happy new year to you!

i'm just going to make some sandwiches and pack my toothbrush, and then i'm off to celebrate the new year with a doggy walk in the woods with the pup and his girlfriends  ¶ 12:28 PM

  puppy racing day in pictures:











  ¶ 7:29 PM

  i'm back after a christmas week at my parents'. my first christmas ever without snow! i'm cold and tired and a bit hungry, so i'll give you the list-version of my life the last week:

the best chocolate pralines: coop (BIG surprise!)

sisters and brothers met: all of them

old friends met: 3 - the js and the c

the most exciting christmas present: a flying lesson from the dad

film-nights in the baby sister's bed: 2 (employee of the month and fragile)

trips made: 1 (to the royal capital of stockholm)

visits payed: 2 (to the grandparents and the uncle's)

hamburgers eaten: 3

bargains made at the christmas sales: none (but i bought a really really nice tassle, which would have been a great bargain if it hadn't cost a fortune)

dinosaur pens bought: 6

biggest surprise: i don't have a granddad who brags about his reading abilities anymore. i now have a granddad who spends most of his time in bed and talks really really quietly. i don't think i would have recognised him if he didn't have a sign with his name outside his door. the gandmother still seems to think he is a nuisance, though :)

record broken: headache (it lasted 5 days)

changes made: hair colour - from "blondish" to almost black (the box said brown...) and eye brows - from transparent to black (the sisters said they wouldn't be black if you rinsed it out quickly... i did. and they are black)  ¶ 4:17 PM

  i'm home!

see you later, have to find some wood for the fire  ¶ 3:59 PM

  lesson recently learned: stuff straight from blocket are not always bargains. now we have a cheap ugly bed. :P  ¶ 7:20 PM

  yay! our new bed is coming, straight from blocket. have to dash upstairs to make room for it.  ¶ 6:45 PM

  have you ever seen anything so sweet?

i mean EVER??

  ¶ 5:08 PM

  found this in an old post at dawn's

you're supposed to google "your name needs", and type down the results. so here goes:

erika needs coffe

erika needs to eat a stake sandwhich while doing sit-ups

Walter, in all his youthful naivety, thinks that he will conquer the iron maiden's heart by wooing her, which is in fact the last thing erika needs

erika needs to sing and work and be clean

erika needs a fun, loving and caring family that is normal

erika needs your help!

erika needs snow to live

erika needs therapy!

erika needs to speak to will

erika needs Help!!!

erika needs a lot of attention and care

...seems like erika needs something better to do with her life than finding silly lists to fill her blog with  ¶ 12:25 PM

  reasons not to let stupid things make me upset:

i am healthy
i am young(ish)
i have a healthy husband
i have a cute pup
i have a mean visious killer cat
i have a wise clever hungry cat
i have a white house on a hill
i have a father who can fly planes
i have a mother who loves anything italian
i have a brother who has read bilbo, lord of the rings and the emigrants, and nothing more
i have a brother who dyed his hair with paint
i have a sister whose hair turns white when the sun shines on it
i have a sister who writes notes on her wrists before tests, more because it looks good than for cheating purposes
i have a granddad who is very very old, who likes walking backwards while reading very loudly, so that everyone at a distance of at least 10 km will know how good he can see
i have a grandma who is very old, who thinks my granddad is a nuisance
i have great friends
i have an old friend who loves me so much she wants me to come and live with her
this is the last working day before the christmas holidays
in a month from now i'm going to india
there are people who starve in the world, and i'm not one of them

so. i'm happy.

...just a liiittle bit upset  ¶ 9:53 AM

  oooooh i'm so ANGRY right now i feel close to an explosion!!!! i might tell you about it later, when i have calmed down a bit. IF i calm down a bit. VATTEFACK! stupid loser! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...is it being childish and unprofessional to hit someone in the head when you're 31?  ¶ 5:49 PM

  the sister's list:

(translated into swenglish by me: i hope you realise how nice that was of me jm? :)

Right- or left- handed: right
Mood right now: clearly below average - i need to pee, my thighs are still cold from the lunch walk, i'm hungry and have nothing more important to do than a stupid list
Favourite sweets?: silly question. chocolate. of course.
Is there anything you would never ever eat?: yup. lots of things.
Clothes right now: brown company sweater (nice and fluffy inside) and jeans
Music right now: right now? nothing. i listen to the nice breeze from the enormous ventilation system behind my back
What was your last uttered sentence?: good luck!
Plans for the summer: i wouldn't call it plans, exactly... intentions would be more correct. maybe go to japan with the sister to visit the o. maybe go to france to visit the n (but not the p, cause he is dead :(
Fisk eller badkruka (sorry jm!): badkruka. what else?
Juice or alcohol: coooca cola. always.
How many pillows?: 2,5
Favourite weather: sunshine
Do you play any instruments?: no. but i used to
Mornings or nights?: evenings
Save or waste?: both. but if i have to choose i'd waste it
Favourite film: nooo, i HATE these questions. i have no idea :(
Do you believe in life at other planets?: certainly
Do you remember your first love?: no. but i remember the last one
Do you still love him/her?: the first one? nope, probably not
Any gay friends?: of course
Is it possible to be faithful for ever?: of course
Do you consider love a mistake?: is it even possible to ask something like that..?
How many kids do you want when you grow up?: null. unless i could have them when i'm 50. in that case: 3
Cinema or walks?: yes
Are you ticklish?: you'll never know
Do you snore?: i guess
Afraid of insects?: no
The most disgusting insect?: no idea
I'm good at: complaining
What superpower would you choose?: to be able to click things in the real world
What profession would you like?: chocolate taster
Chips, carrots or candy?: no
Pizza or hamburger?: yes, please
Do you keep a diary?: no...except for the blog
Do you have a boyfriend?: yes (if the husband counts as a boyfriend?)
Do you ever plan to get tattood or pierced?: of course
Where?: anywhere
Messy or tidy?: a little bit of both
Do you balance on your chair?: of course
In which hand do you hold your fork?: whichever is available at the moment
Describe the boyfriend of your dreams: :)
How many sisters and brothers do you have?: 2 of each
Are you afraid of blood?: no?
Do you salt your food?: no. the husband salts my food
Do you like singing?: only with really good headphones on. i don't like the sound of myself singing
What did you study at senior highschool?: natural science. i wanted to be a vet back then
Do you consider yourself strong?: nope. but i used to be
Do you sunbathe?: on the few occasions i have a sun available i do
What do you do when you have the hiccups?: pretend the dad will give me 100 sekr if i just do it once more. or try to scare myself
Do you smoke?: no
Do you take snuff?: no
Do you do drugs?: no. i haven't found the best one yet
Coffee, tea or nothing?: i've allready told you: coca cola!

so. now it's time to go home :)  ¶ 2:48 PM

  today feels like christmas-light at work. a new sweater with the åf-logotype embroidered was waiting for me when i came this morning. after the lunch walk with the pup and the l the t asked if i like chocolate, and sent me to the coffee rom "QUICK, HURRY". i found the most delicious chocolate truffles and all kinds of other chocolaty things. SUCH a nice surprise that some nice person thinks of the chocolate intake at this place (instead of the normal: bread with caviar :)

i now feel slightly sick, which only adds to the christmasy feeling. to be honest i was feeling sick allready this morning. it feels a bit like the day after you've had too much alcohol. which reminds me: i had an epiphany this weekend: i don't drink enough alcohol. the tipsy feeling is nice. maybe my new years resolution will be to get drunk more often :) ihopeihopeihope it's not the dreaded "winter throwing up sickness"!!! i hate being sick.  ¶ 1:14 PM

  guess what?! we're going here. soon. yay!  ¶ 10:22 PM

  guess what??!! he just called. from the car! he had left. that's so cheeky it's cool. so now i'm not angry anymore. AND i get to go home :)  ¶ 4:22 PM

  ihaveadeadlineonmondayandthepersonwhowassupposedtotellmewhatthestupidreportshouldbeallaboutdisappeared30minutesagoandsaid"i'llberightback"
andihaven'theardofhimsinceandi'mhungryandtiredandactuallyalittlebitboredandiwanttogohomeandi'mnothappybutnowhe'sonthephone!!  ¶ 4:18 PM

  i don't pay enough attention to the tv commercials! i just talked to a girl who conducted a survey about different brands of detergents and soaps and things. i was asked to name the products i had seen in commercials lately, and my answer was "none". then she described millions of commercials, and i recognised most of them. embarrasing. but i still had no idea what brand they advertised. but i guess there's no use in paying attention to it now, as she probably won't call again.  ¶ 7:57 PM

  i want to play with baaaaarbie dolls!!! right now there are two little girls playing with barbies in our tv. and i want to join!  ¶ 6:29 PM

  i have heard that children are worse than dogs and cats when it comes to waking you up early in the morning and keeping you awake until it's too late to even think of falling back to sleep again. i really want to believe that's true! because then i can console myself by thinking that there are others out there who suffer more than me.

the big fat cat sleeps on my face at nights, which is a bad start. then early this morning the little angry cat decided to tear down the flowers and shit we have in the bedroom window. after a while i gave up and let the cats and the pup out to pee, let the big fat cat back in and fed him and cleaned his toilet so he could pee, and let him out again.

the big fat cat is not only big and fat, he is also very slow. his morning procedure is often enough to make it impossible to go back to sleep again. but this morning i decided to try, and went up to pull and drag and shovel the pup away from my pillow. he was fast asleep with the weight of concrete and the consistensy of jelly. and his snowy paws had made wet spots on my sheet. but i was tired and it was still dark, so when i pulled the cover up to my chin and hit the husband to make him stop snoring i was happy and pleased and planned to sleep at least two more hours. fifteen minutes later the pup woke up and was boooored. i forced the husband to deal with it as he slept til 10.30 yesterday and never even wakes up even though we have cats and pups hanging from the curtains.

the husband's way of dealing with a bored pup: take him out for a pee, and then put himself in front of the computer with his back towards the rest of the world, put his gigantic headphones on and turn the music up. nothing can get his attention when he's in that mood. so the pup tortured the cats for a while, then he took one of my shoes and ran up the stairs and threw it in my head, jumped up in the bed and made sure he landed right in my stomach, started digging a hole in my thigh, and cried and cried and cried. i put a pillow over my head to shut out the crying, and borrowed the husband's cover to get an extra shielding layer. the pup went downstairs to get a LOG and threw it in my head. i tried the bear-trick and pretended i was dead so he'd go away and find someone else to torture. but then he lay down on top of my and turned the log into very very small pieces of wood that he spread all over the bed. while crying.

next weekend i'm thinking of sleeping in the basement.  ¶ 10:43 AM

  i've just had a long bath with extra expensive (and therefore extra luxurious) bathe bombs with rose petals in. i now look like a raisin.  ¶ 4:56 PM

  at this very moment i have sparkles in my stomach.

and cheese cake and pepparkakor and something with a weird name and lussekatter and chocolate pralines and chips.

so i'm pleased :)  ¶ 11:59 PM

  girls' night at the å's tonight. not even the pup is welcome, even though he is such a very very small little boy. seem like a good sign for a veeery girly night :)  ¶ 6:25 PM

  the long helly hansen underpants were not a good choice today! it's warm, and sollefteå has turned into ice. walking to work this morning was no funny business. but no legs are broken and i'm here, only 30 minutes later than usual and in need of a shower. don't think i'm going to have one, though. as i'm the only girl/woman/whatever-i-am here we only have one dressing room and one shower room, and i'm not sure it would be fun to walk out of the shower into a room full of dutch militaries.

and by the way: i love whoever it was who invented the mp3-player. i lost mine when we moved more than a year ago, but i found the husband's the other day. and i realised i haven't listened to music for over a year. and music is great. especially through earphones, that fills the head with it instead of letting it out and mix with the air. so now i'm walking to work with a smile on my lips and with rythm in my feet :) must look really silly, cause people have started smiling at me when i meet them... had to stop singing along though, as the pup thought it sounded so bad he didn't want to be seen together with me.  ¶ 9:09 AM

  today is första advent and skyltsöndag, all at once. big! we lit a candle for breakfast, and let the neighbour deal with the snow. he hates us anyway, so we decided we might just as well take it easy :)

i have to say i was disappointed at the sollefteå skyltsöndag, though. even långsele was better at it! embarrassing! met an iraqui journalist, and tried to explain the concept of skyltsöndag. don't think he fully got it. maybe i should have adviced him to go to långsele, to see how it's really supposed to be... he took lots of pictures of the pup. said that in iraq dogs like that bite.

now i'm reading in front of the fire, while the husband is shoveling snow from the balcony. when he's done we'll have lussekatter bought at the market. första advent is almost better than christmas!  ¶ 9:07 PM

  the pup just chased his first jogger in the woods. a serious growing up sign, i'm afraid. maybe the days of semi-obedience are finally gone.

after the scaring innocent people episode we went stjärtlapping, which turned out to be a hit. the pup loved it.

it's snowing, and the tv promised about 2 dm of snow today. this means either a) the neighbour will be angry with me for not doing the snow shoveling, or b) the neighbour will be angry with me for doing the snow shoveling. either way he gets to be angry. a win-win situation, i guess :)  ¶ 1:59 PM