan at a rally and got his supporters to chant "Lock Her Up!" referring to Governor Whitmer? She is the governor another militant militia group was planning to kidnap but got foiled by the FBI. They were angry because of her mask mandate. Trump was encouraging people at his rally to demand she open up their state despite the fact their COVID numbers were reflecting a surge in cases.

I'm standing here just shaking my head in frustration.

Repurposed Toothbrush

There is one cleaning job I've never enjoyed and often overlooked (on purpose perhaps). It's cleaning the sink drain. I don't know about the rest of the country but in Hawaii that drain with the rubber under my sink screen gets really, really yucky.

I would (sort of) often put on rubber gloves, get the bleach cleaner and a paper towel to wipe off the build up of slimy sludge. Darn! I wish I'd taken a photo of the sludge. You will have to use your imagination.

Anyway, one day I looked at the toothbrush I use to clean hard to reach crevices on my pots and pans and had an idea.

I got another old toothbrush and used it to clean out the drain. It did a great job on that black rubber collar (What is that for anyway?)  as well as the screw like channels on the other sink. (And why are there channels for screwing something in?)

Anyway, it worked like a dream! I didn't have to touch anything with my hands. I just cleaned the crevices with the toothbrush and stuck the toothbrush in the dishwasher. 

How awesome is that? 

Envy vs. Fuji?

When the world was different.... when I could still go to Zumba and Tai Chi and restaurants and movies and... never mind....

My Zumba friends used to tell me that they loved Envy apples the BEST. My granddaughter, on the other hand prefers Fuji above everything else. We've always liked Fuji also, especially since it's often on sale at the commissary.

However, recently we saw the Envy apples on sale and decided to finally try them. OH MY GOSH! Crisp! Super crisp and sweet! 

They're still expensive though so I'll wait for another sale before buying them again. I do miss getting advice from friends at Zumba. I miss getting my exercise painlessly at Zumba. I miss being around a lot of people and not worrying. Sigh...

Anyway...

Do you have a favorite apple?

Something Probably Bad and Unhealthy

We were at Sam's Club to pick up some fresh blueberries that we love to have with our morning oatmeal or cereal, as well as tofu and kimchee.

We passed through the snack aisle and heard someone say, "Oh wow! They have it again." When we turned around, a happy, excited woman said, "They haven't had this in forever and my friends and family love it!" And she picked up 4 of the big bags which took up a lot of room in her cart.

Hmmmm....

What to do... Art picked up a bag and looked at the ingredients. "It's not healthy," he cautioned.

I looked at him. He couldn't see my smile (I’m wearing a mask), but he rolled his eyes and put one (just one) in our cart.

At the self check-out, the attendant saw our bag and laughed. She said it was really popular and that nurses were the ones who bought a lot of it. Nurses? She went on to say it was a bit too sweet for her. She prefered salty chips.

No, it's not made of turtles. It's corn. When I looked it up online, I discovered that the name comes from the shape and it's a Korean product!

We tried it with our lunch sandwiches. They are extremely light and airy. And yes, a bit on the sweet side. Art says they taste like sweet corn from a can. 

It's addictive. 

Very addictive.

Don't buy it.

And the fresh blueberries we came for? Dang! They didn't have any.

AMAZON Scam

I just received a video warning from my friend, Ron about a recent Amazon scam. I'm sorry but I can't load that video because it's an MP4 file attachment.

It shows a reporter from Money Business. Trouble is, when I looked online I can't find any website for Money Business. Still, it's a good warning anyway and worth being aware of.

The reporter said there's a scam going on making you think you are getting an update from Amazon. Yes, we do get updates that something we ordered is being mailed to us. Apparently, these fraudulent emails look very authentic. 

This fake Amazon update states that a recent order cannot be shipped because it needs to have confirmation. There's a button to click which sends you to another authentic looking Amazon site asking for your name, address and credit card information. And then... it sends you later to an actual Amazon website.

I try not to open strange attachments and links since I've caught a cyber virus or 2 that my son-in-law had to fix. In fact, that's why I had to put up a sign on my computer monitor. My children and son-in-law warn me constantly.

It's just that sometimes my fingers react automatically and doesn't give my brain enough time to register the caution.

I looked up whether Amazon has these problems and got the information below. So yes, it's something you really need to be careful about. 

If you ever get this sort of email, they advise you to go straight to the Amazon website yourself and check your account orders.

These COVID-19 days are really spawning a bunch of scary, nasty scammers since they know we are vulnerable. Please be careful.

POSTSCRIPT 1: 

Uuuuummm... I'd sent that MP4 video to my daughter as well and she sent me this reply.

"What was that link about? I don't click on strange links. You shouldn't either." 

Oops..........

POSTSCRIPT 2: 

I just got another text from my daughter.

"Do you not have a note on your computer about opening attachments?"

Double oops.....

Yay! My Ballot is Confirmed!

 We got our ballots and mailed them in right away last week.

Then I remembered Doug of Apache Dug's Teepee saying that he was able to get an update on his ballot which confirmed that it had been received.

I was never worried about this before. Mail-In ballots have been available for a while in Hawaii so I assumed they had it under control.

Still, Art said I have a signature that is sometimes not consistent so it got me worried. It wasn't that easy to find the right website to check the status of my ballot. However, I found the information I needed on KITV's website. 

Here's a link for anybody in Hawaii to find out if your ballot has been received.

https://ballotstatus.hawaii.gov/Default

I believe all the states are supposed to have something like this.

Yay!

I'll be counted!

Thank goodness!

We Voted!

We could hardly wait to vote this year. I don't think we've ever felt the urgency to vote as we do this year. 

I won't go into all the particulars of why except that we have a president who seems to think listening to experts is bad unless they're willing to agree with him and doesn't care that encouraging his supporters to not wear masks have caused the virus to make the U.S. have the most COVID infections and the most COVID deaths in the world. Then there's his reluctance to condemn white supremacist groups... and on and on and on....

So yes, when those ballots arrived we treated them like super precious documents.

 

The FIRST thing I did was to sign the outside envelope. There's been a lot of warnings about how your ballot won't be counted if that all important signature is not there on the mailing envelope and your ballot placed in the secrecy sleeve.

Art wondered who these other candidates were. We hadn't even heard of other candidates running for president.

(I’ve just been informed by my son that it’s the Constitution Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party and a Bitcoin billionaire running as an Independent.  Now we all know.)

But do you know who was really, really anxious to vote?

When I told her the ballots were ready for her, she jumped right up and dropped everything to sit at the table and vote. 

She's been watching the Japanese news daily and is so disgusted with Trump that she couldn't wait to vote and be counted.

She says Trump has made our country a laughing stock and alienated our allies and is trying to be a dictator. 

I told her, "I know. I know." 

Fingers crossed that we can get some sanity back after November 3rd... or maybe middle of November. 

Early Christmas?

We were at Sam's Club two weeks ago. We have a real weakness for fresh blueberries with our cereal and oatmeal in the mornings. I've also been making a bunch of blueberry muffins with the King Arthur's department store recipe and sharing the muffins with family, neighbors and friends. This is the best recipe I've found yet. I don't apply that sugary topping though. I also never eat these muffins since I'm watching my carbs, but everybody has told me they really like it. Then again, would they say anything different since I know they wouldn't want to hurt my feelings? 

Anyway.... I digress.

I just wanted to show you what I saw at Sam's Club.

Can you believe it? It's not even Thanksgiving. It's not even Halloween! Good gracious! I can't even imagine what Christmas will be like this year. Will we even go out to shop for presents? 

What will the country be like in December? Sigh....

We got our mail-in ballots! Yay! We filled them out and will bring them to the post office to make sure they get sent.

Fun and Reassurance With an Oximeter

 Art read a while ago that a pulse oximeter costing about $10 could possibly give you an early warning if you've contracted COVID-19.

I got this from the npr website:

"...A pulse oximeter is a small electronic device that estimates the saturation of oxygen in your blood. You want a number in the 95% to 100% range. If the number drops to 92% or lower, that's a cause for concern. That's generally the level where a doctor might put you on supplementary oxygen and keep you in the hospital for observation..."

Therefore, our daughter, Tiffany sent him an oximeter. We chart our readings every so often. It just gives us a little reassurance that we're doing OK. Ever competitive, Art will ask what I have. I will purposely breathe heavily (while laughing) before putting it on my finger to hopefully give me a higher reading than his.

I've heard recently that there was a case here in Hawaii where a woman used the oximeter to discover her mother had low oxygen levels and got her to the ER quickly which enabled her to survive the infection.

Art mentioned this to his sister, but the demand was suddenly so high for oximeters that they weren't able to get the same one we'd gotten on Amazon. That was a surprise. I looked it up on Walmart and there's a whole slew of them. 

I don't know how necessary this is... buuuut... it's just nice to have. 

POSTSCRIPT: I wrote that the oximeter could cost as cheap as $10 because that's what I've read in articles before.

However, I just got a comment from Linda, my favorite nurse consultant that a $10 oximeter probably wouldn't be as trustworthy. That got me wondering so I asked my daughter if she could tell me how much that oximeter she gave Art cost.

So no....

It's not $10. 

I looked up other oximeters and they come in so many different price ranges. 

I guess you should research what would fit in your budget and what the reviews are.

Thank you for your advice, Linda.

I'll test mom before our conference call with her doctor.

Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bars

A couple months or so ago, we went for our approximately once a month visit to Costco during their senior hour. 

That's when I spotted this in the freezer section. I was looking for ice cream bars that mom loves, but they didn't have it.

Instead, they had these Mickey Mouse bars. There were 15 bars for $6.97.

That's awfully cheap.

Too cheap.

I didn't trust it, but I bought one box so we could see if mom liked it.

Oh, she liked it all right.

I told my daughter in Illinois about it and she texted me this photo from their Target. That's $8.69 for 6 bars!

Soooo.... the good friend I am, I texted the information to my friends nearby.

One friend bought two boxes.

The next friend who went to Costco said there were no more Mickey Mouse bars in the freezer section. She sent me a video though that showed how one slightly bigger bar at Disney World costs $5.75.

Sure enough... next time we went to Costco, there were no Mickey Mouse bars available.

Oh well...

We bought a watermelon instead.