Not so much going on in the office today, despite my boss being back from vacation. One can only surf the web so much, I’ve found. But I have some things to look up and find more about: ephemera sheets, altered books and scrapbooking fabric bit names. We live “out in the country” and are surrounded by farmland, and all the fields right now are full of either amber waves of grain or haybales. What is it that is so comforting about the sight of a golden field dotted with huge perfectly rolled balls of hay shining in the late...

Tired, a little grumpy, hot, mostly. It’s been a long day and too much of it was spent sitting in the car (forgot the damn cake and had to go back for it, long traffic jams to/from beach) and in the sun at the beach which is always exhausting, for some reason. 2 friends left messages to say happy birthday, otherwise haven’t heard from anyone. 🙁 Don’t know why that bothers me a bit, since I don’t consider this a fun birthday, but it does. Stuffed ourselves silly on chinese food at the in-laws, which was really good. I always...

Ugh, another year older. The numbers on these birthdays are nothing to celebrate, says me. That said, Anders did a lovely job of coming through on the sparkly side. I got woken up this a.m. by two way too bouncy children, and was given a gorgeous fuchsia-pink potted begonia (from Martin & Karin) and, from Anders, a beautiful bracelet from Viking Kristall made of peridot beads with a larger oval pearl in the very center. 🙂 Happy Happy! Yet another bee-oo-ti-ful day and we’re headed to the beach, even though the beach is not my #1 choice for birthday destinations....

Been musing about house-color trends and meanings lately. Our neighborhood is brand new, and the 40 houses in it are all nearing a sort of completion on the outside as their owners frantically use the remaining Swedish summer to paint, pave and landscape. What has been particularly striking, to my American eye, has been the choices of colors used for the exterior of the homes. In the States, it seems that the overwhelming trend, starting maybe some 10 or more years ago, was that houses would look more stately and elegant if they were done in natural earth tones. So...

Got the sun in my eyes…! Can’t beat The Carpenter’s for making me feel like a relic of the 70’s. It’s another blueskycloudless scorcher of a day here in Flyinge. We have nearly nothing on the agenda except, since tomorrow I inch closer to 40 by a year, the following: Anders: buy Liz presents Liz: bake a cake and frost it Anders: buy Liz more presents, preferably sparkly ones I have other miscellaneous housecleaning things to do, and Martin’s room still needs to be organized but no stress about any of it. I’m trying to figure out why I really...

WHAT a gorgeous evening, and what fun! The sushi was, as usual, delicious and the company was great. The bill was a bit of a shocker, however, but hey it was my early-birthday celebration. And I got all kinds of unexpected birthday presents, including a future date for a sushi lunch (!) and a…are you sitting down? … moose mobile phone holder. Anders and I have relegated it to my office where it will have a happy and useful existence. I’m not sure this even falls into the “so ugly it’s cute” category, but Angie was so proud of herself...

CNN had a recent article on their website about addiction to the internet. They put a handy reference guide for figuring out if you are addicted: M More than intended time spent online O Other responsibilities neglected U Unsuccessful attempts to cut down S Significant relationship discord because of use E Excessive thoughts or anxiety when not online I think I’m borderline. 2.5 out of 5. I have the excuse that I use the computer to fulfill my many functions as editor, webwoman and web designer, and I never considered myself much of web surfer, but the whole online journal/blog...

My sister’s sambo was quoted in an article on dailypress.com, and is being photographed and interviewed for another article next week. One thing he said struck me: “In the U.S., we just assume that everyone’s a high competitor.” Ain’t that the truth? I was lucky, when I worked at my last job in Chicago, to be in a position where I didn’t have to be competitive, despite being surrounded by a sales force of extremely competitive people. I was the one they all came to whenever they needed anything. I liked that. I should put that in my resume as...

Sodaplay BBC Online Bodytag Popcap Orisinal

Morning minus = the smell of very burnt toast waking me up Morning plus = my daughter’s big brown eyes peering brightly at me over the edge of my pillow Back in the day when I was firmly in the never-having-children camp, I had a big long list of reasons Why Not To Have Kids. And when things would come up, I would label them: seeing someone’s kid acting up in public: Reason #121 Why Not To Have Kids, crying baby: Reason #42 Why Not to Have Kids. I used to joke that until my list of reasons FOR having...