Insomnia

It happens at times that it is just impossible to sleep. Especially stressful times. As published in my last post my next month will be a rather busy one, but I then hoped it would be mainly happy. Tonight it was just mainly stressful. My body refused to relax, my heart kept on beating quickly, and my worries were directed towards three main things: the mystery of nervecells and inflammation in the brain, the process/hulabaloo/project of packing all my stuff, what stuff to move to my parents' and what to move to my new apartment, in what I should pack my stuff etc, or finally how the New Years' Eve party will be tonight, how I will manage it. Nothing that I could solve from where I was - in bed in a dark room.

When I was still awake at 2.30 am (after having tried to sleep for at least 2.5 hours), I got up, practised my presentation I will give on the 9th and wrote down some more questions I should be prepared to answer then. After having been up another hour or so, I went back to bed, and apparently fell asleep. I woke up, clearly awake at 7.30 again. This is no time to wake up when you didn't fall asleep until after 3.30 am! I managed to go back to sleep again, and didn't get up until just before lunch time.

I hate stress. I hate stressing about things. I hate when positive encouraging stress turns into bad negative stress. Like when me and boyfriend were at IKEA yesterday. We found a shelf we wanted, planned which size and what baskets to have in it, I got all excited (I love re-decorating!), and then suddenly, after having been all happy and excited for 10 minutes or so, it just made me all tired and empty and stressed - when should we buy the shelf, when will we have time to paint it, how will we transport it, when can I put my stuff in it, what stuff should I have in it etc. It is just so magnificently silly, why bother about that stuff even, it'll sort out! Not by itself, but I will sort it out when time comes. There is nothing I can do about it at 2 am at least. Or rather, there are more important things to do at 2am - sleep, and getting ready for the next day.

So I finally got some sleep. And now most of the things feel much better. Apart from the most acute one - the party. But they say it'll sort out, so let's hope so.

Time to...

...leave my cat and my parents, and go celebrate the new year in Kalmar with sweet boyfriend. I will apparently also celebrate a late christmas with his parents. They are stubborn, wanting to give me christmas gifts eventhough I think they just shouldn't. And I get to meet their lovely dog Hugo again. Apparently he pees everytime someone comes to their house, because he gets so happy. Good guard dog!

Next month will be busy, but happy i hope. I will pack up all the contents of my apartment, and move in with the best boyfriend ever (and unpack it all there). It is my birhtday on the 8th, but I haven't decided if/how to celebrate it yet. But probably some coffee with my parents at least. I will do my half-time control-seminar, presenting what I have done sofar at the lab, and defending it before an audience and two opponents. I will have to work quite a bit. And I will have to pack my suitcase, and travel to Australia and Singapore on the 29th of January. It will be so cool and warm and nice. And will reduce my blogging frequency to a minimum during a 4-week period. But afterwards, I will blog it all!

But that's next month, even next year. Now it is time to collect the sheit I have spread all over my parents' house. And pet Cute Cat to a maximum, so I can survive without him until the 2nd! How on earth will I manage being away from him for a whole month when in Australia? Putting an entire earth sphere in between the two of us. I will have to bring my laminated Cute Cat-cards, and plenty of them!

Check out the posture of the coolest attack cats ever, he lookes somewhat maaaad! Obidobi has no chance going up against him.

Christmas Eve celebrations

American visitors (throwing chocolate on the floor). Too much food, as usual. A mix of schnaps (Bornholmer), red wine, glögg, whiskey (Bowmore), and beers. The bubbles are not opened yet, but I expect it to be soon.

This years winner, i.e. the one with most gifts was grandma!

Compulsory Donald Duck-watching at 3pm. A tradition difficult to motivate. And what do you say to "why do you see the exactly same episodes every year?"

Some didn't quite last the entire evening, and took a nap. We were quick putting a piece of chocolate paper in his mouth. That's the christmas spirit.

Also Cute Cat needed a nap.

Cat shelf 1.1

The very new cat shelf has been upgraded. It has been moved out further from the wall, so there's space between the wall and the shelf, which means the cats can put their paws in between while playing. The shelf has also been fited with two holes, which Cute Cat is enjoying to its fullest.

Dagens citat 23/12

"Jag kände på skinkan, den var riktigt hård och fin" - thorben 16:03

Ölåbröe - Danish beer'n'bread

I have just been to a surprisingly fun Christmas dinner at the mansion of our Danish heritage. It was traditional Danish food on the menu - Beer'n'bread (Öl'å'bröe). It is easy to pronounce, you just take an average sized potatoe, shove it in your mouth, and then say something, anything, with three syllables. Works brilliant. That was how the danish language was invented by the way - by a potatoe-loving swedish guy, later sent abroad (to what these days is now known as Denmark) due to his non-existing table manners*.


The main ingredients of the dish are just what you'd expect from the name: beer and bread. It is hvidöl (apparently translated into "small-beer" in english, "svagdricka" in swedish), and dark bread. It looked like something you might expect to find in that bend under your sink, that is a brownish mud with lumps. On top you put some whipped cream, and then just served with some regular beer to drink.

It was miles more tasteful than what it sounds like. You might argue that what I just said means nothing, since a comparison taste-wise with sewer-filth. But who cares what you say. It actually was quite tasteful. And the whole event was hilariously fun.

My dad, and mum (to the left), my dad's sister, and danish father in Beer'n'bread action!

*this is what in source-critic context often is referred to as pure bollocks.

Ham preparations

The day before the dipping day, i.e. the day before Christmas Eve. 23rd of December, also referred to as "small" Christmas Eve. All's weird, traditions of dipping stuff, especially since no-one (at least south of Haparanda), is dipping anything for Christmas anymore - but we still call it "dipping day", and referring to the 23rd as "small" Christmas Eve, what's that about? Ah well, traditions are supposed to be funny and strange. For swedish speakers/understanders, check out the new show Världens modernaste land on svt.se, the second episode there is lots about traditions, very funny.

Back to traditions. So today, 23rd, little Christmas Eve, it is time to prepare the ham. My mum, not a huge fan of meat, was disguisted while handling it, saying "yuck" a lot whilst peeling off the fat. Cute Cat, on the other hand, is a huge fan of the ham tradition!

Soon we'll go visit my often denied heritage, that is my Danish grandfather. We are supposed to eat some weird danish food, be sure to be updated on that afterwards. Time to prepare the chick peas now, and the chocolate chip cookies! I think Cute Cat will leave me alone now, he prefers the ham over chick peas any day. I don't.

Polkagrisar

A weird word, for anyone non-Swedish-speaking. But for swedes like myself, a very delicious word. It is a type of candy, commonly made in the city of Gränna in Sweden. They are hard small bits of candy, or long sticks of candy. Extremely sugar-y, and therefore brilliant, white candy with peppermint flavour and red stripes.

We gave it a serious shot today, making those little buggers. It said in the book that they were difficult to make. We were like - "for whimps and pussys maybe!". Until...

The first batch tasted delicious, just like polkagrisar should. But looked like this...

Not really like they should. So we thought - "it was our first time, now we know what we need to improve and do better and quicker". The critical thing is when the sugar suddenly goes rock solid - then you should already be finished rolling and cutting them. This we were not the first time, but the second time, we did it perfect!

So we got very cocky, like -"well how difficult was this, höhöhö, now we can just improve them a little bit, so they get more white, but that's a piece of cake". The third batch, however, looked like this...

Do note my weird face. And if you can't see it, the polka-dough just got all strange and went rock hard and we couldn't shape it into candies. Also, do note the fashionate gloves we wear. We found a recipe on the internet (while running into problems in the process of making the candy), where it said "use rubber gloves". Which was a great tip, since 150 degrees C warm sugar, is pretty warm. But we hadn't any. Oh, well dad offered us one pair which he had used to clean the sewer or something, we refrained. So instead we fasioned something based on our own winter gloves, 5L-plastic bags, and lots of sticky-tape.

We were stubborn, and went for the fourth, final batch, completely green. It turned out really good, tasty, but nowhere near polkagris-looking. But who cares! It was fun. And only a bit annoying. And I only got one small blister.

Oh Christmas tree

After enough puppy-dog eyes and hugging and begging, my mum finally agreed to go with me to the local store to pick up what was to become our magnificent christmas tree. The cats were both very enthusiastic, at least after being a bit scared for a few seconds first. They were taking turns sitting on my neck while I was decorating.

When I finally managed to get them to understand that I preferred it if they would just sod off and stop scratching my neck, they went on to bite each other (some with possessed eyes) on the shelf.

Scientific graph

My friend Peter gave me this brilliant graph, which I choose to dedicate my 200th post to. Enjoy!

Clowning 199

How better to celebrate the 199th SisterSweden blogpost, than inviting over you very own clown. That's what I did. Or well, what I was. When you're randomly going through your boyfriend's stuff, and come across a red clown-nose, how can one avoid putting it on (and documenting, and blogging it). Christmas red and all. Happy 199th!

Christmas decoration

My mum has made me a lovely Christmas pot, with tulips, spruce, a miniature snowman (plastic of course, due to 10 degrees over freezing point here), and a cute glass cup dipped in sugar with star decorations on. I lit the candle this afternoon, to welcome home my lovely boyfriend, and soon it will welcome Frau Poff as well! Thanks a million sweet mum!

Födelsedagskaninen, ta med dig...

(Uppdaterad lista, för jag har redan fått de två första sakerna på min födelsedagslista, inte dåligt mtp att det i skrivande stund är över en vecka kvar till min födelsedag). Men misströsta inte, jag önskar mig fortfarande andra saker!

1. Gör mig snygg(are) genom smink/presentkort från MakeUpStore
* Glitter-eyeliner Neon
* Concealer: EasyCover Blue (den är inte blå alltså...)
* Pensel att applicera concealer med
* Superstor puderpensel
* Blush: "Power"
(och tänk, för bara en vecka sedan visste jag inte att det ens fanns så här många produkter, och ännu mindre vad de hette! Inte ens behovet fanns...)

2. Pengar så jag kan ta mig igenom/hem från min Australien resa =)

3. Spinning-byxor (helst till under knät, men korta är också ok): sådana med vaddering i rumpan

4. Aerobic-skor som studsar bra strl 39-40

5. Platt-tång till håret med keramiska värmedelar

6. Säsong 2-5 av "24", eller säsong 3-4 av "Futurama" (alt presentkort på discshop.se)

7. Små korgar med lock - en lagom liten för mina hårband och små klämmor, en lite längre som kan innehålla nagelfil och nagellack, och kanske någon liten korg till. Gärna sådana med tyg inuti, men inte nödvändigt!

8. Påslakanset BRUNSKÄRA (IKEA) röd med prickar - 2 st

Parents with anger, but also love!

No, she shouts in a lovingly way, you can't scratch there, you can only scratch one of the cloves on the lottery ticket (Triss) each round. What are you doing, give it to me, NO you can't scratch there, you have scratched enough now! Let me have it!

Why I pull your hair you ask? I think you should have it all short back here.

Publishers comment.
Do try to notice, as much as it is possible in this rather poor quality picture, what a pretty make up my mum has on today. We went to MakeUpStore to learn how to put on make up, three sequential individual hours (me, my mum and sister). And what brilliant results!

Brothers with anger, and some love

"Come on, your mama was a hairy bitch!"

"I bite your throat!"

"Ok, bro' I give up, I realise you weigh one kilo more than petit moi, and you are so much cooler"

"Kiss it out?" "You're the best brother ever!"

Man, I hate when people make up stuff their babies or animals say! So annoying.

Strange wording

A headline in the newspaper was shouting out to me "A new shooting star in the Union". There was a woman on a huge picture, standing on a small patch of grass, semi-surrounded by water, wearing a christmas-y red coat. So the picture looked very positive, they were reporting something positive (how good this new Union-woman was), and the headline sounded very positive too. At least initially.

It kept on bugging me "shooting star", is that really a positive description of someone? For me, of course, a shooting star is something very pretty, but extremely short-lived, falling down from the skies. I can understand if you say "she is beautiful like a shooting star", but if she is just a shooting star, I feel she has up until now been extremely high-held (in the skies), a good person, and now she is just falling. That is the only analogy I can think of, something negative, when you describe someone as a shooting star. Initially it can sound like something shooting out of a canon, going high up, becoming very good and high-held, but I must say, a shooting star is nothing like that. It is the very contrary. I wish journalists were more careful with their analogies, not only using what sounds pretty, but what actually is positive, when this is what they want to describe.

Or otherwise, I wish wordings just didn't stick in my head, bugging me, but just letting me accept that people use "shooting star" to describe a positive event. Eventhough it is an event of falling down from the skies, burning, crashing, ceasing to exist. But whatever.

Computer issues

It is not the first time, and most likely not the last. My computer is stupid, and treating me badly, so I have dumped it at my boyfriend's place to be re-formatted, and to get it out of my sight. So I will unfortunately probably be less active blogger, unless I blog more from the lab - like now, for instance.

My day has so far been; moving rats from one room to another, checking out some new cool brown rats with pretty black eyes (they are usually just white with red eyes), and locking myself into the rodent food room. Extremely productive.

Now I am off to town, to pick up some last few things; a gift to my sister from my mum, a gift for my grandmother, perhaps something small for my adorable boyfriend, and something weird for the Dirty Santa-game we'll play on the office Christmas party next thursday. I saw a very funny british tv-programme about christmas and traditions, interviewing a bunch of bitter british actors. It was lots of fun, and I finish off with a quote from one of the actors interviewed:

"The office christmas party is the chance to in one night ruin what you've built up during a whole year"

Home-made ginger debris

It started off beautiful. Or at least acceptable. It is my opinion that a ginger bread house, should clearly state "I am home made", and not be too fancy - no stupid perpendicular or parallell stuff, at all. It had an excellent roof, several windows, a door, and was rather large. I went out to buy the newspaper, no wait that's Santa, I went out to buy powdered sugar and Smarties in happy colours to make decorations on the roof.

When I got back, the roof was missing. I instantaneously (thanks Katie for the word of the day) felt myself blaming Cute Cat for the event that had occured. I tried saving the situation by piling up the roof pieces on top of the house, to make a kind of cool shed-looking house instead. I was quite pleased, and went to cook supper.

When I got back, again the house was missing. And Cute Cat had been sleeping the entire time. I also noticed how soft and weak the ginger bread pieces were, and it seem they hadn't been baked long enough, and had little by little gone all soft, and thence caused the cave-in in my ginger bread mansion.

I again piled up what was left, and was served several brilliant ideas how to support the construction with thick paper and glue, or sticks to hold up the celing, or just buing a plastic airplane to put on top - making my own ginger bread WTC. I was intrigued, although slightly skeptical - how much time and effort was I really prepared to spend on this construction. I thought the issue through over one of the Smarties bags I had bought - If half of the roof is gone, you only need half of the Smarties to decorate it, right?

I was continued skeptical, and decided to wait for an answer to come to me. This morning the issue solved itself. Now, also the front wall, holding the door and windows, had let go - rendering the place more and more inhabitable (for my ginger bread people). It more and more looked like some ruins of something that once might have been something great, or not. It is hard to tell from a ruin of this kind. I am kind of thinking either cover it in ashes, making my own Pompeji, or covering it in garbage, and storing it in my trash.

However crappy it looks, it gives a nice ginger bread scent to the entire room, still bringing some Christmas spirit to the place. So it will stay another little while, before permanently being stored in the trash can out back.

I have already opened the last bag of Smarties - to celebrate.

Ginger bread

I will make a ginger bread house tomorrow, so I fixed up the dough yesterday. Ginger breads are among the healthier Christmas treats out there.

First you take 1 part sugar and 1 part syrup (1 part = 3 hg).

Carbohydrates you ask? Well, I'd say that mix contains low to moderate levels.

Then you just add one part butter.

Fats you say? No, well some I guess.

But then you add all the lovely spices and forget all about carbs and fat - ginger (obviously), clove, and cinnamon. And some flour on top of that, 2.5 parts, and there you have it. Just let it sit over night in the fridge, and the next day you can make it into ginger bread snaps, ginger bread nuts, or like me - a house!

Dagens i-lands-flopp

Jag var sugen på pyttipanna, eller biksemad som danskarna säger (gulligt ord!). Jag stekte upp lite, och tre ägg som tillbehör. Utöver detta, grädden på moset liksom, skulle jag haft några av mina nyinköpta rödbetor. Skulle haft.

Rödbetsburken var störtomöjlig att öppna. Så jag fick äta min torra pyttipanna och stekta ägg, utan underbara rödbetor. Totalflopp.

Christmas treats

The first round of Christmas candy has been made. They are delicious dark chocloate truffles, with roasted chopped pumpkin seeds, and coffee - rolled in chocolate powder. I have ordered my boyfriend to pick me up more chocolate on his way over here later tonight (8 bars) so I can make another few batches of truffles (with e.g. orange). I have been thinking about making some saffron flavoured, I wonder how that would turn out. It is chocolate, so it is hard to ruin. Chocolate is goooooood, and saffron is goooood, so perhaps it would work out. I guess I'll find out.

I have also looked up more recipes for Christmas food I'll make. I'll make two kinds of snacks; pumpkin seeds roasted in chili-oil and salt, and chick peas roasted with wasabi. I will also make chick pea bulgur with dried tomatoes and basil, and some hummus. Also, I am in charge of meatball making - untraditionally with red onions, olives and feta cheese.

There'll be so much food - I really hope the three American's will join the celebrations, those people are famous for eating lots, right?

In his likeness

I got a great tip from my sweet sister yesterday, about a comic strip called 'In his likeness'. I got hooked instantly, and vengeful as I am, I want to get the rest of you hooked as well.

The strip is mainly about god (the black circle below), but also features the devil, the holy ghost, and apparently Poseidon too. It's totally worth checking out, by clicking here.

Go on, get hooked now!

Lead cat

I bought Cute Cat a new harness yesterday. It is so crazy dark these days, often pitch black before I come home from work. Then I don't want to take out my very dark cat, in a very dark harness, walking him in my dark neighbourhood. I want people to see him - both because he's cute, but especially so they don't drive/bike over him or step on him.

The harness is made of a quite strong reflector material, giving of a crazy white glow whenever there is something to reflect. I can't see how people won't notice him now!

He kind of looks like one of those lead dogs you see leading people with impaired vision. Althogh, one should not mix him up for one of those dogs, I don't think a blind person wants to be led off to most of the places where he walks. I.e. randomly crossing the street no matter if there are cars or bikes coming, climbing up trees, running aggressively towards neighbourhood cats, or running wildly the opposite way from the neighbourhood dogs.

I will try it out tonight. Or what's the point of waiting until night, it'll be winter dark before 4.30pm.

Cat fight

Can you believe the two are litter mates, born on the same day almost two years ago now. Cute Cat (the right spotted cat, obviously) weighs a kilo more than brother Oban. And kicks his ass in every fight! More or less.

Kickling sweather

Look how cute I am in the new sweather that I bought from my friend. The little guy is called "Kikling", translated to something like "chycken" in english =).

Check out her blog at; http://cmig.blogg.se/