Day 273

Happy Birthday Carina!!

Today is Daniel's mothers birthday. Daniel's dad called earlier today and wondered if we could come down to them and help him cook dinner for Carina. We had a delicious three-course dinner with scallops and bacon-swept asparagus as starter, tuna for main-course and white-chocolate pannacotta for dessert. It all turned out delicious, and we had a very nice evening.

Day 272

St Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings are in Sweden for the NHL premiere games, and while here also met some teams from the Swedish Elite Series. St Louis Blues came to Linköping on Tuesday to meet our team Linköping Hockey Club.

The company we work for sponsors the team, and we got to buy ticket for this friendly game at discount price. Neither Daniel nor I are really hockey-fans, but we thought this could be fun, and so did our friend Britt-Marie from work who also joined us.

It wasn't a truly good game, LHC didn't really play to their full potential and lost 0-6. Anyway it was a fun night out with friends!

Day 271

We got a new camera lens as a birthday present from Daniel's parents. One we have been looking at for quite a long time; Canon EF-S 17-55 f2.8 IS USM. We were never really happy with the kit lens that came with the camera, but this one has got excellent reviews. So far we have only used it for two days, but I think I'll have to agree with the critics!



From our walk earlier with Ebba. Some red berries in a tree. The little picture doesn't look too good, but I love the details in the bigger one. I couldn't decide on one pic today, so I just show some examples with the new lens.



With the lens came a polarization filter. I've been curious to try that out, and it really makes a great difference to the sky. Look, almost as in postcards! ;-)

Day 270

We took a walk with Ebba and Daniel's parents dogs (three Tibetan spaniels, you might remember Emma) on the golf course in the sunshine. When we got back to their house I had to take a photo of the wonderful vine that climbed the wall. It has turned into a bright red color with the cooler fall-weather, and the sunshine really made it glow.

Day 269

Linus stayed at his grandmother yesterday, and today we all are there. Here is Ebba in the kitchen, looking cute. =)

Day 268

Finally Friday! =) Afternoon walk with Ebba in our forest, and then we made pizza and watched TV. Linus is staying at his grandmother tonight, so I bet he has a great time too. We'll go there tomorrow to stay until Sunday.

Day 267

Chestnuts, unfortunately not edible but kind of fun looking. =) We took a walk in the afternoon sunshine with Linus on his bike to get the medications for Ebba's eye from the pharmacy. She is almost back to normal again, but we need to keep on with the eye drops for a little while longer. Anyway, the pharmacy had already closed, so we had to go home empty-handed. Better luck tomorrow!

Day 266

Happy Birthday Daniel!!!

Linus and I woke him up with a present this morning; tickets for the Pablo Francisco Show in Linköping on Sunday. Both Daniel and I thinks he's very fun (although rude and with a bad language) and we have high expectations on the night. With dinner before the show of course. =)

Day 265

We have more and more come to plan our dinners and do the grocery shopping for the whole week on Mondays. At least for the weeks when Linus lives with us, and we are more into eating cooked food for dinner.

This is the first time though that we, or actually Daniel, has tried to make meatballs. Earlier we have bought the ready-made, but no more! These little creatures turned out delicious! As there were plenty of them, to go into the fridge, Daniel oven-baked them. Easy-peasy, once the time-consuming ball-making was done.

Day 264

Bandaged, but for a good cause. I have donated blood today, at the bus that comes to work from time to time. I couldn't quite remember when I was there last time, but figured it was more than four months at least (that's the minimum time for women). It turned out I hadn't been there since last October!

Me donating blood is as much for the good of it as for forcing me to stand the needle. I was very afraid of needles earlier, but a couple of sessions at a therapist helped me a lot, and donating blood keeps what he learned me real.

Day 263

The day after yesterday.. We were very tired after the party and slept in late. Then we watched a movie that our friend rented over the Internet to his TV (Man on fire, great movie but very violent).

A couple of hours later we got into the car and headed the 200 kilometers south again. Believe it or not, but there were so much traffic on the highway into Stockholm, both from north and south, that it almost was standing still. A Sunday afternoon! It is crazy. We are so happy to live in a smaller city, and Stockholm isn't even that big. 1 million inhabitants only, there are lots of larger cities in the world. Can't even think about the traffic problems they ought to have.

The picture is our suitcase that I unpacked once we got home.

Day 262

Happy Birthday Angelica!

Our friend Angelica (who lives with our beer company from Wednesday; Peter) celebrated her birthday with a party. They live north of Stockholm, and the party was held a couple of kilometers further north, in Upplands Väsby. Daniel used to live there, so we got to sleep at another friends home, very nice!

It was a very fun night with lots of good food and good drinks and interesting conversations. =)

Day 261

An Interational Street Market visited Linköping this weekend, with booths selling French cheese, German sausages, British fudge, Spanish paella and lots and lots of other delicious stuff. We bought some cheese and sausages and fruit to have for dinner. They also sold German Bretzels, which is my favorite snack to a tasty beer.

Day 260

Another party with pub at work. This time the sports club celebrated their 20th anniversary. It was a fun night although not so many people visiting. The guy playing the guitar and singing kept everybody busy and the party feeling was high.

In the picture is a colleague to Daniel, who also helped out in the bar, and Daniel.

Day 259

Another night out with a friend from university. Last Wednesday I met up with Petra, today with Peter. Peter now lives in the big city (Stockholm) but was in Linköping on a business trip, and decided that a beer with us should be fun. So we headed for our local pub to talk, eat and watch the Champions league game (Inter - Barcelona, the Swedish player Zlatan Ibrahimovic has just changed club from Inter to Barcelona, and some thought it should be an interesting game. It ended 0-0.). Anyway it was a very nice night out!

Day 258

The weather had been fabulous the last days; sunshine and about 20C (68F). For September that is very nice. The sheep still enjoy the freedom outside too, and looked curiously at Ebba who was roaming outside the fence.

Day 257

We are making progress... Zoey and Ebba sharing sofa, voluntarily! They looked so cute and comfortable.

Day 256

The view from the camping area; Vättern, the second largest lake in Sweden. We camped in a steep hill, but it worked out real good. This area is no real camping site, but just temporary for the trade fair.

Day 255

We left early with our caravan and headed 120 kilometers south to Jönköping, where this large trade fair is located. This weekend was all dedicated to caravans and mobile homes. We met up with another family, and spend all Saturday walking round the fair, in and out of caravans and looking at the most fantastic stuff. For example this mobile home where you can carry on a small car in the trunk!

We had our caravan placed at the camping area outside the fair with about 2 500 other fair visitors and campers. Kind of cool.

Day 254

My new computer bag. Due to the soar back I got myself a backpack instead of the shoulder bag I had earlier. Note the cute pink polka-dot inside! =)

Day 253

Edited:



The picture has been retrieved from the cell phone. We had a night without Linus and Ebba, so we decided to go down-town for a drink and some dinner. The weather was lovely and the out-door pub still open, so we started there with a glass of wine and a beer. Later on we headed indoors for a meal.

Day 252

Every morning we walk with Ebba over the bridge, before heading to work.

When my alarm goes of she is still asleep.
When I get out of the bathroom, she is still asleep.
When I start to prepare breakfast, she slowly ascends out to the kitchen and gets her breakfast too.
When I'm done and ready for work she sits at the door, waiting to go out.

And we head for the bridge, she about 20 meters ahead of me. She does her thing and turns straight home again. Sometimes we almost have to stop her or she will be at the door long before us. Then she curls up in her sofa and we goes to work.

I would often like to change with her.

Day 251

Isn't it beautiful? I love the fresh colors in this picture, everywhere there are fall colors approaching, but these red clovers are new and have this bright fresh look. Summer isn't completely gone yet.

Day 250

Linus' bike has had a flat tire for a while, but today was finally repair day. Dad and Linus took on the task, and a couple of moments later we all went out with Ebba. Linus was very happy to be able to use his bike again! =)

Day 249

A walk with Ebba before mum and dad went home again.

Later at night Daniel and I went to town for a salad dinner, and the late show at the cinema; Inglourious Basterds. It was a very interesting movie, but I guess you have to be a fan of Tarantino to really appreciate it.

Day 248

For crawfish night Daniel's parents joined us as well. We had a very nice evening with lots of tasty crawfish, cheese-pie and toast.

Day 247

When we got home from work my parents were already here, so we all went to the grocery store to pick up tonights dinner. It was too early to eat the crawfishes, they need to rest for another night, so we cooked file of beef, baked potatoes, red wine sauce and butter sautéed chanterelles. It was yummy!

Day 246

My parents are going to visit us this weekend, and we have promised to eat crawfish. Daniel and I went to the cottage by the lake after work to fish for the little creatures. And did we get some! The cages were filled to the brim, all eight, and we had to let most of the crawfish back into the water, only taking the best ones with us.

Here is the bucket with the crawfish in our kitchen, while we prepare the boiling water. I feel a little sorry for them, but there are definitely too many in the lake anyway. And they will be delicious once done.

Day 245

Petra and I majored in the same subject at the University; math. It is eight years since we graduated but we still keep in touch every now and then.

Today we went to this Dutch pub in town. It was so nice to talk and laugh and have a couple of beers. =)

Day 244

Sorry about not updating here for almost a week. It has been very busy, but at least there have been pictures. I will try and catch up now! =)

Not much for this day. Here is a cute little heart... ah, cherry... that I found on the road while walking Ebba.