Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Thanksgiving - with a real turkey

We got unexpected (Swedish) family guests over Thanksgiving and decided that we for once would cease the all American tradition and put together a real Thanksgiving. So we had them watch the Thanksgiving parade in the morning, play football outside (oh, well, soccer - we don't own a football) help out to prepare the meal, eat until they couldn't move and then watch some football on TV. Isn't this the essence of Thanksgiving so what? ;-)

We went online to find recepies for "traditional Thanksgiving food" and managed to make both the turkey (we opted for a small one) and green bean casseroll. We cheated on the pumpkin pie and got one from the store (don't tell anyone). Everyone ate everything and we had a lot of fun. We were pretty impressed with ourselves - maybe we'll do this as a tradition. ;-)

The small turkey.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Fall in California - flying away

What have I been up to this fall? Looking back - I'm not sure - it feels it's still - or at least should be August - but obviously I'm stuck in the past. I have done some travels - a couple of trips to Stockholm, Sweden, one trip down to LA to watch the Midterm Elections and one trip down to San Diego to attend a conference. Add regular work and a family to the travel mix. The bad thing about getting all those miles when traveling is that you can use them - for travel - when all you want to once you get back from your miles-awarded-travels is not to travel...

When you fly "domestic" within California - Southwest is your best choice. Southwest is a special airline - voted high in customer satisfaction and - one of few that actually isn't on the verge of bankruptcy...  When you are to board a Southwest flight you are assigned a special number - and you have to line up in the exact order when it's time to board. No one has assigned seats - not even travelers in "business class" (there is not business class - only the privilege of getting on board first - and getting a free drink). It's a somewhat nice change from long term flights across the globe - and the best part is that "domestic" California rarely means flying more than an hour.

Random pictures from this fall:



The wall of Konserthuset in Stockholm
The fantastic ceiling of Ulvsunda Slott outside Stockholm
- you don't see ceilings like this too often over here...
Meg Whitman declares defeat in Universal City in LA where
I happened to end up on Midterm Election night. 
Spent a few rainy days in San Diego in October. Not much use of the rain. 

We did see the sun one - one evening. But I did have a great view from my hotel room...