The Park Family Weblog

A May Hair Day

May 26, 2009

The day after Memorial Day (On Memorial Day, we had a nice visit from granddaughter and her husband) Ursi had made arrangements to go to Brentwood (Northern California, of course) so Andi could do up hers and Betty’s hair. I decided that that would be a good time to have Dave Bilbo come over and fix some electrical outlets and the kitchen ceiling fan that was making strange noises. Bilbo likes to fix things for people for free. A dedicated member of our church.

For him, the outlets were no problem.

And the kitchen fan took only a minute to tighten a loose screw

I gave Dave some tools I was no longer using and he was happy tot has them for his newly arranged garage workshop.

 

Ursi and Betty got home a bit late but their hair looked grand

Betty’s was so blonde; it looked like she had had some blonding stuff, which she didn’t.

And Ursi’s hair was shorter than it has ever been. Looked great.

We had supper together. most of which I set up when Betty phoned that they were minutes away.

Corian Caper Two

The Corian Caper Part Two

 As you may recall, Part  One  had to do with Fidel and Ransen tearing out the tile and taking out the old sink. Part Two starts with Andrew arriving with a truck full of sink parts. It turns out that Fidel, Andrew and Ransen are brothers, and each can do the complete job.

 Andrew arrives and checks the Corian load.

 

Andrew has to look at the plans.

He spends a lot of time insuring that the base for the sink/countertop is perfectly level.

 

He has to transfer the measurements to the sink/counter top. 

 

And drills the holes for the faucets.

 

And spends a lot of time polishing the counter top with very fine rouge polishing cloths.

 

Andrew calls his boss, Dan, to help him carry the sink/counter top into the kitchen. They both insert it in place

 

And check to insure it is in properly.

 

The next day, the Hmong plumber arrives. Toua is his name. We have never talked to a Hmong. He was born in Laos and came here with his parents.

 

Young and slender, he fits under the sink very well. He does a lot of stuff under the sink, out of sight of the camera.

 

Toua adjusts faucet.

Toua checks water flow.

Toua caulks.

Betty comes home and admires sink

And we smile every time we look at it.  

 

The Bar-B-Q Caper

Meeting J.R.

 

Brian phoned to say that he and wife, Kim, were coming to Sacramento to take us out to a bar-b-q place. The place he recalled fondly, the Memphis Bar-B-Q, was closed but we assured him that J.R.’s Texas Bar-B-Q lacked ambience but had excellent food.

Brian and Kim arrived in late afternoon, Thursday, May 7.

After inspecting the garden and eating cherries he brought as a Mother’s Day gift and some great pistachios for me, we set off for the Bar-B-Q place and arrived in good time since it is fairly close to our house.

At 4:30pm the huge warehouse restaurant had only one other couple eating there. The server said as we left that around 8:00pm the place would be packed.

The servers prepare the plates as ordered but we have to go pick them up. Brian insisted we order big so we would have leftovers for Mothers Day. He and Kim are going to be whale docents on Mothers Day so this was the reason for an early celebration. Also, it is their 16th Anniversary, another reason to celebrate. Incidentally, our granddaughter has to work so she cannot come up, either.

        We and Brian got the giant combination plates with pork ribs, giant beef ribs and slices of beef brisket plus sides of cole slaw, onion rings and French Fries. Kim, being alighter eater, had a brisket sandwich, which was still more than she couild finish.

Here we are with more food than a dozen people could eat.

JR himself came up to us and shook hands and introduced his 98 year old mother who was still driving, he proudly announced. Sorry, no picture.

      They provide really large Styrofoam boxes for the leftovers.

         And then to home. Brian and Kim wanted to get on home since their German Shepherd dog was alone in the kitchen and probably need to go for a walk.

Polynesian Party

Polynesian Party

We went to James and Jean Chew’s Methodist church for a Polynesian luncheon and dance program. This is another repeat blog since we went to the same affair last year. This particular church has much diversity: Chinese, Papuan, Fijian, Tongan, Hawaiian, African-Americans and others we could not identify. The Chews are very involved in the life of this church and we probably would never have gone if they had not been selling tickets.

James Chew was taking tickets.

Jean Chew was working in the kitchen with a Polynesian woman’

Some were selling things

And others were just standing around.

The serving line was well set up. We had a choice of a tri-tip steak sandwich, or a Chinese dinner. The latter seemed more interesting. No roast pig this year.

We got the dynamic young woman Pastor of the church to take our picture, looking smug and satisfied with our meal.

 

The dance program turned out to be mostly Hawaiian, maybe one Papuan. We did not see any Tongan dances which were a dramatic feature of our first Polynesian program. Following is an assortment of dancers without identification

Note the turtle poster. That seems to be a Polynesian icon.

And then we went home without seeing all the dance program. Maybe the Tongans showed up later.

Another Dentist Visit

Another Dentist Visit

We went to our favorite dentist, Dr. Jeff Geissberger, on April 28. It was like every other visit we make to Marin County, starting with a visit with Dave and Helen Jacobsen, doing the dentist thing, and having supper at Murillo’s Mexican restaurant in Vacaville. Hardly worth making a blog except for Dr. Jeff’s new little car which you will see later in the blog.

            We ate in the Redwoods Dining Room with Dave and Helen. We were introduced to Ms. Harkness, a former member of Dave’s church, who drives all the way from Rio Vista just to take them to medical appointments. Such dedication!

And the obligatory picture of Betty and Helen.

The dental appointment was for Betty who needed a tooth glued back in.

And here is Dr. Jeff’s Smart Car, a two seater with great gas mileage.

Critics say it is too expensive and too dangerous to drive on the freeways, but is a good around the neighborhood.

        We drove to Murillos and each had a Senior Special, Jim a tostada and Betty an enchilada. No Pictures. And then to home.