No Tofu?

Art saw an article in the paper that advised against soy products if you are taking Synthroid or Levothyroxine.

What? No soymilk? No tofu? Seriously? No walnuts?

I do know you're not supposed to take it with calcium. I got this from WebMD.

Certain medications (such as cholestyramine, colestipol, colesevelam, antacids, sucralfate, simethicone, iron, sodium polystyrene sulfonate, calcium supplements, orlistat, sevelamer, among others) can decrease the amount of thyroid hormone that is absorbed by your body. If you are taking any of these drugs, separate them from this medication by at least 4 hours.

According to the newspaper article, I was also to avoid tofu and soymilk because they often prevent the absorption of the drug. I've been on Levothyroxine for about 9 years. My blood has been checked 3 times a year to make sure the levels are where they should be.

Now what? Well, I guess I'll wait for my next appointment in a month or two and ask the doctor. Or maybe the pharmacist would be better.

Do you know what all your drug interactions are? There's so much that doctors don't tell you that you have to research on your own.

Fine Print on Restaurant Gift Certificates

We recently took mom out to one of her favorite restaurants so we could use the gift certificate that my brother and sister-in-law had given her for her birthday.

However, when it came time to pay for it, the waitress told us that the bill was for $43 dollars and if we used the certificate, there would be no change.

It was a one-time-use gift certificate. That was a surprise. She showed us the fine print that indeed validated that it was the case. So we paid for the meal with a credit card and told mom we would use the gift certificate with our daughter and her family when they visited us this summer.

Mom will probably have to order dessert to use up all of the certificate. She's going to love that!

This Christmas, our very generous nephew and his wife also gave us a restaurant gift certificate to a pricey restaurant, but he warned us that it was a one time use situation as well. Since we were apprised of that ahead of time, we knew how we could use it which made it a lot easier to plan for.

I wonder why these restaurants don't do gift cards. It would make it so much easier to use.

Have You Heard of moviepass.com?

We were out to dinner with friends one evening and they mentioned something called moviepass.com.

You can see one movie a day for the whole month for $10. However, they advertise a limited time offer now for $7.95. That's $105.35 for the whole year because of the $9.95 processing fee.

There are advantages and drawbacks. You should really click on this link to Variety to check out what they are.

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/moviepass-explainer-advantages-drawbacks-pros-cons-1202528720/

This company is growing so quickly that one of the drawbacks is that it could take time to get your card. You also need your own CELLPHONE because your moviepass card is connected to your smartphone.

This Business Insider website explains how it's all done:

http://www.businessinsider.com/moviepass-faq-2017-8

I was really, really tempted and told Art we should do it. Granted, for the both of us, it would be $210.70. We could see a movie everyday!

Art was skeptical whether this is something we'd want to do. We go to see movies every 2 months or so and it's usually on a Tuesday when it's only $6.

I mentioned it to my son-in-law and daughter and he wrote back saying I'd have to make sure we go to see a movie at least 15 times to make it worth our while. Hmmm....

OK... OK...

Never mind.

Disposing of Unwanted or Expired Drugs

I read somewhere that you shouldn't ever flush expired or unwanted drugs down the toilet, especially drugs like antibiotics, etc. because they can and has gotten into our water supply and ocean.

We've brought medicines or drugs to drop-off stations when they announce it, but I wondered if we could just throw them in the trash since HECO (Hawaiian Electric Company) is supposed to burn trash for energy.

I looked online and couldn't find an answer for Hawaii. I discovered that there are places in the other 49 states.

I finally decided to contact the office of the Attorney General. Angela got back to me right away.

Aloha Kay,

You can contact the State of Hawaii Narcotics Enforcement Division (NED) to dispose of your expired or unneeded medications.  Their phone number is (808) 837-8484.  Also, on Saturday, April 28 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. is the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) National Take Back Initiative.  Some of the locations are the Kahala and Windward Malls, Town Center of Mililani, Pearl City Police Station, Pearl Harbor NEX, Hawaii State Capitol.  For more information you can visit dea.gov or https://ag.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/NTBI-Flyer-2018-APR.jpg Hope this helps! 

Mahalo,

Angela Kaiwikuamoohoihou
Community & Crime Prevention Specialist
Department of the Attorney General

After I got Angela's email, I was surprised to get a phone call from her supervisor who was away on travel. She wanted to double check to make sure I got the information I needed.

The supervisor said that drugs and medicines should never ever be flushed down the toilet. I asked about HECO and she said that not all trash is burned by HECO. Some of it is buried in landfills where chemicals could potentially leach into our ground water.

OK... I'll be looking through my drawers and travel supplies to be ready for the National Prescription Drug Take Back day on April 28th.

Annual Kunia Orchid Show

It was time again for the Kunia Orchid Show on a very rainy, soggy Saturday. Mom loves orchids although she's given up raising a lot of them. She keeps a few and the bulbuls have taken pity on her and not bitten the buds off for a while.

Going to the annual orchid show is a truly special time for mom. She absolutely LOVES seeing all the new varieties that show up every year.

The orchid show is set up at Leilehua High School gym. We'd been given free tickets by one of my Zumba friends, but we gave a donation anyway. Door prize tickets were given out at the entrance.

A dizzying array of orchids of every kind greeted us and we didn't know where to start.

 There was a wonderful display of flower arrangements. It was surprising to see that a couple of the arrangements had cherry blossoms. Since the season is over in Hawaii I can't imagine where they got the blossoms. I took a close up photo to show they are indeed real blossoms!

Mom loved every minute and was constantly telling us what we should photograph.

We couldn't quite figure out why the plant on the left was so unusual. We loved the very, very teeny orchids on the right.

 Isn't this bottom asymmetrical purple orchid weird? 

The cascading orchids were fun to see.

This bottom one had unusual coloring.

The Floating Jelly-Fish were just sea urchin shells with tallansia air plants growing out of the bottom. I thought that was a rather clever idea. The Chinese Lantern plants were pretty too.

It was very difficult to choose which orchids to feature on this post.

Door prize numbers were called out during the orchid show.

Can you believe we won this $20 orchid plant? It's a coelogyne pandurata orchid. We were surprised that it was actually an orchid. The leaves looked more palm like.

It was still raining when we left the high school. A short jaunt to Shige's Saimin Restaurant where mom could have her favorite wun tun min made for a very perfect Saturday outing.

The Life of a GAR Rose

When we participated in the Great Aloha Run (GAR) last month, Art was able to get a couple of roses from Watanabe Florist who passes them out every year during the walk.

Art took an extra rose for Al who was walking with us so he could give it to his wife.

One rose was in excellent shape, but the other one (wrapped in cellophane) had brown edges and looked like it had been battered a bit. Art propped the roses in his backpack and I told him to be sure to give Al the fresher rose at the end of the race.

When we brought the rose home, I decided to just peel off four of the brown petals to see what would happen. The following morning, I was thrilled to see the rose was still alive though the outer petals had brown creases in them. I cut the stem a little and put it back into fresh water.

On the second day, the rose unfurled its petals even more. It was beautiful. I cut the end again and changed the water.

On the third day, I plucked a few more petals off and added a little of the florist fertilizer that I happened to have from a few months ago when I changed the water again. And I did cut another sliver off the stem.

I wanted to see how long I could keep this rose alive. (It's amazing what retired people who blog will do for a post.)

OK... This is Day #4 and Day #5.

The rose still looked really lovely on Day #4. However, on Day #5 the middle bud had stopped unfurling. I decided to remove more of the lower petals to see if it would provide more energy for the rest of the bud to bloom. I'd been noticing that there was some kind of glitch in that bud that was now evident. I wondered if that deformity was preventing it from blooming all the way.

We shall see on Day #6.

Looks like 6 days is it. However, I wasn't giving up yet. Granted, the inner bud isn't unfurling much anymore and the outer petals were soft so I plucked them off again.

The stem was slimy even though I've changed the water every day so it looks like the rose is approaching the end of its life span. I'm not going to euthanize it yet though. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

At this point, mom was wondering what the heck I was up to. She reminded me that the rose was really quite dead.

However, on Day #7 I thought I would give it just one more day.

OK, OK... On Day #8, the rose looked almost like a dried flower. I know I could have hung it upside down and turned it into a real dried flower, but then mom would have really wondered about my sanity.

Instead, I did an autopsy. You can see there were still petals that could have unfurled. Unfortunately, I was not a good enough flower doctor. Sigh...

Ah well... I did keep it alive as long as I could.

Where Germs Lurk When You Travel

Yes, Art and I do travel. When you live in Hawaii and your children live on the East coast and Midwest, you must travel to see them as well as your grandchildren.

Getting on the airplane is not something I look forward to. Those long flight times in a space that gets more and more cramped every time is no fun.

Then there's those germs that are supposed to be lurking in secret corners. Since I'd rather not get sick, I bring antibacterial wipes and lotion with me.

Art thinks I'm rather fanatic about it so I was beginning to relax my guard a bit. But then he showed me this AARP article.

They gave a link to Insurance Quotes, an article called Germs at the Airport.

I was surprised to see that the self-help ticketing kiosks contained the HIGHEST germ count of any surface tested. It had 253,857 CPUs (colony-forming units).

Then they gave other results.

Toilet flush handles: 95,145 CPUs
Airport Bench armrests: 21,630 CPUs
Drinking fountains: 19,181 CPUs
Seat-back trays: 11,595 CPUs
Seat belt buckles: 1,116

Another study in 2015 said seat-back trays had the most germs on airplanes and drinking fountains at the airports.

On our last flight to Maryland, I did wipe down our tray tables and armrests on the airplane. I avoided touching toilet door handles going out and always washed my hands after touching the toilet flush handles.

However on both legs of our journey to Chicago for the stop over and on to Maryland, I sat next to two people who were coughing and feverish. Somehow, I managed not to get sick. I'm still marveling at that.

A friend told me that they went to Vegas and her husband wore a mask while she didn't. And yet, they both caught the flu.

You just never know.

What the Heck is BB Cream?

I don't wear full make-up with foundation, concealers, powder and I don't know what else there is. The bottom line is that I'm too lazy. I do use Oil of Olay moisturizer with sunscreen during the day. If I'm going to be in full sun for a long length of time, I'll use Neutrogena sunscreen even though it's reputed to be one you should avoid. I just don't use the SPF 70. Mine is SPF 55 so MAYBE it's OK. Who knows?

Anyway....

I've been hearing about BB creams. I didn't know what it was but it sounded like something good from what friends were saying.

The other day my very good friend gave me a sample from a tube of Missha BB cream (SPF 42) that she had, so I tried it. As she warned, it would go on light, but would then blend into my skin after a while. When I showed my daughter on Skype, she said it looked a little gray, but I think it was OK later.

Then I noticed that the small bottle of sunscreen Art bought me in South Korea about a year ago is also a BB cream. I decided to look up what BB cream was.

Here's what I got from the Elle website:

"BB creams are nothing new, but what is BB cream really? According to dermatologist Sung-Jae Jung, MD, founder of BB staple Dr. Jart+, a beauty or blemish balm (BB) "moisturizes, protects, and corrects," consolidating your skin-perfecting products into one product."

OK.... now I know.

I asked Art if he could tell I had the BB cream on. He stared at me, made a face and said, "It looks like you have some kind of make-up on that your friends wear."

"So is it better than usual?" I persisted.

"Ummm... have to go." he said as he started backing away.

"Do you think I should use this?" I nearly yanked his arm.

At this point, he started brushing his teeth furiously, pointed at his mouth and shook his head to indicate he couldn't talk.

Do you see me rolling my eyes?

Artistic Grandchildren

I love seeing my granddaughter, KC's picture on my wall. I've replaced her drawings with a new one whenever she comes to Hawaii.

She did this drawing in summer of 2016 (when she was 9 years old) illustrating how she and her parents were enjoying the beach. Unfortunately, you'd need to blow it up to a humongous size to see that she'd drawn spam musubi under the umbrella along with her mom taking a photo of her and her dad on boogie boards.

When we were in Maryland in December we had 2 year old, JD draw a picture also.

Of course, that meant hanging them on the wall here in Hawaii. Hanging pictures is not something Art loves to do, but it turned out just fine.

We now have two frames up. JD's picture is on the right and some day, when his brother is older, we'll put his drawing in the other frame.

Hmmm... KC is coming this summer. It'll be fun to see what she draws this time.

Keiki Swap Meet.

We've gone to the Hawaii Children's Discovery Center Keiki Swap Meet in Kakaako for several years now and had a great time. Children are out on the park selling their old clothes and toys so we never bargain and there's no need to. Almost everything is truly out to be sold.

This year, my friend, Diane joined us since her husband was busy. They have several granddaughters and the swap meet really is a great place to find things for little girls. Girls don't seem to wear out their clothes and toys as quickly as boys do. I know that's a stereotype, but well... that's what it seems like.

Diane did find a lot of wonderful toys and clothes for her girls. But, no, I did not go away empty handed although Art kept telling me I shouldn't overdo the cars and trucks for our grandsons.

I found a cute Pandamania t-shirt for my granddaughter and some Kumon Japanese books for my 11 month old grandniece who probably won't be able to learn from them for several years. It even came with a DVD.

And yes, I did get some cars and trucks for my grandsons, but these were extra cute with movable parts and noise. Hmmmm... Did my son say I should sort of tone down the noise toys?

Ah well, the puzzle map is quiet.... and educational.

Ummmm.... the bag of marbles? Would you believe Art bought them for himself? 

Prisms for Art

We returned from Maryland last December with a floater in my right eye and Art's double vision. What the heck is going on?

There's no cure for my floater and I just have to live with it.

Art has had double vision before, but they've been temporary and he'd get back to normal. For the last two and a half months, he's had double vision consistently when looking into the distance. His near vision is fine. He's often been driving with one eye closed.

I finally made an appointment for him with our optometrist who said he really needed to try prisms.

We went to Optical Supplies, Inc. in Halawa who fitted one of his eyeglass lens with a temporary plastic prism. He's supposed to try the prism for a month or two to see if it's the right type.

Art was absolutely amazed. We were worried the prism would affect his near vision, but it doesn't. It only corrects his distance vision so he can just see one stop light instead of two.

You can feel the slats of the prism though you can't easily see it. It's truly magical!

In a month, he'll buy a new pair of glasses with permanent prisms in them. What a relief that there was a cure for his condition.

POSTSCRIPT:  Also... much as we love our optometrist, the prism glasses were half the cost at Costco where Art also bought a pair of prism sunglasses for driving, all for what would have been the cost of the one pair that was quoted.

Pi Day or White Day

Art loves wearing this t-shirt on March 14th that our daughter gave him because it's Pi Day and it also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday.

I got this from Wikipedia to explain what it's all about:

"Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in the month/day format) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π when represented in base-ten. In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day."

Actually, to be honest... I celebrate it just because I get an excuse to have some pie. Art was kind enough to get me a chocolate haupia pie from Ted's Bakery. No, we didn't eat the whole thing. We shared some with our neighbor. He would have preferred a blueberry pie.

I wrote to my family about it and got this text from my nephew's wife who lived in Japan for many years.

"What is more unique in Japan is that there exists a “White Day” which takes place on March 14th, exactly one month after Valentine’s Day. On White Day men are supposed to return gifts to women who gifted them chocolates on Valentine’s Day. More often the color of the chocolate is white because of the name of the day. Flowers, candies and other gifts are also popular along with the chocolates. Department stores have many advanced reminders with gift displays so men will have no excuse to forget about this special day which is important for women."

 I'm finding it a little backward that on February 14th, Valentine's Day in Japan, it's the women who are expected to give men the chocolates.

Hmmm... I'm thinking not all men are finding this reciprocal custom disagreeable. However, I do remember one of my cousins in Japan complaining that the men in her office were expecting far too extravagant gifts on Valentine's Day from their female counterparts. I can see her point since Japanese women are not paid equitably in Japan.  Hmmm... then again, it's the same problem in the U.S.

Sooo... what is your favorite pie? And did you get some yesterday?

Tennessee Lynching Mural

Did you hear about the controversial mural at North Cumberland Elementary School in Tennessee?

The mural depicts a white boy in blue hanging from a tree by a rope or strap of some kind while another fellow in red holding a confederate flag looks on. David Clark who is a janitor in a nearby school saw it and lodged a complaint with the school board who did nothing.

He then went to the superintendent who said it would be changed in February, but it didn't happen either.

Mr. Clark, who belongs to an anti-racist organization called Shelbyville Loves put it on Facebook and added the phone numbers of school officials. In 24 hours he had 500 comments and 200 shares. Later that day, the confederate flag was painted over and the lynching was taken off.

There was some opposition to its removal. Some people felt it was merely a poster about rivalry between schools. Some felt it was unpatriotic to take it down.

Others felt children didn't need to be exposed to these sort of images that recalled their racist past.

I'm reminded of the song from South Pacific, "You Have to be Carefully Taught."

You have to remember that racism is also sadly carefully taught.

The Shape of Water

Ever since Art saw a review in a magazine about The Shape of Water a few months ago, he'd been wanting to see it, but we never got around to going to the theater. As a matter of fact I do believe we only see a movie every two months, if we're lucky. So we ended up forgetting about it.

Then The Shape of Water won the Oscar for Best Picture and I decided we should go see it. I checked the movie listings and it was no longer showing at any of the theaters close by. We'd have to go clear across town and beyond or to the other side of the island... and on top of that they were older theaters. Art was really balking at traveling so far just to see a movie. He was figuring on waiting for it to come out in Redbox.

Since my classmate, Diane and I were walking that morning I asked her if she'd like to go. Diane said she'd go for the hot dog and popcorn. She doesn't usually enjoy going to the theater. I told her it was a "monster" movie which she enjoys so she was onboard. Her husband, Dave does love movies and was probably surprised that she agreed to go.

I knew the basic storyline... sort of... and I've read the mixed reviews that other bloggers have written.

To be honest, I still wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't even know it was R rated (and deservedly so).

As we entered the rather empty theater the ticket taker looked at our ticket, smiled knowingly at us and said, "Good luck."

Hmmmm.... what did that mean?

Well, the movie was still a surprise for me and it actually appealed to all of us. Dave likes vintage movies with musical numbers, Diane likes monster movies, I like fairy tale happy endings and Art likes science fiction. This movie had everything. It also threw in civil rights, workplace sexual harassment, homophobia, strong women, quite a bit of violence (I shut my eyes), ummm... nudity and all that comes with it, loneliness, hearing impairment, etc.

Anyway, the four of us walked out smiling and happy we'd gone to see it. Whether we think it should have won the Oscar for Best Picture, I don't know since I haven't seen the other movies.

Whatever the case, we enjoyed the popcorn and hotdogs for dinner.

It's good to just have fun sometimes.

And Then the Family Retirement Celebration!

I'd insisted a while ago that Art and I wanted to have a family celebration for my baby brother, Dennis who had retired after 33 years. This was decided before he'd been feted by the police station where he worked and a wonderful group of his close friends who also surprised him with a party.

We went to the Rinka restaurant since my nephew had given us a generous gift certificate to that restaurant for Christmas.

Rinka is a very authentic Japanese restaurant. Service was excellent and the ambience lovely. Notice this rock garden is created with rocks in the shape of the Hawaiian island chain.

We all enjoyed the food there and everyone had a great time.

We gave Dennis a retirement t-shirt and mug.

And then we discovered that my sister-in-law, Nancy had also given him a mug and several t-shirts. It's amazing that we didn't buy the same one.

Well... I must say, Dennis should consider himself thoroughly retired now.