Lizardek

15
Jan
2017

VICENNIAL

Last week, I passed a major anniversary. It wasn’t my birthday. It wasn’t even my wedding anniversary. It was the anniversary of the day I moved to Sweden…TWENTY YEARS AGO. I was planning to write a post that day (Wednesday) but work was crazy and I clean forgot when I came home, even though I wasn’t doing anything special that evening. So it went by unmarked. Twenty years ago. When I passed my 10-year anniversary of living in Sweden, I wrote a post about it, because of course I did. I wrote a similar post when I reached my 7-year...

12
Jan
2017

WHERE AND WHY AND WHO

I’ve been very much enjoying the return of several “old” friends to Livejournal lately, as I just mentioned to one of them in a comment. She talked about returning to online journaling and why, and her thoughts about Facebook prompted me to think about how I feel about social media in general and Facebook specifically. I suspect many people feel the same way as I do: Facebook is not the place to share anything substantial. It was fun and trendy and rather like walking into a party where all the people you haven’t seen in awhile were gathering, in the...

07
Jan
2017

WAY OF LIFE

Sometimes I get frustrated at my writing here, especially as so often it seems to be only a litany of what I am doing and what I have done. It’s not the creative journaling that I envisioned from the beginning and which I managed to do for some years (on and off, obviously). I sometimes feel creatively stifled, but I know that I’m the only one that is judging. And, of course, the one doing the stifling, if that is really what it should be called. It’s like writer’s block of the creative kind. I can still write but only...

05
Jan
2017

STERNUTATION SISTER

How hard do you sneeze? I once worked with a woman who sneezed like a machine-gun mouse…a sort of mini rapid-fire pew pew pew, if you will. When I sneeze, it’s like all my internal organs and everything inside my head are trying to come out, explosion-style. And I sneeze a lot. Multiple times every day. I start the day with a sneeze, in fact, if I don’t manage to blow my nose minutes after I am awake and/or vertical. I think my sneezes have gotten more violent over the years…they actually scare me sometimes. Thanks, allergies. My nose is...

02
Jan
2017

READY SET GO

What a beautiful day! Even though I was mostly inside for it, WORKING, I did get out after lunch for a brisk 15-minute power walk in the bright sunshine. I admired the blue sky, and the frost on the ground and wished I’d had longer to walk. Work is BUSY. Though I actually worked the equivalent of one day during the holidays in order to not have today be super stressful, it still felt pretty crazy. I finished revising a huge important PPT for the two top people in the company, for our upcoming kickoff and that felt good to...

31
Dec
2016

RETROSPECTIVE

he last day of 2016, hurrah! Normally, I would be a bit sad about the end of the year, but I am really hoping that, despite the orange-frosted muffin going into office in my native country, things will get better *pastes bright smile into place* instead of getting worse. After all, things are going well for me and my family, so despite the debacle of the US election, and the loss of so many people I admired: Gene Wilder, Carrie Fisher, Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Harper Lee, Richard Adams, George Michael, Anton Yelchin, Prince,…(oof) among many many others, I am...

27
Dec
2016

I’LL BE HOME

My husband, who has been working in the garage for a few hours, came in to the kitchen while I was preparing a plate for my dinner (both kids are out tonight). “Oh, is it still leftovers?” he asked. I gave him the hairy eyeball. Has he not looked in the refrigerator?? We have enough food to feed an army for a week. So, yes, leftovers again. Not that I’m complaining since I only get turkey sandwiches twice a year! We had a major wind storm through southern Sweden last night (it was named Urd, which seems…odd, since that is...

25
Dec
2016

HO HO HO

I actually had to roust both kids out of bed today at 10 a.m. with Christmas carols on full blast, since there was no sign of either one of them moving, despite Karin’s threats last night to wake us up at six a.m. HA. Teenagers are lame. It rained all day today…super boring weather for Christmas except for the fact that water drops hanging from the honeysuckle creepers looked like diamonds. Two days ago was my mother-in-law’s birthday; she turned 88. She had a knee replacement operation a few weeks ago but is home and recovering well, despite still having...

24
Dec
2016

EK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER

Every year I am amazed again at how fast 365 days can pass. Here it is, the end of 2016 and Christmas is upon us once again! We’ve had a busy year with many celebrations in it and lots of traveling. There were some major milestones, and some big birthdays as well. Anders has had a great year of mountain-biking, participating in a series of X Cup tournaments as well as doing the Cyckel Vasa for the first time, which is a race on the same track that the Vasaloppet Ski Race takes place on. His job has taken him...

17
Dec
2016

IT’S ME AGAIN

You know, I had seriously good intentions to post more often this month, since I was so lame busy in November, but it appears that I am paving the road to blog post hell instead. I hate just writing catch-up posts of what I’ve been doing, where I’ve been, why I’m absent, because who cares, really? I know I have a few faithful readers, but I really wonder if anyone is REALLY following this journal anymore. I don’t know that I would be, if I were you. Though it’s not like there are a lot of bloggers left to follow...