A relatively quiet but busy month

July was so busy that blogging took a bit of a back seat. The month is almost over and several bits of work are up against their deadlines, so this is a quick post.

Miekie is down there receiving a certificate for having taken part in netball this season

Marisa's mother receiving a young Labrador for her birthday, which was last Saturday

At Marisa's mother's birthday breakfast

Petronel and the little Labrador

A snug Neil suitably equipped to withstand the extra-cold weather we're experiencing this week

Pieter recited a poem at a cultural event at a nearby school yesterday. I wasn't able to attend but Marisa took the following video:

Proudly brandishing his A++ certificate, a medal, and various other gifts

Weighing in

True to his (logarithmic) weight curve (the thin green line), Neil weighed in at 8.17 kg this morning! He is 185 days old today, just over half a year.

The not-so-constant time-constant showing the inappropriateness of an exponential model

Some recent photos

There's been a bit of a lull in blog-worthy activity lately. This week Miekie and Pieter are back at school after a few weeks' break. We spent the last (long-) weekend before the term started relaxing, shopping, watching movies and so on. Here are a few photos taken during the past few days.

A stereogram I made of photos I took on a walk (squint to get to the third dimension - you can do it!)

Showing off their latest books over some post-shopping coffee

At lunch on Sunday

Preparing to receive our post-movie caffeine top-ups

An easy-going Neil with our waitress

Actually, neither of those cups contained any caffeine on this occasion

Neil and the washing machine

Neil regularly enjoys watching the washing machine in action. Marisa took this short video of him admiring the machine a few days ago...

Marcus and Alexander

It was a nice and busy weekend. Alexander came to supper on Friday evening and Marcus came to stay for Saturday and Sunday nights. Sunday was Alexander's thirtieth birthday; he and Misha came to supper that evening.

On Friday night

Some nostalgic birthday decorations for Alexander; from top left: Tung Lashor, Skeletor, He-Man, Rio Blast, and the supper table with these and more Masters of the Universe characters

Birthday wishes and songs from Austria

Goodbye garage...

... at least for a while.

All the stuff from our house in Botswana has settled into its new home, which is our garage. We're going to have to take some time to try to figure out what to do with everything. At least it isn't that much.

Not much room left to squeeze in a car

Come to think of it these are probably the first photos taken in our garage; what a momentous occasion!

 Earlier in the week Miekie and Pieter did a great job of washing the car.

I hope this will be the start of many regular car washes... probably wishful thinking!

A day trip

We went on an outing today. We haven't done many of these with Neil, but it went extremely smoothly so there'll definitely be more again in the future!

First we popped in at the Pretville film set close to the Hartebeespoort Dam. According to Alexander it is still actively used for various films or TV programmes.

Pieter the photographer

On our obligatory milkshake break

(Marisa is sort-of in this picture too but as a mirror image... visible if you look closely enough)

Afterwards we drove to Jasmyn and bought some food for a picnic.

Our picnic spot was next to an antique seed-planter and some aloes

Miekie, Pieter and Neil each got a book from the Jasmyn bookshop.

Pieter's 6th birthday

Today Pieter turned six! Marisa and I can't believe how quickly time has flown since he was a little baby. He's grown up to be a wonderful boy.

A panoramic shot of our sitting room late last night with the cake, presents and all waiting for Pieter this morning; (you'll notice the layouts of this room and the dining room have changed a bit recently - click on the photo to enlarge)

Early morning shot of the cake plus soon-to-be-extinguished flames

A Transformer next to cake with recently extinguished flames

Pieter got some help unwrapping the big present: a tent

Testing out the tent

As Pieter had already had a big party a few weeks ago (before the school holidays started), we had a smaller party for him today in the bush park.

A meta post about meta posts

It looks as though I'm settling at about a post every two days. In order to maintain this rate the odd meta post (i.e. a post about posts) may sneak in (such as this one...).

(A previous post with a touch of self-referentialism is: Hi!)