This morning when I woke up at 7:00 a.m. the skies were blue and the sun was shining. I went back to sleep, thinking maybe the weather forecasts were all wrong and we would have a lovely day for our midsummer celebrations. I woke up again at 10 and it was raining. sigh But to all of you who celebrate Swedish midsommarafton, I wish you a day of love and laughter, games and dancing, maypoles and flowers, strawberries and cream, and friends and family.

I’m raising bilingual kids, but I don’t get too worked up about it. I love the English language, it’s one of my passions, and while I hope that my children will learn to love it as well, I don’t see much point in getting all lathered up about whether or not they love it like I do. I know that they will learn English, since we live in a country where English is taught from a very young age and besides, they get it in the home as well. They have had English and Swedish since their birth, and are...

Things That Made Me Happy Yesterday: having a shitty morning turned around by validation and adoration from my peeps even if I did have to practically lie down and expose my belly for it a busy day at work the kids behaving well and doing what I needed them to do all evening singing with Debbie and Sharon watching my kids out the window while singing, as they jumped and tumbled together on the big trampoline seeing the look on Karin’s face as Debbie’s daughter Maria wrapped her arms around her and bounced them together late-evening sunshine after a cruddy...

Ways I’ve Been Annoyed So Far This Morning: being woken up at 5:45 a.m. by Martin who didn’t make it to the bathroom in time not being able to get back to sleep before the alarm went off at 6:30 not being able to stay in bed until 7 because Anders is in Italy Karin dragging her feet and taking forever to eat her breakfast having everything I tossed into the garbage miss and end up on the floor in front of it Martin taking forever to find a toy to take with him a borderline headache a toothache that...

The worst thing about having my hard drive reinstalled is backing up all of my million fonts and non-standard programs and reinstalling them all again, and getting all the menus set up to my specifications, only to discover that, once again, I forgot to save the joboption files for Acrobat. sigh Karin and I power-walked for half an hour in Oxie yesterday. Oxie was planned with a gazillion little paths and wandering ways that wind around the residential areas, through greens and parks and shady groves. We saw several rabbits out grazing in the early evening sunshine, who didn’t seem...

I dislike using my journal for listing what I’ve accomplished during the day unless it’s something out of the ordinary. I have no doubt that no one is interested in reading the list of household chores I blew through this morning. This weekend has been incredibly mellow, and I slept in like a slug this morning, after staying up way too late last night. I was supposed to have edited the rest of the pictures for our family web page update but that project seems to be going really slowly. I did, at least finish up the HTML pages for...

Why do people insist on trying to make things perfect? Why can’t they realize that aspiring to perfection is just a way to make youself (and others) crazy? Why can’t people just let good enough be good enough?! argh

It’s been raining on and off all week, including today, and the temperatures are crisp and chilly. Without the sun, it makes for dismal weather. This evening, the cloud cover was pushed aside by the sun and blue broke out in the west. I went for my walk just before 7:30 to find a wet, washed world. The paths were glistening and the trees dripped quietly. Heading toward the snail trail I was literally stunned to a stop by a field of meadow grass, long stalks bowed by the rain. The sun shone across them, each stalk’s arch outlined in...

Anders informed me that at their work event yesterday evening they had a truffle-tasting. I’ve never eaten a truffle, to my knowledge, although I’ve read about them. Apparently, they cost 3000 kronor per kilo when they’re in season. Urk. And the Tetra Pak employees in my husband’s department were shoveling them down…I want to work for Tetra Pak where it seems the money is flowing. Anders’ description of them was short and to the point. When asked what they looked like, he responded “sheepshit,” and when asked how they tasted, I got the same response. Then he backpedaled and said...