How Many Spoons to Stir Coffee?

This morning when I set the table for breakfast I put a spoon and packet of sugar on the saucer of Mom's coffee cup. A short while later she had taken another spoon and was starting to walk across the kitchen balancing a spoonful of sugar in the raw. When I pointed out that there was already a packet of sugar on her saucer she put the other sugar away and went back to her seat. She opened the packet with the scissors, stirred it a couple times with the new spoon she had gotten, & tasted it. She immediately got another spoon from the silverware drawer, ignoring the clean spoon I had originally put on her saucer, got another spoonful of sugar in the raw, & walked across the kitchen with it. She gave it a couple stirs & said it was sweet enough. When I washed out her cup there was a layer of sugar on the bottom of it; there always is. It was amazing to see that her memory was so short she could not remember that there was a clean spoon right next to her saucer.


After breakfast Aunty Judy came by to stay with Mom while I took Xander to the vet. Last week his breathing was very raspy, he was coughing more than usual, & he threw up almost every day. Last year he was diagnosed with feline asthma & got a cortisone shot since I was not going to be around to give him any daily medications. Dr. Sylvester-Palumbo from the Cat Clinic had seen him last year; she prescribed prednisolone tablets for him this year. We'll start him on once a day for a week to get the inflammation under control, then reduce to every other day for 2 weeks, then on an as needed basis. Dr. Sylvester-Palumbo said since Xander had no symptoms until last week, vog may not be the trigger, it might be pollen of whatever is blooming now, so I will have to pay more attention & see when he gets worse.

Xander being invisible.

Aunty Judy's daughter Aimee & granddaughter Eden joined us for lunch. We had a great visit! All of them love cats so they spent a lot of time with Xander & Shiro. We had a nice assortment of dishes: garlic fish, salmon, chicken, inari sushi, yaki soba, rice, & chicken musubi.

Eden & Mom.

Aimee and Eden had just come from the Kahala Mall. While there they picked up a little dessert for Mom at Minamoto Kitchoan. There are 2 stores in Hawai'i, the other is at Ala Moana Center.




As we were saying good bye to them, Mom noticed that her favorite hibiscus was blooming. When I first arrived in June she wanted me to cut it down since it was dropping leaves and not looking well. I'm glad I decided to do more research & figure out what might be wrong with it. However, I have not had a chance to figure it out, but perhaps it was just needing more water. Or it may be it's doing its final effort at preserving the species by trying to set a bunch of seeds before it dies. I will have to contact the UH extension office and get some advice.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

Happy Birthday to Lynda & Deborah!