Swedish men's curling team.

http://skipcottagecurling.blogspot.com/2009/12/salute-to-sweden.html

Niklas Edin - skip.  Age 24.  Ridiculously hot.

Watching the men's curling tonight reminded me of all the reasons I loved Sweden so much.  My God, the men were incredible looking and all appealed to my inner Swede. 

Not sure if I'm going to Sweden this summer after all -- auntie N and cousin T seem to be out for reasons unknown.  Now thinking a trip with Angela to Ireland may be on the front burner.  Wonder if Irish men will have the same effect on me?  My other ancestry is Irish/English, so time will tell ...

I miss Sweden

This was the view out our hotel window each day. In the distance on the left you can see a couple of steeples -- these were part of the Royal Palace and the church next door to it. Also, please note the bike/pedestrian lanes on the roads are equally as wide as a traffic lane. Ah, Sweden.

More pictures later ...

Depression

So I've been trying to dig myself out of the hole at work (love vacation, hate coming back from it), attempting to re-regulate my body clock (-6 hours) and have somewhat unpacked.

I miss Sweden.

Clean, friendly, bike-lane/pedestrian friendly, no/low murder rate Sweden.

This week has been hard at work. A coworker was killed in a freak accident Saturday night. He was a great guy and always had a smile for me. 50 years old, two kids going to/in college and just trying to make his way in the world.

Then on Tuesday, a former student (whom I had met) was shot to death by her ex-husband in front of her 13 year old daughter and then the ex- kills himself in front of the daughter too. Oh yeah, and before that, the ex- had killed the former student's boyfriend. A hell of a way to start a Tuesday morning I tell you.

I want more than just a slogan ('Peace in the Streets' my ass) from my elected officials. I want the Mayor to show a little leadership in the police department he wanted control of so terribly. I want a clean and friendly city. I want bike lanes.

Most of all I want to stop reading of the latest murder each day on the front page of my newspaper. I want my fellow citizens to live in a safe city.

I know, I'm an optimist, I think we can achieve these things.

But probably not under this administration. Get out from under your desk, Mayor Ballard. Time to show up and do some heavy lifting. You wanted this job. Time to step up and do it.
This is no longer the campaign season where you can promise lollypops and carmel apples to all the people and they buy into it. You actually have to *do* something.

Welcome to your job, Mayor Ballard. You wanted it. Now go to it -- please.

And she's outta here ...

I'm finally packed, nearly have all my tasks done and I have four hours before Sister arrives here with Boy Wonder to pick Mom and I up for the trip to the airport.

I'll be in Sweden from basically tomorrow, early morning Indy-time, through next Saturday the 19th. I'm not taking the laptop but I may have access to a computer. If so, you'll get blog updates. If not, I'm sure I'll be keeping a journal of all the madness that goes with travel, travel with family and international travel with family.

We'll be staying at the Sheraton in Stockholm as our home-base for the week. We'll be taking two different guided tours and then pretty much on our own the rest of the week. There are many things to see (obviously) and many SD cards to fill with pictures.

I've packed rather lightly and thus have quite a bit of room in the luggage for goodies. I'm hoping to buy some crystal while I'm there -- apparently there are some pretty spectacular crystal artists there. Of course, I won't haul that back via the airlines. I think UPS or some such will be doing the honors there.

Hope you all have a fabulous week and I'll see you when I return.

41 hours until I get on a plane

Okay, so the freak out fairy will shortly be visiting my world.

Why?

Although I leave for Sweden in something like 41 hours, I've yet to think about what I'm packing, figure out what suitcase I am packing and haven't updated my prescriptions yet. Yes, yes, Athena is well behind the 8 ball at this time.

Tomorrow is work (okay, so just basically cleaning my desk and getting stuff out the door), then dinner with D9, then hair appt. with Evolution, then Mom is in town, then I need to pack. I'm sure I'll pack and repack at least 1/2 dozen times before we actually leave anyway, as I am apt to rethink the wardrobe, shoes, underwear, you name it at least 10 times before I actually commit to any one thing. Angela, is this what it is like to have ADD? I already have some low-level OCD which is showing up in every possible way BUT packing right now.

I am thinking a hearty Bombay Sapphire and Tonic while packing will ease any concerns I may have.

The good news is, though, we don't actually leave for Atlanta (then nonstop to Stockholm) until Friday afternoon. This leaves me with some time for general piddly-farting around on Friday morning. God knows I'll probably need every damn minute.

You should see posts on here from Sweden if I can get access to a computer. I imagine I will be able to do that ... if not, you'll get sufficiently overwhelmed when I return.

From the 'let's hope this doesn't happen to me' dept.

courtesy of Yahoo news:

Drunken Swede tries to row home from Denmark

Mon Jun 30, 1:02 PM ET

A drunken 78-year-old Swede stole a dinghy after a night out in the Danish town of Helsingor and tried to row back to Sweden, but fell asleep halfway, Danish police said on Monday.
When the man discovered he lacked the necessary funds to pay for the ferry from Helsingor to Helsingborg in Sweden on Saturday, he decided to row the five km (three miles) across the strait of Oresund that separates the two.

He quickly grew tired and, trusting fortune and the currents to see him safely home, took a snooze at the bottom of the boat, where Danish police later found him out at sea, still asleep.
The strait is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Police said the owner of the dinghy had decided not to press charges.

(Reporting by Kim McLaughlin)

Mean Girls head to Vegas, I am here.

So the Mean Girls are now on a plane somewhere over the middle of the country, probably already forcing the flight attendants/pilots to stop midway to reup the alcohol supply on the plane. Gurls, I want full reports from all of you. Blanche, you are excused as you will likely never update your blog again, as 'nothing of interest' has caught your attention in 3 months+.

I'm here, thinking that in one week, two days, I'll be on a plane to Atlanta first, then nonstop to Stockholm from there. It has finally started to sink in that my passport acquisition of 2006 will not be for naught. Mom has started to get excited and I think Sister and I are just marking off all the crap we need to get done before leaving. BTW, it is a lot of crap. *sigh*

Went to a splash park in Carmel last night with D9 and his son, Nicholas. Nicholas is two and very vocal about his world -- he can identify letters and loves to make commentary about his surroundings. Last night at the splash park he announced: "I like wet" which was good, considering our location :) Then D9 asked him in the car if he was chilly and he said no. Then D9 asked him if he was moist. Nicholas responded with "I'm just Nick." The D9 asked if he was damp. Nicholas said again, more firmly this time, "I'm just Nick, Daddy." We were howling. Nothing like a two year old's indignation that points out you are obviously a complete idiot. Good times.

Today is a day without meetings at work. I am delighted beyond words.

The Motherland!

Yes, dear readers, Athena is OFFICIALLY going to Sweden with Sister and Mom. :) Sister, benevolent heart and spirit, used mega Delta miles and booked my Mom and my ticket, while paying for hers. We leave on July 11 and return the 19th. I hope that I get to bring home 'Sven' in my luggage 'cause God Knows Athena Deserves A Masseuse Named Sven (among his many talents).

This is the big trip we have talked about for years ... five to be precise. We wanted to go originally when Mom turned 50 and I was turning 30 but all kinds of nonsense came up at that point ... such as I had just gotten married (pshaw) and Mom was getting married. For some dumb reason we decided getting married was important. Silly me, I shall put that in the *dumbass moves* pile for now.

I am so psyched!!!!

So now it is the time I pile onto the Mean Girls Biggest Loser challenge with both barrels and kick some serious ass.

**********************
In other news, went out to a movie tonight with IrishBoy -- went to see '21.' Very entertaining, of course I think I'd watch Kevin Spacey brush his teeth but whatever. Not Oscar material but a fun little film. Expect no more from that and you'll enjoy it.

We had a nice time, I imagine we'll go out again, perhaps this weekend. So far I have a tentative date with *another* guy, whom we shall call PurdueBoy. Nothing to speak of so far of him, as time will tell I'll report back.

**********************

I hit the gym tonight (20 min on treadmill [hills] and 15 minutes on the bike [hills]) -- my legs are sore as hell. I 'tanned' again tonight. More like an exercise in futility but whatever. I ate like shit today ... why is it that as soon as you hit the gym again, your appetite goes skyward? I am serious, can't I have one good week of "oh, no, I'm fine" rather than "if you don't move fast enough I will bite your arm off and saute it in olive oil for lunch." Must control urges to eat damn near everything in sight. What I want, however, right now, is a Reeses blizzard. Am Not Going Out For It. Am Not. Must Control Self. Must Not Think Of Blizzard. Must Focus On Sleep. Yes, Sleep. Sleep Is A Good Thing. I Sleep Better During The Winter. Ah, Blizzards. No, Sleep!!!

'tis a losing battle but I am not going out again tonight. Am already yawning.

g'night.