Category: general

12
May
2008

TAKING THE PLUNGE

Hey! Who turned off the heat? The temperature plunged today, in half, and the wind is blowing cold. The pansies are happy about it, though, if no one else is, since they were beginning to wilt. I was afraid it was too good to last, and though I’m very hopeful that the last week and a half of absolutely perfect weather won’t be the last we’ll see all summer, I’ve lived in Sweden far too long to be sanguine about our chances. So, hold your thumbs that Swedish summer has not come and gone already in May! It’s exceptionally poor...

10
May
2008

PRIZE WINNER

Karin competed in her first karate competition today. She was in the 8-year-old girl’s group, competing in kata, which is a short, choreographed series of karate moves. She was pretty nervous about it, but thought it was a lot of fun, and she came in 3rd place! Not too shabby! 🙂 She got a huge 3rd place trophy along with her participant medal and a new t-shirt. Read Karin’s summary of her accomplishment.

09
May
2008

THIS JUST IN

Does jetlag get worse as you get older? Or is it just my crazy life that has eaten away the foundation of my stability and left me unable to balance evenly? Nearly a week since my return and I’m still waking up at 4 a.m. every morning…of course that could be the fault of the BRIGHT SUNLIGHT streaming in at an ungodly hour and the fact that still, after nearly 6 years in this house, the windows in our bedroom remain shade- and blind-less. Wednesday was choir (first practice in 4 weeks—croak!) and yesterday my husband celebrated a birthday. It’s...

05
May
2008

FEELING GRATITUDE & NOT EXPRESSING IT IS LIKE WRAPPING A PRESENT & NOT GIVING IT

Oh GOD STOP RUBBING YOUR EYES, stop stop stop stop !!! AAAAAAGH. *rub rub rub* I love allergy season. Not. Flattened by jetlag, I have zombied my way through work today and a parent-teacher conference, with my eyes reduced to tiny, itchy slits through which I peer at people blurrily and then sneeze a few times before blowing my nose. SO beautiful! THANK YOU to Chuck for being exactly the person you come across as. For being as comfortable and down-to-earth and humorously self-deprecating in real life as you are online. Thank you for flying all the way across the...

04
May
2008

BACK

It’s strange to think I’m half a world away from where I was this time yesterday, and with the busy week ahead I shall be flung back into routine quickly. I’ve come back to summer apparently. All the flowering trees were in full bloom in Boston, but here everything is leafed out, the grass is green and and high and the rapeseed is lying golden and full in the fields. After 24 hours of traveling, my body is only craving motionlessness and sleep and O! how glad I am to be home. I feel badly that I haven’t been writing...

27
Apr
2008

DRIVE BY BLOGGING

We have been go-go-going non-stop since I arrived. Working every day and shopping every evening. I’ve met Chuck! And Bluepoppy! And Christina! And Bluepoppy’s T! And being at Soliden this weekend filled my whole middle with a big golden ball of warmth. The temperatures all this past week have been in the middle 80’s (*boggle*) and Mom and I have been having a great time tooling around and just being together. And it’s half over, already! Where does the time go? Zooooooooom! >>>> Photos!

19
Apr
2008

TRAVELING SHOES

Anders arrived home late last night from his 2 week business trip in Italy. Now it’s his turn to hold down the fort for 2 weeks, and make sure the kids get their homework done and the fish get fed and the dishes done and the laundry folded. Except for my bathroom bag, I’ve been packed since this afternoon. I am ready to go. The taxi is coming at 7:45 to take me to the airport and from there I’ll fly via Amsterdam to Boston where I’ll wait until my mom’s plane lands and then we’ll pick up the rental...

18
Apr
2008

PUBLIC APOLOGY

I was kind of yanking my brother’s chain when I wrote yesterday’s post, and obviously, since he’s one of the few that hears the tone of my voice in his head when he reads my words, simply BECAUSE he knows me (too) well, I figured he would get that. See, it wasn’t really him (he?) that sparked the post I wrote, but it was he (him?) that sent me the link to the essay that DID spark it, so he got sort of associated sideways and took the brunt of the blame, quite unfairly. Robin Hobb thinks what I do...

17
Apr
2008

THE WOODS WOULD BE VERY SILENT IF NO BIRDS SANG THERE EXCEPT THOSE THAT SANG BEST*

My brother thinks what I do here isn’t Writing (with a capital W). But what he doesn’t realize is that I’m not really a writer and if I wasn’t writing here, I wouldn’t be writing at all. I started this journal SPECIFICALLY to kick start my writing again, and it worked, and as a big fat bonus I also got a round of awesome people to become friends with and the whole Internet to ask questions of and get recognition and applause from. Score! There simply isn’t enough time in the day to do all the things I’d like to...

16
Apr
2008

PEOPLE SAY THAT LIFE IS THE THING, BUT I PREFER READING*

Torture! It’s torture, I tell you. I have tonight, tomorrow night, Friday night and Saturday night. Looking at the not-yet-read books I have piled on the shelf, none of them seem short enough that I could start them now and be done with them by Saturday night when I simply must be done with it because I can’t take a book that I’m nearly finished with all the way to the States if it turns out to be one I want to keep, thus meaning I must bring it back again! (Especially one my mother already mailed to me ONCE...

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