Kitty’s Place

We did get our grocery shopping done this afternoon at Eurostop. My fellow picked us up and we came home, had a quick dinner and headed back to Eurostop.

It was Höstnatta, kind of the equivalent of midnight madness sales. The big attraction was Sarek. Not the one from Star Trek, the band. *laugh* I was fascinated when we saw them on melodifestivalen. Their instruments were just too cool. The nyckelharpa was cool enough but the vevlira (hurdy gurdy) was just the neatest thing I had ever seen. So we got back there in time to hear them perform at 1900. The place was packed, there were crowds on all 3 levels. It was fun. After listening to a couple of songs we made our way through the crowds and found my fellow’s family. His uncle is up to spend the night here, so they had called and asked if the kidlet could go and sleep over there as well. We shopped some, I got new red nailpolish and the dog got a bone. *laugh* Then we handed over the kidlet’s knapsack to his grandparents and he left with them. They will keep him all day tomorrow since they are going to Kista centrum and then we have been invited over for dinner with them. I will go into the city early and get my cleaning done, then we will have the weekend free. Saturday we are planning on going to the kid’s halloween party that Lisa is organizing.

Now I need to finish putting away groceries and do some dishes before bed. *smile*

I finally got around to uploading pics to webshots.

Some from the bathroom renovation and the first snow.

The kidlet turning five.

Altered book workshop in Stockholm.

My, it has been eons since I thought of Sonny and Cher. *laugh*

It has been way too long since I updated here. Where to start? Oh, the kidlet did go to the birthday party at preschool. The little girl who was turning 4, did not. *laugh* She and her sister go and she is having a hard time with the adjustment of not being at home with mom all the time. When they got to school on Friday she refused to stay. So the kids had ice cream and made her pictures and when they came to pick up her older sister, they gave her the birthday stuff. None of the kids thought it was odd to have the party without her. *laugh*

Saturday I had my crafting day in the city. It was so much fun! I got to meet Erika in person at last and learned so many cool things from Jennifer. It was just a delightful day. Sadly there were not many pictures taken, because I had a migraine brewing and just plain forgot about taking pictures. I got a lot of work done on the book I am doing for the kidlet. Because he is home this week I haven’t been able to finish it. Once it is done I will scan and post pictures. It is a memory book of his trip to Moominworld in 2001 (the day we were there was the day that Tove Jansson died and it was so strange after spending the day in her world, to go back to the hotel room and hear on the news that she had passed away). My headache held off (or was battled back) until I got on the train home. Then it hit full migraine force. I actually threw up on the train, not a pleasant experience. When I got home I took tylenol and gravol (the full box that has been in the medicine chest for a year is now down to 2 lonely pills after this last bout with the flu *laugh*) and went to bed. My fellows weren’t here, they had spent the day with farfar. I slept for a couple hours before they got home but battled headache and nausea well into Sunday. As a result I did not go to work, could not face throwing up on the train again. *laugh* Luckily this is break week so they were not open this week anyway.

Monday we did little. We did go to the centrum for a bit but mostly I just rested. Even though it has been a few weeks since the flu first hit here, I still have a lot of abdominal pain. My guys don’t have the pain but neither have any appetite still, the teacher said that LL didn’t finish his ice cream cone or his cookie on Friday. So none of us have been doing very much at all.

Tuesday we went to David’s for a visit. We had two of the exchange envelopes arrive and they contained 4 spider rings, 2 skull rings and two scary finger puppets. The kidlet divided those into two piles and added a bat ring to each pile. He then put one of the piles in a bag and took it with us, to give to David. I am glad he is not a selfish kid and remembers to share. Marilyn made “pigs in a blanket” and the kidlet thought they were cool. She used smördeg, so I think I will get some and make the kidlet a treat.

Wednesday there was an email from Jennifer suggesting lunch at Pizza Hut after a trip out to a craft shop. So we went into the city, met up with her and Erika and had an adventure. We went out to Ängyplan to the shop of one of the women who was there on Saturday. But they are working on the station and the train didn’t stop there in that direction. So we had to go to the next station and wait for a train going the other way and go back. When we got to the shop, we were met with a “closed for lunch” sign that we would have avoided if the train had not cruised on past the stop. *laugh* We headed back into the city without seeing the shop or Gun. She had some really nice looking things and I will stop there on my way to work on Friday. We went to Pizza Hut. Again I missed the exit that takes you right up to it from central station. Luckily Erika recognized where we were and we got turned in the right direction again. *laugh* It was packed to the rafters in Pizza Hut and the service was slower than molasses, but it was a really fun time. LL thinks that it is just so cool that Erika is from Canada too. He was talking about it last evening. We headed home after lunch and then did some shopping here. My fellow was sulky all evening and that put me in a growly mood. I really hope we all soon feel ourselves again.

Today there is not much on the agenda. I have to take my winter coat to see if it can be repaired, have a couple of things to shop for at ÖoB and then we are going to ICA Maxi to do a big grocery shop. My fellow will pick us up there and bring us home.

My fellow had to fly down to Göteborg this morning. He left the house a bit after 5 am. It must have been about 0430 when he snuggled up and woke me from a dream about an evil fairy who stole our daughter and we were both invisible in a hospital chasing after her, while a nurse went from person to person saying “are you the hemorrhoidectomy?” Every few minutes we would start to emerge from invisibility, in the form of tiny skeletons and would have to shake about like in the hokey pokey dance, to get invisible again. I am truly grateful he woke me. *laugh*

So I am sitting here sipping tea and catching up on lj. There was a time in another life when I would get up at this time to go to work. Seems like a bad dream though, I guess it is the aversion to early morning that led to my working night shift for so many years. *laugh*

There is a birthday party at preschool today so I can’t keep the kidlet out of school. If I could, we could go and clean today, leaving the weekend free. But he is of course excited about the party and that is more important. I get to spend the day tomorrow crafting in the city. I am so looking forward to it and to a day of me time. As much as I love my fellows, it will be nice to have a day with the “girls”. *smile*

Next week is a break week from school. We have plans for an afternoon at David’s house one day but the rest of the week is open. I think we will shop in the city at some point. I am still looking for ink for our picture printer. I emailed http://www.inkclub.com 2 weeks ago and asked if they carried the cartridges I needed or something generic that would work in the printer. The only response I got was the automatic response saying they would answer later. I have never heard back from them. So I will look for another office supply place and see if they have what I need.

Has been a bit of a blah week. The kidlet had laryngitis on Monday. It was funny to see the look on his face when he first spoke and sounded like a croaking frog. *grin* By bedtime he was back to normal, so he only missed one afternoon of school.

Tuesday we grocery shopped, in fact we have done that every day this week. I can only carry two full bags home at a time so it is a week long process. *laugh* I like shopping this way occasionally but am glad I don’t have to do it all the time.

Another kid at school has chicken pox. The teacher said to LL on Tuesday “did you have chicken pox?” and he said no. Then she said “well you will get them this time since you were almost kissing Tove”. His dad and I giggled about it but I also thought it was a sarcastic remark. Not as bad as today when she told David’s mom that she didn’t make him put his sweater back on under his snowsuit because he would have looked like a “dough boy”.

We now have an appointment with the logoped (speech therapist). The remiss was sent in January, I had a letter saying they would contact me to set up an appointment by April and they called in October. I love the medical system here, it is so much like home. She called and said they had an old old referral and did I think he really needed to be seen now. We talked it over and I told her that his preschool teacher had requested a tal pedagog (speech teacher) to assess him. That made the speech therapist quick to say that he should come and see her first. I love how professionals get all territorial. *laugh* So he has an appointment at the end of November.

I still have zero energy and feel dragged out. At least now I have some appetite again, so things should improve more quickly now.

It has been a weekend of resting and has really helped. We slept in on Saturday and then got up and puttered some. The kidlet went off to his grandparents for the night at about 2 pm. I slept for a few hours, got up and made food, read some and then went back to bed.

Today my fellow took me to work. I actually was going to call and say I couldn’t make it in, because I could not face the 90 minutes on the train and subway, since I am still nauseated. Instead of the usual 6 hours it takes, we were there and home in 3 hours. We stopped and did a bit of grocery shopping and I have done nothing much the rest of the day. Had soup for dinner and it has not bothered my tummy at all, so things are looking up.

The kidlet just came home and is playing a computer game. He had a fun time with his grandparents and plans are in the work for weekly swimming with farfar to resume.

We are going to make a trip in to Buttericks in the morning. I have been going to check it out forever and never think of it when I get into the city, but it is the plan for tomorrow. *laugh*

Yesterday I didn’t do much at all. Finally got all the dishes done, vacuumed, stripped beds, showered (which made everyone here happy *laugh*) and picked up a bit. This place still looks like no one has cleaned in months though. *laugh*

There was a meet and greet type of thing at the centrum. Since I am of the opinion that if your local politicians take the time to do these, the residents should take the time to go and say hello and ask questions or make suggestions, the kidlet and I went. We stopped at the grocery store and then went out and said hello. Two of the women asked me how my fellow was doing and were really surprised he was back to work … I am assuming they were at the meeting he got ill at 2 weeks ago. *laugh* The “mayor” asked if we had our new passports now and I said yes and thank you for signing our applications. The kidlet got a cookie and we came home. I did not have any questions or suggestions although I tried hard to think of some. *laugh* There were a number of people stopping to say hello which I thought was great. Democracy at work as it should be.

When we got home, my fellow was also on his way in to the building. He worked from home all afternoon and was still feeling bad. He is still having intermittent fevers and chills but like me, would rather die than go to a doctor. He says he imported me to take care of him when he is ill and he doesn’t need a doctor. *laugh* I dropped the kidlet off at school and when I came home I went and lay down for a bit. My fellow woke me a couple hours later and we went and picked up the kidlet. We got pizza for dinner which was really nice, no cooking. *smile* The kidlet was mega cranky last night and this morning it is evident why. He woke with a sore throat, harsh cough, stuffed nose and a fever. We dressed him in really warm clothes and he has been playing quietly all morning, drawing pictures and such, not his usual frenzy of activity. I think this is going to be a long winter if we all keep getting sick over and over. *laugh* We were supposed to go out to the airport today and meet up with some Canadians but that is just not going to happen. I will keep him warm and quiet and hopefully this cold will get better quickly.

I am still having a lot of pain whenever I eat and nausea off and on. Yesterday I bought yogurt and tried eating it. It seems to settle the tummy some, so I will get some more today. My fellow says I need to eat and that eating will hurt at first but it gets better. I just want the better part now thank you very much. *laugh*

We have no weekend plans other than work. I think I may go in tomorrow and stop at one of the craft shops on our way to Hässelby. Have not found halloween cards anywhere, even though I have found some cute stuff to go into the envelopes for the halloween card exchange. So I may just get some nice paper and use the stamps I have here to make my own cards.

It really hasn’t been too exciting so far. We went to öppna förskolan this morning. It has been a few weeks since we went last so I mentioned it when we got up. To be real honest, I wanted to go back to bed, since I still feel bad. But parenting is not about laying about all day. *laugh* It was a nice morning, there were lots of kids there and one mother who I wanted to slap. She kept instructing the other kids how to play .. no no, don’t pile the blocks any higher than 3, one of the little kids might knock them over and get hurt .. no, don’t play with the cars there, one of the little kids might fall over them and get hurt. The only little kid who was being a pain was hers, deliberately knocking over blocks and throwing any toy she got her hands on. It gave me great pleasure to tell her kid, “no, we don’t throw here, you might hit one of the other kids and hurt them”. *laugh* I did take note that her mom didn’t correct her behaviour constantly, just everyone elses kids. Isn’t there always one of those to contend with? *laugh*

We stopped at the store on the way home and got some fruit and veggies. I do not want to cook tonight. Maybe if I ask really sweetly my fellow will get pizza for the two of them. I dropped the kidlet off at school and now I am going to go and lay down for an hour, ignoring the fact that every dish we own is piled in the sink or on the counter. I have even been wishing for a dish washer this past week, which proves I am not myself. *laugh*

We had a card from Brenda today, a halloween one with stickers for the kidlet. It was really sweet of her to send them and he was really excited. We also got a nice card from Kim. *smile* I love mail.

Yesterday I did do laundry but not much else. After school the kidlet and his friend played in the woods outside our building for a while on the way home. No one was much interested in eating the ham I had baked. About 1930 I said “I want pumpkin pie”, since I was feeling sad about missing Thanksgiving. So my fellow said “bake one” and I did. While it was baking we called and talked to my grandparents. We also got to talk to my brother Eric and my niece Deborah. So there were lots of “Happy Thanksgiving’s” passed back and forth and I felt less homesick. The kidlet talked to everyone and had one tearful episode while talking to Grandpa. He doesn’t really understand that Grandpa can’t hear well anymore and so when he was asked when we were coming to visit in Canada again, he kept saying “summer” and Grandpa kept saying “what”. So the kidlet held the reciever to me and said “but I *AM* speaking english”. We had a long about old people and problems hearing this morning. *smile*

Today I felt like death warmed over, but I had promised Lisa I would bring in the snowsuit for her little guy. I didn’t want to wait much longer since it is getting nippy out there. So we headed into Stockholm on the 0919 train. We went straight to her office, dropped off the winter stuff, had a chat, got invited to a kids halloween party and headed back to the central station. We had ridden one of the modern subway trains to Odenplan and the kidlet kept telling me that he really really wanted to go on a “ljus blå” one home. But it was a new one that arrived and we took it to T-Centralen. Just as we got on to it, an old light blue one arrived heading in the other direction. I said we could ride it and the kidlet said no, since we were already on the other train. But I could tell by the look on his face that he was sad and he looked sadder and sadder at each of the next 3 stops. So when we got to T-Centralen instead of going up to our train home, I said we could wait and if the next train was “ljus blå” we would ride it. Happily it was so we got on and went one stop to Östermalmstorg, then we got on to another light blue train back. When we got on the one back he said “now I am not sad any more”. *laugh*

We stopped and got him McDonalds for lunch and then caught the train home. He was back in time for school. I did next to nothing here while he was at school. Was planning on doing a beef stir fry for dinner but my fellow mentioned he would like taco salad, so I made that instead. At this point I will cook whatever if he just eats. *smile* He is still not feeling very well and I still have terrible pain from eating anything. So we are a great pair. *laugh*

We had a package here when we got home. Aunt Maud sent a whole bunch of halloween stuff! The halloween stamps and stamp pad were the best part as far as the kidlet was concerned. *smile*

As much as I was convinced the kidlet had chicken pox, professional opinions stated otherwise. *laugh* I did call BVC on Friday and was told it did not sound like vattenkoppor. Then I corresponded with our resident ‘kanska MD who felt it was not. We went to the lunch on Saturday where he looked at the kidlet in person and did not change his opinion. The little spot that had broken and was healing is now gone and the only other spot that was more than a pinhead size, is still just a little white blemish. (and perversely I still think it was chicken pox *laugh*)

So Friday we went to Solna and got our PUT’s renewed and added to our new Canadian passports. Then I stopped and had the photocopies made and mailed off our application for swedish citizenship. My fellow put in a half day at work again and then spiked a fever and was extremely nauseated again.

Saturday we headed into the city about 0800. My fellow said he was ok to be left alone and I did leave food and such for him when he got up. We went to work first and it was when we got to Stockholm that I remembered why I had vowed to clean on Friday. The green line was at 20 minute service over the weekend due to construction. So it was a nightmare to travel since the trains were packed like sardine tins. Work went fine and when we got back to the city we stopped at Grays and I got some Campbells chicken noodle soup. Then we went on to Kulturhuset where we met with the group from Amerikanska. It was a lot of fun but what a zoo. I have never seen so many people packed into a restaurant. After lunch we popped into Hemköp (which the kidlet has renamed the “sol affären” because of their sun symbol) and then headed home. When we got here my fellow’s sister was here. I made pannkakor for dinner and then we put on Bingo lotto since I got the kidlet a new ticket (he plays the same one for weeks *laugh*). At bedtime the kidlet had a fever and sore tummy again and my fellow still felt bad. So I decided not to go to the Thanksgiving celebration on Sunday.

Today we slept in a bit. The kidlet was fine this morning. I feel really rotten though, my tummy is still not back to normal and I am just plain worn out. My fellow is feeling a bit better but still has little appetite and just stayed quiet all day. I did have to go out and shop, didn’t want to but had to. I did pick up a box of candy for my fellow’s mom to try. So when she called about 1600 to see if we would come to dinner, we said no but that the kidlet could go. She picked him up and he took her the candy. *smile* Her parents are here from up north so he had lots of fun and got spoiled by grandparents and great grandparents. They brought him home about 2000 with a bag full of gifts. *smile* She sent her winter coat over for me to do when I do laundry tomorrow. It will really suck when we get a house and no longer have this big washer and dryer to do mats and winter coats in. *laugh* I will be taking my fellow’s winter coat to her soon for some pocket and lining repairs, since she has a sewing machine.

Now I am going to bed. I need sleep. *laugh*