Yearly Archive: 2003

while carving pumpkins yesterday…

It’s another gorgeous crispy cold day. I got to sleep in an extra hour because of daylight savings turning back the clock. But I still forgot and had a panic later in the day until I was told that the clock I was looking at was still wrong. Karin seems to be completely recovered from whatever bug she had yesterday. The kids went to Scouts this morning with Anders and they fished for bugs in the lake, but it’s been so cold they didn’t find any. They were also filmed by Finnish TV while they sat reading a story under...

We just watched number 40 and up of VH-1‘s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders, which was absolutely hilarious. Remember these? Achy Breaky Heart, What I Am, Puttin’ On the Ritz, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm, Maniac, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, Funkytown, The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades, In a Big Country, 867-5309 (Jenny), Smokin’ in the Boy’s Room, Lovin’ You, Genius of Love, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), I Touch Myself, Lovefool, Bitch, Don’t Worry Be Happy, Rock Me Amadeus, Afternoon Delight, You Light Up My Life, Too Shy, Pop Muzak, Whip It, Take On...

I’m totally stuffed up, and worried I’m coming down with a cold. I can’t afford to be sick this week, with Anders gone for 3 days and so many things to do. Got home from Tylösand at 2:30 to find Karin in bed asleep. She had thrown up after lunch, and soon afterwards, she woke up and did it again. 🙁 Hope it’s not the killer stomach flu from Stockholm. SO, cooking club is cancelled tomorrow, but I still have to find time to carve pumpkins, which means the big question is: Scary or funny faces?

I’m at Hotel Tylösand, on the west coast of Sweden, relaxing. We had a work event during the day, a conference at which we discussed our company culture, which has come to us top down, from the management team, who has decided what our core values will be. They are passion respect responsibility No one agrees with “passion,” and we’ve suggested several alternatives: enthusiasm, motivation, engagement, commitment…but they keep insisting that passion is the right word for what they want their employees to feel for their work, their products, the company and our customers. Umm. Had an hour long massage...

Seen in an online article today: “I hope I have peaked your interest…” AAAAGH! Swenglish/Svengelska in use at our house: pricky korv Anders’ additions to the grocery list after I asked him to email me the things he wanted: meatballs rökt korv tomatoes red ducati 999R In other news, one of my very good friends here in Sweden told me today that she’s pregnant. 🙂 She was just bursting with happiness and mood swings. We were pregnant at the same time (me with Karin) in 1999, and we were both the most miserable pregnant women that ever existed on the...

I gotta get me some o’ that!

One of the things that arrived in the several packages that we’ve gotten recently from my mom is a CD of American patriotic songs, which I asked her to find. I wanted it for my kids because otherwise, there are hardly any occasions here in Sweden where they will actually hear these songs as they grow up. I just put it in the CD player to listen to while I check email tonight and by god, it’s stirring! 🙂 Okay, well, maybe not stirring, but as a military brat, it does give me a certain frisson of patriotic emotion that...

Halloween cards for the kids (hey, where’s MINE?!) came in the mail yesterday from my mom, and since they were full of stickers, the kids were thrilled. Martin had a card with pumpkins and the stickers were the parts needed to make jack-o-lanterns out of them. Apparently, they’ve been talking about ghosts and goblins for 2 weeks at school, and now Martin is scared of the dark. He freaked out on a walk around the block a couple of nights ago with Anders and Karin, and Anders said he was literally shaking. This was WITH his father and sister, on...

22nd: Choir 23rd: Grocery shopping, laundry, work on AWC website/newsletter 24th: Overnight work event 25th: Martin to birthday party, finish AWC website/newsletter 26th: Martin to birthday party, carve pumpkins 27th: AWC monthly meeting 28th: Surprise birthday party for a friend, Anders leaves for 3-day trip to England 29th: Choir 30th: Haircut/color, make Halloween desserts, gather Halloween decorations for Saturday 31st: Halloween party & trick-or-treating 1st: AWC Halloween party