book tip

WTF?

I'm trying not to use foul language in my blog but sometimes it's hard not to. Rachael posted about these idiots (Texas State House) in her blog and I'm steaming mad.
First of all: I thought this was the year 2005 and that we had come much further than this. I'm not gay by the way, but I'm a human being, thus obliged to react when other human beings forget what being human is about... or whatever these idiots are thinking.
Second of all: Isn't parenting about loving a child and helping it become all it can become, and not about what gender adults you prefer sexually?

manatee

I found this picture and I realised I forgot one of the dreams I had as a kid. I saw a documentary once on amazonian manatees and fell in love. Before I die, I want to meet one of these guys in person.

questions and answers

More questions and more answers. Mandy's right: Questionnaires are good for blogging. It's easier to blog without any real inspiration for writing having a questionnaire to follow... So this is one I got in Swedish a couple of months ago. I just translated the questions and answered them all over again:

1: Open up a book near by. Turn to page 12. What's the fourth sentence in that page?
My passion, both as psychiatrist and as Dice Man, has been to change human personality. (The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart stands by the computer since I've been reading it to Spencer. It's crazy but great.)

2: Reach out your left arm as far as you can. What do you touch first?
The door of a closet with my schedule taped to it. I can't stretch though... It's like 20cm from my shoulder.

3: What are you wearing?:
Black underwear. Black pantyhose. Black knee long skirt with grey flowers. Grey socks with pink dots and dark grey legwarmers. Grey tight top under my huge, soft, thick, lovely, black, long, knitted turtleneck sweater. Glasses.

4: What's on the walls in the room you're in?:
Mostly wardrobes. A hatrack with a chaos of shawls, jackets, gloves and bags on it. A mirror. Shelves with ringbinders and architecture books. (Did I mention I have my "office" in my hallway)

5: What's the view out the window like?:
I have no window here, but if I look through the livingroom I see greyish, foggy weather and a tree trunk with some branches on it. (They just cut off most of the crown of the maple tree beside my balcony.)

6: Who was the last person you shared a bed with?:
Person? I was going to say my stuffed dog... but okay... last was... my friend Josefin (Just SLEEPING, you guys!). Sad but true. This question makes me feel lonely.

7: If you ever give someone flowers, what kind of flowers do you choose?:
Something that suits the receiver. I'm the florist's nightmare (or dream) since I love to compose the bouquet myself, often with strange but lovely combinations.

8: Have you ever worn your pyjamas in public?:
Not that I can recall, and I guess that would mean being naked in public since I sleep nude. I think I would remember if that had happened. Well, if you don't count running outside after 20 min in a sauna or skinny dipping. I've done both.

9: Your three favorite things in your room?:
I only have one room. The rest of the apartment is kitchen, hallway, bathroom. I have to say my two paintings that I've made myself. One of them can be seen here. (update later: oups, I forgot to name a third thing... I think that'll have to be the toy cabinet my mother got when she was four that I had in my room as a kid and that still stands in my room fitting in perfectly and making me feel very much like home.)

10: What color is your shower curtain?:
There is no curtain. I have a Huge shower cabin with sliding doors in glass. The man who lived here before me used to have a bathtub and when they renovated he chose to just put up a glass wall and keep the whole area... I have like 2 square metres to dance around naked in under streaming water.

11: What's behind you?:
Kitchen door, mirror, bathroom door. Nothing exiting at all. Boring question.

12: Have you ever bought anything in an internet auction (like e-bay)?:
Yes. My mother got an antique teapot from a series she loves that I bought online. And I have a broche I bought in the same place. It's silver and shows the family crest of the Medici family in renaissance Florence.

13: What do you order in a café?:
Latte Grande. Or coffee with two sugars and milk. And perhaps a muffin on rare occasions. Anyway, it's not the coffee or the muffin but the company that matters. Even though I sometimes go to sit in a café by myself, but then I usually have the company of a book.

long pants

By the way: You must see this to understand why I suddenly cry out:
"Long pants! Gleaming pants! Glorious pants!"

oh Canada!

So much has happened. So many thoughts have been thought. So many smiles have been smiled and so meny feelings have been felt.

First of all, Mandy's package arrived! We exchanged gifts without having met and this is one of the funniest friendship thingies I've ever done! We're getting to know each other in all the wrong ways (exchanging gifts instead of phone numbers, blogs instead of conversations and have mutual friends instead of each other to begin with) and it's all so... Right! I love this girl already. She wrote many wonderful things about and showed photos of what I sent to her here (click). And this is what I got in return:

First of all: The Shawl!
It's apparently known as The Flower Basket Shawl, but Mandy described it as being "Snowhite in Scary Forest Kind of Beautiful". I like that description. She asked me about colors and I just said "think forest" and she did! Just LOOK at this! I love, love, loooooove it!

And this is how I wear it all the time now:

(No, I haven't tampered with the colors. Having the flash go off less than a metre from my face does that to my eyes. They are that blue. I'm Swedish damnit!)

But that's not all folks! Oh no! The wonderful Mandy does not only know how to use yarn and make it beautiful in all the wonderful shapes and colors of her imagination, but she knows how to sow as well! So there was also this purse included! It's so damn practical she should have a big shiny award for being so inventive!




Did I mention I looooooooooove it? In case I forgot then:
I looooooooooove it!

And did you think the lovely stuff that has come to me from Canada ends there? No. The Wonderful Mandy is married to the Wonderful Zak, and lucky for me (less lucky for Mandy I bet) he's working in Norway for a couple of months. And since Norway, and the little town of Skien where he works, is so much closer to me than Vancouver he took the chance and paid me a visit this past weekend. I had never met him and hardly spoken to him before this, and now I consider him a dear friend. We talked for 18 hours straight Saturday! (Got up at 10am. Went to sleep at 4am) We covered everything from food (He cooked for me! All guests should cook for their hostess!), life, relationships, parents, biology, philosophy and everything else a wise Canadian man visiting and his Swedish hostess could ever discuss. I had a great weekend, and when he left he'd given me so much to think about I felt dizzy most of Sunday and Monday from all I had to process. Thank you Zak. Your gift was as creative, lovely and generous as your wife's.

(Yes, I'm wearing the shawl!)

All of this just because Spencer is who he is. I wish he got how special that is. By being himself and having people loving him he's won me two new lovely friends. Thank you Spencer, for being you.