Lizardek

16
Feb
2026

THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE A FRIEND IS TO BE ONE*

I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship lately. All the different kinds that I’ve been privileged to be a part of and those that have stayed and those that have disappeared and why. I think my delight in landing on writing a letter a month for 2026 was partly fueled by a need to reach out to friends that I feel distant from and, probably, remind them that I exist. Even if I say I don’t expect an answer or a letter back, I’d still like to think that my reaching out might awaken an answering call in people that...

14
Feb
2026

LAZY, BUSY, WORRIED, CHILLY

I was so lazy most of yesterday…had the day off and really needed it, apparently. I didn’t sleep in, but I basically didn’t do anything of use the entire day until I had to leave for dinner at Camilla’s with her and Debbie. So it was a day full of leisure: reading, playing iPad games, working on a crossword puzzle AND a jigsaw puzzle, watching the birds, having breakfast and lunch. I stayed in my pajamas until well into the afternoon. I thought about working in the morning but I managed to restrain myself. 🙂 Today, I made up for...

07
Feb
2026

PRETTY THINGS AND QUIET TIME

It’s the beginning of a relatively quiet week for me, since Anders left this morning with Karin for a week of skiing in Italy. I dropped him off at the station in Lund, then went and parked behind the station and walked over to Espresso House to have breakfast and sit and read for an hour, while waiting for Clemens Antik to open. I was determined to beat Martin there to get that vase, and I DID! HAHA! I WON! He got to work just before 10, but checked on Find My iPhone where I was, and knew I was...

03
Feb
2026

THERE, THEN BACK, THEN UP, THEN DOWN

What a mixed bag of a day. I got up earlier than normal but didn’t stress out about getting ready as I knew I’d need to let my morning bathroom routine take precedence as I did not want to be worrying about finding a restroom on my way to Malmö in rush hour traffic. I got disentangled from the sleep apnea test equipment (went fine, no problems, as far as I know, though we’ll see what the results say), showered, and left the house at 7:30 AM confident that 2 toilet visits would see me through. Wrong. Almost to the...

02
Feb
2026

WEEKEND UPDATE, WEEKDAY STARTER, PLUS A LOT OF UGHS

Already writing February on work filenames, which is crazy. It was Christmas a minute ago. January just whipped by. It’s left us with an arctic freeze. It’s been -3 to -9 CELSIUS every day for what feels forever and no end in sight yet. The snow was pretty much gone before the freeze at least up here. Apparently there is still a lot down south and in Ă–sterlen. It’s been really windy as well, which means that -3 feels like -15. Brr. On the plus side, the last couple of days have been beautifully clear: sunny and bright blue skies...

25
Jan
2026

IF YOU WANT HAPPY ENDINGS, READ COOKBOOKS*

We get a physical monthly magazine from our local Swedish grocery store chain that is chock-full of recipes. It’s named BuffĂ© and it is, indeed, that, in terms of instructions on putting food together. Neither Anders nor I cook much anymore, though he’s much more likely to whip together a tomato and onion soup if we have crushed tomatoes in the pantry. I think about cooking like I think about posting here…a great deal of it happens only in my head. I just spent an hour going through the backlog of magazines in the basket, with the intent of recycling....

24
Jan
2026

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

It’s Saturday just after lunchtime, and I am determined to write something here, so here I am. The whole week got away from me (again) even though I thought about writing a post several times. Winter has a grip on us and work has turned crazy already so my mind has been elsewhere. It’s a month past the solstice and I would like to feel that the light is returning, but it’s still so dark and cold and wet. We HAVE had snow and several very sunny beautiful clear days but they’ve been bookended by the usual cloud cover, and...

19
Jan
2026

OUR WAY WITH WORDS

I’ve been thinking about language that is specific to my family. Phrases and words that we use that no one else does (or maybe a few but not the general public, if you see what I mean). The secret vocabulary that we adopt or invent that enters our conversations, maybe as a joke, and sticks. I’m not talking about baby talk, the garbled misinterpretations that small children add to their language and that slip into our adult lexicons, though those would really count as well. And I’m not talking about generational jargon that we gather as teens and young people...

17
Jan
2026

SLUGGARD WITH STYLE

Thinking about writing blog posts ought to count towards actually writing them, if what you put together in your head eventually leads to something. Or? I survived my first week back at work, but it was a close thing. I was exhausted by the end of Friday and it wasn’t even that strenuous a week, AND the monster report layout project that so stressful before the holidays was finally approved and finalized on Friday morning, so that should have been a great ending to the week. And it was. But. SO TIRED. I cannot decide who I resemble more in...

07
Jan
2026

A VACATION FROM MY VACATION

There’s something so wonderfully monotonous about the slowing down of time during vacation, if you’re home and not traveling at least. The way your sleep clock slowly turns itself over and you find yourself staying up until the wee hours and sleeping until 11 (or at least that USED to be the case). I still see it happening a little bit but because I wake up so much during the night, it’s not as easy to turn my internal clock upside-down anymore. But time slows down generally if you don’t make plans. My plans are little ones that involve home...

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