Pink things

My husband does not exactly share my enthusiasm for all things pink, but has to live with the consequences of it everyday. There is at least one pink item in every room of the house, our vacuum cleaner is pink and I even have a pink Christmas tree. Not to mention my insanely pink room...

Over time he has not only learned to cope, he even keeps a look-out for pink things for me.
Just yesterday he showed me a picture of this outdoor kitchen that is available at Rusta:



Then today he offered to buy me this tv for my room (check Prylportalen for details):



And yes, he would really buy these things for me if I said I wanted them. How much better can it get?

Canopy swing countdown

Today we will finally go and buy my canopy swing. When we went to the store last week it was temporarily out of stock, but they said they would get in new ones today. And they better do, because I have been waiting long enough...

I will post a picture as soon as we have put it together, which, knowing us, might mean either October or never.

11 reasons why Germans can't play soccer

< Enter names of yesterday's German squad here >

The fact that we won anyway proves that there is no Soccer God.

"Du är en Svenne nu"... *

...is what the lady at the post office said to me upon handing over the mysterious letter that I had received a pickup notice for.

Never one to believe in psychic powers I opened the envelope and saw that she was in fact right. Less than 2 weeks after I sent in the forms Migrationsverket had granted me Swedish citizenship and sent the certificate to prove it. I believe the papers were in the mail longer than it took them to process the application.

Of course I immediately started to think about the great new possibilities I now have as a Swedish citizen. I could for example pile up debts or commit crimes. This would have been a problem before as it negatively affects your application for Swedish citizenship. But now that I am Swedish - why hold back?
Because it is wrong, people. It is wrong and not funny at all. What were you thinking...that I'd really...? Shame on you!

Another thing I could do is change my name. Or add another one at least. In Germany it is close to impossible to change your name for reasons other than marriage or divorce. Here in Sweden it is relatively easy though, especially if you just want to add a middle name. And I find that thought tempting, considering how much I dislike my given name. I could just add a cool (or at least cooler) middle name and then have people call me that. But I need to choose wisely...

* (Translation: "You are a Swede now")

Mopey and lazy

I am a little mopey at the moment, for no specific reason. Being mopey takes a lot of energy away from other things, so I haven't finished any of the projects I started today.

I did not:
- publish any of the 4 longer postings I wrote
- buy a present for my friend Sarah's wedding (which is on Friday)
- improve the layout and design of my blog (I did take a look at the XML file though)
- find a suitable photo management software for the kazillions of pictures we have
- reply to any of those emails from people waiting to hear back from me

But then again there's always tomorrow...

Pink elephants

Why do I keep feeling the need to paint a picture of a pink elephant?
What does it all mean?

Uber-mother

I had bought more fruit than was needed for Saturday's fruit sallad and the usual mode of operation in this household would be to let it rot until it starts to look and/or smell funny.

Yesterday, however, my inner Uber-mother came out and demanded that I don't waste food but instead turn it into healthy, self-made fruit puree for Pontus. And so I found myself standing in the kitchen last night, equipped with a hand blender and the fierce determination to make the best damn puree ever.

The mix of 1 nectarine and 1 banana turned out to be too runny, so 2 more bananas were sacrificed to the puree god. And then 1 pear. And 1 apple. In the end the puree was just as runny as before, there was just much more of it. So much more in fact that I wasn't sure I had enough containers to fill the mud-coloured slime into. (Really, how do the big manufacturers manage to make their puree so viscous? Do I even want to know?)



I gave Pontus a spoonful to see if the puree was worth saving and he seemed to like it. Actually, he liked it so much that he ran after me in his little baby walker to get some more, constantly driving into my heels as I tried to pour freezable portions.

Being an Uber-mother hurts...

Diaper bag extravaganza

I am still window shopping for a new diaper bag. Unfortunately most bags are either impractical or ugly or, in the most unfortunate case, both.

I found some alternatives to the OiOi Change Mat Kit I wrote about a couple of days ago though:

1. Gaia Ready Set Go

This is another all-in-one solution which is very similar to the Oioi Change Mat Kit. The main differences I could make out are the position and style of the pockets and the fact that the Gaia model has a strap. I think the strap is smart, because then you can carry the set around your wrist and have the second hand free to support the baby. I am not so fond of the colours and designs though - the Oioi Change Mat Kit is much prettier. And yes, that matters.




2. Dadadoo Quick Change

Dadadoo has a lot of very nice diaper bags (just look at the "Sweetheart" for example. The Quick Change is a smaller bag with a seperate changing mat and comes in 5 colours, 2 of which are different shades of pink. It too has a strap so that I could use it as a regular little handbag once Pontus learns to use the bathroom. There isn't much that is not to love about this bag, really.



All the bags/sets basically cost the same (between 350-400 kr), so price is not a deciding factor.
But which one should I take? Or should I buy a new full-sized diaper bag instead? Help!

Mullet 2008

If you follow the European Football Championship on TV4 here in Sweden, you have inevitably been faced with the most horrible of sights: Peter Jihde's hairdo!

Being German I have had to suffer my fair share of jokes about mullets, but after having seen THIS, I won't take any crap from Swedes about unfortunate haircuts anymore. More frightening than calls to Försäkringskassan, more repulsive than Kalles kaviar - it's the mullet of the new millennium:



Why you ask? Why does this man look as if a beaver died on his head? And how much damage is done to the ozone layer every single day trying to fix this style (or, as Janet Jackson would say, "hair malfunction")?

I have questions and Peter Jihde better has answers...

Beached whale diet

Yesterday I had what will undoubtedly go down in history as the world's smallest birthday party.
My friend Katie came over and we ate bacon-wrapped fillet of pork with cream cheese filling and curly fries on the side, followed by fruit sallad with yoghurt cream sauce. You know that the food was good when people lie on the couch like beached whales afterwards, unable to move or interact except for the occasional grunting noise.

We then got our party on by playing the Pop Culture edition of Trivial Pursuit. As Katie and I were equally knocked out by the food it was a close game. Finally finding a worthy opponent was good news after all of my other friends turned out to be completely oblivious of trends, celebrities and the like (sorry, but it's true!).

Passing out on food: Age factor 45
Playing board games: Age factor 60
Doing both and still having a great time: Ageless