Week 9

Happy Father's Day Dad: Love ya!

Summer: I would like to announce that summer arrived this week. I don't know how long it's planning to stay, but it's been very nice weather this past week. Honest, I swear. . .

see I told you it was nice

We had lunch here, right off the river with Pere (a rep. for the club) and his nephew

A cd of monsterous proportions: Our dear neighbor Jens presented me with quite the surprise this week. He made me an mp3 cd with over 160 songs, just because.

Rarely do people surprise me when it comes to music. This may actually be the first time. He had everything from Warren G, to the Proclaimers, to Prince, Outkast, Oasis, Mary J Blidge, Rod Stewart, Public Enemy, Tribe Called Quest, Al Green, Billy Idol and Audioslave. The list goes on and on. It was the best cd anyone's ever given me (and I've been given more than enough). Jens you just went up like 5 notches in my book.

When I went to thank him I asked about the distinct playlist, which jumped all over the musical map.

"Oh I just had the computer select at random and that's what I got."

Oddly enough that fits my musical personality to perfection: RANDOM.

Thanks Neighbor!

LORDS OF THE DANCE:

Friday night 7 o’clock dance class.

How did we get in such a predicament you ask?

Let me give you the simplified version.

Wednesday night Fanta and I met up with Lisa (Fanta’s old teammate) and some of her friends for drinks and whatnot. Katerina, Lisa’s friend, who is also this amazing dancer, tells us that she’s teaching a dance class that just so happens to be right around the corner from Fanta and I. Now I’d like to mention here that all five people present at that get together (minus Katerina) agreed that they would show up and make fools of themselves at this illustrious dance studio. Come Friday at 7 p.m. Fanta and I stood alone among several nervous 12-year old girls.

However, to make this story complete I have to tell you a little secret. This stays between you and me ok? All right, so I’ve always wished I was a trained dancer, an artist or a genius. Either one will suffice in fantasyland. The funny thing is, I know if I was any of these things then I’d be wishing I was an athlete or something. Anyhow, this was my long awaited opportunity to unleash hidden talents. What got unleashed I don’t think can actually be construed as talent, but it was somethin’.

The first sign that I was out of my league should have come during the intro stretch period when Katerina lay on her back and touched her ear with her foot. It was so much fun though. At times all I could do was laugh. I mean just imagine; two inflexible grown female athletes trying to keep up with these little girls who are floating across the floor with little to no effort. You wanna talk about embarrassment, get up in front of a group of little girls and perform a "hip-hop" dance sequence to Britany Spears. Yeah I didn’t think so.

Fanta said it best as we left, "I hate doing things that I’m bad at." All the same I’m so glad we went. I think it’s good to laugh at yourself every once in a while. One of the mother’s took a picture of the experience just for you. Enjoy!

how crazy do we look?

this was the Britany Spears dance. Jealous aren't you?

our wonderful instructor Katerina

She was amazing!

the one on the left was by far the best dancer

that's her sister who also dances (but only showed up later to pick up her sister).

The girl on the left was rediculously good. If it wasn't for her I don't think I would have made it through the class. Every time we got lost in the dance sequence we just followed her. I know, sad huh? Like I said I'm only a dancer in fantasyland.

OSCAR'S B-DAY: Oscar is now officially six years old. On Saturday morning we "surprised" Oscar in bed with a wonderful birthday song and presents. I say surprised loosly because he was prentending to sleep for like three hours as he complained we were taking to long to wake up. Happy birthday kiddo!

Surprise!

Rise and shine birthday boy

what a happy family

shortly after oscar received a dart gun as a present and then started shooting up the bedroom.

Later that day a birthday party ensued. . .

This would be freezdance in the yard.

Is Fanta seriously holding that kid up by his feet?

I was attacked by the whole mob!

This was truly a scary moment. I saw my life flashing before my eyes.

GRADUATION PARTY:

Saturday was also Khaled's sister (Rasha's) graduation party. Lisa drove us.

Now I won't embellish on how Lisa got us lost, so I'll just give it to you straight. The girl drove us an hour out of the way to the far ends of the earth, stating that "the church" was our definitive directional landmark. Four churches later, we finally turned around. We got to the party about an hour and half later than expected.

Khaled had invited his friends and Rasha hers. The idea was to have all these games that forced everyone to interact. But of course that didn't really happen. Once the games were over, everyone went back to their groups. Since we (Fanta, Lisa and I) didn't have a group we just hung out with everyone. It was a lot of fun. We had relay races and different competitions. It's always nice when you can see grown men and women tied to together trying to do a three legged race while dribbling a ball through cones.

I did notice though that Khaled and his sister were not among the foolish crowd as they stood watching all of us make fools of ourselves. Thought nobody noticed huh? Thanks for the humiliation kids, I enjoyed it. And now I have a million and one mosquito bites as well.

Good times. Sorry no pictures though; I was too busy running around trying to win the crazy relay competition.

Oh yeah. Rasha I hope you enjoy the cd I made ya! Thanks for inviting us puss puss. . .

Football Diaries: A Journey Through Sweden