I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver I never really knew what I was going to be “when I grew up.” I still...

Woke up feeling sick to my stomach and shaky, so I stayed home from work. I’ve managed to accomplish rather a lot picking up the house and laundry-wise, plus some AWC computer work, after sleeping all morning, but still have a headache, and am definitely not 100%. Didn’t want to go to work anyway, as it’s been making me crazy for several weeks and I’m just not motivated. Just saw on CNN that Robert Palmer has died of a heart attack at the age of 54. It’s sunny today but looks awfully windy. I have to force myself to get...

This made me laugh so hard I cried today: Why is the plural of smörgås “smörgåsar” instead of smörgäss? hahahhahhahaha!!

Anders took the car in to the shop this morning and it was only 349 kronor to fix the warning light problem, although the guy said there was no guarantee it wouldn’t come back on again sometime. But it was 1.5 years since it happened last, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed…or thumbs held…or whatever. Got 2 fun projects to do today at work, layout for a full page ad, and a website banner ad to design. Much better than dicking around in a business intelligence database trying to figure out how to run reports, or working on the intranet...

website full of Alchemical Images.

Clouds like fluffy white elephant sheep grazing in a blue meadow. It’s breezy and chill, despite the sunshine. I’m inside, ostensibly working, chained to the computer. Working on things that drive me insane. Platform migration for our intranet site. ugh. ick blech. The tupperware event I was supposed to go to tonight has been postponed, which means I’m free to go to choir, BUT I told Anders I’d stay home anyway, as I know he’s completely stressing over the stones, and the car. There are two things wrong with it now. 🙁 So I’ll be a good helpmate and parent...

What is it about sharing a room with a handful of other like-minded book fiends that makes me so incredibly happy? I LOVE book group. I didn’t even read the book, one of 2-3 times I haven’t done so in 4 years, so I didn’t feel too guilty, and the conversation was so interesting and went so many interesting places. The book was Beyond Belief by V.S. Naipaul, whom I just haven’t been able to get into despite 3 tries, but sleepyhouse made an excellent case for one of his earlier books that I’m going to look up. We had...

Alright, already same_sky, here you go. I don’t usually do stuff like this, but you got me thinking… 10 Things I’ve Learned: everybody is somebody else’s weirdo everything is better in moderation, including moderation nothing can make water better if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all the fruit doesn’t fall very far from the tree it doesn’t come to stay, it comes to PASS nothing is sacred and everything is opinion, including this what goes around comes around rudolf the red-nosed reindeer unsticks any earworm and doesn’t stick itself in a women’s club, the same 15...

Interesting stats and answers from a “Contentment in Sweden” survey done by Parent Net Sweden, directed at expatriates: Read more here In one of the accompanying articles, a woman had this to say, “What I needed during my first years in Sweden was for someone to say to me, “It is really difficult to live in a culture that is so different from the culture in which you were brought up. It is natural that you are having a hard time.” Unfortunately, I never heard this; I was told by the people around me that I was obviously not doing...

I was supposed to have a red Alfa Romeo Graduate 2-door convertible by now. My life has veered, obviously.