Author: lizardek

20
Aug
2023

SUMMER BLUES & POTTERY PAINTING

It’s already nearing the end of August, and I feel like it was JUST April a minute ago. I know that years speed up as you get older, and I know I’ve kvetched about the phenomenon before, like pretty much everyone else, but how is it nearly autumn again already?? Eeeesh. Anders weeded the vegetable garden yesterday and uprooted all the kohlrabi except two, which had been thoroughly holed by worms and slugs, and then he uprooted all the snap peas as well, half of which never came up at all, and half of which yielded a couple of handfuls...

17
Aug
2023

PATIENCE, SCHMATIENCE

I can’t remember a time I wasn’t impatient. I’m really fast at so many things, that impatience seems like my default state. Sometimes I feel like I have to wait for everyone: to catch up, to get it, to keep up with me. That makes me sound arrogant and rude, but most of the time, I’m just impatient on the inside. I hate waiting, but I do it when I have to, which is a great deal of the time. I know that people aren’t as fast as me, but I don’t make apologies for my speed. I’m not talking...

12
Aug
2023

TO REGARD THE PEA IS TO ENVY THE PEA.*

Thursday was my birthday and I took both it and Friday off from work, which was really nice. Vacation feels very long ago, despite my semi-long weekend of travel to see Becky and London and now this long weekend to celebrate my birthday. The kids and I went out to dinner on Wednesday night, in Malmö, though we weren’t super impressed with our meal, unfortunately. It was still nice to hang out with the kids, and going to Dolce Sicilia afterwards for gelato made up for it. On Thursday morning, I got up early, and Karin got up with me...

08
Aug
2023

SOCKS, STORMS, AND BEING SOCIAL

I saw some teacher’s Twitter post about how he is asking his students for 1 boring fact about themselves, because asking for an interesting fact is putting too much pressure on them. And I was like, what? What is wrong with some pressure? How hard is it to come up with something semi-interesting about yourself? But maybe it’s too much for people to have to be witty or interesting on demand. Maybe it’s easier to find something simple that you know about yourself, and share it, than trying to come up with something that makes you special. One of his...

02
Aug
2023

TRAVEL BUG

There was an article in The Local today about how to move an elderly parent to Sweden to live with you, but when I read it, the article was basically, “it’s really hard, the criteria is ridiculous, you have no chance”. I’d love to get my mom to move over here, but realistically, it’s such a long shot. You can get 1-year visas, but I doubt she’d go for that. She has all her stuff and her place and she IS closer to Sarah by a huge amount, so. But still, it’d be nice. She and Sarah are going to...

27
Jul
2023

SLOW DOWN YOU MOVE TOO FAST

Tomorrow is Friday, the end of my second week back at work and guess what? Still stress-free! I expect it to last until about mid-August when everyone is back and things ramp up and the crazy hits the fan again. Best things about working in July in Sweden (when you’ve already had your vacation): NO traffic on the highway NO cars in the parking lot NO people in the office (mostly) NO STRESS about the amount of work coming in Today, there were 4 of us on the entire floor. Technically, we’re not supposed to even be there, because they...

24
Jul
2023

NOT TAKING IT PERSONALLY

I just had the rudest response I think I’ve ever had in my life to a phone call I was making. I’ve never been a telephone salesperson, thank god, because I can’t imagine having to deal with responses like this on a frequent basis. Karin did it for awhile, working for a company in Lund that did telephone sales for things like magazine subscriptions. She said, generally speaking, that only old people were pleasant, and only because they just wanted someone to talk to. When I get the rare sales call myself (we’re on a no-call list), I at least...

22
Jul
2023

EVERY VOTE COUNTS

We were asked to send in our book recommendations for the next batch of books for AIC bookworms in June. I lobbied hard to get the amount of recommendations down from 5 to 3, but was overruled, so of course I sent it in 5 as well, because why not? BOOKS! We got the total book list to vote on while we were away on our trip, so I couldn’t vote for the 9 books until right when we got back. It turned out that only 6 books got enough votes to automatically make the list and we had to...

21
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: HALF-DAY ON ÅLAND, ANOTHER FERRY RIDE, STOCKHOLM, AND HOME

Our ferry didn’t leave Mariehamn until 2:30 pm so we had all morning to enjoy the town, after eating breakfast, checking out and packing the car. We walked back up the shopping street (where everything was open!) and over to the Maritime Quarter again, where we toured the little museum, visited some shops and the Beacon. It was sunny and hot and beautiful along the water. We came back down and did some shopping in town as well. I found a Moomin charm for my country charm bracelet (had already bought a little silver reindeer horn to symbolize being in...

20
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: FERRY RIDE AND 2 NIGHTS ON ÅLAND

We got up quite early and left Loimaa to drive to Åbo (Turku) on the coast of Finland, where we caught the Viking Line ferry to Åland. The ferry ride is 5+ hours, so we had breakfast on the boat. We sat inside for a bit, then went out on the Vista Sundeck on the back of the boat, which was lovely. Sitting in the sun and the wind watching the islands slide by. The boat was HUGE and the archipelago was extensive, lots and lots of rocky islands covered in, you guessed it: pines and birch trees. We got...

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