A Cold Day in Southern California

Since we got here, the locals have been complaining about the unseasonably cold weather. There were a few days where it was just dumping rain, but otherwise I'd have to say the weather was beautiful. A cold day in Southern California is like a beautiful spring day in Skåne, so I certainly can't complain.

We spent three days taking care of business in San Diego (checking on our house, meeting the new tenants, talking to the property manager, mortgage broker, accountant, etc.) The good news is that the value of our house seems to have stabilized at about what we owe on it. The bad news is that we can't refinance it yet. More good news is that our new tenants seem nice, and they seem to appreciate our house and will hopefully take good care of it. More bad news is that besides not paying rent for four months, they broke some lamps, ripped the new vinyl flooring in the family room, stole our spare refrigerator from the garage, and their dog ate our sprinkler system.

We also got to visit with several of our friends, get our hair cut, go shopping (me) and junkyarding (my husband). Back at my mom's house, we've been relaxing, walking, eating, shopping, and finally writing my Christmas cards. I also got to visit with an old friend from music camp that I haven't seen in over 20 years. What a trip! This skinny little guy who was rather the class clown has grown up and become a respected and well-loved hight school music teacher--the kind of person who leaves a positive mark on all the kids he works with.

Now it's time to start packing. It will be interesting to see if we have a net gain or loss of suitcase contents. Early Tuesday morning we leave for Boston. As of last night they had a foot of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. I hope it lasts. It sure would be nice to have a white Christmas.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Cold Front in California

Since we arrived safely in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon, everyone's been talking about the weather and how cold it is. I guess it's a good thing that they pointed it out, because otherwise I might not have noticed. Rain has been predicted, but it's been mostly sunny anyhow. Temperatures have ranged from 6 to 14 C (43 to 57 F), certainly not shorts weather, but very nice compared to Skåne this time of year. This cold and rainy weather is expected to last all week, so I guess I won't be coming home with a tan this year.

We were so exhausted by the time we arrived around 3 PM on Friday that we didn't do much more than eat dinner and go to bed. Going to bed at 6 PM turned out to be a huge mistake since I woke up at 3:30 AM. The worst part is that Lina had already been up since 2 AM.

I managed to sleep until 7 AM today, but I'm fading fast now, and hope I can keep myself away until 8 PM.

The Sky is Falling in San Diego

Yesterday an F/A-18 military jet crashed into a neighborhood in San Diego. I was shocked to read this in the local Swedish paper because it takes more than just tragedy to make the news around here. The angle was of course Top Gun, the movie and the fact that the school exists (or at least existed) in reality. Top Gun was for training the elite naval aviators, and now Miramar is a Marine base, not Navy, so I'm not sure if they're now training elite marine aviators there instead.

Even though I don't live there anymore, I feel like this hits close to home. I always liked the military aircraft, especially the fighter planes. The first house we owned in San Diego was near Miramar, and I enjoyed watching the planes. Even when I was in college, I would make a point of enjoying the planes. I would go to the airshow almost every summer, or at least to someplace in the vicinity where I could have a good vantage point to watch the finale, the Blue Angels. I even liked the movie Top Gun. It was one of the first I bought on video tape, even though I'm not much of a Tom Cruise fan. The planes overhead would make me feel proud and safe. The best of the best were watching over me.

That one of these planes crashed into a neighborhood, killing people and destroying homes, is truly unfortunate. There is quite a bit of open space on Miramar surrounding the runways to provide a buffer for just this reason. What a shame that these planes will no longer evoke a feeling of safety.

Just Two Things

JUST 2 THINGS

You know the drill. Post it on your own blog or e-mail it if you want.

1. Two names you go by:

a. Lani (pronounced with an a like in cat)

b. Lani (pronounced with an a like in car)

2. Two things you're wearing now:

a. long underwear

b. jeans

3. Two things you would want [or have] in a relationship:

a. someone who makes me smile

b. someone to talk to

4. Two of your favorite things to do:

a. eat chocolate (or good food in general)

b. spend time with friends

5. Two things you want very badly at the moment:

a. Sunshine

b. Warm weather

6. Two people who will fill this out

a. Tammy already filled this out

b. Betty?

7. Two things you did yesterday.

a. Made jam

b. Finished insulating the attic over my gallery

8. Two things you ate yesterday

a. homemade pecan butterball cookies

b. pasta with homemade meat sauce

9. Two people you last talked to:

a. my husband

b. my daughter

10. Two things you're doing today

a. laundry

b. chopping firewood

11. Two things you're doing tomorrow

a. laundry

b. packing for our vacation in the US

12. Two favorite holidays:

a. Halloween

b. Christmas

13. Two favorite beverages:

a. chocolate milkshake/malt

b. cream soda

14. Two people no longer alive that you'd like to talk to.

a. my husband’s grandfather

b. Winston Churchill

Lice

My daughter has lice again. I could just scream. Or cry. With so much stuff going on getting ready for Christmas and our vacation, I really don't have time to deal with this. I guess I should try to think positive--since this is the second time, I know what to do, and at least I should be done doing it before we leave for our vacation. Last time was just before our vacation to Norway, so even when we were dead tired, we still had to comb every day.

Even thinking of lice makes my head itch. To be on the safe side, I treated myself and husband too. Part of the routine for ensuring a louse free house is washing or freezing all the bedding, clothing, and stuffed animals that she's come in contact with. I've been doing laundry all weekend, so I'm pretty much caught up now. Does anyone know how long do the stuffed animals need to be in the freezer? Good thing I'm not doing any entertaining here before Christmas, or I'd never be able to cope with a freezer full of toys.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in the US. There is no such holiday here in Sweden, and I miss it. I like the idea of giving thanks and spending a day reflecting on what we are thankful for. After all, we really have so much to be thankful for.

Since today is not a holiday here, I celebrated Thanksgiving last Saturday with our Danish friends from San Diego at their house in Denmark (less than two hours away). Our friends are going through some tough times now and did not have time to prepare a special meal, so I did the shopping and whatever I could do ahead of time. I didn't have all that much time either, and since we were only 4 adults and 2 kids, I kept it relatively simple.

The menu:
a special Swedish smoked sausage
stuffed mushrooms
broccoli casserole (my mom's recipe with artichoke hearts--I substituted cauliflower for some of the broccoli)
stuffing with mushrooms and celery (also my mom's recipe)
herb-roasted turkey breast (recipe from Rachael Ray)
gravy
lingonberry jam (instead of cranberry jelly which we couldn't get here)
baked yams and potatoes
sour-cream apple pie
pecan pie

The turkey breast turned out really well; even my husband liked it, and he usually hates turkey. I cheated and used frozen pie crust, and that was a big mistake. Unlike the stuff I used to get in the US, this was hard, didn't taste good, and it was almost impossible to use since the roll stuck together when it thawed. It didn't matter so much though since we were all so stuffed by the time we got to dessert.

To make the day extra special, there was snow for the "kids" to play in. Snow is pretty uncommon where they live since it's on the coast. We had a few inches here, but there was pretty much none in Malmo and Copenhagen. Luckily, they had just enough for a little sledding.

Farewell Winter Wonderland...

Welcome back Skåne. The snow that we've been enjoying since Thursday is now gone. In just a few hours, the temperature shot up to 43 F/6 C and the snow (only a couple of inches, but enough to cover everything and allow for snow play) melted leaving mud, ice, and fog in its place. The snow had done so much to lighten the landscape. Now that it's gone, it's so much darker. Sunrise is at 8 AM and sunset at 3:30 PM--well, they would be if you could see them behind the clouds. At least I don't have to scrape the car.

Like Screaming at Deaf Ears

On Monday I was invited by the local government's business relations department to speak to a visiting politician on behalf of the network for female small business owners of which I'm the chairperson. We're only about 20 members, so I invited the others to come along, and two of them did. So along with a kinesiologist and an internet specialist I met with a city councilman and a member of parliament. I was disappointed to find out that the MP did not represent this area; she was just here to visit a power plant and make a speech on the behalf of her party (part of the somewhat conservative coalition, but on the liberal side). There are 7 major political parties in Sweden, 4 on the right and 3 on the left, though by American standards the most conservative would be liberal democrats. While this may seem confusing, the differences between parties are so slight that it is essentially a two party system at the national level and a free-for-all at the local level.

I came with three main points that I wanted to make. The first was the proposed increase in the gas tax that her party was pushing for. Gas is already about $6 per gallon and most of it is taxes. Her party's argument was that ethanol is better for the environment than gasoline, and since the market for ethanol has driven the price up so that it is now higher than gasoline, an additional tax on fossil fuels is needed to make ethanol a more attractive alternative. Sure, I'm all for reducing emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, but ethanol only works in certain new flexi-fuel cars, and there's some debate if it's really that much better for the environment when you consider what it takes to produce it. Since public transportation really is not an alternative in rural areas, the people that are most impacted by the price of gas are women/families with small children in rural areas. I thought I made a good argument, and she saw my point, but her response was that her party (which supposedly is the one that represents farmers and small businesses) was driving this tax increase because it is politically correct and nothing else matters.

A related point that I made was the need to maintain the roads in rural areas. She promptly agreed that this was necessary but could not defend why all the budget was being spent relieving congestion in a few big cities and putting up center barriers on a few major arteries that had been working pretty well before. These barriers are used to make 2 + 1 roads which means that instead of being able to pass into oncoming traffic, it is now one lane in each direction with alternating passing lanes. This sounds pretty good in theory, but out here, you spend a lot of time stuck behind a tractor, or a harvester, or a load of beets going only a fraction of the speed limit. This creates long lines of traffic which then drive like maniacs to try to get by the obstacle during the short passing sections. Also, if there is an accident, all traffic is stopped in that direction and it is very difficult for emergency vehicles to get through. But I digress. Instead of maintaining the smaller roads, the department of transportation has been lowering the speed limits on them. This just teaches the locals to ignore the speed limits. This might not sound like that big a deal for a Californian, but Swedes are generally a very law-abiding folk and I think the little things like driving the speed limit are a part of their culture that is in danger. I'm digressing again. Just fix the damn roads! It's better for everyone (locals and tourists), good for the economy (more tourism and more spending money for people who don't have to pay so much in car repairs and fuel), and good for the environment (better fuel economy).

The third thing I wanted to mention was the poor mobile phone coverage out here. Like most small business people, I use my mobile phone for my business. What's not so good for business is that the first thing I have to say to people who call is that I need to call them back from my regular phone before we lose reception. In general, I have only 3 minutes to talk on my mobile before the call is dropped. My colleague the internet specialist has the same problem, and it's unfortunately not uncommon. Apparently the problem has to do with how far apart the cell phone towers are placed. Most were built for GSM, but now it's 3G that everyone is using, and they need the senders to be a little closer together. But when the government renewed the licenses, there was no requirement for extra senders to make sure that the service still worked. What's really scary is that the next generation of phones (4G) requires contact with two senders at the same time.

My colleagues backed me up and also had their own issues to discuss. Since the MP was interested in entrepreneurship among women, we tried to put everything in that context. Both she and the local politician took a lot of notes, and I hope that some of what we said will be of some use, but I'm not holding my breath.

Driving Test

On Wednesday my daughter's school had a field trip to the recycling center, and they needed parents to help drive the kids there (they took the bus home). I turned out to be one of about 15 drivers. What made this interesting was that it had rained the evening before (actually more like the whole week before), then it cleared up and everything froze. My car was encased in about a quarter inch of ice and the doors were frozen closed. I was running late by the time I managed to get into the car and get enough of the ice off that I could see to drive, but as soon as I got out to the paved road, I realized that I wouldn’t make up any time driving.

I was the last of the drivers to get to the school, but they were still waiting for a couple of students. There was black ice everywhere, and even walking in the parking lot was nearly impossible. Amazingly, winter tires make it possible to drive even when it’s that slick. Obviously, I wouldn’t want to risk crashing with my daughter in the car, but I was extra careful with somebody else’s kid in the car too. So then I end up in the middle of the caravan that was going a bit faster than I was comfortable with. Luckily I caught up at a stop sign, and then the whole group got stuck behind a tractor with a load of beets, so speed was no longer an issue. Still, I felt like I was doing a driving test the whole time because the only thing worse than crashing with somebody else’s kid in your car would be causing a chain reaction crash involving the whole school. I’m relieved that’s over.

Since then, we’ve had gale force winds, rain, sleet, hail, and now snow. Fun, fun!

Thoughts on the Election

Even here, in the Swedish equivalent of hillbilly hell, we couldn't escape news of the election. I lay low as far as my American citizenship is concerned, so there was no flag waving, celebrating, or pre-election preaching on my part. But now that it's finally over, several of my friends have asked me what I think.

I am somewhat relieved that Obama won, though not nearly as relieved as when McCain locked the Republican nomination. That was the high point for me, since I considered McCain to be the least scary of the Republicans. That meant that either way, things were destined for a significant improvement. I feel that McCain shot himself in the foot with his choice of vice-presidential candidate because that woman is really scary! I understand that it was necessary for a token female to balance the ticket, but honestly, was she really the best he could find? It was such a flashback to Arnold Vinick being driven to the right as a last ditch attempt to secure the Republican vote after a crisis shook the country.

While I'm on the subject of the West Wing, why is it that Hollywood screenwriters can create more likable politicians, with better messages and better speeches, than real life political operatives and writers? Sometimes reality sucks.

Now what really gets to me about the election was that Californians could vote to ban gay marriage. I like to think of my fellow Californians as open-minded people, but apparently there are plenty who are not. What a shame.

P.S. A friend of mine drew this, and I thought it was just too cute not to share.

Another busy week

Last weekend we started another big project. We decided to insulate the attic of the little barn. This is the building that I usually use for my photography exhibit during the local Easter art show. The rest of the year it's handy for storage or for warm weather entertaining. Last Easter we had a snowstorm, and it was miserably cold out there. We had a heavy duty portable heater, but it was noisy and sadly insufficient, so insulation is definitely a good idea. Anyway, this project turned out to be more than we anticipated as soon as we gained access to the attic. We hadn’t been up there in years—not since we through down and disposed of all the old hay that was up there—or so we thought. There was still quite a bit of old hay, remnants of old furniture, pieces of bicycles, and several piles of old doors and windows. For added excitement, the windows were on top of the hay, and several of the windows were broken.

So, last weekend was spent removing the crap from the attic of the little barn. I learned that a pitchfork really is the best tool for handling hay. I discovered that the dust from old hay is so irritating to the skin that it felt like having a sunburn and the chicken pox at the same time. I’m very thankful that they don’t have Hanta virus here in Sweden, because the hay was full of rodent droppings, and I couldn’t help but think about the aerosolized dust from dried mouse urine that I was breathing as I pitchforked, then swept, then vacuumed.

The weird thing was how traumatized the mice were that their hay homes were disappearing. At first, I'd see them scurrying away as I threw a pitchfork of hay out the door. By the end of the day, they were just kind of walking around in circles in shock. I had to pick them up and move them out of the way so I didn't step on them!

After all that, I was glad to be able to relax at my computer with my work on Monday. Both Tuesday and Thursday I attended courses related to the network for female small business owners that I’m involved with. The content of Tuesday’s class was quite dull, but the discussions that we had both during the class and the hour-long drive there and back made it well worth while. Thursday’s class was something that I actually wanted to take on communication. While I’ve long since been forced to overcome my fear of public speaking, I thought this would be worthwhile to learn how to speak like a Swede. (As I learned years ago, I could not drive like a Californian to get my Swedish driver’s license. I succeeded only after a few lessons at a local driving school to get the attitude right.) So I found it rather illuminating to find out how Swedes perceived what I said.

Yesterday I had a booth at a wedding expo. This was my third time at this show, so I wasn’t particularly nervous. In fact, I’ve come to like these shows. Attendance was about the same as last year, and I feel I had a good response from the people I talked with. There were a lot of photographers there, and I think some people stayed away thinking, “Oh no, not another photographer,” but there’s not much I can do about that. The booth next to me rented chocolate fountains, so I spent the day watching people sample marshmallows dipped in white chocolate. That was a bit rough, but I think I did well and only ate two. There were also boxes of chocolates all over the place, including at the end of my own table. That was a bit harder to resist, but I think I did okay to only eat five over an 8 hour period.

Today it was back to work on the attic of the little barn—vacuuming, laying down tar paper, and fitting together giant bricks of used insulation. This was less strenuous than last weekend, but just as tough on the skin. We used up the insulation that we salvaged from the big barn, and that was about enough to cover about 2/3 of the little barn, so there’s still a little left to do next weekend.

Today was also Father’s Day here. Our daughter had been at her grandmother’s house for the weekend, but my husband went to get her this afternoon and rushed home for dinner. While he was gone, I made an apple cake and my “Chinese burritos.” We’d invited some friends over, but there was a miscommunication, and they couldn’t make it. Oh well. Dinner was good anyhow.

Random Questions

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." Joseph Campbell

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your Friends.

Rather than forwarding this on to my friends, I’ve decided to post this on my blog. I would like to encourage my friends with blogs to do the same.

1. What time did you get up this morning?

It’s Saturday. My daughter let me sleep until 7:20 when she woke me up to point out that there were deer in the field.

2. Diamonds or pearls?

It depends on the occasion, but in general I’m pretty low maintenance when it comes to jewelry.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?

It’s been so long that I have to strain my brain to remember. I think it was Curious George with my daughter, fall 2006 in San Diego.

4. What is your favorite TV show?

Probably The West Wing, though Ally McBeal, MASH, and ER are also favorites.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?

Cereal with milk. On weekends often oatmeal, cream of wheat, or waffles.

6. What is your middle name?

Patricia

7. What food do you dislike?

Unfortunately, the list is pretty long. It includes anything pickled (including herring), organs, tentacles, feet, things that are really slimy, and most fresh fruit.

8. What is your favorite CD at moment?

I have several: Mika, Life in Cartoon Motion; The Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way; Anastacia, Pieces of a Dream; Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Greatest Hits; Beethoven Symphonies 5 & 7.

9. What kind of car do you drive?

1998 BMW 3 series station wagon

10. Favorite sandwich?

Salami and Brie on a baguette

11. What characteristic do you despise?

Hypocrisy

12. Favorite item of clothing?

The white leather jacket I bought in Montreal.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?

Again, the list is long: Australia, New Zealand, Shanghai, Colorado, Alaska, Iceland, South Africa, Patagonia. Places I’d like to go back to: Utah, Hawaii, Norway, Berlin.

14. Favorite brand of clothing?

Whatever’s a bargain.

15. Where would you retire to?

Perhaps California?

16. What was your most memorable meal?

My friend Bosse invited us over to his place and served us moose. Moose is generally very good, but this was absolutely fantastic. I’ve never had meat so good.

17. Favorite sports to watch?

I hardly get the time to watch sports anymore, but I do enjoy a little synchronized swimming, gymnastics, and ice skating. I used to watch tennis and American football.

18. What is your favorite holiday or special occasion?

Halloween

19. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Baking Christmas cookies.

20. When is your birthday?

January 18, 1969

21. Are you a morning person or a night person?

Neither. I like to sleep.

22. What is your shoe size?

8 ½

23. Pets?

2 black cats

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us?

I’ll be going to Hong Kong and China in February.

25. What did you want to be when you were little?

A nuclear physicist.

26. How are you today?

Fine, but a bit chilly.

27. What is your favorite candy?

Dark chocolate

28. What is your favorite flower?

Tulips

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?

December 12, leaving for vacation in California.

30. What is your favorite pastime?

Photography

31. What are you listening to right now?

My cat purring on my lap.

32. What was the last thing you ate?

Cream of wheat for breakfast.

33. Do you wish on stars

no

34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?

teal

35. How is the weather right now?

Cloudy and cold (37 F/3 C); luckily it’s not rainy or windy.

36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today?

It’s not every day that I talk on the phone at all, but today I did arrange a play date for my daughter.

37. Favorite soft drink?

Cream soda

38. Favorite restaurant?

Here in Sweden there’s not so much to choose from, but Sjöbo Gästis is pretty good. In San Diego, Lorna’s (Italian), Carino’s (pizza), Emerald (dim sum). Chains: Outback Steakhouse, Cheesecake Factory, Soupplantation.

39. Real hair color?

What you see is what you get: dark brown.

40. What was your favorite toy as a child?

Legos

41. Summer or winter?

Summer in Sweden, Winter in California.

42. Hugs or kisses?

Both

43. Chocolate or Vanilla?

Chocolate!

44. Coffee or tea?

Tea

45. Do you want your friends to email you back?

Sure

46. When was the last time you cried?

I don’t remember exactly, but probably within the past few days watching something on TV. It doesn’t take much.

47. What is under your bed?

My keyboard, and probably a fair amount of dust.

48. What did you do last night?

Watched an episode of Bones on TV and updated my blog.

49. What are you afraid of?

I have an irrational fear of dinosaurs.

50. Salty or sweet?

both

51. How many keys on your key ring?

2 (1 car, 1 house), no point in carrying the rest of them.

52. How many years at your current job?

2 years doing wedding and special occasion photography.

53. Favorite day of the week?

I don’t really have one since I really like my work.

54. How many places have you lived?

Counting each area only once: Fountain Valley (CA), Zurich (Switzerland), Taitzung (Taiwan), San Diego (CA), Lövestad (Sweden) = 5

55. Do you make friends easily?

Not really.

Happy Halloween

I've been really busy the past week since photographing a wedding last Saturday, but here are some quick updates.

The weather for the wedding was fantastic! It was one of those sunny, crisp and cold fall days that just make the colors pop, with just enough clouds that we weren't squinting into the sun the whole time. The bride was a bit of a stress case and refused to put on a sweater or shawl for fear of wrinkling the dress, so there were a lot of pictures where she looked like she was freezing, but there were also plenty of good pictures too.

The next day, the weather was absolutely miserable with gale force wind and dumping rain. All week the weather has alternated between quite nice and downright awful with temperatures in the 40s F/4 to 8 C. It culminated yesterday when the drizzle went over to pelting cold wind-driven rain, to sleet, and eventually to snow! It took me totally by surprise. It was a wet snow with huge flakes (about an inch/2 cm in diameter) that melted quickly. After a couple hours, the snow started to stick to the ground, and it remained for several hours.


Last week my daughter totally shocked me by asking how babies are made. She's only 6! I thought I'd have a couple more years to think up an age-appropriate answer. I managed to dodge it this time, but I'm sure she'll ask again soon. Any advice?

For my friends and family on Flickr, I've added some pictures of my daughter dressed for a Halloween party. I love Halloween. In the states, it used to be my favorite holiday, and I went trick-or-treating even as an adult. I think the only year that I missed was when I was 12 and "too old" for that type of thing. Halloween is catching on slowly in Sweden now, and my daughter was invited to a couple of parties. So far it's mostly just a kid thing here, but I hope to eventually help spread the tradition.

This year my daughter and I carved pumpkins together with some friends. This was the first year that I let her carve herself, and she did just fine. This is a picture of our creations.

Happy Halloween!

Fall has fallen

Fall has fallen here in Skåne, and for the most part, the fall color just flew right by. As usual, it's too wet and windy here to get the really spectacular fall colors like in New England, but I did have the good fortune of being able to get out and take some pictures on the days that were nice.

Some of the pictures were taken while I was scouting locations for wedding portraits, others were scenes that caught my eye as I was driving by. (I'll be doing a wedding on Saturday, so let's all keep our fingers crossed forSome of these pictures are from locations that I was scouting as potential sites for wedding good weather.)

More Pictures

For those of you who are my "friends" or "family" on Flickr, I have posted more pictures from Montreal that you might want to see. If you'd like to be added as my contact on Flickr, or if you'd like me to send you a guest pass so that you can see the pictures without joining, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.

Nobel Prize in Medicine

Three people shared this year's Nobel Prize in medicine. One of them was Harald zur Hausen for the discovery of human papilloma virus (HPV) which causes cervical cancer. I remember studying about this in my virology class, and I round it absolutely fascinating that a virus could cause cancer. This has even lead to a vaccine (rather controversial unfortunately thanks to the abstinence only crowd), but I'm hoping it will soon be commonplace. Congratulations to him and all the many, many people who undoubtedly helped him with this.

Congratulations also to Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi (and their teams) who also shared the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Now not to in any way diminish their accomplishment, but there's a third person who is also deserving of this recognition: Robert Gallo. Back in 1985 Gallo in the US and Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi in France figured out HIV separately but at the same time. In fact, Gallo probably got more publicity for this at the time, and their professional rivalry turned ugly. However, in 1987 they agreed to bury the hatchet and share the credit. I know it's a long and complicated story, and I'm in no position to judge. However, if the rivals in question can agree to share, I think it's particularly bad form for the Nobel Prize committee to acknowledge two but not the third, thus promoting rivalry instead of cooperation. It makes me lose respect for the Nobel committee and the prize as a whole, and that's a shame. For me, the Nobel Prize in Medicine would be the pinnacle of achievement--better than an Olympic gold medal, or an Oscar, or a Pulitzer prize.


If you'd like to know more about the discovery of HIV, I highly recommend the movie And The Band Played On which, while biased, is both informative and entertaining. As an extra added bonus, it show biomedical researchers doing more than pipetting.

While I'm on the subject, I'd like to give an extra "you go girl!" to Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, since only 4.2% of the people who have won a Nobel Prize in Medicine are women. If you were to look around research labs today, women are well represented, yet it's still the men who get the credit. I hope that that is changing.

New Dollar Bill

The horror

I was at the grocery store yesterday, and much to my horror, there was Christmas stuff for sale already. I really like that in the US there are two major holidays before Christmas to keep things from getting out of hand. October is usually dedicated to Halloween which is then celebrated on the 31st. In Sweden it seems to be the first Saturday in November, though I'm not quite clear on that (actually I think that's the feeling that a lot of people share). Anyway, Halloween keeps most of the marketing away from Christmas at least through October.

Then the fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving, and while all too many stores start with their holiday decorating and promotions earlier, it's not until after Thanksgiving that the Christmas season begins for real. A lot of stores open at 6 AM for the Friday after Thanksgiving, also known as the busiest shopping day of the year. There are tons of sales, but I've never found it worth braving the crowds.

I'm not even close to ready for the Christmas season yet. I'm not even ready for Halloween. In fact, I'm still hoping I'll wake up one morning and discover that it's still summer.

Montreal Day 10

For our last day in Montreal, we slept in, went out for a leisurely breakfast, then returned to the hotel to pack. We had to check out by 1 PM, but we didn’t need to leave for the airport until 5, so we stashed out bags and went for a walk. The guys were not interested in going to Biodome to see the Madagascar exhibit and lemurs, and since it wasn’t raining, I went with them.

A lot of walking, a lot of window shopping, some photos, and eventually a mid-afternoon meal. The guys were in the mood for pizza, and we found a rather classy looking pizza place with a very interesting menu. I had a Mexican chicken wrap, and it was great.

With nothing much better to do, we decided to head off to the airport a little early and to try to get better seats. At the airport, everyone was forced to use the automated check in machines. Several of the machines were not working properly, and quite a few people were getting very frustrated. There was nobody around to help until someone started yelling (even then, the guy didn’t actually help. It took me three tries, but I did get it to work eventually. I had reserved a window seat, but I was not surprised to find that they’d put me in the center seat of the center section. If there’s turbulence, I need to be able to look out the window or I’ll get sick. Luckily, I was able to change to the seat next to my husband, only one from the window.

The flight was uneventful. It was a bit late taking off because they had to fish off the bags of a no-show, but we were able to make up much of the time by the time we got to Frankfurt. We had more than enough time to hang out in Frankfurt, but we were a bit frustrated by the lack of seating. There was no seating that was not dedicated to one of the restaurants. We eventually found a McDonalds and McCafe with some open tables, so we ordered a little and sat there.

We were good and tired by the time we got home, but it was a good kind of tired after a fantastic trip.

Montreal Day 9

The guys wanted to go to Walmart, so I went back to the mall area. Since the weather was still OK (relatively warm and not raining), on the way, I stopped in China Town and at the Performing Arts Center where they were promoting the “Days of Culture” which was going on all over the Quebec province. There were local happenings in every neighborhood it seemed, but as far as I could tell, there were mostly kids stuff or lectures (in French) near where we were. There was a photography exhibit about Cancer, and I looked at a few very well done and touching black and white photos, I found it too depressing. Besides, there was still shopping to be done. I’m normally not much of a shopper, but now I’d gotten a taste of it, and I didn’t want to give up while there was still room in my suitcase.

As soon as I got oriented at my mall of destination, I got a message from the guys who were ready to meet for lunch. The pickings were slim at this mall, so it was back on the subway to meet them at the mall with the giant food court. I chose a taco salad. The guys had a little shopping to do, so we split up agreeing to meet in an hour. There were a few places in this mall that I wanted to investigate more thoroughly, and one hour was hardly enough, so I had to prioritize.

Replacing my thoroughly warn out Easy Spirit walking shoes was a high priority that I hadn’t had much luck with all week. I had gotten a great deal on these shoes as a discontinued model four years ago, and I hadn’t found anything as comfortable for a reasonable price since. But now my feet hurt and my shoes had holes in them, so it was time to stop bargain hunting. I found a pair of Rockports that were very comfortable but $130. Ouch. Was I willing to spend that much on a pair of shoes? I asked the guy to hold them for me, and I kept looking.

The guys were intrigued by the underground city and wanted to follow the tunnels to other shopping centers. So we walked, and walked, about 4 km I estimate. There were a couple of shopping centers and a few restaurants, but not much of interest. The most amazing thing was that we could walk that far, from building to building, without ever stepping outdoors. These tunnels also connect up to train and subway stations, thus connecting much of the city. That must be really handy when the weather’s bad.

We eventually ended up at the mall where I’d started earlier. We had snack there. I had a cylindrical piece of chocolate mouse pastry, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the chocolate mouse cake I’d had previously or the pastries from my favorite shop. I really wanted to do more shopping, so I stayed at the mall while the guys continued their walking tour of tunnels and shops (though no longer avoiding the outdoors). Before I knew it, I noticed shops closing up. Much to my surprise, not only this smallish mall but all malls closed at 5 PM on Saturday. I ran like crazy to the subway back to the other mall where my expensive shoes were waiting. I knocked on the closed door to the shop, and a salesclerk just shook his head at me. I kept knocking, and the guy who had helped me let me in and sold me the shoes.

Back to the hotel then out to dinner with the guys. We went back to the pub in the Latin Quarter where I had cheese fondue. Yum! One of the guys also had fondue and tried to order a refill of cheese. The waitress was baffled because nobody had ever done that before. After discussion with the cook, he was informed that they couldn’t do that. If he wanted more, he’d have to order the whole meal again. As far as I was concerned, that left the perfect excuse for dessert.

As part of the culture days, I’d seen a flyer for some sort of music and light show at the waterfront with the theme of Fire. Our subway passes were good for the whole day, so that halved the walk to Old Montreal and made the idea more appealing to our rather tired feet. This time I had my camera with me, so I was pleased to get some pictures of the beautifully lit buildings. The “music” was of the experimental sort and often rather painful to listen to. I had a strange urge to yip and howl like a coyote. The music was accompanied by some paddleboats in formation, flares, and a ring of fire on the river. In tents nearby were a glassblower and a blacksmith.