Author: lizardek

29
May
2026

WHIRLWIND WEEK

Well, that went fast! John and family arrived just in time for dinner on Saturday and we were going full throttle ever since. We had absolutely perfect weather the entire week as well; Sweden showing off its best side. The lilacs are in full bloom and our yard is looking beautiful thanks to Anders. We played lots of games including Yardtzee (coined by Karin), 0-100, Uno, City-Country-Idiot, and lots of Trivial Pursuit questions. The kids were great, and Lola was the most well-behaved dog ever. We went to Lund’s Pinball Academy, and the Moose tour, and played mini-golf. We had...

23
May
2026

PREPPING FOR HOUSE GUESTS

My brother and his family get here in about 2 hours, for a week-long stay, and I am ready! Well, the house is ready. The yard is ready (apart from planting cucumbers and tomatoes and a little bit of weeding needed under the trellis, which I can’t do because of my stupid knees. Anders took a garage-load of stuff to the dump this morning, and I’ve been cleaning and organizing since I got up. It’s a very warm and humid day, and I just had to wet my hair down because it was being crazy. It’s too short to do...

20
May
2026

A CONSTANT TO-DO LIST

I survived an earthquake today. To be completely honest, even though at the time I DID actually think “was that an earthquake?!” I wasn’t actually sure I hadn’t just hallucinated the slight shiver the world gave, and didn’t think anything of it until Karin sent a message to our family chat asking if we knew there had been an earthquake. I was walking through the hallway to the kitchen when I felt it, and almost immediately dismissed it, since it lasted literally about 2 seconds. I looked out the kitchen windows as I entered the room and saw the neighbor...

10
May
2026

ZOOMING FORWARD

I may have to do some rethinking about my new year’s challenge of writing a letter a month. I’ve been struggling to decide who to write to for May. I wrote a short list of people (that haven’t already received a letter), and it made me realize how little contact I have with old friends and relatives these days. Social media just doesn’t cut it. Friendships that I once would have said were solid have become tattered and unraveled over the many years. In some cases, I haven’t seen a friend except once or twice since we moved to Sweden,...

04
May
2026

I WILL NEVER RUN OUT OF BOOKS TO READ

I’m a bit bummed out about the books that won the vote for the next batch of AIC bookgroup books. Not because they’re not good choices, and sure to be good reads, but because not only have I read 2 of them already, but NONE of my 5 recommendations made the list, and 2 books made the list that were recommended by someone who has never even participated in bookgroup, but showed interest and sent her book recs in right before the deadline. Grump. She’d better show up now. One of her books that made the cut is one I...

01
May
2026

DOUBLE RABBIT RABBIT RABBITS!

Two days in a row where I’ve had occasion to say “Rabbit rabbit rabbit” …that only happens once a year, if at all. Today is May 1st, a holiday here in Europe (it’s Labor Day) and yesterday was Valborgsmässoafton, or Walpurgis Eve in English, which isn’t a day off, but is cause for a traditional celebration here in Sweden regardless. That makes today a double holiday as it is also the feast day for Saint Walpurgia, who would probably be astonished and gratified to learn that her name is still a part of the calendar and that many parts of...

26
Apr
2026

A BIRD IN THE HAND

I don’t consider myself a birdwatcher, though I very much enjoy feeding the birds that come to our yard through the winter, and watching them. I’m always thrilled when we get one of the woodpeckers, and it’s exciting to see a chaffinch, a new bird that we hadn’t seen before. Normally we get blue tits, chiffchaffs, European robins, blackbirds, and tree sparrows. We get wood pigeons and mourning doves, and the aforementioned woodpeckers (Great Spotted). We get pheasants. And we get the big “blacks” including crows, jackdaws, ravens, rooks, and magpies. I scare the jackdaws and crows away when I...

24
Apr
2026

PUZZLING BEHAVIOR

March and April will apparently be very bare of blog posts, the way things are going. If I don’t give myself a good kick in the butt as it’s already April 24th and the end of the month is LOOMING. I’ve been so busy with work and coming home completely drained every day, with zero motivation or energy (no thanks to jetlag last week either), and not wanting to sit at the computer after a full day of sitting at the computer, because my neck and shoulder are starting to hurt, and by the time I get home I just...

14
Apr
2026

A LITTLE CATCH UP, A LITTLE CATCH DOWN

A near-whole month has zoomed by, with me out of place for 3 weeks of it. I left for the US on March 19, knowing that I most likely wouldn’t post anything here while I was gone, and I was right. We were BUSY the entire time. Sarah and I lugged out everything from the storage unit that is holding all the stuff from my mom’s that we deemed to valuable to just give away, including quite a bit of furniture, and about 30 boxes. We had help from Bryce and 2 of his friends to get everything out and...

16
Mar
2026

JUST SAYIN’

(Warning TMI ahead) Welp so much for my long stretch of not being sick…the last time I was sick with something that WASN’T colitis was the stomach bug that hit me last April, and was the bug that kicked off the whole colitis debacle. I was sick Friday night, started about 1 am and I wasn’t sure if it was food poisoning or what (ate sushi with Martin and Theo around 8 pm earlier)…stomach cramps, then retching and vomiting, and then, oh joy, my old friend diarrhea. It’s Monday now, and still having that though the rest of it was...

May 2026
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