Definitely in Oklahoma!

Well, I am home now, and it turns out that, like my mom's boyfriend, my brother has quite the gun collection. I got to admire them all today. We are going shooting in a couple of days, but I'm not sure I can handle the big one!

Chili and soup

Mom and I went out to shop today and stopped for lunch. I couldn't make up my mind between the chili and the potato soup. So Mom got one and I got the other :). That way I could have a bit of both!

Pink guns

Now I know I have seen everything. We were at Wal-mart and I saw a pink shot gun. Yep. A pink shot gun. I couldn't believe it but Billy told me you could get almost any gun in pink. Now I want one too, with a Hello Kitty sticker on it of course :).

Melinda's Nest

Billy and Lori were laughing at me because I basically built a nest for myself on the very very long drive home to Oklahoma from Minnesota. It was a bit cold in the back so I had a couple layers of jackets and then pillows on top that worked as a desk. Billy laughed cause with all my snacks and drinks around me I really did have a nest built, complete with supplies!

Is Jens jealous yet?

Jens likes Mello Yello. I got to have some now :). You can only get it in Minnesota as far as I know.

Barney the Chihuahua

Barney liked to sleep on the bed with me. Given his size this was not always the most practical solution, but who could say no to that face? :). Of course the first night I was there he slept with his head down towards the foot of the bed, which means that his ass was basically in my face as a result....that I could say no to!

Biggest dog in the world :)

Barney is my Aunt and Uncle's dog. I think he is an English sheep dog. And he is big. Huge. Gigantic. Here he is with my brother. And to give you an idea, my brother is a bit over 6 feet. Yeah. But luckily Barney is very cute and nice and basically thinks he is the same size as a Chihuahua :).

Swedish goodies in Minnesota

Back in the day Minnesota was settled by immigrants from all over Europe, but mostly people from Scandinavia, and especially Sweden. So there was a fair bit of Swedish food there. I still thought it was fun to see all the Swedish food there :). They had pepparkakor and hallongrottor. My dad also found Swedish pancake mix and gave it to me for Christmas. And of course I made all my relatives try everything!

Paul Bunyan

In Bemidji there is a giant statue of Paul Bunyan. Bemidji and Brainard have always fought over who actually "owns" Paul Bunyan. Since my grandparents live in Bemidji I have to go with them :).

Childhood restaurant

While we were in Crookston we got to have lunch at the restaurant that we always ate at when we were kids. It is a pizza place that has a lot of games and stuff that you get tickets from, and you trade the tickets for prizes. We loved it! So it was fun to be able to go back now.

Dad's old comic book stand

My Dad used to buy his comics at a place called Widman's in Crookston, Minnesota. It was and still is a candy store and soda shop that also had comics. Nowadays they make really really really good candy. We always get chocolate covered peanuts and this time I got the chocolate covered cherries. They were orgasmic! And I also bought the candy that they are most famous for: chocolate covered potato chips. It sounds a bit odd, but they are so good! I am bringing them home for all the Swedes to try :).

Being unfaithful in the US

My Grandma and Grandpa have two kitties that live in the work shop. One was kind of anti-social but the other one loved to cuddle :). I even got Grandma to let me bring it into the house a few times!

American Food!

I finally got to have a chili dog!!! It was on the way up to Bemidji. I drove there after four days of traveling and a few hours of driving. But I finally got my chili dog :). More food updates to come!

Metro

And since I was in Copenhagen all day I had my chance to locate a bookstore and deoderant. I didn't pack deoderant cause my mom has bought for me when I get home and I read all my books while I was waiting in line for ten hours. I remembered about Fields, this big shopping center by the airport, sort of, so I went there. Book was easy to find. Reasonably priced deoderant was not (but that's another story). But anyway, I got to take the Metro! I found it exciting mostly because until a couple years ago I had no idea Copenhagen had a metro.

Livin' it up, airport hotel style

Well here I am in Copenhagen. That's as far as I made it on my trip home yesterday. Planes cancelled all over Europe. Including mine. But on Monday I am off again!

Living room lighting

I am sure about this at least. I will have three lamps over the dining table and three lamps over the coffee table. They will be the smallest one of this lamp, the one that is only a bit open flower. All the lamps will connect to the outlet in the middle of the room, but instead of white cords I will have green ones, a little lighter than the walls. So its like the stem from the flower lamp :). And the cords will kind of drape to the lamp hooks, instead of fastening them to the ceiling or hiding them in a tube. I can't wait till I can afford to decorate my place :(

Indecision

I really like the Barcelona chairs and sofas. I was thinking of having the white ones in the living room. The sofas. One three seat and one two seat, in the same places I have my three-two combination now. I am just not sure if I will like them in the long run. No arm rests. But that makes the area there feel more open and airy. White leather definitely easier to clean than fabric I think. Plus I like the look. Oh the decisions to make! What do you guys think?

Living room corner

I will have a yellow swan chair in the corner of the living room. Sort of a fun accent. And a colorful one! I love that you can get copies of design furniture now. Cause I can probably never afford the real things!

Just for fun

This is actually a chair. The smaller ones can be used as foot stools too. I just want one cause they are so cute!

Dining table chairs

These are the chairs for the dining table in the living room. I basically have an ellipse copy so Verner Panton copy chairs should be ok. I think I will go with the white ones even though the colors are rather tempting :)

Table and chairs

These are the table and chairs I want for my kitchen. The only difference will be that the chair cushions will be blue or orange. I haven't decided yet :).

Best birthday present :)

I am under 100 kilos :)  I had as a goal to be under one hundred kilos by New Year's and not only did I make it, I made it on my birthday! And three weeks ahead of schedule! Life is good :)

Pretty shopping cart :)

As an ex-cart pusher, I still notice shopping carts at different stores. The new Coop Forum opened and they have pretty blue shopping carts. Much better than ugly gray metal ones. And here in Sweden we don't leave the carts in the parking lot. That thing on the side is where you put in a ten or five crown coin to take the cart, and you don't get your money back unless you put the cart back where it goes. Novel idea huh?

At least they're not on fire

But they were in danger of falling off. In my usual weekend bliss I forgot to do laundry. But I figured I only wore my jeans to the party, so I wear those. But I have lost so much weight that when I got to work I noticed that my pants were quite loose. They only fit now for three minutes fresh out of the dryer, all shrunk together to a slightly smaller size, then they start to stretch and start sliding down. So Tamas to the rescue! He made me a belt out of electrical wire. And it worked great! Until I had to visit the ladies. But at least I didn't lose my pants at work! 

Two for the price of one

Traditions that is. One is Swedish Julmust. It is hard to describe. It is the same color as Coke and it has bubbles. The similarities stop there. It's not sweet but a bit bitter. Anyway, Swedes love it. I'm not a big fan, but I have a glass or two at Christmas cause you're supposed to :)
Tradition number two is that Swedes hate hate hate taking the last bit of anything at parties, dinners, movie nights or any social event. It's considered rude, I guess, because someone else may want some more too. So at every party I have ever had you find tons of these: almost empty bottles, with not even a swallow left. Chip bowls with 1.26 chips left in them. Candy dishes with one piece left (always a weird one no one wants of course) and the many wine bottles with approximately 3.67 drops in each. I find this very amusing because it is so very obviously symbolic. I mean who wants 1.26 chips or half a swallow of Julmust? That's right. No one. But it is so cute seeing all the Swedes so satisfied that they have at least remembered to not drink or eat the last bit, being polite to any other guests who may come along.
I love Sweden :)

Polis polis!

Potatis gris! Or whatever it is Swedes say when they see a policeman. The traditional Christmas straw pig was made sheriff at the party :).

Christmas in the Old West

This year I had a rather special birthday because I am turning 30! Every year I have my Birthday Slash Christmas Party. Of course. But this year we had a Western theme because it seemed fun to make the big 30 a bit special. Maria had the best costume. She came as a cactus :). Peter also managed a great Wild West look, complete with Jack Daniel :). And all the others had fun hats and shirts and impressive Western wear as well :). More to come on the birthday front!

Kitties in the tree!

This year, since I am going home, I  decided not to have a real tree. I found this rather minimalist tree at IKEA and figured it was a good solution. And the kitties love it! They can be inside the tree and play with the ornaments! It's like magic :)

Matching hats :)

Mommy and Bastet have matching hats! Bastet did not want to wear hers at all, but mommy talked her into it :).

Holy crap!

I have lost 29,4 kilos now. Academically I know that is a big difference. But I don't really feel any smaller most of the time. It is when something really obvious happens that I stop and say, "Holy crap, I've lost weight!" Well that happened today. I bought a jacket a couple months ago. I really loved it, had to have it. It was in with my whole liking vintage clothes thing. There was even 25% discount. But the biggest size they had was large. It didn't quite fit. Not yet anyway, I thought to myself. And I bought it. Today it fit. All buttoned up. Me. Into a size large, 44-46. Me. I was so psyched! And then I put on another coat, my purple one, that I bought back in 2008 when I was skinny. It was too big! Back then I could just wear it barely. And if I breathed too deep the snaps came undone. Not anymore!
What a good day :) From size 56-58 to 44-46. Never thought it would really happen, even after the operation was done. I just expected to be a weird fluke, the only person this surgery didn't work on. But I'm not :)  I'm getting skinnier :)

Destruction!

Only at my job would I come out to several students trying to pry open a door on a wrecked car with a giant crow bar, cursing and having a great time!

Cute snow men :)

Someone waiting for a train in Lund made two cute little snow men while they waited :).

Self renewing moat

At the Christmas market we saw several of these fires. They were there so people could warm their hands etc. But no one could get close enough to do that because the heat melted the snow and ice all around the stand, creating a moat :).

Julmarknad in Fredriksdal

Last Sunday, Jens and I visited his parents in Helsingborg. We went to a Christmas market in a historical park, village, museum called Fredriksdal. The snow made for the perfect Christmas feeling :)

I'm late, I'm late...

...for a very important date! Outside the train station in Helsingborg I saw these perfect little bird tracks. And because they were in the middle of all the people tracks I got a funny image of birds hopping to catch the train in time :).

Strange country, this

See, in the US we lock up guns, knives, toxic chemicals and the occasional bottle of super expensive whiskey. In Sweden they lock up the...wait for it....you'll never guess.....olive oil!!! That's right. Olive oil. In a glass case, under lock and key. So glad I'm not a food snob. Then I might understand and not be able to have a giggle :).

Yucky

No offense to my friend who works at the fish counter of course, but I find it disturbing that most of the things behind the glass were staring at me. Blek! I was asking some questions for roommate about seafood. Otherwise, unless I'm saying hi to the aforementioned friend (hello!), I tend to avoid the fish counter. And yes, for the record, I'm the kind of meat eater that is perfectly content to pretend ground beef just magically comes from the grocery store. If there were iced cow eyes staring at me though, I couldn't eat beef either. But thank goodness, no cow eyes. Safe.

Now we're talkin'

I've decided to start playing the clarinet again. I already asked mom if she could check out the cost of getting it playable again. So I was looking around on the internet to get ideas of cost and I found a pink clarinet! I so want one now! Pink! And I bet I could put a Hello Kitty sticker on there somewhere...

Next year's Christmas Tree :)

www.kittyhell.com

Melinda's Dream Palace

Pictures from www.cuteoverload.com. The best website ever!