Lizardek

20
May
2014

NILS EINAR EK, 1926-2014

I’ve been to four funerals in Sweden. And four in the US, if I remember correctly: my father, his mother, her housekeeper’s husband, and my maternal grandfather. Here in Sweden, the funerals were for the wife of one of Anders’ friends, the girlfriend of his uncle, my friend Carol, and now Anders’ father. We spent most of the day in Oxie, at the church and the congregation home afterwards. The church is tiny and whitewashed, from the 12th century…it’s Malmö county’s oldest church. Anders was five when his parents moved to Oxie; his sister was 3. They only moved to...

17
May
2014

IN BRIGHTNESS

The air is full of flying, floating things. If it were winter, I’d suspect snow but since it’s a beautiful, hot, late-spring day, a closer look tells me most of it is dandelion fluff or maybe milkweed puffs. They move with seeming purpose, skimming sideways, caught on every waft of air. Some ARE actually moving under their own power—insects: butterflies, gnats, tiny beetles, spider younglings, the small flying lives that populate the world, mostly unseen until the sun illuminates their journey. The air shines silver on the tops of the green hedges. Trees, even the lawn shimmers under the force...

12
May
2014

IN THE MIDDLE OF MAY

Karin stayed home sick again today: another sore throat. She missed two days of school last week, and I suspect she’ll be home tomorrow, too. She’s zombied out on the couch, didn’t even wake up for dinner, so I know she’s REALLY not feeling well. I took her to the clinic this morning, because after she said that her throat was hurting really bad and the glands were really swollen I thought, what the hell? and printed out the absentee record. She missed 6 days of school in the last 20 weeks, 7 if you count today. All for sore...

07
May
2014

THINGS I AM THINKING ABOUT

The yellow of the rapeseed. The horses out back. The black cat that hangs out on the neighbor’s porch across the street but never seems to get let inside. The fact that the lilacs are almost here. ALMOST! The way the sky went blue and the clouds went puff and the rain went away. The way the lights bends down to bless us in the evening. The funeral for Anders’ father. Weight-loss. Walking. Surgery. Eye infections. The fact that Karin stayed home with a sore throat again today for the 45,589,382,411th time this year. The fact that I have to...

01
May
2014

ALWAYS TOO SOON

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks since I last wrote anything, with work filling up my brain and renovation projects at home squirreling in around the edges. Last weekend we did a big shop at IKEA and bought 3 new bookshelves for the computer room to replace the ones that have moved out to the garage storage. And yesterday I picked up another one from my friend Debbie, a skinnier model. So that made 3.5 new bookshelves to fill and organize. I started earlier in the week but finished it up today and everything looks nice and new and...

26
Apr
2014

A ROOM FOR GROWING UP IN

Anders recently finished renovating Karin’s room, and we bought new bed covers, pillows and frames for her wall. There are still some small details to finish, but they’ll get done when they get done. Just to indulge in a little bit of nostalgia, this was Karin’s room when we first built and moved into this house: THEN, in 2009, when she was in the midst of her kick-ass karate ninja career, we re-did her room completely, and it was SO COOL: BUT NOW! She’s no longer a girl. She’s a young woman. With sophisticated tastes and a decided interest in...

24
Apr
2014

MUSIC SO NICE

I’ve been obsessed with Spotify lately…I went through the million lists of all the songs on all my mixed tapes from college and after (80s! 90s!) and added all the best stuff. Since then I’ve been haunting the Discover and Browse functions and the app We Are Hunted which finds trending music mentioned on social media. Lots of good stuff out there. Still, several artists that I love aren’t on Spotify or only have limited selections of their work available. I’m looking at you, Peter Gabriel. Where is General Public? And Grace Pool? And Loey Nelson?? And why isn’t Vienna...

20
Apr
2014

WALKING ON SUNSHINE

So far, this has been an absolutely wonderful and relaxing long weekend and there’s still the rest of this evening and all of tomorrow to enjoy of it. Karin is up in Gothenburg, participating in the Future Cup Invitational, as goalie for her team. They are playing in the semi-final game tonight, but we can hopefully keep track of the match progress live on the website. They won their first 3 games and she only let in one goal, so she was sounding quite happy when I talked to her a couple of hours ago. Yesterday, we had some good...

17
Apr
2014

20 YEARS

I can still remember lots of details, though some things, like conversation or what we were wearing, have faded over the years. I wasn’t really interested in dating, but agreed to for a friend who was sure she had found the perfect guy for me: “He’s European! You lived in Europe!” I drove out to Linda and Nick’s townhouse where we met, and we all went out to dinner at some suburban Chinese place, and then we rented movies and went back to their place. After the first movie, Linda and Nick fell asleep on the sofa and we stayed,...

14
Apr
2014

SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY

I love spring in Sweden. It’s not just the daffodils everywhere or the way the fuchsia glows in the lengthening light or the sheen of green that pours itself over every rolling hill. It’s the SHORT WORK WEEKS. Easter is super late this year, and because of it, I have this to look forward to: This week: 3.5 days of work Followed by a: 4.5 day weekend Followed by: 4 days of work Followed by: 2.5 days of work Followed by a: 4.5 day weekend And then at the end of May? Another 2.5 day work week, followed by ANOTHER...

November 2025
S M T W T F S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  

Archives