*CRICKETS*
Blah. That’s how I feel.
18
Apr
2010
Lizardek
15
Apr
2010
THIS POST HAS NO TITLE, JUST WORDS & A TUNE
I’ve had terrible insomnia this go-round with Anders gone. Haven’t been able to fall asleep, keep hearing noises, can’t get comfortable. I usually read until I’m tired and ready to turn out the light, but then I just lie there. And lie there. And lie there. Well, tossing and turning, not really just lying there. How boring. 3 nights in a row so far, and I really hope that’s an out. The sun has been shining for what feels like a week, even though it probably hasn’t actually been that many days. It fills me up and makes my toes...
14
Apr
2010
FOR SOMETHING ELSE BESIDES A HAT RACK
Something that drives me crazy: People who sing “choo” when they mean “you”. I wan’ choo, you’re all I got, etc. Articulate, dammit! My stomach hurts. It’s been hurting for 4 days. I haven’t thrown up, though, so there’s that. Yet. Yesterday, I was supposed to go out to dinner with a colleague here on a business trip from the Boston office and another colleague who is currently on maternity leave, and we ended up going to her house because her husband is out of town, even though originally we were going to have to be at MY house because...
12
Apr
2010
ROLL IT, PAT IT, MARK IT WITH A C (FOR COOKIE)
I’m not really a cook, I just play one on TV (in the perfect-family-sitcom that airs in my head, of course). When I lived with roommates after college, in Chicago, I could barely boil water for rice. I made a lot of buttered noodles, as I recall. One didn’t NEED to cook, living in downtown Chicago…there were take-out places of every stripe and color on every street and corner. You didn’t have to eat the same cuisine twice in 2 weeks if you didn’t want to! When I wasn’t eating out, I subsisted mainly on Campbell’s soups and the occasional...
06
Apr
2010
PUT ONE WORD IN FRONT OF THE OTHER AND SOON YOU’LL BE WRITING OUT THE DOOR
Quit’cher bellyachin’ and write! is what my inner author keeps yelling at me. All day I’ve been ignoring it, trying to cover it over with one part of my mental mantle. If you want to write, just write. Put your (figurative) pen to (virtual) paper and let come what may. As a wise commenter said (short of slapping me and yelling “Snap out of it!”): Words are never wasted. There were these things today, things I noticed: the way the water cleared and cleaned the pot I made soup in, the scarlet strip of sunset out across the fields. Pheasants...
05
Apr
2010
NO PARTICULAR PLACE TO GO, NO PARTICULAR THING TO SAY
Well, that 4-day weekend went too quickly. I suppose I can give thanks that this will be a short week, yes? One thing I do on weekends and even worse on holidays is to stay up late and sleep in late. If I don’t restrain myself I can quite easily turn my clock completely upside-down: staying up until 3 a.m., sleeping until 1 in the afternoon. These days I’m better about restraining myself but I’m still guilty and 4 days of it is just enough to make the first working day a nightmare. Mea culpa, etc. Cate, my cousin, came...
03
Apr
2010
I HOPE MY KIDS NEVER GET TOO OLD FOR THIS STUFF
This has been an altogether lovely week leading up to Easter. Lots of sunshine and a wonderful dog in the house to love on. The kids were home all last week so they went out walking and playing with London several times a day in the sunshine and then we went for a long walk in the early evenings. Tiny, tight green buds are starting to show on the tips of every branch. Easter flowers are blooming: crocus, daffodil, snowdrops, wood anemone. The furled knives of tulip leaves have stretched up tall in gardens all over the village. Tractors are...
31
Mar
2010
PASS THE CHOCOLATE
I’m a little stressed out about our 4-week vacation this summer to the States and I haven’t even done anything yet but book the flights. You would think that 4 weeks is enough time to fit in everything and everyone, right? But I’m beginning to believe that while it may be possible, it won’t be RESTFUL. I don’t want to come home from my vacation needing another vacation. The list of people we want to see is growing: my mom (of course), my brother and his wife, my sister and her family, my grandmother, my aunt & uncle and cousins...
29
Mar
2010
WHAT’S NEXT, I ASK YOU?
Trip-planning, like party-planning, gives me hives, a headache and a bad attitude. I suppose I should be thrilled at how quickly the Internet and its myriad trip-planning sites can digest the information I give it (dates, places, price requirements) and spit it back out in the form of quickly scanned multiple choice format; nothing could really be easier. However, it’s taken me 3 days and numerous howls for help to my husband and my mom to figure out the best possible combination of departures and arrivals and layovers and airlines and prices. And that was only for 3 of us;...
25
Mar
2010
THIS HAPPENED; THIS, TOO
Two words: Moose sushi That’s what I had for dinner tonight. I met up with my neighbor Catherine and her husband Nik for dinner after working late and before book group, and suggested a new sushi place in Lund that a colleague had highly recommended and it was great! They only opened a month ago, and they have 2 tables plus a couple of counters, and they’ve decorated in Early Swedish Attic and all their ingredients are local or environmentally-friendly. So, no tuna but lots of creative sushi creations which included (variously) moose, duck, apple, horseradish and red onion. DELICIOUS....