About Aunty

Aunty is a new senior citizen and loving this phase of her life. Less responsibilities, less fear of being weird, able to do more of the things that I want to do! Older, yes, slower, yes, but life is even more wonderful in my golden years and I look forward to even goldener ones.

Jalna’s husband’s crispy skin pork bake

Posted on July 4, 2017 by Aunty

Picture from Jalna’s blog of Wendell’s Pernil

Jalna’s blog just kills Aunty sometimes. She makes us laugh, feel whimsy, and then, SO hungry when she posts her husband and son’s cooking results.

A few weeks ago, she shared Wendell’s Pernil – a Puerto Rican pork recipe . The picture of the crispy skin pork jumped out and begged to be eaten. Jalna assured Aunty (during the funeral picture taking day) that it was indeed ONO (delicious) to da max.

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of the month. Each month, Aunty has her 1st Sunday dinner for family and friends at the house. Wendell’s Pernil was going to be the main dish. Luckily, Times Super Market had ONE 8 lb. picnic pork shoulder (looked kinda gross and weird because of the skin), and Aunty’s old spice cabinet didn’t have dried oregano so she substituted with Italian seasoning.

It was easy – even for Aunty – who is still regaining her strength in her hand after her broken arm incident. The marinade seemed like it was too sparse but it was actually just right. Aunty should have let the skin get crispier (it would get stuck to Aunty’s teeth instead of crunching into pieces) but everybody at dinner seemed to love it. Pal Wandaful took home the big bone to make jook. It was a fall off the bone success!!! Mahalo, Jalna and Wendell!

Ingredients
8 pounds picnic pork shoulder
12 minced garlic cloves
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 tbs olive oil
3 tbs white vinegar
8 tsp salt (or 1 tsp per pound of meat)

Directions
Wash the pork shoulder.

With a sharp knife, make 1-inch deep cuts into the pork.

Using a mortar and pestle crush garlic, oregano and black pepper together. (Aunty just smashed ’em)

Add olive oil, vinegar and salt. Mix well.

Spoon some of the garlic mixture inside the small cuts around the pork and spread remaining all over the pork.

Place pork in aluminum turkey pan (skin side up) and cover with aluminum foil tightly.

Refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Turn it in the marinade.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 5 to 6 hours.

Remove aluminum foil and bake at 375 degrees for another hour or until the skin is crisp.

: sparse looking marinade on gross looking skin

: on the table after the 1st round of eating

Your next 5 years

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Aunty

laptop Aunty subscribes to over 40 websites for daily email updates and newsletters. These vary from healthy cooking, beading, real estate, retirement planning, etc. The majority of Aunty’s subscriptions focus on financial gurus letting subscribers know what they THINK may happen based on current and past factors.

Most of them are gloom and doomers. The economy will collapse, we are in a bubble, sell everything and move to another country, get ready for the survival of the fittest, etc.

Some are believers in getting into the stock market for the long haul – buy now and hold forever, just make sure that you only buy top quality stocks. Some believe in buying real estate. Some believe in buying and storing away gold. Some are absolutely sure about bitcoin.

Who is right? Probably every one of them. The trouble is, we don’t know what will come first or happen until it happens. So we plod on, hoping for the best, planning as best we can, or choose to just keep doing what we always do.

The post it note

Aunty has a little post it note on her laptop. It asks, “What would I do if I only had a week/a month/ a year/5 years/ a life left to live?” Then, it asks, “How can I design my routine this week to align with these answers?” Allow 10 minutes per answer.

This post it note has been staring at Aunty for over a year, each time the laptop was opened. It requires 50 minutes of sit down and write answers, so Aunty would look at the note, and then ignore it as emails were checked, Drama Fever shows were watched, games were played, or checking things out on the amazing world wide web.

A break in time

After Aunty broke her arm, it was really quite nice. All chores, commitments, and activities stopped. Friends and family brought food, became chauffeurs, and Aunty had an excellent excuse to not have to get up and fetch things or clean up. Daughter #1 became a very capable and caring housemaid/cook/nurse aide. Aunty would play HOURS of Candy Crush Saga with her right hand or watch Korean dramas nonstop without feeling any remorse of wasting time. Ha Ha! That was fun.

Aunty’s 5 years

Even while wasting time, that post it note kept asking, “What would I do if I only had a week/ a month/ a year/ 5 years/ a life time left to live?”

So for now, Aunty has thought about the 5 year time line. If Aunty only had 5 years left to live. Hmmm. For starters, Aunty wants to be in excellent health – no aches, pains, disease. Vibrant independent living. Active in thinking capacity (no Alzheimers for Aunty!), financially set up for life, having a clutter free home (via the Mari Kondo Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up), a joyful garden, 2 chickens to lay fresh eggs, an understanding with the children about who gets what and how, and having freedom of time and space to create and create with all the beads, fabrics, and supplies collected over the years.

Planning for the near and far future means doing things rather than putting them off. The end will be our memorial service.

A funeral picture

from “Miss Granny”

Aunty thoroughly enjoyed a Korean drama movie, Miss Granny. She was a crotchety bitter old woman who had a hard life. She went to a photo shop to have her funeral picture taken. In Korea, during the memorial service, the deceased’s picture is framed and set in a horizontal flower wreath. Rather formal, usually flattering, plain backdrop, headshot. Something like a passport photo, but better because it is flattering by choice.

So, Aunty reached out to her favorite photo blogger, Jalna, to take her funeral picture next week. Friends have been invited, but Aunty’s friends think she is weird so no takers – yet.

This will also be a time for pictures for Aunty’s new website design (taking forever but it shall be happening). Jalna’s work place and photographer friend Leslie (check out her unreal Africa photo trip) will be coming to help, so already it shall be a fun day.

Having a funeral picture and updating HonoluluAunty.com is part of Aunty’s 5 year plan.

Choose YOUR what if and work on it

“What would you do if you only had a week/ a month/ a year/ 5 years/etc. left to live?”

Aunty probably has at least 20 years left and has been mulling over how she wants her life to be. Maybe it is morbid, but doing what needs to be done now will make it easier for the ones we leave behind.

Earlier this year, Aunty had EDTA chelation done. This was once a week for 10 weeks at her doctor’s office (excellent Dr. Takemoto-Gentile) to remove heavy metals and detox. A friend thought it was dangerous and put a bit of fear into Aunty’s psyche.

So, one week prior to starting the treatments, Aunty thought a bit about what to do if there was just a week left for Aunty. It was cleaning up the garage that had so much junk in it, one couldn’t walk to the back wall. Strange choice but it felt good. (The garage is still a mess but less of one.)

Turns out, the IV chelation was great, safe, and the side effects were better health and talking to the doctor every week.

It was a successful 1 week exercise and rather an easy one. If Aunty were to do another “what if” for a week long time frame, it might be handwriting individual aloha letters to the kids. Maybe finally painting a couple of the window sills that are starting to peel and flake. Definitely clearing all the papers and miscellany from the desk. Rearranging pots and plants and trimming trees.

For right now, Aunty has the great excuse of a broken arm, but it is healing up so quickly, Aunty’s days of Candy Crushing for hours and hours will be over. It will be full steam ahead again soon.

What would you choose to do?

Aunty’s Quite Wonderful Broken Bones

Posted on May 29, 2017 by Aunty

Toshi See this cute little doggie? His name is Toshi. He is our daughter’s 7 year old Sheltie, and he is dangerous for old ladies who try to keep up with his running while walking on uneven Kaimuki streets. That is how Aunty tripped, flew forward, and broke 2 bones in her left forearm recently.

As Aunty struggled up, holding her dirty misshaped wrist and battling shock, Toshi was not concerned and of no help. This dog is far removed from the hero dog that he looks like – Lassie – the problem solving smart dog we all grew up admiring on our black and white TV screens in the “old days.”

Since no one was home, Aunty drove, one handedly to Kahala Urgent Care just before they closed for the night. The entire staff was sooo nice and efficient, washing and wrapping Aunty’s many wounds, taking an Xray, being seen by a real doctor, putting the entire elbow, forearm and wrist in a splint, and sending Aunty home with discharge info and instructions to see an orthopedic doctor asap the next day.

Not choosing the emergency room

Why didn’t Aunty go to Queen’s emergency instead and have it possibly taken care of in one visit? Aunty heard that after 6:00 pm, the ER staff is made up of the rookie doctors, because Queen’s is a training hospital. No rookie (deceivingly known as “resident doctors”) for Aunty. Also, their triage admission process is agonizingly long and requires sitting, waiting, moving, sitting, waiting, on and on.

Kahala Urgent Care was close by, uncrowded, and they did a great job of stabilizing Aunty’s arm. It was also SO reasonable in price, HOW do they make money?

Dr. Atkinson and Thelma

thelma Aunty called the first name on the list that Kahala Urgent Care recommended, Dr. Robert Atkinson at Hale Pawa’a Building on Beretania Street, (808) 536-2261. Thelma answered the phone. Thelma! A really nice young woman with an old fashioned name. We hit it off and Aunty went in that day to see Dr. Atkinson. Surgery was scheduled for the next day in the same building, on the 6th floor.

The 6th floor was top notch, clean, excellent nursing and operating staff, bright and modern, with a state-of-the-art operating room. Aunty’s surgery went well, and a good friend took Aunty home to recover with a partial splint and a bandaged arm. A follow up appointment for a hard cast was scheduled in a week.

Tammy and the Beautiful Cast

tammy Aunty’s hand was still swollen and her wounds were still raw and open at her followup appointment so with a gentle suggestion from Aunty’s newest pal Thelma, Dr. Atkinson directed Aunty to see Tammy of the Hawaii Hand & Rehabilitation Services located in an adjacent office on the same floor (so convenient that the Xray room, rehab, casting, and doctor are all on the 7th floor!)

Tammy is a pretty Okinawan looking young woman who really knows her stuff. See her picture with Aunty? She followed Aunty’s coaching about angling her body, bending her elbow, and pulling back her face from her ears the way that Jalna shared in her photo shoot tips. She looks good, yeah?

What impressed Aunty the most was how she “made” Aunty’s HOT pink gorgeous cast out of a flat sheet of plastic, expertly fitting, shaping, cutting, forming and adjusting – into a work of art that Aunty is SO happy to wear! It is hard, super light weight, easily removable (Aunty was worried that she would get itchy in a regular hard cast), and comfortable.

Tammy went through a worksheet of hand exercises to speed along recovery and mobility.

Aunty is ready to hit the town

Aunty is going stir crazy at home as well as watching the weeds in her garden laugh and grow. Aunty’s wounds are almost healed with the application of Anti-Infection that kills ALL bacteria on contact but can cause screeching pain at first. Aunty has also been on her BEMER machine (a future post) and using its infrared light attachment directly over the largest wound.

These therapies and the excellent care that the above fine professionals have provided, along with the help and food from friends and family have made this latest journey of a broken arm quite wonderful.

Aunty has cancelled some of her previously scheduled commitments, is taking it easy, and has a really good reason for not working at projects that have been put off anyway.

Life is good, even with a broken arm.

Yellow for Yellowing Teeth?

Posted on May 25, 2017 by Aunty

yellow smile Aunty’s blog friend Kay of Musings recently posted about whitening her teeth with Crest Whitestrips. It worked beautifully – Kay’s teeth became movie star white – but had a few cautionary issues with sensitivity and erosion.

Aunty used to use whitening strips, or the “trays” that are formed as troughs to fit and soak uppers and lowers in bleach solutions, but has recently opted for a cheaper, possibly safer and more natural solution that really works, though not to the dazzling whiteness of movie stars.

It is a very yellow paste made with 1 TBS coconut oil, 1 tsp curcumin (also known as turmeric), and 2 drops of peppermint oil (optional). This short video from the good folks at 7 Nutrition shows how it is done. Aunty takes a capsule of curcumin on a daily basis, and 2 capsules = approx 1 tsp when opened and measured.

After mixing thoroughly in a small ceramic dish, Aunty stores the paste in a cute little Chinese mustard container with a cover on her bathroom counter. This lasts for weeks.

Use a Q-tip (rather than a toothbrush) to dip into the paste and rub or dab onto the front teeth surface. Keep your lips open and away from your yellow teeth. You will look wild and weird – but that’s okay. We do what we must for looking good. The longer you can do this, the better. Try for at least 2 minutes. Be aware that curcumin can stain your countertops, towels, and clothing so be neat and apply just enough.

Then, wipe off as much as possible with toilet paper or paper towel pieces, and throw in the trash. Don’t rinse in the sink before wiping or dispose of the paper in the toilet or you will have oily yellow ringed sink bowls to clean. Optional to brush or rinse your mouth after wiping.

Do daily for a couple of weeks, and then less often. Slowly but surely, your smile will be brighter and brighter!

mustard dish

Broke da Arm

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Aunty

arm Aunty is now a patient, feeling impatient. Last Wednesday, she tripped on someone’s driveway while walking a dog and broke 2 bones just above her left wrist.

Surgery was done on Friday. Recovery seems slow – but there is no way to rush it.

Time has been slowed down, too. Life goes on, and the weeds are rejoicing because Aunty’s daily yard duties have been curtailed – for now.

In Aunty’s Garden

Posted on May 16, 2017 by Aunty

Hat, long sleeve dress shirt, long harem pants, and gloves = sun safe to the max

Aunty seems to be unsociable lately because she has been fanatic in doing her favorite task – every single day – from late afternoon to when the sun goes down. Weeding, weeding, and weeding, non-stop. This is a bit surprising because usually after a couple of days of weeding, Aunty’s hands and body are so sore and stiff, she has to take a break. The difference has been the BEMER – a pulsed electromagnetic field system (post will follow one of these days).

Aunty’s blogging friend, Kay of Musings, has a blogging friend Linda of Linda Letters whom Aunty follows because she is a retired teacher with so much going on, is also a soccer fan, and has the most fantastic garden on 1/2 acres in Seattle. She is a garden fanatic and shares with pictures and postings with weather reports so Aunty feels a bit more in touch with her #2 daughter (teacher, soccer maniac, busy bee) who now lives there. Another gardening fanatic was Mrs. Tsuneyoshi from across the street, who used to garden every day and share pots and pots of orchids, succulents, and fruits from her finely tended front yard.

Inspired by these 2 ladies, Aunty wants to share some pictures of her ever changing garden – albeit small and wild.

Bonsai Bougainvillea in the driveway

Papaya trees, getting a bit too tall

White Pirie mangos – still green. Luscious when ripe.

Tillandsias stuck into rocks

Weird Tillandsia hung on nails and White Anthurium

Common Dendrobium orchid growing on rock wall

Brassia, on rock with spray of flowers

Hanging Heliconia, about 12″ long

Variegated Shell Ginger

Button Ginger

Golden Dew Drop

From “junk” to cash, with eBay or Amazon

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Aunty

stuff Aunty did a post about selling on eBay a couple of years ago. Aunty also took (paid some bucks) an eBay course from an eBay guru who was a power seller. Truth to tell, Aunty did not use much of the information since a lot of it was for true rookies and some were for power sellers that are willing to devote all of their time loading, selling, packing, and shipping.

Aunty is more of a “hobby” eBayer, selling rarely and buying more often than she should.

However, since reading Marie Kondo’s book on the magical aspects of tidying up, piles of things that have value but no appeal or use are growing like mushrooms on Aunty’s floor. These are things that are someone else’s potential source of joy and in new or great condition, so eBay or Amazon are great venues that act like stores for Aunty.

Amazon

The easiest store is Amazon.com. One of the requirements is that you have the UPC or ISBN or manufacturing code from the packaging (best if you still have the box). If you have that, it is as easy a matter of entering the condition, number of items available, choosing a few options, setting your price, and SHAZAAM!, your listing is live. Amazon’s process will fill in the details, pictures, specifications, and your store is on the web. Listings remain on the site forever, until they sell.

Aunty uses Amazon mainly for books. Fulfillment by Amazon is a service that actually stores and ships out your items – one day Aunty actually shipped out an entire bookcase worth of books that were not being looked at – fees are higher but it was like a wall of freedom with blessed space!

Customer service at Amazon is fantastic. If you opt for a phone call from customer service, you WILL receive a phone call within minutes! The only downside as a seller on Amazon is that selling price points are very low, and if you don’t set your selling price low or lower, your inventory does not move. That being said, it is a great place to find bargains!

eBay

It used to be painfully difficult to sell on eBay. All of the descriptions were the responsibility of the seller, and photo editing, sizing, and uploading were time consuming and laborious.

Now, with the advent of eBay’s mobile app (eBay), it is super duper easy to begin a listing with the app, take all the photos with your smart phone, save the listing as a draft, and then use your computer to complete the listing. If you are a 100% mobile user, you could complete everything with your phone but the screen is much too small for Aunty’s aging eyes and scrolling is a pain. A computer screen allows Aunty to see the whole picture and more wonderful options reveal themselves, iAo (in Aunty’s opinion).

One of the new options is to enter the ISBN or whatever they call the numbers that manufacturers use to identify their items. Entering this will fill in a lot of the vitals of your items for sale, almost like Amazon!

The advantage of eBay being an auction site rather than a set price “store” like Amazon is that you could potentially get big bucks even if you don’t realize that your item is super desirable. Listings are usually on for just 7 days, but can easily be relisted if it does not sell, all for free. Fees are based on sales price, so if it sells, you pay. If it doesn’t sell, you don’t pay.

eBay also started a service that is almost like Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon program. eBay Valet will provide a shipping code and easy form to simply list the items that you want to sell (only certain items qualify), put them in a box and take it to a FedEx store, where it ships for free(!) to a “valet” who will do all the work and list your item(s) for sale on eBay. If it sells, you get a percentage and they take a percentage. Fees are rather high this way, but the convenience is wonderful. They are very picky about what they accept and will return the items that they reject. Aunty can attest to that – the valet returned most of the things that were sent and only listed a couple of the items. The good thing is that it didn’t cost Aunty a single cent to ship out or receive back the rejected items.

Shipping ease

Another great improvement is the ability to print shipping labels that have all the shipment info on it from your computer to your printer. The shipping costs (Aunty only uses USPS) are slightly lower than going to the post office and charged against your PayPal account. After the shipping label is printed, just trim, tape on the package, and pop it in the drive through mail box! They look super professional, with all the correct info, tracking number, and addresses printed in crisp black font. SUPER easy!

Danger

The greatest danger in using eBay and/or Amazon is the potential to shop and spend. Using their services to get cash for things that need to go out of the house is really terrific. Aunty loves seeing her Paypal account (acts as a bank to collect and pay eBay transactions) grow a little and grow a little more with each successful sale.

It is better not to look or search for items of interest on either site because you WILL find tantalizing treasures that will whet your appetite and draw your finger to the BUY button. Aunty’s weakness is Issey Miyake.

Buy, if you must, especially if not buying will become a regret. If you later decide that it no longer gives you joy, add it to the pile of “mushrooms” and sell it on eBay.

4-7-8 Breathing exercise for life, and magnets

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Aunty

Aunty first heard about this 4-7-8 breathing exercise from Kay of Musings. This supposedly helps you fall asleep, and so Aunty, on the few occasions when it was hard to fall asleep at night, would breathe in, hold, and exhale continuously, and find herself becoming light headed – but still wide awake.

Then, a link in one of Dr. Mercola‘s articles was to Dr. Andrew Weil’s instructional video on only doing 4 breath cycles at a time, once or twice a day, and NOT as many as one is able to do. This cycle of 4 originated in India and has health benefits of anxiety relief, lowering blood pressure (one of Aunty’s new health concerns), and can give one a refreshing boost as well as ease of falling asleep.

Here’s Dr. Andrew Weil explaining how to do this exercise:

Actually, Aunty did put her digital blood pressure cuff on while doing this breathing exercise and it DID result in a nicer lower blood pressure reading!

Aunty will be starting this practice daily. Sometimes while sitting on the toilet in the morning since nothing else is going on at that time. *It seems like Kay of Musings and Aunty are on the same info plane because just yesterday, Kay posted about blowing while constipated. What a coincidence, and SO worth a try!

Another practice (unrelated to toilet habits) that Aunty believes in is magnet therapy. Kay has trigger finger and Aunty suggested she use magnets to help heal the area around her joints. Sometimes Aunty grabs a business card magnet – those freebie things that come in the mail or are attached to phone books when they are first delivered – and lays it on the area of pain. For Aunty, this is usually her neck and/or shoulders. Perhaps it is her imagination, but it almost feels like the pain is lifted away.

In any case, these are 2 free methods of wellness that Aunty wanted to share with you today. If anyone wants Aunty’s 4-7-8 breathing magnet as well as 3 other of her magnets, please email Aunty (aunty@hawaii.rr.com) with your U.S mailing address and Aunty will gladly mail out a set of her 4 magnets. You can use these magnets as reminders on your refrigerator or file cabinet, or for temporary magnet therapy.

Wishing you peace, happiness, and wellness!

magnets

Scannable, a needed app

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Aunty

Scannable, the app

There are many times that we need to scan things – in order to save a document, send one, or to help us organize the tons of papers that we really don’t need.

Aunty does have a small portable scanner by ScanSnap that works great, but is limited to paper no wider than the standard 8 1/2″, and the thinness of paper.

Amy Lynn Andrews is one of Aunty’s gurus (though she doesn’t know it) for website creating, building, and tips. She is a really nice person, and has even responded to a couple of Aunty’s emails, never pushing to sell. She wants to help people, and she does.

Her useletter today in Aunty’s inbox mentioned a mobile app for scanning. Scannable by Evernote. This one is made for the iPhone and iPad, is simple (and free!) to install via the App Store, and is what Aunty will use for the majority of her scan then trash chores. Mari Kondo of the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (I know, I know, I am still working on the review of that great book) says that we don’t need to keep most of our papers, and it is SO true. It is clutter stuck in file cabinets that we never look at.

Anywho, just wanted to share this latest find with you.

And, if anyone remembers, the re-designing of Aunty’s website is still in progress. One of these days, hopefully soon, those web design people will be done, and the “new” Aunty will be revealed.

Update: This seemed like something so easy, but for non-techy aunties, it first seemed like being shot out of a cannon into strange and fast scenery.

When you open the Scannable app on your phone, it instantly takes you into a camera mode, trying to find a document to capture. For awhile, it couldn’t figure out what to do with my leg, since that is what it was focusing on. (btw, it is so unfair that Aunty’s leg is now all wrinkled and spotted with age. And it was NOT something that needed to be scanned and saved.)

On the screen, click on the 3 dots (dot, dot, dot) which will take you to a page with options. Light and Capture are on AUTO modes, which Aunty left alone. Go to the Settings circle. You can choose your File Type (Aunty chose PDF, though the default is Auto with image and PDF).

The next section shows “Evernote” and “Business Cards”. Aunty clicked on “Evernote” and signed up for an account (not necessary but Aunty did anyway). To do this, enter your email address and a password. Enter carefully because it seems to just accept whatever you keyboard in before you can make note of what you entered. Almost too quickly. Before Aunty finished putting in her password it swooshed it into acceptance. However, it is easy enough to retrieve and change when you try to log in by letting it know you “forgot your password” because it sends the reset to your email address.

Aunty didn’t do anything with the “Business Cards” topic.

“Introduction” takes you through a 4 page screen of how it works, but doesn’t really help.

Hitting “Done” will take you back to the camera mode screen, and Aunty’s wrinkled spotted leg. Resting the phone on the old leg prevented the app from taking pictures and the app closes soon after. The funny looking “S” next to the dot, dot, dot will take you to a screen trying to connect with a WIFI scanner, if you have one. Aunty ignored that.

Truth to tell, Aunty almost gave up. This app is like a teenager on a skateboard. Fast, impatient, does it’s own thing. HOWEVER, it is free, and came highly recommended by Amy Lynn Andrews, so Aunty decided to “shoot” an old 2 page mortgage statement with it.

Tapping on the app, Aunty held the phone above the 1st page of the statement. The blue box of light captured the page and snapped it. Then the phone was held above the 2nd page. The blue box of light snapped that one too! It works fast and auto focuses and crops by itself. It then tries to keep finding more documents to snap, but you can stop it by touching on the images of the pages you just took on the bottom of the scanning screen. Hurray!

You now have options to “Send” or “Save”, so Aunty chose “Send” and then chose “Mail” vs “Share” to Aunty’s email address. Because Aunty had signed up for an Evernote account, this scan was also saved automatically and also moved to “Recents” automatically.

Whatever. (Whatever is what Aunty says when she doesn’t really understand something but it is not harmful or bad, so it is acceptable.)

Once the pdf file arrived in Aunty’s email box with subject heading “Scannable Document – sent from Scannable”, Aunty clicked on the file, and it opens in whatever it opens in on your computer (in Aunty’s case it is Adobe Reader). To organize and save it, Aunty pulls down the “File” tab and chooses “Save a copy”, renames it, and finds the folder to put it in – in this case, it was the “2017” folder of the mortgage folder on the desktop.

Phew! It was kinda tough getting to that point, but also quite wonderful. Aunty did the recent Hawaii Gas bill, and it got easier. Snap, tap, send, file. Actually, it was really easy! And super fast.

Scannable keeps wanting to take pictures of Aunty’s wrinkled body parts, and now, that is fine, because the delete option is there, and a fun way to get rid of what does not need to be recorded.

Whatever!

Another Ala Moana Hotel update

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Aunty

First Circuit Courtyard

2 days in a row! Normally I wouldn’t have reported about the owners’ meeting except that it had the insurance tip and my rather impulsive decision to run on a board/committee. Am still mulling over the wisdom or dumbness of that, but it is just for a year, and a year speeds on by.

Back in October of last year, Aunty went to an auction for one of the units at the Ala Moana Hotel. Her bid price was beat by $1000 by a woman and her son. Judicial foreclosure auctions consist of 2 parts – the first was this initial auction. After a period of time, the results must be confirmed before a judge, at which time additional bids can come in to challenge the last bid price.

Today, Aunty went to the confirmation hearing of the unit that she was beat on – not to challenge, but to learn about the process. If Aunty did want to challenge the last bid price ($156,000) from the October auction, she would have to bid at least 5% more ($7,800 more = $163,800) and have at least 10% of the bid up to price in the form of cash or cashier’s check as proof to the commissioner in charge.

This unit was well worth $163,800 because prices have been appreciating in the Ala Moana Hotel. Okay, to be absolutely honest, Aunty was running a little late for the 9:00 a.m. hearing at the First Circuit Court and didn’t have time to get a cashier’s check just in case she had a change of heart and wanted to challenge. However, this wasn’t too much of a downer because Aunty also remembered that the lady who bid was an older woman that looked nice, and not really someone she wanted to challenge.

So Aunty parks at her credit union across the street, runs toward the Court building on Punchbowl Street, gets a little lost on the 4th floor, and enters a very small courtroom full of people. Seeing the commissioner in charge of this auction, Aunty squats next to her, and we wait for the judge, who was late. This confirmation hearing time was for several judicial auctions, not just the one that Aunty was interested in.

The first case called up was for a property in Waianae. The bailiff or judge read off the details, the plaintiff (I suppose that is the one who won the initial auction) acknowledged their presence and the commissioner in charge of the sale stood next to them before the judge. The judge then asked if there were any challenges to the property (i.e. any bids over the last bid price), and someone in the bandstand raised their hand. The judge then called for a delay in that case until the interested parties conferred and met outside of the courtroom. Those people stepped out, and a mini auction between any of the interested parties took place, the winner of that auction would then get to be confirmed by the judge later in the proceedings that day.

So exciting!

Up next, was the Ala Moana Hotel unit that Aunty had her eye on. The winning bidders must have hired an attorney to represent them because a well suited young man stood as plaintiff for them next to the commissioner, and when the judge asked if there were any challengers to their bid, no one raised their hand. That was a surprise, but good for the nice looking lady and her son. The sale was confirmed, and the property would be theirs after all the funding, escrow, etc. were finalized.

Aunty followed the commissioner out of the room, and then saw the woman and her son. She looked like she had aged 10 years. Aunty was glad that she did not challenge them.

So, that is the auction update from start to almost finish. It took almost 3 1/2 months for the confirmation hearing to be held from the auction in October.

Aunty will now feel a bit more confident in bidding at these – for the right property at the right price. It was a really good learning experience.

by Aunty

a lot of stuff about almost everything

Author Archives: Aunty