Two compliments today, how nice! One was for the second presention I fixed up for an American colleague. She was equally ebullient about the first one, but this one (which was only 15 slides, an easy-peasy one for me) she called “spectacular”! 😀
And tonight I called to activate a new member of the AIC, an older (than me) man who moved here a year ago to be with his long-distance Swedish girlfriend. He told me I did a great job of giving him info and thought it was awesome that someone called him and talked to him so well and so quickly.
So, good day for compliments! Makes writing my daily good things list easy, too.
Had a compliment yesterday from Martin as well, that my latest crossword was a fun one. It took him longer than 30 minutes, even, so double-good, haha!
It’s a busy week, despite Anders being gone again. I had a massage today after work, and tomorrow is our AIC monthly meeting which will be bowling. I won’t actually bowl because of my knees, but am going anyway because we have the board meeting beforehand, and I’m driving Lisel there and back, so I’ll stay to cheer everyone on. On Wednesday, I’m going into Lund after work to take my watch to a repair place and to sell (hopefully) the rest of our record albums at a music store that buys and sells vinyl. If they won’t take them, I will go around the corner and donate them to Erikshjälpen. Thursday is book group, Friday I have an AIC lunch (and Anders comes home) and Saturday is another AIC activity: Sip and Paint (by Numbers).
It’s the first time for this activity and I find it hilarious. I wasn’t going to go, because I was being an artistic snob, and thinking, drrr, I can paint without having to paint BY NUMBERS. And I don’t drink, so the usual sipping (wine) wasn’t appealing but then I thought, what the hell. I used to love paint-by-number kits when I was a kid. There was something very soothing about them.
I even stole quarters from the pachinko game at my aunt and uncle’s house one summer when we were visiting my mom’s family in Detroit, when I was a kid, just so I could go buy another kit. It was one of the only times in my life I ever stole something (and the only time it was money), and of course I got caught and had to confess and pay it all back. Humiliating, but it didn’t break my love of paint-by-numbers. I can’t remember if my sister was an accomplice or if it was just me. It was my idea for sure. I figured they’d never miss a few dollars worth of quarters when they had so many in that stupid game! 😀
ANYWAY, my criminal past is far behind me. I spent a little time looking at the (disturbingly many) online sites that offer paint-by-number kits, and because I didn’t want 1) to spend a lot of money on this and 2) to end up with a huge paint-by-number painting that I have no place to hang and will probably just get rid of at some point, because DUH PAINT BY NUMBERS, I ended up buying two small ones. I couldn’t decide which I liked best, and I suspect this activity will happen at least one more time, so I’ll just save the other one for that. It’s small enough to be able to paint in the few hours we’ll have, and colorful enough to be satisfying. I got them a week ago, but didn’t open them. I don’t know which is which. One is a geometric cat and one is a foursquare image of block flowers. I’ll just grab one to take with me on Saturday and be surprised by whichever one it happens to be.
Paint by Numbers seem to have the same kind of appeal as coloring books. I read somewhere a while ago that adult coloring books, which have inexplicably flourished in the last 10 or so years, are a sure sign of the end times. 😀 No argument here.
Maybe I’ll take my last little can of Vernors with me to “sip”…though in that case I’ll probably need to bring some ice since there’s no guarantee the hostess will have ice. She’s British, and they don’t do ice much. I’ve been saving it since November when mom and Sarah brought 6 of the mini cans for Martin, Karin, and I. Karin actually tried to wangle it out of me when she was here last, arguing that since I was going to the States soon, I should be okay with her drinking it. HA. NO WAY CHILD. Vernors isn’t a thing in the Carolinas so if I want any, I’ll probably need to order them online when I’m there.
Mood: contented
Music: Howie Day—Be There