MY LUCKY CHARMS

Can you spend a whole day eating and chatting? Yes, we can! And what better way to spend international women's day than with these amazing, inspiring women. Thank you so much, ladies. This was seriously the best day I have had in ages. Special thanks to super-hostess Ursi.

Special guest Kora - 5 days old

Moritz, the only male who is allowed to be the center of attention today.


Everything I missed - friends and bread


Sidenote: It was also Shrove Tuesday. Not that we needed it in order to have fun.

The next day: Welcome to my school.

Pretty (packed), huh?

HANNA IS GOING HOME,

which was kind of a spontaneous decision, but a good one. It's a very short trip, so I focus mainly on being with my family and getting a lot of work done, but there is some time to enjoy home in different ways.

Flying across the Atlantic by myself - not my favorite thing, but doable. This is arriving in NYC. Find the statue of liberty!


What I brought (as carry-on)? Something as heavy as a soccer ball and as tall as a banana ... ;-)

At my parents' place, which now also features baby equipment ;-)

Seeing my hometown Langenlois in a new light ...

THANK YOU - DANKE - KIITOS ...

dear husband, family and friends for making my birthday a very happy one in the middle of an exhausting week. You rock!!

EVEN THOUGH

half of us were not excited about the new load of snow, we all agree now that the white winter wonderland around our house is very enjoyable. OK, winter, you are quite OK after all.







But winter landscapes are best enjoyed from inside, with some freshly baked bread on your plate. Mhmmm!


And then there was one evening (finally!) when we did not work, pulled ourselves away from any screens and went to what is according to a 2008 ranking the best bar in America and features "the world's most dangerous Polka band".

THANK GOD IT's ... MONDAY

... and winter. We just got an unexpected free morning. What a gift!

WARM LOVE, COLD WIND

We were fooled by the weather. The mild temperatures of the last week and the sunshine made us believe that spring is on its way. But when we thought about packing away the winter jackets, Minnesota put us in our place and sent us the worst (or best?) snowstorm of the season (which is btw still going on).

View from our office on Saturday afternoon:

View from our office 20 hours later:

Thankfully, Valentine's day warmed our hearts, so we can survive a few more weeks in the snow.

Well, at least there is one gut feeling we can still trust ... ;-)

WORK WORK WORK

is mainly what we do and what we have all week plus on weekends. This weekend, however, we just had to leave our desks for a bit and get out. It looks like finally spring is on its way, at least the temperature has sprung up to +8°C, which feels like being on a different continent after the last bitter cold weeks. Enjoying this kind of weather on our traditional run around Lake Phalen is still one of our favorite things to do.

The most common view in our office.

Today's view from our living room.

Lake Phalen, we've missed you.






P.S.: Free-time, not only for us. Go, Egypt!

SUPERBOWLS

While some people followed what is commonly known as superbowl ...

Hanna got out a superbowl of her own (a very rare event) and made some cake for Erica who brought a giant bag of maternity clothes. (Thank you!) Even though the cake didn't roll like it was supposed to, it was yummy!

FRIENDSHIP, COMRADES!

February 3 is friendship day, a "holiday", Jenna, George, Marko & Hanna created to celebrate their eternal friendship and comradeship (and socialism). To honor our Chinese friends (and food) and celebrate the New Year of the rabbit, this year's festivities were held at the Teahouse. Cameras would have interfered with the integrity of the extremely successful event ...

And not only friendship and socialism are alive and well - so is pikku Ennser-Kananen. :-)