The House has Windows and Doors

Our house has been under construction for a year now, with most of the time spent excavating with hand tools to create a foundation. As of 30 June 2007, we have windows and doors installed. Well, we have to wait for two fold-away window walls to be delivered before the house is officially sealed up and ready for installation of finish materials. My Dad and I are getting really excited!

This is what the house looked like just before the front door and windows were installed.


And here's another photo, taken from the canyon in back of the house, just before windows and doors were installed. Notice the unusual pattern of window cut-outs on the left side of the picture.


The front door is 4 feet wide and 8 feet tall, and is made of metal with reeded glass. It's so sturdy it feels like a bank vault door! The mom of one of my friends said she saw the door and could tell the house was going to be a bachelor pad. She said that no woman would ever choose that door. I guess she doesn't like it...!


Rough plumbing and electrical were completed by the end of June, and the place looked a mess.


This photo shows the pattern of windows on one side of the house, with one series of windows stacked symmetrically from the bottom of the first floor to the top of the third floor.


The studio on the ground floor is completely sealed up, with all of the windows and doors installed. The six opaque windows on the left of this photo are in the bathroom, and the French doors will lead out to the patio and pool.

Father's Day at Disneyland

On 17 June 2007, my Dad and I, along with Grammy, Papa, Uncle Terry, Aunt Melisa, Gabe, and Avery, spent the day at Disneyland. It was a perfect day!

Gabe and I posed by Thunder Mountain, which was a really fast ride.


The next day, we went to the Disney California Adventure Park. It had an amazing roller coaster that started out by being launched forward into a loop. Gabe and I loved that one so much that we had my Dad take us on it twice.

All of us posed in the Hollywood backlot area of the park.

Greek Festival

On 10 June 2007, Grammy, Dad, and I attended the annual Greek Festival in our neighborhood.


I played on an inflatable slide, watched kids do traditional Greek dances, and ate Greek food. Grammy carried an umbrella to shield us from the sun.

Dad's Trip to Egypt - Part 2

Sharm el Sheikh is a resort town on the Red Sea, and my Dad went there after visiting Cairo. He said the two places couldn't be more different. Cairo was crowded, smoggy, and chaotic. Sharm el Sheikh was pristine and peaceful. Dad stayed in a resort that caters to Germans, Brits, Italians, and Russians. The resort staff told my Dad that he was the only American who had been there in a long time.

The resort had a private beach with umbrellas made of reeds, and "sun beds" (what we call lounge chairs). My Dad said that every day, people sat in the same sun beds on the same schedule and talked to the same people. By the third day, my Dad said he felt like he was living a scene from the movie Groundhog day.


My Dad claimed the water was even warmer than that in the Caribbean, and just as clean.


Even though the temperature was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day, some people used a set of 3 hot pools!


This is a picture taken from the resort's pier, looking back to one of the restaurants and some of the rooms.


From the pier, my Dad said you could simply look down into the water and see dozens of beautiful varieties of colorful fish. He swam over a small stingray, by some tiny jellyfish, and past some eels. He said it was the best snorkeling he's ever done.


This last picture is of the pool outside my Dad's room. He took the photo early in the morning, before the mob of people had staked out their usual places (just as people did down on the beach).

Dad's Trip to Egypt - Part 1

My Dad took a trip to Egypt in late May/early June 2007. On the trip he visited Cairo, the nearby pyramids of Giza, and a resort town on the Red Sea called Sharm el Sheikh. Here are some pictures from his visit to the pyramids of Giza.

Dad told me that the pyramids of Giza are the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that still exist, and were built about 4,500 years ago!

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is the largest of the 3 pyramids of Giza, and is made of approximately 2.3 million limestone blocks, weighing an average of 2.5 tons each! My Dad said that you have to see it in person to get a feel for how truly huge it is--even standing almost 100 meters away, the whole pyramid can't be captured in a single picture.


My Dad stood on the pyramid. which looks like it reaches all the way to the sky.


From a great distance, you can see all 3 of the pyramids of Giza, with modern Cairo encroaching in the background.


Before the trip my Dad claimed he wouldn't ride a camel... but here's evidence that he did. My Dad said that it's really difficult to stay on the camel when it stands up and when it gets back down onto the ground. He also said the camel smelled really bad and made sounds like Chewbaca from Star Wars. He was just glad the camel didn't spit at him or try to bite.


The Sphinx also is on the site of the pyramids of Giza. My Dad said it's a good thing the Sphinx's nose fell off, because less than 100 meters from its face is a Pizza Hut/Kentucky Fried Chicken combo restaurant. Ewwww...


The beautiful desert at the pyramids.