August is really here
Back from business in Indianapolis on Friday morning. Just as hot there as it gets here, up in the 90s. Was a tough week at work in more ways than one.

It's a bit quiet at the house. My ladies aren't home for 2 more weeks yet, and no dogs looking for attention. I don't miss having to be tied down to a particular time of day in waking up though. I actually can sleep until after 7 when the canine alarms are not around!

Over in Finland - Marianne's mother, Ayssa, is back out at our house on the island for a few days. She does much better there than at her flat in town. She came to visit us for overnight earlier this summer and stayed with us for 2 weeks. She improved almost everyday she was out there.

This past weekend Marianne and Zhenya were invited by Zhenya's godmother, Ann Marie, to travel to Lapland (above the Arctic circle) for the weekend. They took the train up and back and had a great time. Anna stayed home with Ayssa (Marianne's two sisters are also still there) and I bet she felt so grown up without anyone to tell her when to go to bed. I'm hoping Marianne got some pictures while she was way up North.

I hope to try and post one or two pictures a week here showing some highlights from the summer, once I solve the technical problem I am currently having. This week's pciture theme will Tour de Eiffel. (insert pix here)

Our Hilton hotel was so close, it seemed like we could reach out and touch that beautiful monument. Who says that all those frequent stay points that I have been saving for years aren't worth anything?? We had two rooms for 3 nights for a total of $200. Combine that with $100 roundtrip/airline ticket cost from Helsinki and we really got to see the city "on the cheap". Only real shock was that the French love their food and they price it accordingly!!!

More in future posts on the 4 nights we spent in a different hotel near Nortre Dame and the other places we visited.

Movies I watched this weekend: War of the Worlds (pretty good) and Big Fish (very good and surprisingly touching).