Too much ice?

I've written about ice before, about the Americans love for ice. And I normally don't mind ice, even though I sure could live with out it.

It's kind of nice to order a cold Italian Raspberry Soda at Border's Cafe after a walk in the +30C heat (my limit is +33C, if the temperature is above that, then I stay in the cool AC air...).

But sometimes you quietly wonder... is there something as too much ice...?

I always order a large. But I'm almost done after 4-5 sips (with the mandatory straw...). It seems a large Italian Raspberry Soda is probably 10% soda and 90% ice.

Next time I'll ask for one without ice. I wonder if I have to pay more...

2 x Mother's Day

By definition I can now be celebrated on Mother's Day. I am a mother. And as I'm an alien mother I can be celebrated twice. Today, on the American Mother's Day and on the Swedish Mother's Day in two weeks. Actually the day I will arrive to Sweden.

Not that I really know what you are suppoused to do on Mother's Day. None in the family hasn't gotten really used to it yet (including me, who sometimes still have to remind myself that I am a fact a mother to someone).

But I got a self made card this morning with my 3-year old's cute letters, stating "Min bästa mamma" ("my best mom"). And the Husband made scones for breakfast. Very, very nice!

Crisp bread and berries?

Today when I picked up some more crisp bread at Safeway, they had changed the design of the box.

Check it out below - that are berries on the light rye!

Now here is something an experienced crisp bread eater like me have never, ever thought about. Eggs, yes. Cold potatoes, yes. Cheese, well of course! But berries on your crisp bread?

Now I'm really curious... I have to try this. Feels a bit... hm... weird with berries - but it sure looks kind of yummy on the picture.

I wonder if they have the same picture of the light rye box in Sweden? I have to check that out in two weeks.

My evaluation of online web albums...

Ok, now I've tested to share pictures using Google's Picasa and Yahoo's Flickr. I really would like to have a web album feature to share more pictures (than to have to upload pictures to Blogger which is slow if you share more than a few pictures).

And the winner is... ?

Well, it really depends on how you want to share pictures and what you want to do with your albums.

Flickr has a lot of features and things you can do (like add tags, make sets, make multi captions). Flickr is it's own community, a real, huge photo community and very advanced. It really is The Photo place.

Picasa is simpler, not as many features and you have to add captions picture by picture. If you use Blogger, you only have to log in once with your Google account and it's all there. Picasa will also organize the pictures you've already added to your blog (if you use Blogger).

To create a web album for the first time with a few pictures, add captions, change the order, and publish them on the blog (like my Californian Road-trip album or my Lake Tahoe in Winter-album) took with Picasa just a few minutes. Easy, simple, never had to wonder how to do it. With Flickr I had to work harder, check the help section a few times, had to update the html-code a couple of times until I got it the way I wanted. It took maybe 20 minutes.

I'll have to think about which one I'll continue to use. I'm leaning towards Picasa... Or maybe both, but for different purposes...

Trying out Flickr...

Ok, yesterday I tried out Picasa, sharing some Californian pictures. Today I decided to try out Flickr, and keep sharing some Californian pictures, today from Lake Tahoe. They're taken pre-SLR camera, from a gondola and a plane, but they give you a little idea what is is like to go to the top of the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe in winter.

And I've learned to use Flickr. Sort of... hm.

www.flickr.com

Trying out Picasa...

I decided I should learn how Google's web album Picasa works and how you can use it when blogging. It actually wasn't too hard, and you can upload five pictures at once and writing captions wasn't too time consuming either. I had hoped you would see all the pictures here in this post, but Blogger just links the to the actual Picasa album... You have to click on it to get to the pictures in the album.

Oh, well, now I know how it works and you will see some California pictures!

A California Roadtrip

Got to win the lottery...

You would think that $4000+ would get you something when it comes to flying. But I'm still going to be in the very back of the plane with limited leg room and non-reclinging seats when I fly to Sweden with the kids in two weeks.

Maybe I should have left the kids at home and bought a ticket with BAs new Club World... Not only would I be able to lie down, I would have my own 10 inch digital screen, and an in-seat power socket.

And I would get a pair of slippers.

But then, how lonely I would be without the company of the kids...

A jingle that brings back memories...

This jingle* sure brings back memories... sitting in one of the old, beautiful movie theaters in downtown Stockholm (where you get your seating when buying the ticket, no free seating in a Swedish movie salon!). Actually, until just a few years, there were hardly any movie theaters outside the downtown area - unlike here - where the cinema complexes are where people live, usually where there is a shopping mall...

You had been there long before the movie started. Not to get a good seat (you already had your assigned seat printed on your ticket), but to watch the commercials... (since until the late 80s/early 90s there were no TV channels with commercials in Sweden).

I never thought I say that, but I can actually miss the movie commercials here - where they mostly have silly, extremely boring, still picture slide shows from local venues with really bad background music before the movie starts... And sometimes you have to sit through it, not by choice, but in order to secure a good seat, since there are no preassigned seats, only "free seating".

I haven't been to the movies in several years in Sweden, so I don't know if they still show commercials before the movie... But I think that SF, Svensk Filmindustri, still has the same jingle for their movies...

(* This is the "sound" of the Svensk Filmindsutri, is Sweden's the major company for film producation and the distribution of cinema in Sweden... this sound can be heard before the movie starts...)

My favorite podcast right now

If you see a blond, tall woman, walking irrationally and giggling in a store or on a sidewalk somewhere in Northern California, that is probably me. You might not see the white iPod headset under my long hair, but it's there and my head is filled with the silly thoughts from the "Spanarna".

Spanarna is a weekly Swedish radio show, going on 20 years, and it's talk radio when it's as funny as it can get. Not political and serious like most talk radio over here. Just interesting and funny.

Right now it's my favorite podcast on my iPod (all those years without Swedish radio!) and I take every chance to turn it on when outside the house and I'm on my own and don't have to behave as a responsible mother. Though I'm getting worried about my reputation... maybe I should limit listening to Spanarna when behind the typical American high wooden fences surrounding our house... or people might think I'm an.... hm... alien?

(Picture of the "spanare" from www.sr.se)

Visual DNA

Annika had an interesting thing on her blog today, I just had to test it myself! Don't now how accurate the analysis is, but, I loved the photos you had to choose from!

So this is my visual DNA....

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Taking a cruise to Stockholm?

Imagine how cool it would be to return home to Stockholm by ship! For once not having to arrive at Arlanda's terminal F, wait forever for your bags, and then fight with the "non-serious" taxidrivers to catch a "real" taxi to downtown Stockholm (since you always have way too many bags to even consider taking the very quick train). Not having to spend 45 minutes (or more depending on traffic) on the highway before arriving downtown, but to actually arrive in the middle of the action!

Almost like a "reverse emigrant" (even though few "emigrant ships" to America left from downtown Stockholm...).

I wonder what kind of cruise ticket you'll get for $4327...

Anyway... according to a Swedish news article today about this summer's "invasion of cruise ships" , the little ship "The Navigator of the Seas" will stop by in Stockholm this summer (as will 259 other cruise ships, bringing an estimated 290 000 passengers).

And I will arrive at Arlanda, terminal F...

(Picture of the Navigator of the Seas from www.voyager-class.com)

Jury duty!

I got a jury summons today. Flashes from movies came flying by... and mystery books... What would it be like to actually be a jury member in real life? What trial would I end up in? Murder? Or parking violations?

Well, I will never find out, since I'm not an American citizen, I'm instantly disqualified.

I'm not too sad.

There will still be movies and books about jury duty. And I would have had to report to the court in early June. Which is when I've paid half a fortune to fly to Sweden. I would not have been happy to have to cancel that (and still pay half a fortune since the tickets are non-anything)...

I just read a wonderful book.

I found it Friday night. And I just finished it. And I just had to write about it here.

I saw the book in the corner of my eye, when quickly passing by the bookshelves at Target of all places (I was there for Lego not books...). The title was "Astrid and Veronika". Now here is a title that sure sounded Swedish somehow. The author's name is Linda Olsson, and sure enough, she is Swedish (but now an alien in New Zealand). I put the book on top of the Lego boxes, drove home, and started reading that night.

The book is about the friendship that grows between Veronika, a young Swedish writer, arriving to Sweden from New Zealand who never had had a real home, and her elderly, reclusive neighbor Astrid who never have left the village. They start to share their stories and secrets... It's a about life, love, decisions, loss and friendship.

It's a wonderful and strange feeling to read a book so Swedish, but written in English (it was translated to Swedish when published in Sweden as "Nu vill jag sjunga dig milda sånger"). Linda Olsson writes in the "Conversation with the author" in the back of the Penguin paperback that "the reviews in New Zealand often mentioned that my language sounded 'Scandinavian' " and that she perhaps "write in Swedish even when I write in English".

I had never heard about it, but it was very well received in Sweden last fall and it was released in the US in February.

Linda Olsson was a "sommarpratare" 2006 - talking about chronically longing for "home" and living abroad, far from family and friends and have your heart on lot's of different places. Download the podcast to your player and take a walk and listen, or pour some coffee , lean back and listen by your computer. I just love her voice, stories and she talks about things so familiar... If you're a Swedish alien - you just have to listen!

I hope you enjoy the book and the radio program as much as I did!

Walk fast in Stockholm!

According to a new study, you have to walk pretty fast in Stockholm to fit in. People in Stockholm come in at 17th place when the walking speed was measured. New Yorkers are faster (8th place), but the people in Singapore are the fastest!

In my Californian city the would probably not be able to measure the walking speed. Not to many people walking around here.

$4327

That's the amount of money it takes to take me, an infant and a child with me from California to Stockholm at the end of May (return in July is included...) (but the tickets are non-refundable, non-changeable, non-anything and we should say thank you if they actually include a little food in the price).

On top of the hole in my wallet, United has decided to cancel the 3 pm flight we usually connect to in Chicago during the summer months (they only charge twice as much more for flying but have less connections... great strategy... for the airline).

So I'm now looking forward (not) to a 5 hour stop over at O'Hare on our return. This is after our 9 hour flight from Stockholm. Probably arriving at our house at 9 pm PT, which will be something like exactly 24 hours after we began.

Ok.

Need to work on that plan to move Sweden closer to California.

And foucs on the "syréner".

SF or LA?

Ok... hm... should we take the left lanes and go to San Francisco or the right lane and go to Los Angeles. These hard questions...

TGF! Time for "mys"!

I know it was just a few days since last "Sveriges Näringsliv", but it IS Friday and it IS time for "mys"!

(Thanks "Farmom" for the tip!)

"Cooler" weather

We're having a couple of days with "cooler" weather right now. The "" because it really depends on what you compare with... +22C would probably be considered as pretty nice back in Stockholm. Here I made sure the kids had socks and long sleeves today (I almost brought out the hats, but decided that they would survive the cold without them).

In July, when the heat is really bad here, I will be cold when the temperature in the house is below +27C. I will bring a sweater when I'm shopping (especially if I have to pass by the dairy section... brr).

But you do sort of get used to the heat.

I remember my first summer here. I went to the mall one day. +41C outside. I was sitting in my air condtitioned car, looking astonished at people walking from the car to the mall as things were absolutely normal. I wasn't sure I dared open the car door. +41C. It's like a cooler sauna!! Without the cold lake to jump in (naked of course)!!

I can't say that I jump around with joy during those crazy 100F-weeks, but they're part of everyday life now.

It's just a bit "different". I don't have to heat up the car before getting in. I have to cool it down.

What people are wearing in Stockholm...

This is no fashion blog (heck, I have written about crocs!). I'm no frequent visitor on fashion blogs. But when I read the major Swedish newspaper online today, and saw that even they had a feature on what people are wearing in downtown Stockholm, I realized that maybe I have to keep better track of these blogs.

In three weeks I'm going to be there, and WHAT if I meet someone from StockholmStreetStyle when downtown?? Completely out of tune on what you should be wearing in Stockholm...

JaCal: Wearing crocs, capri jeans and a white Gap top... (with added sweet potato stains)??

Oh, my.

A walk to WorldMarket

World Market is a store that is a little heaven for aliens. They have all sorts of stuff - kitchen utensils, home decoration stuff, toys, a large selection of wine and beer from around the world - as well as food and candy!

I'm lucky to have a World Market within walking distance. So when I'm in need I can take a quick walk up there to get...

Swedish Fish (even though $6.99 is a rip off!)

Knäckebröd (even though the actually have this at Safeway...)

My favorite "cookie" HobNobs (actually originally British)

And when I'm too lazy to drive to IKEA - my second chocolate favorite
- the Dutch Droste chocolate!