So yeah, the ol’ blog has been sorely neglected of late, even more than usual. I’ve been pretty busy for the past week or so, but the biggest thing keeping me from the computer is Olof’s having introduced the kids to Minetest, an open-source Minecraft clone. All three of the middles are playing it, one on the kids’ computer, one on mine, and one on Olof’s laptop. When Olof his home, he joins them on his desktop, and it all makes for a merry old time.

Honestly, though, I haven’t minded too much. My mom arrived last week for her annual visit, so I’ve had better things to do than stare at a screen. Also, there’s been an unusually high level of activity around here and I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write about it, even when I do manage to force the interlopers away from my computer.

Last Thursday was Petra’s seventh birthday, so a large part of the day was devoted to various celebrations. That afternoon I had a doctor’s appointment to check out some hearing loss that’s been bugging me — it turned out to be just earwax build-up; gross, but also easily remedied, so yay — and on the way out of the parking lot I was paying more attention to my conversation with my mom and less to my driving, which resulted in an unintentional meeting with the car behind me. Luckily, the damage to both cars was only cosmetic, but it still made for a bit of a hassle (handled almost entirely by Olof, who, it must be said again, is worth his weight in gold).

Friday evening we loaded up the kids and took them to dinner then to Trästock, an annual free music festival. We don’t go every year, but sometimes there is an act one or the other of us particularly wants to see (this year it was Linnea Henriksson, a pop singer/songwriter I’ve been listening to lately), so we stop by. It was a good show, but our enjoyment of it was interrupted by our having to track down a wayward Brynja who had dashed away into the crowd. We found her after about ten minutes, not the least bit contrite, checking out some toys at one of the booths a few hundred meters away from the stage. That kid.

Saturday was Petra’s birthday party with her friends, which was a low-key affair, then Sunday afternoon I was off to Stockholm on my own to see Paul Simon in concert! I’d had the ticket since March but was superstitious about mentioning it too much, not wanting to risk jinxing it. I have a deep and abiding love for Paul Simon, and just the thought of seeing him live was almost enough to do my head in. The concert itself was magical. I had a great seat on the floor, just six rows back, and I think I must have had the biggest starstruck smile on my face for most of the three-hour show. Up to Sunday evening, my best concert experience had been seeing Simon and Garfunkel in 2004, but I’m pretty sure Paul Simon on his own surpassed that. I’m more than a little amazed, actually, that I’ve gotten to see both of those shows; it’s a dream that ten years ago I could never have imagined coming true.

After a few hours of sleep in an airport hotel, I flew home early yesterday morning and jumped right back into my regular life, albeit with a little extra spring in my step. Must be those diamonds on the soles of my shoes.