Comparing Ice Cream Bars

I've always loved Milk Nickels, I mean ice cream bars. I must be showing my age. For those of you over 50 years of age, do you remember Milk Nickels?

There was recently a $3.00 off sale at Costco for Haagen Dazs bars and I just couldn't resist.

That's when it brought to mind Milk Nickels. Gosh! Were they really only a nickel?

OK... I'm digressing.

My post is about comparing Haagen-Dazs ice cream bars to the Costco Kirkland Signature ice cream bars. I'm so cheap that I only buy ice bars when it's on sale. When the Kirkland bars went on sale in April I bought a box for $8.99 (at $3.00 off, I think).

Then I bought Haagen Dazs  last week for $11.99 because it was also reduced by $3.00.

I almost always only buy the Kirkland bars since I can't tell the difference and mom can't either. On the other hand, Art still has taste buds working at optimum sensitivity. Never mind that he doesn't love Milk Nickels, I mean ice cream bars. (He says his favorite was Dreamsicles.)

So for the sake of a blog post, he agreed to do a taste test.

Aside from the fact that Haagen Dazs gives you only 15 bars compared to Kirkland's 18, we looked at the Nutrition Facts.

The Kirkland does have 30 mg. more cholesterol and 2 grams more of Total Fat. The Kirkland bar also was 1 gram bigger. Otherwise, not a whole lot different, I think.

Art tasted both. He took the Haagen Dazs and I had the Kirkland. I took 1 bite of his Haagen Dazs and couldn't tell the difference (of course). He took 3 or 4 bites of mine (just to be accurate) 😏 and said he couldn't tell the difference either.

What is your favorite kind of ice cream?

Racial Assumptions

My daughter, Tiffany went to donate blood again. I've been very impressed with how often she does this when her weight really hovers at or under 110 pounds which is the minimum weight they accept. 

I did write in March that she says she likes to do it because they tell her what her iron count is as well as if she has any COVID antibodies. They also check her temperature, blood pressure, pulse during the screening.

And of course, she knows there is a critical demand for blood donations right now.

She had an interesting interaction this time.

During the screening, the fellow asked her if she'd been out of the country.

Tif answered that she'd been to Japan a couple of years ago. 

The screener then asked her how her people felt about the Olympics. 

Tif said she had seen in the news that the Japanese were worried and not happy about having the Olympics during the pandemic. She also told him she was American born and raised to which the fellow said, "Ohhh... Your English is so good. You don't have an accent at all."

I asked Tif if this was an older person and she said he was actually quite young, and very nice. 

Tiffany wasn't offended by it. She's rather used to it because when she took the train to work several years ago, she'd run across people who assumed she was not American.

Art says he has to admit he was once guilty of a similar faux pas at work when he was talking to one of his staff whose last name was Chico. Art asked her if she could speak Spanish. When the woman said she couldn't speak it at all, Art was surprised. The woman laughed and said he shouldn't be that surprised because she knew he couldn't speak or understand Japanese either.

I guess that's why I felt it was important for me to teach at my Midwestern school because I think there was only one other Asian teacher there and she happened to be the ESL teacher. A parent of one of my early students assumed I had to be the ESL teacher as well. Eventually, I like to think I did correct some of the misconceptions people in that Midwestern community had before. 

Granted, I can speak a bit of Japanese. 

COVID Surge in Hawaii

There's been a scary surge of COVID-19 infections in Hawaii. Hawaii has had a huge influx of tourists coming here thinking it's very safe. Unfortunately, it's not.

We were worried that the surge in cases was from tourists, but it's not. 78% is from community spread. 20% is from residents returning from travel. I'm thinking Las Vegas. And it's just 2% from non-resident travel.

Sadly, only 60% of our residents are fully vaccinated. Yes, we have anti-vaxxers here too, sorry to say. Our Lt. Governor, Dr. Green is suggesting residents hunker down for 2 weeks. The delta variant which is twice as contagious is here also.  And I’d venture to say most seniors have some underlying conditions. Like the rest of the country, most of our seniors are vaccinated. The people ending up in hospitals now are not seniors.

We were at the Pearl Harbor commissary last week and saw about a third of the patrons NOT wearing masks. We couldn't believe it. The military was super strict until a couple of months ago. They wouldn't even let you bring your own bags in. And now here were people indoors walking around without masks. Granted, we noticed that most of those people did not appear to be locals.

I looked online to see what the policy was and saw this explanation.

I had to look up what JBPHH was. It's Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Art says the military is independent of the state mandates. 

For instance, Hawaii now has a ban against businesses giving out plastic bags or utensils. At the commissary, they still provide all the plastic bags you want. We were bringing our own reusable bags until the military forbade its use at the commissaries due to COVID. 

Whatever the case, it's making me a little nervous about going there now with this awful surge we're seeing as people have started to relax their guard thinking everything is fine and dandy.

It's not.

POSTSCRIPT: I wrote this post several days ago. Since that time, things have gotten even scarier. We had to go to the commissary yesterday and this time there were only a small handful of people not wearing masks.

Chopsticks and Pencils

It all started with mom watching a Japanese TV program on NHK. She said the Japanese were bemoaning their kids not writing properly. That got us talking about handwriting.

All this reminded me of my 1st grade teaching days in Illinois. When I first started teaching, a lot of academics was placed on the shoulders of the 1st grade teachers. 

I broached the kindergarten teachers about whether they might introduce students to learning how to write their alphabet letters and especially the correct way to hold a pencil. Kindergarten was thought to be developmental and socialization. 

I was told it was not part of their curriculum and they were too young to be taught skills that required higher level fine motor skills. (Just to let you know, times changed dramatically and my granddaughter was introduced to all of that in kindergarten many years later.)

Anyway, I asked the kindergarten teachers why Asian ESL (English as a Second Language) kids were coming in with beautiful handwriting already mastered as well as knowing the correct way to hold a pencil. 

They said it was because they were using chopsticks.

Well... at the time, it sounded like a rather prejudicial statement.

But you know what? I change my mind.

I was talking to Art and mentioned that it could very well be true. Chopsticks might be a connection and I showed him what I meant by holding up a pair of chopsticks.

"You're not holding it right," he said and showed me how he held his chopsticks. I told him he was wrong to which he said we needed to go to the person who uses chopsticks the most. 

"Fine," I said and asked mom to hold up the chopsticks.

Doggone it! She held it like Art using the thumb and index finger to hold up the top stick and using the middle finger to stabilize the bottom stick. 🙄

Do you think I gave up? Not by a long shot! I looked it up online.

There you have it! 

Now check out the comparison between holding that top chopstick and holding a pencil.

And just to be really sure about the correct way to hold a pencil, I found this Firesara website:

How to Hold a Pencil Correctly?

We have been noticing quite a few younger people at banks, stores, etc. who hold their pens in the most painful looking way. Sigh. Their 1st grade teacher must not have taught them.

Do you know that writing in print or cursive is no longer part of the curriculum? My granddaughter has a friend who can't even read cursive. They're saying that everything will be on computers so there's no need for it.

It's a brave, very new world.

Good News From My Son

My son recently texted me a New York Times article about walking. (I think he was trying to tell me something.)

"How Walking Can Build Up the Brain

The idea that adult brains can be malleable is a fairly recent finding, in scientific terms. Until the late 1990s, most researchers believed human brains were physically fixed and inflexible after early childhood. We were born, it was thought, with most of the brain cells we would ever have and could not make more. In this scenario, the structure and function of our brains would only decline with age.

But science advanced, thankfully, and revised that gloomy forecast. Complex studies using specialized dyes to identify newborn cells indicated that some parts of our brains create neurons deep into adulthood, a process known as neurogenesis. Follow-up studies then established that exercise amplifies neurogenesis. When rodents run, for example, they pump out three or four times as many new brain cells as inactive animals, while in people, beginning a program of regular exercise leads to greater brain volume. In essence, this research shows, our brains retain lifelong plasticity, changing as we do, including in response to how we exercise."

Unfortunately, our Zumba teacher moved away to Seattle so we don't have that class anymore which is a shame because that was a fun way to get our exercise. 

Our tai chi class is starting up again, but since the movements are slow, I don't think it would count as strenuous exercise. (It's outdoor in a park and we all have to be vaccinated so we do feel safe to be part of that again.)

We do have our regular hour long walk at the mall on Fridays with friends so that's something.

Art and I also try to walk in the mornings unless it rains.

But it rains a lot in the morning where I live.

Ah well.

I shall have to try harder because I can tell my brain is not operating at previous capacity.

Sigh...

Still this is hopeful news. We don't have to be resigned to having our brains deteriorate. We CAN do something about it.

Did I tell you mom goes on the treadmill everyday?

Police Encounters

The police have gotten a bad rap lately because of some bad apples on the force. My brother worked for the police department although he was not an officer. He worked more with investigations.

Most people don't encounter police very much unless they've been in an accident or needed their help. However, while living in Chicago, I did have African American friends tell me of their experiences which weren't always pleasant, needless to say.

I just thought I'd write about two experiences I've had.

The first time was when my brother and I were kids. We were playing in the sugar planation neighborhood where we were living and was walking around the yard of an unoccupied house. That's when we spotted a whole bunch of injection syringes and needles. Since my brother and I probably enjoyed seeing crime dramas on TV, we figured this had to be some nefarious drug dealings. I called the police department. We were awed when a uniformed police officer came and had us show him what we'd seen. He thought it could be someone who needed the needles to use for medication. I remember being sort of disappointed that it wasn't something more exciting.

Many years later, Art and I came out of the house one morning and saw tire tracks that dug into our front yard, indicating a car had clipped our chestnut tree and driven between our house and the neighbors. It then must have hit and damaged the neighbor's fence before driving out again. I thought.

I called the police department. Of course.

When the officer came, I wanted to be helpful so I told him it must have been a burglar trying to get away and deciding to hide between our houses in his car. 

Did he agree with me? I'd seen many more crime dramas by then so I figured I was better at being a detective now.

The officer followed the tire tracks and said it appeared more as though the vehicle must have come from across the street. He then went to our neighbor's house and saw that a note was left on their door apologizing for damaging their fence.

Apparently, the neighbor across the street had left his car in reverse and then went into his house to get something he forgot. 

His car then drove itself across the street, hit our tree and banged into the fence. 

Can you imagine? It could have hit either of our houses but it managed to squeeze into that space between them.

Whatever the case, I don't think I'll be helping the police with my investigative ability anymore.

The 2nd Life of an Octopus/Umbrella Tree

When we lived in Illinois, we loved our house plants. They were almost regarded as a member of the family. (OK, OK, maybe I'm exaggerating. This is just in case my kids are reading this. 🙄)

There was one colorful croton in 1994 that we gave Art for his 50th birthday that he (or was it Tiffany?) named Petey. We surprised him at work with the plant and a huge plateful of smiley face cookies to share with his staff at E.P.A.

One tree we've had for a long, long time was an Octopus/Umbrella/Schefflera tree. The official name is schefflera actinophylla.

I must have been partial to having it because it reminded me of Hawaii where it grows almost everywhere.

However, when we visited my daughter and her family early last year in Chicago, this is what it looked like.

For the life of me, I couldn't understand how it was able to stay upright and not crash to the floor.

There used to be three or four trunks but the others must have perished leaving just this one determined survivor.

The earliest photo I found of the schefflera was in 2000. Keola was about to leave for the Peace Corps. This was our master bedroom.

In 2005, I moved the plant to the other side of the bedroom and it's looking very healthy.

Looks like I moved the schefflera next to the ficus benjamina in the family room in 2007 and then to the living room in 2009.

However, by fall of 2020 the schefflera was in too much danger of falling over so Tiffany decided the poor plant had to go. 

As she was tossing the tree away, she decided to cut the top off on a whim and stick it back into the same pot (with the same dirt). It had been with us for almost 20 years and deserved a chance to continue its life.

Last week she thought there were weeds growing in the pot and was going to pull it out when she discovered that the schefflera was fighting back to life like a phoenix. My granddaughter and Tiffany sent these photos to me.

It made me smile.

POSTSCRIPT: 

Oops! Tiffany just read my post and said that she actually put the stalk in water for several months and waited for roots to start growing before planting them back in the dirt. She's an even better gardener than I gave her credit for. 💗

Baseball Fan?

Mom is glued to the TV now waiting to hear something else about the GREAT Shohei Ohtani. Apparently, Ohtani is from Iwate Prefecture, just north of Sendai where mom's sister and family lives. She knows next to nothing about baseball, but can't wait to hear something else about how many runs he's gotten or how many people he's struck out. 

Ohtani IS rather amazing because he is not only an amazing pitcher, but he's also a designated batter. The reason he is considered so valuable is because not many players are great at both. 

I saw him on 60 minutes and I like him because he is so very modest and darn cute.

So am I a baseball fan?

In 1975, my very good friend, Diane visited me in Chicago from Hawaii. 

Art and I had moved to Chicago the year before, so I was very grateful that she stopped by on the way home from a tour she was on to keep me company for a while.  

Art's cousin in Chicago knew the manager for the Cubs so (knowing Diane loved baseball at the time) got us front row seats, a real Cubs hat and a signed baseball from the players.

I knew next to nothing about the sport, but appreciated the honor. I was about 6 months pregnant at the time and sitting in the hot sun was not my cup of tea. It was about the 3rd inning and I remember asking Diane how long the game would last. She said 9 innings!  Sigh... And then they went into overtime!!!

Several years later, our son joined the Little League and played for four summers. Art was even the coach one year. I must tell you (not quite) modestly that my son was an excellent pitcher and his team even won the championship one year. I really knew baseball for those four years.

But now as Art talked about Ohtani and how valuable he was to the Los Angeles Angels team, he could see my eyes were crossed. He wanted me to understand something about the National League and the American League and why that was important. He used our water bottles to represent the two leagues and how one allowed designated hitters and the other didn't.

OK... never mind. 

Ohtani is awfully cute though. (Oh, did I already mention that?)  

Do Not Call List... AND How to Fix Your (Blogspot) Header Banner

We've been getting a ton of spam calls lately which were truly annoying. Then I remembered putting our phone numbers on the Federal Trade Commission's National Do Not Call Registry. They say you only have to do it once, BUT I figured I'd do it again. Here's the link.

https://www.donotcall.gov/register.html

This is what you'll see.

I clicked on Register Your Phone and registered our home and cellphones.

I then received an email telling me my numbers were now registered. I could swear I've done this before.

There was just one call today from Lihue, Kauai which was suspicious. I know my cousins would just text me so it couldn't be them. Whatever the case, the phone stopped ringing after two rings.

Friends have told me that they don't answer the phone unless they recognize the name or let the answering machine pick up the message. We get calls from Tripler Army Hospital or Kaiser pharmacy that's not identified so I do pick up quite a few calls because it's miserable to do a call back at times. Tripler has the worst phone system.

Anyway, I just thought I'd give you the link in case you haven't done this. Fingers crossed that it works for you. The silence is lovely at our house.

HEADER FIX:

People have wondered how I fixed my header photo without my techie son-in-law (who is unable to visit because of COVID). I don't know. I was doing what I normally do every few days to see if it would be fixed and one day it was just magically back to normal. I'd written to the Blog Helpline but I don't know if someone magically came and fixed it.

Mage (Postcards) and her husband searched out the answer and she posted the solution on her blog. Here's the link:

https://urban-archology.blogspot.com/2021/07/headers.html

You can see Mage's careful directions.

I was too nervous to check it out, but this morning, I gritted my teeth and did it.

She said the numbers should be between 500 to 1000. Mine was already set at 570 for the display height and 1357 for the width.

Soooo... perhaps the Blogger fairy godmother came and changed it for me while I was asleep.

But do I dare change my header photo yet?

Nah...

Would You Be a Space Tourist?

There was recently a lot of hullabaloo about billionaire Richard Branson of the Virgin Group going up into space and floating for 5 minutes in zero gravity before coming back down. There are apparently 600 people who are reserving tickets for another flight and paying $200,000 to $250,000 for the joyride. The $250,000 is probably for more legroom.

Now Amazon's Jeff Bezos is going up into space also. There was apparently an auction where an anonymous person put in a bid for 28 million dollars to be on the first Blue Origin flight with him. However he apparently has a scheduling conflict so he won't be able to make this flight. 28 million dollars and he's got something else he has to do? Wow!

They're saying that someday these flights will be more affordable. Seeeriously? 

I don't like to fly on regular airplanes. I only fly to go from Point A to Point B. I fly to spend time with my children or to see another country and learn about different cultures.

The Honolulu Star Advertiser had this question on The Big Q. You KNOW which one I voted for, right?

Would you want to go? How much would you pay?

A Combo Combo Pizza

We recently went to Sam's Club and saw a combo pizza in the refrigerator chest. 

It was huge and less than $10. How could we resist?

Since pizzas aren't the best thing for us, we decided to doctor it up.

Art took out a can of mushrooms.

I took out a package of frozen spinach and cooked, drained and sprinkled it on top of the layer of mushrooms that Art had added.

It was now a pretty heavy pizza. We were supposed to cook it for 15 minutes, but knew we needed to add another 5 minutes to make sure it was thoroughly warmed.

Actually, we should have left it in for half an hour, but it was really good. Mom even wanted a second piece. That was a surprise! We thought it was better than what we would get at Pizza Hut. No, seriously. We do.

We ate half and finished it the following night.

I think we'll do this again some day. But next time, I want to add anchovies!

Do you think that's why the kids usually don't let us choose the pizza?

Going to Tanaka Ramen

After going to see Beyond Van Gogh, we all decided to go to a new restaurant in Pearlridge shopping mall called Tanaka Ramen and Izakaya. It had been highly recommended by our Tai Chi buddies.

The nice thing is that they did take COVID seriously and the tables were all spaced far apart. Everyone wore masks except when eating.

Because I have to stay away from carbs, I stuck to a rice bowl so I could just avoid the rice and had the Chicken Chashu Don which was OK.

We ordered some gyoza and vegetable/seafood kushi katsu.

For my good buddy across from me, this was her first time out at a restaurant since COVID began so it was an even bigger treat. 

I'm hoping things will continue to improve but with those pockets of anti-vaxxers in the U.S. who are creating a breeding ground for more variants to appear, I just don't know. I hope this isn't the last time we enjoy going out to eat with friends.

Going to See Van Gogh

It was in the news that the new Van Gogh Digital Experience was coming to Hawaii. At $30.99 for Seniors, military and students, it's quite pricey. For regular adults it's $34.99 + tax and applicable fees. It is supposed to be an "immersive" experience.

First of all Art and I both enjoy looking at Vincent Van Gogh's artwork.

In 2018 we were in Amsterdam with our friends Terry and Craig and visited the  Van Gogh Museum. This is a page from my photo book of that trip.

We knew the Van Gogh digital art experience would probably be similar in technology to the Tokyo Team Lab Mori Digital Museum that we visited in Japan in 2019. At least, we thought it might be. That museum (above) was a bit too unnerving for mom. All the uneven surfaces and moving lights were just a bit too overwhelming for her. But it was amazing! (This is a page from a photo book of that trip.)

We told our good friends that we were thinking of going to the exhibit and they said they'd been wanting to see it too for the same reason as us. They liked art and they'd been to the Mori Digital Museum as well.

The Beyond Van Gogh exhibit was at the Hawaii Convention Center.

There were COVID Rules and Regulations that they were no longer following because of the state's relaxation of tier rules. Everybody still wore masks, but didn't have to show their vaccination card or negative test results.

It started out with large screens giving a little history of Vincent Van Gogh's life.

We then entered the digital area.

For about 35 minutes, there were changing images of Van Gogh's paintings with music accompanying what you were seeing.

This was rather interesting. It started out with sketchy lines which filled in with color until you saw his 1889 Starry Night which he painted while staying at the asylum near Saint-Remy-de-Provence. 

They said that the reason he painted so many self-portraits was because he couldn't afford to hire models to paint.

Van Gogh pretty much failed as an art dealer, teacher, and pastor before spending a short 10 years as a painter.

Much of his inspiration came from Japanese woodblock prints that he hung from his walls and tried to copy.

The Wheatfield with Crows at the bottom always seemed so menacing to me. I thought it was his last painting before committing suicide, but apparently, he did several other works after this.

I was happy when the entire room was filled with this painting of almond blossoms. Art and I saw this when we were in Amsterdam in 2007 at the Van Gogh Museum. I bought this poster which hangs in our hallway today.

So then...

Was it worth it?

Well, we spent the day with good friends seeing artwork we both enjoy a lot (after being cooped up for so long during the pandemic) so yes, I believe it was worth it. However, if you're expecting something like the Tokyo Digital Museum, you would be disappointed.

Instead, just understand it's a short time of immersion into Vincent's vibrant art.

How to Maintain a Marriage

Whenever you hear of couples who've been married a long time, they're often asked what their secret is.

This was in the news a week ago. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter have been happily married for 75 years. Their advice was to have shared interests and never going to bed angry.

I've always liked the Carters. I think they've truly tried their best to help others through their support of Habitat for Humanity. 

Hmmm... never go to bed angry? OK. I think that's a very good idea. Art and I do make a strong effort to do just that. However, there are those occasions, I confess when every once in a blue moon we're not able to make it happen. But we do talk things through as quickly as we can.

I remember one time when the kids were little and Art and I were annoyed about something. I can't remember what and we weren't even raising our voice (I think). All of a sudden our son who must have been about 4 or 5 at the time came between and pushed us apart saying, "Stop fighting. That's bad." We burst out laughing.

This from the kid who often had his moments of annoying his sister. 🙄

I do agree with the Carters that having similar interests do help a lot. And if your interests are not similar, it helps to support the other person in their endeavors.

Some of the most important things is the willingness to understand and accept each other's viewpoint, to communicate and to care. I believe that's what love is all about... caring.

Drinking Enough Water?

Art went to a Tripler cardiology appointment last week and was seen by a nurse practitioner who very kindly explained the results of his 14 day Holter heart monitor readings.

Actually he'd already seen a cardiologist at another hospital who wasn't too worried about the results of what he saw on Art's monitor readings. He also didn't take that much time to explain everything and pretty much said yes, he does have heart disease, but nothing to be worried about at his age and sent us on our way.

The Tripler nurse practitioner actually showed Art the readings and explained where there were skips in his beats. She wanted to know if the problem was atrial or ventricular. 

She ordered a full spectrum of fasting blood draws and a treadmill stress test.

She then asked if he was drinking enough water. 

Hmmm...

Well... we both drink liquids throughout the day, but she asked how much water we drank.

Water?

We both keep a thermos of water at our desks to drink throughout the day. It holds between 16 to 20 oz of water.

No, she said, he should be drinking about 64 oz of water a day.

Uuuummm...

Actually, my brother was just telling us that the other day. Maybe his doctor told him the same thing. He even brought over a 64 oz juice bottle to show mom what she should be drinking. What did she say? 

She laughed saying she couldn't possibly drink that much water.

However, Art is taking the nurse practitioner seriously since she told him that his water consumption affects his heart and helps to keep it healthy. She also said not to try to drink it up at once but distribute it throughout the day.

He's been filling the bottle with water every morning and keeping it in the fridge. It's a goal for him now to finish it by the evening.

I just saw this article from the Mayo Clinic. Here are their recommendations.

• "About 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men
• About 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women

These recommendations cover fluids from water, other beverages and food. About 20% of daily fluid intake usually comes from food and the rest from drinks."

3.7 liters is 125.112 oz for men, but the Mayo Clinic does say that covers food you eat as well. Our Tripler nurse practitioner insisted that he should be drinking 64 oz of plain water however.

She also said you just have to check your urine which should be colorless or very light colored. 

Oops!

I think I need to drink more water. Are you drinking enough water?

Preserving the Memories of Our Lives

I have written in diaries and journals since I was a teenager and maybe before that. I don't know why. I guess I knew I'd forget and lose parts of my life which I wanted to cling to. There were good and bad moments. I wish now I hadn't preserved the bad because I don't think they make me any happier today to remember them. I suppose I wrote in the journals to have someone private in my imagination to "talk to."

In the past few years I've lost so many relatives, friends and classmates. Most of them were younger than me. In this past year, perhaps because of the pandemic, all these losses have hit me extra hard.

I know it's silly, but I'm feeling the denouement of my/our life story closing in. It got me thinking of all the family photos I've scanned. Will the kids remember the stories behind the photos? Will they remember the people who were so loving to them? Will they remember the joys of their childhood? And you know what? They really had a happy childhood.

So I started to sort and choose the photos in order to create photobooks for them. With almost 50 years of photos to choose from it looks like it will take about 5-6 photobooks.

I've been making photobooks of our trips and it's always taken me about a month and a half to complete one book. I'd forgotten how long that took. 

The thing is, this project seems even harder because my memory has faded a lot more due to the passage of time.

This made me look into my past journals to refresh my memory. As I read through the early years it amazed me to see a different person. Who was this? Yes, I saw parts of me. But it was rather uncomfortable to see my immaturity. 

Poor Art. He had a lot to deal with in the younger me. He is five years older, but back then, he was much older in experience and growth. I had never left the islands to live. I had never been independent or been away from relatives and friends. He'd already finished college, been in the Air Force for 6 years and lived on the mainland.

Eventually, the following years enabled me to grow and mature. 

And now I have these special, happy memories and I feel a pressure to preserve them before I no longer can. But the job of doing so is extremely daunting. 

I'm apologizing in advance, if I'm not able to visit or sound distracted. I'll feel a lot happier (and relieved) once I'm done with this project.

Teaching Kids About the Birds and the Bees

Art was reading a newspaper article the other day about how they were recommending that parents in Japan teach their kids about the birds and bees at an earlier age.

It brought to mind this incident. Our kids were very little. Art was out of state on E.P.A. business. I was reading child care books and saw a recommendation that young children be taught the correct terms for intimate body parts.

When Art got home the kids were so excited that they started talking and laughing all at once. I started recording them on a tape recorder. No cellphones back then.

I listened to that tape of our kids several years later and could hear my daughter chanting, "I have a gina. Keola has a peeni." 

It made me uncomfortable at the time. I don't know why and I don't know what I did with that tape. I think I'd probably laugh about it now, but I was more embarrassed back then.

Whatever the case, it wasn't until elementary school that I did give them the talk about the birds and the bees.

I remember them pondering the whole thing and then one little voice piped up with, "Yuck!"

Then the other child echoed the same sentiment saying, "Sheesh! Oh well... at least you only had to do it two times to have us."

And where was Art when I was giving these rather uncomfortable talks? Hmmmm...

What Would You Bring During an Evacuation?

I was walking with a good friend and told her I was having a difficult time coming up with an idea for a blog post. With hurricane season coming up again she asked what I would take with me if I only had moments to decide. I thought about it and thought about it and couldn't decide what that would be. I did say, "All our medications." But what else?

I would have said all the photobooks we'd published of our travels and our life memories, but that's crazy. It's too heavy and bulky. I do have all the photo pages on a small external hard drive so it would make more sense to take that instead. Financial/personal information is on a flash drive in the bank safety deposit bank and with our children. 

So what else?

I guess one thing I'd like to take would be the journals I've kept since the kids were born. 

With my fading memory, it's an important source to find our lives often scribbled in rushed sentences during busy days. I haven't written in them much at all since I started my blog 13 years ago. Hopefully, my posts (despite all of Blogspot's technical difficulties) will stay in cyberspace safely.

I did look up what you should take with you in an emergency and found this Forbes website titled:

The Things You Should Take In An Emergency Evacuation.

And I got this article from the FEMA website called Build a Kit.

OK. We got some water and I'll check my canned food supply again. I have flashlights, radio, etc.

But what my friend meant was what personal item I'd bring with me. Therefore, it will be my journals. They're not that heavy and I'm sure I can manage them. I think. I asked Art what he'd choose and he said it would be a couple of small Japanese prints that are special to him which he purchased many years ago. Ahhh... So he'll have an arm free to help me carry my journals.😁

What personal thing would you choose to take with you in an emergency?

More Spoofing or Is It Phishing?

 There are so many scams about. 

Art recently got this one:

When Art showed it to me the first line was suspicious. "We lock your Amazon account and hold all your last orders."

The grammar is weird.

Buuuut... just in case, I went to Amazon's chat line for Customer Support. They checked our account and was told that this was another spoofing attempt. They asked that I send that email to: [email protected] so they could check it out.

OK... So now there's spoofing and there's phishing. 

It's a scary techie world out there.

Please be careful.

POSTSCRIPT:

I got a follow-up email from them:

"Greetings from Amazon,

If you have any further questions, please contact us using the link:  https://www.amazon.com/contact-us

We're available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You can also click the "Contact Us" button on any Help page (https://www.amazon.com/gp/help) enter your phone number through the Phone tab, and we'll call you.

Contacting us through the website ensures that we have your account information ready when we call.

You can contact us by telephone 7 days a week between 5:00am and 6:00pm Pacific Time.

Initiate phone calls from the Amazon.com website, using the click-to-call feature:

1. Click the "By phone" button in the "Contact Us" box found on the right side of seller Help pages:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/express/c2c/popup.html?c2cId=956ed48c-...

2. If you are not yet signed in, please sign in at this point. This will provide us with your account information and allow us to assist you as quickly as possible.

3. If the "Request call back" form does not pop up, click the "Call me" button.

4. Fill out the short "Request call back" form, and click Submit. We'll call you and assist with your questions and concerns.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.​​"

Glass Jar Hoarder?

I'm not a hoarder.

I'm not.

Of most things, anyway.

Art got a bunch of treats from our daughter and her family for Father's Day earlier this month. One of the things she sent was a jar of muffuletta sauce. 

We fell in love with muffuletta sandwiches ever since we traveled to New Orleans in 2003 and had it at the famous Central Market. 

Tiffany had the glass jar of muffalata (not from New Orleans) sauce carefully packed in bubble wrap and 2 plastic Ziploc bags. Unfortunately, this time, the plastic lid had cracked.

Luckily, I have lots of glass jars that we could transfer the sauce into. I'd read some place that spaghetti sauce jars were good to reuse so I have those along with pickle and peanut butter jars, etc.

It's a compulsion. I know. I know. Once I start keeping containers, I can't seem to stop. Honolulu Aunty once told me that she likes to use these plastic bottles with snap on lids for her ceramics class. I therefore gave her a bunch of them, but I can't seem to stop collecting them in case she needs more.

I have a friend who makes salad dressing so I keep all my glass salad dressing bottles. I did promise Art that I will stop now that there's no more room on that shelf. You see. I can stop.

I know he's glad that I did have the perfect jar to transfer his muffalata sauce into.

And I've used the glass jars for pickled onions, frozen soup stock, gravy, salsa, etc.

So you see? Glass jars are wonderful to reuse.

But then there's my plastic containers...

Never mind. Let's not talk about that.

POSTSCRIPT:

I wrote a while ago about camellia oil that my mother uses and swears by. She is convinced it keeps her hair from going all white.

I ordered it and have been applying it to my scalp for a little over a week. I’m just using a little of the oil for my scalp because I’m sometimes plagued with an itch there. And so far, I’m not detecting any change. Well… mom has been using it for years and years so maybe it’s cumulative. Please don’t get it till you do your own research. 

I’ll let you know if I think it helped me at all. 

Jan of The Low Carb Diabetic did more research and said: 

"Re: Camellia Oil

You may like to read this article about the benefits of Camellia Oil.
However, there are WARNINGS about it too!

"Some people may experience irritated skin after using camellia oil due to its high amounts of fatty acids and other chemical compounds. Doing a small patch test before adding the oil to your daily skincare routine is the best way to see if your skin will react poorly to its use. People who are currently taking medication to lower their blood pressure may also experience negative side effects due to the high potassium levels that can, when combined, lower their blood pressure to dangerous levels.

If you are considering adding camellia oil to your daily skin or health care routine but are unsure if it is suitable for you and your health conditions, the best thing to do is speak with a doctor before you start using the oil in any way."

Read more here
https://healthyfocus.org/benefits-camellia-oil/"

Thank you for your "heads up," Jan!