Day 26

This is NOT the way to prepare for a ski trip! I have caught a nasty cold, but I'm still on my feet even though my head feels like it is stuffed with cotton. I hope that as it came quickly it will also disapear as fast, and that skiing on Thursday wont be a problem.

The bus leaves from work at 3:30PM tomorrow, I have packed a lot of napkins!

Day 25

A new bag, actually a ski boots bag. We are going on a rather short notice ski trip on Wednesday. It is a guy at work that arrange with the trip every year, and about 150 people from various departments attend. We were asked on Friday if we wanted to come, as a couple of persons had to cancel, and there were available spots. After a little thinking we said yes.

So here we are, trying to gather all our gear for a ski trip. I love skiing, and these are usually really fun trips, so the expectations are pretty high. =)

Day 24

We try to go to the indoor bath every Sunday when Linus is with us. It is both a lot of fun for us all and good for Linus to learn to like the water.

Before we went to the bath, Daniel decided to relax for a couple of minutes. I'm not sure it turned out to be so relaxing, but it looks kind of cozy with all the company!

Day 23

The sun did a welcome visit, and made our walk with Ebba a lot more fun.

Linus loves to ride in his sled while we walk, but it is not always easy when daddy is pulling it. It tends to fall over a lot, and then tries to escape from Linus when he tries to reach it. Ebba thinks the sled is a little dangerous, and tries to kill it whenever she gets a chance. So Linus and Ebba hunts the sled, until they both trip and end up in the snow.



In the middle of our walk there was a little hill, and Linus got to ride on his own. It was not nearly fast enough for him, but fun anyway.



I got these two portraits too, think they turned out quite nice.

Day 22

Friday evening with tacos. Linus was very happy with what was served, "I loooove tacos" was his reaction when we told him what we were going to eat. I am too a big fan of our "Swedish" tacos, so I don't mind serving that at all.

Day 21

This is actually a bottle of non-alcholic white wine, that also tastes good. Remember Friday when we went to Daniels parents? I got to drive home from the dinner, and not wanting to drink anything sweet to the food, I bought this bottle on the way there. It was very tasty, and I brought the remains with me home. Today I found it in the fridge and decided to have a glass while surfing the web.

Day 20

We try to eat some kind of fish at least once a week, and today it was salmon-time. We found this recipe in a magazine we get from the grocery store where we do the most of our shopping.

For those who are interested (and can read swedish), here is what we ate: "Röding med krämig västerbottensost".

Day 19

A picture of the other cat; Zoey. The pink feathers between her toes are from a toy we played with in order to get her to look up. At first all the pictures showed her with a very uninterested look, but the toy created a little more life in here expression.

Day 18

Work all day and then meeting with the board of our housing community. Not very interesting at all, even though there are a lot of papers involved.

Day 16 & 17

Our friends invited us to a party at their place in the countryside. We had tacos (yum!) and then sang karaoke and played pinball (they have four playable pinball games at home). Ebba also came with us, and here she is snuggling with Daniel.



I thought I forgot to take a picture for day 17, until I realized that the party continued past midnight. This picture of Daniel and me is actually taken on the 17th. Don't ask me why Daniel is pulling that face, I probably said something.

Day 15

We went to Daniel's parents for dinner tonight, and left the camera in our hallway on the way out. So no pictures from Åtvidaberg today. Dinner was delicious, by the way.

So when we got home I tried to find something to take a photo of instead, and there was Zelda. She sat in front of the TV and enjoyed the warmth it emits. I got one picture before she decided to go elsewhere.

Day 14

The orchids are now in full bloom, and they look so beautiful with the white snow outside. I love these as they are yellow, not so common, and because I have got them from my brother.

Day 13

Christmas is on its way down to the basement. Today is "tjugondedag jul" ("twentieth day of Christmas"), and the tradition in Sweden is to put away all decorations on this day. Even though we haven't been home that much, and haven't get tired of Christmas, it feels pretty good to get our home back to normal.

Day 12

Another day with snow in the picture. I'm quite fascinated with the white surrounding we have got, and enjoy the walks with Ebba even though it is still very cold. Last night it was lots of moisture in the air, and it made an impressive rime to all trees and left-over plants. Here is some kind of flower covered in rime.

Day 11

Another walk with Ebba. We left work a little early, after all it was first day in a couple of weeks, but it still was pretty dark when we got out. This is about 4PM, and we could still see the clear blue sky. Shortly after it darkened.

Day 10

Another tired day, still not really back to normal time. We went with Linus to the indoor bath after lunch, and later on we had a walk with Ebba. It is very beautiful outside with all the snow.

Day 9

We got home late Friday night, and slept for a great while on Saturday morning. Not a very productive day! We picked up Ebba and the cats, and slept some more. In the evening the temperature showed almost -18C. Brrr. Quite a difference from California.



And the temperature in Fahrenheit. Our thermometer has dual modes, so I don't have to look it up today. =) The front one is the indoor temperature.

Day 8

At 11:30AM we landed at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam. Our fligth for Linköping wasn't due until 9PM, so we decided to take the train in to Amsterdam. It was cold and grey and very unlike the weather in California, and we were not properly dressed at all, so we just skip between lunch, shop, another shop and finally a pub.



Here is Britt-Marie and I in the pub after a warming Irish Coffee and now with a local Heineken beer. If we look a little tired and worn out that is because we are. It was a long flight from Memphis, and although the clock says afternoon, our internal clock says it has been a short night and it is early in the morning.



Amsterdam is famous for its channels, and it is possible to go on guided tours to explore them. I'm sure it is very interesting, but it was way too cold to be enjoyable today, so I just snapped a picture of it for you. =)

Day 7

One lonely picture for day 7. We traveled all day, and it wasn't too inspiring.

This is lunch at San Francisco airport. We are waiting for the boarding to start on our delayed flight. It should have left at noon, but due to the foggy weather in SF we didn't leave until 1PM. We were a little unsure if we would make the transfer in Memphis, as we were short on time, but fortunately for us that flight was also a little late.

So by 8PM we left Memphis and the US, and headed for Amsterdam and Europe.

Day 6

Last day in the US. We did some more last-minute shopping, and also went to Wal-Mart. I've read about it, and they sure had a lot of stuff!



We used the afternoon to pack our suitcases to see if everything should fit, and then Britt-Marie and I took a last walk in the neighborhood. Åsa told us there were orange-trees outside the living area, and we wanted to see them. It is kind of funny to see how the fruits we buy in our stores at home really grows. Orange trees is not common in Sweden! =)



At night we were invited to another friend from work, who's also working in San Jose, and his wife. They had barbecued chicken, and served a nice dinner. After we played Singstar.



Even later on we tried the Wii. I have never played on that before, and were thrilled with the bowling and basket games. We got to get us a Wii!

Day 5

Our friends lives in San Jose, but in the northern part of the city. Today we took the light-train on a 20 minutes journey to downtown San Jose. Unfortunately it wasn't too inspiring; there are some restaurants and lots of offices, but lacks touristic adventures.



There were however one treasure; the Gordon Biersch brewery restaurant.



We decided to eat lunch there, and also have a tasting of their own-brewed beers. From left to right is the season beer Winter Bock, Schwarzbier, Märzen, Czech Pilsner, Hefeweizen and Golden Export. They were all very tasty, but my favorites were Hefeweizen and Märzen.



They also had a couple of brewing kettles in the restaurant, and Daniel wanted a photo of them.



When we got back home from our little day-trip, we did as many afternoon and evenings before; changed and headed for the jacuzzi. Mmm, so nice to sink down in the warm water after a lot of walking.

Day 4

Today was devoted to shopping. We started out searching for a radio shop, that one of our co-workers at home had asked us to buy some stuff from. It took a little while, but finally we found it. One of the notes on the door was a little funny, it says; "Hey Guys! Your wife called. She said you could buy anything you want".



Then we continued to Valley Fair shopping center, and strolled around for a while. There were lots and lots of shops, one fancier than the other.



For lunch we went to Santana Row, not far from the shopping center. It is more like an European city center with small streets, shops and lots of restaurants. We ate at this little French place in the background.



The area was rather posh, and we saw both this Lamborghini and a Maserati.



At night Daniel cooked us a Thai-style dinner, and it was very appreciated. Yummy!

Most of these photos are taken by Britt-Marie, I forgot to bring the camera on our shopping spree.



The happy chef.

Day 3

Another day, another trip. This day we used two Mustangs to get over the mountains west of San Jose, as we got accompanied by Lars, a danish guy working with Tom.

Here is the route we took.



Our first goal was Big Basin and the redwood trees. Here is me in front of an approximately 1600 year old tree.



Redwood trees are enormously big, both wide and high. This particular tree is called Mother-of-the-forest, and she is 329 feet (100 meters) high.



After lunch in Boulder Creek in the mountains, we continued to Santa Cruz, by the sea. We parked the car out on the pier, and got a wonderful view of the town.



Finally I got to see sea lions! =) Here they were. And they were so close and very cute. We stood for a while and watch them fuss about.



Last stop of the day was a beach at the sea. There were still lots of surfers playing in the waves, despite the late hour. Beach closed at sunset. We got to see the lovely sunset before we headed for home.

Day 2

Right after breakfast we took the Mustang and headed for Mount Hamilton. The road is very winding and steep, and the views were amazing. Unfortunately the photos doesn't show the heights.



Our goal was Lick observatory, with the telescopes.



Daniel and Britt-Marie admiring the view from outside the observatory.



Inside was a display of both pictures from the telescopes as well as the history of the observatory. While we looked around a man working there came and let us into the hall with the telescope, and told a lot about the place. It was very interesting and a great experience.

The telescope above is 57 feet (17 meters) and weights 12 tones.



The weather was beautiful while up on the heights and above the clouds, and on the way down we let the cab down and drove without roof. So nice!