At Brunnsviken with Ethan

This evening, Lotta came over and the three of us took a walk down to Brunnsviken. Lotta snapped this photo of us sitting in the evening sunlight. After a while we walked over to Ulriksdals slott and watched the sunset.

Fourth of July party in Stokckholm.

Here is a higher resolution photo from the party. We grilled hamburgers on the balcony. I hung up my U.S. flag. A good time was had by all.

4th of July party live photo

Here's a live photo from our 4th-of-July barbequeue in Stockholm. Kevin, Åsa, and my brother Ethan are sitting on the couch and having a lively conversation.

Ethan on the Stockholm subway

Ethan and I took the subway. I think Ethan had a bit of jet-lag.

Ethan about to board the Arlanda Express

Ethan and I took the Arlanda Express train from Arlanda airport to Stockholm. There's a great deal this summer: two passengers can travel for only 200 SEK. That's cheaper than a bus+taxi ticket, and faster too.

Ethan arrives in Stockholm!

Today my brother Ethan arrived in Stockholm for his first visit since I moved to Sweden nearly four years ago. This is also Ethan's first time to set foot on a continent other than North America. I hope to show him a good time while he's here.

Flowers after the rain.

Folks dancing around the maypole.

After lunch we took a walk outside. It was rainy in Skåne, but I still managed to find some lovely things to photograph, like this moss.

Here are a few more photos from midsummer. After a big meal for lunch on Saturday, we had strawberries and cream for desert. Mmmm.

Happy midsummer from Höör, Skåne!

Lisa at Djungelsalsa

I went with Inger to Djungelsalsa. Completely by coincidence, I ran into Lisa there. I guess salsa folks move in the same circles (hah!).

Djungelsalsa at Årsta

It's called Djungelsalsa ("jungle salsa") because it's out-of-doors, in the trees. It's actually in a nice little public park in Årsta. It costs 50 SEK to participate in the dancing. People bring picnic stuff with them and have dinner at nearby tables. There's a grill where one can prepare food, and a small kiosk where one can buy food and drink too.

Skype

My colleage Roland just showed me Skype. It's very interesting VOIP app from the creators of Kazaa. Here's a description from the skype.org page:

Skype is free and simple software that will enable you to make free calls anywhere in the world in minutes. Skype, created by the people who brought you KaZaA, uses innovative P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you with other Skype users. If you are tired of paying outrageous fees for telephony, Skype is for you!

I have signed up and signed on, but so far I haven't tried it out yet because I don't have a microphone on this computer. It seems very nice though. Check it out!

Sunset over Galma Stan

I took this photo last night on my way back from climbing. The sunset was magnificent. I normally take the subway from Slussen but I decided to walk for a while so that I could enjoy the evening light. I walked over Galma Stan and up to Hötorget before catching the subway from T-Centralen. I took this photo from Katarinavägen. Gamla Stan fills the foreground of the photo; Riddarholmskyrkan can be seen in the background on the left side.

Transit of Venus 2004

Here are some photos I took of the transit of Venus. It was cloudy here in Stockholm during the morning, but I was able to catch the last hour of the transit. I took the photos using a 5-inch Tasco Starguide telescope and a Nikon CoolPix 4500 camera. Three of the photos were taken directly by placing a piece of dark green welder's glass between the telescope eyepice and the camera. The last photo was taken by projecting the image from the telescope eyepiece onto a piece of paper.

Tidsfördriv

After dinner, we went to Tidsfördriv for a few beers (a few too many, it turns out). We met some nice folks at the bar. Hi, folks!