Last week was really busy, so I’m kind of looking forward to this coming week, which isn’t busy at all (at the moment). Anders leaves for a week in Italy tomorrow morning, which also means I’ll be alone every evening entertaining myself with my book, iPad, TV, crossword puzzles, and a new jigsaw puzzle.
Last Thursday I organized another pottery painting evening for the AIC, but it turned out to be just Lisel, Kirstin, and I, with Lisel’s 2 daughters, Martin and Theo, and Martin’s friend Thea. I painted the outside of a bowl (cereal-bowl sized) with a bird and flower motif. Not sure it will come out like I had envisioned it, we’ll see. I was going to paint 2, but didn’t really have time to start the second one. I almost painted another small tray with a peacock pattern like the one I did before Christmas and sent to my sister. Might still do both of those next time, whenever I get around to scheduling another one.
Friday was our company kickoff, which seems to get larger and more elaborate every year. I missed last year’s celebration as I was in the US, and I wasn’t really super in the mood for this one, after the re-org announcement 2 weeks ago, but it was fun. We were nearly 2400 people at Malmö Arena, served a 3-course meal (!) at the table, and the entertainment was great: Måns Zelmerlöv was our musical host. I really like him (he was the winner of Eurovision in 2015 with Heroes), and he is from Lund, so everyone went bananas when he was announced and came out on the stage. He had guest artists with him during the course of the evening, including Frans, Laila Adele, and Peter Johansson (none of whom I was familiar with but all of whom were great).
The attendees were divided into 4 color groups to keep order in seating, fika, eating, etc., and my entire team had synced up into the pink group, so we all wore pink, along with nearly everyone else in the group. The food was great, but I didn’t stay super late, and used my pregnant colleague Erica as an excuse to bail around 10 pm, as I was giving her a ride home. I was a little stressed out about everything that I needed to get done on Saturday, as Saturday evening we hosted our annual AIC Pie Night!
I had made the mistake of sending out a reminder to the club a week before, and when I looked at the signup sheet on Tuesday, I nearly had a heart attack, as there were 39 people signed up! OY! After some frantic chair and seat counting of what we had available in the house, we thought we could squeak by…we had 38 seats, and someone always drops off at the last minute. My friend Lisel offered to bring 2 folding chairs, which helped, as they were easier to handle moving around than our big armchairs. By Saturday mid-day we were down to 35 people, which was a little more manageable. We freak out about more than 24 at Thanksgiving, so this was extra reason for freaking out.
But everything went super smoothly. We had almost all the party prep done before 11 am, which included baking the cookie bottoms for the fruit pizzas and making the buttercream frosting, cleaning the house, and moving furniture. Anders went to the liquor store and washed the Tesla, and then I went to the grocery store to get the sodas and some last minute items. We had nearly 3.5 hours in the afternoon to just relax, until time to bake the taco pajs and assemble the fruit pizzas. Our guests started arriving right on time at 6:30 pm. Guess how many pies 35 people need?
24!
This is how the buffet looked for dinner: taco paj x2, cheeseburger pie, vegetable quiche, ham and cheese x2, broccoli and cheese, broccoli and bacon, kale and walnut, olive and vegetables, cheddar quiche (with red onion, caviar, and sour cream), cheddar and gruyere quiche, chicken tamale pie w/ polenta, and Shepherd’s pie, plus a veggie tray.
And this was the dessert pie offering: fruit pizza x2, citrus cheesecake, cherry cheesecake, blueberry ice cream pie, plum pie, apple pie, apple crumble, salt caramel apple pie, key lime, plus vanilla ice cream.
WHEW! Another successful pie night under our belts (literally, haha!)
Happy pie eaters: Elsa, Rebecca, me, and Lisel
Today has been pretty calm. Anders and I took it easy this morning, then cleaned up what we had left to do from last night, moved furniture back, and I’ve been mostly vegging on the couch, in between laundry loads, texting with my brother, reading an entire book, working on a new crossword puzzle, and enjoying the sunshine streaming through the windows. It is brutally cold still as it’s been nearly all week (3C or lower), and VERY windy today. Martin is supposed to come over for the evening so we can rewatch Dune part 1 in anticipation of going to see Dune part 2 next weekend, but I haven’t heard anything from him yet.
Mood: accomplished
Music: Cazzi Opeia—Give My Heart a Break