SSD syndrome

I suffer from SSD syndrome. Not the heart condition. Not the one that you get from sniffing glue either. I am talking about the worst of all: Sticky Side Down syndrome.

The syndrome manifests itself several times throughout the day in the following way: I think about something I need or want to do. In a sudden moment of complete clarity my head reminds me of facts that are relevant for the execution of that task. Complete clarity is immediately followed by total amnesia. Without further consideration I go ahead with whatever I needed or wanted to do. The result can be rated on a scale from "slightly dangerous" to "stupid, but entertaining".
That was of course very theoretical, so let me give you some practical examples for how this rare disease affects my life:

Take today, roundabout 15 minutes ago. I am sewing a bag at the moment and wanted to take the time tonight to iron on the reinforcing fabric onto the lining. As I picked up the fabric I thought to myself "Remember to put it on the lining with the sticky side down". I then went on to check that I had the damp cloth needed to iron on the fabric, put it down on the lining and started to iron. And iron. And then iron some more. Still, every time I lifted the damp cloth, the fabric would come loose from the lining. You probably already figured it out, but it took me a whole 5 minutes (and lots of ironing) to realize that I had NOT put the fabric with the sticky side down after all and thus ironed it onto the damp cloth instead.

Then there is my little problem at work.
As the desk I am working at right now has only been set up temporarily for me, I am missing most standard office supplies and little extras that make life nice, such as a trash bin. Everybody else has got their own black plastic trash bin under their tables, while I have to go around and find somebody who will let me use theirs. However, several times a day I notice a big black object under my table out of the corner of my eye, which immediately triggers my instinct to throw away whatever stuff has been piling up on my desk. My head usually tells me that something is wrong, very wrong, about the picture of me throwing something into MY trash bin under MY table, but the thought disappears again as quickly as it popped up. And the next thing I know is that I have thrown candy wrappers and bits of paper into my winter boots.

SSD syndrome may not kill, but it does leave you feeling very, very "special".

Pink bread box

In my quest to turn the whole house into a pink kitsch wonderland I have now begun to expand my collection into the kitchen, starting with this fabulous pink bread box that I bought at Lagerhaus last week. It was also available in other colours, but white and black are just so...not pink.

My husband was actually okay with both the bread box and its colour. He likes to see me happy, he is good like that.

True love

Muddiz introduced us and it was love at first sight. Oh, how I want you, how I need you. You light up my days and nights. My bedroom will never be the same once you are in it. Your sparkle, your glow... Come to me and never leave me, my beloved pink chandelier!

How about Mason?

Muddiz and her husband have the crazy idea that all of the names in their family should start with the letter M. Their son is called Milton and now they need a name for baby no. 2 which is due in late June. So far their list of boys' names is short: Marvin, Melvin, Milo and Molgan. The list of girls' names is even shorter: Milla.

I think they can do better than that and decided to give them some help. So, here are names on M, some from our own list of baby names and some that I thought of last night:

BOYS' NAMES:

Magnus
Malcolm
Malte
Manuel
Marc
Marcel
Marco
Marek
Mario
Marius
Martin
Mason
Mats (x)
Matteo (x)
Mattias
Maurice
Maximilian
Melker
Mick
Mikael
Miles
Milo (xx)
Mio
Momo
Morgan
Moritz
Måns
Mårten

GIRLS' NAMES:

Maj
Maja (x)
Malin
Malou
Marie
Mart(h)a
Matilda (xx)
Meja (xx)
Melissa
Meri
Mikaela
Millie/Milly (x)
Mimmi
Mina
Minja (x)
Mira (xx)
Miranda
Moa
Molly
Mona
My
Märt(h)a

(The names marked with one or several asterisks are on our list and favourites - the more asterisks, the more popular (2 asterisks being the top score.))

I think this should give them plenty of options. And the only thing I ask in return is for them not to tell us which names they chose. Because the last thing I want is for our own name selection process to be complicated any further...

Back at home

After just 3 days at work I am now back home, certified unfit to work until at least March 15th, because of, wait for the pun, MY BACK. My doctor was understanding enough to realize that being at work wasn't doing me any good (on so many levels) that he issued a sick certificate and released me from that burden. He also recommended physiotherapy, so I made some calls today.

The first practice I called had a waiting list. But, I was informed, it would only take a couple of weeks until I could meet a physiotherapist. My question if it wouldn't be too late by then, considering the baby is due in just around 11 weeks, remained unanswered.

At the second practice nobody picked up the phone at first even though I called during business hours. It wasn't very reassuring. When I finally got a hold of someone the following conversation ensued:
Man: "Yes, hello?"
Me: "Yeah, hi, I am calling because I have back pain. I am 28 weeks pregnant and currently unable to work because of the pain. My doctor recommended physiotherapy."
Man: "Mmh, I don't know much about pregnancy. I think it is better if you talk to someone who does. I just don't have any empathy."
Pause.
Man (flustered): "I mean...I do have empathy. It is not nice to be in pain. It is more the specific back pain one gets during pregnancy I don't understand much about." (Short silence) "It's because I can't get pregnant."
Pause.
Man: "I will just let you talk to Camilla instead. Hold on!"

Both Camilla and I had a good laugh about the man without uterus (who is one of the physiotherapists there) and, more importantly, I managed to get a time with her next week. I have never had physiotherapy, so I am not sure what to expect. But as long as it helps...

Ångerrätt and bad karma

I thought I had found the ultimate little diaper bag to go with our new double stroller: a Ju-Ju-Be BeTween. The bag seemed to be big enough to hold everything needed for a quick trip with two children without being too bulky and it even matched the somewhat odd colours of our ABC Zoom, so I ordered it online at "Lilla Max och jag". It was not until I actually held the bag in my hands that I realized that the pictures and videos on Ju-Ju-Be's hompage had maybe been somewhat flattering as the bag turned out to be a lot smaller in reality than what I had anticipated. It was simply way to small for my purposes so I immediately contacted the lady running "Lilla Max och jag" about a return. In reply I got an email saying that she did not really want to take back the bag, considering it had been on sale and that she had already paid for the delivery to me (p&p was included for purchases exceeding 300 SEK). Wasn't I maybe interested in exchanging it against the next bigger bag in that line? I wasn't. The BeAll is not just bigger, it also has a completely different design and I really don't like it. So I told her I was sorry, but that that bag wasn't for me and that I really just wanted to return the BeTween and get my money back. That was yesterday.

Today I had received another email from her with a new suggestion: If I didn't want the bag, why didn't I just sell it on Ebay? People there would often bid more than what the bag costs in the stores. I wrote back, again, and, with as much politeness as I could muster, let her know that this was starting to feel somewhat unfunny. According to Swedish law I have a whole 14 days of "ångerrätt" (meaning a right to "regret" my purchase and return the goods) when purchasing items online. If this right should be affected by the item being on sale or her paying for the delivery, shouldn't that be pointed out somewhere? But it neither says anything on their homepage nor in any of the mails I got. Hell, I did not even know the bag was on sale until she said it - on their homepage it just says "Nyhet!" (meaning "New!"). Last time I checked, "nyhet" and "rea" (meaning "sale") were not the same word. And either way: it doesn't matter. I just want to return that bag and unless one of you can enlighten me otherwise I also assume that I am BY LAW entitled to do that.

The real question though is why I keep attracting problems like this. Why do I constantly need to argue and discuss with people to get my right? Is it all about bad karma? I must have sinned BIG TIME in a previous life: defiling graves, stealing candy from orphans and snorting cocaine off a hooker's body, or something along those lines. And now it's coming back to bite me in the ass.

ABC Zoom

This afternoon we went out to buy groceries and returned with a double stroller, an ABC Zoom. I had seen it on the internet before and really liked it, but for my husband it wasn't love at first sight.
As opposed to about 95% of the other double strollers on the market the children don't sit beside each other in the ABC Zoom, but opposite of each other. You can also have them sitting back to back or facing in the same direction. It is extremely flexible - you can switch and turn around the seat units and the carry cot as you please. At the same time it is, of course, longer than your standard stroller, but actually not by that much. It LOOKS very long with the seats on it, but the frame itself isn't much longer than that of the Gesslein stroller we are using at the moment. It's something one will get used. I'd definitely rather have a long stroller than one of those monster strollers that should be sold with a "Caution! Wide load!" sign. The only alternative would have been a Phil & Teds stroller, but neither my husband nor I liked any of the models we tried.

Now all we need is the adapter for our Maxi Cosi Cabriofix car seat (very handy that it can be used with the stroller) and, oh right, the baby.

Roxie/Roxy

I am curious to find out what people associate with that name.

Do you think Roxie/Roxy is...
a) a stripper
b) a dog
c) a theater/club
d) all of the above
e) something else (please explain!)

So far it's one vote each for a) and b), but maybe there is others out there who have more suggestions.

Boy or girl

I have been thinking about this and not knowing if the baby is a boy or a girl has both advantages and disadvantages.

Disdvantages:
- You are never able to speak about the baby in a normal way, but always have to keep things open by saying "he or she". That gets a little annoying in the long run. My attempt to simplify the situation by referring to the baby as "klumpen" (the lump) and "it" was NOT appreciated by my husband, who felt that it was inappropriate to call a child that (as if the baby can hear it, please!).
- You have an extra hard time choosing a name. Finding a boy's name was difficult enough the first time (there was only one we could agree on at all). Now we have to come up with another one AND a girl's name as well, just to be prepared. Trust me, you do not want to start discussing names in the delivery room. It is a time-consuming, unnerving process and it does not help to know beforehand that half of the work is totally in vain.

Advantages:
- You provide a certain entertainment for the people around you who want to guess the gender of the baby. Like Muddiz's husband who, from a fuzzy ultrasound picture showing mostly the baby's head, deducted that we were definitely expecting a boy. (He was however not interested in betting on it. Coward!)
- You might be more motivated during the actual birth. With Pontus I knew what I was getting. I would not have needed to squeeze him out to know that he was a boy. It was like opening a present, but basically knowing what was inside. However, if you don't know if it's a boy or a girl there's only one way to find out: you gotta push and you gotta push hard. And then at the end you get the surprise. Like opening a present without knowing what's in it, to use that metaphor again. It sounds more enticing, doesn't it?

Happy New Year!

May all your wishes come true! Mine already did - Pontus did not wake up from the fireworks. (Have I mentioned just how much I HATE fireworks?)