The Weekend

The annual neighborhood flea market was staged yesterday. Which is always a great excuse to hang with the neighbors and snoop around the backyards of the area. Business was slow though. I guess, if the annual neighborhood flea market biz grinds to a halt, recession mindset has truly conquered hearts and minds. Here Fred is directing the sales force while Karl is test driving a bobby car in the one color he can actually correctly identify (or.... say? Because all colors are "blau" in his world). In the end Fred brought home a nice amount of cash though, which she deposited in Karl's chickie bank (nope, not a piggie, it's a psychedelically colored, hysterical chicken from the neighborhood China market).



Sunday morning we went on our usual bobby car ride. Karl was very disappointed, when he brought me a flower from the bushes, that the seeds weren't flying like a battalion of paratroopers, when blow at it. Tried to explain the difference between dandelions and buttercups. Kinda hard to make a point when they truly share a lot of traits (porcupiny seed clusters, yellow petals, to be found in the bushes).



Otherwise it was very darwinian at the playgrounds. Karl did manage to wrestle away some toys from other kids. But he's too much a diplomat to be bothered with pointless battles going nowhere. He did find a great way to play undisturbed with his loot though - under the slide, where nobody will find you (notice the bobby-carjacking in the background). Later on it got kinda scary, because there was a procession with a oompah band playing ultra-maudlin hymns followed by a bunch of catholics in full garb and a crowd that looked like they bought their outfits sometime in the 70s in Bulgaria. They were singing along the creepy hymns and Karl looked really worried until they had passed. Only a good helping of raisins and an animal cookie in the shape of a hippo brought back his devil may care smiles.