Tagged: martinbean

16
May
2006

FREEZING FEET AND BLOOMING BRAIN

It is 8 degrees Celsius (46F) out right now. Do you know how cold that is for the 3rd week in May? Colder than a witch’s Springy tit, that’s what. I just checked the 2-week forecast and it’s all BLOW and COLD and GREY and SUCK. There are no numbers anywhere in sight above the middle 50s except for the ones that give percentage chances of precipitation. Those? Are in the 90s. Overnight, it seems we have gone from spring to fall. Summer, we hardly knew ye! I just went out and watered the garden and the trees, fully expecting...

13
Feb
2006

I CAN SEE SPRING FROM HERE

There’s vaseline on the winter lens, everything is airbrushed in a vaporous and peripheral veil, a shadow fog teasing the eye. The fields down the long hill are mottled, a snowmelt, no-melt zone of loamy chocolate earth, frozen-in-motion sprouts of rapeseed, sugarbeets, alfalfa green against the spangled white of the snow crisps. All along the edges of the roadways, exhaust has pitted and etched a poisonous lace pattern. It makes me literally sick to my stomach to think too hard about that black sludge seeping down into the earth, into the water, into the grain. The snow is only momentarily...

07
Feb
2006

INTELLECTUAL DEFEAT

I’m a little grumpy tonight, because Anders left for Italy today and won’t be home until Friday, and considering that he was gone for 9 days just 3 days ago I think I’m entitled to a little grumpiness. *sigh* Things I Really, Really Need to Get Off My Butt and DO: Get Karin’s passports renewed; at least the Swedish one, and soon Learn the song I am supposed to be singing at my brother’s wedding in May. I suspect my non-motivation has to do with the fact that I don’t really like it that much, and that it’s not really...

22
Jan
2006

WHEN IT HITS YOU, YOU FEEL NO PAIN*

Martin and I discovered today that the snow isn’t really white. It’s blue and violet and grey and silver and white. Where the lowering sun paused behind the trees and shone, the shadows melted along the sloping sides of every drift. It only sparkled on the sunny side, but we agreed both sides were beautiful. We’ve got a good half hour walk mapped out now, and we march along, arms swinging free, talking about whatever subject strikes our (mostly his) fancy. One of his Christmas presents was a little suitcase full of illustrated boardbooks about the different countries of the...

18
Jan
2006

MENTAL PARENTAL

Life is heating up, along with the earth, which is, although it may not SEEM like it, moving down the orbital arc towards spring. Choir started tonight with a bang. We’ve already got a schedule of concerts through to August, with 3 major programs, including a tour show of the Spanish theater/dance/song/music extravaganza (Sangria!) we put on in 2004. Wheee!! We worked through a couple of our favorites from Sangria, and then started the first song from Stabat Mater, which nearly all the Swedes have sung before and knew, but I’ve never even heard of. Which is a bit strange,...

13
Jan
2006

OBITER DICTUMING WITH A VENGEANCE

Topics of Discussion Between Martin & I During Our Evening Walks Yesterday & Today: Greek, Indian and Norse Mythology, Whether Trickster Gods are Good or Bad, Why Some Kids Are Bullies, Which Book to Read Next After Oz3, Whether Watching Harry Potter Would Scare Him Now Since Narnia Didn’t. I’ve always loved Greek mythology. I took several courses in it, along with Art History, during college, and still have several reference books on my shelves. I think my love goes back to a particular book (although it could just be because of Wonder Woman on TV when I was an...

11
Jan
2006

HEART PARTS

Help! Help! I’m being oppressed! By cloud cover. Actually, it’s too thick to merit a thin, just stretched over top, short little name like cover. I’m being oppressed by cloud duvet. By cloud quilt. By cloud down comforter. It sounds very cuddly and warm, doesn’t it? HA! Sweden in January is anything BUT cuddly and warm, I assure you. Had another toss-and-turn, mostly sleepless night last night. (Have since heard, right here on my computer, that several of YOU didn’t sleep well either, what’s up with that? sympathy insomnia?) Anders didn’t sleep well either (and NOT because of any alleged...

10
Dec
2005

ALL IN ALL, A GOOD DAY

When you have children, birthday parties come with the territory, and birthday parties for children usually mean having your house invaded by 10-20 hyperactive, sugar-buzzed maniacs who trash the place, snub the food, and forget to say thank you until prompted by their parents, who look remarkably relaxed, which really should come as no surprise considering THEY’VE just had a 2-hour break from their offspring. muahahaha! Not this year! We took the hyperactive maniacs to Andy’s Playland instead and let them sweat their little hearts out running like lab rats mad through the labyrinth, bouncy castles, trampolines, ball pit, etc....

07
Dec
2005

MED BLOMMOR OCH BLAD

Martin is in bed, tucked up in his red-white-and-blue American quilt, with his new Animal Fact Book propped open upon his knees. He’ll read in bed until he drops off around 10. Karin, after being tucked in, turned off all her lights except her lava lamp and proceeded to “read” a book using a flashlight. She fell asleep within minutes. It’s traditional in Sweden to wake up the birthday kid with presents in bed before getting up to face the day. I find this a bizarre tradition since the last thing I want to be is cheerful at 7 a.m....

13
Sep
2005

MY CHILDREN ARE FREAKS

You’d never guess it by the picture-perfect photos that I usually post (hahaha!) or the ones that Tracey has just posted, but my children are FREAKS OF NATURE. I could get them on Stupid Human Tricks! My sister can turn her arms all the way around and inside out with her palms flat on the table, and I used to be able to vibrate my eyes (now it gives me a monster headache), but I don’t know where my kids got their freaky freakishness. The apple may not fall very far from the tree in most cases, but this time...

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