Day 151

After we got home from the cottage we went to the IL's house. Daniels a cousin with family was visiting, and we enjoyed some fun time in the garden. A little later Linus was dropped off by his mother, and he and the cousins daughter played football in the garden. Summer is still here, and it is just great. =)

Day 150

A wonderful day at the country cottage. Summer's here! At least for the weekend. =)

This picture shows how far into the water I came. It is still cold, but not enough to keep me completely out of it, especially when it is so warm in the air. My FIL actually bathed, and Daniel and his friends did so to after trying out the sauna.



Isn't it beautiful? The country cottage up on the hill, with a small guest house to the left, and the sauna on the raft in the water.

Day 149

Ebba relaxing on the grass, while Daniel is lighting the grill. We got company by friends from Stockholm tonight, and tomorrow we are all going to the country cottage. The guys hope to finish the sauna and do the premier bath. We'll see about that! :oP

Have a nice weekend!

Day 148

Thursday was another day for activities after work. Our manger had challenged us to join the "Blodomloppet". It translates into "blood run", and it is to rise awareness of the need to donate blood. Every spring the run is held in several cities, and it is a popular event.

Some of my friends from work met up at our place after work, and we then walked to the starting point. We walked the run, 5 kilometers (3.1 miles), with the crowd as seen in the picture (I did not feel ready to run that far yet). Unfortunately the weather was not on our side, and we got a lot of rain on us before we got to the finishing line. Anyway it was a fun event, and for a good cause. =)

Day 147

It has been very busy here a couple of days, hence no update on the blog. But there have been pictures taken! =)

On Wednesday it was time for another after work pub, and this time with the Champions League final on big screen TV. We started out around 5PM with grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and our pub serving beer inside. The weather was ok, no rain but not so warm and rather windy. It worked to grill, but we had to sit inside and eat.

At 8PM the game was showed on the big screen in one of our big conference rooms. It was very appreciated, and a lot of people came to see the game and join in on all the fun.

Day 146

The day started out beautifully, with sunshine and warm winds. Then after work we took the bikes to go downtown to do some errands, and on our way home it was really grey and small water drops started falling. Now it is raining.



Even with the rain, this place looks much nicer in spring than in winter.

Day 145

This is what a Swedish drivers license look like. Both the new one (on top) and one of the older models (the one below). It was time to replace mine, and as I have procrastinated the photography part for a while the new one came just in time. Today was the last day of my old license.

Things have happened in 10 years, and it was really time to change the photo. I think I cut my hair short just a year or two after the last photo was taken, and sometimes I've had a hard time convincing people that it is in fact my drivers license and ID.

Day 144

The new white table for the living room that we got on Friday from IKEA. It came in a flat packet, but Daniel and Linus put it together in no time. =)

The long weekend has now come to its end, and tomorrow is workday again. It has been great with the days off!

Day 143

As the weather was supposed to be nice today, we agreed with grandpa to go to the country cottage for the day. Daniel and Linus is standing on the sauna raft, burning the fire stove for the first time. The stove will of course be moved inside the sauna once the interior is done.



Ebba spent most of her time looking for fishes in the water, as usual.

Day 142

Today was another day of rain and sunshine. Our walk with Ebba looked like it could be rain, so no camera, but it was a very warm and nice walk. Good for us. Then we went to the shopping mall, and had to run through heavy rain to get in. There was even some thunder.

We went to IKEA to pic up some small stuff, but came home with a Billy book shelf that will act as a storage unit in the hallway, and a new table for the livingroom.

But none of those will be the picture of the day. Instead these lovely small houseleek will have to do. They grow in a small pot in my garden, and I've had them for a couple of years. I do nothing to them in the fall, just let them stay outside all winter, and then in spring they start to grow again. Very handy!

Day 141

As Thursday was holiday, and the weather forecast was quite promising, we packed up our stuff and headed for the zoo. Our closest zoo is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from here and is called Kolmården Wildlife Park.

The weather was actually a lot better than expected and we had a fantastic day looking at all the animals. Above is a prairie dog. It is even possible to walk in under the place where the prairie dogs live, and look up through holes, like Linus is doing in the picture below.



Among others they also have a big African savanna with lots of animals. We found the rhinos to be very impressive, and also the Addax with their funny twisted horns (sorry, not in the pic).



Kolmården also have a Safari Park, where you drive in your own car and get to see a lot of animals close up. Keep the windows and doors shut! Here is a pack of wolfs.



And we also saw brown bears. They look so cuddly, but I guess they wouldn't be very nice if one came close. Both wolfs and bears are present in the Swedish forest, but mostly up north, and the wolfs are very limited.

Day 140

The weather has been rain and sun and rain and sun, all day long. We saw this beautiful rainbow when we walked Ebba after work. There were lots of rain beind it, but we managed to get home without getting wet, and with the sunshine in our eyes.

As today was last work-day this week, we have spend the evening relaxing. We made pizza for dinner, and now Linus is playing the video-game and can stay up a little late. Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow, so that we can take a trip to the zoo as planned. *keeping my fingers crossed*

Day 139

We left work early to pick up Linus and head for the pediatrician. It was time for a hearing test, that is part of the 4 year old check-up. Linus is already done with his test in the photo, and he is now testing daddy's ears to see if he hears anything.

The afternoon was lots of sunshine and quite warm. We had a nice walk with Ebba in our forest, and then we went home to prepare dinner. A pineapple that's been in the fruit basket way too long made up a delicious dessert. Nice with dessert on a Tuesday evening. =)

Tomorrow is last day at work for this week. Thursday is holiday here, and we have already worked the time for Friday, so that one is off too. There are way too few four-day weekends!

Day 138

Finally we have found use for the pet bed Ebba and I got when buying dog food; it is an excellent spot for playing TV-games! =)

Day 137

Another morning of sleeping in and late breakfast on the patio. It has been sunny today too, and we decided it was _really_ time to clean the windows. So we both took a couple of windows and before we knew it all windows were clean. It feels very good to look out without seeing the bad consciousness.

Day 136

It has been another beautiful, although not so warm, day. This picture is taken from when we biked down to the city center to have lunch. Not far from us is this alley of oaks, and the branches almost forms a roof over the road. With the fresh green leaves and sunshine it was absolutely fabulous!

My original intention was to take a picture of the days first, and biggest, happening; our run. This was the first time in lots of years. I did survive, but was totally exhausted when we got back, and forgot all about the camera. The path was about 2 km (1.2 miles), and took me about 15 minutes, but I did run the whole way. Lets see if there can be another run early next week.

Tonight was very relaxed. We grilled with the neighbours, and had a delicious dinner with lots of different stuff. Later we all watched the European Song Contest, and saw our neighbour country Norway win. Congrats to them!

Day 135

It was lovely weather today, and when we got home from work we had planned to go down to town to one of the outdoor pubs. But when we came to think about it, it seemed a lot nicer to stay at home on our sunny patio. So we did.

Here is Daniel cuddling with Zelda, who really appreciates to have us home and outside. Our neighbors saw us from their balcony, and came down to enjoy the sun too. So we had a great time chatting and having some wine/beer.

Later Daniel and I took our bikes down to town to "our" pub, to eat dinner. All together a really nice evening and beginning of the weekend. =)

Day 134

What? Runners? Oh my! Yes, we went to buy training shoes today after work. The plan is to add outdoor cardio training to the weight lifting in the gym. And as Ebba is always way ahead of us on our walks, we thought we'd just try to keep up. =)

The guy in the sport shop was very helpful, and both Daniel and I got to run on the shop treadmill while filmed, to see if we made any strange steps that would require special shoes. None of us did, but I needed wider shoes for my Donald Duck feet.

And here they are. No more excuses for not running. I'll let you know how it went if I survive the first time, on Saturday. ;)

Day 133

When my family visited this weekend mom and I did some gardening, and planting flowers in the pots. These are one of my favourite summer flowers: dahlias. They come in so many colors, and the flowers are so gorgeous in different shapes.

We also planted the stair-pots with tagetes and Ivy. The bottom pot have chives, basil and coriander.

Day 132

Another late update, as it was a very late night. Our housing cooperation had its annual meeting yesterday, and as I'm part of the board it got a lot to do.

First we had a pre-meeting with the board that has been up until the 12th. Then the actual annual meeting with all the members of the housing cooperative, where we among other things elected a new board.

I will continue this year too as a member of the board, so right after the annual meeting the new board had a statutory meeting to decide who get to be chairman, accounter, secretary and so on. I think we have a good mix of people in the board, and it will be an interesting year to see what we can do for the members of the cooperation.