Things I’ve learned from reading Smithsonian magazine today: Every year the U.S. Federal government holds a Federal Duck Stamp contest for painters The Tour de France turned 100 this year Mummified pharaohs in ancient Egypt protected their toes with thimbles of gold Robert E. Lee had tiny feet that he loved his children to tickle (not sure I wanted to know this) Standing water in containers as small as a child’s beach bucket or plastic car is enough to provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes I have no desire, whatsoever, to ever visit Korea Got some helpful advice from thesidhe...

At a crayfish party tonight, the discussion somehow turned to whether hedgehogs eat meat or not, (turns out they do, even though they’re classed as insect-eaters), and after talking a little bit about what strange names they have both in English and Swedish, I started to make a joke that Sweden doesn’t have much in the way of fun animals. One woman started to get offended, saying, oh yeah, you have everything in America. And I thought, well, we DO. At least, I mean we have all the animals that Sweden has, and then some. I didn’t mean it in...

Had a lovely sleep-in morning and have been busy since I got up. Ek Family update is in progress and should be finished momentarily. All new pictures from May to present for friends and family back home. We had friends over for dinner last night and in the midst of discussing a mutal friend’s (American) problems with a cheating spouse (Swedish) and the impending divorce, etc., Emily turned to her husband and said emphatically, “You see?! This is why I’m afraid of having children!” Whereupon we all cracked up, but it lead to a serious and interesting talk about the...

Found this great online Stamp Library for collage/scrapbooking! and this journal (1 page, but so worth it) totally cracked me up today: kim_jong_il__

It seems to me that Sweden must be one of the safest places to live on the face of the planet. Think about it…there are nearly NO natural disasters of any kind here*. Oh, occasionally, there are floods and maybe the stray forest fire or two, but for the most part, it’s pretty dull in the force-of-nature department. Someone has protested that there are earthquakes once in awhile, but I suspect it’s faulty information. What I wouldn’t give for a cracking good Chicago-style thunderstorm some days. When we lived in Nebraska, I can remember climbing up on the roof with...

Yowza, what a busy day! Whirlwind shopping and errand-running and boy did I hit the jackpot at the craft shops! 🙂 The kids and I got to Oxie at 10:15 and had lunch, after which Farmor joined us and we hit Malmö. First to Ekohallen to buy a new school backpack for pre-schooler Martin. Then to Matton (paper!!!) and Panduro (everything else!!!), a quick stop at Aladdin where we struck out on bead drapery (don’t ask) and then to the photo studio to get Martin’s passport pictures. Took one of Karin too, and they both turned out EXCELLENT. I’m very...

Since I rarely have the luxury to sleep until I wake up naturally these days, it’s rare that I remember any of my dreams more than fleetingly. But I had another “house” dream last night, this one quite pleasant. I’ve been having house dreams since I can remember, although the house is never the same, and sometimes isn’t really a house. The first one I remember clearly and the only one I’ve ever repeated involved a long low golden stucco type house with endless rooms full to varying degrees of fallen leaves. I wasn’t alone, but don’t remember how many...

Since I had almost nothing to do today at work, I spent the majority of the day surfing around LiveJournal, and then looking for beautiful things that I could possibly use in creating some sort of physical 🙂 journal or altered book type-thing. I have so much STUFF lying around, stuffed into drawers, hidden in notebooks and portfolios and boxes, some of it ought to be able to be put to good use. I looked at a bunch of scrapbooking and art supply sites too and discovered that 1) there are a LOT of things out there, 2) I’m coveting...

I’ve GOT to do something about my working environment in the office. When I first started at Ericsson, I noticed fairly quickly that I was developing strained muscles in my shoulders due to the fact that I was working on a right-handed desk and I’m left-handed. But I use the mouse with my right hand so whenever I had to write while working on the computer (which is frequent) I was pulling to the left and creating quite a strain. I also tend to sit with my left leg curled under me, which throws me to the left even more....

Some people may not believe this, but one of the few things that I really dislike about our new house is the dishwasher. Not just because it doesn’t do a good job (or as good a job as I would do), or because something is wrong with it and it has to be re-started several times during the wash cycle, but because IT’S THERE. It’s taken away one of my guilty pleasures: washing dishes. Oh, I admit it’s nice to have it the morning after a big dinner party, but otherwise, on a daily business, I miss my suds. There’s...