Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Paula & Russell came for a visit today. They brought lunch; dim sum from Chun Wah Kam Noodle Factory. The box included 3 green manapua (aka hum bao); we think those were in honor of St. Patrick. Apparently they also make pastel colored manapua for Easter.

Top L to R: bao with custard filling, steamed manapua; bottom L to R: shiu mai, green manapua, baked manapua.

Russell & Paula arrived a few minutes after Yumiko, the CNA from Hospice Hawai'i, got here. When Yumiko first called to see if it was okay to come by this morning to do the bed bath, I told Mom she was coming. Mom said she was not going to take a bed bath, but I persisted and reminded her that she & Dad used to tell us to try things before we said we did not like it. When I took Yumiko to Mom's room, she grudgingly agreed to try it since Paula & Russell were coming to visit; she wanted to be clean and change her clothes.

Mom was all smiles when she was done with her bath and ready to see Russell & Paula. I brought her out in the wheelchair since she tires easily and can't make it to the kitchen without being winded.  

Top to bottom: Russell, Paula, & Mom.

One very nice development today was that the swelling in Mom's left hand went away completely. The heat was also gone. It looks entirely back to normal so may be she has dodged another bullet.

Last night I started an experiment to see if the ants would come to eat the stale pork rind. This is what it looked like this morning. Yes, it looks like the photo from last night, because it is ... there were no ants around it this morning.

Experiment #1.

Curtis came over this morning to stay with Mom while I took Dad to his doctor's appointment. (However, Dad declined to go.) While here, we discussed the use of old pork rinds as an ant repellent. So we devised an experiment to test its efficacy. It was set up at about 8:30 am using papaya skin as the bait.

Experiment #2, L to R: control (papaya alone), papaya with pork rind, & pork rind alone.

One ant was wandering all over the counter top. I don't know if it was the same one, but about 2 hours after I started the experiment I saw an ant about an inch away from the baits. As luck would have it, Mom decided to clean up my "experiment" when she came to the counter for lunch, so I had to start all over again.

Experiment #2, the subject is about 1 inch from the bait.

So after lunch, about 2 pm, I started experiment #3, using baked mochi as bait along with the stale pork rind.

Experiment #3, L to R: control (baked mochi alone), baked mochi with pork rind, pork rind alone.

After about an hour an ant came up to the baked mochi next to the pork rind. By 10 pm, however, all of the baits were still ant free. So either, ants don't like baked mochi and pork rinds, or stale pork rinds have a repellent effect that is effective for more than 3 inches! I will check the experiment tomorrow morning to see if time has an effect on the outcome.

Experiment #3, the subject approaches the bait.

This morning I saw Xander sleeping in the living room; I had to go over and poke him because he was in such an unnatural position I thought that his asthma had done him in. This afternoon, Chibi was also looking like a dead cat as she snoozed on the warm concrete.


Xander and Shiro don't seem to mind that the bed moves in funny ways under them while they sleep. In fact, they seem to like the valleys that it creates.

L to R: Shiro, Xander, & Mom.

Happy Birthday to Walt, Dennis, Jed, Uncle Pat, Kerrie, Joani, Sally, & Ashton!