BALLS

While Marko worships the God of football (no, we DON’T call is soccer!) in front of public and private screens, Hanna found a new very rewarding hobby: garage saling! It’s really also a kind of competition. Who gets the best deal? And also, just like in football, it sometimes takes balls - to bargain a little. Most of all, it’s great fun, especially with the right company (Ingrid and Mara).



The deal of the day: a great tricycle for $10


Boys selling lemonade and muffins

SUMMER IN THE CITY

is a wonderful thing, especially when shared with wonderful people at a wonderful place, like the new roof top terrace at The Cafeteria in uptown. Ah, summer, sun, friends and love!

PRETTY JOHANNA

We had to go there again after finding this beautiful little lake in winter – just for the name alone! Turns out, Lake Johanna lives up to its name: It has a beautiful sandy beach and is very refreshing. Perfect for these summer temperatures between 26 and 30 degrees. Well, what can we say ... nomen est omen.




Very American (?) - an ice cream truck!

BEDROOM IMPROVEMENT

Our creative rush continues. After the kitchen, it had to be the bedroom. Together, we selected a few fabrics from a local warehouse and ebay and put them on styrofoam tiles. Isn’t it pretty?

SUMMER FUN AND ACTION

What else have we done? Apart from work work work there was a visit at a museum (Walker Art), a very relaxed afternoon at Lake Harriet at a jazz concert, Hanna’s first mani/pedi, a fantastic green-yellow-purple-black sky after a tornado, and a couple of evenings/afternoons with friends. In other words, a very, very nice June!

ROCKY RACCOON

and his wife and three babies came to live in the tree right in front of our house! A very exciting thing for us citizens of raccoonless countries. Sadly, when Hanna shared her excitement with the neighbors, they called animal control and had the whole family removed. Gone were those days when mother raccoon would walk right by our kitchen window at night - or so we thought. Two days later we heard raccoon noises again - this time right outside our bedroom window! Are they back? This is not over, it seems ...

Look closely! There's a raccoon baby sleeping between the two big branches.

HOME IMPROVEMENT

Our new kitchen is an improvement indeed. And painting was such a great change to working in front of the computer screen. We almost got into a do-it-yourself-rush. Other rooms, watch out, we might be taking you on soon!

MEMORIAL DAY

was memorable. The arboretum of the U of M is the perfect place for a nice walk. And Erica, Virgile and Nelson are the perfect company for this. Nelson was especially helpful when he showed Marko how to read the maps. Thank you!


Why are these guys not moving?

Which way, boys?



What's for supper? Not salad again!

WHAT LITTLE JOHANNA MIGHT HAVE THOUGHT

"Grown-ups are funny. Like my parents and those to two new guys that keep showing up around our place. They get together to have fun, but then all they do is sit and talk. OK, they seemed to have a great time, but they didn't explore any entryways, discover new toys or spend half the night upside down. I totally get the thing with the magic liquid in the glass bottles though. Yummy! After sucking on those, all you wanna do is be upside down!"
(Relax, dear readers, she did of course NOT really drink from the beer bottles!)

ANOTHER ATTEMPT

to stop the oil from spilling into the Gulf of Mexico has failed. This is just awful. Since April 20, when the drilling rig exploded and killed 11 workers, 12,000 to 25,000 barrels (up 10 3 million liters) of oil PER DAY have run into the sea, staining the coast and marsh of Louisiana. They call it the biggest environmental disaster in American history. And don't expect to fix it anytime before August. (pictures from NYT)