Yearly Archive: 2003

21
Nov
2003

BAFFLED

I don’t care if you have worked 25 years at the same place and just received a gold watch to prove it, or that you have just stuffed yourself silly on good food and drink and are enjoying your coffee and cognac. When the entertainment takes the stage to perform for you, shut your yap and listen. Would it kill you to be polite for 15 minutes?! argh

20
Nov
2003

MY MONTH!

Bet you didn’t know that November is Slaughter Month! And as if that wasn’t enough, it was my Name Day yesterday.

20
Nov
2003

BLEAH

Sick to my stomach this morning, presumably from stress, since I know I’m not pregnant and I don’t think I have a flu bug. 🙁 bleah Getting up earlier than normal and racing around like an idiot getting kids dressed and ready, plus eating breakfast, which is not a normal activity I indulge in, are the most likely culprits. Plus I’m so tired I feel I could just pass out any second. I’m at work, but considering either using the “nap room” or going home for a few hours. I can’t be sick…I have a concert tonight. I feel like...

19
Nov
2003

FAREWELL FOR FLOSSIE

Raindrops keep falling on my head! But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turning red, crying’s not for me, oh, I’m never gonna stop the rain by complaining… The rain may fall mainly on the plain in Spain, but here in Lund, it falls EVERYWHERE. And lots of it. It’s been pouring since I got to work and no signs of it letting up, according to the solid wall of white above us. I got the news a couple of days ago that my great-aunt Flossie passed away on Sunday evening. She was 98 years old and apparently...

19
Nov
2003

BELL RINGER

After Quasimodo’s death, the bishop of the Cathedral of Notre Dame sent out word through the streets of Paris that he needed a new bell ringer. He chose to audition applicants for the job himself, and climbed up into the belfry tower with the first handful that applied. Having heard and dismissed each of them, he was about to call it a day when an armless man came dashing up the stairs and exclaimed, “Our Grace, please allow me to audition as your bell ringer!” The Bishop was stunned. “But, my good man, you have no arms.” “No matter,” the...

18
Nov
2003

BERT SQUIRT INSTANT KITTY!

I ended up with Toby because my boss thought he was my cat, Pooka, and she trapped him under a milk crate behind the café. No one claimed him, and after a couple of weeks he was mine. Pooka, needless to say, was neither thrilled nor amused at the addition of a big, dumb GUY to the household. The vet estimated he was about 8 months old, and he was in good health for having been on the streets for an unknown period. He looked exactly like Pooka except for his size and a pink nose. Pooka was a tiny...

17
Nov
2003

SAY WHAT?!

(Be grateful: I left a lot of them out) aunt as in ant been as in ben caramel as in car-ml crayon as in cran creek as in kreek mary/merry/marry are pronounced the same, dammit mayonnaise as in man-aiyz both miss-chiv-us and miss-chee-vee-us pee-CAN unless it’s pee-kahn pie poem has only one syllable, dammit etc = et-setra or et-setera It’s a faucet, dammit umBRELLa dragged (but I have to admit I thought drug for a second) you all or you guys one modal at a time, dammit none of those uses of anymore are acceptable, dammit garage sale or yard...

16
Nov
2003

GRETA GARBLE

My daughter has been singing the refrain all day to the Netherlands entry from the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The song is about Dick—a friend of the singer’s mother. As the result of a cerebral haemorrhage Dick is completely paralyzed. He can only blink his eyes and uses them to communicate with other people. It was called “Mijn ogen zeggen alles” (My eyes will tell), which Karin has been rendering as “mina ögon säger Alice” 🙂 Scored 4 books while in town shopping, and not one of them was on my book list (sorry, Mom!) They’re all hugely thick and...

16
Nov
2003

NOT A “SUN” DAY

It’s about as grey as it can be outside without a blanket of fog. When Ericsson was in the middle of the product launch for their first Bluetooth headset, I was asked to come up with color names for the product description*. You would think there aren’t that many ways to describe grey, but you’d be wrong. Knowing a lot of different ways to describe grey comes in handy when living in Sweden, at least when it comes to the weather. I’m sending my children off to terrorize some other poor mother on her day of rest and not feeling...