Gray is dryer lint, the soft wings of doves, dust bunnies huddled under the bed. Gray is dirty sheets, thunderclouds, tarnished silverware. Gray is granite, statues, concrete. Gray is fading, hard to see, foggy hillsides. Gray is far from blue. 20 Christmas cards are addressed so far and the Christmas newsletter is written. Whew! Progress is being made. A dent in. A bite out of. I just want to note publicly that I married Superman. He’s mine, and you can’t have him. Since we got the keys to the new house last July, even before it was finished, this is...

Yow! This morning when the alarm went off at 6-oh-fucking-early-o’clock, I reached out an arm and smacked it, but somehow managed to turn it OFF instead of hitting the snooze button. The next time I pried an eye open and looked it was a QUARTER TO EIGHT!!! Aaagh!! Kids still sleeping, Anders still sleeping… 20 minutes of panic racing around throwing clothes on kids and jumping in and out of the shower… good thing I had a massage scheduled at 9 a.m., is all I have to say about that. I’m in the middle of reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides....

I don’t usually post quizzes, but this was too funny! You are a typical BILLY bookshelf in dark plywood! BILLY bookshelves are neat and tidy and can be relied on to keep their promises. They always read the safety instructions and always pay attention to the flight attendants’ safety demonstrations on every flight. Many BILLY bookshelves wear crash helmets. But that doesn’t mean they’re dull – on the contrary, they are great jokers and like to play the clown at family get-togethers and private parties. Career: Fickle is not a word that is part of the vocabulary of a BILLY...

So far, we’ve had 4 weeks in a row of grey cloudiness and ONE day of sunshine. Bleah to November in Skåne. I remember when I was pregnant with Martin, due in November. It started raining in September and it rained for a year and a half. Non-stop. I swear I’m not making that up. This year, at least, it hasn’t been raining every day, but I could really do with a few more sunny winter days. Don’t get me wrong, we had a BEAUTIFUL summer and an extremely sunshiney fall, but I want more. It’s amazing how much the...

Our ezine is making headway! 🙂 I’ve been too busy to do much this week, but am at least able to say that I was the one who came up with name that got voted in. I’m hoping to be able to contribute more than that as time goes on. You can see the beginnings of the magazine that everyone will soon be talking about at Mosaic Minds. We’re looking for submissions!

Our dinner party was a monster success, the dinner was great, the desserts even better, and the company was a lot of fun. Jan complimented Anders by saying that he’s been attending Thanksgiving dinners with his American wife, Kelly, since 1981 and this was the best one ever. 🙂 The last guests left around 12:30 a.m. and Anders & I picked up the worst of the mess, moving all the dirty dishes to the kitchen and rinsing them, and putting furniture back in place. At 1:15 we sat down in the living room to catch our breaths before heading to...

Recent books from my reading list: Just finished The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland, a historical fiction novel about Artemisia Gentileschi, a female artist in the male-dominated Baroque Age. This is the 2nd book by Susan Vreeland, whom I look forward to reading more of. I seem to be finding a lot of really great books about painters lately. Her first book, Girl in Hyacinth Blue, is the amazing tracing of one painting, suspected to be an unknown Vermeer, from modern times back to the artist, through the hands of its owners, and how it moved and influenced each...

Le Menu Three 4.5 kilo turkeys basted to perfection and stuffed with, well, stuffing enough mashed potatoes to feed a small army more stuffing cuz you just can’t have too much green bean casserole something with sweet potatoes made by a Texan for extra authenticity steamed broccoli cranberry sauce, you know you love it black olives, a family dinner party staple GOOD GRAVY! the ultimate dessert: pumpkin pie with whipped cream raspberry crumble pie the softest moistest bestest chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had in my life muffin-shaped individual portion cherry jello Anders just started carving up the two turkeys...

We took a picture at the wreathmaking workshop last night of all the participants grouped together, holding their newly created Christmas wreaths up with their smiling faces peering through the middle. 🙂 This is the 3rd year that we’ve had this workshop on Thanksgiving evening here in Sweden, and it is always so much fun. Rosa, the proprietor of the shop, doesn’t mind when we going digging around in the back to find pine cones spray painted gold or strange little nuts and dried flowers to use in our table decorations. She feeds us pastries, pepparkakor and cinnamon buns and...

It’s not yet Thanksgiving in America, since it’s still the middle of the night there, and actually it’s not yet Thanksgiving for us either, since in Sweden, there IS no Thanksgiving, and our personal celebration is taking place on Saturday, which means we’re just using this fine tradition as an excuse to eat too much and party with a bunch of fun friends. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Everyone else is making lists of things they’re thankful for, and I feel compelled to follow. Baaa gobble gobble Things I’m thankful for this year a husband who loves me and doesn’t...