My other new neighbor

Meet Sacha. This is my neighbor's other new puppy.

Sacha is an Alaskan Malamute.

He is a little smaller than his St. Bernard pal, Yukon.

But he does not take any crap from her.

If she gets in his face too much, he will let her know with a sharp bark that she needs to back off a little.

He is more vocal than she is, but also seems a little more shy when it comes to coming over to the wall to say hello.

But when I am out there he looks at me and cries, like he wants me to come over and play.

I have had the chance to meet them both when they were on their way out for a walk. They are so soft and fluffy and clumsy.

Yeah. Puppies are awesome. Especially someone else's puppies. I can see them and pet them and play with them. And I never have to worry about picking up poop.

Sorry, no meatballs

Manfriend and I went out to Agoura Hills on Sunday for the Swedish festival.

Why?

Because he is half Swedish.

I was not at all sure what to expect.

The only thing I knew for sure was that it was going to be H-O-T hot!

We've had a little heat wave here the past few days.

I think it was at least 100 degrees in Agoura Hills that day.

So. Swedish festival. It was at a place called Vasa Park. It was a nice park. There was a little creek running through it that we had to sort of drive through on the way in. There were a lot of trees, a covered pavilion and bandstand thing, a concession area and a pool with a water slide.

We decided to get an early start so we could get pancakes when we got there.

And that is how we started.

Pancakes, eggs and some sausage. With lingon berries. Yum.

Then we found a spot in the shade to set up our chairs and people watch.

The general demographic was over 60.

There were some families with kids. Lots and lots of blond kids.

Basically we sat in our chairs and sweated while the pastor from the Swedish church did a Midsummer service. There also was a choir that sang in Swedish. It was hard to hear with no mics. But it sounded nice.

I have to say, Swedish is not the most, um, pleasant-sounding language. It has a lot of those hard sounds like German.

There were some booths set up with crafts and games. All in all, it was smaller than I expected.

But a lot of the people there seemed like they had known each other for years.

I never realized there was a group of clubs/lodges for Swedish immigrants and their families in L.A. It was kind of cool to see them all talking and sharing pictures.

Finally, at noon, just as it was really getting hot, they got the maypole set up.

The Midsummer celebration comes complete with princesses.

They had to be hot.

They had on tights and about 5 layers of clothes including shawls and aprons!

Some, um, adjustment was required.

This was the entertainment for the day. It was rather amusing and there really were all ages out there singing along in Swedish and dancing around the maypole.

This guy was by far my favorite. I think I stalked him a little bit to get some pictures.

I mean, that is dedication. Did I mention that it was at least 100 degrees?
He never took that hat off! Not even during the dancing.

And I even managed to stalk him long enough to get some video.

Yeah. He was the best.

After the maypole we decided to go. We just wanted some air conditioning.

They were starting to grill burgers and hot dogs as we were leaving. But we passed.
I have to say, I was really expecting some meatballs.