There are fires everywhere in Estonia on Midsummer Night Festival night. This is one of the most exciting holidays for Estonians. The night is the shortest, and the day is the longest.

It gets dark only for an hour or so. This used to be one of my favorite holidays. But living here in America has changed that. I can't get the same feeling.

The only thing that makes this day memorable for me is that on Midsummer Night Festival day of 2000, Harry and I got married. So, this year it is our 5 year anniversary. 5 years = wood anniversary. Aren't you supposed to give presents that have something to do with wood?! My choice for Harry was an electric saw. With a laser,to get Harry even more excited!

I love Harry's handmade shelves in our pantry and I bet that he could build even more complicated stuff. I love how patient he is with creative stuff.

Anyway… a saw for Harry, and a beautiful rose boquet for me from Dear Husband! I got really cute card from him which says:

How sweet is that!

This year, the neighbours decided that they will have a little Midsummer Night party in our yard. The planned little party was changed to huge festivities as everybody loved the idea and were eager to invite their friends.

The girls decorated the yard; we had 2 little grills and a table full of food as Estonians don't go anywhere without some foods to share! At some point, we even had live music, as our neighbours Kaie and Jüri were playing keyboards and guitar and all the guests were singing! There is no kind of Estonian party without singing! (Harry would love to comment on that for sure!) There were a lot of people and I got to bed around 2 a.m. I heard that the last people left around 5 a.m. Now that's a party!

I’m posting this from an Internet cafe in San Felipe, Mexico! It’s our 2nd day here, and we’re enjoying ourselves greatly. I’ll post photos and complete details when I get back, as we don’t have reliable internet service here.

 

Meanwhile, we’re busy relaxing by the Sea of Cortez, and enjoying our 5th Anniversary trip!

Tonight we had dinner with some friends at Toppers in Santa Monica. We lucked into getting a table right next to the windows, with a fantastic view of the beach and the city.
 
Joining us for dinner were our friends Kristi and Kalmer, as well as Irene, Tofique and their daughter Evelyn. Leila was classmates with Kristi and Irene for 11 years- she's known them both since the first grade!

The view from Toppers is fantastic. The Melon and Mango Margaritas weren't bad either!

As I post this, we're at home and getting packed for our trip to Mexico tomorrow. It's going to be a long drive to San Filipe, but the car is packed, and we're ready to go. More later as our trip gets underway- for now, I'm off to dreamland.

Today we sold Leila's 2000 Mazda Protege, and watched the new buyers drive happily off with it. We also took delivery of our brand new Ford Focus ZX5. We're both very happy with the new car!

Out with the old car… …and in with the new!

 

It's really been a busy week for auto selling and buying for us! I feel like we're a car dealer. In the above picture with Leila standing beside her new Focus, every other car in the image also belongs to us, other than the red pickup truck. Unfortunately, I can't yet sell my old Toyota Paseo (blue) until an insurance claim is settled. (Some guy ran into me, prompting my original need to replace the Toyota. Okay, so enough about cars for a while! Now on to other things in life!

We've gotten crazy lately, looking for a new car for Leila. On Thursday, we hopped in my car and drove over two hundred miles to Fresno, California, on the trail of a used (err, excuse me, pre-owned) 2005 Ford ZX5 that we saw advertised for an unbelievable price.
 
It seemed to be too good to be true. And indeed, it was… and wasn't. We found the car, and it was the advertised price- but when we looked inside it, we were horrified to see *drumroll*… a stickshift! Arrrgh!

 

Neither of us has any interest in a manual transmission vehicle. I know, I know, somehow it's supposed to be more "fun" to have to shift, steer, clutch, brake/gas as opposed to just steer, brake/gas. I suppose. At anyrate, no stickshift for us. Since we had driven so far, we made the rounds of every central valley Ford dealer from Fresno and Clovis, to Selma, CA. No one had the elusive ZX5 that had our name on it.
 
We did a lot of thinking during our search, and after talking to one dealer after another. We finally came to the conclusion that we may actually be better off buying a brand-spanking new 2005, rather than a late model 2003-2005 used car. The differences in price just aren't that drastic.
 
We called our friend Kalmer, who works for Ford as a mechanic, and he found us a really fantastic deal on a 2005 ZX5 from the dealership where he works. So today I drove up, looked at the car, and bought it. All told, it was only a few grand more than the used model we were chasing in Fresno.

We're finally bidding a fond farewell to our 1995 Mazda Protege. As it turned out, we were caught in a catch-22 trying to sell it to Carmax. For that, it had to be registered. We had registered the car as non-operational, but that doesn't work for Carmax. We left the car on their lot for several days, trying to figure out what to do, and running in circles with the registered/non-registered problem.

 

Finally, I had to drive my car over to Carmax, leave it there, and drive the Mazda back home. I was sweating bullets the whole drive, as the car isn't registered and has tags from 2004. I felt a little like an outlaw on the run, keeping an eye out for the Fuzz, as I drove our street non-legal vehicle back to the mothership. Later that evening, Leila and I had to drive back to the Carmax lot, and retrieve my Ford.

 

May I never have to make such a convoluted series of trips again. As the Mazda sat outside our house, I felt as though it were silently mocking us. "Ha, ha! You're stuck with me!"

 

Well not so fast Mr. Smarty-car. Today I put an ad on craigslist, and within a few minutes of posting Leila's mailbox was filled with interested buyers. The first couple who came to look at it, bought it. Car that would not go away… begone!

Ok, so maybe it is too pinkish? But it feels so fresh, warm and inviting that I would move in there if the bathroom was bigger!
 
I painted everithing this color. Nectarine is the name of the color. I could have left the cubbies white, but ah… it looks good for me!
 
I worked on this a little bit on Saturday, and half of the day on Sunday. I Painted and did flooring. All by myself. Ok, Harry was showing some intrest too, but as our bathroom is so itsy-bitsy I recommended he not desturb me.
 
I mentioned to the manager that I would like to do some renovation, as there were holes in the wall. I mentioned that I would paint… but I forgot to tell that I am going bright!
 
I love the result! You should come and see! I will host the tour!
 
What about the "nine years" in the title? Yep! Nine years ago I arrived in America and I was wearing the same color jeans as our new bathroom. I thought they were pretty cool!
 
So, is the bathroom color a coincidence, or a landmark of the historical moment? Landmark for sure! Nowadays, I just wear blue jeans…

Today we went to Carmax, to sell Leila's old 1995 Mazda. The car has just been sitting in the parking lot outside our house for a year.

 

This morning I had to drive the car over to Carmax near LAX airport- no big deal normally, except the tags on the car have long since expired. Leila drove her new Mazda behind me, so that in the event of cops, she could conceal the tags by pulling up on my bumper. Carmax made us a decent offer for the car, and we were all ready to sell it, when a glitch popped up at the last minute.

 

Somehow, we hadn't registered the car. Leila thought she had renewed the registration, listing the car as non-operational, but apparently not. So we left the car on Carmax's lot, and will have to wait until Monday to register it, then sell it. And just when we thought things were looking uncomplicated!

 

Leila painted the bathroom today! It's a subtle shade of red- sort of a clay color. She's not done yet, but she's painted about 99% of the bathroom. Not that it's a very large bathroom. Next, she will retile the floor? She kind of sneaked up on me with this project!

 

My next project will be building a new desk for myself. We want one that takes up less space than my current one. We decided the best way to get that, is just for me to build exactly what I want, with hiding places for all my computer equipment and wiring. So far, a very busy weekend!