GAAAAH. Since I got in to work this morning, my computer has been running at high speed like it’s working on something, even when there are no programs open. Rebooting didn’t help. I’ve called Help Desk and they’re “sending a technician to take a look.” ETA: NEVER, apparently. I’ve got my lovely, wonderful, super, fabulous, noise-muffling headphones on and the music cranked up to cover the sound. For those in the know, repetitive noises drive me insane. Quickly. Anders says I consider TWO repeats of a noise repetitive (and I stand by that statement, actually). When I first started working...

Martin had a GREAT time at his party yesterday and came home with a new Spy Girls or some such computer game from McDonald’s. Actually, the cool people now in our kids’ world are Kim Possible and the Naked Mole Rat Rufus. Even I’m getting into them. I’ll be glad when our 3 free weeks of extra channels is over. Disney Channel is WAY too addictive. After I picked up Erika and got back home to drop her off so that Anders and I could leave for OUR party, Karin nearly had a meltdown and did the 4-limb monkey clamp...

I just got a spam mail for penis enlargement with the subject line GET A TREE TRUNK BETWEEN YOUR LEGS. I hope they’re talking about saplings, because frankly that made me squeeze my thighs together and think, No WAY, Buddy, Get that thing away from me. Who thinks this stuff up?! Motherhood Has Definitely NOT Dulled the Edge of Mimi Smartypants: Sunny-Side Up Apparently it’s snowing further north in Sweden, and judging by the slowly whitening cloud cover, we aren’t going to escape. My money is on snow sometime before Sunday evening despite the hard-working buds and green leaves that...

When I awoke this morning it was to the wolves of the wind, snapping around the house, howling with hunger, trying to find their way in. Trees are bent, branches and greenery swaying in the horizontal waltzing of the wind. There are little blue dimples in the puffy cheeks of the clouds, and the open regard of the sun as an eye opens is pale and watery. There seems to be some sort of full-moon weirdness going on in my life when it comes to organizations. I have kerfluffles happening in two separate spheres which are a little unsettling, and...

I just received headphones at work that are supposed to help cut down on noise and allow us to listen to music while working. Drawback: I can’t hear my phone if it rings until it gets really loud and I can still hear everything else, it’s just muffled. And when I lower the headphones around my neck so that I can talk to someone I look exactly like a whiplash accident victim. But I can listen to music again!

Back to monotone grayness. The air is so full of moisture that everything looks blurry. Driving up the big hill to Lund, you’d swear the sky and earth are seeping, all the grey tones running together like a watercolor wash. Now, however, the sun is making a valiant attempt to cut through the bullshit and shine, baby, shine! I have to stop going to bed after 11 on school nights because I’m not asleep until after midnight. The alarm at 6:30 is SUCH a shock. I need more than 6.5 hours of sleep a night. More like 9. Okay, 10....

St. Patrick’s Day: Niceness: Tickets from the Pub for 1 free Irish Stew appetizer, 1 free pint of Guinness and 1 free shot of Irish whisky for everyone in our party (23) Disappointment: Didn’t get to hear The Unicorn Song or Danny Boy. Joke: An Irish palm pilot consisting of a string with a pen, tied around the wrist, and on the palm of the hand the written words Buy Beer. Aggravation: a 2-hour wait to get our food and a horrible singer in a Crocodile Dundee wannabe outfit singing such gems songs as Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Bryan...

I recently realized that one of the patterns that Anders and I unconsciously fall into when dealing with Karin is Good Cop Bad Cop. Guess who’s the Bad Cop? The thing that bothers me about that is that I don’t want to, consciously or unconsciously, turn it into Bad MOM. Mean Mom, I can live with. Strict Mom, even, to a certain extent. Yesterday evening was bath night and I managed to turn Martin into my co-conspirator without any suspicion on Karin’s part. When it was bathtime, I just called Martin and we made the bathroom all mysig* with only...

Just my luck. This is the second time in recent months that Anders has been away on a business trip in Italy (and Switzerland!!) and I’ve been stuck at home with a barfy kid. sigh I think I’m getting somewhat better at dealing with it though since I’ve had SO MUCH PRACTICE, lately. I feel like we’ve had a real run of sickness lately. Either us or the kids, someone’s always feeling poorly. Hope it’s just the nearly-spring blues and we’ll be done with this round of the icklies soon. So. Yeah. That’s all for the moment. Edited to add:...

College pranks were so much fun. At Michigan State, we called it pimping someone, for linguistic reasons that now escape me. Once while the RA, Ann, was in a 4-hour meeting, all of the girls on my freshman dorm floor, with the help of Ann’s suitemate, removed EVERYTHING from her room, and set it up in the Study Lounge exactly as it had been in her room, down to the Passout game under the bed. Another time Julie and I made a mess of a particular brother floor room by supergluing a penny over the keyhole, using a blowdryer to...