Author: lizardek

that my addictions do not include reality television or computer games that my children are healthy, intelligent and well-behaved in public that my paycheck was really big this month relieving the usual Xmas-and-end-of-year-bills worries that our house is so nice and so warm that I’ll have friends and family to eat turkey and stuffing with this weekend that my husband is coming home tomorrow and wasn’t in the area of the earthquake that hit northern Italy last night that when I cleaned out my closet last weekend I didn’t end up documenting the shame on the internet that Sophie wasn’t...

I could never be a single parent. Well, I mean I could if I had to (and do on occasion), but I wouldn’t be very good at it, and I would hate it. I hate it when Anders is gone for more than a day at a time. We have such a good division of labor where the kids are concerned that I get grumpy and unsettled when he’s not here and I have to pick up the slack and do his part. Can you believe this week I have to do EVERYTHING? *insert pity party noises here* I miss...

I have a brain full of post-it notes. I’ve read psychology studies that say it’s a woman thing, this multi-tasking we do on a mental level. I’ve trained myself to crumple the mental post-its up and throw them away whenever I write the item down on a real live physical list or cross something off my mental to-do list, but even then little brain gremlins are grabbing them from the floor, smoothing them out lovingly and filing them away so that if something happens to the REAL list, I can retrieve the post-it note from the archives. At any given...

Oh, the weather outside is frightful! And I’m at work which isn’t quite delightful, but since I need to learn to be careful what I wish for, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! The fog has clumped in with big wet feet, smothering the wind, following the rain, a snow wannabe. We had a right blizzard this morning, and it took me forever to get to work since we got a late start and then I had to drop Anders off at work before heading through the traffic jam that was Lund this morning. Does snow lower...

I am so damned productive it’s not even funny. This weekend has been a whirlwind of activity, and crossing things off to-do lists. My mother-in-law is here today helping me clean the house (they’re eating lunch while I write this). Yesterday I filled four big paper bags with clothes from my closet to take to the Swedish Salvation Army, and was very proud of myself because I managed to release several garments that I have been hanging on to for YEARS. Now I just have to get Anders to clean up and sort through HIS clothes and I’ll feel quite...

This morning I invented a time machine, because you know, I have all this free time and whatnot. I went back in time and met myself. It was a very strange experience. I was so… so… Well, see for yourself what I had to say Edited to add that apparently it doesn’t work for everyone. I think it’s a Java applet, so you probably have to make sure the security settings on your browser allow Java.

What a gift of a day we have this morning. All that wind yesterday blew all the clouds away and left us with a shiny pink and lavender morning, a blue sky, frost on the ground and a chill in the air. There are no clouds, not one, and the sun is shining hard. It knows it has to make up for lost time. I’m finding it hard to concentrate on work and keep waking up after 3-5-10 minutes to shake myself and sternly admonish, “Stop staring out the window!”

I’m being blinded by a sun-shadow! Sun-shadow, sun-shadow! The sky directly outside my window is a glazed-looking, pure shade of blue. There are clouds clipping by and each one is outlined in blinding white light. In addition, the sun keeps stabbing me in the eyes. Stab! Ow! I’m forced to pull the curtains to save my eyes, but the sun is still caressing the tops of my knuckles and warming my hands in the process. It’s windy as all get out today. I like that phrase: “all get out.” Who came up with that, do you suppose? I wonder how...

The fields roll around the hills, exposing themselves, golden remnants of grain lying puckered in plowed rows. The willow trees stand rustling in single file along ridges and country roads, like brooms thrust shaft down, their leaf-stripped switches reaching to the gray sky. Manic flocks of seagulls swirl, descend, rise flapping in loud arguments behind a tractor. They know an easy lunch when they see one: 2-for-1 takeout special at the worm café. There’s a swirl of pale light between two clouds; I know you’re up there, sun! A line of migrating geese just stitched its way across my window....

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Nothing seems to be interesting enough or funny enough to share or write about. If this is a mid-life crisis, where is my Alfa Romeo and cabana boy? I kept forgetting to get the jack-o-lanterns bagged up and thrown away, and now they’re sitting in front of the house, sunken in on themselves, exuding the most godawful stench. I nearly threw up this morning getting the kids to into the car. How am I going to deal with them? I don’t think my husband is going to be very happy with me this...