Tagged: obiterphotos

08
Sep
2006

SCOOP: SALMON SOOTHING FOR SORE SWALLOWERS

Both Martin and Karin complained of sore and ticklish throats this week and Karin went through an entire bag and a half of orange and cherry-flavored cough drops…guess who’s got it now? *cough* So, it’s no wonder I was dragging today, pulling myself one step at a time through work towards quitting time and the Tylenol cold medicine calling me from the bathroom cabinet at home. One of the interns at work graduated today and she cooked lunch for a bunch of us. It was one of the most interesting taste-combination meals I’ve ever had, in a good way: salmon...

04
Aug
2006

TAKE A BOW WOW!

Meet our houseguest! This is Chimay (pronounced “shim-ay”) who was named after a Belgian beer. He’s the sweetest, calmest, prettiest cocker spaniel I have ever met, and he’s all ours until next Wednesday! Mikael and Lene dropped him off this evening after giving us a crash course in Having a Dog 101 (including the fine art of picking up dog poo in a little black bag without having to come in actual contact with it). He was a bit confused when his humans and his brother Eddie shut the door in his face and left him here, but he seems...

24
Jul
2006

WE DO NOT REMEMBER DAYS, WE REMEMBER MOMENTS

Every trip leaves tracks in the mind, memories that slowly fray around the edges. I was surprised that the people of Scotland were, on the whole, so short. I was amused that every time I heard a mother call or reprimand a child, his name was inevitably Alastair or Conor. I was more apprehensive about riding in vehicles on the “wrong” side of the road than I thought I would be; using my own neck muscles and mindpower to keep the buses from tipping off the edges of cliffs and from whamming into oncoming traffic that was on the wrong...

02
Jul
2006

DON’T WISH IT AWAY, DON’T LOOK AT IT LIKE IT’S FOREVER

For the most part, penultimate summer lives only in our memories, a childhood haze of endless sunny days with no school spent poolside, our limbs sealy and brown, slick with water. Mother’s voice, calling distant, while the lightning bugs gather and flash and the streetlamps buzz and strengthen as we skip along the hedgerow, with the sun still lighting our way home despite the hour. 3 days and counting: Perfect summer in Sweden. This is when the tourist board rushes out to photograph the countryside, sunlight and warmth lighting up the red wooden houses and blue and gold crossed flags...

21
Jun
2006

ZEIG MIR DIE ZÄHNE!*

While we were in Germany, we did lots of things (despite the weather). We toured a castle and we went to playplaces and we played card games and we attended a wedding and we hung out and we went to the theater and we ate lots of pork products and we went to Legoland. And while we were there, we JUMPED THE SHARK! Our kids, and my sister’s kids Rachel and Bryce, and then even Anders tried to get in on the action…

23
Apr
2006

WHERE I WAS WHEN I WASN’T WITH YOU

On Thursday night we drove 4.5 hours north to Sotens Fiskeby, a little sommarstuga village on the rocky western coast of Sweden. The coltsfoot are blooming, faking me out with their dandelion-like faces, and all the willows, large and small, are full of pussywillows. There were maybe a handful of other people there, since it is well before the season starts and it was very quiet in the village. We explored the next morning and climbed the rocks behind the cottage up to the highest point on the island. We went to Nordens Ark, a lovely and wonderful zoo that...

15
Apr
2006

HOPPING DOWN THE BUNNY TRAIL

Spring hasn’t quite sprung, as the grass isn’t riz, but it’s surely on its way! See the egg in the 2nd picture? That’s EXACTLY what color the sky was today. Friends for dinner cancelled due to a sick child (theirs), so we took a leisurely day to enjoy the sunshine. The whole neighborhood seemed to ring like a bell with the shouts and laughter of children wearing fleece instead of heavy winter jackets and the sun was warm and welcoming. We went up to the nursery and brought home a flat of pansies, now proudly planted in the front-yard pots....

18
Mar
2006

IF THE SUN DON’T KNOW, AIN’T NOBODY KNOWS

How do you live in a head that’s divided? I used to know who I was, I used to step firmly, moving forward, arms swinging freely. There might have been obstacles in my path but they were of no moment. I passed them easily, dodging blithely, skipping past, taking them in stride. That person that I was, she’s still there somewhere inside, but she stumbles now, hands forward to feel the way, patting each obstacle thoroughly, wondering if the best way past is over or under or around. I stand with empty hands, with empty mind. Everything has already been...

January 2026
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