Tagged: martinbean

31
Jul
2025

CONFESSION

I low-key miss my kids so much. I miss having them at home, where I know where they are, where I know they are safe. I miss having them here where I can enjoy their humor and their conversation and their presence. I miss Karin’s casual physical affection and Martin’s sharp-eyed commentary. I miss watching shows with them and movies, and playing games with them, and going for walks with them, and just, you know, hanging out with them. I can’t tell them this, at least not without joking about it, because I think they’d think it was something I...

05
Mar
2025

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE QUIZZY

I write a good things post every day on Facebook, usually in the evening between 8 and 10 pm. Sometimes, during the course of the day, I jot down good things in my Notes app on my phone so I don’t forget about them. Some of the good things are small stuff, like a hug from someone or the sight of spring flowers. Some are big things, of course: an event or an experience, or something I did. Some are silly, some are just notice of something yummy I ate. I’ve found that it’s not hard to find good things...

22
Feb
2025

CHECK CHECK CHECK!

It’s simultaneously so weird and so cool to see my children at their work, at their places of employment, while they’re working. We haven’t been to the restaurant Karin is working at in Denmark yet, but we’ve seen her in action at Beachgarden last summer, and I worked directly and indirectly with her at Axis for 5 years. We’ve been to all the restaurants here in Sweden that Martin has worked at, and it gives me such a feeling of pride to see them working. Not because I had anything to do with the super cool adults they’ve grown into,...

16
Sep
2024

GOING AND COMING

We moved Karin to Copenhagen over the past week. She moved in on Tuesday last week, and it was a super easy move, as she didn’t have so much furniture, and only a few boxes and miscellaneous other stuf. She and her best friend Elsa actually had the trailer filled before Martin even arrived in the morning to help. So we drove over to Copenhagen, and her new apartment is really nice. It’s a big 3-bedroom, brand new, on the south side of Copenhagen, quite near the water. We got her all unloaded, and then Martin and I went and...

02
Mar
2024

IT’S A LOT RIGHT NOW

I just hung up the artwork that John and his kids made for me, for Christmas. It’s two flowers made of sliced up, painted pinecones, mounted on a wooden board. I’ve been debating where to put it, and originally thought of putting it out on the porch, but the walls out there are stucco, so not only does Anders not want to put a nail in them, but there’s no good way to mount anything at all on them. I couldn’t even use a CommandStrip, which is what I’ve now used to hang them on the tile wall in the...

12
Feb
2024

WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO

I’m recreating Karin’s resume so that she can apply for university in Copenhagen. I already recreated Martin’s a few months ago before he started job-hunting in earnest. I lost all the original source files when I upgraded to a new work computer a year or so ago and wasn’t thinking about where those particular files were saved. Karin’s been pretty much working steadily since she started as a referee for the soccer leagues in the village where she played, when she was a teenager. I’m not sure why she needs her resume for a university application, but it’s just as...

31
Dec
2023

THE STORY OF THE FROG LAMP, NEXT LEVEL

The saga continues. If you have never heard the story of the frog lamp, stop what you are doing and read this first: The story of the frog lamp HIlarious, no? Definitely yes! Cut to pre-holidays 2023. The frog lamp, technically Sammy’s, has not been seen in some years. John and Simone moved to a new house 7 years ago to accommodate their growing family and at some point the frog lamp was relegated to the attic. I do not understand how anyone could bear to hide away the awesomeness that is the frog lamp, but apparently not everyone has...

17
Sep
2023

THE BUSY, IT’S HERE

It’s already crazy at work and busy with AIC obligations before the annual meeting in just over a week, but now my social calendar has exploded too. During the next 3 weeks, starting tomorrow, I have 7 days with no plans. 9 with no EVENING plans. 7 AIC activities. 1 massage. 1 hair appointment. 4 dinners (2 that we are hosting and 2 that are elsewhere). It’s busy time, that’s for sure. And because it’s already mid-September, my thoughts are turning to end of year events. I have Friendsgiving on my mind: need to nail down a date that both...

03
Sep
2023

THE BUSY STARTS NOW*

Hello September! It’s the start of a new AIC season and the busiest time of both our AIC year and work, so things are a little crazy at the moment. We kicked off the new AIC season with a monthly meeting that wasn’t really a meeting at all: mini-golf at Ribersborg in Malmö. We had a lovely evening for it, sunny and warm, and a decent turn-out of 17 people, which included the manager of the golf venue and kiosk. I can’t remember the last time I actually played mini-golf. I suck at it, but it was fun, and surprisingly,...

20
Aug
2023

SUMMER BLUES & POTTERY PAINTING

It’s already nearing the end of August, and I feel like it was JUST April a minute ago. I know that years speed up as you get older, and I know I’ve kvetched about the phenomenon before, like pretty much everyone else, but how is it nearly autumn again already?? Eeeesh. Anders weeded the vegetable garden yesterday and uprooted all the kohlrabi except two, which had been thoroughly holed by worms and slugs, and then he uprooted all the snap peas as well, half of which never came up at all, and half of which yielded a couple of handfuls...

October 2025
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