Guus Bosman

The other day I saw red currants in the supermarket -- rode besjes in Dutch.

We used to have many red currant bushes in Opperdoes, and a few of them in Middenmeer also. They are especially nice with gele vla, a Dutch sweet custard we would have for desert.

Of course I bought a basket of the berries. Delicious!

Janneke and Tibor were blessed with a boy this morning!

The boy's name is Luca and parents and child are doing great. Many congratulations from both of us!

Read more on Fiona.strausz.nl.

There are no pictures online yet; here's a picture of big sister Fiona with a doll two months ago.

It's over 100 degrees Fahrenheit this week -- very hot.

I don't think it's related but we encountered two scary animals: a swarm of wasps tried to build a hive on our balcony and a snake was sort of guarding our car.

The maintenance team took care of the wasps and I evaded the snake and got in the car alive.

Last Saturday Michael celebrated his birthday with a lot of 7's and he had a big party at his pool.

I arrived around 2.30 pm while listening to Live Earth on the radio and later Paul Simon on CD.

We played a couple of volleyball games and a hilarious relay race. It was a great afternoon.

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, Independence Day in the U.S.

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon at Michael's place where he had invited some friends. The weather was beautiful and the pool was great.

Around 5:30 pm Belen, Emily, Esteban and Christoph picked me up and we went to downtown Durham. At the American Tobacco District we enjoyed the sun and a live R&B concert. Later in evening we walked to the baseball stadium, which opened after the 7th inning of the game between U.S. and Japan (the U.S. won).

There was a children's choir singing the National Anthem, and a fireworks show closed the day.

I arrived at Rosa's place on Friday evening. Saturday morning I had breakfast in a Cosi restaurant in Rosslyn -- I really wanted to have their great Cobb salad again. It was still delicious, but they had changed the recipe somewhat.

Next to my old work a new building is being constructed; it's almost ready.

I had lunch and coffee with friends in Fairfax and Herndon; it was great to see them again. I drove quite a bit through North Virginia; the last time I did that was to practice for my driver's license. Of course I took a few wrong exits but I'm pretty skilled in U-turns by now.

In the evening I went for a very enjoyable dinner with Binish at Kramer's. Around 9.30 pm went together to Prakapalooza: Prakash' birthday party in a bar at Dupont Circle. It was great to see him and other ex-colleagues again and it was a fun party.

The next morning I had breakfast with Rosa and Mila and after a short pit shop in Rosslyn (my good old Starbucks) I went back on the road. There was hardly any traffic and I enjoyed the drive. My 'rule' is that I won't drive more than 5 miles over the legal speed limit (mostly 65 mph in Virginia and North Carolina). That sometimes makes me feel like one of the slower cars on the road, but safety first.

I'm now in Washington DC after a smooth car trip.

It took six hours door-to-door. I got a little bit lost in Washington D.C. but once I found the White House I knew where to go.

Sasha's presentation in Finland went quite well. After the conference she stayed a few more days in Helsinki for sightseeing, and then went to Bulgaria.

She's now in in the summerhouse with her parents (it's very hot in Perushtitsa) and enjoying a well deserved break after a long study year.

Last weekend I spent quite some time programming something for work. During the day at work I usually don't really have time for development and it isn't urgent, but since this is such a cool component I took it home. I wish I could write more about it!

Sunday evening I had a really nice dinner with Belen, Esteban and Christoph. The next evening I had my first 'official' meeting with the Chapel Hill Jaycees and that was very entertaining. After the short meeting with went for dinner with about 8 people and it was nice to get to know the group.

Saturday and Sunday I tried to complete a 3.8 mile run. Both times I almost completed it but not quite -- it's a little bit too long for me, still. I tried it again tonight with the same result: I couldn't get myself to run onto the steep hill back home. Tonight for the first side stitches forced me to take a break; perhaps I didn't drink enough water.

I really need new running shoes... the ones I run with now are completely worn out and it's really not good for my feet and knees to run longer distances with them. They must be about 5 years old by now.