In San Diego

I'm about to leave for San Diego, and have just checked the weather forecast in order to know what to pack. For my entire week there, day-time temperatures are expected somewhere between 23-27 degrees Celsius. You bet your ass I'm looking forward to that! A beer, in the sun, on the beach.

And checking out some neuroscience research progress.

And perhaps a margarita.

Sunday walk

And a video (mostly of Melvin and girlfriend Wilma)

If...

...I would have had a camera in my cell phone (soon I will thanks to my great hardworking sister!), OR if I would have remembered to bring my camera on the little shopping tour this afternoon - there would have been photos of the following in this blogpost;

1. Roof tiles on Hornbach named "Bender" (unfortunately(?) without any resemblance to the metal character)

2. A million million christmas decorations already filling up the IKEA store in Malmö

3. A super-old ambulance - that nowadays just is somebody's car. Very cool!

Birthday celebrations

It's somebody's birthday tomorrow - so we're all celbrating today. Chocolate cake, mmmmm

Olfactory memory retrieval

Is how one would put it in a very dry scientific way. So let's not do that, because this post won't be dry at all.

Olfaction is anything that has something to do with the sensation of smell. It's a really cool system - and the only of the senses that gets it's input relayed straight into the very cool brain, without having to connect in the thalamus on its way in. This is what often is used as an explanation of why a smell so easily can make us remember the strangest things from far back - as clearly as if they had happened to us yesterday, or perhaps even today.

I clearly remembered every detail of an at least 6 year old memory - through a smell. The memory made me happy, and I was just once again so astonished by the magnificence and weird ways for our brains.

Stimulator; Dolce & Gabbana pour homme eau du toilette

The memory - as clear as crystal; A great love from the past. I could clearly see him before me, when I felt that D&G perfume again. His height, posture, and face. His glasses, that he several times broke during parties. How we commuted together from my old apartment at Guldsmedsgatan in Helsingborg, all the way to Lund. How we would meet up at the bus stop around 6 in the morning. The cold autumn weather, the tiredness, the going-to-school-anxiety, the fun stories and laughs we had on the bus and train. How I more and more came to appreciate him, and finally fall absolutely totally in love with him. His corridor room on Delfinen, the new pretty house - the most expensive rooms there were. How the room looked. The toilet and shower to the right after entering. If you continued straight into the room, the large desk was on the left, and the big window straight ahead. The bed was to the right after entering the room, and in the corner across the room were all his book shelves, and his million books. And that little cute window those rooms had. And the floor lamp in the corner. His shirts. Jeans. Large winter jacket. How he once had lost a bet and the winner shaved his eyebrow off - that took a while to grow out, and how funny he looked. How we studied so hard for KEM002, but both failed the exam. How we swore to anything related to inorganic chemistry! All the new books. The nervosity included with beginning to study at the university. Ekologihuset. The sandwiches they had in the cafeteria. The spring. How much fun we had together. His long and strange - but pretty - name. How I loved him.

Isn't it amazing. That all that came to me without any hard work at all, just due to a smell. A smell I got used to during a year or so - but it all happened several years ago - how can it still be so clear? Isn't it amazing - the brain. And how your memories seem to selectively mainly store all the great bits that has happened to you in the past - how the pain and suffering is more hard to remember. How I bought that perfume in the tax-free shop at Stavanger Airport on my way back to Aberdeen after a week home in Sweden - after meeting him, around month after he had dumped me. The pain. And the comfort I felt from smelling that perfume. And how much I just love that perfume now, eventhough I have plenty of bad memories from it too - but one just seem to remember the good, at least more than the bad.

Oh how I used to love you. And what a nice friend you are now!

ÖNSKELISTA

Om någon vill köpa något till mig i födelsedagspresent (8 januari ni vet!), eller bara för jag är så himla X!
(X=valfritt positivt adjektiv som får dig att vilja ge mig en present).

* Presentkort från affären Esprit, så jag kan köpa den dyra men hemskt fina kavajen jag såg där.

* Thurn and Taxis - ett brädspel man t.ex. kan inhandla på Spel (spelaffären på Clementstorget i Lund)

* En hög tvättlappar (vita) som man kan köpa på t.ex. IKEA, totalt skulle jag nog vilja ha 30-40 stycken - så jag inte behöver tvätta varje dag!

* Tulpaner

* En kram

* Skumpa, eller varför inte Champagne - t.ex. MoëtChandon

* Stieg Larsson - Luftslottet som sprängdes (som pocket, CD-bok eller MP3-bok)

* Presentkort på adlibris.com så jag kan köpa kurslitteratur - det är inte gratis att försöka bli klok!

Power failure

How a lack of something can cause so much. Power. This crazy thing we're so incredibly dependent on. A colleague was trying monitor EEG-waves, when it happened. Everything shut down, went dark and quiet. The wonderful relief. You suddenly realise how loud the background noise from ventilation and electrical appliances are. How lovely it became. And the ambience it creates - people hang out, laugh, talk about what they were doing when the power went off, and what they can't do now.

My EEG-monitoring colleague said - oh well, I'll just go eat my lunch. And a second later "DAMNED IT, I can't heat my lunch - the microwave won't work". Isn't it fun. This power dependence. And that we're SO dependent, so we can't even see it. We don't realise how dependent we are, until it's suddenly gone. And we have no preparations for it - what so ever. We have no flashlights downstairs in the animal house - which would be helpful when getting out through the animal house. There is a changing room strictly divided in two halves. Before you may cross from the one half, to the other, you have to have removed the scrubs and cleaned yourself properly. Then crossing into the next room, you need to find your locker, open it with your key, and put your ordinary clothes back on. This - I tell you - is a real challenge doing in a pitch black environment. I have three tops on today, just to make it more difficult. And I had to put them on several times to get them all on facing the right way, and without being turned inside out. But I made it, and it was fun.

And it made me remember that tv-programme I once saw, about this restaurant where they had blind watiers, waitresses, chefs etc., and it was pitch black in the restaurant - so the customers (generally seeing people) could really appreciate what it's like being blind, and how handicapping it can be when you're in a place that you don't know. A nice product idea - if you ask me.


Me, during the power failure...

How, Who, Why?

Nawwwwh

Naaawh

NAAaaawh

NAAAAAAawh

Puppy school

Autumn

Kalmar - the city of...

...romance...

...comedy...

...insanity...

...hillbillies...


ALL stolen from Andreas' facebook, moHAHAHAAAAA

More cannons

Both Elisabet...

...and Andreas have got some...cannons...too...

Me and my cannons

this last one I stole from Andreas' facebook page, moahahahaaa

Bunny suicides...

...acted out on Kalmar Slott in front of the really cool canons.


Original at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Bunny_Suicides

Cozy in Kalmar

Melvin by the fire place.

And lots of good food and alcohol. And nice people, too.

Kosta

Incognito in the Kosta factory outlet. After having spent all that money on glass, I guess there was a dire need to hide from the secret bank agents chasing her...

Are there no ethical issues to consider when making snaps and wine glasses for children?

All the hillbilly cousins having autumn coffee in the smålandian woods.

A gift-wrapping ribbon can be used for holding back your hair, according to some. I say - holding the head from falling apart...

It was cold, but if you just put the cup with steaming coffee in your hands you felt a bit warmer. Autumn coffee break is da shit.

Lethal Kalmar

First I was almost electrocuted by my in-laws... Or a socket in their house tried to kill me when I wanted to connect my computer to it. Thank god for jordfelsbrytare!

And then, Hugo ate Melvin's head!

SNOOOOOW!!

You are so not going to believe me, so I had to take a few pictures of it - THERE'S SNOW IN KALMAR!!

Melvin wasn't too impressed. It was cold, and he needed to do his "buisness". So he just did it, and then quickly ran back to the door. These photos were the best I could get...




The best, so far!

Dogs playing

Round, round, round...

They always need to be both of them on ONE toy - no matter how many toys they have

The posers

How I got them to pose like this you ask?

You know, it's pure talent that some are just born with. You know, if you are as good as me, or sorry, if you had been as good as me, you would have understood. It's just something you tell the animals, and they just quickly assume a new pretty pose.





Or could it be pure old luck? Along with 50 pictures taken, to end up with 4 acceptable ones...

In Kalmar

Me and pretty boy are cozying up in front of the computer after a train ride to Kalmar. The dogs have been playing a lot already, but I pull them apart regularly, to make sure they don't chase eachother all the time. Right now they have both fallen asleep, after having been forced apart for 20 minutes. That's how long it takes them to relax, after having gotten all excited from playing together. They're so cuuuute!

Justice

Justice has finally caught up with me. In the form of a ring on my doorbell an evening two weeks ago. I wondered who could want me anything at this hour, so I opened. There was a rather pretty man outside my door. He had nice dark brown eyes, and stood pretty long enough to make me quite interested in what he wanted to say. Seeing how I absolutely did not recognize him, and he looked so innocent. And seemed so innocent, because after a little wait, he said "I hope I'm not interrupting or disturbing your evening in any way". I said "no, absolutely not", and smiled. A pretty innocent man deserves a smile.

But he wasn't innocent, not at all. The next second he struck - out of nowhere - and said "so you haven't had time to register your TV at Radiotjänst yet". It wasn't really a question, more like a general fact. I couldn't get another word than "no" out. A word that a non-innocent man deserves! My tv was on in the background, so even if I had had the presence to lie, I really couldn't have gotten away with it anyway. He, still very politely said - "but then we'll fix that now", and he helped me fill out a form. And yesterday it came. The bill for the stupid TV.



It just further confirms my belief, brown-eyed boys can trick me into pretty much anything - paying my TV bill, getting married, etc.

My boy!!

My baby boy is getting old. He is about six or seven in human years now - all that he has covered in 4 months! He has started school, and yesterday he lost two of his front teeth...

...and today, another two are gone!

Lost and found

THANKS A LOT everybody for the great party yesterday. I have just hoovered and mopped the floors, so now the apartment is more or less back to normal. And of course, I've carried all the cans and bottles, and trash to the recycling place. With a little help. I had a super-great time. You ate most of the snacks, I'm proud of you all! But I found another packages of sausages in the fridge today, I was not happy. Who will eat those?! I need to arrange a new party soon perhaps? =)

We received some pretty gifts, and I've found some things that I don't think was actually ment like gifts. Does anything belong to you?

A camera (Ixus 850IS), and a camera case with battery and memory card. The camera contains an unusal amount of crotch-pictures - especiall of Andreas' crotch. Anyone? Who will claim this camera?

And an empty camera case, with the yellow/black/pink logo "pixmania.com". Anyone? Was it a gift for me?


Again, I had so much fun! Now it's time for Melvin's sunday walk. And what a perfect weather!!

Oktåååberfest

Dancing, dancing...

Listen to the tone/pace deaf trashing of the classic Fear of the Dark