Just a Little Better

Instead of saying things like, "the pool goes in" or "the roof is finished" or "the second floor is put in..." etc., I can now only report small changes in the house as the finishing gets worked on. The front of the house looks a bit better with the stones almost finished...more ceilings were put in, and the overall look of the house is just a bit better. Butch came with me this morning to see the house. He hadn't visited in some time, so there were big changes since he was there last.

Friday Afternoon

Sorry for the lack of updates....there really has not been much going on this past week. Let me try to sum up....

1. Tika has continued her hormone treatment every day this week. She has to drive an hour to the doctor's office for a blood test every day, has to give herself a shot in the stomach every day, and has to sniff some stuff up her nose. I keep telling her she has a drug problem.....sniffing stuff up her nose, and carrying needles around....she refuses to go in for help though....haaha....

2. In relation to number 1 above, her hormones are where they should be, and the doctor today told her that her eggs are big and strong. We might be ready for egg harvesting next week....and I will need to follow her to donate my little guys to mix in with her little guys. At least for me, it is not a painful experience....

3. We had our first parent conference about Kayla this afternoon. The report was mostly good. She needs to work on self-confidence, however, when in a group. She is very shy talking in front of a group. She is a good student though, and is very sweet, kind, happy, and cooperative. Overall, we are pleased with her progress. They will learn how to cut and hold a pencil in the next few weeks....funny.

4. I played my first Colameco Cup golf match against a New Zealander, and kicked his butt 3 and 2 in a nine hole match. I didn't really play that well, but he played worse...so a win for the Americans. I think the Americans are leading in the race so far....I play an 18 hole match tomorrow against Dave Tarcy. I rarely beat him, so need to be on top of my game. I think he is a sandbagger as he claims a handicap of 18, but he shot a 37 the other day on a very difficult course....I think he is more like a 10 handicapper....oh well....would be great if I play well tomorrow.

5. The new iMac is amazing, and I love it. The only thing wrong is that I couldn't get it to connect to the internet. I got that fixed today....I had the wrong password entered, and found out the hard way....I brought my entire computer into the telcom office to have them enter the settings....pretty embarrassing when we found out it was the password that was wrong....

6. I heard earlier that my sister, Pam is going to have a baby girl. She already has two boys, so it is very exciting news to hear that she is going to have a girl. Pam, if you are reading this, sorry I didn't get back to you to congratulate you on your news. We told Kayla, and she is very excited to have another girl cousin.

Just HAD to HAVE ONE

Ok, I know what you are thinking....why did Scott go out and buy a new Mac? Well, Tika says it is because I am an Aquarius....but I just tell Tika it is a "guy" thing. I just got so sick of my old Mac dragging its feet when working with Lightroom and Photoshop CS3. I mean it was getting real slow. The school gives out interest free loans when purchasing new technology, so I thought this was the time to dive in and get a new iMac. So here it is....my two Mac's at home. I am going to move the old G5 to my classroom at school, and I will use the new iMac at home.

It is a BEAUTIFUL machine, and it just flies with Lightroom and Photoshop. I put 4 gigs of RAM into the machine, and man, it performs to its expectations. I am one happy camper. Dad, if you are looking at this, I am sure it won't be long before you go out and get one for yourself...you won't regret it.

Lookin' Like a House

It has been a week since we last visited the building site. They have been working on the ceilings and walls of the upstairs. Tony and Moon have told me that they will work from the top down with the finishing.

This room below will be our upstairs TV Room. The glass bridge from the front staircase will enter from the back of this photo, and there will be a spiral staircase in the front left of this photo...

There will be wood flooring stretching from the concrete to the steel beam forming a small balcony that overlooks the downstairs terrace and pool.

Construction for the Balinese gazebo by the pool has begun...

This is my favorite room of the house....my office. Lots of windows, and a great breeze upstairs, and views of the entire property...

This is a view from the back of the upstairs TV Room looking out towards the upstairs terrace...

Happy Birthday Dad

OK, don't ask why I am using this photo for Dad's birthday....I was browsing through my photos for this entry, and for some reason, I thought of Dad when I saw this photo. I am sure Dad will be playing golf, and will be playing with his new iPhone...have a great birthday!!

Happy Birthday Rob

Today was Rob's birthday (Rob is pictured on the left). Tracy, Rob's wife, asked me if I could take him out to play golf. Since his two daughters were born, he has not been able to get out to play with the boys, so today was his special day when he was given "permission" to play golf with the boys. Butch and Gerardo joined us, and we played up at Lido Lakes which is a gorgeous course up in the mountains. Butch just started playing golf, and Gerardo is a beginner as well. So, I teamed up with Butch, and Gerardo teamed up with Rob, and we played a scramble. It was a great day out for golf....and the traffic to and from the mountains was amazingly light....that is always a reason to celebrate.

Finishing Work Begins

The roof is on the house, and the doors and windows are being made in Central Java as we speak. They have begun to put the "rocks" on the front of the house. It is a pain staking task, and has taken 5 days to do the work pictured below. I wouldn't want that job...

The ceilings on the second floor are going in....this guy is working on the ceiling in my office...

This is a shot of our partially covered terrace and the TV room on the second floor...

That's our bedroom on the bottom floor, and the office on the top right. Cool roof, heh?

Kayla at School

Kayla is doing great at school, and has made some new friends. I would like to be a fly on the wall while she is in class, but they don't allow us really big old people in the class while learning is going on.....so, we have to suffice with photos in the office after class....

Thursday Update

These photos have nothing to do with my blog entry...I just thought they were pretty cute photos of Kayla playing with her blocks.

So, what's goin' on out here?? Well, not much...just a couple of things happening...

First, did you hear about the 7.9 quake yesterday? We heard on the news that there was a big quake at around 6:00 last night, but I never felt a thing. Apparently there were tsunami's in Sumatra, and I heard they had some in Africa as well. There have been reports of other quakes since then as well....in fact, I just saw on TV a few minutes ago, that another 6 point something just occurred in the ocean, and tsunami warnings were posted. Pretty wild....just glad we don't really get them here in Jakarta.

Ramadan started today. The best thing about Ramadan starting is that the morning traffic is such a breeze. I left with Kayla this morning from the house at 6:45, and was at school in less than 10 minutes...no traffic. It usually takes me over a half an hour at that time of morning...gotta love no traffic.

I can't believe it is going to happen, but on Monday, the school will host a mini Mac show. The new iMacs will be available at an educator's discount, and with any order, a new ipod will be given away for free. It will be VERY difficult to resist buying the new iMac especially since the school will grant an interest free loan for new technology purchases.

I will try to get to the house this weekend and give you an update on the house. I haven't been there since last week. I am sure the roof is finished by now...can't wait to see what else is new there.

Milk Advertisement

Kayla posed for some shots the other day for a milk advertisement that will go in a few magazines. I went to watch the photo shoot after school last week. Kayla was not her usual happy self, and did not smile much when I got there. They had been taking photos for a couple of hours, and Kayla was tired. They needed some photos of her drinking milk, so I told the photographer that I would take some photos of her over the weekend, and send them to him on Monday (yesterday).

This is one of the shots I got....I like it. I used the black and white converter in Adobe's Lightroom...which is simply amazing. I gave the photographer about 12 different shots of Kayla drinking milk....we shall see if they use one of my photos....

Kite Day at JIS

Kayla runs and runs trying to get the kite to fly...

Daddy tries, and can't do much better.....

Mommy gets a bit of breeze, and wins the competition...

It was a pretty boring weekend. We mostly slept in, which was nice, and laid around the house doing nothing. We finally got out of the house this morning to go to JIS for the annual "Kite Day". All was fun, but there was just no wind.

Happy Birthday, Tika!!

Well, it was Tika's birthday today, and she got a new camera. She has always wanted her own camera, and doesn't like using my nice professional SLR cameras, so I got her a nice point-n'-shoot. I did some research on them, and decided on the lumix because it has a Leica lens. I was going to get a Canon, but because of my loyalty to Nikon, I just couldn't bring myself to buy a Canon. It would be like going out and buying a PC.....just don't have it in me. The Lumix is neutral territory, so I thought, "why not"...it also got good reviews on dpreview.com.

In other news, Kayla had another modeling job today. She had a long photo shoot with Prestine Milk....the same milk company that featured her in a TV commercial earlier this year. She will be in some advertisements in magazines. She didn't have school today as we had a professional development day, so no students.

Reny Comes Back to Visit

Reny and Joachim (we call him "Kim") came back from Sweden to visit. Reny is one of Tika's best friends. We took them both out to see our house, and Tika and Reny have had a good time going to the salon, shopping, and just hanging out. They (Reny and Kim) are planning on getting married, so they are back getting all the paperwork they need. It is nice to have them around again.

In other news, we went to Kayla's open house last night. Sue, Kayla's teacher, had a real nice presentation planned for us all, and showed us photos, and explained what the kids do everyday for three hours. I don't know how she handles 16 three year olds, but sounds like Kayla is in a great program, and is learning a great deal. Kayla is handling school really well. She doesn't cry anymore when we drop her off, and she has made some new friends, and seems to really love school. We couldn't be happier.

The 2nd Annual Jakarta Quiz Nite

Last year, Tom, Butch and I organized the first Jakarta Quiz Nite. The rules were that the winning team would have to host the next Quiz Nite. They tried to organize one at the end of the school year last year, but we were all just too busy. So, last night it finally came together, and it was a blast. The host team (Last year's winners, "Jane's Addiction") did a fantastic job.

This was our team...called, "The Good, The Bad, and Tom"
From left to right is....
Scott Chamberlain, me, Dunja Chamberlain, Greg Spechalske, Butch Koltai, and Tom Bartlett.
We came in 6th place out of 14 teams....we were doing better through the night, but bombed the first and last categories.

We were all supposed to wear dark sunglasses, but everyone forgot except me...

Below is the host team (Last year's winners). They are....
Jane, Esti, Will, Bill, Tom, Chris, and Uchiro

We all look forward to next year's night....

Roof Goes Up (starts, anyway)

The roofing materials arrived, finally, and today, they started to place the roof on the house. It is a pretty cool roof. Very simple. They lay down some insulation, and some other stuff, and then snap the roof into place. No nails, no bolts.....pretty cool stuff.