There’s just something about a successful dinner party that makes you feel all warm and socially competent. 🙂 I left work early yesterday, picked up a package at the post office (Ducati calendar for Anders!), picked up garlic spread and marinated olives from our local kebab/pizza joint, picked up the kids, and then got home with an hour to clean up before our guests arrived. Since the house was in decent condition, that worked out perfectly. We had 2 couples over, people we really like. Barbara and Paul have a 20-month old and a 4-week old, both girls, and both...

I double dog dare you! How well do you know lizardek? *bleats like a sheep, baa baa baa! 🙂 *

I love black olive tapenade and garlic in everything, but man oh man, do they apparently not love me. It’s unrequited. Or else they’re pissed about something I did years ago and are letting me know in no uncertain terms that they haven’t forgotten, even if I have, oh NO. My stupid Mousetrapper is misbehaving at work, and won’t let me take the mouse pointer all the way over to the right hand side. WTF?! It’s me against the inanimate again, and as usual, they’re WINNING! 🙁 argh. Martin’s zipper started it this morning and now my mouse is trying...

Mini-Revelation I Had Yesterday: Part of the reason everything seems so dark is because it’s all WET. Wet things, like hair, or stones, are always darker, but I never really thought about it until yesterday. Right now EVERYTHING in Skåne is wet, and that contributes to the general murkiness of the world. I’m reading Cloven Hooves by Megan Lindholm, who also writes as Robin Hobb, and while I’ve found her Lindholm books can be hit or miss, this one has me fascinated. However, I keep wanting to shake the main character and tell her to snap out of it. This...

Thanks to this excellent Time Waster: Ultimate Flash Face, I didn’t get much done of note last night. Work is crazy busy, and I’ve got choir tonight, Social Circle tomorrow, and dinner guests on Friday… yow. Guess the family website updates won’t be finished this week either. I detect a lightening in the sky, which makes me happy as this morning’s drive through yet another dark drizzly grey grey grey rainy WET landscape was just a drag. The little river that bisects Flyinge has completely overflown its banks and there is standing water everywhere. My fingers and toes are wrinkled...

It’s so interesting reading other expat’s takes on the culture shock and acclimatization process. I both see myself in their experiences and wonder at their reactions. Partly it can be the difference based purely on the fact that I’ve moved around so much in my life AND that we lived in Europe when I was a teenager that gives me a different perspective. Partly it depends on the culture that is being absorbed and dealt with. I suspect I would have found it a great deal harder to live as an expat anywhere else than Europe, and especially northern Europe....

At least 4 of the blog writers I read are currently in the process of putting out books based on their web writings. Another one announced her upcoming book (to be out in 2005) today. Brave new world. It’s a little envy-making, but at the same time it’s so ENCOURAGING! Transported Back to High School by a Memory Master: Fresh Meat by the She-Dork Lots of projects that would be fun at work if work was fun going on right now. I just got the proofs back for the four posters I designed for the new offices and they look...

We had both good feelings and mixed feelings after talking to Petra, Martin’s teacher today. She is, at least, aware that she needs to keep an eye out for injustices on the part of the rougher boys towards Martin, and admitted that 1) things have been said and 2) she can’t be everywhere or see everything. We talked about the fact that Martin IS a sensitive kid and that he does wear all his emotions on his sleeve, so that he can easily be a target for those kids who think being tough and cool is the norm. Then she...

It’s pouring rain again. Yesterday was wet enough without rain. You’d think that so much rain would have me a bad mood, but I’m kind of bad-mooded out right now. The swish of windshield wipers was rather soothing this morning. The snow is nearly melted and what remains is dirty and soppy. The fields, denuded of snow, fold ice in their ridges and look swollen. Half-frozen impromptu lakes surprise you in low places. We’re meeting Martin’s teacher right after work to discuss the teasing and borderline bullying that Martin has mentioned to us. There are a couple of boys in...