ouch! i have to go to work at 5.40 tomorrow. it already hurts.  ¶ 4:13 PM

  yippi! the billys are back!! my lunches are saved!  ¶ 12:41 PM

  just came home from seeing little children with the husband. i love films with a narrator voice! it doesn't really matter what the film is about, the voice makes it feel like a nice cosy story time. when we left the cinema it was winter in the air. i wish the fall could last a little longer. i don't even have any winter shoes...  ¶ 9:37 PM

  the husband is away with work, and won't come home until tomorrow. the official version is probably that they are going to learn or at least discuss interesting things. i'm almost sure the inofficial version is that they should get some time to get drunk together. somehow that has been the way of making colleagues like each other at almost every job i've had. i wonder if it works, in the long run?

i've been looking forward to a girly-night or a horror-movie-night or a pyjama-party-night or a hot-chocolate-and-marsmallows-in-front-of-the-fire-place-night tonight. but, of course, it turned into a menstruation-and-tummy-ache-and-feeling-sorry-for-myself-and-everything-is-horrible-
and-there's-nothing-on-tv-and-i'm-too-close-to-death-to-read-night instead. not as nice. unfortunately the pup is feeling sorry for himself too. he's in love with beautiful abby, so i guess that's why he's been restless and crying today. having a crying pup does not make the situation better, in case you wonder. crying pups is nothing i would recommend. not even on a nice and bright day.  ¶ 5:53 PM

  i'm hungry, and the pup is bored. i guess it's time to go home.  ¶ 3:57 PM

  my new friend with the sloughi girls gave us chocolate pralines that taste like heaven! finding new friends is great!  ¶ 8:29 PM

  they have left. the husband too. and the cats are out hunting in the rain. the house is empty and quiet, the pup is tired, my new friend and the sloughi girls are not coming until 12, and i can't sleep. i woke up at 6.30. what a waste of winter time! i had been looking forward to that extra hour of sleep, and instead i wake up at 6.30. maybe i'm getting old... our grey old neighbours wake up at 6 every day.  ¶ 9:33 AM

  i must be the most anti-social person in the world. our guests for the night arrived maybe 10 minutes ago, and i'm allready looking forward to when they leave, so the house will be quiet again... i wonder if i can blame the coughing for that, or if there's something else wrong with me??

comment: i *do* like them! and i think it's great to see them again, it doesn't happen often. it's just the noise i could live without. some people seem to be much noisier than others...  ¶ 6:32 PM

  i get lost in the woods a lot. yesterday i had a bad getting lost experience. it started out, as it always does, with an interesting track to follow. then i thought it would be a good idea to cross a clearing and climb a hill and follow a stream for a little while. and then there were new paths and tracks. and even though i get lost about 3 times a week i never seem to learn that that's not a good walking-in-the-woods-strategy for me.

so, i got lost. and after a while it started getting dark. just as i found a sign saying "östersund" weird things started to happen. first a very big black bird came saling out of the woods, and landed in a lonely pine trea right beside me. then a loud piggish sound came from the woods. the pup ran towards the sound, and upset a bird from the ground. while the pup chased the bird the piggy sounds increased, and a white small bird flew very slowly (and ghostly) over the path. i didn't want to wait in that ghostly place, so i turned right and started walking without the pup. but the pup never cought up with me, so i turned back, and found him eating rotten meat in the ditch.

now i decided to try to find my way back the way i came. after a while i heard a klicking sound from the woods to my right. it didn't sound like a normal wood-sound, so i stopped and tried to analyse it. it turned out to be a woman going for a walk! i hoped that meant i was close to civilisation, and hurried to meet the woman and ask her. unfortunately she had been walking for ages, but pointed in a direction that would lead me back to sollefteå eventually.

and then we walked and walked and walked and walked. and found a nice lake. and walked and walked. and suddenly we were back home again!  ¶ 9:58 AM

  i'm off to a lunch date at the hot-dog-guy's :)  ¶ 11:29 AM

  woooohooooo i got it!! so now i'll leave it, while i'm on top. i've heard that's the pedagogical way of dealing with things.  ¶ 4:22 PM

  right now i hate: acrobat, framemaker, photoshop, our printer AND the new fancy printer at the other end of the buildning. grrrrr!  ¶ 2:58 PM

  when i had breakfast this morning it was so dark outside i almost couldn't see the guesthouse right outside the kitchen window. i almost wanted to cry. and it's going to get darker and darker for two more months :(

i bought a coca cola at the kebab place for lunch today. the bottle smells of kebab every time i drink from it. not very very nice, actually. next time i'll try to buy a coca cola from a flower-shop, and see if i can get one that smells of roses.  ¶ 12:30 PM

  honestly, this must be fake, right? it's *obvious* she moves clockwise. you can focus as much as you want. ...but it's going to keep me sleepless tonight, that's almost for sure... i *hate* it when i can't solve these kinds of things! like those stupid images that are supposed to be 3D if you only concentrate enough. bullshit!!  ¶ 9:16 PM

  went for another walk with the sloughis. we went up to the top of a mountain and had a look at the view. i *like* getting up on top of things! afterwards we were invited in for coffee and home-made buns, fresh from the oven. great!

yesterday it was snowing. today it was ten degrees above freezing and sunshine. we figured it might be the last sunny day of the year, so the pup, the husband and i went up on a stone in the woods and grilled hot dogs and looked at the sun setting behind the mountains (at five pm). it was very nice, but after a while i was wet and cold and it was really nice to get back home to the bathtub.

  ¶ 7:59 PM

  the pup and i went for a walk with four sloughi girls we've found only 10 km från here. it was great fun seeing the pup run with friends who were able to keep up with his speed. after the walk i was wet to my knees, and even my so called "water proof" shoes were soaked. we're going back there tomorrow.

when we came home again the husband was building a sofa/bed in the doggy house. i (finally) carried in the plants (that have probably frozen to death) from the garden. they might still be alive, though. so far the've managed to survive frost, no water for weeks, burning sun, too much water etc. they are tough, my plants. i also started sawing down a couple of trees, but my husband took over after a while. he didn't think it was a good idea to stand on my knees in the wet grass as i'm still coughing. he was probably right. speaking of that, i wonder if two weeks would be considered a "long time" in doctoral circles? i went to a doctor two weeks ago for the coughing, and he said i should come back if it continued for a long time. i'm coughing more than ever, but i don't feel as tired as i did two weeks ago. so i think i'll be ok in a few days. his drug medicine didn't work, though. probably good. i guess that reducec my risk of becoming a coughing syrup addict :)  ¶ 7:50 PM

  ooops, i just sent in a job application... not because i don't like my present job, but because this one is only one minute from home. if i walk. very slowly. it would mean i could stay in bed until five minutes before i start! i couldn't miss that opportunity, could i?  ¶ 8:11 PM

  a colleague just came by, grumbling and muttering to himself, opened the window for a while, closed it and left again. I don't know what he wanted, but i could hear the words "boring" and "scrolling", so i guess he was upset about having to sit still in front of his computer all day :)  ¶ 1:45 PM

  something fun: when i was a kid i wanted to train dolphins. at the puppy camp this weekend i learned how to train dogs using dolphin-training-methods. so now i can do dolphin training as much as i want, without having to smell of fish :)  ¶ 9:10 AM

  my goal to bring home a stone every day failed miserably. it only worked one day. i'm not surprised though. that's what normally happens with my goals. except for my really really big major goals in life (ride on the bus number one (with a real purpose, not just for the ride), find a lucky clover, hear someone from kristianstad say "kristianstad"). i've already reached all of them.

today and tomorrow the pup and i are taking puppy lessons with three other pups. we both like this class better than our "every day" puppy class. in the everyday class our teacher gets upset with me for not pulling the lead hard and quick enough when the pup doesn't heel perfectly. and i don't even care if the pup heels at all. (but he is a sweet little teacher with a funny laugh, so i try to be a good student anyway :) in this special weekend class the teacher tells us not to pull the lead at all, and she has a table full of puppy-sweets that we are told to feed the pups every time they are being nice. which is all the time (i mean: they are pups. pups are always nice and sweet. that's the whole meaning with pups). and they all seem much nicer this way, when you focus on what they do right by rewarding good behaviour instead of trying to teach them new things by punishing them when they *don't* do what we want them to do. suddenly my dog seems clever instead of bored :)

this evening we had dinner with some of my ex-colleagues and their husbands/wifes/boyfriends/girlfriends. nice.

the pup and i are off to bed now. we have to be alert tomorrow.  ¶ 10:59 PM

  i have a new goal: to carry home one stone every day until i think i have enough stones.

and by the way i think sunshine and snow go well together.  ¶ 9:02 PM

  det snöar!!! not much, but still  ¶ 3:26 PM

  something weird just happened. i ate an apple. all of it. i can't even remember the last time that happend. and an even weirder thing: it was really good. i didn't think i liked apples, but apparently i do...  ¶ 2:44 PM

  today i planted babies from the plant that grows into walls with heart-shaped leaves inside a rusty angel. i'm *so* romantic!  ¶ 7:17 PM

  the darkness is getting darker... who came up with the stupid idea of making the nights so ridiculously long during winter?!  ¶ 6:45 PM

  aw! take a look at these sweet little darlings! it's the pup and his girlfriend.  ¶ 12:09 PM

  still alive. had to go and watch the gynecologist-series on tv yesterday, that's why i left so abruptly.

yesterday the husband forced me to go see a doctor for the coughing. i don't normaly do that, as i'm a doctor-fobic (actually i guess i'm an almost-everything-fobic). but i did. and the doctor was nice and asked me lots of questions and i was too tired to really think them through so i just answered anything that came to my mind and now i'm afraid he thought i was a coughing-syrup-addict because he prescribed a medicine that he said people easily get addicted to. so now i'm afraid to take it, because i don't want to become a coughing-syrup addict. how uncool wouldn't that be? and it tastes horrible. i'm much rather addicted to coca cola.  ¶ 11:43 AM

  saturday the pup and i went to a dogshow with the a-b and one of her dogs. the pup was too young to compete, but he did well as supporter. and his friend turned out to be a beauty queen.



we also met the pup's breeders, and had time to say hi and goodbye before we left to go shopping at ikea.

oh, have to go!... i'll get back later (if i'm still alive)  ¶ 8:35 PM

  i've been feeling sorry for myself for days now, partly because of a head ache. but not until tonight did i know what a real head ache is like. i want to die. i feel like throwing up for every move i make. now i would be happy for the head ache i had two days ago! i'm going to bed. i hope you all understand how miserable i am.  ¶ 8:08 PM

  i survived the night. but i still feel very very sorry for myself!  ¶ 12:22 PM

  i'm coughing, my head hurts, i have a tummy ache, i'm tired, it's dark and cold outside, i probably have a ton of sand in my bed (the pup was delirious with joy when he found an enormous mud-lake in the woods earlier today). i guess tonight may be a night of reading a good book in the living room instead of getting a good night's sleep...

and oh, our computer has finally been brought back to life! it's been in a coma since the thunderstorm a hundred years ago. and yesterday it woke up.  ¶ 10:05 PM

  today is the kanelbulle's day. and the s brought home made kanelbullar for the coffee break!


  ¶ 2:54 PM

  the pup had his girlfriend over to play all afternoon yesterday :)

  ¶ 9:32 AM

  hard work combined with the third cold of the season made me a bit tired last week. friday we had the last meeting regarding the big crisis assignment. the meeting was a bit weird, but it was short and people seemed pleased so it was ok.

friday was also the day of the big lennart festival. we showed our home-made lennart documentary, had dinner at a nice restaurant and went dancing and beer-drinking all night. the colleagues are fun party people. the t didn't like the restaurant, as they didn't have normal boiled potatoes. the l brough his own whisky in a pocket. the p seemed to try wine for the first time in his life (his motto: beer is good), and went all tipsy and sweet. the t's brother was as fun as the t, and someone found a nice girl. and the computer-teacher-person who gives us sandwiches anytime someone has to learn something computerish played bass in the band. cool!

saturday was spent in the sofa. i had forgotten how fun it is to sleep in front of the tv! i'll have to remember to do that more often.

sunday was a doggy day. the pup and i went lure coursing, and he was the bestest lure courser in the world. after hours of looking at running dogs we went for a walk with 4 sloughis, 3 salukis (including the pup) and a borzoi. the pup had great fun and all the others were nice to him.

sunday night in the dark i suddenly decided i had to dig a flower bed in the garden. so i did. it was dark and cold and wet and heavy, and i had to use a torch to find nice stones and now my back aches and the flower bed is all crooked but i'm proud anyway and it's probably going to look very lovely when the spring comes. ...at least that's what i'm hoping.  ¶ 1:07 PM