Trimming the Cherry Tree

Happy Halloween, Everybody!!!

Now back to our stay in Illinois.

It was Sunday, September 30th and Tiffany mentioned that the semi-dwarf sour cherry tree we had planted was no longer a semi-dwarf, but now had aspirations to becoming a giant.

 



The problem is that it was beginning to interfere with the telephone, Internet and electric lines.

The pest control people said it was too close to the house and giving access to carpenter ants.

"Don't worry," said Art.  "We can take care of it."

It's amazing how the branches don't look so big until they are on the ground.

It requires a lot of work to cut the branches to 5 foot lengths and to bundle them for pick-up.

But then Tif and I figured since we were doing it, we'd better really cut it back while we were up there.

KC insisted on helping.  We let her tug on the rope to make sure the branches fell away from the house.

Tiffany then helped her pull so I could document the experience.

Hopefully this will do the job for at least a couple of years before the tree decides to reach for the skies again.  The cherry blossoms are beautiful in spring!

And then there were the gutters to clean.

Tiffany did have a punch list of things she wanted done.  Two things were checked off.

In the evening, I gave my son-in-law a back massage while KC took care of his feet.  I'm glad I could do something for one of my two top tech support people.

Ed made us one of his favorite Korean dishes, bi bim bop.

I really think Korean dishes are very flavorful.  You may not be able to make it into a helium balloon, but I'll bet it was tastier.

This hearty dinner would fortify us for the day ahead!

Alinea

On Saturday, September 29th, Tif and Ed had reservations for Michelin's top rated, Alinea.  It was to be their anniversary, birthday, every-holiday-imagined celebration.  For Art and me, Cheesecake Factory is our idea of fine dining.  I won't even say how much Alinea cost because it makes my hands shake to even think about it.

Here's the Menu.

The following are photos Tiffany took and her explanations (in pink) of what they ate/EXPERIENCED.

2nd course:  Steelhead Roe

We placed straw filled with salmon roe into this ice cup and sipped/ate the roe.

I'm rather surprised.  I know Tif is not a huge fan of fish eggs.  She must have eaten it though.

9th course:  Corn

Everything on the plate is from a corn plant.  The fuzzy stuff is corn silk.  Gray chalky stuff is corn truffle.  This was one of my favorite dishes.  The different textures and flavors were very good.

11th course:  Chanterelle

Different mushrooms served with asparagus, smoked dates, ham, etc. and served on a charcoal log and hot stones.  The smell of the charcoal added to the taste and experience.

Our son-in-law does NOT like mushrooms. This must have been a challenge for him.

13th course:  Lamb

We were served three cuts of lamb and given the plate of 60 different food compliments to try and make our own personal entree.

Gee... those lamb pieces are pretty tiny and I imagine not enough to try more of those condiments.

15th course:  Anjou Pear

We were served a pear and an onion brie concoction on a smoking stick of cinnamon.  The smell of the cinnamon added to the experience/taste.  This is one of the courses where the plate/holder was probably designed just for this dish.

Now this sounds quite tasty to me.

17th course: Balloon.

This was the most amazing dish.  It was Ed's favorite definitely.  I wish we could have had KC with us just to experience this.  It was a balloon made out of green apple taffy like substance and helium.  I had to hold mine to keep it from floating away before I ate it.  We were encouraged to suck in the helium first for fun and talking (with squeaky voices) before eating it up.

I wish there was a photo of them eating it.  I can't even imagine how you'd eat a balloon!

18th and final course:  White Chocolate

They laid out a gray silicon mat before a chef came to design-paint-deconstruct the final course.  This was a white chocolate ball filled with melons, meringue, cake, cotton candy and freeze dried strawberry puree.  On the outside is sweet cream sauce, sweet peas, edible  flower petals and freeze dried sweet peas and strawberries. 
  

And what did we dine on?

KC had macaroni and cheese (her favorite) and we had spinach lasagne.

As we were feasting on our little repast, KC said, "Grandma, aren't we lucky that we get to have this great dinner?"

What did we answer as we were dining with our favorite (albeit only) grandchild?

"ABSOLUTELY!"

Shopping!

After we took KC to school, Tiffany wanted to take us shopping.  She had a coupon for a free t-shirt at North Face.

And you KNOW Art needs another t-shirt, right?

After getting his rather nice Chicago t-shirt from North Face, we decided to go to L.L. Bean who were having a fabulous sale.

The rubber on Art's hiking boots had crumbled in Hawaii.  It's amazing how the Hawaiian climate does that.

These hiking boots were just his size (he's got really, really wide feet) and the 40% off reduced price made it too good to pass up!  (Now he's ready for his Molokai hike.)

Tiffany had Groupons for Mt. Everest restaurant which serves fabulous Indian food so she took us there for lunch.

Art loved his Tandoori chicken.  Doggone it!  I can't remember what I had.  It was all wonderful!!!

Next stop was Whole Foods where Tiffany wanted to get her dad his favorite berry pie from Michigan.

We later visited happily with a lot of our old neighbors and caught up on all the latest happenings.

We were just in time to pick KC up at school.  Tiffany always lets her play for several minutes before going home.  She and her new friend were having a fabulous time!  I was so pleased to see how much she was loving school and her new friends.  I was also amazed to see how much she had learned after only a month.

Tiffany and Ed do not allow TV watching on school days.  KC comes home and does her school homework, reads books and plays.

She was thrilled to have grandpa (and grandma) to play with again.




It was another full day and we went to bed early.  Unfortunately, we were also waking up early at 2:00 AM.  Our internal clocks were really having difficulty adjusting to the time change.  On the positive side, neither of us got sick this time.  We needed all our energy to keep up with KC.

POSTSCRIPT:  I'm sorry about the weird posts that are going up and disappearing.  I'm working on stories to go up of our trip before I forget and keep goofing up and clicking the button before I have it properly scheduled.   Sigh...  I must still be jet lagged.

First Class to Chicago!

My wonderful son-in-law, Ed used his airline miles to upgrade our United flight to First Class. This is one of the rare times, I was looking forward to the plane ride.

The first thing you marvel at is the leg room which is lovely.  The larger leather seats are also very comfortable.

We left on the 7:15 PM flight so dinner was served.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was stuffed.

But I had to make room for dessert.

Even though it was First Class, I couldn't sleep.  I really tried.  Maybe I should have had some of the alcohol that was offered, but I didn't want to upset my stomach.  Soon breakfast was served, but I was still full from dinner.  Ah well... I made a valiant effort to eat as much of this as I could.

Although the flight was listed on Expedia as being 8 hours and 24 minutes, it was only 7 hours and 34 minutes.  Maybe it was because we were in First Class?  I'm kidding.  I'm kidding.

Since we got there earlier than planned, our daughter, Tiffany couldn't pick us up right away.  She needed to take our granddaughter, K.C. to school first.

We could feel the cooler, dryer temperatures at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

When we got home, we saw that KC had hung up posters to welcome us back.  I loved the earrings she put on my drawing and grandpa's mustache and glasses on his.

Five year old, KC had also put place cards on the sofa where she hoped we would sit.

We later picked KC up from kindergarten after school was over.  Tif went to greet her and I saw KC looking past Tif to see if we were truly there.  It was such a nice feeling to see her face light up and hear her call out, "Grandpa!  Grandma!"

Next came tap dancing class.

It's amazing that those little tap shoes could make so much noise... ummm... I mean music.

We brought out the little Hawaiian dress we got her which she enjoyed, but what she was more excited about was the Hawaiian picture books that her great grandmother and we brought for her.
 

What she and Tiffany both loved were the mochi we brought for dessert.

Ed loved the Hawaiian coffee we brought for him.

We were feeling jet lagged and exhausted, but being with KC kept our spirits high.

photo from Wikipedia

We call KC the Energizer Bunny because she keeps going and going and going...

I think she was still going and going while Art and I crashed.

And that was our first day.

Travel Jitters

September 26th, 2012

Getting Ready for our trip to Illinois

OK, we're about ready to leave for Illinois.  We've had these Delsey suitcases for a few years and they've traveled very well.

However, there's only one thing really wrong with it and it's annoying!

The zipper tabs are just crumbling off!  One by one they snap off.  Perhaps we should replace the luggage, but the rest of the suitcase is doing quite well.  In fact they're doing better than the expensive luggage that someone (who shall remain nameless) bought.  The sides of their suitcase started fraying.

So here's my solution!

I used heavy duty paper clips and wrapped it with colored duct tape.  It may not look great, but it's doing the job as the tabs fall off one by one.

I'm pacing the house right now wondering what I'm forgetting.  Art says he's noticed I'm a bit cranky.

Really?  Me?  No.....

OK, it's true.  I'm tense.

I know it's silly because my daughter keeps our seasonal clothes in the attic.  We don't really have to bring any clothes at all.  But will the airplane be too cold?  We were on another United flight and it was freezing.  Then again, our son-in-law just upgraded our flight to first class so they'll probably give us blankets.

And yet I'm tense.  And now my luggage is falling apart.

Maybe I should bring more paper clips....

Back From Illinois

By the time you read this we will have returned from a month away in Illinois.  You already know that it makes me nervous to allow the world to know when we're gone from our home.  Therefore, I scheduled a month's worth of posts to go up automatically while we were gone from near the end of September to today.  It was not easy to come up with all those posts, but I enjoyed the challenge.

Chicago's "Bean" (Cloud Gate)

It feels like a bit of a time warp since I haven't actually left while I'm writing this in September.  I'm anticipating our journey and all the friends and family we'll be seeing while we're on the mainland.

From today I will have returned and will be posting about our trip to Illinois and the times we shared with the family we've missed so much.  We'll get to see our granddaughter's school and meet her kindergarten teacher.  Our son, Jon is planning to come and visit us from the East coast.  I've already got outings planned with teacher friends. We're also planning to meet up with lots of neighbors and friends. There's so much to squeeze into such a short month, but we'll do our best.

Time is so short.

Weird Nut

One of my favorite nuts are cashews.  I love the buttery taste and smooth texture.  I assumed that the shell must look like a walnut or pecan or maybe a macadamia nut.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this in the Star Advertiser a while ago!

I would never in a million years have imagine a cashew coming from something like that.  Apparently some people were considering raising cashews in Hawaii because they can survive on marginal farmland.

That top part is called a cashew apple and is juicy and sweet.  Apparently they even make juices from it in Latin America.

Wouldn't it be fun to see a grove of these trees in Hawaii?

You know how tourists sometimes don't realize that pineapples don't grow on trees?

Imagine how awesome they would think the cashew is.


POSTSCRIPT:  Ugich Konitari wrote a fabulous post/poem about the cashew which I found truly fascinating.  In fact, her post does link to the thought I had that the cashew looks rather like an embryo or fetus. 

More Helpful Ideas

My friend, Jean sent me more helpful hints and I thought I'd share them with you.

You know I've had times that I couldn't get the bucket under the faucet, but then I probably wouldn't have been able to find the dust pan.

Yes, there have been times when I've suffered getting the key ring to separate.  I just tried this and it works like a charm.

I wasn't going to post this.  With my luck I'd just fling paint into my face.  However, Art thought it was a great idea so I'm posting this for him.

I think this is a great idea!  I haven't tried it but it looks like it works in theory.

This looks like a great idea when grandkids come to visit.

I don't have  a good door where I can do this, but you might.

I really like this.  I wish I had one of those hard to open plastic packs to try this out on.  It never occurred to me to try a can opener.

There's a lot of cheap slippers where the thong falls out.  I guess the bread tag might help for a while, buuuut... wouldn't it leave a bumpy feeling by your toes?  Cute idea though.

I have no idea about this one because I don't recall our cars having hazy car headlights.

Wouldn't soap and water do the same thing?

I wasn't going to post this either, but Art liked it.  He just likes to recycle.

Cute idea, buuuut... if a thief at the beach was going to steal your stuff, wouldn't he (or she) just steal your whole bag?

I wouldn't leave your stuff on the beach unprotected anyway.

This is so cool, but do you have blue, green and yellow nail polish?

I have acrylic paint though.  I'll bet that might work.

Art should do this with his t-shirts.

Interesting.  However, I don't have any hose anymore since moving to Hawaii. 

If you have any great ideas, I'd love to hear it.

I'm still loving that cellphone charging holder I made out of the plastic bottle.