Kitty’s Place

My fellow just sent me this link to a story in the local newspaper about the changes in our local political scene. He has taken a new position, moving from vice chair of the committee overseeing adult education (from high school on) to vice chair of the committee for chidren and young people … that oversees education from daycare to high school as well as anything else to do with youth. The new position has a lot more work involved with it but he is really excited about that and I am proud of him.

Skolpolitiken i Sigtuna får ny ordförande

2005-08-25 21:43

Det rör på sig bland socialdemokraternas politiker i Sigtuna kommun.
Orsaken är att Anna-Karin Lundström i mitten av september tar över som ny ordförande i kommunstyrelsen och som kommunalråd, vilket UNT berättat om tidigare.

På grund av det flyttas en del gamla politiker om till nya poster, och en del nya krafter kommer in.
Ny ordförande i barn- och ungdomsnämnden blir Ronnie Lundin, som tidigare basat över miljö- och hälsoskyddsnämnden. Den tar istället Annika Nilsson över. Hon är i dag ledamot av kommunfulmäktige. Ronnie Lundin är 35 år och Annika Nilsson 34. De har arbetat politiskt i Sigtuna kommun sedan början av 90-talet.
Även vice ordförande i barn- och ungdomsnämnden är ny. Det blir Ibrahim Khalifa, som ersätter Elias Saouk.
Anders Johansson, snart före detta kommunalråd, blir ny ordförande i demokratiberedningen. Han fortsätter i kommunstyrelsen som vanlig ledamot, och sitter kvar på ordförandeposten för Sigtunahem.

De nya ordförandena börjar den 19 september

For some reason that reminds me of my dad. He had some strange expressions he used as well as colourful descriptions. My fellow still laughs about him teaching an immigrant he worked with that toes were called “foot fingers” in english. The man in question was upset when he found out he had been told wrong, but my dad just felt that it was what toes should really be called. And people wonder why I am so odd? *laugh*

It has been an odd week, but a fun one. Last Saturday the kidlet and I caught the train early and went in to Stockholm to meet Carolyn. She and I have corresponded via email, online forums and lj since before we made the move to Sweden. So it was a great treat to finally meet her in person! I hadn’t planned on taking the kidlet along but my fellow was really exhausted so we decided to let him have a long sleep in. Carolyn had treats for us, two lovely pelargoniums and a fridge magnet that the kidlet thought was a delight. The plants are a Jungle Leaf and a Sweet Jess. I am really excited about nurturing these along but my fellow has rightly pointed out that I have not ever managed to keep a plant alive for all the years he has known me. I have high hopes this time I will succeed!

We met some friends of Carolyn’s as well and how fun it was that the couple we met, were people we had met previously at a thanksgiving dinner. It was fun talking to everyone and we went to a lovely place to fika, where the kidlet listened while I read the menu and then choose this huge white chocolate cheesecake and proceeded to devour it. We saw a lovely 3 masted schooner in the harbour, I believe it was the Götheborg. I had read something in the local news about it but had forgotten it was to be in Stockholm for the weekend. It reminded me of the year we had all the tall ships tour the Great Lakes and were actually able to tour some of them when they docked in Port Colborne. We didn’t tour this one though, time was short since the condo association surprised us by putting up flyers Thursday night that it was Kids Day on Saturday. So after a much too short visit with Carolyn, Anna and Anders, we headed home. I hope we get to meet up again without time restraints!

We got back home at 1300, went straight to the festivities and did the scavenger hunt thing. LL got a lottery ticket when he turned in his paper and then he ate lunch and played with some of the other kids. There were not many people there this year, perhaps 20% of the turnout from last year. The late notice likely was the reason. Anyway, when it came time to draw prizes I gave LL his ticket and he lost it immediately. He dropped it down the storm sewer and sobbed about it. The organizers gave him another one when he showed them his floating under the grate. *laugh* He did win a prize so it was a good day for him. I visited with a number of neighbours and was thinking how cool it was that we have such cultural diversity here. It was 1430 when we were done at the kids party and then we came home and headed to Uppsala and Biltema to get the things we wanted for the new car. From there we came back, met up with my fellow’s family and then we all headed to Kista where we shopped and had dinner together. It was a really fun filled day all around. The kidlet got a bandy set and I got a new bag for school. My fellow got a new cd case for the car.

Sunday my fellow had a meeting in the morning, came home and watched his F1 race then dropped us off at his parents for dinner on his way to another meeting. I don’t mind when the politics takes him away from us every evening after dinner but I resent this weekend stuff, since weekends are family time. Apparently this all has something to do with the upcoming church vote in September, so I hope that it is a short lived phenomena. *laugh* We bbq’d at his parents and had a lovely evening. He was done fairly early and made it back in time to eat while we were waiting for the coffee to perk for our fika.

Monday it was school and work for my fellows. I started doing some cleaning here. Tuesday I took the kidlet to school on the bus in the morning and he discovered that one of his classmates is now taking the bus to school himself. So I am sure LL will be lobbying for that soon. I have already told him I think he is too young and perhaps we will let him get off the bus himself at school and I can continue on to my school. But not this year. I know I am overprotective in comparison to many swedish parents, but I grew up in a place where you had to protect your kids and am not as naive as many people here are. There is this idea that Sweden today is some safe haven like “Leave it to Beaver” days, but the reality is that kids are being abducted and abused, just in smaller numbers than in North America. Wednesday we stopped at the library on the way home.

Yesterday we went to Danderyd and LL got his “intraoral device” or palate plate. He was very good when they put it in and learned how to do it himself. He looks like a chipmunk with it in place. *laugh* He has to wear it for 30 minutes a day and they will test his speech again in 3 months. He has decided to have it in while he watches Bolibompa (swedish kids show), since that is a half hour. After we were done there, we had fika and then went to Morby centrum. It did not have much in the way of stores but we did get him 15 crowns worth of marbles at a toy store. Then we headed back to the subway and took an “old” train. A woman got on and asked if we were headed towards a stop and I had to say I had no idea where we were going, we just were there because LL likes the old trains. *laugh* We headed into the city and he had McDonalds for lunch while I waited to see if Jennifer might call to meet up with us. When I hadn’t heard from her by 1300 I assumed she had had a bad morning and so we headed home.

My fellow has had meetings all week but I think he is going to be home with us this evening. That will be a treat. I think I will bake some blueberry muffins to celebrate. *laugh* We are going to make a trip to Barnens hus to see if they have the pocket organizer thing that goes over the back of the seat for kids books and toys. The one at Biltema was half the size of the one we had before and just not suitable. I picked up my school supplies this week, 4 notebooks, 4 pens, 10 pencils and pencil sharpener for 70 crowns. So I will organize that into the new 49 crown book bag I got on the weekend and will be all ready to start school on Monday.

A few days ago I recieved an email from someone at bookcrossing.com. She wrote requesting my credit card information because an order I placed with them last year had been sent to me but never debited from my credit card and they had caught this in an audit. I found the wording of the email strange:

“We are writing because you may not have noticed that your credit card
was never charged for this order, although your order was e-mailed
“confirmed, packaged and mailed”. Our current audit determined an
interface problem with all phone orders placed under a certain
Administrative password and your order was one of them. As we are still so small and our store sales account for 95% of the income that keeps this site free for everyone, we are asking that you please provide us with current credit card information to correctly collect payment for this order. In the unlikely event that you feel we have made a mistake, please fax a copy of your statement to ********* marked “Attention: Sheryl” showing proof of payment of the original charge. Otherwise, please call us toll free at ********** to provide current credit card information so that we may collect these much needed funds, and we thank you in advance for making good on
this purchase.”

Am I the only person who thinks that emailing a customer and saying “we think you didn’t pay us but if you think you did, send us proof, otherwise pay up by phoning in your credit card info” is bizarre? I knew this was wrong and so I was a bit concerned and sent off a query to bookcrossing asking if this person was real. The reply from there was “Sheryl is the head honcho (under Heather) at the BC supply store”.

So at that point I replied to the original email. I stated that if they felt I had missed paying perhaps they could be so kind as to give me the date the order was placed, the amount owing etc. so I could actually check my records. I said that I was sure I had not paid by credit card, that I had paid by paypal (I knew this was true, since she contacted me not via the address I use for bookcrossing, rather my paypal address, one advantage of having different addresses for different accounts), that I rarely use a credit card online (I only have used it twice to pay airline tickets) and that if I actually did owe them the amount in question, what other method did they suggest for payment, since I would not be paying with a credit card.

I recieved a very prompt reply: “I apologize for the misunderstanding. After carefully reviewing your account, I did realize that you order via paypal.”

So does this sound really scammy to anyone else. “Dear whomever, you forgot to pay us for an order you placed at some indefinite so just call in your cc# and we will fix it”. Or I am just becoming jaded in my old age? *laugh*

The New Car!

We picked it up after work. It had 12 km on it and we have added half that again already. *laugh* Very comfortable, has enough room that I don’t feel cramped and it drives well. The kidlet was excited when we went to his grandparents and he could show them all the cool things in it. But he had a couple of cries here and a couple more at the dealership over the fact we were leaving the old car, that has worked so well for us for so long.

The surströmming was as smelly and tasted as yucky as I remembered it. The kidlet took a taste and decided he did not like it. My fellow didn’t even try it, he had sill instead. I ate one and that will do me for another couple years now. The others had at least 3 fish each and loved it. I really do think it is a cultural thing. It was fun to have dinner there and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

We went through the 4 bags of things we took out of the old car and have one bag of things to put into the new car. *laugh* It made me think of the summer of 1967. My dad had an old car, I honestly don’t remember the make. He decided to drive to Montreal for Expo 67 and my mom talked him into taking me along. The car broke down a number of times and each time my dad went to the trunk and brought out a replacement part for whatever had broken. I remember thinking he must have had an entire spare engine back there. *laugh*

Tomorrow I am off to the city for coffee in the morning, then we are going to the Kids Day celebration and finally we will make a trip out to buy a few replacement things for the new car, like first aid kit and one of these. I have already sorted out a few books and toys to put in it for the kidlet.

Yesterday LL went back to school. It was a short day, they started with some speeches at 0830, then took attendence and then we had a little picnic so the kids could get reaquainted and we were home by 1030. He got his schedule, which differs only in that now he has school half a day on Friday as well, instead of Friday off. We puttered about for the afternoon, I did laundry, got dinner ready and then after dinner my fellow and I cleaned out the car in preparation for trading it in on the new one. He went off to a meeting, the kidlet settled in bed and I did the ironing. I am on a mission not to procrastinate, so I do the dishes right away instead of leaving them and do the ironing after I am done laundry instead of letting it pile up for a week. I am a procrastinator by nature but I know that once I go back to school I will need to be in a good routine here, so I am trying to build one. *laugh*

Today we pick up the new car! That is the Good thing for this lovely sunny Friday. My fellow will come and get us at 1600 and we 3 will go and get the car. I have already informed him that once we get the car, I am splurging on a travel mug for that cup holder that was my only priority when car hunting. *laugh*

Tonight we are going to my fellow’s parents home for dinner. The Bad part of that is that we are having surströmming. *laugh* I have had it once and am not eager to repeat the experience but am willing to since I know that farmor really does like it and wants us to as well. She has promised fish sticks for the kidlet if he is not as enamoured of it this time, although he loved it last time. I am sure I will need to shower the instant I get home, that smell is so pervasive. *laugh*

Tomorrow I am going to meet up with some ladies for coffee in Stockholm. I am so excited that I will be meeting Carolyn at last. It seems like forever since we first spoke online about moving over here to Sweden. After coffee though I won’t be able to browse about in the city because Saturday is Kid’s Day here in our apartment complex. They have this every year but this time there was not much advance warning. The notices went up yesterday. *laugh* There will be hot dogs and drinks, a scavenger hunt, lottery and a troubador. Everything is free and the kids have a great time as do the adults who get to chat with neighbours.

I am off to pick up the kidlet.

The kidlet goes back to school in two days, so we have been taking it easy this week. Today he slept in till 0830, then we watched cartoons for a bit, had some breakfast and then watched the garbage truck “eat” the trash, since it is pick up day today. After that we got dressed, took the dog out and then it was more cartoons. As an added bonus today was the day they came to power spray the rooms at the bottom of the garbage chutes and the big green garbage containers housed in there. That was very fascinating. *laugh*

We also had some interesting conversations, one involving air disasters where the kidlet recounted something he had seen on the news about the pilot of the plane turning blue. I explained about cabin decompression and oxygen deprivation. Then he wanted to know if there were any plane crashes I remembered and I recalled the one in Tenerife in 1977, memorable because I was flying home from Greece that day and the Air India disaster in 1985, memorable because one of the doctors I worked with lost both his sons in that one. Then we discussed how there are not so many crashes and that not all end badly, such as the Air France one in Toronto 2 weeks ago where there were only minor injuries. That seemed to satisfy his curiousity.

For lunch I made soup and also chocolate milk in the shaker I bought on the weekend. LL got to shake to his hearts content and he even got two straws. After lunch we went to the centrum and on the way had a long discussion on what shadows were and how they were made. Some days I believe that parents need to have an encyclopedia programmed in when their offspring appear. Waiting for the bus home we watched an overhead crane on a contruction site and LL explained to me how they work. *laugh* We met one of his friends coming off the bus with his mom at our stop, so now he is out playing in the sun that appeared a bit after lunch. So the gloomy morning became a nice day. *smile*

I did talk to the nurse at vårdcentralen and she said that unless the kidlet has a fever, redness or pain, it was really better to wait until next week when we go to Danderyd again and have them fast track us to the ENT specialist. I was thinking along the same lines but did not want to be a bad mom and not call.

My fellow paid the down payment on the new car this morning and when he called and I asked how he was, he said “poorer”. *laugh* I asked if his parents had never taught him not to spend all his money in one place and he said he spends all his money on me. *laugh* I was glad that we could do the down payment without having to touch the savings account. Life is so much less stressed when you have a financial buffer in place.

My fellow bought the Ford Mondeo last evening. We will likely pick it up Friday. I am really excited about this and I don’t even drive. *laugh*

Am waiting for a call from vårdcentralen, the kidlet has begun doing this constant throat clearing thing and his tonsils appear more swollen than they were two weeks ago when we were at Danderyd. He says his throat doesn’t hurt and they don’t appear infected but they are definitely swollen and his lymph nodes under his jaw are a bit swollen as well. That was a fun thing to check, since he has this really sensitive neck and he kept jerking away and laughing when I tried to palpate his lymph nodes. Reminded me of why I preferred nursing adults. *laugh*

It is a very gloomy looking day, a big difference from yesterday when the kids actually got to wear shorts again after a month of jeans and jackets. It is a good thing that we can amuse ourselves inside on days like this. At the moment LL is watching cartoons, with 10 stuffed animals lined up on the coffee table watching along with him. *laugh*

My fellow went back to work this morning. I felt so bad for him having to get up early. *laugh*

We have had a lovely vacation with time at the cottage, time visiting family, time doing lazy day things. One of the things we have done over the past month is looked for a new car. Our Audi is 18 years old and it is time for something newer. My fellow wants a new car, so we have been checking them out. It came down to a Peugeot 307 SW, a Hyundai Elantra GLS Sport and a Ford Mondeo Ghia. I loved the Peugeot because I have always wanted a “van” kind of car, but the Mondeo was my pick. *laugh* My biggest priority was a passenger seat cup holder, LL was crazy about the Elantra because it had a clothes hanger hook on the back of the passenger seat and my fellow has been debating for a few days if the extra cost of the Mondeo is balanced out by the way it handles and the comfort. So we will be making a decision today I hope.

Yesterday we took a drive out to Steninge Slott and looked at crystal and other fun stuff, then walked around the grounds. It is a lovely spot and within walking distance, but sadly we rarely go there. We also took the kidlet to McDonalds for lunch and he bought a couple new videos. So he had a wonderful day. *laugh*

I have already done laundry today and in a bit the kidlet and I are going to go to the store to get a few groceries. He has a bit of vacation left, goes back to school on Thursday. As for me, I have 2 more weeks before school starts and I plan to enjoy them. *laugh*

My brother Eric is 45 today! Happy Birthday Eric!

Does anyone else begin to feel the years are creeping up when their younger siblings are all over 40? *laugh*

We were away again. This time we went to Månkarbo to my fellow’s parent’s cottage. We went there Thursday and came home today. It was fun but I am glad to be home. Thursday we were there for dinner and then we had a quiet evening. Friday was a bit overcast and windy, the perfect weather for kite flying, so the kidlet did so with his dad and grandfather. Saturday it rained and farmor and farfar went home, we stayed on. Sunday it rained again, we watched tv and had crayfish for dinner. Monday it was wet and cold so we didn’t do much again. I made chili for dinner since it seemed to be good weather for it. We headed home at lunch today and I caught up the laundry while my fellow went off to a political meeting. We had a sauna every night at the cottage, ate lots of pastries and spent lots of time together. The perfect vacation. *laugh*

We have a few more days of vacation before my fellow goes back to work and no real plans, so I just may be offline. *grin*

I put up some of our pictures from Canada here: http://community.webshots.com/album/400298449tnaKfY.