Category: general

10
Apr
2009

SO MUCH TO DO IN STOCKHOLM

Stockholm was a whirlwind—lots and lots of walking, subway rides and museums. We packed every day absolutely full and were on the go from early in the morning. The youth hostel where we stayed was great. It’s a former prison on a lovely green island right in the center of Stockholm and the hotel rooms are the old cells. Karin and I shared a room, and the boys shared one in a different wing. We girls got the one with the bathroom and shower, in the more modern section of the prison. It was just renovated (again) to add the...

10
Apr
2009

OMG

I got the scanned school photos from my mom and sister and I’m not sure I can bear to inflict this horror on the Internet. Why did no one teach me to STEP AWAY FROM THE CURLING IRON? EEK

04
Apr
2009

RED RUM, RED RUM!*

Karin’s room is taking shape. We went to IKEA yesterday and bought her bed (though we forgot a piece of it that I had to go back for today), and now we just have to get her bookcase and new dresser, but those things will have to wait until after we’re back. It looks really cool, I think you’ll agree, even though the walls are still bare, pending furniture placement before hanging anything. You can really see how great the silver trim (Anders’ idea) looks in these photos, and you can also see the difference in the red of the...

02
Apr
2009

LONG PIG, ANYONE?

Counting down at work and getting a bit stressed out because there is always so much to do before you take vacation, and I will not, WILL NOT, work evenings if I can avoid it, even though I know I would get at least a bit more caught up. It’s a river in flood, and sometimes it’s all I can do just to not get swept downstream. One of the women in our department recently left and the majority of her workload descended upon the two of us who work with the marketing implementation work…mostly datasheets for our products, and...

01
Apr
2009

SUNLIGHT INJECTION DOES WONDERS FOR MOOD, STORY AT 10

Slow grey headachy start to the day, but halfway through, the sun came out and my mood started improving, so much so that I feel like bouncing around and singing silly springs songs. Good thing my kids are already in bed so they can’t expire of embarrassment. The other day when I came home and started making dinner, they were lying around the living room with their two favorite friends, watching The Simpson’s (which…I’m of very mixed feelings about this. Not appropriate, I think. What do you think?) and while I was banging dishes about and slamming the microwave door...

29
Mar
2009

LIGHTS OUT

I have no coherent thoughts right now. Starting and stopping sentences every few seconds. I’ve started this over and over in my head, mentally backspacing and deleting and finally gave up and just started typing. Not sure that will get it going, but since my weekend has been all about getting things done, there you have it. Yesterday, for Earth Hour, which my kids were really excited about participating in (the 2 video game addicts: go figure) even to the extent of pumping arms in the air and yelling WOO HOO! when 8:30 rolled around (Karin), we had preparations well...

28
Mar
2009

THIS, THAT, THE OTHER & THEN SOME

It’s a busy but leisurely Saturday here Chez Ek. I’ve got a mile-long list of housecleaning chores and other things to do, but am taking my time about them and not getting all stressed out. Yesterday, I had my salary review at work and it didn’t go at all how I had hoped, especially after my disappointment last year. I DID get a raise, but it basically covered the cost-of-living increase and what it boils down to is that in Sweden, performance isn’t really tied to salary. If you do a good job, you get what the unions say is...

24
Mar
2009

STOP LOOK LISTEN

With rushing winds and gloomy skies The dark and stubborn Winter dies: Far-off, unseen, Spring faintly cries, Bidding her earliest child arise; March! —Bayard Taylor If you don’t like the weather in Sweden, just wait five minutes—that was certainly true today. We woke to blizzardly sideways snow and over the course of the day, we had sunshine, blue skies, grey skies, rain, clouds, snow again, and sunshine again. March comes in like a lion and goes out like an LOLcat. A capricious and frivolous month, for sure. The fact that it is nearly April—April!—3 months down in the year already,...

22
Mar
2009

ATTEMPTING TO BRAKE THE AUTOPILOT

Sitting with my hands on the keyboard, I move them up, bending the wrist then dropping it again. My head is inclined, though I don’t have to look at the keys to type; typing class years ago ingrained the touch of the alphabet into the tips of my fingers. They move just so in the clickety dance to produce letters, words, sentences, whole paragraphs without any seeming gap between thought and intention. Thought, however, escapes easily or rather has never been here to begin with in this instance, once again I sat to write without the preparation of a subject....