CRCT

Gregory will do the Georgia CRCT reading test today. Wish him luck!

I am Gregory. I am going to demolish the CRCT test!!! G-man is going to
pass the one and only CRCT test!

Sammy van Nistelrooij

It is tough for team USA. Most soccer fans in the US support other teams. I see cars with English flags, little German flags on mailboxes, and lots of Mexican banners everywhere. Our home is decorated with an Orange flag, but nowhere I see support for the Americans. On the contrary, people do not understand how USA could lose to Ghana. It's a shame, US is fifth in the Fifa ranking, Ghana is 49th. It's no use explaining that the Fifa ranking has not very close to reality, and that Ghana probably has the stronger team. On the fourth of July we'll wave the American flag again, until then we fly orange.

Fountain drinks

Judging from the number of movies on Google video and YouTube, Mentos and Diet Coke must have blow-out sales this years. Since someone discovered that dropping a Mentos mint in a bottle of Diet Coke creates an explosive geyser, lots of home made movies appeared on the internet. Mostly made by frat students in their bathrooms.

Now, EepyBird.com show two men in Maine, Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, that took the cola explosions to an entirely new level. They used 101 bottles of Diet Coke and crafted two-minute Mentos and Diet Coke performance that they call "a spectacular, mint-powered version of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas."

Alberto from Paraguay

Meet my colleague Alberto from Paraguay. He's a brave man, wearing his national team's jersey in the office of a Swedish company. World Cup games are on from 9 to 5 local time. The TV in our break room that used to be tuned to the business channels, is now showing ESPN. Here's Alberto watching his team go down in the 88th minute against Sweden. He will have to hear about that defeat for a long time.

Other than Paraguay, Sweden, USA and the Netherlands, our office has nationals from world cup contenders Argentina, Trinidad, Costa Rica, Mexico, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia. You can imagine the world cup is talked about a lot more than the NBA Finals these days.

Fedex Field

Last week, I was on a business trip to Baltimore. At least, that's what I thought. I flew into Baltimore Airport, but the actual meeting turned out to be at Fedex Field, the home stadium of the Washington Redskins. At a capacity of 90,000, it is one of the largest stadiums in the NFL.

For reasons, I can't explain Sammy loves the Baltimore Ravens, but can't stand the Redskins. Since I had told him I would be in Baltimore, he made me promise to bring back some Ravens memorabilia. So it was a great disappointment, that I showed up with pictures from Fedex Field and some Redskins mini-posters. I should have known better.

From the grill

Sunday seemed like a perfect day for grilling. Ina made US grilled steak, Indonesian grilled fish, Italian roast potatoes and a Mexican chopped salad. Can you believe that it rained for 15 minutes that day? It just brought out that hickory smoke flavor a little bit extra.

One night in Naarden

On Friday, I made a stopover in Holland while traveling back home from Stockholm. I visited my long time friends Albert and Regina and their one year old son Floris. It was great to have white asparagus with eggs and ham with pinot gris, and to catch up with Albert and Regina. Albert had just returned from a cycling vacation in the French Alps. He now knows all 21 hairpins of l'Alpe d'Huez by heart.

Floris is a happy little fellow who will dress up in vintage orange warm-up suits and Tour de France yellow jerseys this summer.