CELEBRATING DEAN AND VALERIE

Today was the day Dean and Valerie had their California reception to celebrate their June 1st wedding in Hawaii.

 

Although the party was scheduled to begin at noon, Dean and Valerie and I arrived at the reception site at 7:30 a.m. to help get things ready.  Dean and Valerie's friends, Xavier and Dee, hosted the reception in their beautiful Escondido home which overlooks a lake.

 

When the party ended, Dean gave it an eleven out of ten rating.  Everything was perfect:  The weather, the food and the atmosphere.  I even got to give a brief speech to enlighten the guests to some facts about Dean that they previously could not have know. 

 

All fifty guests joined me in doing an impersonation of Dean's answer to me when I asked him several months ago if there was good chemistry between him and Valerie.  After I showed everyone how to impersonate Dean we all, in unison, reenacted Dean's response to that very important question:

 

"Ooooooooooh, YEAH!"

 



 

Part of the deck at Xavier and Dee's home.

Valerie decorated all the cupcakes last night and early-arriving guests this morning helped display them on cupcake towers before the multitudes arrived.

Valerie had her hair straightened for the event.

Dean made himself useful in the kitchen.

Dean and Valerie mix it up with their guests.

Mario drew caricatures throughout the afternoon.  Some were pretty good.

My caricature didn't really look very much like me, in my opinion.

Dean and Valerie cut the cake.

The father of the bride and the brother of the groom.  Charles gave a sweet speech about Valerie just before I gave a not-quite-as-sweet speech about Dean.

As Dean's big brother, I am committed to make sure that nothing ever stands between Dean and Valerie.

After most of the guests left, Dean pulled out his guitar and entertained the party stragglers.

Among Dean's song selections, he modified Nat King Cole's hit, Sweet Lorraine, by changing only one word.

I've just found joy
I'm as happy as a baby boy
With another brand new choo-choo choy
When I met my sweet Val'rie, Val'rie, Val'rie

She's got a pair of eyes
That are brighter than the summer sky
When you see them, you'll realize
Why I love my sweet Val'rie

Now when it's raining, I don't miss the sun
Because it's in my baby's smile
And to think that I'm the lucky one
That will lead her down the aisle

Each night I pray
That no one will steal her heart away
I can't wait until that lucky day
When I marry sweet Val'rie

 

FLYING SOUTH

My little brother, Dean, got married early in June in Hawaii, where he has lived for several years.  He married one of his neighbors, Valerie, whom he met a couple of years ago when he moved from Hilo to Pahoa.

 

Most of Valerie's relatives, however, live in Southern California so Dean and Valerie planned a September wedding reception in Escondido for friends and family on the mainland.

 

Since I hadn't seen Dean since last October, and since I hadn't yet met Valerie, I just simply had to go.  I flew down today and their reception will be tomorrow.

 

The invitation.

I arrived at the airport in Medford at about 6:30 a.m. this morning.

While waiting to board the plane, I passed the time by alternating between watching the sunrise and watching my own reflection in the airport window.

The plane leaving Medford was quite small.  I counted 29 total seats.

Waiting for takeoff on a rainy morning.

Takeoff.

Leaving the upper and lower Table Rock mountains behind.

Passing over my house on the way from Medford to San Francisco.

I've always been awed by the majestic sight of clouds beneath me.

Landing in San Francisco on a sunny day for a brief layover before continuing to San Diego.

Arriving in San Diego.

After landing in San Diego, I rented a car and drove to Vista, where I hooked up with Dean and Valerie.  We did some prep for tomorrow's reception with Valerie decorating cupcakes, Dean assembling a cupcake holder, and me tying balloons together.

While Valerie continued working on cupcakes, Dean and I ended the afternoon with a fine dining experience at the world famous Jack-In-The-Box.

SISTER-BROTHER TIME

My sister, Judy, and I try to get together at least once a year.  This weekend was one of those times.  I got up early Friday morning, pulled out of the driveway before the sun came up, and arrived at Judy's place about seven hours later.

 

We spent time looking through old photographs, eating out, watching television, attending a musical production, and yakking a lot.

 

This morning, insomnia hit around 2:00 a.m.  I tried to get back to sleep, but once it became apparent that sleep would continue to elude me, I put my suitcase in my truck at about 3:00 a.m. and started driving, arriving home around 10:00 a.m. this morning

 

Amazingly, I'm not all that tired.

 

Since this was to be a relaxing trip, I decided to take time to stop occasionally and smell the roses and watch the sunrise.  There were no roses along the way, but about two miles north of Yreka, I stopped at a Vista Point and watched the sun come over the horizon.

A few additional miles south on I-5, I stopped at a rest area and tried to get a photo of Mt. Shasta.  Smoke from California wildfires, however, obscured the view, but Mt. Shasta towers above the building in the middle of the photo.

Judy and I get ready to go out on a date.

I try my skill at taking a selfie, while Judy uses sign language to say, "All we are saying is give peace a chance."

We arrive at the 6th Street Playhouse to watch the musical, Spamalot.

While sitting in the audience, we laughed a lot at Spamalot.

Before leaving Judy's place this morning, I remembered to set the trip odometer to zero.  From her house to mine is over 340 miles.  All together, I drove about 700 miles since leaving The House on Oak Valley two days ago.

A HALF-PERGOLA WITH A TRIANGLE TOP

The urge to build another pergola this weekend came spontaneously in response to something Debra said:  "You can't see our tree with the purple flowers behind those other two trees."

Frankly, I hadn't even noticed the tree with the purple flowers.  It's in a corner of the backyard behind an ugly tree and a thorny tree.  But once I saw it, I wasted little time cutting down the ugly tree and the thorny tree.

That was two days ago.  The project is now done.



At the far end of our patio, an ugly tree can be seen to the left and a thorny tree to the right.  The tree with the purple flowers is hidden behind them.  The ugly tree and the thorny tree are now gone.

This is what was hidden behind the other two trees.

With the two unwanted trees removed, I tied a rope around the remaining tree and pulled it away from the fence so that I would have room to build the half-pergola.

Only three posts support this new structure. Two of them are shown here propped up with 2x4 studs early in the project.

The three posts and the triangle-shaped top are in place.

Rope-eye view.

Additional support is added to the structure.

Wire mesh is attached to the structure for the tree to climb.

The rope has been removed from the tree and the branches are attached to the wire mesh, completing this two-day project.

View from the trumpet creeper, which was planted only two months ago and is already providing overhead shade for the original pergola.