So, I was very housewifely today and by mid-afternoon I had two loaves of freshly-made bread on my kitchen counter and a pan of spinach lasagne assembled and waiting in the refrigerator to be baked for dinner. After making sure everyone knew that I would be putting the lasagne in the oven at five [...]

Lydia’s teacher often has the kids write out the notes that she wants them to take home to their parents, in order to give them additional writing practice. This afternoon Lydia came home with slip of paper telling us that her class has swimming tomorrow. In Swedish this is “I morgon har vi [...]

Like anyone with even a modicum of good sense, I like brownies. I like them a lot. Until I moved to Sweden, however, I rarely (never?) baked them from scratch, because brownie mixes–like oh, so many things–are cheap and plentiful in the States, and besides, I’d take a Little Debbie brownie over homemade [...]

Today I saw an ad for toilet paper in a Swedish magazine. The text read, in English, “The Fresh Paper! For Those Incredible Moments.”
As I see it, we have three options: 1) This is just way more information than I need about anyone’s bathroom moments; 2) Some copywriter seriously [...]

Anyone who has lived in or visited Sweden any time during the past six months has surely heard the song “Hej Hej Monika,” by Nic and the Family. For the uninitiated, let me explain that it’s one of those annoying pop songs that unfortunately has a catchy refrain–which makes up a good 80% of [...]

I have absolutely, positively nothing to write about. I hate going days and days without posting an entry, but I’m just feeling uninspired, word-wise. I hope it passes soon.

Though Olof and I hadn’t met in person before the day I moved in with him, we had gotten to know each other quite well in the eight months that we talked before I came to Sweden. Since we built our relationship from a distance (primarily on the telephone — we rarely chatted online [...]

Today is the fourth anniversary of the day that Lydia and I arrived in Sweden, never to return whence we came. To mark the occasion, I made a batch of Rice Krispie Treats. Actually, that’s not quite true; we did come to Sweden four years ago today, and I did make Rice [...]

This afternoon Lydia and I were sitting together on the couch leafing through one of the spring catalogs When I moved to get up, I felt the pain in my knees start up and I said, “You know, I wish I could walk on my hands.”
“Do you?” she asked.
“Yes, because then I wouldn’t have [...]