Well, I’ve managed to totally mess up my LJ formatting by posting from LJ directly instead of from Semagic like I usually do, so I’ll just have to write a bunch of long posts to push it all down to the edge of the page. Heh. First world problems.
I saw a bunch of unbelievable photos of the destruction on the East Coast and in New York after Sandy hit: holy moly. Everyone I know out that way seems to be okay but it sure is scary. It feels so safe and quiet here in Sweden, when the most we have to worry about is pouring rain for days on end and black ice every once in a while. At least it’s pushed the election off the front pages for a couple of days.
We had our last trick-or-treating evening tonight…at least the last time we’ll organize it. The kids are so over that kid stuff. Karin has a friend over and they took the dog out to trick-or-treat with them, both only wearing top hats as costumes (with regular clothes otherwise, I mean, not JUST top hats, god, get your mind out of the gutter!) and came home with one hat full of candy. So I guess they’re not REALLY too old, they just need to get pushed. But one of the neighbors had come over a couple of weeks ago to ask if we were organizing it this year, and when I said I was thinking about it but not sure, she told me that they were ready to take over if we felt our kids were too old for it. It’s really nice to think that it’s one tradition we’ve fostered in our village that will continue.
We had about 50 kids during the course of the hour, which was great…I was a bit scared about running out of eyeball lollipops but we still have several left and Anders and Martin are polishing them off.
I’m rather sad about the fact that my kids have outgrown Halloween…for now. I suppose it’ll be cool again once they’re in their 20s or off at college. I’ve always enjoyed the holiday though it’s hard to keep up the Halloween spirit here where there is nothing much external to put you in the mood. We have 5 Americans in my department at work today and not one said anything about Halloween at all today. Hrm. Even our pumpkin-carving this year was lame. I missed the annual AWC pumpkin patch visit and we ended up just buying a nice big pumpkin from our local grocery store. Except it turned out to be so thick and hard that I couldn’t get a knife into it, and Anders ended up having to carve it for us. Karin wasn’t even home but Martin helped scoop out the entrails, and then Anders kindly carved a triangle-only face for us. Anything more elaborate would have been impossible.
Work is still insane but I got to have a quick surprise lunch with my friend Camilla today, who is here unexpectedly on a short break from Poland. She’s only here until Sunday but I’m thrilled because I normally only get to see her in the summer and at Christmas and since we’re going to the States this year, I thought it wouldn’t be until next summer.
Tuesday Martin and I leave for London. We got the packing list and itinerary today. We have to be at the Lund train station at 4:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning. 4:45 a.m. Seriously? Urgh. Carry-on luggage only for the 3-day trip and Martin and I won’t get home until 1:30 a.m. on Thursday night but the rest of it sure sounds like fun! They have a really full schedule of activities planned for us…I just hope I have time to hit at least ONE bookstore! I can always MAIL books home, right?