Wonderful Saturday!

It's a Feast Day! I also did the Curvy Warrior Goddess Kettlebell Training today. Lisa was teaching the class. I used my lighter kettlebells (10#) because last week when I used my heavier kettlebell (20#) I could feel discomfort in my lower back. I prefer to build up my core muscles slower rather than risk injuring my back by getting too aggressive.

As I do on most mornings, I started with a proothie. Since it is a Feast Day I used avocado; this time I used half as much as I had used previously so it wouldn't be as thick. It was slightly less thick: I still needed to add more liquid to make it drinkable. But at least I didn't have to add a bubble tea straw to drink it this time.

About the equivalent of half an avocado.

Still thick.

This morning I also got a surprise phone call from Eleta! She did a conference call & connected Brienne who is in North Carolina. It was great! We talked for a little over an hour on a bunch of topics. I had been thinking about them since today was also Eleta's mini-Kwanzaa; I told them I would try to be there depending on when we went to Sam's Club. I started my workout after we got off the phone.

After I finished the kettlebell workout, I went to Sam's Club with The Roommates; it seems like we go there every other month to get supplies. Besides some of the staple food items we get, we also got paper towels (we were completely out) and toilet paper (we had about 9 rolls left). We also got some Kleenex so The Roommate Who Likes to Wash Dishes could stop using paper towels to blow his nose! As we were checking out there we saw a family with a Blue & Yellow Macaw at the next cashier.

Our haul.

The now restocked paper goods shelf.

None of us had lunch before we left to go to Sam's Club so on the way back we called an order in to EARL Kaimukī. The Roommate Who Likes to Wash Dishes had the Cubano and The Potential Most Favorite Roommate and I had the Turkey Jam Sam. I really liked my sandwich! We had also wanted Garlic Fires but they don't serve those at the Kaimukī restaurant, we would have to go to EARL Kakaʻako for those.

By the time we got back, unloaded the car, and put away the perishable & frozen items it was almost 2:30; the time when the Kwanzaa Zoom call was scheduled to end. As luck would have it, as Eleta was getting ready to sign off she noticed that I had just come on, so she did not sign off. Two other people whom I had met but did not know well signed off to do other things, but Brienne & Jen stayed on. I was eating my lunch during the 1st hour or so. Eventually, Jen had to leave to make dinner with a Turban Squash that she was asking for recipe suggestions on; so it was down to only Eleta, Brienne, and me. About an hour later Jen was sort of back; it was really Isaiah calling on Jen's phone. He and Susan had just got home and had great news to share; Isaiah's photo shoot photos were now up on the website of Heffner Management where they have just signed a contract for him to be one of their models! We got to all congratulate Isaiah before he had to leave for dinner (and homework). Susan stayed on until she had to finish making her sourdough bagels.

Proud Mom Susan showing off Isaiah's photos.

This photo was taken by another photographer.

We heard jingling noises while Susan was talking; here's the culprit.

While Susan was looking for the photos of Isaiah taken by the 1st photographer, we got to see photos of the family flock. She left shortly after that to finish making her bagels; they were on the last of the 2 rises. She needed to boil them for a minute on each side, then they go in to the oven to bake for about 25 minutes.

About an hour later, Jen texted us photos of the Turban Squash and the soup she made out of it. But there were no photos of bagels; they were still being worked on. After they signed off again, we continued talking; Trish joined us when she got up from her nap. It was good to see her, too! 

The Turban Squash. (Photo by Jen)

The yummy soup. (Photo by Jen)

Before they ended the call, Eleta & Brienne showed me sketches they and Brienneʻs mother-in-law have made over the past few weeks using prompts from an app called Sketch a Day. Eleta made small 1" x1" sketches that were plays on words; Brienne made larger sketches as did her MIL. 

The app.

Eleta's little sketches.

Two sketches by Brienne's mother-in-law.

The next mini-Kwanzaa will be in December; Eleta wants to do a Netflix party. She wants to watch Jingle Jangle so she tried it out this afternoon. She tried several different ways to get it to play but was unable to get it to work; she will be figuring it out in the next month or so.

It looked promising but didn't work.

Susan tried also but this is as far as it got.

Eleta tried again.

This is what she sounded like.

And this is what we sounded like.

I shared with them about Kai's favorite Christmas movie, but was unable to remember the name. All I could remember is that Bruce Willis was in it. So Eleta Googled "Bruce Willis Christmas movie" and found it!

Eleta's screen share.

Trish said at a training they had at work, they were told the COVID-19 aerosol particles could stay suspended in a closed room for a couple of days and was wondering if that was true. I asked if they had experienced sunlight streaming in to a room and watching the dust particles floating around in the beam of sunlight. They all had. I told them that's how an aerosolized COVID-19 viral particle behaves; it's so light it can stay floating around on the tiniest air current for a while. So wear your mask! We finally got off the phone about 6:30 my time because Eleta & Trish had to make a supply delivery to a homeless shelter & Brienne had to get to bed so she could get enough rest for tomorrow.

It was cloudy again in Kohala; the solar panels generated only 11.3 kWh today. I was telling Eleta she can look at this part of my blog to see how sunny it might have been during the day. So if she watched this for a while she will get a rough idea how comfortable (or not) that she might be when she comes to visit me when I am on Hawaiʻi island.

This is about half what it is on a sunny day.

A little humor from my Facebook friends.

There were 163 new COVID-19 cases reported today for a total of 17,099 known cases; this big jump is due to 50 new cases reported at the Waiawa correctional facility today. But not all the test results are back yet so there will likely be more. I wonder if we will be doing the follow-up calls on them? There were also 7 new deaths reported for a grand total of 231 deaths. The 7-day case average for Oʻahu is 75 with a positivity rate of 2.6%.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Enola, CJ, & Daniel!