Yearly Archive: 2019

30
Dec
2019

RETROSPECTIVE

new decade commences! Tomorrow is the last day of 2019 and then we are heading into science-fiction year numbering. 2020 sounds so very futuristic! This past year wasn’t exactly as calm as I anticipated but we’ve made it through, anyway. Here’s to the Twenties: may they be progressive, innovative, nurturing, and full of good things, including (from my heart to God’s ear) a new President. Family & Personal Highlights of 2019 New Year’s with our friends Kathey & Russell and my mom in Michigan Keeping myself diabetes-free Trip to Lisbon with Debbie Karin’s 2-month trip to Costa Rica and S....

28
Dec
2019

INBETWEEN DAYS

I’m officially bored. I finished watching both the British mini-series of Little Women and the last episode of season 1 of His Dark Materials, and I worked for about an hour altogether and read my book and played iPad games, and then Karin and Anders and I wasted 2 hours and 8 minutes of our lives watching the 2019 version of Aladdin. Why does that movie have such a good score on imdb? It’s TERRIBLE. Apart from a halfway-decent Will Smith, giving his genie his very best shot, the rest of it was leaden and boring. And I don’t think...

24
Dec
2019

EK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER 2019

We spent last Christmas in Michigan with Liz’s mom and Martin and our good friends Kathey and Russell joined us there for New Year’s so we had a very happy start to the year! We were back in Sweden by January 4 and back to work nearly straightaway, leaving Martin behind to continue his second year at CCS. At the end of January, Anders went skiing in Czech Republic with friends on their annual ski trip. He had several work trips early in the year as well, all to Italy. Karin continued working at Axis with Liz as her contract...

19
Dec
2019

VACATION, SCHMACATION

It’s been a week of vacation and I’m slowly getting used to not working, though I’m still checking emails and our ticket system because holy crap we have a lot of work right now, and I feel guilty for being a slug at home while my teammates are buried. 🙁 It’s no fun being off when you fee like you’re leaving your team in the lurch. I actually went in to the office today for about half an hour because my boss organized a short julfika this afternoon. I brought cranberry-pistachio bark with me which was much appreciated. And I...

07
Dec
2019

BIRTHDAYS, BLINDNESS AND DESIGN

It’s my first-born’s birthday today. He’s 22, which, how is that even possible? Guess what he got for an early birthday present? A JOB! HURRAY! He called a few days ago, excited because he had finally gotten hold of the manager at the sushi restaurant nearby, where he’s been a couple of times on his job-hunting rounds. We’ve actually been to the sushi restaurant at least twice, when we were visiting during the past two years. He had left his resume with someone there ages ago, asking them to pass it along to the manager, but apparently that never happened...

02
Dec
2019

CREEPING UP

This weekend was filled with family thoughts in many different ways. Because it was the weekend after Thanksgiving, which we can’t celebrate on Thursday here in Sweden, it was also filled with the friends who have become family over the years. I went to the annual AWC wreathmaking workshop on Thursday evening, and we figured it out it was the 20-year anniversary. Not a huge turnout this year, but it was fun regardless, and I was quite happy with my wreath. I don’t understand why no one else takes advantage of the gold spray paint that Rosa always has on...

22
Nov
2019

THE OPPOSITE OF NANOWRIMO

There’s no shortage of days in November, no lack of days that I could have been writing, but didn’t. November days all seem to blur together in one gray, cloud-covered, drizzly blur. Today was no exception. A few weeks ago, we had so much work we were drowning in it (not waving, but drowning), and I sent out an email to all the marketing people both in Corporate and out in the regions to give them a heads-up that we were really slammed and could they please 1) give us more than 1-2 days deadline on their requests and 2)...

29
Oct
2019

PHOTOS I DIDN’T TAKE OF THINGS I MIGHT HAVE SEEN

Four of them leaping, crossing the road from one side of the twilit fields to the other. Tails flashing white, they were gone into the dimness so fast I only had time to take my foot off the accelerator. I could only see the idea of deer, the bounding impression of them; headless, hornless, just a fading smear across my vision, safe to the other side. Earlier today, a rising of crows or perhaps, jackdaws. A black flapping into the trees. The things I see from the drive to and from work: storks stepping sedately, a couple of shine-eyed cats...

27
Oct
2019

SOV GOTT!

Our bedroom is done, apart from the closet, which Anders is working on now, and it’s so nice it’s like sleeping in a hotel room. We are really pleased with the result and it’s amazing how paint and new furniture can spiff up a room! I have one more painting that is at the framer’s now, but otherwise, everything is back in place. I went to the same frame shop that helped with Martin’s art back in March, and even though I was only there twice, once to drop off and decide and once to pick up the finished pieces,...

18
Oct
2019

BIBLIOMANIA

We had book group last night and we were a small gathering, only 5 of the usual suspects, but it was cozy and made for a really nice discussion…easy to follow and jump in, without it breaking down into smaller groups, which sometimes happens. The book we discussed was interesting, though I wouldn’t have read it on my own initiative: Beautiful Exiles by Meg Waite Clayton. It’s about Hemingway’s third wife Martha Gellhorn, and while I pretty much dislike HIM, even if his books are (mostly) good, SHE was fascinating, and I found myself wondering as I often do, why...