A little sunning on the back porch. Someone must be enter- taining. There's so much to see in life!

Now here's sumpin you can get your fingers into! And you even get a fistfull of fur with little effort (but a tight grip). "Butter" kitty is quite content with any such shenanigans. In fact he was kneeding away on the cover while this was going on...

Here's a great sling invention which can be adjusted for any occasion. It's long enough to hang yourself if you get too frustrated :^)

Someone in there seems quite content with it however!

Now this is what Gramma's really like: baby watching! Every minute that Aria puts the baby down Gramma wants to be snuggling with her and cooing over her. It's great to watch. Sasha is the best baby! She smiles at everybody and lets anybody pick her up without a fuss. But if she's awake she's on the move, picking up anything in reach and rolling around and making crawling efforts.

The day after my return our daughter, Aria, and her 5 month old baby, Sasha Layli, arrived for a month-long visit. Here's gramma grooving on the recently changed baby. (She was hands-on for four babies of her own, so now she can just watch the diapers gettin changed. Justice is wrought!)

I'm back!

Sorry that there hasn't been any posts since my return to Costa Rica... I got back to four home inspection jobs waiting, one after the other. This photo is one of the homes. (I'm still working on the report which, with photos and text, takes at least a full day to write.) This was one of the most beautifully designed and constructed homes I've seen here.

Here my last photo of my trip to Florida: David and Gianni's car and apartment in Hallandale Beach. They will soon be leaving both for their move to Costa Rica (August). Happy day that'll be!
David and Gianni: I send deepfelt gratitude and thanks for all your warm hospitality during my stay with you guys!
Next: blog pics from Aria and Sasha's visit to CR.

Last Florida Days

Shortly before my return to Costa Rica David and Gianni went on their first journey to Albuquer- que, NM to visit our family there. Here's David with his sister Aria and her 5 month old babycita, Sasha. (See the family links on the right for more pics.)

One last coffee break before leaving Jason and heading back to Miami. (We arrived at dawn, and some people had to go to work later that morning!)

After the meal we walked it off, up and down Atlanta's streets.
We were very surprised that, on a Monday, the streets were so free of traffic! This appears to be a very laid-back town. We saw lots of very nice parks and decorated sidewalks, etc., but so few people on the streets. How do they do it?

We enjoyed a great Malasian style meal and caught up on all of Jason's adventures and plans.

Well, we can always consult the free tourist newspaper! But, it turns out there's a restaurant just across the street. More food? These youth surely have hollow legs to store it all!

Humm, where shall we go? Jason is the only one who knows the area but was not sure what we could all do together...

We met up with Jason at the huge Atlanta Aquarium, but due to the high entry fee and the two hour plus tour we decided that we'd rather just hang out with him.
Here we are wandering around the CNN headquarters. (We didn't take that tour either.)

Heading back to Florida, via Atlanta

The adventure continues. This time we are heading out early (some rested, some not) in order to catch up with our great Costa Rican buddy, Jason Ighani. Jason will be meeting us in Atlanta where he is studying and teaching. He will soon be leaving for a Baha'i teaching and service adventure with his sister, Laila, in some Eastern-Block countries for the summer.

Here's a closer view of the painting on the wall behind the previous group photo. It was done by Wilfred Lang whom I met when I was just a boy. Wilfred, where are you? If anybody knows, please tell us!

A nice group shot just prior to our having to split back to Nashville. Too bad I don't have any shots of us pigging out on "Marty's Muy Bueno Salsa"! She cans her home-grown tomatoes every season and we never had it so good. (What sweetie; she sent a jar home with each of us!)

Here's Nathaniel playing guitar with David, and Vahid singing. Nathaniel shared some pretty amazing compositions of his own with us. Everybody had a great time. Unfortunately it was just a short visit.

While David and Vahid and Nathanial were jambing on their guitars and singing their composi- tions in the living room I took a little tour around the house with Marty's mom, Joy Hill. Here she is in her ambiente. Joy worked for years in the publishing world and now spends her time reading and water coloring and enjoying life with Marty and Buddy part of the year and the rest with her son, Kit Hill, and his family in Madison.

Joy's husband, and Marty and Kit's dad, was Lewis Hill, one of the founders of Pacifica Foundation, the first listener's sponsored radio (KPFA in Berkely, California).

This little piece is one of Marty's paintings. She does this sort of amazing work as a hobby!

Next, still in Nashville area, we went to visit my long lost sister, Marty Dehart, and her family. (Well, we'll call her my sister. Our family is so complicated that you don't wanna ask what's the connection...anyway, I 've known Marty since she was a newborn babe. She's still a babe, no?)

Marty is a wonderful artist and natural scientist! She can tell you every detail in the life of any given dog, cat, bird or creature you might want to ask about. I always recall her as a tiny girl with a fist full of frogs, pollywogs or crickets-- delighted with every one!
Marty is here with her son, Nathaniel, me, David and Gianni.

Eventually Sahba and Juliet showed up and the fun began! (OK, so I look a little under the weather. Hey, I'm 65 and these turkeys never let a guy get any sleep!)

Our gang went out in the evening to meet Juliet and her husband, Sahba at the Cafe Coco in Nashville. This was an amazing meeting place for a diverse crowd. Open 24hrs, and we saw a steady stream of customers pouring in. Most were students from nearby universities.

Zoom in on the message board to get a better idea of the ambiente...

Ruby was such a great hostess! She continually whipped up feasts, whether for breakfast or dinner. Here's her guests pigging out. Thank you, Ruby!! Hope to see you soon back in Costa Rica...at least for a visit...

This is Ruby with Andrea, Charlie's mom. Each member of this joyous family is a complete gem!

Andrea and Ruby took a course in Real Estate together and passed the test with flying colors. Now Andrea is an official Real Estate salesperson. Ruby's continuing her studys in the field.

According to the Seals tradition in music, here is Spanky singing up a storm (with a little voice coaxing from Juliet)...

Gianni with "Spanky" the pup, and Carmen Seals. Carmen is Ruby's daughter -in-law (her husband, Josh Seals, is currently on tour in Hawaii with his brother Sutherland and his dad, Jimmy, and uncle, Dan Seals. They have been playing gigs all around the U.S. and will return from Hawaii on Tuesday, unfortunately too late for us to meet them). This is the first time the two Costa Rican girls got to know each other.

Spanky is Carmen's doggie. He doesn't like the slippery wood floors and will wait on the rug for someone to pick him up rather than try walking around on them.

This is a shot of Ruby with her grandson, Charlie. (He just made a goal at the mornings socker game and was pretty happy about that.)

Ruby and Jimmy just moved into this new house, built to their specs, and the back yard was not completely finished yet.

The weather was perfect, as was Ruby's coffee! It was great hanging out with them in their Nashville environment. (We're totally used to them being in Santa Ana, Costa Rica.)

At Juliet's mom's house. Ruby Seals opening the door to her back yard patio.

The five travellers with Juliet on her patio deck.
Afterwards, at our insistance, she treated us to a new song she had written and recorded with her brother Sutherland. She has some basic recording equipment in her little bedroom studio and claims that it would have sounded much better on her dad's equipment. Sounded great to me!

With the perfect GPS guidance system we arrived at Juliet (Seals) Ferdowsi's front door. Here, David knocking. We had the address but not the phone number so we hoped that we weren't waking anybody. (She was expecting us but didn't know the hour.)

After an all night drive the five of us (this trip it was David, Gianni, their two friends Darren and Vahid, and myself) stopped for an IHOP pancake breakfast in Nashville.

Gianni, half zonked from 14 hours of riding shotgun, putting on a gummyworm mustache...

This is the coolest device which Darren brought for our Nashville trip. He uses this Global Positioning System (GPS) for his work with FEMA in hurricane relief. You can program your exact destination address and this program will guide you (visually on a US map, or by voice), right to it!

It guided us directly to Juliet Seals house in Nashville...(.5miles, 150 yards, 10 yards, etc.).

The speed indication was acurate, but no worries, surely we were in the passing lane (and the speed limit was 70).

More Travel Adventures

You can click to enlarge this photo of David and Gianni at the Dolphin Mall's "Enpanada" place (this is a popular fried cheeze or meat-filled patti which we enjoy in Costa Rica).
That same afternoon we took off on a trip to Nashville (photos to follow).

A day at the VA

OK, just to see if anybody's watching the blog... (well, I don't see any comments!) Today I spent practically the whole day at the Veteran's Hospital in Miami. This is the main purpose of my coming up here--to get treatments every 6 months. In this case they were operating on both of my poor big tootsies. For some reason, probably related to too much "Oldic Acid" (as my buddy Tony Schmitz calls it) in my system, both toenails started becoming ingrown, but not at the end of the toe like normal. These were growing under the skin on the side of each toe. Gross, no? Well, the doctors were very kind, considerate and careful to make it as painless as possible. (The only pain was from the four shots in each toe to numb them.)

Most of the time I was waiting for doctors, picking up meds and setting up future appointments; that's why it took all day. My lovely daughter-in-law, Gianni, was so kind to insist on accompanying me, so the waiting wasn't at all tedious.

Not everyone was in the photo, but this gives you an idea of the diversity.

So much bonding at this party!

You can see that Gianni is really in her ambiente with the kids!

Here they are with their feisty daughter, Camila. This is the first shot of her not moving! In the rear is Talieh and Tahireh (she and her twin sister, Bahiyeh, served at the Baha'i World Center with David).

This couple, Ekaterina, of Russian descent, and Hernan from Ecuador, were pictured previously on the blog. Here with Gianni enjoying some scrumptious refreshments.

Bumpa with some amazing ladies. Mrs. Rezaie, Giannina and..... Agnes. I'm not sure which Latin American country she comes from, but I'm wondering is she might be related to the same Agnes with whom I used to chat when I was a three or four year old! (I told her this story that my mother related to me: that I was the only child in about a hundred miles, on the California Coast where we used to live--Big Sur--and I used to get under the table or near a hollow wall and start up a very serious conversation with "Agnes". She was my invisible friend.)
So, I've been searching for Agnes for years and this is the first one I've met... Hummmn...

Check out the variety of cultures: Next to Mr. Rezaie is Vahid Ndobe, from Cameroon. On his right is Talieh Vahdat, a Persian girl who was raised in Brazil. On her right is Vahid's brother, Shoghi. Shoghi lived in England and Germany and speaks English, German, French and some (pieces and parts of) the Camaroonese dialects.

This couple, Lilly and Leigh, were a real delight to speak with. She has just become a Baha'i and he's studying the Faith. We have been assured of a home in China should we ever succeed in getting there!

I made a great new friend in meeting Ken (who is blind but that hasn't set him back any as an active and creative person). He's a Baha'i and is on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Miami. On the right is Mariam, the middle child of the Rezaies. She has a great spirit and a terrific sense of humor. Forget about getting any rest if you are around her! (She came over to D & G's place with her sister, May, and brother, Munib, and they stayed up talking and laughing until 3am!)

More Outtings: a tropical Devotional Gathering

We were all invited to attend a special Tropical theme devotional at the Rezaie home in Miami. The Rezaies are some pretty amazing hosts. They speak many languages, including Mandarin Chinese and Portugese, due to the areas where they have lived (after having escaped from Iran just prior to the revolution in the 70's).

To my great surprise and delight there were two Chinese families attending this night and they were the life of the party. (See here, sandwiched between Mr. and Mrs. Rezaie.)

This is a day I won't forget! My two sons in one place at the same time, and me with them!

Ali Visit- Ft. Lauderdale house

Ali's Mom, Dinna, on the left, his friend Maria Rita, Gianni, Bumpa, Ali and David. Ali had just returned from his first diving expedition with his new scuba gear and was one happy dude...

The second day outting (without the kids this time). Later we went nearby to meet Jere's oldest son, Ali.