Yearly Archive: 2011

24
Oct
2011

MARVELOUS CARVERS

How many more years will I get to enjoy this part of Halloween WITH my kids? Martin is nearly 14, Karin 12…time flies so fast and when I look back at all the years of jack o’lanterns I can’t help but hope there are still a lot more in our future. This was the first time that I handed everything to the kids: spoons, knives, bags, ideas and let them have at it. I helped out with the hard parts and stuck knives and tiny teeth cuts here and there but mostly they did it all from start to finish....

23
Oct
2011

HALLOWEEKEND

This has been a very Halloweenie-weekend. Karin had a girlfriend over to spend the night on Friday who wasn’t going home until late afternoon on Saturday and to stave off any whining about having nothing to do, after breakfast I got out the meager bag of Halloween decorations (which include toilet-paper ghosts made by the kids when they were around 4 years old) and told them to have at it. They had a great time decorating the kitchen and little hallway, hanging ghosts from the ceiling lamps and paper pumpkin strings across the bay window in the kitchen. They found...

18
Oct
2011

HOW TO DATE YOURSELF

Watched a DVD with the kids last night that contained the first 3 episodes from the TV series Bewitched, which I used to LOVE. They were…ASTOUNDED by the special effects. I thought Elizabeth Montgomery was great, and I must have heard back in 1995 that she had died of cancer, but I didn’t remember it so I was a little sad when I googled her last night and found out she’d passed away at 62. Do you remember when Dick York was just quietly replaced with Dick Sargent and nobody seemed to notice? I was too young to pay attention,...

16
Oct
2011

SPUN ABOUT

Wait, where did the week go?? Anders leaves for Texas tomorrow (for 2 weeks, wah!) and to make it worse his taxi is coming at 3:00 a.m which means he has to get up at 2:30 A.M. and his being gone means I have to get up 25 minutes earlier every school day in order to get Karin moving on time. It’s been a crazy week and I’m having trouble remembering what exactly I did that made it so crazy. Busy, yes, but unusually so? No. I saw the naprapat again and while the pain in my shoulder, arm and...

09
Oct
2011

BLAHGUM

Martin and I were talking, while taking turns mowing the lawn (though, to be fair, he did the lion’s share) about how the other day in school one of his classmates complained that he was always using fancy words, and why couldn’t he just use regular words like the rest of us? I asked him what fancy word he used that caused the complaint and he said, “Ecological”. Which, to be fair, has 5 syllables, which I pointed out to him, (during one of my numerous pauses to rest on the handlebars of the evil push-mower). So I asked him,...

06
Oct
2011

HARBINGERS

Sugar beets on the edges of the roads Sugar beet truck traffic causing the village speed limit to be lowered to 30kmh…ARGH Seasonal satisfaction about not ever having bothered to put up blinds in the bedroom The annual tussle with Karin about why it is no longer okay (read: warm enough) to continue wearing shorts Honking v-formation flights of southbound swans and geese The welcome disappearance of flies and mosquitoes A major disinclination to crawl out from under the covers in the morning Double rainbows over Flyinge thanks to simultaneous rain & sunshine Daily morning ice-scraper use to remove condensation,...

03
Oct
2011

SOMETHING ENTIRE

“I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge.” —Willa Cather Corny Kids!

02
Oct
2011

VERY SMALL TIDDLY BITS & A GIANT PUMPKIN

Today was the first completely pain-free left-arm day in 4 weeks. I have no idea why, but MAN, am I happy about it. Fresh figs with brie or chevre cheese on crackers were good but honestly? Nothing that special. The weather has been so incredibly beautiful that it makes me want to sing. i can’t get Silly Love Songs by Wings out of my head, and really, why would I want to? In the past 3 days I have emailed 134 paid AWC members with their directory info to double-check and today I called 44 (with more or less success)...

29
Sep
2011

BITS OF TID

I feel the need for posting but what with a painful arm and shoulder, and a million other things to do that require sitting at a computer putting more strain on said arm & shoulder, I keep not doing it. 🙁 The sky is so blue today. It’s been beautiful all week. Blue sunny, autumn-breezy, not a cloud in the sky. This is my favorite kind of weather. It’s why autumn was my favorite season for most of my life (until I moved to Sweden and found out how much I need Spring). The kids and I have been slowly...

25
Sep
2011

SQUAMALICIOUS

If there is someone who feels like an outsider, like they don’t belong, like they haven’t found their kindred spirits on this earth, there is sure no evidence of them at the Squam Art Workshops, nestled deep in the oak groves of rural New Hampshire. SAW is held at the twin lakeshore camps of Deephaven and Rockywold on the shores of Squam Lake. I’m sure there are times when it’s bleak there; in winter, maybe, when the leaves have forsaken the trees and the ground is slick with ice and downed branches and the lake is a gray and frozen...

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