I survived Christmas 2009, part 2

On the 24th, we loaded up the Burb and drove to our friends' house in Denmark about 2 hours away. A few minutes after having dropped the cats of at the kennel, I was hit by a sense of peace. I realized that there was nothing else that could be done. For the next two days, my to-do list was on hold. Sure, I'd help out at my friend's house, but it was a relief to suddenly be going with the flow.

The snow made for a beautiful drive. Much to our surprise, road conditions were perfect, and there was no traffic. We actually showed up early. For lunch, we had warm rice porridge. Yum! After lunch, we went for a walk and the kids did some sledding. We were very lucky that there was still enough snow left for that. There was a big hill with a whole lot of kids sledding. Unfortunately our kids were determined to take the hill from the top, and they both wiped out big time and arrived home in tears. The traditional Donald Duck Christmas Special (apparently an equally important tradition both in Denmark and Sweden) and some caramel corn quickly raised their spirits again.

The main course for dinner was duck. We also had my red cabbage, gravy, boiled potatoes, caramelized potatoes (yum!), prunes and apples cooked inside the duck, and potato chips (yes, that's part of the traditional Danish Christmas meal). We had rice pudding with cherry sauce for dessert. This has chopped almonds in it, along with one whole almond, and the person who finds the whole almond gets a prize. After the food, we danced (walked really) and sang (hummed at best for those of us who don't know the Danish Christmas songs) around the Christmas tree. Then everyone opens their presents. After the frenzy, just in case anyone's even remotely hungry, it was time for cookies and candy with coffee or tea. I brought banana bread, caramel corn, pecan butterballs, spritz cookies, peppermint meringues, and peanut butter buckeyes. They supplemented with licorice and marzipan/nougat candies.

On the 25th, we took it easy, sat around, and enjoyed each others' company. It rained, and the snow melted. In the evening we made an Indian lamb dish which was a nice break from all the Christmas food, then we drove home.

On the 26th, we finally decorated our Christmas tree. Our daughter picked it out. I think it was wider than it was tall (exactly the opposite of what I would have chosen for our crowded living room), but it turned out nicely anyhow. My husband's mother was supposed to come for Christmas dinner on the 26th and spend the night, but there was some misunderstanding having to do with a dog she was watching that has a problem with cats, so she came for a shorter visit on the 27th instead.

The 27th was also the day I hosted the annual White Elephant Gift Exchange for the neighborhood, so that was a really busy day. It turned out that a lot of the neighbors had other plans, so we weren't so many guests, but it was a lot of fun anyhow. When the guests left, we opened presents again even though my MIL had forgotten to bring her presents. We'd saved some presents for our daughter to open, and we didn't think it was fair to make her wait any longer.

For dinner I prepared a traditional Swedish Christmas dinner (Julbord) which featured ham, meatballs, small sausages, two kinds of pickled herring, smoked salmon, three kinds of breads, three kinds of cheeses, o'gratin potatoes (traditionally it would be boiled potatoes, but I think that's just too boring), and red cabbage. I felt that more veggies were needed, so I also served creamed spinach and fresh cherry tomatoes. Since it was getting late, and we'd already gorged ourselves with cookies and candy all afternoon, we decided to skip dessert.

MIL invited our daughter to go home with her, so we're kid-free for a few days until New Year's Eve.

I survived Christmas 2009, part 1

It's finally time to take a deep breath and let life return to normal. Sort of. I'm in Christmas recovery mode now. After a month of hectic activity and preparations, it's over. We're unexpectedly kid free for a couple of days, so we've spent the time painting the inside of the barn/new garage.

In Sweden, the Christmas season starts with the first of Advent, which this year was the last Sunday in November. That's when the Christmas decorations are put up, and I actually did this on schedule. The first weekend in December, I was in Berlin (more on that later). From the moment I got home, I felt I was playing catch up, both with work and with all the Christmas stuff: cards to write and mail, presents to order, packages to send, cookies to bake, presents to wrap, etc. Then there's all the kid stuff too: cards to make, gingerbread house to assemble, Lucia concert at school, the Lucia/Christmas concert at the church, the violin concert with the music school, and finally the last-day-of-school show (canceled due to snow). That's right, snow! We got plenty of it, and we even had a white Christmas.

We had a real snowstorm on the 18th with over a foot of snow and plenty of wind to blow it into drifts. My husband left for work and made it only about 50 meters before getting stuck in a drift that was deeper than the car. Shortly thereafter, our neighbor came to plow us out and helped pull the car back onto the road. He decided to work from home, but our daughter really wanted to make it to the last-day-of-school show and party, so he drove her to school in the Suburban. Only 2 teachers and about 5 kids had made it to school, so they sent everyone home.

The snow was about two feet deep by the time the snow let up on Saturday. We walked to a party at a neighbor's house, and it was absolutely magical. It felt like walking through a Christmas card. It snowed on and off for the next few days, but it also got warmer, so the snow compacted, and it never got any deeper. On the 23d, it started to thaw. My husband likes to wait until the 23d to do the tree. By then, I was too busy cooking, so he took our daughter to pick out a tree. There were only 4 trees left at the lot, so she got to pick one out, and we got a great deal on it. However, we had so much to do that we decided to wait with bringing the tree in and decorating it.

I just couldn't help myself

I've been totally swamped since I got back from Berlin, but I have tons of pictures and every intention of blogging about it. Today I took a break from everything else I have to do to take some pictures. The sun came out, and with the snow it was so pretty. I just couldn't resist. So here are some pictures. (If you notice the low angle of the sun, that's how it is this far north. These pictures were taken at noon!)

It's the first real snow of the season which started yesterday after several days of teasing with a powered sugar dusting then wet stuff that melted nearly as fast as it fell. I love the snow, and needless to say, my daughter does too. This morning I was reminded about the down side of snow. It took me about 20 minutes to excavate and break into my car. I eventually got the passenger side door opened, and Lina and I climbed in from there. She had to climb again to get out when we got to school. I'd estimate we have about 6 inches of snow, but it's been blowing around, so some areas are nearly bare, and others are a couple of feet deep. You need to keep your speed up to drive through the drifts, but it results in a very satisfying cloud of snow!

Christmas is in the air

December began with the return of the cold weather. The temperature dropped literally overnight from the 40's (6-9 C) down to freezing. The days are still cloudy, but the nights have been clear and COLD. Today it really felt like it was going to snow. The Christmas decorations add to the mood.

Most importantly, I'm excited about going to Berlin. Tonight I leave for Denmark where I'll spend the night at my friend's house, then very early tomorrow, we'll take a bus to Berlin. We plan to do some sightseeing and shopping, but mostly relax and enjoy a mom's weekend out (kid and husband free).

I haven't been to Berlin since 1989, a few months before the Berlin Wall fell. Thus the 20th anniversary of the Wall coming down is a milestone for me too. In 1989 I was in college, traveling with two friends from high school. We did the Eurail thing, covering 9 countries in 5 weeks by train with everything in our backpacks. It was an amazing experience, and I learned a lot about myself. I'd love to reminisce, but now it's time to go! I'll probably be without internet until Monday.

Black Friday

In the US, Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving which is the start of the Holiday retail season. Many refer to it as the busiest shopping day of the year, and while it may feel like it, total sales are usually higher on the Saturday before Christmas. Last year, a Walmart employee was trampled to death by a mob of eager shoppers, and two people were shot to death in an argument at a Toys R Us. Even though there were great sales, I usually avoided shopping on Black Friday when I was in the US because I don't like the crowds.

In Sweden, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, nor is there anything special about shopping the following day. This year I decided not to celebrate Thanksgiving either. I really love Thanksgving: both the food and the social aspect of it, but it's too much work to cook all that just for us. I even like the idea of taking a moment to be thankful. I've tried to incorporate thankfulness into my every day life.

Every year I help my daughter go through her toys and decide what she no longer wants. The stuff that's in good condition, is not battery operated, and does not require reading, gets wrapped up and given to the local newspaper's collection for underprivileged kids in Poland and Lithuania. Some of the other stuff is clearly ready for the trash. My problem is I don't have a good solution for the rest of it, and it's beginning to stack up.

This year it turned out that we were actually shopping on Black Friday. The company where my husband works is trying desperately to save money, so they've put restrictions on travel and overtime. Because of late phone meetings twice per week, my husband gets his 40 hours in Monday through Thursday, so for all of November, he's had Fridays off. (In December he can work all week because the holidays will keep the total hours down.) We still don't know if he'll be going to Japan in December or Miami in January. I'm really ready for some sun, so I hope that he'll still get sent to Miami and that I'll be able to tag along.

So anyhow, we did some shopping errands on Friday. I've been thinking of getting a new camera, so I went to the camera shop to compare. Sure, you can read about the features online, but it really comes down to how the thing feels in my hand. Some models are simply too big for my hand and heavy, and if I'm holding the thing for a 10 hour wedding, that makes all the difference. The sales girl was not particularly knowledgeable, but what really struck me was what a pathetic sales person she was. Sales is looked down upon in Sweden, thus not many people make the effort to be good at it. Pretty much the extent of her sales technique was to unlock the cabinet and hand me the cameras that I wanted to try. I quickly concluded that I wanted the Canon 50D which costs over $1000 just for the body. I practically begged the girl to give me any reason why I should buy the camera then or from her, but she just stared at me. I'm not in any rush to buy the camera, so I'll do some comparison shopping.

So far so good...

I finally got my flu shot on Monday afternoon. My assigned time was between 3 and 7 PM, so I showed up at 3. I'd heard a lot about vaccine shortages and delayed deliveries, so I figured my chances were better if I showed up earlier rather than later. There was a line to show my invitation and ID, then another line to get a number. Then I was told to wait in a hallway with about a hundred other people. Some of these people didn't look so healthy. Most of the people were talking to each other, so the noise level was high. There was a "now serving" number display on the wall, but it wasn't working. A nurse stood in the doorway and called out numbers, but it was pretty much impossible to hear unless you were right next to her. I was torn between not wanting to miss my number and wanting to stay where the there weren't so many people.

When she did call my number, then I got to go into the room, take off my coat and sweater, and wait in line again. Another nurse mumbled something about right or left. Was she asking if i was right or left handed, or if I wanted the shot in the right or left arm? She asked again, and I still couldn't understand. I was having a bad tinnitus day, so this was really frustrating. I chose to say that I'd prefer the shot in the left arm. A quick jab and I was done. Despite all the waiting in line, the whole process took only half an hour.

I'd heard a lot about side effects from the shot. Most of the people I'd heard about felt bad within 12 hours, others more like 24. It has now gone 48 hours, and I'm still doing fine, so I guess I got lucky. About an hour after the shot, I got tired and a slight bit dizzy, but that only lasted a couple of hours. The first night my upper arm where I got the shot was a little tender, but it didn't affect my sleep. By last night my arm was more sore, and both shoulders were stiff. It was uncomfortable to sleep on my left side. So I'm glad I got the shot. I hope it works, and I don't get the flu.

Treed in (like snowed in, but with a tree instead of snow)

A storm blew in last night. The wind was 25 mph (11 mps) and temperature 46 F (8 C). With wind chill than made for 37 F (3 C), but that doesn't take into account being pelted with rain and wet leaves. Overnight the storm was estimated to have gusted up to 56 mph (25 mps).

This morning we discovered that a tree had broken and fallen over our driveway. My husband was out of town on a business trip, otherwise he would have discovered this on his way out well before me. The first few calls I made weren't so promising, and I realized that I wasn't going to be able to get my daughter to school any time soon. I called the mom of one of her classmates who lives around here, and she came and drove my daughter to school. If I'd had that thought sooner, I might have caught her before she left to deliver her own daughter, but luckily she didn't mind making an extra trip.

Soon the message I left for our neighbor farmer was heard, and he sent one of his workers over with a tractor. It took only a couple of minutes for him to use the tractor to push the tree off the road. A little while after that, my internet connection started working again, so we're good.

Complaining about the weather

I've been trying hard not to complain about the weather all the time, despite the fact that the weather often gives me so much to complain about. November is the worst thing about living here. It's almost always cloudy, with fog, drizzle, rain, or sleet as variations. It's dark, and it gets darker every day. The temperature hovers a few degrees above freezing, not counting wind chill, and it's often windy. When it's very windy, it gets cold in the house (don't worry, we have a fireplace and space heaters.) Mud is everywhere and will remain until it freezes. We usually try to go visit California this time of year, but that won't be happening this year. So I've decided that I'm not going to let the weather get me down anymore. It is how it is, and being unhappy about it isn't going to make anything any better. (I can't, however, promise not to complain about the weather anymore, because I think that may be one of the national pastimes here, and I wouldn't want to be left out of the primary subject for small talk.)

Here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago before the fall colors blew away.

Vaccination aggravation

My daughter finally got her H1N1 flu vaccination last week along with her classmates. She was the first to complain that she wasn't feeling well, and I have to wonder if the expectation of side effects was worse than the actual side effects. Less than an hour after her shot, the school called and asked me to pick her up. She said her arm hurt, and she had a headache, but other symptoms were harder to verbalize. One of her friends developed a fever a couple hours later, but she did not. The next day, she said she still wasn't feeling well, so I let her stay home. Besides a sore arm, she seemed fine. Her school reported that a lot of kids had stayed home that day. I hope that she at least doesn't get the flu.

We don't call it swineflu around here, since this is a major pork producing area, and we wouldn't want any negative associations. They want people to call it the new influenza. Whatever. New flu or old flu, I don't want it. Even knowing what my daughter went through with her vaccine, I would still get mine in a heartbeat, but I have to wait my turn.

The Swedish government ordered 18 million doses of vaccine, enough for two doses per inhabitant, all free of charge. Vaccinations were supposed to begin the first week in October, first with the risk groups, then children, young adults, etc in order by age. First the vaccine was delayed due to packaging issues. Then there were delivery issues. Some areas got the vaccine, but not others. Some of the areas had plenty and were sending it back because people didn't want it. In other places, a hockey team managed to get themselves considered a risk group in order to get vaccinated first.

The flu is spreading like wildfire through Sweden now. I guess one advantage of living so isolated is that I might have a chance of avoiding it long enough to get vaccinated. At the rate they're going, I fear flu season may be over by then. Yup, our taxes at work.

The wonders of the internet

Yesterday I received a comment on a post I made last month about my old violin. I was feeling sentimental as I wrote it, and thought that maybe there was a slight chance I'd eventually find the violin's current owner. I never imagined that the violin's original owner, for whom it was made by her uncle Lloyd, would write to me. But that's what happened. So for anyone who read my original post, you might want to look back there now, and read the comments. I wonder how she happened to find my post, and how she felt about that. I hope she writes again. I'm reminded of the movie, the Red Violin, and I'd love to know more of this violin's story.

My first cover!

It's not National Geographic, but it's a start. This summer I took some pictures for a woman who breeds British Shorthair cats. She wanted some pictures of herself with her cats and horses for use on her webpage and to provide when newspapers interviewed her. While she was changing outfits, I entertained myself by taking pictures of her adorable kittens. I really wanted to take one home! She submitted this picture to the Swedish British Shorthair club's magazine.

Channeling my inner musician

Last night I went to a classical concert for the first time since I've been in Sweden. I went by myself. Malmö Opera was doing a program out here about female composers. That intrigued me because I couldn't even think of one female composer. The performers were a pianist, a violinist, a cellist, and a soprano. They were all women, but only the soprano was a Swede. They were also very good! I don't know why my expectations were lower, but they really were first rate.

They started the program with a baroque piece by Francesca Caccini (1587-1640). She was actually a successful professional musician and part of her father, Guilo Caccini's, touring company. Later, she was employed by the royal family in Florence. Besides playing the music, the also told about the composer's life. After the baroque era, things got much tougher for women. Music was considered an appropriate pass time for an upper class woman, and a useful skill for attracting a good husband, but it was not a woman's place to perform in public or compose, especially after she was married.

We also heard pieces by Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896, wife of Robert Schumann) and Alma Schindler Mahler (1879-1964, wife of Gustav). Both were talented musicians who were married young to their much older composer husbands. Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847) was Felix's older sister. Her father disapproved of her composing, but both her husband and brother supported her, and Felix even published some of her work under his name.

My favorite piece of the evening was a piano trio by Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944), a comparatively well known French composer. Here's a clip of it performed by another group.



I also really enjoyed Villanelle by Eva Dell'Acqua (1856-1930). Again, this clip is performed by somebody else.



I haven't listed all the pieces or composers, but they ended the evening after only an hour with a song by Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944), a largely self-taught American composer and musician who became quite successful after her husband's death.

My daughter's first violin concert

My daughter started playing the violin this fall, which means she's been playing for about a month now. She's not so into practicing, but then, she's only 7. I was shocked when we got a note from her teacher asking if she wanted to participate in a concert together with music students from all over the district, the local gospel choir, and a couple of professional musicians. Beginner violinists are not anything anyone would want to listen to, not even their parents. My daughter can't read music yet and can barely play open strings. This couldn't possibly be good.

Much to my surprise, it was good. Hats off to the strings teacher, or whoever it was who did the orchestration, because they figured out how to make beginners playing mostly open strings and simple rhythms not only fit in but contribute to a really good performance. The beginners played on four of the songs and had front row seats for the rest. There were some solos by a few of the older kids who were also quite good.

The pros, Triple & Touch, put on quite a show. They did some songs where the kids played backup. They also did some songs where the young soloists played along with them. Furthermore, they did some musical stunts/jokes. At first I thought this was kind of hokey, but it grew on me, and clearly the rest of the audience responded well to it.

The show was two hours long, but the kids held up well (better than my husband anyhow, who's not good at sitting still). At first I was horrified that the tickets cost over $20 each, but the music school itself is really cheap, so I figured this was how they made up the difference. I expected to see only parents in the audience, but the school gym was packed full of parents, grandparents, and extended families. I think they were all pleased with the show.

Nobel Surprise

I was at a course for local businesswomen last week, and I was surprised that they were anxiously awaiting the announcement of the Nobel Prize in literature. I felt rather out of my element here because the literature prize is probably the one that interests me the least, but I went along when they gathered around the TV to hear the news. I'd never heard of Herta Muller, and judging by their reaction, they hadn't either. I was curious if their interest was in the Nobel prizes or in literature, so I asked what they thought of the medicine prize which had been announced the day before. I thought telomeres were pretty interesting stuff, but apparently they did not.

The big surprise came later when Barack Obama won the Peace prize. My first reaction was that he hadn't done so much yet, but then I realized that it's not so much about succeeding but for trying. It's about having the right attitude and spreading hope, and that's nothing to sneeze at. And if by receiving the prize now, it helps him succeed, all the better.

Of course, that's not the end of the story. I want to give a big solute to the people who figured out fiber optics, telomeres, and ribosomes. And also to the first woman to win the economics prize (even if that one's a bit harder for me to get my mind around).

A miracle worker

My husband just got home from a week in Korea. I guess that was exciting for him even though he was at a conference most of the time. I would love to be able to travel like that.

In case people were concerned about us freezing here, we finally got the radiator system hooked up again last weekend, so we're doing okay.

My last few weeks have been busy with a lot of little things. I've had an assignment to take a few pictures at a local library--they have a new computer with a business database, and they need pictures for a brochure. I've been taking care of the pictures from the wedding I photographed in September. It also seems like all of my wedding customers from earlier this summer have suddenly decided that they need to get on the ball and order their enlargements and such.

I've also done some pictures for women from my local businesswomen's network. I expected these to be quick and easy jobs, and most were. One woman clearly mistook "a little retouching" for working miracles and expected me to be able to remove 30 years worth of not wearing sunscreen. Not wanting a dissatisfied customer, I got myself a book on Photoshop and went to work. I spent a total of about 2-3 hours per picture for 8 pictures. Here's a couple of before and after shots.

It's time to say the F-word.

I've been avoiding it all summer. I've noticed that people talk about preparing for winter, but they don't talk about fall. I know I've been trying not to think about it and refusing to say the word. But that's it. I just can't hold on to my delusions anymore. I have to admit that it is fall. In fact, it was fall already last weekend. I should have taken the hint when the flowers on my chrysanthemum plant succumbed to frost, but I let that slide. I neglected to acknowledge the autumnal equinox. I pretended not to notice that the leaves were changing color. This morning there was frost everywhere. I even had to scrape my car. That was the last straw. Fall has fallen.

My husband got back from Phoenix yesterday, where it was 108 F (42 C). Here it was sunny and clear but windy and only 50 F (10 C). The cement floor has been replaced in the front room, but the radiator system still can't be hooked up. I've been having fires in the bedroom fireplace almost every evening, and I've changed to the winter weight bedding. It's time to put away the summer clothes and get out the winter clothes. Every day it gets darker and colder, and while the weather's really quite nice (like a crisp and clear winter day in California) I can feel it getting me down.

Updates

Tomorrow I have a wedding to photograph--the last one of the four I had booked for this summer. Fortunately I also had some other small jobs in between. My husband is in the US on a business trip, so his mother is watching our daughter for the weekend.

When I got home from dropping her off this evening, I found our driveway, courtyard, and front yard full of cows. They looked at my car but were not impressed. As I called the farmer from my car, they eventually stepped out of my way enough that I could park the car. The farmer drove up, and about half of the cows followed him back towards their pasture. The rest of the cows were busy sucking plums off the plum tree and couldn't be bothered with anything else. It's hard to describe what that sounded like, but I'll never forget it. I went out with a flashlight and tried to get them to move along. I clapped, I stomped, I gestured like I was directing traffic. The cows gave me the evil eye and went back to the plums. "Mooooooooove," I said. The cows mooed back. I don't speak cow, but I don't think they were kind words. "Mooooooooove!" I repeated, and they did. I'm sure it helped that the farmer was also calling them.

In other news, my pantry is still free from meal worms--thank goodness! Violin lessons are going okay. My fingers seem to remember what to do, but my brain doesn't remember much more than scales. I'll have to dig through some of those boxes that we never unpacked and see if I still have any of my sheet music. My husband's contract was renewed for another year. Last Friday, some workmen came to jackhammer up the floor in the front room where the radiator pipe was leaking. They were supposed to come and pour new cement this week, but (no surprise) that didn't happen. Hopefully it will get done soon, because it's getting really cold at night. The days are still pretty nice. I will not tempt fate by saying the F-word, but the leaves are starting to turn. I have decided that summer will last through September. I'm not in denial, but I have to go now and put more wood in the fireplace.

Choosing the lesser of two weevils

Unlike that great scene in Master and Commander, the weevils were not on a plate, they were in my pantry. And actually they weren't even weevils, they were meal worms. Frankly I would have chosen the weevils. I had weevils once in my pantry in San Diego, and they weren't anywhere near as disgusting. They were also relatively easy to get rid of.

I discovered on Sunday, as I was getting ready for guests to arrive, that the sprinkling of flour beside the bag of dark bread-flour that I hadn't used since winter was not caused by a scratch in the paper bag. Ewww, bummer, I thought and shoved everything back in place.

On Monday, I began cleaning the pantry. This was a significant task because I've become quite the food hoarder. I justify this in that while there's a small grocery store in the local town, I'm 20 minutes away from a real supermarket, and with gas at $6 per gallon, you don't just run to the supermarket for one item.

I threw out a lot of stuff: the infested bag of flour and those that were adjacent to it on the shelf, open grain products, and a few things I found that had been in there entirely too long. Each item remaining in the pantry was thoroughly inspected: under the rims on cans, in the joints of cardboard boxes, under the flaps of folded plastic, inside the small paper booklet hanging from a bottle, inside the layers of rolled up mylar from a half eaten bag of chips.... Those disgusting meal worms had found their way into all sorts of places. Everything packaged in cardboard, paper, or thin plastic got bagged. This pretty much wiped out my collection of hand-imported ziplock freezer/storage bags, but I was so glad I had them. They've finally started selling ziplock bags here, but only the quart/liter size, and they're expensive (no Costco-packs).

But my battle wasn't over. I wiped down the shelves with alcohol to disinfect, but the meal worms had crawled into the holes that are pre-drilled in all IKEA furniture which allow one to adjust the position of the shelves. There they had made cocoons, and I fear, laid eggs. Q-tips do not fit into these holes, not even the hard Swedish variety with not enough cotton on them. Toothpicks fit, but they were not particularly effective, and the results really turned my stomach. My solution: I took a syringe and squirted ~1 ml alcohol in each hole, then I took the appropriate sized drill bit and by hand (not on the drill, less I drill through the walls of the cabinet) reamed out each hole. The inhabitants got thoroughly mashed, and any eggs got scraped up in the grooves of the drill bit which I would rinse off between each hole so as to not cross-contaminate.

It took me two days to finish this process, but I now have a neat and tidy pantry, a good idea of what's in it, $ 20 in coupons from the flour manufacturer whom I called and complained to, and the faint odor of alcohol which reminds me of the labs I used to work in. I find the smell clean and somewhat reassuring. Unfortunately my husband hates this smell, but then he doesn't spend much time in the kitchen anyhow. So far, no new signs of meal worms or other creepy crawlies. Let's hope this worked.

To Margaret Ann Cole with love Uncle Lloyd

That's what was written on the inside of my violin. I always thought it was very special because it was hand made even if it really wasn't the world's greatest instrument. I started playing the violin in third grade, but I don't remember when my parents bought me this violin. I know I had it with me to summer camp which started for me the summer after seventh grade and continued every summer through high school.

I stopped playing the violin regularly after high school. I wasn't good enough to play in the La Jolla Symphony, and I wasn't dedicated enough to play in college (where you didn't have to be a music major, but you did have to take a music theory class that was 5 days a week at 8 AM--not compatible with either my academic schedule or my sleep schedule.) By the time we moved to Sweden, I hadn't played in about 10 years. I didn't have time to deal with selling it, so I gave it back to my mom to sell.

Now I wonder whatever became of it. Who has it now? Did it get refinished, or does it still have the melt marks in the varnish from when it accidentally got left in the sun at summer camp?

This has been on my mind because today I rented two violins: one for me, and a 1/4 sized one for my daughter. She started music lessons last week and is really excited about playing the violin. I hope she's not too disappointed to discover that it's not easy to fiddle and dance at the same time like the girl in Celtic Woman. I feel like this in when I start living vicariously through her. Maybe if she keeps it up, she'll go to music camp someday too.

What happened to this week?

Where did the week go? It's Friday already, and I feel like I'm still on Wednesday. For that matter, what happened to August? The first week was a nice leisurely vacation, then I came home and tried to catch up, and now it's almost over?

Last weekend we had a party here for my husband's coworkers. All of his co-workers are men (engineers). Two of them forgot to inform their wives, and thus had other plans made for them causing them to back out at the last minute. Two more of the wives suddenly felt feverish the day of the party and decided to stay home. We ended up with 13 adults, 2 kids, and 1 baby.

The co-workers are all city-people, most of them apartment dwellers. All of them thought we lived in the middle of nowhere with a ridiculously long commute to civilization. Aparently the tradition with work-related socialization here in Sweden is that the spouses are never included. This includes things like the company Christmas party. I found it a bit frustrating that I never knew who my husband was talking about. I also found it frustrating that it's rather impossible to meet people and make new friends.

Because of the unpredictable weather here, I planned on serving the meal in the little barn (that I use as my gallery). Half of the barn is now filled with my husband's junk, so I cleaned and hung some of my photos in the other half. Cleaning the barn took several hours even though it had been used just a few months ago. There were dead insects all over the floor, and it seemed like a spider had moved into every nook and cranny. Good thing we have a shop-vac! I worried that city-folk would be uncomfortable eating in a place like this, but by the time I was done cleaning and decorating, it looked quite inviting.

Of course people would want to see our house also, so even if we weren't spending much time there, I put in a lot of hours trying to tidy up the place. I'm glad I was able to schedule the cleaning lady for the day before, but even then, she just dusts and vacuums around our junk. She doesn't put anything away. My husband decided that the bathroom needed repainting (it definitely did!) so we did that too. It's nice to have something still looking nice now even after the party.

I made venison stew, fruit and veggie plates, and provided chips, dip, and drinks. We almost ran out of drinks since it turned out to be beautiful warm weather (much better than forecast). Other people brought potato salad, pasta salad, green salads, rolls, and desserts. I guess the concept of a pot-luck isn't very clear here, since some people brought enough to feed an army. I think we have leftover bread in the freezer to last us a month!

We had a bunch of garden games like badminton and croquet, but nobody chose to play. For entertainment, my husband loaded people on the trailer behind the ATV and took them on a tour of the forest. Our daughter was a great host to the other kid, a 3 year old girl. They enjoyed the trampoline and my daughter's electric car. We all enjoyed watching them play.

So it turned out to be a very nice gathering with pleasant company and lots of good food. I consider it a success, and I think the others did too.

Surprise!

The evening after I got home from vacation, my husband came up to me and said, "I got something for you." He takes me out to the barn (where he said he'd stashed my car) and I see something covered with a car cover. He got me a car cover, I think to myself, not likely to use that. Then he pulls it up and I see something white--my car's not white. Wait, my car's not a Mercedes either. He reveals a 1972 Mercedes 350 SL convertible. WTF, he bought another car! We have more than enough cars already! We don't even have room to park them all! What was he thinking?!!! My business is way down, and even worse, his contract runs out next month and they have not told him if they plan to renew it or not. It's not like we have money to burn.

"It's just what you always wanted," he said. I was still in shock. "Um, thank you," I mutter. Now it's my fault in some way. It's true that I have always liked the Mercedes SLs, but I test drove one when we lived in SD and was very disappointed. It looks like a cute little sports car, but it drove like a tank. I also made the mistake of admiring one at a classic car show this summer. That brought up the discussion that while the 1960's and earlier models (as well as the 1980's and later models) were expensive, there were still bargains to be found among the 1970's models. I considered this an abstract discussion since there were at least a hundred good reasons why we weren't going to buy another car anytime in the forseeable future.

"I got it for you since I didn't really get you a real birthday present." He got me a lens for my birthday. It was exactly the lens I wanted, and I was happy with it. OK, it's not exactly a romantic gesture to buy me a birthday present on the company, but I'd long since given up on such.

The car needed some work, among other things a gas pedal. Last week he obtained the gas pedal, and last weekend he installed installed it, so I was out of excuses. I took the car out on Tuesday. I guess this is where I'm just not a car-guy. It drove ok. I thought the enormous steering wheel was a bit wierd, and I felt there was a bit of play in the steering. I heard all sorts of funny noises. I didn't feel so comfortable with my daughter in the front seat (there is no back seat, but there's no airbag either). Really, I'd rather just drive my regular car. It's not as cool, but it's just fine.

So what am I supposed to do with this thing? If I don't love it and drive it at least occasionally, my husband's feelings will be hurt.

Miracle Chocolate

Last night I went to a chocolate tasting at a friend's house. It turned out that there were only two kinds of chocolate to be tasted, and a whole lot of marketing to be swallowed.

They're starting to market Xocai here in Sweden. It's a "healthy chocolate" made of cold pressed cocoa, acai berries, and blueberries. I don't doubt that it contains lots of great antioxidants. In fact, one piece of chocolate contains about as much antioxidants as are recommended for an entire day. So far so good. Unfortunately it didn't taste that great. The "nugget" had the mouthfeel of Hershy's kisses, but it was harder. The flavor was ok but not great. They say this product is for everyone who likes chocolate, but in my opinion, as someone who really loves chocolate, it doesn't measure up. The nugget is filling, and they say if you eat one before each meal, you'll eat less and thus lose weight. That's plausible, but certainly not the lifestyle change recommended for keeping the weight off. I wouldn't mind having a few around to eat before going to a party where I'd be tempted to graze on unhealthy stuff.

I also got to try the "power" dark chocolate square. Again, it was okay, but nowhere near as good as high quality dark chocolate. It's something I might eat occasionally because of the antioxidants, kind of like an extra multivitamin, but I wouldn't want to eat it just for the taste. They say you should eat 3 pieces per day which would be about 3 times as much antioxidants as the average person needs, and this doesn't count what you'd normally be getting from sources like food. (Funny how people selling supplements never calculate food into their schemes.)

I was thinking I might support my friend and buy a little (even if it's not that great) until I heard that it cost about 10 SEK ($1.25) per bite-sized piece! Yikes, mediocre and expensive too! But that's not how it works. To get your chocolate, you have to subscribe to get it monthly (assuming 3 pieces per day), and you also have to recruit two other people to join the multilevel marketing program, and help them recruit two people, and so on and so on. Eek! Pyramid scheme or not, it's my worst nightmare. I would hate selling stuff to my friends, and I could never recruit anyone.

Vacation on Ärö, days 6, 7 & 8

On Thursday, we once again took it easy then took the kids to the beach. At home, we struggled between our desire to open all the doors and windows to let the fresh air in, and the need to keep the flies and wasps out. My friend's son had been stung by a wasp last summer when one flew up his sleeve, so he totally freaked out at the sight of a wasp. My daughter, the drama queen, wasn't much better. While we had only seen a few wasps at home on previous days, they were now out in force. With my trusty fly swatter, I became the official wasp killer too.

In the afternoon, my friend took us to a couple of cemeteries where she paid respects to her relatives. Her family goes back a long way there, and it was nice to hear their stories and share her memories.

On Friday, we drove out to Söby volde, the remains of anther old fortress. This one also had a great view. There were sheep grazing there, so we had to watch our step. At a table by the parking area sat a group of retired people, men and women, drinking beer. I thought this was noteworty because it was 10 AM. In Sweden, they probably would have been drinking coffee, regardless of the time of day.

Having driven pretty much everywhere on this island already, we took back roads to the beach. Ärö was a great place to drive around because everywhere we went there were cute farms, quaint little houses with beautiful gardens, and the beautiful bright greens, golds, and blues of the harvest season farmland and the sea.

This time we went back to the beach with the cute little houses, and while the weather was still sunny and warm, the water was cold! This made our last outing to the beach a short one, and while I'm not at all a beach person, I found this a little disappointing. We spent the afternoon cleaning and packing, then we went to the Chinese restaurant in Marstal for dinner. We had the buffet which was relatively simple and featured a lot of fried foods, but it was pretty good. I thought my daughter would love it, but she was in a mood where nothing was right. At least we didn't have to cook, and it was a lovely evening for a drive.

We got up early on Saturday morning to finish packing our stuff and clean the house. The kids were getting tired of each other and fighting more and more. We eventually just gave them each their movie players and sent them to the car so that we could get done in time. Cleaning proved to be a bit more work than we'd anticipated (probably because we ended up leaving the place considerably cleaner than we found it), but we got out pretty close to on time. We parked the car in line for the ferry and went to say our farewells to Ärö with ice cream. I love Danish soft serve ice cream, and this was the best yet!

The ferry ride was quite scenic, and as a special treat, we happend to pass the Danish Royal Yacht shortly before we got into port. The drive back to the airport went smoothly, then my daughter and I took the train back to Sweden where my husband picked us up.

Vacation on Ärö, days 4 & 5

My friend was coming down with a cold, so we spent a lazy day around the house. It didn't help that the weather was cloudy and cool. I'd brought a puzzle with the intention that we could all work on it together, but it turned out to be too hard for the kids. My friend and I had a great time with it, and by afternoon we were on a quest to get a new puzzle. We went to her aunt and uncle's house to borrow one, but it turned out to be for toddlers. We were amazed to discover that it was sunny and warm there, only a few miles away. We proceeded into town on our puzzle quest. The only store in town that sold puzzles didn't have any good ones. We treated ourselves to the local specialty ice cream: walnut ice cream (sort of like butter-pecan) in a waffle cone with whipped cream and maple syrup. It was okay, but not something I'd get again. Unfortunately, the waffle cones leaked, so the maple syrup ended up all over us.

As with all farms, there are flies in the summer, and our house was no exception. As the harvest progressed, the numbers of homeless flies increased. My friend was really grossed out by the flies, so swatting them became a full time occupation for me.

Wednesday was sunny and warm, so we were determined to get out of the house. We went somewhere where my friend had not been before: the ruins at St Albert's and the neighboring burial site on Lindbjerg bakke. St Albert's was the ruins of an old fortress that was later converted into a church. It wasn't much to see, but the view from there was very nice. We didn't stay long though because of the ladybug invasion. The swarms were coming so hard that we were being pelted by them to the point where it hurt. Some of them even bit (I didn't know that they did that--it didn't hurt much, but it was annoying.) I was able to snap a few pictures while the others sought refuge in the car.

We could see the burial site on top of a hill as we drove, so we went there too. The ladybugs weren't so bad there, so we could enjoy the view. After that we took the kids to the beach. This time we chose a different beach with fewer people and more seaweed. We came to refer to it as the stinky beach, but it really was quite nice. There were a lot of clear jellyfish (the kind that don't sting) that the kids played with. The water was very warm and shallow. The kids were allowed to go out up to their belly buttons, which proved to be quite far.







That evening my friend made the local version of pancakes according her grandmother's recipe. I believe this was a precursur to what we now call donuts. They were thick, deep fried, and had a hole in the middle. Traditionally they are eaten with sugar or jam. My daughter suggested maple syrup, and we agreed they were even better that way.

My friend's husband had been sick, and that developed into pnemonia, so he decided not to come. That meant my husband would have to come by himself, and he decided it really wasn't worth it for the few remaining days. I know he was disappointed, but nowhere near as much as the kids were.