June Highlights

I know it has been a while since my last post but I wanted to build up the background to the day Rachel officially became our daughter, August 7, 2009. That was a great day!

But June was a great month too, starting with a BBQ at the only local convenience store, where they had an open mike and karioke set up. A couple of people brought their instruments to play along. There was a little hesitation on everyone's part, and then you-know-who stepped up to the mike. It was Rachel the crooner.

Rachel delighted the folks there with "Jesus Loves Me" and everyone sang along. Actually quite touching; everyone singing was probably a Kodak moment. Or a Memorex moment, it being audio and not a photo and all... Well, you get the idea.

June was also the month we had some concrete delivered in the construction of some water tank structures on our property. As this was our first time "calling out" for a concrete we overdid it. We had two slabs to lay, and when all was said and done they about 8 inches thick -- about twice the thickness we needed. But as I learned with setting concrete, you can never have too much, but you can have too little.


These are the before photos of the two slabs we laid that day. (I admit it: this is interesting only to me because I put together the rebar and forms that were used.)









On the actual day of the concrete delivery we had several kids to help with the work. In addition to Rachel we had kids belonging to Neil Adams, a friend of ours from church who helped us with the forms and rebar, and Harold Hayes, another friend of ours from church who worked for the concrete delivery company.

For me and Martina it was a big day because we were so used to our property being a baren, empty property mostly used for picnicking and dreaming of having a house there someday. Having some serious concrete slabs there changed things, at least a little.

At times the kids were a pretty good cheering section, or at least a good distraction. Here, Harold's son Josh is getting blamed for something.





Niel must have known I was taking this picture, because his pose looks pretty manly and action-oriented. You know, I also wore some galoshes, and they got just as messy as Niel's did. I am manly too...




Of course we put Rachel to work. I am sure she never experienced anything like this in India, but she was actually good at smoothing over the concrete after the truck dropped it off. We had her write her name and the date in one corner of the rectangular slab.



Here is typical photo of the day's action, and it is union labor at its best (without the pay, of course). I can count 1 person working about about 5 people watching.


I think the end results looked pretty good. Now we will put 2500-gallon water tanks on the slabs, and then build decorative little cottages around the tanks so that they look like they fit in in a Napa County hillside.

This is the finished rectangular slab, which will someday support a 10x12 shed with a 3-foot stoop. The shed will be covered with stonework and have a fake-copper roof on top.




Here is the finished circular slab, which will eventually support a cylindrical shed with a fake-copper roof. Both sheds will have a dark wood door and at least one window with its own awning. This should look nice but at our current pace they might be finished in about 2019.







This is what I am talking about. The left here is a window at the local restaurant Travigne, and on the right here is a facade for a water tank at some vineyard off of Silverado Trail.




At the end of June Rachel and her mommy and daddy met up with Aunt Tamara and cousin Alex, who had come to Los Angeles for business. We all went to Universal Studios and had a blast!



Here is a picture of Rachel and me anxiously awaiting a visit from Frankenstein. Her expression pretty much says "is that who I think it is coming right towards me?"


It was Frankenstein. Or at least a guy in a Frankenstein outfit. Rachel was actually pretty nervous about this guy. He was a good sport about it all and went easy with Rachel. In return I spared him my Young Frankenstein jokes. Actually that is not entirely true: I asked him to sing for us just one verse of "Putting On The Ritz." I couldn't resist. (Hey, give me a little slack -- I was the tacky American tourist who went to that travel bookstore depicted in Notting Hill and asked if they had the latest John Grisham book.)

This is a picture of Rachel meeting Bart and Bart's sister (I can never remember her name(D'oh!)). Bart gives a "thumbs up."

Curious George was eager to meet Rachel. Had I watched any episodes at all of Curious George, or even the movie, I might have had something semi-witty to say to him. Heck, even if I had seen the trailer of the Curious George movie... But it was a moment in joke history that is now gone forever...


Rachel just had to meet and take a picture with Dora. We told Dora that Rachel never misses a Dora episode on TV, and that Rachel has 2 Dora dolls, one of which sings "buenos noches." This is the same Dora doll that kept waking me up in the middle of the night in India when Rachel would press her belly throughout the night. I asked Dora if she could "keep it down a little" next time she is in India with a family who is experiencing jet-lag. Dora didn't have much to say in response.

Towards the end of a long day of taking rides, walking, visiting cartoon characters, and being frieghtened by the Jaws and Psycho sets, Rachel gets a well-deserved foot massage.

All in all, it was a great visit with Tamara and Alex, and a great ending to the eventful month of June. Next posting I will bring everyone up to date on what happened in July.
--Tom