Just got home from an evening out with "the girls," and had a very nice time. Good conversation, good company, and good food. Dessert was dark chocolate cups (!) filled with a goo of mixed fresh raspberries and blueberries in whipped cream and red currents. Delish! Anders was in the garage with his motorcycle in pieces, lovingly polishing and cleaning each piece as he has a track day or ride or something all day tomorrow. He explained that he had adjusted the front wheel's angle so that it would be more fun to ride. ahem.

He's taking Friday off to to start work on our deck, yay! We have to do it in 2 sections though, as money, as usual, is a bit tight this month. I'm sick of worrying about money and bills every blasted month, but guess that's the way things are when you have a new house and an entire yard to do something with. Speaking of yard:

Trees I want

• Lilac (1 dark purple and 1 light purple)


• Magnolia (tulip style)


• Cherry (because pink is so festive in the spring and cherry slushies with Festis Dandelion Apple juice are out of this world)


• Tulip (because I love the leaves)


• Ginkgo (ditto and did you know this species has been around, literally FOREVER?)


• Oak (because our last name is Ek, which means Oak in Swedish, so how can we not have one?)


• Birch (just because they're so lovely)

However, that's too many trees for our yard, big as it is, so I'm probably going to have to sacrifice. And here's the other problem. Anders thinks the only trees that belong in a yard (as opposed to a forest) are fruit and nut trees. I foresee a struggle here.

I'm picking up a bookcase tomorrow that I found on Blocket. Still on the hunt for 3 more of them and an IKEA Poang chair with beech wood and off-white upholstery. You can never have too many bookcases, right? I'm at 10 and counting, and that's not including the ones in the kids' rooms.