I've been filling up. Filling up with lovely days and family goodness and the stupified silence of children stunned by the awesomeness of their Christmas presents. Filling up with cookies and turkey sandwiches and clementines and love. Too busy to sit down and write, too busy to take a moment because all the moments are taken: real life, days present and future and full.

Friday is a full moon, but it's nearly there now. Last night it was shining clear and crystal down on the sugar frosting sifted across the grass, the hedge, the yard. I've not slept well the past few nights: too many people in the house. Breathing, coughing, moving. Up and opening doors, and my restless brain is keeping tabs: I don't want to miss a moment with so many loved ones in the house.

Today a head cold is pressing me down, gurgling at the back of my throat: tickle, tickle COUGH. Two days ago we went to see Avatar. I am still thinking about it. Yesterday we had 50 people in the house. I am still thinking about that, too. I am a spinning top, the kind that lifts and flies with a zing!

A short list of awesome things: a mini ping-pong table! My party-preparation-cleaning crew that did everything to get the house ready and the food prepared while I was at work yesterday. Lego games. Rice Krispie Treats with cinnamon red-hots. Perfect presents for everyone. A huge pile of new books to read. Anders whipping up a perfect julbord for Christmas Eve and then a perfect turkey dinner for Christmas Day. John fixing the dishwasher. Simone sorting the three bags of party debris into the proper recycling bins. An oven-baked brie coated with brown sugar, chopped almonds and cinnamon: O M G . A holiday card from you. And you. And YOU. Thank you!

One more day of work and one more party, and then a week of sleeping in, of slothfulness if I want it, of reading a dozen books, of meeting and spending time with some good friends, of enjoying every moment with my mom and my family. Just what I need, if I can turn my brain off work. A week of savoring, of remembering, of mulling over the moments that have filled me up these holidays and given me the energy to begin a new year brimming.

Crystal Glitter Candy Birthday Wishes to courtesy!

Look what happens when someone leaves the snow on overnight! 24 hours plus of snowfall and we have over a foot. I threw the kids outside with a camera and told them to take photos. "Of what?" they asked. DUH! Of things covered in snow! When I got the camera back, they had taken pictures of both the cars and the mailbox and some blobs of snow on the side of the house.

Anders is out shoveling, the kids are out sledding and I, in a hilarious twist of irony, am about to DEFROST THE FREEZER. Hahahahahaha!!






ABOMINABLE!






Clifford the Big Red Rock in his Christmas clothing


One of my little angels

It's official! The holidays are here! We started decorating the house today, went to a glögg party and I "baked" the first cookies of the season. Using the term "baked" very, very loosely. My friend Debbie served these at a book group this past year and I've been badgering her for the recipe ever since. I decided they would be the cookie I'd take to the AWC Holiday Cookie Exchange, and when I called her a couple of weeks ago to remind her, she said, "Darn! I was hoping you'd forgotten about them, because I was going to make you a tin of them for Christmas!"

"But that's okay," I said. "I'm going to give these AWAY, so I'll need MORE. Plus, when would I ever refuse cookies? Never! That's when!" So she caved in and gave me the recipe, and I went grocery shopping yesterday (after cleaning and setting the table and before my pre-party NAP) and bought the ingredients. Except our local grocery store didn't have one of them, so I had to drive into Lund to the big mega-everything grocery store to get them.

SO GOOD. And SO easy! And I actually had enough that I can take some extras with me to give to the poor people who didn't sign up for the cookie exchange, AND take some to work AND still have some for us at home. They're so festive with the white, red & green!







Cranberry Pistachio Bark
500 grams quality white chocolate
250 ml. dried cranberries
240 ml. unsalted shelled pistachios

Roast pistachios at 180C for 5-7 minutes. Set aside to cool. Melt chocolate in the top of a double boiler or on low heat (keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn). Stir cranberries and pistachios into melted chocolate. Pour onto foil-lined (25 x 38 cm) edged cookie sheet. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, then break into pieces. Makes about 750 grams.

I made 2 batches, and used an extra small bag of pistachios and cranberries each, and another 100 grams of white chocolate. I had to make 72 cookies, but since this was broken into pieces like brittle, I had probably twice that. It makes a LOT of cookies! De-double-licious!

Year after year, the things I am thankful for remain much the same. They're so obvious, they almost go without saying. And yet, to go without saying them is unthinkable; I can't take them for granted, and yet isn't that what we do, so much of the time? We go through our daily lives and we can't fall down on our knees every moment. There's lunch to be packed and homework to be done and beds to be made and meetings to go to. There are cookies to be baked and children to be hugged and dogs to be walked.

So we can only pause, now and then, to suddenly stare about us and blink in the sudden glare of realization: what we have. What surrounds us. How full of beauty and pleasure and laughter and delight our lives are. Some of you might be thinking, "Hmph. Speak for yourself, missy" and of course, I am. That's all I can do. But even in the roughest of tough times, there must be some light that shines, something that speaks to your soul and gives you cause for gratefulness.

For the past 13 years, we have gathered our closest friends (and sometimes our family) together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Anders and I provide the turkey, stuffing (inside the turkey), mashed potatoes and gravy. Everything else is delegated. One person brings pumpkin pies, one brings extra dressing, the one that's a chocoholic brings a chocolate dessert. Someone is designated to bring the black olives and the cranberry sauce, and sometimes there is green bean casserole and sometimes there is a tossed salad and sometimes there is some other traditional dish: corn casserole, savory sweet potatoes, broccoli & cheese au gratin. Wine in bottles and boxes. Smiles and laughter and now, all these years later: memories and shared history; stories of us, our past and our friendship.

Some friends have moved away, some can't always be with us, and one has passed away. Sometimes we have new friends that we ask to join us, but always the people we invite are those with whom we feel a bond of friendship and tradition that makes us look forward every year to the next celebration. There's something special about this gathering, and though I miss my family and the traditions of my childhood, it feels right that here in Sweden we have built up and refined and made something of our own that we can share and revel in each year.

Tomorrow: cookie baking & a 50th birthday party open house!

By the way, for those of you who care, I went with Martin and a girlfriend Friday night to see New Moon and well, maybe we were just in the right mood, and maybe it sounds really silly, coming from a mom and woman who is well past the demographic these books and movies were aimed at, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was MUCH better than the first one, and it was especially fun for us to listen to an entire packed house of theater-goers, the vast majority of whom were teenage and adolescent girls, gasping with sheer joy every time one of the two male stars took off his shirt. If you're at all into Twilight, it's well worth the ticket price.

*Title from a quote by John F. Kennedy

A general feeling of not just well-being but a physical spine-tingling glee. So many good things, good news, good vibes going on this week that my hair might as well be standing on end with excitement and The Happy. Mr. Bluebird's on my shoulder, it's the truth, it's actual, everything is satisfactual!

Yesterday was one good thing after another: getting up smiling because even though it was hard to get out of bed, it was Friday, having a good and productive day at work, then a lovely dinner with the Wonders: ALL of us this time because Debbie's husband Ola is home from the hospital for a whole week to rest and regain his strength and put on some weight before facing chemo #3. He's been in the hospital for 8.5 weeks and the whole family was over the moon to have him home. Debbie was practically glowing, she was so happy that things are going better. She came late after getting the family settled but it was so wonderful to have our whole circle of friends together again and be able to talk over everything that has been going on in the past few months. I think we all needed it.

It was pouring rain and driving was pretty treacherous both on the way there and on the way back, and I didn't get home until almost 1:30 in the morning. All my family was asleep, snug in their beds, and Anders had left the computer on for me, so I checked email before heading to bed, only to find a message from my brother practically pulsing with more good news:

Not only is my mom coming for a long visit, but my brother and Simone confirmed their tickets for Christmas and are arriving for a week starting on Christmas Eve! Yay! Now I just need to get my seester over here, and the holidays would be complete!

And the email after that? From my dear, dear Bluepoppy saying she is back in action and blogging again! Yippee skippy! First Marilyn, then Sheryl, then Miss Doxie and now BP! Even Woman in a Window posted something today! Now I just need to hear that Wee is blogging again and things will be perfect! It's like an early Christmas!

Today I got to sleep in, and finish a good book and start another good one and putter about the house just getting things done. And then, to put the icing on the good stuff cake, my mom emailed me with a huge long list of books that she just bought...for me! And then I made a most fantastic dinner! And I get to sleep in tomorrow, too!

Man, this has been a good week. :) Here's hoping that YOU are having a good one, too. *showers sunshine upon your head*

Bubbalicious Belated Birthday Wishes to davesanngel!

Is anyone else boggled by the fact that tomorrow is the last day of October? Already it feels as dark in the early evenings as if it were January, and we are still 2 months away from the equinox. What an down and up day this was...what down and up WEEK, for that matter.

At the beginning of it, one of my colleagues, another American who is also a friend, sent out an email to all the Americans in our department, asking if we would be interested in helping to organize a Thanksgiving dinner for our entire department. There are 33 people in our department, if you count the 3 who are on parental leave and the 1 who is on sabbatical. Of those, (including one of the ones on leave), SIX of us are American.

Anyway, apparently one or more of the non-Americans had been inquiring about Thanksgiving and it gave her this great idea of all of us Americans cooking up and serving a real Thanksgiving dinner for everyone. I have to admit that my first reaction was dismay. And my second.

We have been hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for our closest friends in Sweden since we moved here, nearly 13 years ago, and the amount of people at the dinner is usually around 14-16 including the kids. I don't cook a darn thing at these dinners. I organize them, clean the house, buy the groceries and drinks, set the table, and clean up afterward. My husband cooks the THREE turkeys it takes to feed that many people and still have leftovers, as well as the stuffing that goes in them, and mashed potatoes. Each couple that comes brings one of the requisite dishes: one brings pumpkin pie(s), one a chocolate dessert, one the green bean casserole. One brings extra stuffing and sometimes someone is delegated to bring black olives and cranberry sauce, or wine, and some years Anders & I provide it. The point being, as I mentioned at the beginning: I DON'T COOK ANYTHING.

Another reason for the dismay: there is so much going on in November and December, both at home and at work, that the idea of adding ANYTHING else to the calendar raises my stress level immediately. It's almost an automatic response; I can't help it. No no no my inner calendar cries out: NO. I don't WANT to add another event, no matter how fun or generous it might be. And with the amount of work we have, constantly, the thought of having to drop what I'm doing at work so that I can spend part of a day helping to cook and prepare the meal and dining experience makes me get the panics.

And the final reason: Thanksgiving is, for me, a FAMILY thing. The people I surround myself with at Thanksgiving, whenever possible, are the people I love most, that mean the most to me, that I am closest to: the friends that might as well be family for me here. Much as I like my colleagues, they aren't the people I want to spend a Thanksgiving celebration with.

So, my response to the inquiry was no. I don't want to help organize it. I don't want to be involved. Then one of the other girls went ahead and sent out the invitation to the entire department and included my name anyway. When I wrote to her in a bit of a huff, saying HEY, I SAID NO, I got a joking response, because of course, I must be kidding, right? Well, no. Actually, I'm not. So far, I've been called lazy and a party-pooper.

***

Despite some cautiously good news about my friend's husband earlier this week, things have been looking pretty grim. The second round of chemo has caused all kinds of complications including the development of gallstones, pneumonia and pancreatitis, along with hallucinations. He's lost 20 kilos and weighs less than he did when he was 18. But in the beginning of the week, his white blood cell count started going up and his infection rate started dropping, which had the doctors looking positive and today they got the results of the second bone marrow test: he's in remission!

My friend was so relieved that she was barely coherent when she called to give me the news today. Remission in this case doesn't mean he's done, however. He's facing gallbladder surgery next week and they have to get the rest of the infections under control as well as the pancreatitis, and after he recovers from the surgery, he'll face at least 3 more rounds of chemo. But it's at least the first really positive news in 2 months, and I'm thrilled.

***

My nephew had his kidney valve correction surgery on Monday and is doing well. He's still in a lot of pain, but my mom is there and between them all it sounds like they are managing to keep him relatively comfortable. He's planning to go trick-or-treating tomorrow in a wagon pulled by the adults, so he won't have to miss out on any of the Halloween festivities.

***

I hadn't realized that Friday was a half day, so was pleasantly surprised a few days ago to find that out. The kids have been on Fall Break all this week which means, since we gave up their after-school daycare spots at the beginning of the year, that they were going to be home alone all week. Anders and I managed to take turns coming home at lunch time each day, and I had been planning to work from home this afternoon, but instead I got to leave at lunchtime as planned and come home while the SUN WAS SHINING and get other things done! BONUS! We ate lunch and then we ran to the grocery store to get Halloween candy for tonight's trick-or-treating and then we went for a walk in the beautiful weather. It's been cold but sunny for several days and perfect walking weather.

Instead of going our usual round, we went up the hill and across the fields, out into the farmland. Most of the fields up there were planted in sugar beets and have already been harvested and plowed under. It felt great to be walking along with the sun beaming down and blue skies all around us. We could see for miles up there. We could see a hot air balloon far away over Lund. We could see deer far away in one of the fields and by one of the lakes a whole flock of resting geese. Karin ran ahead when we got to the section of the road lined with the old twisted-open willow trees, climbing up in them one by one and then dashing on to the next. I sang songs at the top of my lungs while Martin tried frantically to make me stop, despite the fact that there was no one anywhere around for what felt like miles. It was glorious.

Tomorrow is the giant AWC Halloween bash at a playplace in Malmö. There are 158 people signed up as definite and another 20+ as maybes. Should be a fun time. :)

What was up about your week? And if you're going to dress up, what are you going to be for Halloween?

Bat Wing & Black Cat Belated Birthday Wishes to berchshill!

My family is gone on a weekend Scout camp. Martin left last night with the older kids...they were planning to sleep outside in "wind-protected lean-tos" if the weather cooperated last night. Since it was clear with a brilliant bright moon I hope they did. Today it's grey and raining: not so fun for a camp, but Anders and Karin left this morning with their backpacks stuffed to the brim and smiles on their faces so I'm sure they'll be having a good tiime regardless.

I woke up at 7:30 when Anders did, and promptly fell back asleep until they came to say goodbye at 8:45. But I couldn't go back to sleep after that because the possibilities for all the things I could do today were bouncing around in my brain like jumping beans. I suppose I shouldn't be as gleeful over family-free days as I am, but o! they really are lovely. Much as I love my family, it's nice to have a downtime-day. I have things I should be doing and things I could be doing and things I haven't had a chance of doing and we shall see which of them get jumbled out of my giant pocket of possibilities into reality today!

• Go back to bed
• Go back to bed and read
• Cozy up on the couch and read
• Go to town and hit the bookstore
• Have sushi for dinner while I'm in town
• or make my favorite dish for dinner: salmon, rice, sautéed kohlrabi, snap peas and artichoke hearts
• Call a friend
• Work on AWC stuff
• Fix the presentation I didn't have time to do at work yesterday
• Laundry
• Closet purging: perhaps the perfect rainy day job!
• Watch The Fall, finally!
• Put recyclables in outside bins
• 40 minute treadmill session
• Art around in my neglected collage book project
• Surf the web for beautiful and interesting things
• Write a poem
• Go to the movies
• Call my mom
• Figure out when & where Karin's soccer match is tomorrow
  
  
• ALL OF THE ABOVE?!

Oh boy! How much can I pack into one day of total selfishness?

Makes You Think: Far Foods

Monday morning dawned bright and early for Labor Day but neither Mom nor I saw it as we were snoozing a bit late, despite needing to get up and get moving in good time to pack in the sights of our last day of "mini-vacation". We finally hoisted our duffs out of bed and hit the road. Once again we drove west, this time nearly to the border. Our destination was Stockbridge and the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Now I know a lot of people pooh-pooh Rockwell, for various reasons, but the man was incredible. In his lifetime he finished some 4000 artworks, most of them finely detailed paintings and his portraits were exquisite. He didn't consider himself a "fine artist"...he thought of himself solely as a pictorial storyteller; a true illustrator. The museum was situated on lovely grounds and was spacious and light-filled. There were several galleries of his work on the main floor and seeing the familiar images in large-scale was astounding. Not a fine artist, indeed.

Due to our late start we didn't stay and tour Rockwell's studio, though we did spend quite some time in the museum store. We headed out to drive another hour and a half to Hartford, Connecticut to the Mark Twain House. Little did we know that the directions Google had given me were on a 2-lane highway that took FOREVER winding through the Berkshires. And unfortunately we had to be at the Twain House by 4:30 in order to make the last tour, so we couldn't stop at any of the bazillion antique places that were LINED along the road after the first hour. It was pure torture to keep zipping past them. I've never seen so many antique signs in a row in my life!

We finally got into West Hartford and barely had a chance to admire all the huge beautiful homes lining the streets as we found our way to the Museum parking lot. We raced into the Museum Center a few minutes after the last tour was scheduled to start only to be distressed at the fact that there was no one there waiting for a tour. AAGH! We'd missed it! But no, the woman at the front desk said not to worry, and she whipped out a walkie-talkie and told the guide to wait for us. Down the hallway, up a twisting flight of flat stairs around the second floor and out again onto the terrace, then past the carriage house we hurried, and there they were! The guide and 3 other people waiting for us. As we caught up to them and caught our breath and introduced ourselves and thanked them for waiting, another 3 people came rushing up. So then we all set off into the home. It's only open to guided tours, you can't just wander around inside by yourself, and as we came into the foyer, I could see why. It was BEAUTIFUL. And full of beautiful things. The foyer itself was just stunning. Wood-paneled with a beautiful staircase and silvery stencils designed by Tiffany all over the walls and ceiling.

The guide was really great, full of interesting anecdotes and information about the house and the Twain family who lived there for 17 years. Since the book I had been reading for an entire week (at that point) was Mark Twain's Autobiography, I was pretty well up-to-date on the major events of his life and had actually just finished reading about his marriage and subsequent move to Hartford not too long after. Perfect timing! And since Mom and I hadn't thought we'd make it to Mark Twain's house at all, it felt like a major bonus that we had managed to get there in time for the tour. The guide also told us that if we had the opportunity we should come back around Christmastime because they give a really great holiday tour then. That won't be so easy for me, but I sure would love to some day! There were other tours of the house (we only saw part of it) and the Museum Center as well, and the Harriet Beecher Stowes lived literally a stone's throw away across the yard, so I could definitely spend a lot of time there.

I've always been partial to Mark Twain and have read a great many of his books, though not all, by any means. He was a fascinating person in an interesting time. After the tour, in the museum store (which was all that was open after the tour left), the woman there told us to drive back into the center of old West Hartford to find the shopping district where all the restaurants were. Unfortunately, we made a bad decision (our first and only of the trip) regarding the restaurant for dinner and though Mom enjoyed her meal, I think, mine was disappointing and didn't agree with me at all.

Despite that it was a good day and the end of a delightful trilogy of good days. I hope to get back there one day! And even given the incredible amount of stuff we packed into the Labor Day weekend, it's rather daunting to think that of all the things we considered doing during our 3 days, we only made a really tiny dent in the veritable plethora of things to do and see in the area! Two fixes in one day: a great artist and a great writer! Who could ask for anything more?

Barrelfuls of Big Birthday Wishes to elemmennope!

Having a 3-day weekend in the middle of my business trip was an unexpected bonus. I never think about Labor Day being in September anymore since the European Labor Day is May 1st and the only reason the American date ever crosses my radar is when I need an answer from someone in the US office and they're not laboring because it's Labor Day. The same thing happens on Memorial Day and St. Patrick's Day and even, sadly, Thanksgiving. They're not holidays here, so I don't think about them as days off. Though I DO, now, think about Ascension Day and Epiphany (which got yanked as a holiday a couple of years ago in favor of Sweden's National Day instead) and the aforementioned May 1st.

When we planned the trip dates, the US Marketing Manager wasn't thinking about holidays either. We were simply counting backwards from the conference I was going to be helping prepare the materials for to make sure that we had ample time for layout, review, printing, and shipping and that gave us the first 2 weeks of September, which I immediately booked. So I was quite pleasantly surprised to realize that one of the days I was in the US working would be a day off.

Mom and I drove all over Massachusetts during those 3 days. We met my uncle and aunt (who live in Albany, NY) at the Eric Carle Picture Book Art Museum just outside of Amherst. While we were waiting for them, we stopped at a lovely country farm grocery store that had the most beautiful assortment of goods I've ever seen. They even had a little sushi bar with fantastic looking sushi ready to go, so when Sam & Joanne arrived at the museum and we discovered that the museum cafe only offered vending machine options, we went back down the road and I got sushi while the rest had salads and sandwiches. Score!

The Eric Carle was FANTASTIC. I only wish there had been more to it. There were 3 big galleries: one a permanent collection of Eric Carle's work. The other 2 galleries rotate and we got lucky because one of my favorites was there: Ernst H. Shepard's original illustrations for Winnie the Pooh. The third gallery featured Tomie dePaola who I wasn't as familiar with, but who impressed me mightily. Each gallery had a bench or two with a box of books available for anyone to sit down and read or flip through as well. There was also a great big library room stuffed full of picture books (where the librarian was engaged in music and storytelling for a rapt audience of small children) and a huge WONDERFUL museum store that must have contained nearly every picture book ever printed and then some. It was really great.

In fact, we spent so much time in the museum store oohing and ahhing over everything that we were very nearly late for the last tour at the Emily Dickinson House in downtown Amherst and had to race back to town. We weren't able to take the "Emily Dickinson's World" tour which goes through both her house and her brother's next door and which gives much more information about her family and the scandals that rocked it. We did read a bit about it in the waiting room though, before going on the "This was a Poet" tour which was actually a bit hokey, though I think that was due to our guide and not the subject matter.

After leaving the museum, we walked into town and stopped in the Amherst Brewery for a drink and to talk before deciding where to go for dinner. Plus Joanne wanted to watch the US Open Oudin-Sharapova match. We asked the bartender for recommendations and she gave us a surprised face and said, "It's Moving In Weekend here for the colleges and you probably won't get in anywhere unless you have a reservation...I'd get the hell out of town if I were you!" She told us to drive 2 towns south to Northhampton and said we'd find a veritable plethora of good places to eat all along the downtown streets: we couldn't go wrong.

Except that when we got into Northhampton, it was even more crazy crowded than Amherst because it was hosting the Tri-County Fair! People were everywhere! The place was totally jumping. Stores, boutiques and galleries were open late, buskers were out in force along the sidewalks and every restaurant was jam-packed. BUT! We found parking spaces for both cars almost immediately on the main drag and we spotted the one restaurant she had mentioned by name and discovered they had a 3-course dinner which enabled choosing from nearly everything on the menu for $20 and MAN, was it good! Spoleto's, for those interested.

After dinner, we walked around the town, weaving through the clumps and bunches of people out having a good time,and popped in and out of every little store and boutique that caught our eyes. I found Laini's Ladies in one place and was proud to show off a blog friend's beautiful stuff to my relatives! The weather was warm, the atmosphere was energetic and the sun took its time going down. It was just a splendidly nice day, all around.

And it was only the first!

Dancing in the Breeze (no special effects): Blueberrymoon's daughter's hair

Great stuff: And the pursuit of happiness

This week has been full. Stuffed full. Crammed full. Proppmätt, as they say in Swedish, though that usually has to do with your stomach and not your calendar. Life is ALWAYS full, it seems. Remember those long, lovely, boring days of summer when you were a child and there was nothing to dooooooooooo? Yeah, I dont either.

Early Saturday morning I'm flying to Boston via Amsterdam (with only a 1.5 hour layover, eek!) for 2 weeks of working at our US office. If I wasn't able to take this trip for work, it would have been over 3 years since I was last in the States. It's just so prohibitively expensive to get there with 4 people these days. It's very frustrating because ideally I'd like to get back no more than every year and a half at the most. Late last week, someone asked me if I was ready to go, and holy crap, I was SO NOT ready. Now? I'm totally geared up and putting the finishing touchs on my preparations in addition to everything else that is going on.

This week, as usual, I've had something to do every single evening and day but for the most part they have all been good things, including a massage, the AWC meeting, book group, a lunch with friends, a dinner with Camilla, sushi, good workouts, SUNSHINE, a gift certificate from the club, and getting al lthe umpty-million things on my to-do list crossed off. I only have a couple of things left: print my boarding pass, PACK, order a taxi, get the flea market stuff out to the curb before I leave for the airport and spend a couple of hours tomorrow evening helping the village sports organization with the flea market preparations as part of our duties as the parents of a kid who plays soccer for said organization. Too bad I won't be here to actually shop at the flea market but the compensation of being able to shop in the UNITED STATES far makes up for it! :D

My nephew is going to be okay...he does have the kidney valve (renal reflux) problem and will have to have surgery to correct that now, but his kidney function was much better than expected so they will not have to worry about dialysis or a transplant until he's an adult, and maybe not even then, depending, AND his sister seems to be okay.

My father-in-law had surgery this morning for a hernia, but I just talked to Anders' mom and it went fine, and he should be home by Saturday.

When I came home from work yesterday, Karin was running a high temp and complaining of a sore throat so we dosed her and medicated and sent her to bed, and I knew there was a pretty good chance I'd have to work from home today. Sure enough, she still had a bit of a fever this morning though it's since disappeared and she seems like she'll be fine for tomorrow.

I am actually a bit sad to be leaving Sweden when it is in the midst of such a streak of grogeous weather. This whole summer has been, simply, fantastic. This morning it was dark and cloudy but by the I got my laptop open and logged in, the sun was brightening and the clouds were gone. It's been blue skies and beautiful all day. The plan for book group tonight is to go down by the beach and have our discussion near the water, which will be perfectly lovely. Even though the book was terrible and everyone will rip it to shreds, which sucks for me since it was one of my recommendations, but that's okay, since I didn't like it either. The sun is shining, shining, shining! and I'm immersed in the beginning of Mark Twain's Autobiography and I'm leaving on a jet plane in just 2 days!

Gigantic, Humungous, Great Big Birthday Wishes to wavebreaker and Belated ones to bondas!