Our performance last Sunday was at a very nice retirement community in Lake Oswego, at the invitation of Oscar & Mary Olson, who have long been fans of the group. In fact, I found out that they danced with the group briefly in the very early days. Oscar is almost 90 and they have been married for 65 years. We added some participatory dances to the program, but unfortunately, neither of them is able to dance anymore. We had four men and seven women for the performance, so the men were kept hustling.

Unfortunately, we were unable to put together a performance for the Astoria Midsummer Festival the weekend of June 17-19. This is the first time we have _not_ performed at Astoria in the 20 years I've been with the group.

Our next performance will be at the Portland Scandinavian Midsummer Festival, on June 25, which is put on by the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation and other Portland area groups of Scandinavian heritage. This year's festival will be held at Oaks Park, just north of the Sellwood Bridge. The German Home site, which has been used for several years, has been sold to Portland Community College, for the expansion of their Southeast campus.

I've asked Andy to chime in on this one, because I didn't attend the performance, as I was recovering from a marathon of schoolwork completion and had been up way too late the night before. I do know that he wished he'd brought his camera, as he reported Irene and Darryl (mother and son) performed a beautiful rendition of the hambo, which he wished he'd caught digitally.

I went to a Nordlys rehearsal last Sunday, which is not something I ordinarily do, as I am not one of the dancers myself.  Ann, with the help of Jim and Yonnie, is holding down the fort as temporary director in the absence of John, who is sorely missed, as he fights serious illness.  Fran, Jerry and Tally were conspicuous by their absence, but the rest carried on, in preparation for their next performance, which I understand is to be at a retirement center.  Irene has had eye surgery and looks great (and sees well) without her glasses.  Lynn, as always, lightens things up with his humor, and everyone shares helpful suggestions to improve technique and appearance for the next outing.