A Swedish Alien in California

Basketball coach

2011-01-14T16:50:00.000-08:00

Since I don't have (and the way it looks like right now, I will never have) kids in Sweden, I don't know what kids do for after school activities over there. And when I think about what I did as a kid, it isn't really helping since it's been awhile.. and things do change... But I do know what American kids can choose when it comes to after school activities - and a lot of it is sports. Sports is a big deal here. And one thing that I will never (or who knows, give me a couple of years) get used to is is these seasonal sports. If you want to play soccer you have to play in fall. If you want to play basketball, you play in winter. If you want to play softball you play in spring. Even though where I live there really are no real seasons to stop you from playing soccer in winter and softball in spring. I don't get it? Why do you have to jam in a whole season in a couple of months and then - nothing? Is it because you want the kids to play all sports (and be crazily busy all through the year)? I remember playing soccer and we did that all year around - and when it was too much snow you played indoors. And when I got older and taller I switched to basketball, which you also played all around the school year.

Oh, well - that's the way you do sports here, I just have to get used to it.

My Daughter finally likes to play basketball - so she is signed up for the basketball league - that will go on between January and March. I like basketball. It's a social sport - you can play it and hang out. You can play it on your own. Or with 3 friends or a whole team. You don't need a field, one backboard is fine. And with her Swedish decent, she will be tall - which comes in handy when you play basketball.

And I'm not sure how it happens - but I'm the assistant basketball coach.... So every Saturday for 2,5 hours, I'm now helping coaching 8 little 2nd Graders figure out how to play basketball. It's a lot of fun - they are so enthusiastic and way too small for their team outfits no one won't be dunking any scores. If judging by the jamboree games last weekend, I'm going to be a rarity - a female assistant coach... Wish me luck!

Interior design for hardcore Swedes

2011-01-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

I haven't been an alien long enough to crave this Dalahäst carpet. But give me another 5-10 years, and I might spend some $2000 to get some real Scandinavian feeling in my house.

(Picture from ScandinavianDesignCenter, who also sell the carpet)

Good time to be an Alien

2011-01-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

When I moved out, 10 years ago, it was before SVTPlay, e-book readers or Skype. At least it was in the time of the DVD so you could bring Swedish DVDs with you - if you hacked your DVDplayer. TV3's short newsprogram (what was it called? 3 minutes) actually put up an online version of it's news program online - and you might be able to stream it - but that was it.

Now we live in a time where you can be in France and watch the Swedish princess wedding in Stockholm live on your iPhone or follow the "Julkalendern" (Swedish children's program in December) as if you were in Swedish (and with nice grandparents who send the paper calendar - it's just like in Sweden).

And two months ago I gave myself an e-reader* and now I don't have to wait for the next visit to Sweden to use valuable weight in my suitcases with books to read (even though I ready perfectly fluently in English - it's nice (and important) to read in Swedish as often as I get the chance). With my e-reader I can buy (or borrow when I have my Swedish library card set up) Swedish books in minutes and start reading.

My kids thinks it's perfectly natural to turn on their computer and check if grandmom is online, put on the headset and the video and talk on Skype.

New technology makes life good for aliens.

(I got the new Nook Color by Barnes&Noble - I'm an Amazon fan and a huge user - but with the Kindle you can't read epub files - the standard used by libraries or Swedish booksellers - only the Amazon books can be read on a Kindle. If you want to use an e-reader to read Swedish books - make sure it can read epub files and install Adobe Digital Editions on your computer and hook the e-reader and ADE together - and hepp - you're good to go!)

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T09:07:00.000-08:00

We have decided to repeat last year's success and spend New Year's Eve downtown and watch the fireworks - one at 9 pm and one at midnight. I'm Swedish (or European) at heart - I need the year to go out with some major dynamite explosions. The small "puffs" people randomly throw around on New Year's Eve here doesn't count. It should be loud and big.

Usually New Year's is one of the few days of the year when I really feel home sick (Midsummer Eve is the other) - I miss the fantastic feeling of hitting the streets at midnight and everyone is out, cheering, seeing, hearing, smelling the fireworks. Watching the ball drop in New York on rerun from 3 hours earlier just doesn't do the trick...

But our newly invented tradition is as close as you get to a European New Year's Eve.

I wish all of you a Happy New Year and hope you get to see lots of fireworks!!

Standards?

2010-12-30T19:54:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the lack of standards here makes me crazy... it sure would make life easier and less adventurous... In our house we have five closets with sliding doors. We have decided to exchange the doors on two closets to sliding doors to make them more accessible. When we started measuring it turns out that the five closet doors have tree different dimensions and when we came to Home Depot it turns out that neither of the dimensions we had can be fit with a sliding door - they have totally different dimensions... And that's just the width - if you add height things are even more complicated. Seems you have to decide what doors you want and then build the closet around them. For about 5 times the price of a "normal closet door" you can special order and it will take at least 6 weeks... that's IF the height is in the "range" of normal.

Oh, sometimes I miss 40, 60, 80 cm as standards...

Or maybe things are the same in Sweden when it comes to interior dimensions - after all I've only had a house in the US - never in the US....

Piggybacking on social networking services

2010-12-28T10:55:00.001-08:00

When I started up this blog in 2006, I had already been writing my personal family blog (but called it "diary") for over 3 years (and I still do - going on over 7 years now with daily updates), chronicling the life of our family far away from our close family and old friends. The blog was (is) my little outlet of thoughts that wasn't necessarily family related but topics that I wanted to write about still.

In 2006 the main issue was how to defeat the standard themes of Blogger... there was no Twitter... Facebook... or Buzz. In the past 4 years life has become swamped with social networking. In essence I love it - it's a way to keep close to friends and family - and meet new friends (as a sidemark - all local Swedes I've connected with here are the result of social networking in different forms). But it can also be time consuming - especially when you use it for your professional life as well (as I do). There are only so many hours in a day.

My goal is to maximize effect with minimal effort and try to piggyback on all social networking services so updating and adding will be easy and smooth. It took me all fall to find out a smooth way to do it in my professional life - and now I'm trying to build the same process in my private, social life. Using services as Posterous, Twitterfeed, apps and extensions in Chrome etc.

We'll see - bear with me the next couple of days (weeks?) when I try to optimize my flow of thoughts to this blog and get the feeds to work...

New Year - new home : www.SwedishAlien.com

2010-12-27T23:20:00.000-08:00

Dear readers (if you're still out there), after a busy couple of months I had to take some time off my dear blog and focusing on other things. Now on Christmas break - I decided to take some time to make some long over due changes and upgrades. I spent some time today looking back at this fall and made a couple of reflections below.

I'm also moving my blog to it's own domain - a move I've been planning for over a year (or more come to think of it), but never really finding the time.

From now on A Swedish Alien in California can be followed over at www.SwedishAlien.com. Links to here will still work - but if you want to update your blogroll lists - this is the new home. I hope to see you there (here) as I'm preparing for a new, great 2011!

I've connected a Twitter account to the blog too www.twitter.com/aSwedishAlien if you want to follow along there.

Lucia for the first time in...a long time

2010-12-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

Every year we have the kids dress up and sing Lucia songs at the local IKEA. This year we also got a chance to to it a little bit more for "real" - a local Lutheran church let us sing in their cute little church on the actual Lucia Day. And this year we had decided that the grown-ups should participate too - to make the singing a little bit stonger (which sure was needed at IKEA - as it happened to be the same day as the "julbord" and it was very noisy and busy).

This was the first time in... well... 25 years (?) that I walked and sang in a Lucia procession. I think the grown-ups were more excited than the kids - and we have decided to make it a tradition - we want to do this again! Poor kids...

Thanksgiving - with a real turkey

2010-11-30T22:30:00.000-08:00

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.

Fall in California - flying away

2010-11-15T22:27:00.000-08:00

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...

Greta Garbo in Stockholm

2010-09-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

Whenever I'm in Stockholm, I try to find the time to walk through Södra Skogskyrkogården (The Woodland Cemetery) and visit my grandmother's grave. I grew up next to the cemetery so this is my well known grounds to me.

Since 1999, not far from my grandmother (who passed about a decade earlier), Greta Garbo is buried here. Greta Garbo grew up in Stockholm but lived most of her life in the US - and between 1941 and the time of her death in April 1990, no one hardly saw her. It took a 9-year legal battle to decide on where she should rest

She is now resting in a quiet glade in this beautiful cemetery and someone has always put fresh flowers by her grave.

Stieg fever

2010-08-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

The success of Stieg Larsson in the US is amazing - everywhere you go, every newspaper you read - you'll find the books displayed and can read stories about him and his books. The Americans are obsessed with these books. I always smile when I see people with the books (and you see them everywhere) - thinking how they pronounce Fiskargatan and Bellmansgatan. And suddenly you have a new topic when you meet people - talk about the Millenium books and about Stockholm.

According to the Entertainment Weekly, the last book (named "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" and released in May 2010 in the US) sold 500 000 copies within the first 14 days in the US - which is an average of 35,714 books a day or 1489 books per hour.

Tolouse for a princess wedding

2010-07-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

To add to stress during my few weeks in Europe - I had managed to plan a trip to Toulouse where a old and very good, dear friend was tying the knot. She was getting married the same day as the Crown Princess was getting married in Sweden - so I left a crazy Stockholm for a quick visit to the old town Toulouse in the southern parts of France (or so I think - I flew and really didn't have time to check the map in more detail).

While keeping updated on the progress of the Crown Princess wedding in Stockholm I had a day to walk around in Toulouse - unfortunately in rain. I managed to buy an umbrella despite my total lack of French - and the clerks total lack of English. These are the times you wish the founders of Esperanto had been more successful.

The wedding was fantastic (or so I assume - I didn't understand any of it - but the bride and groom kissed at the end and looked fabulously happy - so I guess everything went according to plan) - and the couple was so fantastic - I'm pretty sure my friend was a princess in a former life - she sure looked like one. Made me want to get married again. Almost. Nah.

I got to visit a French castle outside in the country side - darn clouds that kept on blocking the view and the sun. And I kept a firm grip on the person I found (part from the bride) that could speak Swedish and secretly wished I had slept with a Rosetta stone course running in my ears the last couple of weeks before the wedding so I could have made it past "Bonjour, ca va?".

A few pictures from Toulouse:

And the princess and her prince:

Summer in Sweden - and in California

2010-07-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

After a very busy spring I took off with the kids for a couple of very busy weeks in Sweden. Working and visiting isn't a good combination. You'll end up in a weird situation when friends and family assume you're "home" when in fact you're "away" - far from routines and practicalities, The kids thinks they are "away" and me - I'm stuck in the middle. Four weeks run fast when you're trying to do everything - but we got it all done - Junibacken, Gröna Lund, Skansen, Old Town, eating ice cream in Kungsträdgården, fish herring, archipelago boat. And - we were lucky with the weather (only Swedes will get that part).

I came back to California a wreak - needing vacation from my vacation. ;-) The good thing about summer in California is that sun is guaranteed. No more packing a sweater and a rain coat "in case of" - you can pack away everything until October.

A few random pictures from Sweden this summer:

A real moose. Alive.

I'm I the only one who has this labyrinth at Skansen as a firm childhood memory?
The alien in me almost cried when I saw my kids run through it - 30 some years later.

Swedish strawberries and a Swedish Tant.

And then came the ash...

2010-04-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy week.

When Eyjafjallajökull decided it was time to wake up last Wednesday night my paretnts was en route to Sweden from CapeTown connecting in Amsterdam and my sister-in-law with family was en route to Sweden from California through Chicago. Needless to say we've ha a busy week trying to figure out flight schedules, alternative routes and what to do if this ash cloud just won't go away...

After four days my parents arrived in Stockholm after using three different trains, two ferries and a bus. Their luggage is presumably still in Amsterdam and who knows if they'll ever see it again.

This morning my sister-in-law with family finally took off, five days delayed. Things were looking good enough at 4.20 am this morning - there seemed to be a flight inbound for Chicago (through which they are transferring from here) and there was an estimated departure time and they had confirmed, re-booked tickets.So they took off for the airport and the Chicago flight.

But when the airport information system in Chicago showed other information than the SAS flight system when arriving there, we were not sure what to think.

Turns out SAS has a pretty active Facebook team and they have been working non-stop the last couple of days providing people with information to the extent that they could answer (after all - no one really knows where these ash clouds were heading and with authorities unclear with what rules should apply it's sure been a virtual nightmare for everyone trying to have some kind of answer).

This is the conversation I had with SAS on Facebook this morning - and the captain of the actual flight I'm asking about was online and could help confirm the information we needed (You don't want to go through security at O'Hare's terminal 1 unless it's just minimum time until your departure - for some reason this international terminal, from most international flights (ie LONG flights) depart at O'Hare has no food in any form once you've gone through).

I like what social media can do with organizations and their communication. You might ask yourself why the same information can be as informal and readily accessible on their actual business websites instead of Facebook - but hey - as of today - we got our answers so I'm happy. And what could be a better confirmation of a flight than the actual captain.

Classic backpack

2010-04-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

I get tons of direct marketing material from apparel stores. Somehow I've ended up in a register and every day I find them waiting in my mailbox, no matter if I shop from them or not. Some of them are thick as magazines. The other day I got the Crewcuts catalog, that's J.Crew's children's line. I browsed through it and found this...

A Fjällräven Kånken! Now this brings back memories! It was released in 1978 and I remember having one but can't remember the color (blue? green? It wasn't pink, that's for sure - it was Sweden in the 70s!!). It was used for field trips - something I have a memory we did quiet often. In Sweden you could get one for SEK 399, but Crewcut wants $80 for it. Finally something that is cheaper in Sweden! ;-)

Anyway, a Fjällräven Kånken is a real classic - every Swede over 30 would know this backpack.

Long-haul flights - part of being an alien

2010-04-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

When I flew back from Sweden, I had to go through Frankfurt. That means that you'll end up on a jumbo, either United's or Lufthansa's. Both are horrible. The are huge, old and outdated. I ended up on Lufthansa's flight and was squeezed in in the back cabin. The jumbos have not inflight entertainment, the only entertainment on the flight is on small screens in the ceiling. On the 11-hour flight, they showed 2 movies, both of which I had seen coming to Europe.

Luckily I had no one next to me so at least I could move around a bit and sleep and with my extra battery to my iPhone and bag of paperback books I picked up at PocketShop at Arlanda I had my own entertainment. But 11 hours... that's a loooong time to be squeezed in.

This is what you'll stare at for 11 hours on the flight between Frankfurt and San Francisco.

Why is it called "legroom"?

Semla

2010-03-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

I like semlor. Even though it's basically just a bun with cream and some almond paste. It's a hazzle to make them on your own (and I actually think bought ones turn out better...). I was too lazy this year to make them - but during my stop in Stockholm I had one (actually two...).

Mmm...

Subway systems

2010-03-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

Since I grew up in Stockholm, I'm used to get around using public transportation. It's usually the quickest way if you're downtown and there is a subways system. And if you've used one system, you've used them all. The basics are the same, you just have to remember to keep your ticket - in some systems you might need it to get out.

During our stay in New York, we had meetings in downtown, midtown, uptown in the same day and rush around in the subway, sometimes adding a little taxi drive.

And as all subways systems... they're pretty nasty in during rush over... and in the New York subway, you have no cell phone coverage.

Baskeball in Madison Square Garden

2010-03-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

During my visit to New York I got the opportunity to spend an evening at Madison Square Garden, watching New York Knicks play the Detroit Pitsons (where we have Swedens' first NBA player, Jonas Jerebko). An American sports event is like a big party. Everyone is in a good mood, hanging out, watching the game, eating pizza. It's a good feeling and a real show.

During time outs or breaks, all the coaches, always dressed in nice suits, gather on the field, making quick strategies to bring back to the team. All while the audience is entertained by different performances. Even if you don't like basket ball (or fotball or baseball or what ever sport), you still have a good time.

Me and my co-workers were wearing red caps (Detroit Pistons' color), and cheered when ever Jerebko scored. Which he did pretty frequently, but not often enough to save the Pistons, who lost the game to the Knicks.

New York, New York

2010-03-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

New York might be in the same country and on the same continent, but it's still far from California. Getting there from here takes a whole day of boring flying. You don't just "pop by New York". I didn't have time to do much - a quick stop for about 30 minutes at FAO Scharwz and the MOMA Design Shop, the rest of the days were spent rushing between meetings. And then rushing out to JFK to continue to Sweden.

Arriving through the clouds to La Guardia.

The Village.

In between meetings.

View from my hotelroom. Empire State Building from the Meatpacking District.

Travel and jetlag

2010-03-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

I've been on the road and done a little airport hopping. Had to spend some time in New York and then continuing to Stockholm, Sweden. I used to be pretty good with jetlag - but these days, westbound jetlag (meaning coming back home to California) hits me so hard... it takes me two weeks to get out of it and have energy to do anything past 8 pm at night.

I've fallen behind on my updates - started numerous post, only to fall asleep before finishing up... But here we go - a couple of blog posts are coming right up!

Wooden stairs vs carpet runner stairs...

2010-03-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

I saw this picture in the newspaper over the weekend. "Looks great!", I thought when I saw the picture of the wooden stair case. Then I read the text and yeah... sure enough... the wooden stairs case was the "before" and the carpet runner stair case was the "after"...

Scandinavian design runs deep, deep in your veins...

English as a second language and grades in Elementary school

2010-03-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

Last week we got notice that our Daughter, who is in 1st Grade, has now formally been moved from the ESL status to FEP - meaning going from limited English proficiency to fluent English proficiency. That means that in theory, if you could correlate for age, we have a Daughter that is now better in English than we are. Cool!

All kids (in California, can't speak for the other 49 states) that speak a different language at home are flagged as ESL students and monitored extra in school. This is the Daughter's second screening (since it's her second year in the American school system that starts with Kindergarten at age 5) and she made huge progress the last year. We're so proud of her, handling two languages so very natural, switching back and forth...

We also got her grading, her Grade Progress Report, for the second period of the school year. Here you get grades from 1st Grade (well, you got "grades" in Kindergarten too, but they were more based on attendance) and I love it!

It's a great way to track what's going on in school and it's still based on a pretty easy scale - N (needs improvement), S (satisfactory), G (good), O (outstanding). For a lot of the "issues" you can't get more than a "G" or "N". You get the grades three times a year and the first and the second time you have a parent-teacher meeting to talk about them.

The Daughter is doing great - and we can also see some of the issues she had. The teacher writes notes on the grade sheet, following up. The kids (at least in our school) are not aware of the grades and it's not something you really talk about as in "you have to improve your grades", but really a good indication of progress.

The grading is not only "subject" based like you're used to in Sweden (or were used to - I know nothing about how grading is done these days - my last encounter with Swedish grading was.... long time ago...). You get an indication on "issues" like "Citizenship" like "respect self and others", "makes responsible choices", and "Work habits" such as "follow directions", "stays on task", and "Area efforts" in areas such as "technology", "visual and performance arts", and "physical education". My Daughter is "outstanding" at handing in homework (she should thank her mom!) and "satisfactory" in "staying on task". ;-)

Thumb prints...

2010-02-28T10:35:00.000-08:00

When I signed up for the office I had to sign the lease by identifying myself... with my thumb print... Just like when we bought the house, the Notary came in when signing and got our thumb prints in her big book. To a Swede, that feels like... ancient... But, in a country where you don't have such a rigid system with the "personal numbers" - I guess this is a good way to ensure identity...

Painting walls

2010-02-27T09:05:00.000-08:00

All our walls were white when we moved into our house. And for years we've thought about adding more color - especially to the living room. But since we have 5 meters to the ceiling in half of the room, it's a major project and one we just talk about but never actually start. And the other rooms have stayed white too, with the exception of the Daughter's room which actually got wall paper (ambitions of first time parents...).

But when we moved out the office part of our guestroom the last couple of weeks we suddenly were faced with an almost empty room (only the sofa bed remaining) and decided to repaint the room. We immediately took off for Lowe's so we wouldn't change our minds, and without much thinking spent about 20 minutes in the paint department, deciding on colors. We even dared to make a "fond" wall - one wall in a different color.

Once back home we just started painting and were surprised it was such a quick job (the preparations takes way more time that the actual painting).The light green color is called "fishnet" and the brown/khaki color is called "garden urn" (it must be fun working in a paint company's naming department...). American walls usually have a "bumby" structure (the original paint is "spray painted" on the walls - and sometimes I can really miss the "flat" Scandinavian walls. But adding color really made a difference. Now I want to repaint the whole house!

If the refrigerator hadn't broken down, there would have been some time to go to IKEA and get the new furniture in...

It's going to be so nice to have a genuine guestroom again - a special place for our usually long way guests to use and hang out in.

Refrigerator failure

2010-02-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

Last weekend our freezer failed. And here - that means that your whole refrigerator system breaks down since the freezer and the refrigerator parts are always connected. The Husband had just arrived with a week full of groceries and I was about to try to push the frozen items in to the tiny freezer half when I was met by a sauce of water and thawed food... We just had to turn around and head out and head for Lowe's and HomeDepot. No time for research or price comparisons.

Turns out that you can't have a refrigerator that fast - so with an interim solution of a freezer box (that we have thought about anyway) and an new, tiny office refrigerator set up in the garage we have made it through the week, and luckily the warm temperatures last week was exchanged with lower temperatures cooling the garage preetty good. We still lost a lot of food. And it's been a hassle to go out and in of the garage to get food.

But now we have a new, more energy efficient refrigerator - and a freezer box. We really are "freezing" people and are so annoyed at the small freezer half of the refrigerator solution that is the standard here. It's impossible to find the free standing freezer/refrigerator solution they use in Scandinavia - where they both part are the same size - and if one part fails - you don't have to exchange the whole system.

And we have opted for a in-door-ice maker (there are hardly any refrigerators without ice makes and they take up a good quarter size of the freezer part...), hoping to get some more space to freeze food...

But it was not money that was planned to be spent - I had lots of other plans for stuff for the house... like the newly painted guestroom...

Moved in!

2010-02-25T20:35:00.000-08:00

After a couple of weeks of having my foot in two places - I'm now moved in to my new studio. It's a 1 minute and 37 second drive or a 15 minute walk from my home office - so it's almost like working from home still. I love to get out and walk in the morning and love "leaving" work and still being so close to home.

Very good feeling. I had a pretty good home office before the family grew larger and my office items had to be spread out - now they are all collected and set up in the same room and I love it. It's going to be a good spring!

Moving out!

2010-02-02T22:31:00.000-08:00

After been working from home for 9 years - I'm finally getting an office outside the house. It's going to be great! We used to have a great home office in the house - but as the family grew, space got limited and the past few years I've been working out of a rebuilt walk-in closet in the guest room.

Now I'll get a huge room (compared to what I have...) - and - best of all - I'll have big windows with a great view. I can walk/bike to the office and I'll "leave" the office - which is one main drawback of working from home - you never leave - you're always at work...

I'm keeping my office at home to give myself some flexibility.

Now I'm dreaming of painting my walls with Idea Paint... wouldn't that be soo cool!?

Picture from www.IdeaPaint.com - so cool!

Flying

2010-01-21T22:08:00.000-08:00

I must say that so far my flying experience this year wasn't too bad. I gave myself a lot of time and braced myself for crazy security lines - but in the end - I can't say I felt any extra security at all. Maybe no terrorist flies from Zürich to the US? The planes were more or less half full and all my flights had boarding completed well before take off time, came in early and not once was my hand luggage searched extra. TSA had checked my bag between Washington DC and California (leaving their usual little white notice) - but my bags usually gets searched before my domestic flights (which always makes me pack my dirty laundry really nice...).

So - so far so good... My travels 2010 has only just started and it was a good start.

3000 m or 9800 feet above the sea

2010-01-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

As a little practice before flying high, I spent the last day of my day in Switzerland on 3000m/9800ft, on top of a glacier, overlooking the Swiss alps. It took 45 minutes and three lifts to get up there and the view was breathtaking. Not only because it was almost hard to breath with the thin air. I didn't ski during my trip to Switzerland - it was such a short stay and I usually get dizzy and really tired from jetlag - a great way to hurt yourself. And I have mountains and snow pretty close by - so I preferred to spend my free time exploring Switzerland. I did take a little walk on top of the glacier and took a walk inside a glacier cave - camera ready - but no pictures can really capture the greatness of this view...

Snow in the Swiss alps

2010-01-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

After leaving Zürich, I spent the rest of my stay in Switzerland in Engelberg, about hour drive from Zürich. It's a small little "town" embedded in the alps. The first day when we arrived, it was over cast and hard to get a feeling that you were even close to the alps, only the narrow, steep roads gave you a hint. But the second day, the skies cleared and it was beautiful!

I spent most of my time in Engelberg in conference - but I took a few photos from when walking between the hotels:

Visiting Luzern, Switzerland

2010-01-18T21:44:00.000-08:00

During my short stay in Switzerland, I got a chance to spend half a day in Luzern, a beautiful city, also by a lake. A cute old town, filled with - tada - watch stores... It would be interesting to know how many of the stores in the city were watch stores...

The weather was amazing - and we got a beautiful view of the alps from a distance, walking around in this very nice city. Funny enough - we stopped twice at the same Starbucks - which happened to have a great location by the old bridge - first staying in doors to heat up a bit, drinking coffee and tea, and right before going back, now sitting outside in the sun, drinking coffee and tea.

A little slide show with pictures from Luzern:

Swiss celebration

2010-01-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

I happened to celebrate my birthday in the middle of my Switzerland journey. Birthdays are important days for me - and I prefer to be close to family - but this time around there was no way around it - I had to be away. When the waiter in the breakfast room in the Zürich hotel learned it was my birthday he quickly got out a glass of champagne and a nice birthday cake. So cute!

And I can really recommend starting out a day with champagne - it puts you in a good mood for the rest of the day! ;-)

Zürich, Switzerland

2010-01-16T20:59:00.000-08:00

My first air travel this year didn't take me to Sweden - but to the country Sweden always gets confused with. Switzerland. It was my first visit to Switzerland - a country in Europe I have failed to set my foot in during all my European travels. So even though it was a short trip - less than a week, with only four full days in Switzerland - I was kind of excited and packed my SLR to try to catch some photos.

I started out by spending a day in Zürich - a beautiful city, by the beautiful lake and the Swiss alps close by. It was a cold day and I went straight from the airport for sightseeing and when the day was over I have been on the go for almost 36 hours straight. By 9 pm, I was beat and off to sleep...

I've selected some of my pictures in a little slide show. The sun didn't come out until the very end of the day - so unfortunately the foggy, cloudy sky doesn't give justice to this beautiful city! Enjoy!

Busy busy bee

2010-01-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a little break from blogging here - spending time on our private online diary that needs updating. And there is only so much free time you have these days. I've been writing an online diary for friends and family to follow along - a way to try to bring our daily life here close to those that are far away. The page has been up since 1999, but the diary started in 2003, on the day my daughter was born and I've been writing it ever since, sharing stories and pictures from the kids' life. That means over 2000 diary entries and over 12000 pictures over the past years - and a pretty hefty database that needed to be moved and renewed...

I'm collecting my stories for here and updates might show up a bit "huller om buller" as we would say in Swedish (and that Nordsteds dictionary translated as "higgledy-piggledy" an expression I have never heard...) until I'm back in my normal pace again.

Stay tuned.

An alien package

2010-01-02T21:15:00.000-08:00

A dear friend that I've befriended over the fantastic internet and now known for over 5 years, sent me a Christmas gift (that became a New Year's gift), that only a fellow alien can assemble. It almost brought me to tears... I have never, ever as long as I've been an alien gotten a package like this - candy, magazines, books, Christmas stories, Bamse apparel, 2kg "smågodis".... What a fantastic way to start the new year!

Thank you so much my dear dear Lama-girl!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

2010 started out with fireworks - a nice change from the normal, quiet New Year's Eves we've celebrated here (one of the days of the year when I really feel homesick for Europe). This year we moved ourselves to where the fireworks are - and stayed the night downtown for easy access to the fireworks. We think we might make this a traditions - a new year really should start with some major dynamite explosions!

Flying in 2010...

2009-12-28T21:32:00.000-08:00

I don't even want to think about the effects of the latest airplane terrorist attempt for flying passengers...

After the shoe bomber incident we all had to start remove our shoes when going through security... the terrorist plot in London restricted our liquids to 3oz containers in a quart size zip lock bag...

But this terrorist hid explosives in his underwear...

One thing is clear. If you thought it was hard work flying after 911 - it's going to be even worse. Security is going to be worse than worse. The latest news says that all books, blankets, other hand luggage in your lap will be prohibited during the last part of the trip. Imagine not having anything to entertain your kids with for one hour after an 11-hour cross-Atlantic flight except the in flight magazine? You will start seeing some very creative toys being built out of ripped out pages...

I doubt there is a way where you can find all possible dangerous items no matter how much effort you put into security. There just is too many people flying and too many bags. In the end - the only thing we can really rely on - is fellow brave and quick thinking passengers, willing to do something, should some bastard terrorist try something. Kudos to the passengers on Flight Northwest 253 on Christmas Day.

Report drunk drivers

2009-12-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

When driving home from Christmas celebrations signs like this one is everywhere along the highways (the huge traffic signs are also used for regular traffic information and Amber alerts).Are there signs like this in Sweden these days? And what would the sign say? "Om du ser någon som kör bil berusad, ring 112?".

I guess all that glögg drinking at Christmas time should be a good reason to have the signs up in Sweden too. ;-)

Santa came!

2009-12-24T09:59:00.000-08:00

Swedish kids get a personal visit by Santa on Christmas Eve. And even though our kids were born here - the Santa still found them on Christmas Eve. Must be the Swedish parents...
It's Swedish tradition mixed with American since the kids do have their stockings too - and we wonder how long we can keep it going until the kids are totally confused and their peers think they are crazy when they claim that Santa came in person to deliver gifts... one day ahead of everyone else. But for now we just let him come and ask the traditional question "Are there any nice kids here?" (and imagine - the answer is always "yes!!!").

It's too bad the Husband always miss Santa's arrival...

Merry Christmas 2009

2009-12-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

The most common Christmas card we get from our American friends is a nice family picture with a printed greeting - the whole family or just the kids. The most common Christmas card we get from our Swedish friends is a painted card with snow and old fashioned Santas and a hand written greeting. I like both versions - it's nice to get Christmas cards.

Our Christmas card this year was done in August when the Daughter suddenly out of the blue drew this picture on our big white board in the office - we took a picture and added words and a frame. And the funny thing is that Santa really assembles the Husband...

(and no - I might live in California like Anna Anka and other Hollywood wifes - but I do not have botox in my lips...).

Christmas magic

2009-12-20T09:42:00.000-08:00

When I grew up, Christmas was magic. Or - at least that's how I remember them - so that means my parents did something right. Now being a parent myself, I work hard to create magic Christmases for my own kids. December, one of the darkest months even here in California, should be a month of magic and recurring traditions. It's a lonely job, my Husband would be happy with a Christmas magnet on the refrigerator and if he didn't hear a single Christmas song he wouldn't even care.

It's not that I'm over-decorating the house or play the music non-stop - but I have a few pieces that are put up under ceremonies and I do have a Christmas playlist ready to go. But creating a magic Christmas is all about the details, not necessarily the quantities.

And creating days that are special and magic is not just about Christmas, it goes for birthdays and other days too.

When you are grown-up, you don't remember all those regular days - but those days that were made special and magic. And that's what I want my kids to remember when they are grown-up.

Sales, sales, sales

2009-12-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

There is always a sale going on here. If you have enough patience - you can get anything you want when it's on sale... Why would you ever buy something at regular price, when it might be with 20, 30 och 50% off the next week. Makes shopping a bit stressful - even though you can save tons of money if you shop smart.

If you sign up for the stores' news mail - you'll get heads up information on when a sale is coming up. I think I've gotten all of my Christmas gifts this year on sales - the exact items that I planned - but at a heavy discount.

And all those sales makes you wonder... if they can sell these items at such discounts - then buying at ordinary prices really must be a rip-off....

Happy Sales!

"Man tager vad man haver"

2009-12-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

Lucia is one of my favorite festivities - love the music, the candles. When I lived in Stockholm, I used to go watch the music schools performance in the big sports arena, Globen, with hundreds of kids singing and catch one or two Lucia processions at different places.

When you live far from Sweden - you have to take what you have - to translate a Swedish saying, and in our case that means IKEA.

Sometime around Lucia - but for some reason usually not on the actual Lucia day, December 13, the little Swedish school is performing a Lucia procession in the IKEA restaurant, among people eating $1 meatballs. It's really cute and nice to hear those songs - but hm... maybe not so... serene...

What?? Snow?

2009-12-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

For the first time since I got here - I've seen snow in our city. An unusually cold storm passed by over night dumping lots of snow up in the mountains and cooling down the valley enough for very rare snow to fall. I was up over night with a coughing son and could inspect the pretty heavy snow fall. The ground is still warm and the temperatures go up during the day, so there was hardly anything left this morning after sunrise. But still.

Lot's of excitement. The news sent snow reports all night long and the weather people who normally hardly have any weather to report about were going crazy.

Since snow means freezing temperatures, or as they say "sub-zero temperatures", there is a "freeze alert" in place. Which is kind of funny coming from Sweden and trekking to school through feets of snow. The media has guides to how to cope with the cold weather - and maybe they are needed. If you are totally unused to freezing temperatures, you might have to be reminded to wear warm mittens instead of gloves.

But the last warning in today's paper below, "Cover your mouth with a scarf to protect lungs" might be something I would think would be more useful in... say Siberia or... Antarctica... Not at -2C (or 28F).

Decorating the Christmas tree early

2009-12-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

When I grew up we always decorated the tree the day before Christmas Eve, December 23. And then we kept the tree until the beginning of January. In the US, you decorate your tree way earlier, usually in early December and I've changed my "tradition" too. I really enjoy December and want to enjoy the tree before Christmas. Now I usually I clean out Christmas between Christmas and New Year's. So today we got our tree and decorated it and now it is being enjoyed in the living room!

Getting a Christmas tree here is way easier than I remember it was in Sweden. They are all perfectly shaped and almost all the same length. Can you mutate Christmas trees?

Before and after...

"Relax". Yeah right.

2009-12-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

Right before Thanksgiving we got a notice from our health provider, Kaiser Permanente. "Relax - there is nothing you need to do", was the headline with a smiling woman under the headline.

THAT got us worried...

And when reading on, we realized that they, with the message, was increasing our monthly payments with $114 (which is something like an increase of 23%) ($114 is approximately SEK 800) and doubling the deductible from $3000 to $6000 (meaning we now have to pay for all health costs up to $6000 a year before the insurance kick in...) ($6000 is approximately SEK 42000). All this with 30 days notice. And for those who had tried to get or switch insurance you know that 30 days isn't enough to research, apply, get approved for another insurance.

"Relax - there is nothing you need to do"... Well - is there anything we CAN do? The message should have been "Relax - there is nothing you could do - we're going to skim you off your money and you have no say".

We have a private insurance - since we're both self-employed - so there really isn't that much we can do. But to agree that this country sure needs to take a serious look at health insurance - regardless of what the solution is.

As a communicator, I sure wonder about the headline message - but I guess that was the only good thing they could come up with. That you don't have to do anything to get the rate hike, they're just plainly going to take our money.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T10:24:00.000-08:00

I like the American Thanksgiving holidays. A time to spend time with your family - no stress with gifts or special decorations (even though I love Christmas and I'm not really stressed out about it) - a nice break at the end of November, before the last few weeks of the year. And giving you a lot of time to put up your advent decorations.

My only problem with the weekend is that no one in Sweden hardly knows about it... and they are working as usual... and if you're in the consultancy business, it's high season. It's tricky to take off time in late November and despite efforts to do auto-answers on the e-mail etc, I still got calls on Thanksgiving, in the middle of the Macy's Parade watching, from surprise coworkers who wondered why I hadn't checked my e-mail...

When explaining that Thanskgiving is THE time of the year when almost everything is close - it's when explaining that even McDonalds is closed on Thanskgiving they understand.

Now, the fact that most things are closed on Thanksgiving Day, is matched with extremely open stores on Black Friday.. store opening at long before sunrise...

Home, sweet, sunny home

2009-11-23T21:59:00.000-08:00

I'm back home in California after a 24 hours door-to-door trip. I was so tired I first couldn't find the car at the longterm-parking lot... even though I had written down the aisle and texted the husband the same info. I managed 36 hours without sleep when arriving in Paris and managed through my crazy week in Europe on pure will - but coming home, letting down your guard - the jetlag really hits me big time. For days I'm like a zoombie. Sleep 12 hours every night and the only thing I can think of when being up is when I'm going to get back to bed and sleep...

These short trips makes the jetlag harder - it's like your swinging the body in two opposite direction without time to bounce back.

Oh, well, it's going to be over soon and then I'm going to enjoy the fun things I picked up in Stockholm - like the bag of books from PocketShop at Arlanda...

Swedish phenomena I've missed

2009-11-21T21:50:00.000-08:00

During my short visit to Stockholm this time around, I did have reason to attend a "award gala" at Berns in Stockholm - a very old and beautiful restaurant and hotel that you appreciate even more when you are an alien.

Host of the gala was the new Swedish comedian Petra Mede. It was the first time I heard her - I have only read about her. I didn't catch any of the "Melodifestivaler" where she was the host and I've never seen her stand-up. It's one of these things that really emphasis that you now are an alien - popular cultural phenomena that you've totally missed.

But then - I'm not sure I missed so much when it comes to Ms Mede. Maybe I was just jetlagged and tired -but I thought she was kind of plump and actually quite mean at people that came up on stage.But maybe that's the way she is and why she is considered funny. Oh, well - now I've seen her and can check that from my Swedish popular cultural list...

Stockholm

2009-11-20T21:40:00.000-08:00

If you visit Stockholm in November, you should brace yourself for gray skies and rainy weather and my three days in Stockholm this November where just like that. I didn't see the sun at all during my time, even though my Brother called from the suburbs one afternoon, claiming he could see it. When I left Stockholm there had been 3 hours of sun since the beginning of the month. I'm not sure if that is record low, or just normal.

Even though I've never liked fall, I can't remember that it bothered me that much when I lived there. Fall kind of grew on you and slowly, slowly it got darker. But when you fly in from sunny California, your body is not only jetlagged, but sunlagged too.

But never mind the weather and the darkness (it gets dark at 3.30 pm now - and it's going to get worse before it gets better) - this is Stockholm - my hometown! Even though I spent most of my days in the office and hardly had time to leave during this record short stay - it's still Stockholm...

My brother was nice enough to lend me a suitcase so I could get Christmas gifts back home - and had let me used their mailbox for my advance online shopping. But oh, how I would have loved to have more time in Stockholm - meeting family and friends and gone walking and fika and just enjoying. In the rain and darkness - I wouldn't have mind!

View from my hotel window - picture taken at 8 am.

Brussels

2009-11-18T21:30:00.000-08:00

After my quick visit to Paris I headed off to Brussels, taking the train from Gare du Nord. Oh, the memories... I've passed through Gare du Nord a number of times, on my way to adventures in Europe or on my way back home with empty pockets. The train announce sign is still the same! The train ride is pretty quick - 1 hour and 20 minutes - from one European capital to the other.

Brussels is one of those cities I've have no real relationship too. I've passed through quickly with friends once, driving from Paris to Hauge in the Netherlands. And I think we did stop there in 1978 on our car trip to Paris with the family - but if so - I can't remember much.

Not that my stay in Brussels was very extensive this time around either - two days of intensive meetings and conferencing. But - one of the things I got to see was the European Parliament. We were greeted by one of the Swedish MPs and guided through the procedures and processes of the EU - really, really interesting. And - I have a much more visual idea about the EU now - when I've seen "it". Well, at least the building...

After picking up some TinTin items at the Brussels airport - I headed up to Stockholm.

The announcement sign at Gare du Nord in Paris.

The European Parliament.

The entrance to the European Parliament.

A blurry picture of the assembly hall at the European Parliament.

Parts of the Berlin Wall outside the EU in Brussels.

Paris

2009-11-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

I have visited Paris many times but it's been a couple of years... well... come to think of it... something like 12 years. I used to come here to visit one of my best, dear friends and we had tons of fun (dancing salsa, hiding out from thunderstorms at Sacre-Coeur, eating seven course dinners and taking car trips to the coast).

I only had 26 hours to spend in Paris this time around (when I flew in from Dulles, DC...) - and I used them well, ignoring the fact that I hadn't slept since Friday morning Californian time. I had a chance to spend a fantastic morning with my dear friend to try out her bridal dress, meet my dear alien friends from around Europe, walking in the Tuileries, drinking tea at a brasserie close to Les Halles, shopping in Les Marais, and eating a fantastic dinner around République - before the fact that I had been up for 36 hours straight forced me back to the hotel at Saint-Germian-des-Prés...

View from my hotel window.

Alternatives to cars on busy, narrow streets.

Montparnasse in the background.

The Parisian Metro.

A conversation at the check-in counter

2009-11-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

When arriving at the check-in counter at the airport I told the attendant that "I was going to Paris through Dallas". "Ok", the woman said, "Paris through Dulles". "Yes", I said, "Dallas". She looked strangely at me and I was thinking how weird it was that she had so much trouble pronouncing "Dallas". Got my boarding card and went through security and passed by the gate to Washington DC, thinking it's convenient that there is a direct flight to the east coast at that time. But strangely enough I couldn't find the gate to Dallas... and then it hit me and I picked up my boarding card....

And sure enough...

It said... tada... Dulles Airport in Washington DC...

This is what happens when you fly too often - so often that you just toss your printed e-ticket papers in your travel bag, just glancing to check departure and arrival time... Dallas - Dulles... same same...

I quickly text the Husband, informing him that I wasn't going to Dallas after all and then settled for a cross-country flight rather than a half-way flight... But then - in the end - I did arrive in Pars - just as planned. Not just exactly the way I had thought...

Conversations at the Dentist

2009-11-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

Last week I took the Daughter to the Dentist to seal her molars - an invention that wasn't invented when I was a kid and something that seems very smart to do. While waiting for things to get ready the Dentist asked my Daughter what her favorite food was. She answered "pizza", which kind of surprised me since we don't really eat it that often and I have never heard of it being a favorite and besides she usually only eat the bread... "Aha", said the Dentist, "you love your mom's home made pizza - isn't that the best when your mom makes you pizza?".

What??

What did that come from? Did I miss a meeting - or is that something moms have to do - make home made pizza... My Daughter looked puzzled since she has hardly seen me in the kitchen (in this house the Husband is the chef) and then looked at the Dentist and said (my faithful, loyal daughter), "Yes".

Then the Dentist was going to explain the procedures. Very child friendly - only my Daughter was busy watching Madagascar 2 on the screen in the ceiling and was thinking about the toy chest where she would pick up a toy on her way out. She didn't really care about dental procedures. "I'm going to use this infrared light to harden the sealants", the Dentist told my Daughter. "It's the same light your mom uses when she goes to the nailsaloon and gets her nails fixed".

What??

By now I started to feel really inadequate as a mom. Not only have I never made my Daughter homemade pizza, I have actually never been to a nail saloon nor have I brought my 6-year old Daughter. The Daughter looked puzzled at the Dentist and then nodded and kept watching the movie.

To the next Dentist appointment I'm sending the Husband.

Going on the road - in Timbuk2 style

2009-11-11T10:04:00.000-08:00

This upcoming weekend I'm hitting the road. I'm off to Europe - going to Stockholm through Paris and Brussels. Paris to meet friends during a 24 hour long stop and then on to Brussels for a conference and then Stockholm for work.

It's going to be a long trip - I'm going to Paris through Dallas. Then taking the train to Brussels from Paris and then flying up to Stockholm. I'm going to pack light - travelling only with a carry-on and my laptop bag. I don't dare check luggage - I don't have time to loose it anywhere.

So now I'm going to be one of those annoying people with a big bag to squeeze in the overhead compartment.

I have lots of bags since I travel a lot - but I really didn't have a good carry-on in the right maximum dimensions. Bags is a great deal to me - they have to function and do their job during all those hours and hours when on the plane and on airports.

And so since I'm a Timbuk2 fan I got their Checkpoint bag this fall. I tried it out on my recent trip to Atlanta and it was great! I can carry an extra pair of shoes in the shoe pocket, there is an internal compression flap keeping my clothes in place, a secret pocket - and it has handles on all sides- making it so easy to get in and out of the overhead compartment. And - it rolls on skateboard wheels - so a lost wheel should be easy to swap. Love it!

And since I'm going to travel with a carry-on I'm carrying my laptop, phone, books and magazines in my Commute Slim laptop bag, United allows you a carry-on and a "computer case". If I didn't travel with the carry - on I would travel with a larger laptop bag.

Now if only the flights were shorter, the security easier, the airport nicer - then it would be a breeze to head off to Europe...

iPhone

2009-11-10T21:02:00.000-08:00

For the past years we've had Blackberrys in this house. Both our phones have after extensive use slowly been dying and the last couple of weeks my phone stopped doing basic stuff. It was time to put it to rest or I would just carry around a useless piece of metal.

Since I do a lot of social networking and is a curious person - I really wanted to switch to an Android phone. But our cell phone operator, the sad AT&T, do not have any Android phones yet, and no indication that anyone is upcoming. We can't switch to Verizon, which has way better 3G, since their phones don't work internationally and I have to leave the country a couple of times a year. And since I'm going to be travel next week I really need a reliable phone, right now, - it's my lifeline when on the road.

Alas - the only thing left to do was to get an iPhone...

So now I've had my iPhone 3Gs 32GB for a couple of days and is slowly getting used to it. One day I might even be able to type on it...

Oh, how I miss so many functions of the Blackberry and oh, how many cool features the iPhone has.

The notification and lack of real push is driving me nuts! I have to do so many clicks to check my four mailboxes... and then mess comes in another place... And I really really miss the customizable home screen - where I could quickly glance on my latest incoming e-mails, calendar posts - or just take a quick look at the phone to check the blinking light to show I even had to turn it on to check a new mess. And I loved how the Blackberry connected Facebook with address book so I only got notifications in my Facebook app (and not in my inbox too) and it picked up photos of friends in my address book. The lack of a smart IM push function almost made me return it. For years me and the Husband has been talking on the Blackberry Chat, then lately on Google Talk on our smartphones, something that needs extra apps and settings to work on the iPhone.

Oh, well.

I love the screen and the access to some very nice apps on the iPhone and the general feel. And the browser is great and the TweetDeck great, the TED and CNN apps are fantastic, I love having access to my Google Reader Feeds in the Newsstand app. And my BlackBerry wasn't 3G and this is - what a difference. And - I don't have to bring my iPod Classic 5th Generation iPod when travelling. And maybe an O3 3.3 will solve some of the things that now seems basic in comparison to Android, Pre and Blackberry. We're going to become good friends.

And most of all - I now have a working phone again.

Online shopping in Sweden

2009-11-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

Ok - after very nice comments on my post on finding good reading books below, I decided to focus a couple of hours and update our bookshelves with books in Swedish for the Daughter to read. So I sat down with my laptop, a cup of tea and lots of patience and started cross referencing different Swedish book websites and making a list of books. I decided to make a pretty big order - to last us through the year - and in the end I ordered 21 books. I choose Adlibris - not sure why - it was just one of the sites I had open and they had pretty long and detailed descriptions of the books that I liked.

As usual at checkout, there were a lot of issues with using two addresses - since most of the Swedish websites don't ship internationally (and if they would the shipping cost would be a joke) I have to use two different addresses. If you shop online in the US - you always have the choice of two addresses - the billing address and the shipping address. In Sweden - not so... When trying to get the check out to work - the order page lost my choice of using a credit card to pay and placed the order as "postförskott" - a Swedish way of paying when you pick up the package at the postoffice.

Since I'm sending these books to my brother - I don't want him to have to cash them or mess with money in any way - I want the books to be paid for (it's enough that I'm having him collecting them and carrying them home). But there was no way to go back - the order had been placed. And when I contacted adlibris.se to find a way to solve the problem - there was none... They woulnd't allow me to prepay the order as a bill and they couldn't accept card payments after the order had been placed. Their solution was for me to transfer money to the one who was picking up the order or cancel the order and redo it... So to spend my money on their business - I still had a lot more work to do....

No thank you.

So I cancelled the order and redid the order on Bokus instead.

Clothes for little Swedish Aliens

2009-11-04T10:24:00.000-08:00

Ok - this is no fashion blog whatsoever - but I just have to blog about these adorable sweaters from Polarn O. Pyret. They've taken the traditional Swedish "dalahäst" and redesigned into an elephant, a crocodile and a piggie. They are named "Swedish Folklore Top". So cool!

I love to get "Swedish" clothes for my kids to wear... Bamse, Pippi, Spöket Laban - not only to reinforce these Swedish book characters for my kids. But this is a whole new way to reinforce Swedish traditions. Not sure the kids would get the embedded message I see in these sweaters... but at least I would. And they are so cute!

"Dreams do come true"

2009-11-02T10:11:00.000-08:00

I took the Daughter to Disney on Ice over the weekend. I have never been and was curious to see one of those shows and I've always liked ice skating. My Daughter likes princesses - but she has only seen a few of the Disney Princess movies (Ariel and Cinderella) - she is not totally hooked. It was a good ice skating show - nice to see a little dancing on the ice and the Daughter liked it.

But I really have issues with their "theme"... They kept announcing that "see, dreams really do true", after each of the princess story was played out on the ice.

What dreams?

Getting poisoned /spellbound and saved by a handsome prince you can marry off at the end? Really - what have these princesses actually done that makes them good role models for "making your dreams come true"? Can't they just leave them at being nice fairy tales? Or otherwise invent one that actually do some dream work and fulfill their dreams? It's 2009 after all...

I wish there was a Disney princess like Per Gustavsson's princess. She wakes up, gets dressed in one of her hundreds of dresses, puts on her tiara, looks fabulous and pretty, eats cake for breakfast - and then goes off to fight dragons, play ice-hockey - and SHE saves the handsome prince. Now we're talking!

I love these books - the princess is still dressed in pretty pink dresses - but she is doing the action, not letting the action happen to her. I've written about these books before (and a new one is just out, the fourth one) but it seems they still only in Swedish... I actually sent off a question to the author - it would be so great if these books came in English too. Cross your fingers!

All the Disney princesses dancing on the ice in the big finale.

Halloween is over, long live Christmas

2009-11-01T09:22:00.000-08:00

Halloween is over, the big trick or treat crescendo is done, and I'm happy. Halloween is one of those American holidays I really have trouble relate to. I feel kind of lost. And I never liked fall, don't like orange and yellow leaves on the trees - prefer them green all year around. I just don't want orange stuff in my house.

Every year I say to myself- next year I really ought to get some more Halloween decorations - at least for the kids. And here we are again - with five small mini pumpkins the kids picked up at Pumpkin Patch field trips...

But next year..

I grew up next to the largest cemetery in Northern Europe and for me the "All Saints Day" weekend is one where you head out in the dark and walk through the silence through thousands and thousands of lights, lit to celebrate the lives of those lost. It doesn't mix well with dressed-up monsters and skeletons.

Don't misunderstand me - I think it's pretty amazing to walk down the street on the night of October 31, meet all these happy people and kids on the street. It's like a neighborhood party where all the neighbors meet (well, they might not recognize each other - but they meet...) and hang out outside, in the darkness. But I'm not too sad when it's over. And now I can start thinking about Christmas - a holiday I love! Bring it on!

The Spöket Labolina dress I made for the Daughter - she was very set
that this was what she wanted to be dressed up as...

Cold mornings and warm days

2009-10-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

"Winter" season is tricky here. We might wake up to pretty cool temperatures in the early morning hours, but as soon as the sun has been up for a bit, it heats up the temperature and we have Swedish summer temperatures all through the day. This year it feels as if the cold nights came earlier than usual (or then, my memory is really becoming more foggy so who knows... maybe we're just on target).

When you are heading out from the house in the morning you have to take into consideration that you might be sweltering hot in those socks, long pants and warm sweater that felt so cozy at 7 am. Dressing in smart layers is the key. Like not wearing a long sleeved sweater, but rather a top with a hoodie that you can unzip and eventually take off. Or not having a quilted jacket, but a layering wind jacket with a hoodie underneath.

I'm so glad Polarn O. Pyret, the Swedish clothings store has opened up their online store in the US. Their stuff is the best - love it! This morning I realized my Daughter's PoP jacket suddenly was too small (she hasn't been wearing it since this summer in Sweden - we haven't exactly had jacket weather here since then and she must have grown two inches since then). I went online and found one and hep - a fig colored, stretch jacket, perfect for layering is on it's way.

School food

2009-10-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

Never again will I ever say one harsh words on the Swedish school cafeteria food (skolmaten). I didn't know what I was talking about. Now with my own kid in school I suddenly miss that school cafeteria food a lot... (and being an alien I find myself missing the weird stuff - like "lapskojs"...).

In most American schools, kids bring their own lunch. If you're bringing you own lunch with no cooling or heating opportunities - it's pretty tricky to pack a nutritious, healthy lunch. And I think we have a harder time since we always have had a "cooked" lunch and it's hard to go from a fully cooked lunch to something that will work in a food box that a 6-year old must be able to handle. Every time I pack a cheese sandwich in my Daughters lunch box, I shudder a bit... (but then, if I was Norweigan - I would be doing fine right?).

There is a "cafeteria" in school, and if you buy lunch cupons in advance, the kids can get the food of the cafeteria. We just got the "menu" for November. And it's a constant reminder that the lunch box my daughter bring to school is pretty nutritious and healthy after all. It's just a matter of what you compare with....

Why isn't there a Amazon.se...

2009-10-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

My Daughter cracked the reading code at 4,5 years, she now at 6 reads fluently (for her level) in both Swedish and English. Since it is so much easier (and cheaper...) to find "Beginning reader" books in English and we have fewer Swedish books - she has tended to read much more English than Swedish lately - a trend we don't like (a 50-50 ratio would be great). But with the start of the weekly Swedish school this September she has gone back to read Swedish much more. Swedish is actually easier to read and she can read longer without getting tired.

So suddenly she has gone through almost all of the "easy to read" Swedish books and I've been desperately trying to go online to see what I can order from Sweden. Books that are made for beginning readers that not necessarily are about football or horse riding. We have a whole box with "beginning reader" books in English - you can find them at your local bookstore - divided by reading level and they usually cost about $3-5. Not hardback books - but hey - they will soon move to a new level - so we don't mind.

I'm used to browse books using online stores such as Amazon.com where you can search and get review, good descriptions and recommendations - and are at total loss at some of the Swedish book sites that seem to lack any decent search function at all. Some books at Bokus.se only have a small picture of the book, it's name and author and price - and that's about it. For the price of buying it and having it shipped over here - that can be pretty bad purchase if you haven't done your research... Seems you have to know what you're looking for - before you go online on Swedish websites.

I'm assuming Swedish children who are beginning readers do read books? Or is the beginning reader an English phenomena? Maybe you just read any regular book that you happen to have in Sweden? Here you do have to learn "sight words" - words that you can never sound out and you just have to learn them. So beginning reader books are focused on different levels of sight words - thus divided into different reading levels. Makes it easier and don't discourage early readers to have a go at reading.

So maybe I'm looking for something that just isn't there in any major extent... But if there was an Amazon.se - I would know for sure...

Example from Bokus.se - the only info about a book... A picture and the
title and the price... but you can share the info on Facebook and Twitter! ;-)

Exampel from BonnierCarlsen.se... You get 55 pages (!) to click through when you click
their link Books for 6-9 year olds... not even a "Next" or "Previous" function...

Today it happened...

2009-10-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

I was going to write a date - in a Swedish text - and suddenly had to stop and think hard... Is today 102009 or 091020... It took me a couple of seconds to get it right (the right way in Swedish (and like most European countries and according to standard...) is 091020 as in year-month-date). I'm I loosing my European heritage! "Ve och fasa"! Why can't the whole world just keep to the standard...

Found a long discussion on the topic on a Yahoo Answer site - doesn't make the thing more clear - but it was kind of fun to read.

And my Daughter, the little American, is very firm with me "The week starts with Sunday"....

The Fun Theory - from Stockholm

2009-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

I love this video - testing the theory if making things fun will get people to change their behavior. One thing for sure - I would love to have stairs like that at home - if you could turn them off now and then...

Fun thing is - the experiments are done in downtowns Stockholm! The escalator pictured in the movie is one at Odenplan, not far from where I lived. I've gone up and down this entrance to the subway over and over again when I lived in Stockholm.

They have three more movies at the site "TheFunTheory.com" - all from Stockholm.

Gone with the Wind

2009-10-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

When I was in 6th Grade in Sweden, I found a book at the library that hadn't been checked out for about 10 years (those were the times when you got a stamp in your book with the date you checked it out). I was an early and avid reader, way ahead my class mates in types of books I was reading. I checked out the book and started reading. It was called Borta med vinden - Gone with the Wind and I was hooked... I was so hooked that I decided that I would not return it... Obviously it wasn't a very frequently checked out book so maybe they wouldn't really miss it.. It's the only thing I've stolen... *blushing*...

I guess the librarian would be sort of happy - because I read that book so many times I can't even count them. So at least it came to good use. It was one of the books that I actually brought with me all the way here to California. It's actually right next to me, in the bookshelf.

So during my visit to Atlanta - I just HAD to go to the Margaret Mitchell House. The house where she wrote the book between 1925 and 1930. It's not very big (the tour takes 15 minutes - including a visit to the gift shop). and not much is authentic (actually the whole house burned down right before the Olympic Games and have been rebuilt.

But it was still very nice to visit - I really like these "on site" museums (like the 6th Floor Museum in Dallas, the Ellis Island Museum in New York, the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam etc).

And I picked up a replica of the original version of the book. And paid for it...

This big country

2009-10-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Going from the west coast to the east cost is a loooong way to go. It takes almost a full day to travel - and with the 3 hour time difference you loose hours going east. In order to get to Atlanta I had to do a stop over in Denver. The flight to Denver is about 2,5 hours and the flight from Denver to Atlanta is about 3,5 hours. And you're not even right at the east coast...

I was dressed and packed for Atlanta weather (mid 70s and partly cloudy) and not for Denver's 20F and snowing... I was freezing when I got off the plane in Denver... And when the plane was delayed for 2 hours on the tarmac not knowing it we would get to start - I was preparing for a very cold stay in Denver. But luckly - after a total of 3 hours delay we took off.

If you fly for 6 hours south from Stockholm (which is almost the only direction you can go), were would you end up - northern parts of Africa? And you would still be in the same timezone.

This country is huge.

According to Google Maps it would take 1 day and 17 hours to drive to Atlanta. That is if you would great and not take any bathroom breaks...

Atlanta

2009-10-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

I've been busy the last week - preparing to be gone for a couple of days, visiting Atlanta for a conference. It was my first visit - I never set my foot in Georgia before. I knew the conference would be intense and all spare time would be spent working in the hotel room - so I left two days early to get some sightseeing done.

I didn't see as much I would have liked - but got the main idea of the city, visiting both downtown, midtown and Buckhead (where I stayed for my conference). I had a very nice dinner with Fia - a Swedish alien blogging from Georgia who drove in to Buckhead to see me.

I toured the CNN Center and got a picture of myself being a news anchor (not sure who would want that - but it was kind of cool to try it out), walked the Centennial Park and around downtown, took the MARTA to Midtown and visited the Atlanta History Center i Buckhead. I liked Atlanta - even though I only saw a tiny, tiny bit of it...

Downtown Atlanta.

The CNN Center.

The brick ground in Centennial Park.

The Olympic Centennial Park in downtown Atlanta

The Olympic Rings in Atlanta.

Mix of buildings in Midtown.

My view of Atlanta from my Buckhead hotel window.

Swedish Midsummer with Luke Perry

2009-10-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

I had not heard about this movie until I read the major Swedish daily online this morning with my tea. An American, played by Luke Perry (how on earth did he end up in Sweden doing this movie) comes to celebrate Midsummer with a bunch of Swedish friends with all sorts of issues... It got a grade 1 out of 5 by the newspaper (5 being excellent and 1 being... well... not so good). And after watching the trailer I'm not sure what to think...

It seems to mix English and Swedish (with subtitles in Swedish when they speak English). But then - it's always nice to watch TV-series and movies with Swedish nature - red houses, pine and birch trees. So maybe I'll pick up a copy when it comes on DVD in the future.

Early local traffic jam...

2009-10-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

We're lucky enough to live withing walking distance of an elementary school. So we have the Daughter walk to and from school every day - unless it's over +33C or pouring rain (it's more likely that's it above +33C than pouring rain). I like the fact that she gets a sense of walking to places.

But Tuesdays and Thursdays we have to drive her. 1st Grade and Preschool starts within 10 minutes of each other - and even though both are within walking distance - they are too far apart to be able to make it in time to both walking.

So those are the days when we get stuck in the local traffic jam outside the school. The school, a K-5 Elementary school (which means they have classes from Kindergarten to grade 5) is located in the middle of a residential area, with regular houses across the street. Despite the fact that hundreds of kids are to be dropped off and picked up, the street isn't wider or there are no real "drop of" areas - except for school busses (which there hardly are any these days due to the major budget deficit in California which hits public schools especially hard). And Thursdays are extra busy since those are garbage days. Outside each house there are two major garbage cans - one for regular garbage and one for either recycle or garden garbage. They each have to be a couple of feet apart for the garbage truck, meaning that each set of garbage cans blocks one potential parking lot each. And since all the houses around the school comes with three door garages, parking spaces were limited in the first place. Let's just say it's a mess... and this is a small school... try to pass by the high school around 3 pm on a regular weekday...

I'm happy the Daughter is a "late bird" because at least then it's not as busy as with the early birds drop off... and that we only have to do this twice a week...

Birthday celebration

2009-09-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

6 years ago today I became a mom. I remember how one of my worst fears was not being able to communicate during labor - not remembering English but only Swedish and no one would understand me. I had prepped the Husband, forcing him to read books and watching "Birth Story" on Discovery Channel to get the vocabulary right in case he had to be my advocate when I had totally forgotten English. In the end I had a c-section since my baby girl had decided to stay upside down, listening to my heart beat instead of being head down. And I didn't forget how to speak English, I did just fine. We brought home a perfect little baby girl - with very straight legs.

And that was six years ago. Now she is a 1st grader and I'm sitting here writing sentimental stuff on how fast time flies and how I still can recall that car trip to the hospital that beautiful warm September morning...

Today we got up early and woke up the Daughter with cake with candles, birthday balloon, the Swedish birthday song and gifts to open in bed. The Swedish way. And the Daughter who promised me she would be awake all night and never would be able to sleep - was sound asleep when we opened her door. And no, we haven't hung a Swedish flag in the window.

Alpaca farm field trip

2009-09-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed out to a local alpaca farm - the first field trip with the Swedish School. Not sure how common alpacas are in general in California (to me they're something you encounter in South America rather than North America - but maybe I'm wrong). I had never seen any so it was a fun experience. You could go in to the enclosed field where they kept them and say hello and they were really friendly and let you pet them.

The Daughter got to make a small pouch out of alpaca fur - a really interesting procedure. Too bad it was so crazily hot... +37 and absolutely no wind. We were melting away and felt sorry for the alpacas who had fur...

TV show week

2009-09-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

Last week was the traditional week of TV series permeiers in the US. Every fall the networks launches new shows the same week - the week of the fall. Not all will survive - some disappear after the first week. I'm not a big TV watcher in this phase in life - but I like to have a TV-show or two to follow - if nothing else when I'm on my excercise bike (at least that's usually my plan... I usually end up not watching TV nor using my exercise bike... but hey, it's great for hanging clothes on!).

After reading up a bit I decided to check out Fast Forward, Modern Family och CougarTown. Fast Forward because it seemed like a interesting concept, Modern Family because maybe, maybe it's a new Arrested Development and Cougar Town because I wanted to check out Courtney Cox from one of my favorite series, Friends.

Of course I missed all of them. I have no time to keep track of days and times for TV-shows... In comes Hulu.com - a website where you can check out your favorite shows with only limited commercial (usually only a 30 second break now and then) - and I can watch it on my computer in bed, or on the big TV (since we have a computer hooked up to our TVs) when I like it.

We'll see if I keep watching. The Husband sort of liked Fast Forward (if it will increase it's speed a bit) and I liked Modern Family (sure can be a new Arrested Development, we'll see).

Here are the previews of the shows. Maybe some of them will make it to Sweden in a couple of weeks or so.

Swedish School and floor ball

2009-09-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

This fall the Daughter is attending to Swedish School down in Sacramento. They meet once a week for 2,5 hours, learning and reinforcing Swedish. My Daughter is bilingual and Swedish is still her strongest language - but she needs to practice writing and interacting with other Swedish kids. She uses Swedish school material - the same as you would use in a Swedish classroom when you have "Svenska" (Swedish). She likes it a lot- but Mondays are tough days. Not only does she has 1st grade all day and then heading out to continue school for a couple of hours.

Luckily they have fun breaks - some of the other parents have "innebandy sticks" so they play "innebandy" (floor ball)on the breaks - a new favorite for my Daughter. It's something you don't see played often around here. I'm going to try to get a couple of sticks to have on our cul-de-sac to play. I might even join a game - it's fun to play "innebandy"!

Is this woman for real??

2009-09-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days there has been lots of buzz in Sweden around a woman named Anna Duck - oups - Anna Anka that is, married to the famous Paul Anka (anka = duck in Swedish). She is in some show called "Swedish Hollywood Wifes", broadcasted on Swedish television and the other day she wrote an... article...? on Newsmill, one of the newssites in Sweden (then later it was debated whether she actually had written it herself or if one of the editorialists had written it) (either way it didn't make it better).

This woman, born in Sweden, moved to the US and eventually marrying Paul Anka, has the most weird view of American men and life in the US compared to Sweden. I'm way to lazy to translate everything she has written but here is some of the stuff:

A real American man panics if he is alone with the child for more than 20 minutes. American dads don't cook and don't iron, they work and supports their families. American men appreciates their wifes however, they are very romantic. They write notes, calls and leaves love messages on the phone. Swedish men never do that. In return they get women with style. As a housewife you are to support in any way. You should be good looking and stylish. Sexually it's the womans duty to make sure the man is satisfies, if not she can only blame herself if he is unfaitful.

Maybe she is trying to provoke or be funny or just get attention and earn a lot of money in the process. The only funny part is that her last name is Anka.

When you read this stuff I'm glad it's in Swedish. You feel embarrassed being a Swedish Alien when reading this womans rants... rich Hollywood wife or not...

Starting out fall with swine flu

2009-09-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

One would think that working from home would keep you pretty safe from catching the flu - after all you don't meet that many people during the week except your family and you can keep hand washing and other germ techniques pretty controlled. On the other hand - maybe that's why you catch it more easily?

Let's just say that now I know what it feels like when you get the swine flu. And it's not pretty. I have been confined in the guest room and guest bathroom away from the rest of the house, with a cough that made my head explode, wheezing air pipes, fever and chills.

Why wait until there the real flu season begins or until the vaccines are available when you can start off your fall with a little H1N1 virus?

Birthdays in Sweden according to Parents Magazine

2009-09-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

According to an article in the latest issue of Parents Magazine we have a very old tradition in Scandinavia when it comes to birthdays.

"The national flag is hung prominently from a top window of the birthday child's house to mark his special day. When neighbors see it, they stop by and offer their congratulations".

Someone must have missed to inform my parents and all my family and friends of this. Imagine the congratulations I could have gotten over the years....

10 years

2009-09-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend the Husband has lived in the US for 10 years. He moved out to California with one suitcase and a pallet slowly making it's way by boat. He had been offered a transfer from the Stockholm office to the headquarters in Northern California and decided to try it out. It was his second visit to the US. I traveled back and forth for many months until California became my base too.

10 years, one house, two kids and lots of experiences ago.

It feels like yesterday and an eternity ago. No wonder we feel things have changed and view Sweden from a different perspective - we've been away for 10 years. If someone would have told me that I would emigrate to the US and have both my kids here I would have thought they were trying to be really funny. And here we are.

Happy Anniversary!

Swedes in space

2009-09-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

We watched the space shuttle Discovery return to earth - landing in California, east of Los Angeles at the Edwards Air Force Base. It's a pretty impressive thing, the space shuttle. And I can't help but find it pretty impressive that among all these American astronauts is one Swede. Of all the countries in the world - there is a Swede on board. Christer Fugelsang did his second space trip on Discovery (and judging by the interviews after - it was his last). A day to feel proud to be an Swedish Alien in America.

Enough already

2009-09-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

HOW come Jon and Kate Gosslin has become such major "celebrities" is really beyond me. Jon and Kate Gosslin, for those in Sweden not familiar with these people, have eight kids, one set of twins and one set of sextuplets and have a reality show on TLC called "Jon&Kate plus Eight". This spring they got divorced - very sad considering they have EIGHT kids together. After the season premiere of their reality show this fall, they've been everywhere. I don't even watch the show but I still know way more about these two people's divorce than I want to know about.

Isn't there anyone who can stop both of them and help them - it breaks my heart to see two parents break apart and do so in public. I'm not on anybody's side (even though it seems Mr Jon has gone a little too wild considering he is a dad with EIGHT kids...). I just want peace for the kids - and to listen about real news when I tuned in to the news channels...

Last week it was Kate who was on every talk show there is and this week Jon is out talking about how he "despises Kate" on Good Morning America.

Enough already.

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

Labor Day weekend is the official start of fall in the US. Every first Monday of September is off and the American people head out to beaches, trails, neighborhoods for adventures and barbecuing. Almost like the Swedish Midsummer, but without the Midsummer pole.

For us it's one of those weekends we tend for forget about. Despite 10 years in the US, it seems it always come unexpectedly. We're just to long weekends in the Spring, but fall in Sweden is just one long stretch of ordinary weeks and no days off.

And working for a Swedish company it's a regular day - nothing special, work as usual. Next year we really should save a vacation day for this day and enjoy this last weekend before fall. That way we will have Midsummer as the long weekend after a long spring and the start of summer, and Labor Day as the long weekend before the long fall and the end of summer. The best of two worlds!

When Swedish and English collide...

2009-09-03T10:10:00.000-07:00

My bilingual daughter got a little stuffed dog the other day. She instantly loved it (as with all stuffed animals...) and decided on the spot that she would call her Pussis... Now this is when bilingualism gets tricky.... "Pussis" because she wanted to kiss it all the time - in Swedish "pussa". And when we all started to laugh a bit and couldn't really instantly explain why it wasn't such a good name, she broke into tears, thinking we were laughing at her...

Not wanting to introduce bad English words too early, but at the same time wanting her to change the name was a tricky thing... One of those challenging moments as a mother...

We really didn't want her to run over to the very religious neighbors and call (in English) - "Look I have a new dog - it's called Pussis"...

In the end we agreed to rename it Knatten which should be a safe name in both languages...

(If you don't get this post - grab an native English speaking person and I'm sure they'll explain it...).

Scary fires way too close by

2009-08-30T22:12:00.001-07:00

Fires are every day life in California during the dry season - in other words most of the year. We haven't felt any smoke today - the wind have been blowing the other way - so it was a shocker when we turned on the evening news and saw the devastation of a fierce, forceful and quick wildfire up in Auburn about 30 minutes car drive from here. As of now 60 houses are gone in a residential area more or less like ours - it only took hours for the devastation to take place.

People have lost everything, literally... My thoughts go out to all those people - and the firefighters working so hard right now. And no, we won't see any rain until late October usually...

(click on the picture for a link to one news report earlier
today on one of the local channels or click here. )

A day at the Circus

2009-08-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

The circus came to town over the weekend, converting our basketball area to a circus arean filling it with clowns, acrobats, circus princesses, elephants, horses and tigers. It was the Ringling Brother's Zing Zang Zoom Show that had arrived.

It sure was a show, never a quiet moment. It was a good balance between funny clowns and beautiful acrobats and fantastic performances and an impressive "behind the scenes" logistics to get it all to work. After two hours you're really done with circus for a bit... The kids were in awe and very happy afterwards and now we just have live through "circus performances" in the house for a couple of weeks...

Ice cream for dinner

2009-08-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

One of the advantages when you travel without kids is that you can toss routines and healthy eating, clocks an food times and just improvise as you please. We had almost forgotten about this during our stay in San Diego - but quickly caught on. By the third day we had ice cream for dinner...

And what a fantastic ice cream it was... we found this place called MooTime Creamery in Coronado that makes the most FANTASTIC ice cream... Ice cream to die for...

Too bad we have a 8 hours and 14 minute drive (without traffic) there according to Google Maps.. If you pass by, you just have to try one of their unbaked sundaes... aaaaaahhhhh...

A trip to San Diego

2009-08-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

I surprised the Husband with a four day visit to San Diego, celebrating his 40th birthday. I had planned it for over six months and thought it all was ruined when United made an automatic itinirary call three weeks ago and I didn't get to the phone in time... But since the ticket United called about was only for me (I had a airfare voucher since my Frankfurt incident last year) the Husband didn't connect the dots - and thought I was going somewhere or that it was a mistake. I really thought the surprise was ruined and it was only when we got to the airport checking in, I realized he really didn't know where we were going. He learned about the four day trip a week in advance - but I never said anything about where (silently thinking he already knew...).

We left the kids at our house in the care of our wonderful nanny who had taken on the kids, bracing for lack of sleep... Since we don't have family around - going away without the kids is really rare - actually it has never happened since our Daughter was born in 2003... Now we were going to get four days, three nights with uninterrupted sleep... (so we were a bit bummed when we were wide awake at 7.13 am the first day... even the kids back home had slept in until 8 am...).

Unfortunately the ship wreck dive in Wreck Alley in the pacific I had organized for the Husband on his birthday was cancelled due to rough waves that days. But we quickly made other plans and in the end I think the birthday turned out pretty good.

We had four wonderful days, exploring San Diego and its surroundings with our rental car and with Coronado as our base camp. We stayed at Lowes Coronado with a fantastic view of the bay, the San Diego skyline and the sea from our balcony. At the end of the four days we were checking out real estate listings - wouldn't it be nice to have a house with beach access...

In today's paper...

2009-08-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

Surprise barbecue

2009-08-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

The Husband, who for months have been receiving membership invitations from the AARP and ads for "pre-paid cremation" is getting closer to the big 4-0. Since he is not going to be at home on his birthday next week, his parents and sister with family decided to pay a surprise visit, planned for months.

And since the gift they brought with them was a new, cool Weber grill, a super duper Geneis 320, the surprise was also a barbecue - once the Husband had assembled the grill...

The kids were mighty impressed with the size of the package. I was very impressed by the wrapping... And the Husband was happily surprised by the far away visit and the grill that he has secretly dreamed about.

Absolutely cool

2009-08-12T10:53:00.000-07:00

Absolut Vodka might not be Swedish anymore, but the label on the bottle still says "Country of Sweden" - so I'm going to claim them as Swedish still.

This is a video from one of their art projects. They have a Facebook page where you can see more videos. I think they're pretty cool, even thought I'm not a vodka drinking person.

The Kissing Hand

2009-08-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

My Daughter brought home this excerpt from a book yesterday from school. I had never heard of it - but isn't it a lovely story! The kids all had a small white card with them home and were to trace their hands on it and the moms were to kiss the card (with lipstick...) and the kids could then keep the card in their desks at school and bring out when they get homesick. I finished my Daughter's card last night and wrote a secret message in Swedish along the hand. She was very pleased this morning (I was too - I'm not really the artistic type - but it turned out ok).

"But you're not going to miss me in school so you don't really need it", I told her, knowing she loves school and can't wait to spend the days there. "I know, but let's pretend I need it mom", she said.

The Kissing Hand
- by Audrey Penn

Chester Raccon stood at the edge of the forest and cried.

“I don’t want to go to school”, he old his mother. “I want to stay home with you. I want to play withy my friend. And play with my toys. And read my books. And swing my swing. Please may I stay home with you?”

Mrs Raccon took Chester by the hand and nuzzled him on the ear.

“Sometimes we all have to do things we don’t want to do”, she told him gently. “Even if they seem strange and scary at first. But you will love school once you start”.

“You’ll make new friends and play with new toys. Besides,”, she added, “I know a secret that will make your nights at school seem as warm as cozy as you days at home”.

Chester wiped away his tears and looked interested. “A secret? What kind of secret?”

“It’s called the Kissing hand”, she said.

“The Kissing Hand?”, asked Chester. “What’s that?”

“I’ll show you”. Mrs Raccon took Chester’s hand and kissed right in the middle of his palm.

Chester felt his mother’s kiss rush from his hand, up his arm and into his heart.

Mrs Raccon smiled. “Now whenever you feel lonely and need a little loving from home, just press your hand to your cheek and think. “Mommy loves you” and that very kiss will jump to your face and fill you with toasty warm thoughts”.

Chester loved The Kissing Hand. Now he knew his mother’s love would go with him wherever he went.

That night, Chester stood in front of his school and looked at his mother and grinned.

“Give me your hand” he told her.

Chester took his mother’s hand in his own. Next he leaned forward and kissed the center of her hand.

“Now you have a Kissing Hand too”, he told her. And with a gentle “Good bye” and “I love you”, Chester turned and danced away.

First day of school - and lunch box packing

2009-08-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

American kids start school by the age of 5. The first year is spent in Kindergarten, which is usually part of the elementary school. Elementary school usually goes up to grade 5 or 6. My Daughter finished Kindergarten this spring and today it was time to start 1st Grade. She will be there for 5,5 hours every day, five days a week. You have to pack a lunch box since lunch is not provided (as it is in Swedish schools). There is a small "cafeteria" where you can buy "food" (pizza, corn dogs) if you forgot or didn't have time to pack your bag. It's kind of tricky to pack a lunch - it has to last for a couple of hours and usually you can't really heat it up - so it has to be cold.

Well, we better get used to the habit - we're going to be doing this for the next 12 years...

Having fun at Six Flags

2009-08-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

As an "end of the summer" treat - we took the kids to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for a day of play before school starts. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is a huge amusement park - they have all kids of rides - combined with a zoo and a aquarium. You can see "shows" with dolphins, sea lions, elephants, tigers, killer whales, you can see giraffes, camels, butterflies, sharks, turtles. You can ride huge roller coasters or hang out in the Looney Tunes area for kids. It is a full day's entertainment and you have to pick a day when it's cooler - our you will melt away in the heat since it's located in a valley and the cooling wind will have problems to find you.

After a day at SixFlags you are totally exhausted and done with amuesements parks for a full year...

The Ugly Truth

2009-07-31T09:09:00.000-07:00

I took off for the movies on my own the other night - and decided on a chick flick. The Ugly Truth had just been released so I picked up tickets for that one. I had really no idea what movie it was - but funny enough, it takes place in Sacramento. Nice! Not really sure exactly where they shot all the outdoor scenes - but judging by them, this is a pretty nice place to live.

The movie thrived on male-female stereotypes and under the belt jokes. There were some points where I had to look around and see if the more prudish Americans would be laughing...

Oh, well, it was a nice evening out and nice to get some areal footage of Sacramento.

Orbituaries

2009-07-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

One thing that fascinates me when reading the morning paper is the obituaries. The are presented under a section called Remembrances and each person deceased is presented with a photo and a short story, where they were born, what they have been doing in their life and who will miss them. This usually takes up a full spread and you can read some fascinating stories there. Sure, you can find obituaries in Swedish newspapers too, but they are more rare. In the major newspapers, it's usually more short notices, a symbol, the name and family members' names. They're more of an "announcement" compared to these small life stories.

Back to work

2009-07-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

After almost two months away, working in Sweden and vacationing both in Sweden and here - I'm back at my desk in California, trying to remember how run my desktop after weeks of using my laptop. I opened my calender the first time in weeks and Outlook took a long time to download all messages from late June.

But summer is far from over - the heat is still on - and will be for a couple of months to go. I can head off to the pool after work or enjoy the warm evenings outside - despite being back on my "fall schedule". And for another couple of weeks most people at work will still be away. Summer holidays are long in Sweden - even though the sunny days are few.

Swedish books in American press

2009-07-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

A week ago the Swedish book "Grabben i graven bredvid" by Katarina Mazetti was reviewed in Entertainment Weekly. The title translated to "Benny & Shrimp" (for those of you who read the book in Swedish you know that the female character is called "Räkan" i.e. "Shrimp").

"Here is a romance novel for the hip and smart - a zingy, gently, funny ode to sex and love and the emotional awakening of a self contained man and a woman", the reviewer wrote. The book got a A-, which is a pretty good grade. Maybe I have to read it again... Or watch the movie I'm pretty sure is in my Swedish DVD library. Must have been over 10 years since I read the book. I really like the fact that it might become a hit here - always nice to see Swedish authors at Borders.

This week, the second book in the Swedish author Stieg Larson's trilogy, "Flickan som lekte med elden", title translated to "The Girl Who Played With Fire" got a full page in Entertainment Weekly. The book got a B-.

Great month for Swedish authors in the US!

Apollo 40 years ago

2009-07-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

There is something about the Apollo adventure that has fascinate me the last decade or so. I have a bookshelf with books and DVDs and have read most of the astronauts memories. On Monday, July 20, it's been 40 years since those first steps on the moon and this anniversary is being noted a lot at least here in the US. The book stores are filled with books on Apollo and the moon adventure, the news sites have special Apollo coverage and the science and history channels show programs.

One of the cool websites on this is the We Choose the Moon website, by the John F Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum - where you can follow the Apollo 11 mission second by second - hearing the live transmissions etc.

Pretty cool. If you're an Apollo nerd...

Michael Jackson R.I.P

2009-07-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson was part of my childhood and him passing was sad news. It sure was an icon disappeared. I was in Stockholm when the news came, an early morning right before leaving the island for downtown. The next few days I followed the news and I had the chance to catch the memorial in Los Angeles live on TV once back in California. I've gone through my mp3 library and made a Michael Jackson playlist, each song bringing back memories....

Last week a dance group in Stockholm organized a street tribute to him, I saw the video clips on different news sites and on YouTube. They've put together their own "official" video - from two of the events the same day. You get a glimpse of Stockholm - and the changing weather. OK weather at midday, then pouring rain by night.