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Diamond Magic and the Honolulu Tool Library

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All of my friends and family know that I am a mess.  Messy house, cluttered rooms, too much going on all the time.

However, after many many listens to Mari Kondo’s Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I started doing a bit of cleaning at a time.  My kitchen countertops got cleared off (oops they need another go round), my bedroom got cleared out and my wardrobe has been halved.  Little victories and areas of clean inspire more work and focus with new spots to tackle.

Our old bathroom was transformed with classic travertine walls and floor.  I found a gorgeous old vanity with marble top and grand wall mirror for it.  All was beautiful except for the old tub, which was grungy and dirty.  The travertine tile mason (Jason Carroll of Hawaii Kai Custom Stone) recommended that I use a product called Diamond Magic to make the 90 year old tub look like new.

Elbow grease and a power tool help

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Diamond Magic is made here in Hawaii!  I bought the product and white scrubbing pad, watched the videos, and then headed out to Re-Use Hawaii to see Ben at the Honolulu Tool Library to borrow a sanding machine that had a velcro attaching disc.

It took a couple of hours of vibrating and sweat.  A lot of clean rags that soon became dirty.  I used Diamond Magic with the sanding machine and also by hand on inside curves.  I also used a pumice stick to remove the stubborn calcium buildup by the drain.  I took a break halfway through.

The finish line

Before I knew it, I was done!  The tub looks good and my old bathroom sparkles!  I don’t have to draw the shower curtain to hide it anymore – though I still might because I use it as a storage space for my overflow of fabric and projects.

Kudos

I love using Diamond Magic and plan to use it on my soap scum challenged glass blocks in my shower as well as on my windows with hard water spots.

Ben over at the Honolulu Tool Library is so helpful with supplying me with the right tool that a senior old lady like me can handle.  They are open on Tuesday mornings, Friday afternoons, and on Saturdays.  I pay the senior discount rate of just $35 per year and can borrow whatever tool I need for free for a week!

In the past I have borrowed a Gorilla Cart to haul buckets of dirt and rocks, a mini jack hammer to dig out a lemon tree (that didn’t survive), a sawzall to cut away trunks and roots, a staple gun to repair an upholstered chair, and a Dremel sanding kit for polishing up this tub.

I have saved so much time and money there and will continue to do so until I can’t lift and carry a sack of sand.  I returned the wonderful Dremel kit on Saturday and borrowed an angle grinder with a diamond wheel so I could cut out a portion of a cement wall.  I am also using it to cut off some points on a concrete grass block.  It is so very empowering to do it yourself.

Aunty feels macho.  And that’s a good thing.  Tawanda!

 

Celebrating the life of a wondrous sister-in-law

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My sister-in-law, Jo Ann Fukao, passed away in October after losing the battle with cancer – that had returned after 3 remissions.

I remember when my brother met her on a blind date. Like Apollonia and Michael Corleone in the Godfather, it was colpo di fulmine for them – when love strikes someone like lightening, so powerful and intense it can’t be denied.  Not only was she extremely beautiful on the outside, she was even more beautiful on the inside.

Our kids called her Aunty Hugalani because she had the best hugs, every single time.

When she blew her nose (quite often), she honked so loud that babies would get startled and everyone would turn to look to find the source.  And then she would laugh.  Delightful peals of laughter that made everyone also laugh.

Because of Covid-19 restrictions, a Celebration of Life video has been put together with guidance from her former church pastor.  Even if you don’t go to church or believe in God, if you knew her, she has risen from being an angel on earth to being an angel in the heavens.  She lived and breathed joy, peace, and love every day of her life.

Sumo with a surprise

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One of Aunty’s favorite writers is Mark Ford aka Michael Masterson.  He used to write financial advice and the mindset for wealth but recently he came out of retirement and writes about common everyday pleasantries and finds.

I do like his movie recommendations – Octopus Teacher, Fargo, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Home for the Holidays and others – as well as his wit and observations.

His latest was about sumo – which he calls “full grown men having a shoving contest in diapers.”  He highlighted a Czech born wrestler named Takanoyama Shuntaro – in error since Takanoyama had retired in 2014.  However, despite his mistake, the tournament he referred to was in May 2019 with Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi – a Mtskheta, Georgia born sumo wrestler.

It is a fascinating sport.  Hawaii has also had many sumo wrestlers, among the best were Takamiyama (Jesse Kulaulua from Maui), Konishiki (Saleva’a Fuauli Atisano’e born in Samoa), and Akebono (Chad Rowan from Waimanalo).

Here is Tochinoshin’s highlight video from last year.  The surprise comes at the end:

Shoji Hamada – taihen potter

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Aunty speaks very poor Japanese and makes up stuff.  So, taihen potter, in my lingo is “REALLY great potter”.  This film was made in 1970 and the artist died in 1978.  He created his compound after living abroad for 3 years and did ceramics from scratch to kiln.  He produced thousands of pieces, each one with his hand in it.

Amazing.

Pepperjam Verification

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This is just a temporary post – Aunty wants to be an affiliate marketer for the Charlotte’s Web products – a post will be forthcoming one of these days.  But, to prove that I am me, I need to have the words “pepperjam verification” on my home page.

So that is why this post is named such.

S0rry if that is confusing.  It is confusing to me, too.

Ono for pumpkin pie

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For Thanksgiving this year, we had the usual feast with a very small group of family – which meant there were a LOT of leftovers. Except for pumpkin pie. Lanakila Kitchen’s annual turkey fundraiser included a perfectly cooked 22 lb turkey with homemade stuffing, gravy, corn on the cob, sweetbread rolls, and seasoned roast potatoes, and one little 8″ pumpkin pie. Hardly enough pie to feed the family and nothing left to give away.

This made pie become an almost obsession for Aunty. I really wanted to have a big piece of pumpkin pie – and pal Kay’s picture of Art’s pumpkin pie started a quest to bake one of my own.

I started with my mother’s pie crust recipe. She used to make the BEST lemon chiffon pie from scratch, mixing the chiffon part into the lemon pudding for a wonderful light texture.  Her crust was divine.  MmmmMmmmMmmm.

She would refrigerate the knives and bowl – to ensure the crust is flakey.

Grannie’s Pie Crust (makes 2 very small or 1 large pie crust)
2 cups sifted flour
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
4-6 TBS cold water

Put sifted flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Cut in the shortening with 2 cold steel butter knives until sort of mixed.  Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time and mix with spatula until dough forms. Roll into 2 balls. Flatten out with rolling pin. Drape over pie crust, trim, and form ridges along edge. Bake in a 450° oven for 15 minutes.  Cool.  I used just one dough ball and refrigerated the other for another pie another day.

The pumpkin puree can called for cans of evaporated milk – which I did not have.  But, because daughter #2 loves to put sweet condensed milk in her drinks, I did have cans of that, so found an easy recipe from Baking Bites.  I made some changes with the spices and also in how I cooked it at a consistent lower temperature for a longer time (because it was easier).

Sweetened Condensed Milk Pumpkin Pie
(or Four Ingredient Pumpkin Pie)

1 15-oz can pumpkin puree (approx 1 3/4 cups)
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp pumpkin spice ( I used 1/2 tsp each of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger)
2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

1 tsp worchestershire sauce (update on 2nd pie)

Preheat oven to 325F.
In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, sweetened condensed milk, eggs and pumpkin pie spice. Add in vanilla, if using. Pour into cooled crust.
Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until the pie filling is set and jiggles only slightly when the pan is jiggled.

My first pumpkin pie

How was it?  Not sure.  The crust was really flakey, which I like a lot.  The pumpkin filling was “meh” because I baked it for 60 minutes and by the time I checked on it, it didn’t jiggle at all.  Overcooked it.  This recipe was double enough for an 8″ aluminum pie pan so I will bake another one soon and keep the cooking time down.

Still, I would consider it a success because it is edible and tastes like a pumpkin pie.  And maybe it was easy, for a person who doesn’t really cook.

Update three days later

I backed another pie with the other half of the crust dough (me thinks I need to find a marble slab for rolling ease) and I added worchestershire sauce to the pie filling, just to try a zapper.  I also didn’t bake it for an hour – just 45 minutes in the oven – and it still was past jiggling.

However, I think it was a success!!!  Aunty can bake pies!

Taking the COVID test

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Pal Kay of Musings had a post about getting tested for COVID-19. It seemed really easy to do – using a swab, rotate in each nostril for 15 seconds, insert in a tube with twist top, and you’re done!

What made it even easier was registering online prior to at: https://www.doineedacovid19test.com/

I entered my name, age, ethnicity, any health issues, etc.  I then could chose where I wanted to take the test and I chose Palolo Recreation Center (my hanabata days playground).  I even chose the time of day – which was noon because it wasn’t too early or too late, but just right for this aunty.

Why did I decide to take the test? 

It was because of the 5 free cotton masks.  I wanted to have them to check out because Kay said they were very comfortable.  I have been making masks and trying to make them functional, comfortable and good looking.  And these cotton masks made me curious enough to be willing to swab my nostrils in front of strangers in face masks and plastic shields to get 5 of them.

Was it worth it? 

Yep, yep, yep.  There were more stations open than people waiting to get the test and it was super fast.  And, Aunty got her masks.  All cotton knit with a sort of stretchy binding.  They might be perfect to do some tie-dying and/or shibori with indigo.  Another project to stack in the to do list.

Meanwhile

Esther (my centenarian friend) and I will continue to do our beach day on Thursdays, except now I can sit alone on the beach instead of pretend to fish while she swims to her heart’s content in the water.  The most recent billboard at Hawaiian Rent-All on Beretania Street cracked me up:  “Lockdown Update:  People with no friends allowed to sit on a beach!”  Those guys are fun, super nice and helpful.  If you ever need to borrow a power tool or two that the Honolulu Tool Library doesn’t have, they are the place to visit and have a chuckle.

And, btw, I won’t know the results of my COVID test for a few days.  Kay’s result was negative.  Hopefully the same for me.

Update

Yippee!

Covid is a beach

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It is crazy how the whole world is changed because of Covid-19.

We have stepped back and slowed down, and maybe that is a good thing.

I started making masks and in the process, began selling yards of elastic at Ben Franklin in a locker at the Kaimuki store.   The sales people there all know Aunty by name and it feels like a warm and fuzzy family of friends there.

I go to the Hawaii Potters Guild with Esther Nowell, who just turned 100 years old this year.  I call myself her apprentice, for she is like a wizard with her knowledge and skill in ceramics, drawing, painting, and life.  She loves to go swimming at the beach – and so we have been going – and she gets into the water and swims down and back with me on the shore baking in the sun.

But, Covid is a b—–, and the newest rules say that I can’t sit while Esther swims.  So now, I have become a fisherwoman with a fishing pole without line, hook or bait, standing in the water next to more serious fisher people.

And you know what?  It is fun.

If anything, Covid has become a forced vacation from the normal, and it is actually rather nice.

Here are a few pictures during the Covid shutdown:

empty Kalakaua sidewalk!

Clean clear beaches!

Zoo tree, magnificent!

Kaimana Beach – uncrowded

Fishing, no more sitting!

When is forever not forever?

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For Aunty, it was yesterday.  I had mailed some masks and pattern last week to pal Kay of Musings.

I wanted to use up my “ugly” forever stamps and knew the postage for a fat envelope was $3.80 if it weighed under 4 ounces, so I put on 7 of those stamps and popped it in the drive through mail bin.  7 stamps x 55¢ would be $3.85.

Yesterday, after opening my PO Box I was surprised to see the envelope addressed to Kay with a note about additional postage needed.  I presented the clerk with the envelope and asked her about the note, and she was very nice at first and said that I owed more.  When I asked why, she pulled out a book that showed the ugly forever stamp with a value of 41¢.

I was flabbergasted and I must have expressed it because I said it was a forever stamp that is supposed to be forever.  She pointed out the fine print on the stamp that says “first-class forever” and not just “forever”.  She then told me that I didn’t have to be so dramatic.

Pause.

I must admit, I really did have to pause.  I was still in semi-shock about different levels of forever and her smack down was unprofessional.   I had seen it before from her and another of her co-workers when dealing with customers they were irritated with.  It made me realize that they were very unhappy working a job that they had to keep.

So what did I do? 

I asked how much more I owed, paid, and apologized for not understanding,   Yup, I wimped out.

And the first thing that popped into my mind was that I had a great new post that would be titled “When is forever not forever?”

Lesson learned – get rid of those old ugly forever stamps and avoid those two clerks.

Update:  These “first-class forever” stamps will still work on letters and large envelopes.  However, if the envelope is over 1/4″ thick, it becomes a parcel – and then those type of forever stamps are only worth 41¢.