It’s long been a source of secret shame for me that my husband likes anime. Really, “like” is much too weak a word. He positively adores it; he doesn’t merely watch it, he devours it. He can sit in front of it for hours upon hours and it’s nigh on impossible to break him away… Read More Sunday

This afternoon was the main event in what proved to be a week of birthday celebrations for Lydia. Because her birthday was in the middle of the week, we had the extended family party last Sunday, the immediate family party on Wednesday, and the kid party today. In addition to those three celebrations, she got… Read More Birthday Girl

I was feeling ravenous a bit earlier, that kind of ravenous-ness that won’t wait for the ten minutes it takes to cook oatmeal or whip up some scones. We’re out of bread so I couldn’t have the typical Swedish breakfast of bread and butter with cheese and I couldn’t have cold cereal because we’re nearly… Read More I love the taste of carrot cake in the morning.

You may have noticed yesterday that this website seemed to have vanished into thin air overnight, and some may even have concluded after the tone of my last post that I had decided abruptly to pull the plug on my blog, but it was only one of those hosting snags that we all face from… Read More Back from the depths

One of this year’s summer hits in Sweden was Ingen vill veta var du köpt din tröja, a catchy little tune with a refrain that’s been stuck in my head for months now. The other day when it came on the radio I said to Olof that I liked it and he said, “What? This… Read More Heavy

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I didn’t know until last night that Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake were even a couple, let alone planning a wedding. (And yes, I’m a tad embarrassed to admit that I’m embarrassed for not knowing that.) It’s not that I care about either of them in particular–I… Read More Living in a Vacuum

After only two days Lucy has blended so seamlessly into our family that it almost seems as though she were always here. As I wrote before, I was immediately drawn to her when I saw her tied to a light pole last week. I felt instantly that I was meant to have her. Because I… Read More There’s Something about Lucy

Could you resist this face? Neither could I. Long story short, we’re a two-dog family again. Last Saturday we made a quick trip to town to go to Myrorna (the Salvation Army Thrift Store). As we pulled into the parking lot I noticed a little dog tied to the light pole. I developed an instant… Read More Sucker for a hard-luck story

Olof’s mom came by last night with a little present for me, a gorgeous ivy geranium. The flowers are dark pink with soft white “highlights” (for lack of a better word). She’s had hers hanging outside the front door all summer long, and every time I walked past it I almost turned green with envy.… Read More Plant stuff

I read in the paper last week that a Consumer Reports-style look into the manufacture of kids’ clothes in Sweden revealed (pun emphatically not intended) that little girls’ clothes are markedly skimpier than little boys’ clothes, even down to the toddler sizes. In Europe, clothes are sized by the height of the child, which means… Read More Fashion Victims