the ice has disapppeared! and i wasn't there to watch :(
when i came out this "morning" (about one pm - i was on a party with my work yesterday), i saw waves moving all over the lake. after a while i realised that must mean the ice was gone. when i left home yesterday morning the lake was still completely covered with it, and tommy promised me that it was still there when he and bob went out for the evening walk. i must say i'm quite disappointed it left without me! put the party was fun :)

and tonight there's a new party, in our village "cafe". they light the fire at 8.30 this evening, and after we've had some hamburgers and hot dogs the drinking and shouting begins. you're all welcome to join us if you like :)

spring signs:
* the ice, of course...
* there are small green straws of grass on the sunniest spots. very nice, as everything has been brown and grey for a long time now.
* there are buds on some of the trees. we saw them the first time this "morning".
* two days ago we saw the first little videkissar.  ¶ 5:58 PM

  today we had our first outdoor-dinner. nice and warm.

our nephew oscar was in the newspaper today
  ¶ 9:58 PM

  the galdor cat was battered again today :(

after the evening walk tommy, bob and i went down to look at the lake. it looks almost magical right now. it's a very dark shade of grey, with a thin layer of white on top. it looks like a lake turned into stone. as in a fairytale you read as a child. the only sound we could hear was the laughter of seagulls, which added to the fairytale feeling. a magical moment, in a landscape turned into stone by a black witch :)

on our way back home i suddenly saw our house as a house, and not as a person. i hadn't realised i saw the house as a person until that fraction of a section when i didn't. the moment was so short i didn't have time to notice if i liked what i saw. but i think i did. it left a nice feeling in my stomach, anyway.  ¶ 10:01 PM

  today has been a warm day. tommy had just a t-shirt on the dog walk after work.

on my way back to work after a visit to the hospital i saw two sea gulls sitting on a small ice floe in the middle of the river. they looked really proud, with heads held high and straight backs. like little captains. i envied them a bit. it must be cool riding on an ice floe in the middle of the river, looking "down" on the world on land.  ¶ 6:17 PM

  tommy and i just came home from a visit to the cinema. it's "cinema day" in långsele, and they've shown three films after each other. we only watched one: shall we dance. on our way home we saw a dead seagull on the road. it was bright white and beautiful. and dead.  ¶ 9:10 PM

  i'm *not* happy with excel at the moment! i'm supposed to do a hierarchical regression analysis for my essay, but i can't figure out how to do. :( i've managed to get the little paper clip guy to tell me it's possible (after lots of threats), but i still haven't figured out *how*. i HATE the little paper clip man right now! and there are too many figures for me to do it with just a paper and a pen... i've just decided to give up, and give it another try tomorrow.

spring signs:
* we saw at least 4 swans in the lake today. at least we think they are swans... but they are quite ugly.
* bob is drinking water in every ditch we pass. i'm surprised he doesn't have to pee every five minutes. he's addicted to outdoor-drinking.
* our water tastes and smells bad and is yellow. that's one of the not so pleasant spring signs. during winter our water has tasted almost like normal water, and it didn't smell at all.
* we've been invited to the majkase   ¶ 9:12 PM

  tierp lost :(
can't really say that i care
...i would have cared a little bit if they won, though:)  ¶ 10:07 PM

  a spring sign?:
* i might have seen a swan today. at least i saw a big fat white bird flying low over the ice, sounding depressed. i can see how the ice must be a depressing sight for a swan (if that's what he was). they come out best in romantic looking summer lakes. a swan on a black frosted ice with grey and brown surroundings isn't the same. even though he might not be a beautiful sight for another few weeks, he counts as a spring sign. if he was a swan, that is. ...but i guess other big fat white birds are spring signs too?

we've worked hard cleaning up the house today. when vacuuming under the bed i came to think about someone who recently told me that people who sell vacuum cleaners often ask if they can vacuum people's beds, just to demonstrate the machine. and when they show how much dirt they could vacuum out of the bed they often get to sell a machine. if a vacuum cleaner seller would have come to us yesterday and had a quick look under our bed, he would probably *give* us a machine! there's so much sand in our house at the moment it's probably enough to make a beach. and the cats loose so much hair we could probably make wigs to at least five hairless cats. but right now, this minute, the floor feels clean! it's wonderful! it's so nice to clean when it makes a difference! :)

i'm going to sit down with a cup of tea, and my bare feet on the clean floor and just enjoy the unsandy feeling :)  ¶ 8:16 PM

  still alive!
i'm beginning to think that i might survive this after all. :)

the cuddly cat galdor got a beating today. he's now dirty and sore and sad. somehow the cats around here like to beat him up now and then. fortunately his little brother, teo the tough, came to his rescue. he is very good at figthing, the small one. all our neighbours are very impressed. even the orange devil cat is afraid of him. noone seems to be afraid of galdor, though...

recent spring signs:
* we saw two tranor on our way home from work today

* there are lots of storspovar around

* the young ones are lighting fires by the lake at nights  ¶ 7:05 PM

  jm: when you move to sweden (after you've finished your phd) i guess you might be given the pet name "janne" :). so it's probably a good idea to think of a good pet name before you move here... isn't "jm" good enough? what kind of name would you like? give me some ideas, and i'll try to come up with something :)  ¶ 7:39 PM

  i'm dying! suffering from a severe "period". no pain killing pills in the house. i dreamed 32 of my colleagues had allready died. but now it's easing up, and if i'm lucky i might survive. i'll have some more chocolate and coca cola, and see if i can convince tommy to look at yet another episode of "the office" with me. tommy, galdor and bob have been really sweet, feeding me chocolate, sleeping on my stomach and keeping close. some parts of suffering are quite nice :)
it's also been very windy today, which is a perfect weather for suffering. it makes lying under a blanket in the sofa with a hot water bottle and a purring cat more enjoyable.

the ice was white for a while this morning, but now it's back to black again. the blackness suits it. i like the ice best when it's like this, i think. it's like a horror movie. too dark to be natural. especially when the sun is shining...

a new spring sign:
* two girls went bathing yesterday. or at least they said they were going to... in the opening in the ice under the first bridge. it must be freezing cold. cool girls. i hope they did. unfortunately i couldn't join them, as i had started to be dying :)  ¶ 7:24 PM

  a mixed entry:

the ice turned black this afternoon. it doesn't look natural, and i stop by the window every now and than in amazement. it hasn't started singing yet, and i'm afraid it wount. if i remember correctly the singing stopped a few days before the ice turned black last year. i'm a bit disappointed, because i really liked the songs! i had hoped the ice to sing every spring.

another thing that makes me disappointed: this last trip with work made me miss the most important spring sign of all: the tussilago. twice! when i came to tierp the ditches were allready full of tussilagos. and when i came home yesterday tommy had allready picked two of the first ones here in nyland. he assured med that he had picked them the same day, and that he hadn't seen a single tussilago before that, but it didn't help. *i* want to find the first tussilago! that's how it's supposed to be.

tommy and i married the 14th of april 2003, so we have now been married over two years. we celebrated with shrimps and wine when i came home yesterday.

today we walked around the lake, which is now officially a tradition (we made the same trip last year). when we came back home we had smörgåstårta and coca cola on the porch, and then we just sat and relaxed in the sun for hours. so now i have a couple of new freckles. great! i talked a lot to the neighbour. he seems happy again. before i left he didn't even say hallo when he saw us.

if you come and visit us you'll see the new funny curtains i've made to the bed room. they are actually table cloths, but they look nice and funny in the window. :)

now i'm going to have some coca cola and chocolate and watch a film with tommy and the others. niiiice! i LOVE being home! i want to be at home ALWAYS! :)  ¶ 7:37 PM

  i'm finally home! happy and tired. on my way to bed. a short summary of what's new in tierp at the moment:
* the police is crawling in the bushes around our neighbour's house. interesting. don't know what they're looking for.
* i've had my first mosquito bite.
* tierp will soon win the swedish championship in volleyboll.
... i think there was one more thing... but i can't remember what it was...  ¶ 11:52 PM

  i've just had an aha upplevelse. rubber boots! what have i been thinking of? rubber boots are the answer to most of my problems!

and i *love* my new soft tooth brush!

and tomorrow i can sleep as long as i want! (or as long as bob wants, whatever comes first)

and we have new, clean-smelling sheets!

life is quite nice right now :)  ¶ 12:05 AM

  it's practically impossible to go for walks at the moment. the road has turned into a mud hole, and everything else is soaking wet. i've allready soaked two pairs of shoes today - and i haven't even gone for real walks - as neither bob or i was very keen on walking in the snow-rain-cold-wet weather. so we've vacuumed as much of the mud and sand off the floors as possible, and will spend this evening with tea, books, blankets and grapes in the sofa. niiice!

i'm going to work at the offices in tierp and skutskär next week, and stay with my parents in tierp. i don't really want to go, because so much springy things are happening at the moment. i want to see the lake break through the ice! soon we'll be able to see the growing channel of open water under the bridges from our garden. i guess the risk that the entire ice will be gone when i get back next friday is very small, though. and it's nice that i've been able to see my parents quite often as i've been traveling with work lately. and they have a bath tub. and this is my last trip for a while.

my back is better today. it was still hurting this morning, but sometime after lunch it was ok again, and now there's no pain at all. hopefully there was nothing to worry about. :)  ¶ 8:23 PM

  my back is hurting! not very much, but still... i've been jogging three times this week, i wonder if that can have caused it? can "for a while" have meant more than 8 months of not jogging? or maybe it's just something temporary that will disappear again... it makes me quite worried...  ¶ 10:15 PM

  i've been given a pet name at work. in luleå one of my colleagues told me that i'm called "lokan" by some of the other colleagues (behind my back, until yesterday when i heard it myself for the first time). it feels quite nice. i hope it means i'm liked. i've never really had a pet name before (at least not that i've known of). i hope that doesn't mean i haven't been liked before...  ¶ 10:53 PM

  tonight i dreamt i was fighting with my neighbour (he accused me of having cheated in my physics class, so it was all his fault), and woke up in anger. i had to get up and have some water and walk around a bit before i could go back to sleep again. normally i'm aware that i'm dreaming, but this one felt very real. i can only remember two other dreams that really felt like reality... one nightmare and one really nice dream where i was sitting on a warm rock by a lake with the sun warming my neck.

on the way to work i was stopped by the police. i was driving the saab (i *love* the saab! it makes me smile everytime i hit the accelerator). they were checking seat belts and made me blow in an "alcometer". i've never done that before, which seemed to surprise the police (i wonder if i look like someone who often drinks and drives?). fortunately he didn't check if the horn works (it doesn't) or ask me if the handbrake works (it doesn't). he did check my drivers license though, which was nice as i've recently had a new one.

today's spring signs:
* the openings in the ice under the bridges are growing

* i saw a small group of cold ducks sitting on the edge of the ice under the second bridge. they probably wanted to take the first dip of the year, but didn't really dare

* the girls are now sitting behind the boys on the mopeds again (during winter the boys have to drive around without the girls, apparently)

a spring sign i've forgotten to mention earlier:
* our neighbour's hens (and cocks) have moved out in the garden  ¶ 7:49 PM

  today's mood: happy

today's spring signs:
* bob and i met a little red tractor

* the little stream where bob usually stops to drink has started to murmur under the ice

* the ice is darkening

* i could walk without my jacket to tommy's work for lunch (without freezing very much)  ¶ 6:23 PM

  yesterday's spring signs that i forgot yesterday:

* the first sailplane of the year (at least that we saw)was in the air

* i used my spring jacket for the first time

today's spring signs:

* i used my spring shoes for the first time (they became quite wet, though)

* the small horses have moved to the field next to our garage

* the south wall of our house is filled with tired flies

* i read a book in the sun, and had millions of new freckles (they've all faded away by now)

* we went for the first jogging trip of the year. i was a bit "worried", as i've promised not to jog for a while because of my back. but i still don't feel any pain, so i hope it'll be ok for me to jog this year.

* if you look really really carefully you can see really small leaves in the flower bed that look as if they are alive

* our neighbour is in a good mood again  ¶ 7:02 PM

  today's spring signs:

* the funny black and white birds who sound like the little plastic whistles in pale colours that change notes when you pull them are back. and the lonely sounding bird who only sings at nights. and all the normal birds who sound "springish".

* the ice has started to sweat today, and is now getting darker and wetter. yesterday it was still white, but now it's turning blue.

* tommy and i had our first lunch outdoors.  ¶ 7:51 PM

  i'm home (again)!
much of the snow has melted since last time, and the gravel in front of our house is now fully visible. the spring is definitely here! no snow left on the "terrace" either, which was last year's final sign of spring. but the ice hasn't started singing yet, which makes me a bit worried... i really hope it sings every spring, cause i've been looking forward to it the entire winter.

yesterday evening we saw two "famous" people in the restaurant at our hotel. not famous enough for any of us to know who they were though, but enough for me to be sure i had seen them somewhere. fortunately i managed (after quite a bit of thinking and googling) to find out who they were. great, now i can sleep :) i hate it when i *almost* remember something!

today is tommy's brother's sons first birthday. hip hip hurra!

keep your fingers crossed the sun will still shine tomorrow (please)! i'm hoping to go for a nice skiing trip on the lakes. tommy and bob have kept on skiing this week, when i've been "working" in luleå... i only managed to enjoy the sun for a short while at afternoons :(  ¶ 11:48 PM