Author: lizardek

Red poppies and cheerful oxeye daisies have sprung up everywhere, they’re waving in the breeze. The rapeseed blossoms are failing, but their smell still overwhelms. The uniform green of summer has swelled across the land. Lilacs are everywhere, white, lavender, and deep purple, they smell so good. Summer weather is here this weekend, it’s warm and sunny, with cloudless skies. Yesterday I power-walked with Karin. I told her before we left that she had to keep up with me, but as you might have guessed, by the end it was I who was keeping up with her. She chose the...

I’ve never been particularly brainy when it comes to numbers. The best thing about arithmetic for me as a child, was that to remember how to spell it, you said “A rat in the house may eat the ice cream.” This illustrates perfectly how my brain works. As far as I know there was nothing unusual about my mathematical abilities up until 5th grade, at which point I ended up with a severe mental block due to story problems and my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Brown, who gave me much abuse about being out of school for 3 months with...

So far, this has been a wonderful day!! Got up early, drove down to Klagshamn and met the rest of the girls who were driving instead of taking the train over to Denmark to the new gigantic shopping center. We got there just after 10 a.m. and it was, as promised, GIGANTIC. A real American-style mall! We split up fairly quickly as there were 6 of us with varying missions and I actually power-walked around the mall floors for an hour by myself before I started shopping for real. My missions were soccer shorts for Karin, a baby gift for...

We had a nice discussion about fairytales at book group last night even though some people seem to be awfully vague on the definition of fairytale and kept referring to current children’s literature as “well, it’s a fairytale to ME” as if that made it okay. Apparently, not everyone continues to read fairytales and folktales as adults, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? *boggle* Although, I did a little mental inventory of the people in the room and the ones who don’t read any “children’s” literature at all? Not the ones I hang out with or want to hang out with. Hmmm…...

What the interview was? A slap with a big ol’ cluestick. Which I apparently needed. Oh, not in the way you may be thinking, after my flippant remark about “godlike confidence” but the fact that it made me walk around for hours afterwards re-evaluating the appreciation I have for my CURRENT job. Despite all the crud I’ve been upset about regarding the open landscaping particularly and other things generally, I think beating this job in any of several dimensions would be difficult. I actually think the interview went quite well, and it was obvious they were impressed with my work...

This morning, I swear, if my head hadn’t been attached, I would probably have accidently left it at home. I managed to remember that Martin has utedag* today, it being Wednesday, but I still managed to leave the house without his plastic cushion, which we turned around to retrieve and then, after getting to the school to drop him off remembered that he was also supposed to have a lunchbag with him, in addition to his fruit (the only thing I DID remember). Because it’s the end of the school year and schedules seem to be warping and shifting faster...

I found the aftertaste of the Diet Coke. It crawls in my mouth and dies there each evening. ICK. It’s fine when I’m drinking it, I hardly notice any taste difference at all, but by evening my mouth tastes totally nasty and I have to go scrub with cool mint gel and even then I still taste it. Does anyone who has made the switch know if this goes away after awhile? I’ve only been drinking Diet Coke for 3 weeks. The stress is lapping at my knees. It was down to my ankles after the weekend, but it’s slowly...

Welcome to the wind’s ball. Among the ladies dressed in green, who stand and gently wave their arms, dancing in place is all the fashion. Everything is moving in the breeze. It rushes and wooshes quietly like ocean waves through the greenery. Blackbirds burble and trill unseen from above and crows squawk and yell in the distance. The hedges and trees rustle and tremble. A linden tree creaks, a beech hedge rattles at me as I walk by. A low stone wall is netted with tiny green crinkly leaves and miniature heartsease so small I had to stop and peer...

Signpost We Passed on the Road that Made Me Laugh Out Loud: Nibble (arrow pointing left) and Gryt (arrow pointing right) This week is a bit of a crazy one, and I’m not at all sure how much computer time I’ll have. Tonight and tomorrow are the only nights I’m at home and I really have to get the AWC website and newsletter finished, since I’m only about a third of the way done and they are due next week. Aagh! Plus grocery shopping must be done ASAP. I finished two books during the long weekend and can highly recommend...

You know how when you’ve been corresponding with someone and then you meet them and they’re just really weird and you can’t wait to get away?* I’m happy to report that that was NOT the case this weekend. 🙂 We had a super time with ozswede and tallefjant who could not have been more gracious hosts if they’d tucked us into bed personally each night. They gave up their apartment to us and slept on their boat for 2 nights, they fed us royally, they took us out sailing in the beautiful waters of the archipelago and they were every...