Tagged: goodthings

30
Oct
2009

DOWN & UP

Is anyone else boggled by the fact that tomorrow is the last day of October? Already it feels as dark in the early evenings as if it were January, and we are still 2 months away from the equinox. What an down and up day this was…what down and up WEEK, for that matter. At the beginning of it, one of my colleagues, another American who is also a friend, sent out an email to all the Americans in our department, asking if we would be interested in helping to organize a Thanksgiving dinner for our entire department. There are...

03
Oct
2009

THINGS I COULD DO TODAY

My family is gone on a weekend Scout camp. Martin left last night with the older kids…they were planning to sleep outside in “wind-protected lean-tos” if the weather cooperated last night. Since it was clear with a brilliant bright moon I hope they did. Today it’s grey and raining: not so fun for a camp, but Anders and Karin left this morning with their backpacks stuffed to the brim and smiles on their faces so I’m sure they’ll be having a good tiime regardless. I woke up at 7:30 when Anders did, and promptly fell back asleep until they came...

19
Sep
2009

SEEING THE SIGHTS—END

Monday morning dawned bright and early for Labor Day but neither Mom nor I saw it as we were snoozing a bit late, despite needing to get up and get moving in good time to pack in the sights of our last day of “mini-vacation”. We finally hoisted our duffs out of bed and hit the road. Once again we drove west, this time nearly to the border. Our destination was Stockbridge and the Norman Rockwell Museum. Now I know a lot of people pooh-pooh Rockwell, for various reasons, but the man was incredible. In his lifetime he finished some...

14
Sep
2009

SEEING THE SIGHTS—START!

Having a 3-day weekend in the middle of my business trip was an unexpected bonus. I never think about Labor Day being in September anymore since the European Labor Day is May 1st and the only reason the American date ever crosses my radar is when I need an answer from someone in the US office and they’re not laboring because it’s Labor Day. The same thing happens on Memorial Day and St. Patrick’s Day and even, sadly, Thanksgiving. They’re not holidays here, so I don’t think about them as days off. Though I DO, now, think about Ascension Day...

27
Aug
2009

GOOD THINGS

This week has been full. Stuffed full. Crammed full. Proppmätt, as they say in Swedish, though that usually has to do with your stomach and not your calendar. Life is ALWAYS full, it seems. Remember those long, lovely, boring days of summer when you were a child and there was nothing to dooooooooooo? Yeah, I dont either. Early Saturday morning I’m flying to Boston via Amsterdam (with only a 1.5 hour layover, eek!) for 2 weeks of working at our US office. If I wasn’t able to take this trip for work, it would have been over 3 years since...

15
Aug
2009

FESTIVAL MOOD

Busy morning after rising late: showered, dressed, made bed, ordered the kids around, cleaned up, laundry in, dishes loaded and washed, recyclables packed up, made rice krispie treats and 40 deviled eggs, finished my book and am ready to start another, uploaded activity changes to AWC site, answered emails, caught up on blog reading, updated book & CD wish lists, cleaned out old emails. We have a BBQ party to go to tonight, but I suspect since the weather is cold and rainy that we’ll be migrating indoors instead. It’s a potluck (hence the treats and eggs) with friends, though...

10
Aug
2009

AND ONE TO GROW ON!

I felt totally showered with love and affection all day today. An early morning birthday wake-up from my family with song and hugs and lots of lovely presents including the perfect watch chosen by Anders based on my fairly vague description. Pots of flowers both at home and at work and a colleague singing happy birthday in French to me. A lunch with good friends, cooked just for me with some of my favorite foods: salmon! snap peas! CAKE! that had me away from work for an unprecedented 2.5 hours (!) and a good day at work to boot. And...

07
Aug
2009

SPEEDING UP

Each time I think maybe there isn’t anything more to write about, the sky is the blue that it was today and I realize all over again that one can never have enough of it. If the sky is a wonder and a joy each time it’s that blue, that cloudless, endless blue, then why not everything? Even the things I’ve written about before suddenly strike me as relevant, as fresh, as interesting they did the first time. This time we twist them, we come at them from another angle. We open them up, unfold them like a flower, and...

20
Jul
2009

YUMMY THINGS I LIKE TO PUT IN SALADS, THOUGH NOT ALL AT ONCE

Leaf lettuce Romaine lettuce Ruccola Pearl tomatoes Avocado Plum tomatoes Yellow cherry tomatoes Sun-dried tomatoes Kohlrabi Black olives Artichoke hearts Hearts of palm* Snap peas Snow peas Cucumber Red, orange or yellow bell peppers (sparingly) Dried cranberries Cold boiled potatoes Hard-boiled egg Tuna Bacon (real bits) Broccoli Asparagus Pistachios Pine nuts Feta cheese Red onion Scallions Parmesan cheese Croutons** Mushrooms Carrots Lentils Seedless grapes** Chopped boiled ham Couscous A little pasta *YUM! Why is it so hard to find them in Sweden? I haven’t had them in ages! **Once in a blue moon What do YOU like in your salads?...

11
Jul
2009

SWEETER FOR THE EATER

Our cherry tree is the second one we’ve had; only 4 years old. The first one died after a year and we were a bit worried about the current one last summer as it had a bad bug infestation which my mom and I treated with soap and water. Two of the branches are dead and need to be removed. Last year we had a total of FOUR cherries. But this year: BUMPER CROP! We had to put blue net up and everything and the crows and jackdaws and magpies made concerted efforts to tease out the dangling rubies through...

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