Notice me in the background saying that it’s not a good idea, but Petra seemed to like it.

There is something fundamentally unjust about having to deal with pimples and grey hairs simultaneously.

It was back to Kåge bright and early this morning, for Lydia’s first belt tryout. The whole affair went quickly enough, and we were back on our way home after just an hour, with Lydia the proud bearer of a diploma certifying that she is no longer a novice. Due to some sort of shipping… Read More Sunday

This morning we dropped Tage and the dogs off with Olof’s parents and the rest of us drove to Kåge, a little town about a half-hour away. Lydia took part in a big karate practice there in preparation for tomorrow’s belt tryouts, something she’s been looking forward to with equal parts dread and delight. Her… Read More Talk the Talk

If we had a canary, I would suspect that this cat had just eaten it:

She loves her some Black-Eyed Peas.

Long-time readers know that–at the tender age of nine–Lydia has the fashion sense and the social concerns of a teenager. What they may not know is that she also has the smart mouth of one. She can be a very unpleasant little person when she sets her mind to it, and lately it seems she’s… Read More Mommie Dearest

There is a cabinet in our downstairs bathroom where Olof keeps a small toolbox (and yes, it is *his* toolbox; we’re all about traditional gender roles here, you know). Last night as we were getting ready for bed, Tage was jabbering to me something about “tools, tools, blahblahblah.” I admit, I wasn’t really listening, something… Read More Achtung!

Six years ago today Olof and I first chatted online. I blush a little in memory of some of the things I said that first time, and if I’d known where it all would lead I’d have been a bit more circumspect, I hope. Although, perhaps those things were part of the reason that it… Read More Jubileum