Monthly Archive: June 2004

I dislike using my journal for listing what I’ve accomplished during the day unless it’s something out of the ordinary. I have no doubt that no one is interested in reading the list of household chores I blew through this morning. This weekend has been incredibly mellow, and I slept in like a slug this morning, after staying up way too late last night. I was supposed to have edited the rest of the pictures for our family web page update but that project seems to be going really slowly. I did, at least finish up the HTML pages for...

Why do people insist on trying to make things perfect? Why can’t they realize that aspiring to perfection is just a way to make youself (and others) crazy? Why can’t people just let good enough be good enough?! argh

It’s been raining on and off all week, including today, and the temperatures are crisp and chilly. Without the sun, it makes for dismal weather. This evening, the cloud cover was pushed aside by the sun and blue broke out in the west. I went for my walk just before 7:30 to find a wet, washed world. The paths were glistening and the trees dripped quietly. Heading toward the snail trail I was literally stunned to a stop by a field of meadow grass, long stalks bowed by the rain. The sun shone across them, each stalk’s arch outlined in...

Anders informed me that at their work event yesterday evening they had a truffle-tasting. I’ve never eaten a truffle, to my knowledge, although I’ve read about them. Apparently, they cost 3000 kronor per kilo when they’re in season. Urk. And the Tetra Pak employees in my husband’s department were shoveling them down…I want to work for Tetra Pak where it seems the money is flowing. Anders’ description of them was short and to the point. When asked what they looked like, he responded “sheepshit,” and when asked how they tasted, I got the same response. Then he backpedaled and said...

I’m home today with the kids because Martin’s daycare is closed for personnel planning or somesuch. We’re going to Lund to eat lunch with the girls I might be singing at the regional with to discuss music options. Tonight is Social Circle and the kids are tagging along to that as well. I’ll have to go walk this afternoon. It’s run the gamut weather-wise already in just the few hours I’ve been up, from blinding sunshine and blue skies to cloudy and spitty rain to wind and more sunshine. Maybe the weather is PMS-ing, too. It’s certainly got the mood...

Who stole summer?! It’s only June 15th and it might as well be November here in Sweden as far as the weather is concerned. Okay, it’s only been 2 days of it, but when it’s JUNE even two days feels like a gyp. We’re being gypped, I tell you! Heavy, hanging clouds, sagging with moisture, spitty misty rain, and the wind! Geez louise, don’t even get me started on the wind. Yesterday was the first day in 6.5 weeks that I didn’t go for a walk when I could have, just because the weather was so shitty and my evil...

First, I was going to write something about how grey and boring and cruddy the weather is today, but it’s not boiling hot and it’s not raining and I saw that field of red poppies again and I’m protected from the elements anyway, so never mind. Second, I don’t want to hear anyone at work bitching about anyone else at work. I want my colleagues to start concentrating on the positive side and the good things, and maybe then said good thngs will start to dominate again. Shut up or ship out. Third, I am SO looking forward to being...

My 45-minute walk this evening was slowed by grass. Wild grass. Ornamental grass. Plumy, wavy, bowing, grainy grass. 14 completely different kinds. I don’t know the names of any of them, although after a cursory Google hunt I suspect one of them is wild timothy and one is probably wheat. Or maybe barley, except I think barley has longer awns, the hairlike strands that stand straight up above its seed-filled head. One is almost definitely switchgrass. Some of them are fluffy, some are airy, some are straight and rigid with stair-stepped ladderlike beauty. One looks like a miniature pale-green cat-tail....

This morning, or last night, depending upon how you look at it, was the first time the overabundance of early-morning sunshine has disturbed my sleep. It warmed up a couple of kamikaze flies so much that they decided 4:23 a.m. was the best time to start dive-bombing our heads….bzzzzZZZZZzzzz zzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzz zzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! After trying unsuccessfully to ignore them, I was forced to get up and POUND THEM INTO FLY PULP with a fly swatter and then suck their deservedly dead corpses up with the dustbuster. SO satisfying. Unfortunately, the early-morning bed-rage woke me up too much and then the rooster behind...