Mom's Fancy Pants

We went to Savers Thrift Store this morning. Fran told us about it when we were visiting with Doreen on Saturday. It's huge; Aunty Florence said it was too big, she could spend many more hours there than we did. But there were no walkers to be found. Instead, Mom got a belt with a smaller buckle and another pair of jeans. She has a pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans that she likes because they "don't have fat legs" (flared cuffs) so that is what she wanted. We found quite a number of pairs, apparently Amanda liked Gloria Vanderbilt too, and either lost or gained some weight and got rid of her collection. (Her sister Giselle also liked Gloria Vanderbilt jeans but we did not find as many of hers.) What was great about Amanda's old jeans is that they were hemmed up to the exact length of Mom's jeans so she won't need to do a thing to them. Thanks, Amanda!  

We met up briefly with Fran since she works at O'ahu Work Links which is in the same mini-mall as Savers. Fran also told us about Hawaiian Pie Company which is just around the corner. Because the road work had traffic backed up we decided to pop in and check it out. Hawaiian Pie Company is run by one of the grandsons and great grandchildren of the Holy's Bakery founders. (There is a photo of the original bakery in Kapa'au on the wall.) They carry the classic pies that made Holy's Bakery famous under the name "Grandpa Yoshio's Pies" (apple, peach, pear, and coconut) as well as a host of other varieties known as "Manoa Valley Pies" after their other bakery. We sampled the peach pear pie and the passion orange guava pear (POG) pie. We decided to go with the frozen POG pie since we still had some dessert left from dinner at Curt and Lori's. Their pies are a full 3 pounds and also contain the Holy's Bakery "secret" ingredient, butter. You can get them frozen or freshly baked; call in advance if you want it freshly baked.

Fortunately, there was an insulated bag in the back of the car. (The ban on single use plastic bags in Honolulu went in to effect last July. We keep a bunch of reusable bags in the back of the car.) This allowed us to make a quick stop for lunch at Utage Restaurant, which is about a block away. They specialize in Okinawan food but also have Japanese food and a few local favorites. And Green River soda. Mom and Aunty Florence shared an order of Goya Chanpuru with shoyu pork and I had the Okinawan Soba (which is like the Okinawan Soki Soba except it has shoyu pork instead of pork spare ribs). Okinawans are known for eating a lot of pork and are also known for being long-lived. Because of the large number of centenarians, the Okinawa Centenarian Study has been able to study more family variables and found that genetics is not the only thing that contributes to the longevity of Okinawans. (Dad is Okinawan. Mom is Japanese.)

L to r: Okinawan Soba, Goya Chanpuru

While at Utage, Mom reminisced a lot about her friend Kaye who used to take her to Utage for lunch. Kaye passed about 7 years ago so Mom lost her transportation to a number of places and events. Mom also talked a lot about raising bittermelon (aka goya) in her backyard. She said when I move back I will need to help her get her garden going again. Her big problem is she forgets to water things.

I noticed today that Mom was forgetting more words for things. However, when she forgets a word most of the time she is still able to describe what the word is that she is trying to remember. I frequently feel like I am playing charades.

It appears that Xander is having to now share his Korean soap opera time with Shiro. I saw Mom and Shiro "watching" Korean soap operas, while Xander lounged on the floor. Although she complains about them, Mom is now enjoying having the cats around. Dad has always been a cat person so he liked having them around from the beginning; they had to convince Mom that they were fun to have around.