we've had a storm today. not to be compared to the big katrina of course, but a few trees have fallen and lots of people have been without electricity. and my little garden was destroyed :(  ¶ 9:46 PM

  my parents' house is for sale :(  ¶ 9:16 PM

  my life the last few days, short version:

garlic bread, toads on the road, saab getting worse, trip to umeå, traumatic cooking experience, friends, coffee, shopping, saab getting worse, beautiful old dog*, fox head on the road, teo hurt, don't like my new tooth brush, "that time of the month" (again), nights getting darker, leaves getting yellow, colleagues coming back from vacation, need a hair cut

*the bob is always beautiful, so this wasn't really special for the last few days. i just suddenly felt such a strong loving feeling for him as i heard him ask tommy for cat food that i had to put it in  ¶ 10:10 PM

  galdor just came in through the window with a live mouse in his mouth. he slowly walked past me and into the hallway, where he killed the mouse, spit it out, and went to have some food. he's a very cool killer cat... when he catches a mouse he kills it, just like that, and leaves it (or gives it to someone, to be nice). when teo catches a mouse he playes with it and tortures it for ages. if galdor sees him he walks up to him, kills the mouse with one bite, and goes back to sleep. and teo is left with a dead toy.  ¶ 7:26 PM

  new family member

we have a new computer. it is black and silver and very very quiet. it looks like a serious business man, with a black suit with thin silver stripes. at first i didn't want to go into the room where it lives, as i was feeling bad about the old computer. but after a while i had to come and help my poor husband with the installation, and i was happy to see that the old one didn't seem to mind at all. i had expected him to look small and sad and old behind the new serious one, but he actually looked very good. maybe he thinks it's going to be nice to retire... even his breathing sounded lighter. lately he's been coughing and sighing a lot, and needed "mouth to mouth" by a screw driver now and then. but now he's standing with a straight back and a proud look, helping the new one to settle in. he's probably the best mentor the business man can get.  ¶ 7:00 PM

  no eating or drinking in front of the computers

i finally understand why someone invented that boring rule, after having spilled coca cola over my entire working place (including, among other things, a brand new sound absorbing screen covered in a pale grey soft fabric). i covered the worst spots with a calendar, a user's guide to our phone system and an oversized piece of paper with the telephone number to our helpdesk (and a flower, to create a homely atmosphere). i hope it looks natural, so that it will take a while before anyone notices the spots...  ¶ 6:06 PM

  a good beginning of the end of the week!

THURSDAY:
* the sun began to shine again. it was still very cold, though.

FRIDAY
* the sun was still shining
* the summer feeling returned (i.e. warmth + summer smell in the air + insects everywhere + thirsty flowers in my "garden" etc.)
* i had a hot dog and coca cola for lunch, on my favourite spot behind the tennis court
* i met a friend/ ex-boss from umeå. i don't think i've seen him in over a year...
* we had coffee at my favourite cafe in sollefteå (not that there are very many of them)
* it was so warm and summerish we could sit outside!
* i had some news from all the people in HUMlab
* tommy made a delicious dinner (i did the salad, as i'm not a very dinnerish person)
* we had dinner in our little "garden", together with the cats and the bumblebees

TODAY
* the bob, the galdor and i stayed in bed until 11.30
* the tommy and i went to my favourite swing in helgum
* we swung until i was feeling sick and the clouds started growing in the sky
* then we went to the bathing place that's so difficult to reach it's quite safe to expect it to be empty. it wasn't empty when we came, but the family who was there left as soon as they saw us
* the long and narrow bridge over the river didn't break when we crossed it
* we pick nicked coca cola and tomato sandwiches on the beach, listened to the waves and looked at the beautiful view over the lake. we can almost see to our village from there
* we had another delicious dinner, and this time i helped with the real food: i made the mashed potatoes. i'm really good at that, actually. ...but somebody else has to cook the potatoes...
* we're now going to watch a film, drink coca cola, eat snacks and chocolate and ignore the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine and the thirsty flowers until tomorrow. ... but maybe i'll give the flowers some water anyway... i don't know if i'll be able to enjoy the film if i know that they are suffering

A FEW "BAD" THINGS
- most of the coca cola had left the bottles when we opened them to pick nick, but i guess that can have cheered some ants up on our way
- the sun had disappeared by the time we reached the beach, and the wind had become quite strong. so it was quite a cold pick nick
- my behind still hurts after riding the bike so long
- i'm afraid i'm too un-hungry to really enjoy the snacks as much as i would have if i hadn't had such a delicious dinner...  ¶ 8:07 PM

  i spent most of yesterday with three of my friends/colleagues. we started with dinner, wine, deep talk and wise thoughts in sollefteå. after that we went barn dancing in a barn on the other side of our lake. tommy and i can hear the music across the lake at saturday nights. there were much more people than i had expected, and me and my friends toghether with two men were the only ones younger than my parents. it was quite fun, and i turned out to be much better at barn dancing than i had expected. i wasn't completely comfortable with being so close to sweaty old men all the time though. one of them seemed really interested in me, and kept close to me all night. and he was definitely older than my father. another one offered my friend a jar of home made honey. i found that a bit "sweetish", but mostly disgusting. one kissed my ear and another one definitely had an erection (or maybe a banana in his pocket:)...

after the barn dance we went head banging in sollefteå, where they had a "hard rock theme" in one of the restaurants. quite a contrast: from a band with pink jackets and ties to a band with bare chests and waist long hair.  ¶ 2:30 PM

  i half watched half slept in front of a tv programme on sea animals after work today. they talked about a special kind of fish, who lay their eggs on land and then they die. the narrator said that noone really knows why they do this, instead of laying their eggs in the sea as normal fish. but regardless of why, they are an "important source of nutrition for many birds". i thought that was an awful thing to say. as if the main meaning with their lives is being food for birds. how sad. they go through all that trouble to get to land and lay their eggs, and most of them even have to sacrifice theirs lives. and people think: well, at least the birds get a nice dinner...  ¶ 8:19 PM

  i just bid on a house! how grown-up of me! i bid 120 000 sekr. now i'm nervous. what if they don't agree to sell it to me? and what if they do? :)

  ¶ 6:36 PM

  they sky is heavy tonight, and the clouds are almost touching the ground  ¶ 10:24 PM

  the rainbow ends just outside långsele. on the way to österåsen.
...if anyone's interested in a pot full of gold...  ¶ 5:20 PM

  there was a smell of winter in the air yesterday. too soon!!  ¶ 6:32 PM