Tagged: martinbean

15
Nov
2013

ADVENTURES IN MYSKVÄLL

Karin is gone overnight, playing night soccer and sleeping over at a friend’s house. Anders was watching a documentary about a Dutch photographer, so Martin and I decided to watch a movie…but we couldn’t decide what to watch. Everything I suggested he turned up his nose at and vice versa. Then we agreed on The Artist, but after a lengthy search, we couldn’t FIND it. AUGH. Where is my copy of The Artist?? Did I loan it out to someone? No. It’s gotta be here somewhere. I tried again to get him to watch The Fall, which is one of...

09
Nov
2013

FEED ME

This is a list of things made for dinner lately during my ongoing total cooking dry spell: Anders made Lasagna, with proscuitto & parmesan salad Beef patties with sauteed onions and boiled potatoes Tomato soup with garlic bread Sweet & sour chicken with rice Meatloaf Pancakes Meatballs with macaroni Spaghetti with herb, cream and bacon sauce Oven-baked salmon with tomato, garlic & basil cream French onion soup Breaded whitefish with potatoes Oven-baked ham (kassler) with pineapple and rice I’ve made Tuna sandwiches Tuna casserole Martin tells me, when I say I don’t feel like making anything, that it’s my social...

05
Nov
2013

IT’S OVER

Martin and Anders and I all watched the last episode of the last season of The West Wing tonight before he and the kids went off to the gym to work out. I was tucked into the end of the couch (my spot, much like Sheldon’s) where I get good support from the back and side. Martin was snuggled up against my left, hunkered down in the pillows, with a throw over his legs. He came home tired but wouldn’t admit to grumpy. I can’t believe we are done with 7 seasons, 22 episodes each, of my favorite show. I...

24
Oct
2013

ALL DISTRACTIONS WELCOME

I’m all aggravated this week, my shoulders up around my ears and shooting pain down the muscles of my neck. Work is making me crazy or rather certain someones with no real way to resolve the issue. Thankfully tomorrow is Friday and while I’m not exactly GLAD that my family is going away for 3 days without me, I can’t deny the idea of 2 days of absolute peace-and-quiet slugville are quite appealing at the moment. QUITE. Have fun, y’all! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! I read a sad book and it made me cry....

17
Sep
2013

APROPOS OF NOTHING

Usually when I write a journal post, I write it first and THEN title it, but tonight, because I have nothing to say, I started with that. Things Martin and I have looked up as direct result of watching The West Wing, usually WHILE watching The West Wing: 1. When Israel was created 2. What boondoggle means 3. Who was the first and who was the last President to have facial hair (Lincoln/Taft) 4. Whether Hans is really a Swedish last name 5. Where, exactly, the White House is, in Washington D.C. 6. What’s across the street from the White...

13
Jun
2013

ANOTHER (SCHOOL) YEAR GONE

I can’t even look at my children sometimes without boggling. They’re both taller than I am and it’s happened so fast. Martin will be 16 in December. I just asked him how old he was and when he gave me a very sarcastic, “I’m FIFTEEN”, I said, “That can’t be right.” Time flies, yes, it does. They both had their last day of school yesterday and when I said I was probably going to go to Martin’s if they were at the same time, Karin got all upset and said no one loved her. So I was relieved to find...

09
Dec
2012

BIRTHDAY BOY

Friday was Martin’s birthday…his fifteenth. Normally I don’t think of 15 as being any sort of “special” birthday…it’s just another year past 14. It’s not the first time he’s in double digits or the first teen or a legal milestone like 18 or 21. But here in Sweden it’s both the age of consent and the age of criminal responsibility, meaning that 15-year-olds are old enough to have sex and also to be punished for any crimes they might commit, though I’m not sure if the punishments are equal in severity to what a legal adult might receive. Martin called...

09
Nov
2012

LON-DONE

Trying to wrangle 30 people, over half of whom are teenagers, through across over and around a major city is a lot like herding cats. A HERD of cats, in fact. Sometimes I was reminded of a spastic octopus wherein legs and tangents shoot out in all directions and have to be reeled in. At other times, I was reminded of a very lethargic amoeba who was plasticly and constantly stretching out and smooshing back together, as we stretched and smooshed our slow way from block to block. Usually I was either far in the front of the majority, frustratedly...

24
Oct
2012

PARTS & PIECES

I’m down to the last few things to do with the diminished boxes of Lego left on the dining room table, but I have to admit I’ve been a little obsessed fascinated with trying to figure out what sets the pieces we have left might belong to. Several of our pieces are really old, from the 60s and 70s and a few are only inventoried in a couple of esoteric sets that neither Anders nor I remember having had, so we can’t figure out where they came from to begin with. Martin picked up at least 3 or 4 bags...

04
Oct
2012

COMING UP AND GOING DOWN

Anders comes home tonight, and I am SO glad. Single parenting is HARD. I don’t feel like I’ve had a moment to relax or slow down for the entire 2 weeks he’s been gone, but we’ve managed nearly everything and the house hasn’t fallen apart and the kids haven’t died of starvation or anything, so, Yay me! I was at Martin’s school tonight for a parent meeting. The first half was about the trip to London that Martin’s class won. They are going the first week of November, for 3 days, and I get to go, too! I haven’t been...