November 11th, 2007
It is already mid November and only 10 days left until Thanksgiving. Christina has managed to find a good (raised on a small farm, no antibiotics or other crap, free to walk around all over the place and finally humanely slaughtered) turkey which we are picking up next weekend. The downside? It's between 20 and 25 pounds. Jesper and Dorde will help us eat it, but we will most likely not even make a dent in it. We'll have turkey meat for years. On top of that, our 1/4 cow will be ready for pick-up in about 3-4 weeks.
It has been an interesting weekend. Andreas finished "The omnivore's dilemma" on the flight back from Chicago. This resulted in a decision (which, to be honest, has been on the way of happening for a while) to alter our lifestyle. No, it has nothing to do with becoming vegetarians. It has everything to do with treating nature and everything it supplies with respect. So, we are going for sustainability and respect, and stepping away from the industrial food system. It might take a while to fully implement, but we'll get there. We have plans on how we can increase the yield from our vegetable garden and already a lot of our current grocery shopping is being done at the local farmers market. Andreas is also considering to start hunting and fishing in the future. Or as Eric Cartman would say: "Damn hippies!" :)
We are getting closer to being done with the house. There is a painter working on finishing what needs to be finished in the living room. When he is done, Andreas will take out the carpet and put down a laminate. All to be done before Christmas when Andreas' parents are showing up. Baseboards probably have to wait.. :)
October 24th, 2007
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have been slow with the updates since we got back from vacation. It's been fairly busy over the last couple of weeks and the homepage hasn't been the top most priority. But we found time for other things! We went hiking the weekend of October 13-14; Johnson Ridge for the second time this year. This time there was actually people on the trail... But it was still a nice hike.
We spent last weekend buying stuff. Since we are moving things around in the living room, our TV has turned out to be too large. So we went and bought a Sharp Aquos 42" (LC-42D64U) Friday evening. Circuit City had a good deal on this TV and we've been considering it for a while. Later in the evening Andreas also ordered a Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD player (yes, HD DVD, don't get me started on how retarded Blue-Ray is) from Amazon. It is scheduled to show up in a few days. Final thing was a new TV stand that we bought from Best Buy Saturday. *Pfeeew*.
Like that wasn't enough, we also found time to attend social events. SRS had a client event Saturday evening. For the third time this year, Andreas and Christina helped SRS entertain a selection of their clients at Cooking with Anita. As always, the food turned out really good and we had some really good wine together with it. Sunday afternoon and evening was spent at Dorde and Jesper's house. We watched Chucky for a while so they could go and do some car shopping. We then had dinner and carved a few pumpkins. Pumpkin carving is actually a really neat Halloween tradition!
Oh, that's right. Andreas also chipped (Revo baby!) the Audi Saturday. Now it is even more fun to drive.. :)
And yes, some day Andreas WILL find time to upload pictures from the vacation and more.
October 10th, 2007
The trip write-up is up! You can find it here.
October 5th, 2007
We are still working on the trip write-up. Actually, to be 100% honest, Christina is working on it and it seems like it will be fairly long. :)
In the meantime, Andreas came to a decision about his photos. The photos on junestam.com will now be more aimed at showing family and friends what we are up to. The type of photos Andreas actually likes to take (harharhar) will end up on a new site that went online today: [PHOTOGRAPHY AT JUNESTAM.COM].
September 30th, 2007
3 weeks and no update? What is up you ask? We have been vacationing in Austria the last two weeks! It was wonderful! A trip write-up will show up here in a few days or so, stay tuned.
September 3rd, 2007
Damn. We are back in Kirkland again. For some reason our Mazama stay ended when it was supposed to end: Today. Why can't rifts in the space-time continuum happen during weekends when you're away doing something you enjoy? Just to make them longer?
As we hinted to above, we went on our annual hiking trip to Mazama this Labor Day weekend. The family (Andreas, Christina and Jojo) left the house around 4.30pm Friday. We did the usual dinner stop at the Buffalo Run restaurant in Marblemount. The kitchen at Buffalo Run can't be accused of being fast, but it has turned into a tradition to stop there for dinner. So we didn't arrive at the cabin in Mazama until around 10pm. This year we rented a cabin (Ponderosa Cabin) from Mazama Country Inn, which turned out to be a hit. The cabin was very nice and well maintained. The trees around the cabin were filled with black and red squirrels, who weren't partucularly afraid of us. So we spent quite some time on the back deck watching them eat pinecones. :) The hiking was wonderful and we ended up walking about 20 miles along the PCT over 2 hikes. You can read more about the hikes on the hiking page.
After the hike on Saturday, we went back to the cabin to rest a bit and freshen up. Later that evening we drove over to Winthrop for dinner at Duck Brand Hotel and Cantina. We were all quite tired and went to bed around 9.30pm. Sunday evening was spent having dinner on the back deck, drinking a bottle of nice wine and watching the squirrels. Once it got dark we treated ourselves to another really nice thing in Mazama: The night sky. Since there is almost no light pollution out there, the night sky is like nothing you have seen before.
We left the cabin around 11am this morning and drove back to Kirkland along Highway 20. This is a route we've driven quite a few times before, but so far we have ignored the Diablo Dam and the "city" of Diablo. So this time we thought: Hey, let's check it out. Which we did. Very cool!.
When Andreas has some spare time, he'll update the picture page with snaps from the trip.
August 27th, 2007
Last evening was a night to remember. A night to write about in books that will be read two thousand years from now. A glorious night! We got the glass bar installed in the kitchen! The kitchen is now DONE (except for some minor things, of course! :) ). It looks awesome! We'll try to either snap some pictures or use Christina's camera to shoot a few small movies of the house.
We see some people pass through the site on a fairly regular basis (yes, Andreas is a geek and reads the logs at least once a day). So, if you haven't done so already, please write something short in the guestbook so we know who you are. Yes, that means you, Mr or Mrs "working for TAC AB" :)
Andreas also updated the hiking and picture pages.
August 21st, 2007
Well, it's been a while. Sixteen days to be exact. What can we say? We are keeping busy! Last night Andreas cleaned up in the garage to make space for the new chest freezer we're picking up tonight. Within a few weeks the freezer should be filled with meat we ordered from the farm in Arlington. That quarter cow equals 200lbs of meat, or slightly less than 100kg. We'll have to pass some along to our friends.. :)
We found something new about two weeks ago. Well, not entirely new, but we hadn't seen it before. There is a botanical garden here on the east side; we had NO idea. Strolled around for an hour and Andreas snapped a few pictures. A few of them turned out really nice and are now sitting in frames on the wall. With some luck (more like time) copies of them will make it to the picture page soon.
Talking about wine by the way (July 22nd entry), we bought another case last Saturday. Columbia Winery had a "you guys have been members for a while so here's 40% off on certain wines". So, again, we ARE looking for handouts for a wine fridge! We are up to 64 bottles and counting. :)
August 5th, 2007
Andreas spent most of last week in Las Vegas, attending Black Hat (computer security conference). Three days is about as much as one can take of Vegas, after that the casino sounds really starts getting to you. He got back around 4.30pm Friday afternoon (flight was delayed, seems to happen every time nowadays). With Andreas tired after Vegas, we spent Friday evening in front of the TV. :)
Adrian (one of our Swedish friends) turned 40 during the week and Chri had a little party for him Saturday. We met up in a local park (Green Lake) and celebrated with food from Longhorn Barbeque and drinks. The food was awesome, so Andreas actually had some meat! :) Like that wasn't enough, we barbequed today as well. We found a farm out in Arlington who raises cattle and kills it humanely. Last weekend we did a little day trip to check them out. Ended with us buying a few steaks and some ground beef. One of those steaks made it onto the grill, it was very good! :)
July 26th, 2007
Just had to share this article from one of the major Swedish news papers, "Dagens Nyheter". It highlights some differences between Swedes and Americans and is, in our experience, spot on. :)
July 22nd, 2007
Seems like some automated guest book spamming tool has found our guest book. I (Andreas) spent 30 minutes adding a few features to the code that should take care of it. If not, I have a few more anti-spam features that can be added to the guest book. In other words: It should be fine :)
Yesterday (Saturday) was great! Andreas, Christina and Jojo met up with Brad and Erin, and headed out to Woodinville. Seven of the smaller wineries out there had an event with wine tasting, food and live music. Since it was outdoors, we could bring Jojo with us. He got so much attention.. :) Tried a bunch of really good wines and ended up buying almost a case of wine (6 from Page Cellars, 3 from Des Voigne and 2 from Cuillin Hills). There were a few other ones that were really good, but we felt they were a bit overpriced. We still want to do tastings at Betz Family Winery and Mark Ryan Winery. Oh, by the way, if anyone wonders what we want for Christmas... A 100+ bottle wine fridge would be awesome! :)
Friday evening we finally got to celebrate Andreas' birthday. Christina had booked a table at a wonderful restaurant; Canlis. It sits on the hills above Lake Union, overlooking the city. She had pre-ordered a vegetarian, 5 course tasting menu. Few restaurants can pull off vegetarian fine dining, but Canlis did. It's among the better meals we've ever had!
July 15th, 2007
The first part of July came and went. The weather has been awesome for the most part, with sun and temperatures in the high 90's (about 35-37 degrees C) some days. Jojo hasn't been too thrilled with the heat though and spends most of the time on the kitchen floor (the tiles stays a bit cooler).
We ended up being less people than expected on July 4th. Chri and Adrian went hiking instead of coming here, which in retrospect probably was a good idea. They told us the trails were completely empty and they had a wonderful hike. We walked down to Kirkland together with Steve, Val and Jack to watch a July 4th parade. Sun was shining so it was quite hot. Jojo spent the morning in the woods with Tamara. Later in the afternoon, Dorde, Jesper, Chucky and Simba came over and we all headed over to Steve and Val's for barbeque.
Andreas' birthday was on the 13th. He celebrated it by getting up at 4am to catch a 6am flight to San Francisco. The rest of the day (and Saturday for that matter) was partner meeting with iSEC. Woohoo! :) Christina and Jojo had the house to themselves and got some gardening and cleaning done.
We realized something during the week: There are about 20 wineries out in Woodinville and we've been to 3 of them. So next Saturday we are going to do a wine trip... To Woodinville! We looked through this page and found a bunch of smaller wineries we've never been to. It will be a glorious Saturday! :) Unless we end up tiling instead. Jojo will be bored no matter which we end up doing.
July 1st, 2007
First some bad news: Our birds didn't make it. For some reason they thought it was a good idea to leave the nest a few days after being hatched. Long story short, all we have now is an empty nest. Stupid suicidal birds.
Second, some congratulations: Johan and Linda, congratulations on number two (Victoria, right?). Hope you all are doing well!
We've had a really nice weekend. Weather turned perfect somewhere around Friday night, 80 degrees and sunny most of the time. We've had a board-and-train here all weekend. His name is Ronin and he is very nice Rhodesian Ridgeback (you can see him on the picture page). Jojo is happy he has left though, so all attention is focused on him again. Little does he know that Ronin will be here next weekend as well. :)
Friday was a nice and slow evening, we had a good pasta dinner with some wine. Yesterday the entire pack (including Andreas and Ronin) went up to Jojo's pool exercise thingy in Maltby. Jojo had a blast and Andreas snapped a few good pictures (on the picture page). Later in the evening we barbequed and watched a movie at Steve and Val's.
We are all looking forward to Wednesday (July 4th). No work and it looks like weather is going to be really good. Dorde, Jesper, Chucky, Simba, Chri and Adrian are all coming over around 1pm or so. There will be food and of course plenty of beer in the backyard. Ah, celebrating Independence Day is perfect for Swedes: Eating and drinking... :)
June 19th, 2007
Sorry for the bad picture quality, but the light was bad and Andreas was a bit stressed. Anyhow, how cool is this?!
June 10th, 2007
This is so cool! We have a hanging basket with flowers just outside our front door and a few days ago we discovered that a little bird couple has built a nest in there! There is this really beautiful, round nest in the middle of the plant with 5 little eggs in it. It's just so cool! The bird mom is ok with us walking past and taking a close peek at the nest without freaking out. We are really hoping for all the eggs to hatch in a not too far of a future. Andreas is standing ready with the camera!
Other than that, the weekend has been fairly eventless... ;) Dinner with Scott and Heidi Thursday (our German friend Jan was there as well). "Cooking with Anita" Friday with SRS (Christina's work). Graduation party at Chri's yesterday. Christina had a very busy day today as well, while Andreas planted a few tomatoe plants. The weather kind of sucked, so we never got around to tile the backyard. Still keeping our fingers crossed for next weekend.
Oh.. It's official! Andreas is now a partner with iSEC! Official title is Vice President. Imagine that.. :)
Johan: We will take pictures of the house and post them! Hope everything goes well with the new baby! Congratulations!
Magnus: We haven't seen you update the Stjernborg homepage in a while.. :)
Mathias: Grattis till studenten!
June 5th, 2007
Wish and thou shall receive! Check the menu bar for a new feature: The junestam.com guest book! Now you can leave stupid comments, rants or whatever else you like for us to read. Enjoy!
June 3rd, 2007
This has been another great weekend. Friday was just a quiet evening at home, since we wanted to get an early start Saturday. Weather was really good so we had dinner in the backyard. We left the house around 7.30am Saturday for Skykomish and the "Johnson Ridge" trail. This is probably one of the better hikes we've ever done. Not a single soul in sight. Perfect weather. Breathtaking views. Loads of easy easy to walk snow. We plan to return sometime during the fall to catch the autumn colors. There are a few photos from the hike on the picture page.
Frank, Dagna and Savva (not sure on the spelling...) came over for dinner Saturday evening. We had skewers, potatoes and salad for main course, and Christina had made an awesome apple crisp for dessert. As always, there was also good wine, beer and sangria. Evening ended around 12.30, which was about the same time Dagna got tired of loosing all the mini games in "Rayman Raving Rabbids" (yes, that is the correct spelling!). :)
Keep your fingers crossed for good weather in Kirkland next week. We are planning to tile the concrete patio in the backyard next Sunday.
Andreas has updated the picture page with pictures from last weekends hike as well!
May 27th, 2007
Long weekend. Can't say that enough times. Long weekend. Tomorrow is Memorial day and we both took Friday off. Almost like a mini vacation! :) We all went hiking Friday (more info on the hiking page) and headed over to Leavenworth afterwards. Nothing makes you more hungry for European food and beer like a hike! Weather was nice and warm with a slight overcast, which was good since we had to leave Jojo in the car while we had lunch. Oh, Andreas brought his new Canon 17-55mm lens and it is so good. The IS makes it possible to take quarter second waterfall pictures without a tripod. Way cool!
The backyard is more or less done, except for the missing tiles of course. Spent a few hours shopping for Creeping Rosemary and Dahlia's yesterday, which ended up in the "planter" in the corner of the garden. Also picked up a few tile samples so we can get that done as soon as possible. We think we know which one we want; a lightly colored terracotta porcelain tile. Too bad it is raining today so Andreas can't get anything done in the yard.
Tonight we are having dinner with the Danes (Jesper, Dorde, Chucky and Simba). Since they have a roof over their backyard, we should be able to do some barbequing even though it is raining. We promised to bring some wine over and are considering to bring a new find of ours: Cameron Hughes. They buy up premium wines in bulk and sell it under their own label. Quality wine to a very decent price.
April 29th, 2007
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Yes, Andreas got his Nintendo Wii last week! It's still quite hard to find here in the U.S., but Circuit City had it only for about 30 minutes a short while back. Christina still thinks that the money could have been spent better on something else. She is wrong. Very wrong. Why play tennis outside when you can do it in front of your TV with a beer in your hand? In retrospect, Christina spent most of the week being sick. Sore throat, sniffles and the rest. She is still coughing a bit, but will be back at work tomorrow. Guess Andreas was right about being inside in front of the TV.. :)
The roof is done and it turned out really well. Back yard is dug out as well and the retaining wall is built. Denny is pouring the concrete next week and if weather is nice we'll put some tiles down next weekend or so. We have already picked out our new barbeque, the Weber Performer. Gas started charcoal and slightly bigger than the one we have. Looks just about perfect! We are also looking at floors for the living room, it's going to be so nice to throw the carpet out. What is it with Americans and wall-to-wall carpet? Especially since Americans have a tendency to wear their shoes inside.
Christina turned 31 last weekend. She got breakfast in bed together with a few presents. Jojo gave her a small bag of kibbles he later ate for breakfast. She also got an ASPCA t-shirt, a book about shelter dogs, a knitted sweater / top, vegetarian cookbooks and a paperback. Later in the evening Andreas and Christina headed over to Cafe Juanita for dinner. It was not as good as The Herbfarm where we went last year, but it was still among the best restaurants we've tried.
Oh, turns out Jojo is a star! He is the dog with the antlers at Creative Indulgence. Too bad he's not getting paid for it.... :)
April 15th, 2007
Well, well, well... Sunday and another update, there is definitively a trend here. Anyhow, this will be short, we are all busy watching "Planet Earth" on Discovery channel. Spent an hour or so at Dorde and Jesper's today. Camera, sun, Chucky and dogs made for some decent shots. You can find them on the picture page!
April 8th, 2007
Waaaaaahhhhhh! What's that bright, yellow disc in the sky!? Well, after somewhere around 6 months of rain, the sun is not that familiar anymore. It was kind of a surprise when it showed up Thursday. But what can I say, this weekend has been quite nice. Friday we had somewhere around 25 degrees centigrade and a clear, blue sky. Some rain showers during the rest of the weekend, but it is starting to feel like spring. SPRING! Finally! We even got some work done in the yard today. Too bad it is raining again.
Andreas managed to bust a muscle in his right foot just before last weekend. So, not workouts during the week or hiking this weekend. We are all hoping the weather will be nice next weekend so we finally can get back out into the mountains. It has been way too long! Going out hiking is such a nice break from the work week. If everything goes as planned, we'll even start doing some camping / backpacking during the summer.
Photography has been at a standstill as well. Andreas realized his Sigma is front-focusing (the auto focus locks in front of the subject), so he got kind of annoyed. If the bonuses drops in as planned, there will be a new walk-around lens (Canon's 17-55 f/2.8) and a new wide angle as well (Canon's 10-22). That together with some decent weather will yield some nice pictures for the picture page. Andreas is planning to bring the camera for Jojo's class on Wednesday on also his pool workout in Saturday. Keep an eye on that photo page!
The US is interesting, or, funny is probably a better way to put it. This weekend was the Easter weekend, which passed here without any real celebration. If you consider the fact the the US is way more Christian than Sweden, that is really odd. In Sweden you actually celebrate the Easter weekend. What can we say? Strange... The west coast doesn't even get good Friday off from work. I guess it is down to shopping; No major retailer has managed to push Easter as a big shopping weekend, so there is no reason to give people any time off... ;)
Hey, is it just me, or is there a pattern to the updates? Seems like they happen every Sunday or so. Imaging that...
April 1st, 2007
April fools! Almost...
This update will be a bit more sober than an April fools joke. Few books you read during a lifetime makes an impact, unless you strive to find them. I (Andreas) just finished two books that both made me realize how we pretend not to see things going on around us and also helped me make up my mind. First, "The Walmart effect". Not that I liked Walmart before reading the book, but before the feeling of dislike was based on the utter chaos in the store and the type of people shopping there. After reading the book, it is more a case of how they destroy small businesses through-out the United States (and parts of Europe) and have no regard for what gets sacrificed in the hunt for the last fraction of a cent.
The second book, which I almost finished tonight, is "Fast food nation". It has been around for a while, but I haven't gotten around to reading it until now. Tonight I realized what Christina realized a long time ago, but she still allowed me to form my own opinion. I honestly do not care if it the book is biased; I'm done with large scale meat processing. I'm not done with meat, I enjoy it way too much. But there is no way I can buy meat again, unless I know exactly where it is from and how the animal and meat was treated. Even places like "Whole Foods" don't have enough controls and purchasing power in place to guarantee "humane meat". There are farmers around the greater Seattle area where the animals are walking free, feed proper food, not given antibiotics and killed on the farm. It's time to find one of them.
I don't think I will ever understand why so many can ignore things like ethics to make an extra 50 cents.
March 26th, 2007
Feels like it has been raining since last year. Today was the first day in weeks where the sun showed through the rain clouds. Andreas and Christina took the opportunity to meet up for an outside lunch. It was actually warm enough for a t-shirt! Meanwhile, Jojo was hiking Tiger Mountain with Tamara.
We had Frank, Dagna and Sawa (their Rottweiler puppy) over for dinner Saturday. Christina made an awesome German inspired dinner with thick ribs, potatoes, sauerkraut, sweet red cabbage and gravy. Downed some good beer and local wine together with that and finished it all off with a traditional Swedish desert: Marängsviss! Andreas always enjoy having people over, since that is one of the few times he can enjoy meat... :)
We are really looking forward to out Austria trip in the fall. The plan is to spend some time around Reute and then make our way over to Switzerland. Andreas' photo shopping list for the trip is quite extensive. By the way, did you know it is more or less impossible to find a good combined hiking / photo backpack? If you go for a good hiking backpack with hydration, it won't really fit a tripod in a good way. On the other hand, if you go with the photo backpack, none of them have a hydration system. Backpack makers: If you read this, there is a gap in the market here! It's not like I'm going to build my own...
March 4th, 2007
Work, work work. It never ends. Andreas is 100% billable, some PM work and research on top of that. Christina is equally busy. Then comes the house which takes most of the weekends. It's no fun being a grown-up...
February 19th, 2007
Jojo is a very happy dog today. Andreas is working from home and Christina has the day off since it is President's Day. Not sure you can call it a day off though, Christina is dropping the Honda off for service, going to the dentist and running a bunch of errands.
The weekend was very nice. We went out for pizza Friday night, big night out... :) Around 10am Saturday morning, Jojo was picked up by Tamara to spend the night while Andreas and Christina got in the car. About 4 hours later we were in Vancouver, border was a mess. Met up with Paras, Stephanie, Maurya and nanny. Did some shopping at Granville Island (bread, cheese, beer and more) for pre-dinner snacks and went back to their place. Dinner was at a really good Thai place. Sunday we met up again for breakfast at Sophie's, probably one of the better places for breakfast in Vancouver. Parted with the Shah family around noon and met up with Shane, friend of Andreas' from the @stake days. Had coffee at his place and then left Vancouver about 1.30pm. Again, the border was a mess and we got back to the house around 5.30pm. Fed Jojo, emptied the car and got back into it. Dinner with Frank and Dagna 7pm. Good food, tasty drinks and fun, as always!
Oh, for our Swedish speaking friends... Now when Mona S is
back with a vengeance, it is time to remember why she left the political scene
to begin with:
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=818941
The only information missing from this article is that while
all this was going down, Mona and her husband had an annual income of about
twice as much as a normal Swedish family.
January 28th, 2007
Wonderful weekend! Evenings have been slow, but we finally managed to get out on some hikes! Christina hiked Mount Si with Jojo and Adrian Saturday and Andreas hiked Granite Mountain with Adrian today. Some of the pictures turned out really well and Andreas will try to get them up tonight.
Yesterday was also shopping day. We needed a bunch of hiking gear, so we headed over to "Outdoor and More" on the Seattle side. Ended up spending way too much money, but we walked out with some things we've needed for a long time. New boots for Andreas, snow shoes for Christina and a bunch of smaller items. Jojo still needs new bags and those silly little doggie boots.
January 21st, 2007
Winter came and went. We actually had snow and freezing for a few days and all the chaos that came with it. Since people here aren't used to driving when it's a bit slippery, traffic went from bad to complete mayhem. It took Andreas over an hour to drive back from a client, a trip that usually takes about 15 minutes. We really enjoyed the snow, but to be honest, it is quite nice that it is gone again so you can actually drive somewhere.
Andreas got his new 70-300 Canon lens friday. Fedex completely screwed up the shipment and it ended with Andreas going down to Kent to pick it up. It took about 5-6 calls to Fedex to pin-point where it was and why they shouldn't deliver it when no one was home. To make a long story short, we will NEVER have anything shipped with Fedex again. Ever. The lens is great fun though!
We had Chucky here for a while today. Dorde and Jesper wanted to test how he did when they were gone for a while. Not sure where they want to go with that, but Andreas is quite concerned... :) As long as he had food in his mouth, he was happy. Not that Andreas noticed, he disappeared to Lowe's to "look at tiles". So, to be accurate, Christina had Chucky here for a while.
The house is still a work-in-progress. Planning to dig out the back yard and fix up the living room / dining area. But, before starting a new project, we are completing the last little things left in the kitchen and bathroom. Only minor things, but they still take time to complete, so the weekend has been mostly dedicated to that. Looks like we might need new roofs as well. The last storm proved that the roofs are getting old and that it is time to replace them. Fun.
Jojo is doing well.