Day 90

Our tax-papers arrived in the mail today, and inspired by Christine I made it my picture of the day (although her photo is a lot more fun!). In Sweden most of us can't hardly say we "do our taxes" anymore; we get the pre-filled paper, check that it is correct, sign and hand it in, or, even easier, log into an Internet page and sign it off.

With the actual tax-document came a brochure describing how to read the figures and to fill in any other activities. On the front where a little black cat with the computer or phone that they recommend you use to sign it off. In my eyes it is totally uncalled for, but quite cute!

The top right corner says "Skatteverket", that's our IRS.

Day 89

Ok, we got snow on Monday, sunshine that melted it away on Wednesday, more snow on Friday, and by today it was all gone again. And I bet it wasn't the last time we'll see snow this spring.

Anyway, today was a lovely spring day, minus the sun. It was pretty warm, by our standards, and the walk with Ebba was done in full daylight, as we have now changed to DST.

I like this time of year as everything gets better by the day; lighter, warmer, greener, sunnier. Somehow this is the part that makes it worth living here in the colds. The transition from winter into summer is quite amazing (although, two months ago I could have traded with any of you living where it is summer year round!).

Day 88

Linus' birthday is on Wednesday, but then he will be with his mother, so we celebrated today. Grandma and -dad had stayed over from yesterday, so they also got to eat some cake and deliver some gifts.

Here Linus is playing with a Cars' race track that he got. Apperently it is a lot of fun! Daddy is helping out.

Day 87

A while ago we found some delicious-looking Thai recipes in a food magazine. We invited some friends over and gave it a try. It sure was delicious! My IL's love Thai food, so we thought it would be a nice idea to invite them over and have a Thai-night.

This is my plate, showing what we served. From upper left is fresh spring rolls with chili sauce, chicken satay with peanut sauce, chili-marinated cucumber, sweet-sour beef with coriander and fish cakes with red curry. It was great tasting this time too, and everyone had several servings. Even Linus ate this, at least some fish cakes and rice.

Day 86

The last couple of days the lovely sunshine has made most of the snow from Monday disappear. But this morning when I get up, it was all white again. And snowing yet more. It was like a little snow storm, snowing mostly sideways, all day.

It had almost stopped snowing when we went out with Ebba in the late afternoon. Grey skies overlooked a yet again white landscape. Though I'm not too worried. We probably get this kind of weather all April too; snow one day, and then sunshine to melt it away. The light evenings reveal it is spring anyway!

Day 85

Every night Daniel and I take turns reading a book for Linus before it is time to sleep. Tonight it was my turn. =)

Day 84

We had to go grocery shopping today, and this is the place we go to most often to do weekly shopping. The chain is named ICA, and this kind of store is a Maxi, which is their largest kind of grocery store. They have food, as well as a lot of other stuff including clothes, books, DVDs and Cd's. There is always something fun to look at.

When there aren't any time over to stroll the mall this ICA Maxi is the closest to "fun shopping" I get. I like to go through the cosmetics, clothes and shoes sections, but Daniel pushes me to hurry up so we can finish grocery shopping and get out of there. :P

Notice the sign to the right? That is the sign indicating family parking. Some of the spots close to the entrance are extra wide and dedicated to families so that they can more easily unload the kids. Kind of neat actually.

And yes, we got sunshine today! :) -8C cold this morning, but the sun is back which causes the snow to be almost gone again.

Day 83

This is from a walk around our office building. There is a small park area with a little stream floating by. Quite beautiful and calm, and perfect for a stroll at lunch-time.

The weather has been on and off today with snow and sunshine. This picture is captured right when the sun was on its way from behind the clouds again.

I have worked with Annie's Silver Screen action from her Picture perfect action set two, though I let the color shine through in one of the layers instead of keeping it all b&w.

Day 82

Not much excitement today. Monday means back to work, and with the grey and cold weather outside the mood kind of drops. Oh well, spring is on its way, some steps back are just a part of it. Soon we'll have the sun back again! (It is snowing right now.. :(

The photo of the day is a common picture at our living room door in the evening. Zoey's been out and want to get in again. The marks on the window are from when she rises up with her paws to the glass, to get our attention. I tried to capture that, but when she saw me she sat down again and refused to do any tricks. I felt sorry for her and let her in.

Day 81

We went to my IL's for dinner today, and took a brief walk with the dogs afterwards. Brief, as there was a mixture of snow and rain falling down, and not very pleasant at all. Ebba is rather handy in the aspect that she doesn't get very dirty when wet outside, the tibetan spaniels of my MILs collects some more in their long fur.

In the picture is Emma, 12 years old. She is still a little wet from the walk, and there are some dirt from outside on her paws, but she posed willingly.

Day 80

Our walk with Ebba today went to the bird lakes nearby. These are really beautiful in the summer, with lots of different birds, but it was rather busy now too with the ice slowly going away.

There were lots of mallards, like these two taking a rest on the ice, but also a grey heron, some Eurasian Coots and a swan. Ebba was thrilled with all the excitement. :)

Day 79

Daniel is home again after a couple of days in Stockholm on training. Both Ebba and I are happy to see him, although Ebba's welcome-kisses are a lot slobbier than mine. ;-)

Day 78

Ebba is back with me again, and we took a long walk this afternoon. This picture is taken from the same spot as day 25.

Daniel is in Stockholm on a course, and Ebba is welcome company! When I was little I was very frightened of the dark, and that quite hasn't let go of me yet today. The cats are no help at all, they are super-nervous and sees both existing and non-existing things! But with Ebba in the house I'm completely ok. I know she would fight anyone trying to get in here, and she does a great job with the ghosts in my closet/head. :)

Day 77

Some days it is hard to find one significant picture, and other days one picture just doesn't do the day justice. I couldn't decide what to focus on today, so it will just be two pictures for day 77 (both involving shopping).



It was a little Christmas today as DHL dropped me off a packet full of clothes. Yes, I do mail order clothes, both Swedish brands and this; Esprit. I've found Esprit clothes on vacations abroad earlier, and really like them. They have a huge e-shop for Europe, and all this was on sale. Now we have an Esprit shop in the city where I live, so I guess I'm just lazy for still order. ;-)

Liked how colorful they all were, made quite a happy photo.



A new grocery stored opened today, pretty close to where we live. I walked there in about five minutes. As I needed some more stuff for dinner, I decided to go there and check out the store. That was apparently the idea for rest of town too; it was crowded! I practiced some patience in the queue, and finally I was out of there, and could walk home again.

Nice weather today too, see the clear sky. The sun is generous to us right now.

Day 76

The sun has been shining the whole day, and it has been so lovely to finally get out of the grey. Even though I've been working all day, it feels a little easier when it is sunny outside. And days like these are a dog-owners dream! :)

I took a little walk looking for signs of spring, and had hoped for some tussilago (Coltsfoot? The little yellow flowers..), but it is too early for those still. I got these willow catkin instead, also a reminder of spring to me.

Day 75

We went down to "our" pub tonight, as nor Linus neither Ebba were at our home, and our city's hockey team is playing in the quarter finals of the Swedish Hockey League. The quarter finals is played best out of seven, and both teams had already won three each.

Unfortunately for us, it did not end well; the other team scored final goal in sixth(!) period. Fortunately for us, hockey does not mean life, and tomorrow it will all be forgotten. :) Better luck next year!

Day 74

We went to a playground today again, but another one than yesterday. This one is more for older kids, with a gigantic climbing tree. Linus though, soon four years old, just headed for the top. He is really a little adventurer when it comes to climbing, jumping and running. Daniel had to work real hard to keep up. :)

Oh, and the temperature.. it is a little above 0 degrees Celsius, that is about 35 degrees Fahrenheit, so it is actually quite warm with our standards for this season.

Today we also put the final hand on Linus indoor tree house, that we started a couple of weeks ago. Daniel uses a picture of it as his picture of the day: King Linus.

Day 73

We went to the larger playground today. Linus rode his little bike, and Daniel and I walked. Here is Linus trying out the swings, and Ebba really enjoyed playing in the sand too! The weather is right above zero, grey skies and altogether not very pleasant, but at least it is Saturday.

Tonight will be a peaceful night at home, Daniel has just begun with the dinner; chicken in red wine-sauce. Yum! :) Hope you all have a nice weekend!

Day 72

Funny Friday, hu? ;-) This is me, in the bathroom where we have the washing machine, using my wringer before folding the clean towels.

I've always loved wringed (is that a word?) towels and bed sheets, and for a birthday some years ago my parents gave me this orange, electrical wringler. It doesn't fit in our black and white bathroom, so normally it is covered with a white blanket, and I doesn't use it that often.

Tonight I saw this pile of towels on it, and decided to attend to them. It isn't more than a 10 minutes job, but I feel very content afterwards. :) And the photo setup included both my gorillapod and the new camera remote control!

Edit: Sorry, I misspelled, it should be wringer, or mangle, maybe that have added to the confusion. :) Anyway it is used to press the dry, or somewhat moist, towels to make them take up lesser space once folded, and to make them softer.

Day 71

Linus is back at us after being with his mother for a little more than a week. He got a new baby-brother right before Daniel and I went to Istanbul, so it has been a little new and exiting at mum's this time.

Here is Linus and Daniel playing games on the floor in Linus room. It is a rather simple board game; spin a wheel to get the number of steps to move. It is good for practicing counting, and learn about winning and loosing. :)

Day 70

Tonight was meeting night. We live in a "bostadsrättsförening", a kind of housing cooperative that is very common in Sweden. That means that we have bought a share in this cooperative, and get to live in "our" apartment. It doesn't mean that we own the apartment, only a share in the cooperative, which owns the whole house. We can make changes to our apartment as we want, and if we decides to move we can sell our share; the right to our apartment.

Aaaaanyway, this cooperative have a board to handle all related issues regarding the houses. The board consists of people living here, members of the cooperative. And I am one of the members of this board. This means meetings, about one night a month. It is very interesting, and also a lot of work. We have placed a lot of money into this cooperative and I like to be in charge of what is happening to our investment, and also to learn a lot of new things.

So, lots of rambling to todays picture, but maybe someone else also learns something new today! :-D

Day 69

Lol, this is starting to look like "Pet week"; fishes the other day, Ebba yesterday and Zelda today. Oh well, with work all day and then grey, snowy weather during the walk with Ebba, Zelda will have to be the subject of the day.

I have no idea why she looks so grumpy here. She is the most loving cat I know, always purring and looking for someone to pet her, but when I get the camera out she gets this look of disbelief. Anyway I adore her, and I like the contrasts in this picture. I used the same technique as yesterday, blending Annie's vintage action into the original picture.

Day 68

The sun shined today, and although it wasn't very warm, it felt a little like spring. Nice.

Of course it were dirty everywhere, the snow we had is now making our forest trails like mud slides. Ebba didn't mind while we were out, but the shower when we got home is not as fun. Luckily she is a well behaved girl, and it is no problem to get her clean again.

The cats are another matter. Right now my desk is covered in some dust, I suspect Zoey used it to dry off when she got in.

Oh, I used Annie's action Faded Vintage Color - Warm, to blend into my picture. It is not that obvious(as I blended it), but I liked the slightly muted effect.

Day 67

These are the fishes that summertime lives in the pond at my IL's, but wintertime have an aquarium in the basement as home. They can't stay outside year round as the pond deep frezes in winter. Occasionally one of them have survived outside; when it gets cold they dig themselves down in the mud, and then wait for spring.

Sorry about the crappy focus, but my models wasn't very cooperative, and didn't want to stand still for me.

Day 66

Daniels mother is home alone this weekend, and wanted some help carrying at IKEA. Of course we helped out, and got ourselves a bag of goodies too. :) It is my IL's car on the picture, with MIL to the left and Daniel on the right side.

Day 65

I'm very sorry not to be able to give you more interesting pictures from Istanbul. This pic is from the airport, an old bazaar-type shop with lots of Turkeish souveneirs. We worked this morning and then went straight to the airport.

It rained some when we went from the cab to site, and the water leaved dirt-stains on our bags and coats. The air in Istanbul is really terrible, when the sun shines you can see the brown mist hanging over the city. This dirt came down with the rain, and everything there has a brownish tint, even buildings that are just a couple of years old. I'm very fortunate to live in Linköping, where the air is always clean and nice to breath!

Day 64

We worked until 7PM, and afterwards this could be seen at our hotel-room; more computer time. Today should have been the last day, but as our flight doesn't leave until half past two tomorrow afternoon, so we will be able to squeeze in a couple of hours work tomorrow morning too. Then right to the airport and home again.

It will be so nice to sleep in my own bed, and to see the cats. Ebba is also comming on Saturday, and then we'll see when Linus is back from his mommy. Then we're a full house again! :)

Day 63

Todays picture is a little boring, but I'll make up for it. So, this is tonights dinner; there is a lounge at our hotel, that serves hot and cold snacks. Today they had potato croquettes and beef with sallad, and lots of small things to go with that. Pretty good.

As this trip wont have any sightseeing, only work and then home again, I thought I'd share some of the pics from our trip here in December. Then we stayed over the weekend to see some of Istanbul.

During the work week we stayed at a hotel in Suadiye, Asian side. It used to be a bath retreat, but is now centraly situated as the city has grown enormously. Really beautiful area, with view over Princess' Island.



Friday we moved to a hotel on the Western side, to visit the famous Sultanahmet on Saturday. We thougth we should start with the Blue Mosque, but as there where prayers going on, we walked over to Hagia Sophia instead.




On the inside picture you can see Daniel in the middle of the photo. He isn't really enjoying this trip, as he had fever and a cold, poor guy.

Then we continued with the Blue Mosque. I've never been inside a mosque before, but it was beautiful. Notice the red carpet, it was so thick and colorful, and very soft to walk on. The shoes was carried in a small plastic bag while inside.




Last picture is from the Grand Bazaar. This is the main street, with all the gold shops. Then there were a myriad of small streets reaching out far away. All under one roof.

Day 62

The view from our hotel, on the asian side of Istanbul. The area is called Atasehir and is apperently rather posh. I wouldn't know, all I've seen all day is a server room filled with telecom equipment, but it is situated somewhere to the far right in the picture. It rained in the morning, and the sun looked through the clouds when we got back to the hotel, about 12 degrees Celsius.

Daniel and I doesn't work in the same department, although with the same employer. My product is rather new, and makes use of technology that is Daniels area, hence our working and traveling together.

Day 61

New airport; Schipol in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This is an overview of one of the shops.

We are on our way again, this time to work and the destination is Istanbul, Turkey. Daniel and I are lucky to be able to work toghether sometimes, and it certainly is much more fun to go on business trips when you are not alone. We went to Istanbul in December too, so this time we wont do any sightseeing, only work. We'll see what I can come up with picturewise.

I've used Annies actions again, this time the Funky B&W.

Day 60

We played out in the snow today too. My father took this picture of Linus and me riding the snow racer, and Ebba.... um.. hoovering. ;-) She is crazy about running in front of the snow racer, barking and trying to stop it. I think she has as much fun as we!

Day 59

We spent the morning outside riding the snow racer down the hill on the nearby golf course, and then we had lunch in the garden of my parents; hot dogs over an open fire. Ebba was a little cold, and crawled up in the chair. You can see the amount of snow by comparing to the chair; about half a meter. As we don't have this much snow at home it was really fun to play in it!