last friday we went to jörn, to spend the weekend together with tommy's parents, tommy's brother, tommy's brother's girlfriend and tommy's brother's baby.

i was quite a bit worried about how stressful the weekend might be, as we'd been told that the baby was crawling around a lot, and i think tommy's parents are the kind of people who don't like little babies to eat cat hair. and my cats shed hair. i was also worrying about the baby poking fingers in the dog's and the cats' eyes, or pulling their tails or crawling on them, as i think most of the people we were spending the weekend with are the kind of people who don't like dogs or cats telling little babies to fuck off. and i think the dog and the cats are the kind of people who would tell little babies to fuck off if they poked little fingers in their eyes.

so, i was prepared for a weekend with not much rest.

but it turned out i didn't have to worry at all. the baby was a very quiet and not very moving person. most of the time he sat on the floor chewing on a blue plastic doll. he was very cautious about the dog and the cats too. he liked looking at them and making sounds that could be interpreted as "cat, cat" if you really really wanted to, and sometimes he crawled up to them, but he stopped at a little distance and was satisfied with just watching them. ver nice child, actually! and cute too. and he didn't throw up once, and only cried twice (when he needed to change diapers). most of the time you didn't even notice him.

so, the weekend turned out to be quite nice. tommy's mother made us good food (as always. i hope she enjoys cooking as much as i enjoy eating her food :). tommy's brother and tommy's brother's girlfriend didn't fight as much as usual. and bob got to play with several good looking girls.

tomorrow we'll (hopefully) go to tierp, to spend christmas with my parents and sisters and brothers. we were meaning to go today, but they've been talking so much about a storm coming up so we postponed it for a while. apparently it was a good desicion, as the bridge we would have to cross was closed for traffic. we'll sleep with our fingers crossed tonight... :)

  ¶ 10:18 PM

  there's a rowing competition gowing on at my work right now. it started thursday last week, and ends by midnight today. everyone has to row 2 minutes at the excercise "boat" in the basement, and whoever gets furthest wins. i won't win :( i was among the best when i went home on friday, but during the weekend two people have managed to get over 500 m!! i only did 439... but i've been close to death this weekend, so i think i'll just blame my cold for the bad result... i actually had chest pains almost an hour after i finished rowing last friday :)  ¶ 4:17 PM

  we've been driving around looking at a few houses this weekend. this was the best one. VERY nice place! but i'm a bit worried about the smell... i don't like places that smell, and we're not sure whether we'll be able to smell bollstabruk from there. This was another nice one, but too close to the road.   ¶ 8:48 PM

  i think galdor might be suffering from bulimia... he's been throwing up food twice today...  ¶ 7:38 PM

  walking and driving on ice
the temperature is still gowing up and down, the other week it was between -20 and -25 the entire week, but the last few days it's been around zero. the day before yesterday it was suddenly above zero and raining! yesterday when i came back to sollefteå from a trip to ö-vik with my colleagues it was -7 and everything was covered with a thick layer of ice.

so going for walks yesterday reminded very much of skating. and going to work this morning was very close to impossible. i came 3-400 metres, and then i was stuck behind a bus that couldn't get either forward or backward. the road was a thick shiny ice, sloping to the sides. and the bus driver was not very happy at all.

several children didn't get to school today (among those all the children around our lake, as the bus driver went back the same way he came when he finally managed to get the bus moving). apparently they sent warnings over the radio about "NOT getting out on the roads today!", but as i don't have a radio in my car i didn't hear that. i was considering turning back home while i was waiting for the bus to get out of my way, but i realised i would never be able to get the car back up our slope...

when i came back this afternoon our neighbour had put sand in our slope, so i managed to get the car all the way up again, and it's now resting in the garage after an exciting day on the roads :)  ¶ 7:26 PM

  big event in långsele...
today was skyltsöndag ("shop-window sunday" :) in långsele. tommy and i were curious about what that might mean (considering there's only one shop window in långsele), so we took a little trip there. it meant a parcel and a garland in the window, two little horses in the parking place behind konsum, a church service in the cafeteria at konsum and quite a few people walking around selling lottery tickets.  ¶ 10:16 PM

  yesterday tommy and i went to a multi cultural event in sollefteå, arranged by 5i12. it was very nice, with music, dancing, singing, poetry reading, theatre and people just walking around (quite a few just sitting still too). we met some of tommy's students (and some of my former students).   ¶ 10:11 PM

  i'm home! i don't like being away from home, and last week in ö-vik felt like an eternity... but now it's finally over :)

it wasn't just bad. visiting the unemployment office was actually quite interesting. if anyone reading this is unemployed i think you should move to ö-vik. if you don't want to be unemployed, that is...

i also bought a few christmas gifts, and cut my hair. i wanted to take a photo for my new drivers license as well, but the only machine i found didn't work. i can't really believe i've had my license long enough to renew it...
  ¶ 10:02 PM

  i'm in ö-vik this week, visiting their unemployment office. i'm staying at a very expensive hotel, where the guests wear ties and suits for breakfast. it's a very stupid hotel, and i would have been very upset with it if i was the one paying. my room is enormous, with two king size beds and a rather big tv. but there's no bath tub!! there should be a law against hotel rooms with no bath tubs! and there's no pool to be found in the entire building. but what's most annoying is the horrible smell of this city, and the loud noise from the ventilation system in the room. fortunately i'm going home tomorrow!  ¶ 8:03 AM