Champagne!

Visa petition approved! We will be able to come back to Seattle!

Popped champagne no 1. No 2 is waiting for The Donnas new job :)

Mr Robot

Yes, The Engineer has got a robot. Got it for his 5th 30th birthday. Yes, his 5th. He celebrated his 30th birthday 5 times. That's how much he likes switching decade... Anyway, here he is!

Mr Robot
And something else also got stuck on the camera lens...

Mr Robots parents... Mr Robot is embarrassed..
And wait.. what? Please.. A competition between The Engineer and Mr Brat? Bring it on, Mr Brat!! Mr Robot will take care of you...

The best hot coco ever!

Take Lindt Mint chocolate and Lindt 70%. Break into small pieces. Melt in cream, add milk to desired volume/taste. Whip cream and add on top. Drink and you'll be in heaven! :)

New coat! New tickets!

A beautiful red one! My sister saw it and demanded that I spend some of my salary. So I did, and I love it! We spent yesterday at TGI Friday's with their almost irresistible Ultimate Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri. While we were sitting there (with a brain freeze each), a group of people came running through the fountain outside. This is a sort of big fountain, and the people all had a number on them. They ran to the middle bent down and then run away again. At least 50 people in a row. Like ducks or something. Looked hilarious! :)

A bad news to our Seattlites is that the visa application is being sloooow. We managed to get a visa interview 7 days before our flight, which is very close. So we rescheduled. Now we will be coming back to Seattle on the 11th of October instead. With my parents (who has started to prepare already)! But this gives you guys some more days in our jacuzzi :)

The Engineer is playing with his Lego Robot. Yes, the exact one the Managers oldest brat has. Oh! I know the perfect thing! They can have a robot obstacle course that we can bet on! :)

This sunny Saturday (yes, the sun was shining so bright we almost had to close the curtains! Stupid sun ;P) has been spent inside under a blanket together with Gene Kelly who was singing in the rain, earlier Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis Liked it hot (Possibly the best movie ever made! I know it by heart by know... I love the end "Well, nobody's perfect!") and now I will sip on my Rosé most likely together with a 80's computer geek who managed to hack into a war computer. Or maybe a Sean Connery who know the Name of the Rose. Or Handsome Men dressed in Black. Or a Brad Pitt being all inglorious ... a 100MB connection makes all of them very, very close so why only choose 1! I will certainly miss our internet when back in the loft :)

My wine glass is empty!? Who drank my wine????

Broken :)

I went to our chiropractic clinic yesterday, this is a school clinic so students do all the treatments. I have, during all my visits there, always been designated the biggest guy they have, the Engineer always get the tiny cute girls. So, when the big hulk called my name all I did was smile. His arms where like my legs... a tattoo peaked up over his collar... lets just say he looked like he used to break peoples necks with one hand. He actually did break my neck. Plus my hips. And my back. Multiple times. I spent the rest of the day in bed, on my back with a headache and pain from the top of the neck down to my hips. I'm going back to Gigantosaurus next Thursday. More breaking and hopefully some massage. Although I think a massage from this guy might feel like being ripped apart so I'm not sure I will be happier when the soft tissue treatment starts... :)

How is it possible?

I have suffered from a big writers block lately. I have tried everything! Going to the gym, taking a break, forcing me to sit down and "focus" which only resulted in me staring at the screen with empty eyes, listening to classical music that's supposed to stimulate your brain, but no luck. The block is still there. Until now. Eminem is the s**t! His angry, sexist, "white trash in the hood" words somehow started my inspiration, so now I have several new ideas for the manuscripts. All thanks to Eminem! :)

Comment by The Engineer: I did not see that one coming...

Vacation days left to use

Got an email from our secretary with the title "Please fill in the vacation days you intend to use". Apparently I have 6 vacation days to use. You just got to love the Swedish vacation system: Work 2 months, have 6 days vacation! (If I had worked a full year, then I would have had 32 days of vacation...) So, now I have to decide what I will do on my vacation :)

Weekend report

This weekend was action packed. However, not as much action as we had expected. The Donna had planned parachute for the both of us on Saturday so we got out of bed early to go all the way to Gryttjom, about 1.5h by car. The weather didn't really look good, it was very cloudy but the parachute people said "Nah, its gonna get better". It didn't. It actually got much worse... After waiting in that godforsaken little village (the airfield was a grassy field) for 3-4 hours we went back home.

After we came home, The Donna repacked her bag and left for her parents and The Engineer packed for a crayfish party (strange translation) with sleepover at a small island outside a bigger island in Stockholm. Awesome party. No women allowed, just a group of dudes who grew up together and ate a lot of strange creatures (there was some alcohol involved as well).



The day after we went to the air-show in Stockholm and watched some strange maneuvers from helicopters. Pretty impressive.

I love Skype!

Not only can I talk to my friends in Seattle, but I can also suggest a interview using it. I just hope that the UW infectious disease department knows how to use it :)

Now, I have to teach 2 students, who barely speaks English btw, how to run a PCR without messing it up. Like in the good ol' days :)

Sunday funday

Aaaah, Sunday. The day when you can usually sleep as long as you'd like! Lets recap why this was especially nice today.

Well.. On Friday The Engineer was out way too late (for his own good). Bro & Sis took him out partying in the inner most cool/hip/posh(/expensive) places in Stockholm and got to bed around 4am. The party was good and 4am is actually not too bad. But The Donna decided that The Engineer was having way too much fun to be allowed to come home, so he had to sleep at Sis' place.

So about 4 hours later (3 of which he actually slept well) The Engineer had to go home to plan his own BBQ party. Yes, on Saturday he had decided to invite some people to celebrate his 30th birthday, again, and since The Engineer and The Donna are professional party people they had planned exactly nothing until the day of the party. People were invited to come at 3pm, which gave them about 5 hours to get everything in order, including cleaning the apartment.

Piece of cake! Everything was purchased, cleaned and setup with a good 30 minutes to spare and with time for a 20 minute nap!

At 3pm The Donna and The Engineer lay in sun watching the clouds with the grill on standby in 'Solnaparken', a park in Solna. It turns out that's not the name of the park. In fact, there is no park with that name.. so people were a bit confused. But people found us and we played in the park until sunset and then continued in our apartment, not far away. Pretty nice!

And! The Engineer got a Robot! Yey, playtime! :D

Only work and no play..

.. makes The Engineer a dull boy. To counter this The Engineer is working from home today and for some reason so does The Donna.

Also, its Friday the 13th, no need to push our luck when we're safely at home. And also, its Friday the 13th which seems to be a popular day for a birthday. Three of my friends chose this day to add another year to their age. Amongst them, my brother!

Happy Birthday, bro!

This we'll celebrate by dining at a fine restaurant in downtown Stockholm. Right by the water. Well, its actually on a boat so I guess it's ON the water.

Interval running...

... is tough!

5min warm up. Then...
30s full speed (I was trying to look as cool as the sprinters in the olympics...)
90s slow recovery trot (or as I did, sloooow walk)
Repeat 6(!) times.
End with 5min recovery

My legs stopped functioning after the third interval... It's hard to get back in shape.

And, I never thought I was gonna say this, but I miss the Hot Yoga! Power yoga just isn't as "fun" :)

Expensive not always better

Bought one of those healthy deodorants, that don't contain any harmful ingredients etc. It was ridiculously expensive (could seriously have bought 4 normal ones for that prize!), but I justified it with the health aspect. It smell somewhat good until it come in contact with me... I smell like a toilet cleaner with a twist of lemon :( I actually smell better in my own sweat than with this rip-off prized deo... Will be au naturelle tomorrow...

I am trying to read the latest on T regs, but the smell is distracting me. Might need to take my papers and go outside with an ice cream to be able to read them... :)

My new crush

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

I did fall in love with the books from the start, and now I have fallen helplessly for the TV series too. What can I say, I was probably an African lady in my previous life. :)

More applications...

New York - Influenza
San Francisco - HIV
Silver Spring, MD - Malaria!

Went to the gym yesterday for a group spin with a very energetic leader... OMG my ass today! Can hardly sit... well, well... and I decided that based on yesterdays painful experience I have to go to a bodypump session today. I'm in a ridiculous bad shape :)

Now, lunch with my sister and all the kids! :)

Horsie!

The most beautiful of them all:

Zelzele

I finally made it out to Täby Galopp where I spent a few hours with friends and dogs in the café where we all watched the Swedish Derby races on TV. And (of course, what did you think? That I would be so close and not go up and use little Horsie as a snuggie?) we spent some time with Zelzele. Isn't she pretty? And she is so big! She towers high above me. Good thing she is the kindest soul on this planet :)

Brothers in sunset

August 21

:O

Home (one of them anyway) ..

.. is starting to look OK. Yes, there is stuff allover the place but we've almost moved in. Now we have electricity (well, we've had it all along but now we start paying for it) and since an hour we have a 100mbit internet connection (70mbit wireless with strong encryption, impressive)! :D

Thats all The Engineer need to call a place Home. Also he needs food and someone to prepare it for him. Thats a Good Home. ;)

Vacation images are on their way!

Upset...

Jocke did some laundry a few days ago. My white beautiful towel has now a dirty greyish look. Because the whole thing with sorting based on colour is not something my dear Jocke does. I think this means he has to make it up to me, possibly by buying me a pair of new shoes! :)

Comment by The Engineer: Who is this 'Jocke' you're talking about? And why would he do such a thing!? (Btw, sorting laundry is not something we learn as engineers. Why do you think my clothes have the same color?)

A box filled with clothes!

That's what I found yesterday in our storage room here in Stockholm. Nice! No less than 6 (!) dresses and a whole bunch of shirts, skirts and sweaters. Oh, and a bag with shoes too... Feels like I found a old treasure :)

First day at work...

... and it's raining.
... and I forgot my rain coat at my parents house.
... and Jocke kept waking me up all night.
... and I have a head ache.

But...
... many of my old friends are still here.
... I have a desk with a view out over the national park that Stockholm University is placed in, with lots of green trees, sheeps and dogs.
... Jocke is at home taking care of the laundry and grocery shopping this week.
... Spotify is playing Lady Gaga and that is making me dance in my chair.

So, in all, the good things totally wins :)