ZIRD IS THE WORD
Motor City baby, Air Force brat
Leo, born in the Year of the Dragon
Nutshell bio: Born in Detroit in 1964 to John and Linda Slaughter, oldest child and sister to Sarah and John. Moved around frequently since dad was in the military. Graduated from high school in Germany, then went to Michigan State where I began with a major in Art, and finished with a BA in English. Met and married my Swede, Anders, in Chicago. We moved to Sweden in January 1997, and have two bilingual, dual national kids: Martin, born in 1997 and Karin, born in 1999. I work as a Senior Corporate Graphic Designer for Axis Communications and keep busy outside of work with the AIC Malmö, friends, and reading.
Findus the Cat, as used in my userpics and header image, is the creation of Sven Nordqvist.
Likes: a capella music, alphonse mucha, alternative worlds and histories, an organized life, anne mccaffrey, anne of green gables, annie dillard, architectural details, arrestingly beautiful photography, art deco and nouveau, artichokes and avocados, barbershop quartets, batik, beauty and the beast, being surrounded by books, belleek antique open-weave porcelain, bizarro, black and white cats, board and card games, books books books books, build me up buttercup, bursting into song, calligraphy and penmanship, calvin & hobbes, castle ruins, chicago, children’s books, children’s literature, chocolate-covered raisins, choirs of angels, christmas cookies, cicely barker’s flower fairies, cinnamon sugar toast, coca cola, connie willis, cookie monster’s googley eyes, crosshatching and pointillism, cultural differences, dangerous liaisons, diana gabaldon, diana wynne jones, dictionaries, dodie smith, dorothy dunnett, eeyore, embroidery, endless body massages (mine), etymology, eyvind earle, fairy tale illustration, fantasy and speculative fiction, finding old friends, fonts and typefaces, four part harmony, glass bird swizzlesticks, good graphic design, greek mythology, hair the musical, historical fiction, i capture the castle, ignoring life for reading, illustration, indigo girls, james tiptree jr, just about everything disney, kd lang, knowing names of things, languages and linguistics, leo and diane dillon, leo sun virgo moon, leonardo da vinci, little house, madeleine l’engle, make believe, making lots of lists, maurice sendak, mellow and melodic music, michelangelo, michelle pfeiffer, mindgames with small animals, moorcroft pottery, moose, my grandma’s gingersnaps, my spotify playlist, myths and legends, natural history, not procrastinating, orphan black, pamela dean, peridots and pearls, pettson and findus, pixar, pretty pink dahlias, puns, putting words together well, quilling, rainer maria rilke, reese’s peanut butter cups, robert a. heinlein, robin hobb, robin hood, robin mckinley, rooster artwork, rutger hauer, salmon nigiri and sushi, sandcastles, scotland and scottish history, sesame street songs, sharon k. penman, sharon shinn, sheri s. tepper, siamese and siberian cats, sleeping in, songs from musicals, spelling, sudden bursts of enthusiasm, sunshine on my face, surfing illustration websites, swallows and amazons, sweden swedes and swedish, taking time off, tapestry, the changing seasons, the chronicles of narnia, the intricacies of english, the smell of bookstores, the things people say, thing-finding, tiffany stained glass, time travel, toot and puddle, travel writing, trees and leaves, two dots, typography, unconventionalism, veritable plethoras, watching pairs figure skating, where’s my water, william bouguereau, winging it, wizard of oz, word games and origins, writing and reading poetry
Dislikes: bad books, black-eyed peas, bug legs, feeling stupid, high electric bills, in-your-face evangelism, lima beans, my weight, obnoxious drunks, phlegm, shopping carts with free-wheeling front-wheels, spitting, waiting, Trump/MAGA ideology