Monthly Archive: October 2008

31
Oct
2008

HALLOWEENIES

One of the biggest problems we’ve encountered with Halloween every year is that Karin wants to have different costumes for each Halloween-related event. It’s hard enough to come up with costume ideas for the four of us ONCE, but when she starts wanting a different costume for the school party, the neighborhood trick-or-treating and the big AWC party, it’s enough to make me grind my teeth. Today she attended a party at the after-school daycare (for once, they got the date right) and because it was cold and rainy, she opted not to wear her surfer costume that is slotted...

27
Oct
2008

JACK O’MASTERPIECES

This year, because ozswede was so kind as to send us a pumpkin carving kit for the kids, I made them do their own dirty work, though I did cut the holes in the tops of the pumpkins and scoop-scraped out the insides (though I had help from Anders on one of them). Usually I have to wield the knife (*evil laugh*) so they draw their pumpkin designs and I execute (HA!) them. Even though they got a packet of ready-made designs in the package they elected to go with traditional jack-o-lantern faces this year, though both of them wanted...

26
Oct
2008

COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY

We took the recyclables in today and stopped at the grocery store and the whole way there and back in the car I sang rain songs. It’s been raining non-stop all day, the dreary leaf-loosening autumn rain that bodes ill for a snowy winter. It’s the kind of rain that seems as if it will never stop, and when you’ve lived in Sweden for long enough, the very real prospect of just that thing is too overwhelming to contemplate for long, hence the loud choruses of Rain, Rain Go Away and It’s Raining, it’s Pouring, etc. The kids sang along...

25
Oct
2008

ONE-UPMANSHIP

Liz: Your hemspråk teacher told me she gave you homework; to google Halloween but you told her you couldn’t because our computer wasn’t working. Martin: yeah Liz: You can do it on my work laptop. You can’t play games on it, but you can google for your homework. Martin: What if we google “games” or “play games”? Liz: What if I google “kill kid”? Martin: Then you’ll probably come into a murder site. Liz: Actually, I’ll probably come into a parenting site. Martin: Ha ha, very funny! Liz: *giggles madly*

23
Oct
2008

3 STRIKES

What can I say? I feel like a fool for getting my (our) hopes up about the cat. Anders is reacting now, after 5 days, and truth be told, so am I, though in a very minor way. I had some correspondence with the breeder and she did make me feel slightly better by telling me that she had some other customers react to Doc as well, who then DIDN’T react to a different Siberian, and that it can be very much the allergens borne by any indivdual cat…but we can’t test every cat in Sweden, especially since it’s hard...

19
Oct
2008

DOC THE CAT

I’ve never had or really even been around such a FLUFFY cat before. All of our/my cats have been either Siamese, tabby or black-and-white shorthairs. Doc’s tail is nearly as big as he is and it’s easily as big as my huge feather duster. He sleeps a great deal of the day as cats are wont to do, burrowing under the covers in one or the other of the kids’ beds and is up in the evening wanting to play. He’s quite friendly and doesn’t seem to be disturbed by any of these strange people he suddenly finds himself amongst,...

18
Oct
2008

MID-DAY UPDATE

Anders spent the morning and part of the afternoon taking our computer apart and trying various things to figure out what is wrong with it and his best-guess diagnosis is that the motherboard has gone bad (last seen hanging out at pool halls, leaning up against the alley wall with a handrolled hanging from its lower lip and a sullen expression on its face) and doesn’t even recognize the drives or startup process. Which is at least comforting in the fact that our files are probably okay…we just can’t ACCESS them. Because the PC is leased through Tetra Pak, it’s...

16
Oct
2008

THE GOOD, THE GOOD & THE UGLY

Today was all about good things, right up until about 20 minutes ago. The worst of the week is over and I seem to be not only still standing, but still in a good mood. The dentist visit today was relatively painless despite having to patch a damaged filling and I hit the bookstore on the way to eat lunch at a good sushi place and picked up several new books that have been on my wish list for awhile. I had a good day at work, got a lot done on a big project I’m up to my elbows...

15
Oct
2008

BITS OF TID

People are sick at work but they keep coming anyway: DAMNED PLAGUE CARRIERS I had an apocalyptic dream last night that involved flame-filled streaming storm clouds, a huge, beautiful old wooden house full of lovely things that we were desperately hoping wouldn’t catch on fire, and only Bluepoppy and I and 2 of her dogs to keep the worst from happening. I woke up rather frantic. But later X’s song Burning House of Love would not stop chorusing in my head. Heh. Have found out that next year’s work trip to the Boston area might not be in April, but...

12
Oct
2008

SHADOWBOX STORIES

My friend Carol posted about her successful crafty day event that she organized and hosted this weekend for the AWC and in the one of the photos she was standing in front of a shadowbox and I told her I wanted her to show closeups of it so I could see what she had in HER shadowbox. I’ve been a fan of shadowboxes for years, since I was a pre-teen in fact, because somewhere I saw someone use an old printer’s drawer for a shadowbox and I thought that was just the height of cool interior decorating (I was twelve,...

October 2008
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