Author: lizardek

12
Jan
2013

HAD TO BE DONE

The other day I beat my husband home from work by only a few minutes. I had just sat down on the couch when he came in. It’s cold again here in Sweden after several weeks of rather warm for winter temps and rain. We had a dusting of snow last night and I’ve plugged the car heater in each evening for making sure I could start it in the mornings. When he walked into the living room I tipped my head back and said, “Hey there.” He responded by putting his hand on my forehead. It was ice cold....

09
Jan
2013

STATE OF MIND

We got talking at dinner time about the fact that our kids don’t know a lot of American history. Yesterday I was doing a quick anacrostic that I had printed out before we flew home to do on the plane and then forgot about, and it was titled “Are you smarter than a grade schooler?” Martin was sitting with me while I was flying through the answers, and then complained that all the questions were too “American”. In other words, you had to have been educated in the States to know most of them. So, tonight, back on the subject,...

07
Jan
2013

PUT A POST IN IT

Walking into your home when you’ve been away for a couple of weeks is weird. Everything looks new and familiar at the same time. You notice small stuff. It takes several hours before your mind adjusts, but jet lag doesn’t help any. We left a white wonderland for gray and rain, but it feels good to be home, though I already miss my mom and Michigan. How long is long enough? Things that are different: tap water tastes better in Michigan, but the shower water is better here. I have so much churning about in my head, but it’s 5:30...

31
Dec
2012

RETROSPECTIVE

e left snowy Sweden a week and a half ago, when the snow was melting and the rain was coming down…to come to Michigan for the holidays, where it was relatively warm and still green. A couple of days after we arrived, the snow came, too and it’s been a real winter wonderland ever since…a true white Christmas. My sister and her family joined us at my mom’s and the festivities included a huge party 2 days before Christmas with many of my cousins and other relatives, 2 college friends and their families and one friendly internet psycho (hi thehula!)...

21
Dec
2012

Ek family Christmas letter

I just checked and I have been writing an annual Christmas letter since 2002, so that makes this the 11th in a row! I’m not sure if I was writing one before that and just don’t have the copies, but it’s hard to believe that 2012 is already over and we are breathing hard down 2013’s neck! The year has been, as all our years seem to be, a busy one. Work and school and activities and active social lives all around keep our calendars full each week. Anders is still at Tetra Pak, working in the Technical Training Center...

17
Dec
2012

IT’S BEGINNING

Our washing machine is trying to escape. Every time it hits the spin cycle, it vibrates so ferociously that it moves forward at least a foot. “Back!” I say, when I come in to check how far it’s gotten, “Back, I say!” and I manhandle it back into its space under the counter. Then it hits the next spin cycle and lurches forward again. We can hear it all through the house. I’m on load 3 of packing preparation. Packing hasn’t actually commenced, though suitcases have been brought down by (protesting) children from the attic. I refuse to go up...

16
Dec
2012

SAYING IT BETTER

I’ve been too busy and too tired and now too sad to write. I just read this and it says everything I’m feeling about what happened in Connecticut a few days ago: http://truefornow.livejournal.com/111441.html As usual, someone else says it better. Thank goodness, there are others who can write & say what we are all feeling. To be honest, I don’t understand why anyone thinks it’s a good idea to have mass availability to guns. There is nothing but heartbreak and despair down the barrel of a gun and anyone who thinks otherwise is insane on some level that I have,...

09
Dec
2012

BIRTHDAY BOY

Friday was Martin’s birthday…his fifteenth. Normally I don’t think of 15 as being any sort of “special” birthday…it’s just another year past 14. It’s not the first time he’s in double digits or the first teen or a legal milestone like 18 or 21. But here in Sweden it’s both the age of consent and the age of criminal responsibility, meaning that 15-year-olds are old enough to have sex and also to be punished for any crimes they might commit, though I’m not sure if the punishments are equal in severity to what a legal adult might receive. Martin called...

05
Dec
2012

AUTO KNOW BETTER

I keep meaning to write, but when I look up from whatever it is I am currently working on so I can cross it off my to-do list, it’s after 10 and I need to go to bed. I keep meaning to read, but that darn to-do list squeezes out new items when I’m not looking and grows again. I keep meaning to get things done, but first I have to do this, and before this, I have to do that, and before that, well, let’s just say that it squeezes in both directions. Every time I looked out the...

02
Dec
2012

PREP WORK

We went to see Skyfall tonight, finally. We enjoy the Bond films and the kids have pretty much grown up on them. It snowed today, for the first time this year; we woke up to a powdered sugar coating but it melted during the day when the sun came out, though it never actually warmed up. More snow when we left the theater, having to struggle to get the door open as it was blocked by a group of young adults ensconced in sleeping bags and camp chairs, all waiting for tickets to The Hobbit to go on sale. I’m...

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