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.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, September 11, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, August 28, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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.
"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.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
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.
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.
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