Author: lizardek

Roughhousing on our bed before dinner, Karin tumbles over me and, as she lands on Anders, yells, “Akta snoppen, pappa!”

Out walking in the fields yesterday evening, I stopped to listen. We’re out in farm country and the gravel road I was on goes past empty pastures, empty woods, a few houses, and if I had continued all the way to the end would have ended up at the ostrich farm and the river. Birdsong, at least three different ones, the only one I recognized was blackbird. I could hear a tractor chuffing and a lawnmower duet. Cars passed by on the main road far behind me, with that whooOOOOoooosh so particular to intermittant traffic. The breeze was ruffling the...

One of the things that I have found most difficult, especially as I grow older, is the transitional state of friendship in my life. As a military brat, YOU are the one who is moving, and everyone else is moving as well, so you’re all in the same boat, and you grow quickly used to having to make friends fast. No one has to bear the stigma of being the “new kid in school” because EVERYONE is the new kid in school at some point, or most of the time, and as long as you stay within the military-dependent circle,...

I’m really envious to have found out via orangepoppy that in Toronto they had a Moose Parade instead of a Cow Parade! They even auctioned off all the moose afterwards…good thing I didn’t know about it until it was too late, is what my husband is surely thinking. I really have nothing to say at the moment. There was nothing inspiring about the weather or my drive to work this morning except a field of red poppies which would have been amazing if the sun was shining, but since it wasn’t, was merely beautiful. Happy, Sparkling, Warm and Cuddly Birthday...

ozswede alerted me to the fact that the Cow Parade is taking over place in Stockholm this summer. Sadly, none of the herd seems to have wandered down as far as Malmö…but there’s always hope. Trust the Swedish konstnärs to come up with the quintessential Swedish cows: Dala Cows! and for us, alcesalces, a Dala MOOSE! 😀

The wind is roaring in the trees today, hairstyles are wishful thinking. Great white puff clouds are whizzing by on a blue background. Yesterday, I saw summer’s first slug, which, as Sara says, are “boogers with antenna.” Everyone on the regional planning committee seems to be thrilled that I’ve offered to stand up as entertainment and sing at the regional welcome reception. Another girl expressed interest in singing with me, so hopefully there will be a handful of us. I’ve stressed that I don’t really want to do it alone, so now it’s a matter of figuring out what songs...

Cloud cover was hanging heavy with the threat of imminent rain when we left the house this morning, however, I see blue sky and fluffy clouds through the window gap now and the sun is shining enough to force the metal wall blinds half-closed. Just went down to lunch in the cafeteria and to my delight, sushi has arrived! And it was goooooood. 1 piece each shrimp, tuna and whitefish, 2 pieces of salmon and 4 california rolls for 60 kronor.* It’s a little pricey to eat every day but just the possibility and the availability makes me happy! *Eight...

What a lovely little baby shower I went to! Only 5 people and all of us very good friends, 4 hours of excellent conversation, surprisingly not so much about babies. And brunch! American-style pancakes with maple syrup, biscuits, that cellar-smoked ham which turned out to be delicious, medium-soft boiled eggs and juice. Mums 🙂 Afterwards I picked up galestorm and we made a commando raid on IKEA. In and out in literally 15 minutes. I felt like we were in an action movie and I even had the car rolling as Gale was getting in for a fast getaway. Gale...

Attention writers and friends of writers! If you or someone you know is a writer or poet looking for a showcase, why not consider submitting your work to Mosaic Minds? The zine has decided to go in a bit of a different direction in future issues, which should give you more of an opportunity to contribute. Instead of trying to make every single story relate to our theme, we are branching out. We’ll still have a lot of features that relate to the theme, but we are not limiting all stories to the theme—especially non-feature items. So, if you have...

After the craziness of the last month or so, and the amount of STUFF I’ve had going on, it is very nice to have a full day of nothing but the deadlines of birdsong and bike rides to define my day. I slept in, mosied around, dusted, did some vacuuming but not all, ran the dishwasher, put up two more window screens, ate lunch, fed the kids and read half a book. That, my friends, is one lazy day for me! 😀 I just showered and am going to the grocery store to pick up “cellar-smoked” ham for the baby...