The newest member of our family is now a very happy, portable air conditioner. We keep it running from our bedroom nonstop on hot days. It came just in time.

It’s been really nice to find new places to walk around the area. Chad and I found some great paths that go through the woods and along a stream. It’s so relaxing. During our walks we’ve been scheming about how to make our long-distance family relationships work the way we want. I wish we could predict where all our siblings are going to end up making their homes.

Most of the morning we shopped at the farmers’ market in Oerlikon. We picked up strawberries and homemades like olive ravioli. I love just walking down the rows and seeing all the fresh fruits and vegetables and flowers. It made me wish our garden is nicer. When we started getting sweaty we walked down to the community pool. It was too hot for us to hang out in the heated pool, but still too cold to hang out in the Olympic-sized pool. We read and sunbathed to kill time.

We finally enrolled at a local video rental store. They tried to rent The Guardian to us for 8 CHF. But I pointed out that they had it for sale in a bin out front for only 7.50 CHF. The lady gave me a sheepish look like she wasn’t sure why it was so expensive to rent either. So we bought a new DVD for our collection and saved half a Franc on the ridiculous rental price. It’s sort of what we expected. It still seems dumb though.

Elisa has made some killer guac. It feels like summer. It’s really nice to just spend some weekends around the house.