Tagged: martinbean

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...

12
Aug
2023

TO REGARD THE PEA IS TO ENVY THE PEA.*

Thursday was my birthday and I took both it and Friday off from work, which was really nice. Vacation feels very long ago, despite my semi-long weekend of travel to see Becky and London and now this long weekend to celebrate my birthday. The kids and I went out to dinner on Wednesday night, in Malmö, though we weren’t super impressed with our meal, unfortunately. It was still nice to hang out with the kids, and going to Dolce Sicilia afterwards for gelato made up for it. On Thursday morning, I got up early, and Karin got up with me...

11
Feb
2023

MERRY CRATESMAS!

The crate arrived yesterday! It was a big event here, but I haven’t written all that much about it. We ordered a crate kit from UPakWeShip, and doing so was inspired by a conversation I had with Annelott about getting stuff for Martin, and stuff from my mom’s to me, over here. I had been thinking that shipping household goods would be so crazy expensive that I hadn’t even looked into it, but she said, it can’t be that bad…people and businesses ship stuff all the time. I had extra savings due to the stimulus checks that we got from...

13
Dec
2022

SOME SHORT STUFF AND THEN COMPLETE IDIOCY

My hands are freezing whenever I’m at home because we turned the heat down several degrees. It’s been well below zero every day this past week, so my hands are even colder than usual. We have the tree half-decorated. All the bigger stuff went on last night. Tonight, when Martin gets home we’ll do the rest (all the small stuff). I can’t wait for 2 weeks of vacation. Or rather, just 2 weeks of NOT WORKING. Everyone is on the edge of burnout, and I really hope that when I go back to work the first week of January, that...

31
Oct
2022

HALLOWEENIES

It was either a very quiet year for trick-or-treating, or I bought too much candy. 😛 It’s super foggy out tonight, and I know lots of families were very excited about Halloween this year, judging by the chatter on the village FB group. We’ve had lots of kids, actually, but it doesn’t feel like we had THAT many, if you know what I mean. They’re still trickling in as I write this, and maybe I feel like it wasn’t so many because Karin took turns with me answering the door and handing out candy. I guess I’ll be bringing lots...

13
Jan
2022

START ART!

I just thought of something I’d like to do for a goal for 2022, and since it’s already mid-January, I’d better get started! I think I’d like to try doing art at least once a month. I haven’t done anything since the early days of this blog in the early 2000s with the collage book I started then. I used to be so crafty and artistic. Now I just LOOK at other artists’ work on Instagram instead of creating my own. Heck, even my mom paints and she’s in her 80s, so what’s my excuse?? It’s an excellent idea for...

28
Dec
2021

EASE ON DOWN THE ROAD

One of my goals for 2021 was to walk a 5K every month in addition to the nearly daily walking I was already doing. My usual routes are either a double-helix around the neighborhood (approx. 1 kilometer), or a 1.5K zigzagging up the neighborhood and then over and around and down below the school, or a 2.5K which goes around the school, over into the village and all the way down the goats and back. It’s harder to keep up the commitment in the winter when the roads are icy, and they stay icy in our neighborhood for a really...

February 2026
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728

Archives