Waiting! (but not for Santa)

I hate airports and I hate flying. Every time I travel it is always something, and every single time it is also something major which means loooong delays (or cancelations). Sure enough, my sister, who I was going to pick up tonight at DIA, is stuck in Brussels. Mechanical problems and a cancelled flight. Since the line to the rebooking desk was about two miles long, I called US Airways and was able to get her on a plane tomorrow with Lufthansa. She will get here at 3.30 p.m. (if nothing else goes wrong that is). So since I already paid for a hotel room in Denver, I drove down here in a horrible snowstorm and now I am in my room, waiting... It's crazy how the time sort of almost stops when you're waiting. Drives me nuts.

What was lost was found

I am very happy to announce that most of our pictures that we lost when our computer broke down were found today. Apparently we had been responsible and put them on a cd. Weird how you can forget that.

Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

Today we went Christmas tree hunting. That was a new experience for all of us. Everything went fine until we got back to the house. After realizing the tree was a little too tall my wonderful husband decided he was going to shorten it, BUT from the top. Before I had the chance to protest the chainsaw had already caused the unfixable damage. That was what I thought. But NO, I was wrong. Because what does my sweetheart do next when the tree looked like it did? Yes, he takes the top, which is already cut off, and put it back on the tree. Fixed! How can you not love him?

Since we might have a brown top even before Christmas I thought I would immortalize our first very own tree while it is green.

Skärgårdsdoktorn

I have finished watching the entire "Skärgårdsdoktorn" series on DVD and I just love it so much. Makes me miss Sweden and especially the Stockholm archipelago where it is set. As a matter of fact some parts of the series are filmed on the same island as our summerhouse, Dalarö (the most beautiful place on earth if you ask me).

Lussekatter

I am very sorry that I have neglected this blog for such a long time as I have. The blog stopped as our computer broke down and once it was up and going again I had all this homework to catch up on. However; school is out as of last Friday and I am already one week into my one-month long vacation. This week I have been coming in with Max every day to get ready for the Holidays. It will be my first Christmas in the U.S. and also the first time with Max. Moreover; this will be our first Christmas together in our new house. I definitely had to bake Saffron and Ginger Bread and so I had to convert all the measurements from my grandmothers' recipe to ounces and cups and Fahrenheit and so on. But everything turned out good so they asked me to bake more to give away as presents to staff at the school. Thank God for large industrial kitchen mixers!

That's so country!

You get aware of that you're not exactly living in the city when one of your employees calls up and says she will be a little late since her dog just got porcupined...

Hiking the flattops

I am sorry that the updates have been few lately. I guess I can blame it on our busy work schedule. As a matter of fact, this particular hike took place two weeks ago. For the second time we failed to find Devil's Causeway but the trail we chose was a really good one, with gorgeous views of the flattops and the surrounding lakes. The hike itself was quite easy, about a two hour loop. Today we went back and we actually managed to find the right trail leading up to Devil's Causeway. But halfway up it started to rain and since my dear husband is made of sugar we had to turn around. Luckily we made it to the car before he started to melt.

Book Tip

Today I finished the final book in Stieg Larsson's trilogy the Millenium series. They were by far the best novels I've ever read and it feels so sad to know there will be no more coming out. Unfortunately, the author died after finishing book number three but the rumor is he was planning on giving out several more in the same series. I read the novels in Swedish, but to all of you who not read Swedish there are translations to many different languages. The English titles are "The girl with the dragon tattoo", "The girl who played with fire", and "Castles in the sky". For more info. go to http://www.stieglarsson.com

Work and play

Back-to-School season is here and we are busier than ever. This year, because of the move, we had to change our routines, especially the ones in the mornings. I can't imagine that I'll ever get use to waking up at 05.30 a.m. I simply don't think it's a healthy thing to do, and I know that at least two of my family members agree. The only thing that can make Chania leave the bed in the morning is the sound of Eukanuba hitting her bowl. As it is now we are bringing the dogs with us every other day, and leaving them at home every other day. So to keep them busy they got an early Christmas today when two big boxes full of toys got delivered. The first thing we did after moving in was putting up a fence so we can leave the backdoor open and the dogs can go in and out as they please. When winter hits us i think we'll have to see about putting in a doggy door though.

Choices of beliefs

Since we almost never have to shop for food we automatically almost never have to decide if we want to get the all natural (but ridiculous expensive) organic stuff, or the regular junk. I don't know if organic products are better for you, or if it is like Max says that nothing is really organic, since even the rain is toxic. However; it was he who also informed me about what the ground beef we get up at the college really contain. When we read the label it listed beef almost as the last ingredient, following a long list of unknown substances. It is kind of scary to know that they add ingredients with the intension to make the food look and taste like what it intends to be but what it's not. So today on our day off it was nice to know that the food on our plates came from Pam's garden. Oh, on tomorrow's menu it says pork loin, but who knows what we're actually having for dinner?

Material world

If it wasn't for me we would never have any furniture. We would have plenty of stuff, mostly Max's, but nowhere to put it. And since I am about to brag anyhow, I might as well add that if it wasn't for my carpenter skills, we would still not have any furniture or nowhere to put Max's stuff. I don't know if Swedish people automatically inherit the IKEA gene or what it is, but when I get boxes containing pieces of wood, screws, nails and a guide how to put it together I get excited. I like puzzles too. I find it extremely satisfying when all these little pieces, which from the beginning only seemed like a pile of unknown parts, end up in one complete unit. This particular desk even exceeded my expectations. I found it by coincidence at http://www.officedepot.com, and after 10% off and free delivery I got it for only $142.00. Moreover; the quality is great, sturdy and solid. Sitting here typing makes me feel like writing a book. I want to write a book and make as much money as J. K. Rowling. Hmm, better get on it…

Bee (wasp) sting...

Ok, so I have found one more thing that I am allergic to - bees! Actually, now we touch a subject that me and Max have argued for days about. I claim that it was a wasp that stung me but Max says it definitely was a bee. Hello, can someone back me up here? Aren't bees more round and hairy meanwhile wasps are slender and smooth? Anyhow my arm swelled up and got super sore, so for three days I couldn't do anything but feel sorry for myself. I wonder if I can call in sick the first day of work?

Dogsitting

Did another trip down to Glenwood to meet up with pals Bryan and Beau. Walked along the river and regretted that we didn't bring our tubes or bathing suites since the water felt really nice a hot day like this. Luckily the dogs don't need any special clothing for swimming. We are really excited about Bryan and Beau moving closer to us so we can meet up more often. As a bonus we get to keep Beau for a couple of weeks meanwhile Bryan goes on vacation. Who said that two Rottweilers are more than enough? (Pic: Beau and Rimini sharing the perfect stick)

Gender roles

The storms have passed and it's time to put those good books and movies aside for some house work. Meanwhile I was cleaning the entire house Max escaped outside for some yard work and for more wood cutting and splitting. We have now placed all our famous rocks, that were meant to become part of a stone wall, just along the driveway since we were forbidden to take any more rocks along the road. As a result of the storm our satellite went down and we won't be able to watch TV until Friday at the earliest. That's OK though since I have all these new movies to watch. Just to name a few: The devil wears Prada, The Holiday, In her shoes, Bridget Jones' Diary, The Da Vinci Code and all the Jason Bourne movies. Max is specially excited about watching any of the first four...

The Enchanted Colorado

Decided to go on a day trip and did a loop through Glenwood, Aspen, Independence Pass and Leadville. Because of the wet and cloudy weather we chose not to camp but we saw a lot of places in one day and Independence Pass was one of the prettiest places I have ever visit.

Beetles and chainsaws

We are keeping up on the woodcutting! So far we have brought back four trailer loads of Aspen and Pine. Until today we have bought permits from the Forest Service but this time we went up on Rabbit Ears pass to get some of the free, and already cut, wood that they are cutting down because of all the Beetle Kill we have here. The logs were enormous so now we are considering investing in a log splitter. Stay tuned...

Winefestival and birthday

So to celebrate the beginning of our two week vacation we went to the yearly event at Torian Plum, the Steamboat Wine Festival. They had a sample of more than 900 different kinds of wines and food from local restaurants. It was really nice so when my birthday came around I felt no need for drinking more. Instead we went for a couple of walks and relaxed around our new house that we haven't had time to enjoy yet because of work.