June

Summer is in full swing and with it, 90 degree weather and long days where it doesn't get dark untill 9.  I was never a summer girl; in DC, I would much prefer fall or winter, to the awful humidity and intense sun.  Here, though, summer has the advantage of awesome produce.  I have mentioned the strawberries, which are now almost gone, but this past Saturday, I went to the market and got instead cherries, white and red, raspberries (they are finally here!) and some peaches; along with the tallest stems of asparagus I have ever seen and a round squash. 

My after work snack

First the celery and now the asparagus, not sure what they use as fertilizer, but it works!

This is totally random, but I wanted to share it out there and get some thoughts.  At our last Embassy gathering, I noticed that someone had served the potato chips with salsa, and the tortilla chips, which were at another table, with french onion dip.  I mentioned it to the guy in charge, a Serb, and he was like, So what?  I just raised my eyebrow and gave him the "isn't it obvious?" look.  As other Americans showed up, they noticed too, and they eventually switched out the dips, because in our heads, it just wasn't right. It's really interesting how most things in our lives are just a matter of conditioning.

Two weekends ago, we took my mom to Budapest.  This time we did a small stop right outside the city to this Memento Park, a sort of museum place where they brought a lot of the statues that were taken down after the split with the Soviets.  The place was really neat and the statues pretty impressive. Plus they had all this cool communist propaganda stuff in the gift shop.  Phil got a Tshirt and a poster.

So solemn

This was my fave, but the sun made it impossible to get a decent picture 

The second highlight of our trip was that my mom got to do the fish massage.  Now, if you don't know what that is, it's this huge tank full of little fishes that eat all the dried out skin on your feet.  When you go, you dunk your feet in the tank and they all come swimming like crazy and start nibbling.  Afterwards, your feet are soft and smooth, like a baby's.  I got it done in Thailand and for me, it was like torture.  Once my feet were in, the lady had to literally hold me down and restrain me because what I really wanted to do was yank my leg out of the water as fast as humanly possible  while swerving it around yelling, m@therf*&^s"!  I am an extremely ticklish person.

My mom, unlike her daughter, has a lot of class

The last news update is that Phil FINALLY made his teenage dream come true. We saw Marilyn Manson in concert last Saturday night at the Belgrade Arena. It was muuuch tamer than I imagined. Marilyn has definitely gotten old, along with his fans. He has  put on weight, so either he's off the coke or he's settled into middle age and suburban living. I only saw two, of what I would call "freaks". A girl with a long black cape and the Hot Topic platform boots, along with the makeup and hair and lingerie type top, and another girl with a tattoo of a skeleton. Like an X-ray. You could "see" her ribs, spine, etc. Creepy.

Phil rocking out to MM, 12 years too late

If you don't know who Marilyn Manson is, I dare you to watch the video below and not feel sorry for:

 1.  Me-- who had to endure listening to his music during my looong and painful high school years

2. His mother. Who knew that sweet baby Brian was going to go to the dark side?

3. Everyone else at that concert who has ears.