back to normal?

No - not really, but things have definitely settled a bit and I'm starting to get used to this new scenario. It's all good. Whew - what crazy weeks these have been. Soooo glad they're over.

I'm going to celebrate by going to the gym and after that hanging by the pool while I review some fun-filled high level design docs.

Later on I'm going to go hang out at my friend Melissa's place and do a little recording... We'll see what will come out of that. Should be fun. My friend Mark might join too with his guitar. Boy am I lucky to have such talented friends.

Hmmm. I guess I should get going if I'm going to have time for all these activities.

Family comes back in 3 days!!! Oh - too bad I'll be in North Carolina at the time. I'll send our driver to pick them up... ;)

turmoil...

yeh.

ate three bowls of cereal for dinner. one at 19:00, one at 21:30 and one at 0:15. i need my house keeper to come back. 1 more week.

thank God for friends. talked to 5 this evening. good advice and support from all. you guys rock.

min familj

In response to Apple David's previous comment, isn't my whole family so cute?? :)

Taken on my mom's 65th birthday a couple of weeks ago.

Becka in Gamla Stan

This just in. Rebecka spent a daddy-daughter day in Stockholm today hunting for a good souvenir. You will never guess what she got... Oh yeh - another stuffed animal. This time a moose wearing a Sweden shirt. I'm scared.

weekends are cool...

It's been a really long time since I did not do any work on a weekend. It's amazing how much stuff one can accomplish!!! I've got to try this more often.

Latest Brentwood news: The new Target opened this weekend - it is quite thrilling. Haven't made it down there yet, but I'm thinking I'll stop by on my way back from being measured for my bride's maid dress. Also need to go eat at the new Panera. I can't believe I haven't been there yet!!!! Craziness.

Ok - it's hot here. Need to get back to the cool air in the home land... One more year.

i've worked 40 hours in 3 days...

and tonight i'm going to sleep.

cleaning up

I finally managed to clean up the kitchen table and other areas of the house that had gotten perpetually more messy ever since I got back from Sweden. I got to talk to my friend for a good while today and he is officially over the worst and scary part and out of ICU. So finally I had the mental energy to get my house back in order. I am so relieved. Thank you all for your prayers! Now I have a big job ahead of me to convince him to ease into the work and preferably not even work for a good while. I don't know anybody in the world who works as hard as he does. He works more hours than I do!!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the beautiful car from one of the previous posts this week: Lotus

Enjoy.

Btw, the world has finally turned right side up again. Isn't it cool??

changes

Lots of things happening. Whew. Good though - opportunities.

And today has been a much better day. I talked to my friend this morning and for the first time since he was hospitalized, he didn't have to pause between words to catch his breath or break out in violent fits of coughing. I promised him that the birthday cake and dinner would be waiting for him when he returned and he promised me that he would come back. Fair enough.

Thanks for the concern and keep praying!

cool car

So in my distress last night, I forgot to mention the highlight of the day which was going for a ride in my friend Ted's new Lotus. It is swell. And small. And cute.

It helped me take my mind off the worries for a good 30 minutes.

Thanks Ted!

pray or something...

I'm back. Well, physically at least. Trip was fine. I'm jet-lagged.

Woke up at 2:30 AM this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. One of my dearest friends in the whole wide world is in a hospital in India with several scary diseases. I can't think of anything else. The worry is nagging and won't go away. He'll be fine is what they tell me. Ok. I'll believe it when I see it. The office is so empty without him. I can't even walk past his office - it's too sad. He'll be 30 tomorrow. I am supposed to make a Swedish birthday cake... That's what my Outlook reminder says. Discard.

If you believe in the healing power of prayer, please help me pray for him. That's what I did as I forced myself to stay in bed until 5:30...

Everything is a daze. Can't focus on anything. Hopefully sleep will take me away from the scary thoughts that keep torturing me. I want to go over there and be there with him - now. But how? I feel so powerless. Have to trust that God will take care of the situation. I think I have a trust issue.

Pray, pray, pray. Thank you.

so much...

...to say, to write, to show. i'm tired now (in a good way). it will come. all i can say is that i don't want to go back on saturday. sweden is fab.

date night

Took the commuter train into Stockholm's Central Station. Walked down some of the main shopping streets before heading down to "Gamla Stan" or "Old Town," the medieval part of the capital. It is really cool - just a tad too touristy. However, we didn't let that stop us and found a nice restaurant on the main square. It met the three criteria of having a bathroom, available seats in the outdoor seating area, and main courses under $30. It was cozy.

Unfortunately, there was something wrong with my food, so now I feel like crap and like I'm going to throw up. Todd says it's all in my head (and he has good grounds for his statement - most of my afflictions are all in my head)... But today I think it's mostly in my stomach. The thing is, I'm one of those people who will go to great lengths not to throw up, so I probably won't. Instead, I'll lie very still on the couch and watch LOTR III. Should help.

PS. Stockholm needs to stop charging for the use of bathrooms. It's such a mean thing to do.

dangerous marriage

Bruise++
Originally uploaded by tabita.

My husband is officially scared of being married to me. In fact, he fears for his life.

Yesterday, as we were heading off to "Skansen," we realized as we stood on the train platform that we (oh - I mean I) had left the coupon that would give us 20 kronor (approximately $2.50) off each ticket. The train was scheduled to leave in 2 minutes. My parents live just across the street from the station, so Todd decided that he would run back home and get it before the train left. As he dashed out of the station to retrieve the tickets, he got caught in the turnstile (the sign says: "Pass through walking" - but in Swedish) and hit his right thigh on one of the "arms," thus resulting in the attached bruise. Of course this was all my fault, because I was the one who forgot the coupon... ;)

This morning, I dragged my favorite Green boys (Todd and his bro David) out for a bike ride on the dirt road. After that ride, I decided that we needed to ride some more, so we went down another road that culminated in a steep gravel hill. I was a bit ahead of the boys (they're kind of slow) and as I was turning around to go back, I saw David throw his bike on the ground and run back toward Todd who was lying on the ground. He motioned me to come and I ran over there. Todd had fallen off the bike in an attempt to get off and walk up the hill (it was steep indeed). He was on the ground, looking like he was about to go unconscious. We both yelled at him (to make him stay with us) and he came around. At that moment I realized how much I really love this guy... I guess you don't truly know until you get scared like this. Anyway, he was bleeding from a few places (face, hand, leg) but eventually managed to sit up and bike home...

Whew! He is quite sore now and wonders what's next in the adventure that is being married to Tabita. Please keep him in your prayers... ;)

skansen

Visited the big outdoor museum in Stockholm called Skansen all day today. In fact, we put in a full workday (normal people's workday) there! We saw real life glass blowing, Swedish animals such as moose, reindeer, and owls, and really old houses. And after a whole day of this, I'm very exhausted and can't write any more about it.

Unfortunately, my camera batteries didn't charge as planned, so I have no pictures from this event. You will have to use your imagination or, wait, I'll steal a picture. Here:

roller coasters and such

After Flumride (Really Wet)
Originally uploaded by tabita.

Went to see my sis Priscilla in Göteborg over the weekend. The highlight of the trip was taking Rebecka to Liseberg, the big amusement park in Sweden. It was a big hit (and extremely exhausting). This picture was taken right after we all rode one of the water rides and got drenched. I think it took about 2 hours for Rebecka to fully dry. Rebecka loves roller coasters and we rode the two big ones three times each. Good thing about Swedish amusement parks is the length of the lines - I think 20 minutes was our longest wait... Rebecka went on 24 rides. We all felt pretty sick toward the end of the day, but it was all worth it!

On another note, today was good. I got to exercise A LOT which makes me very happy. First a bike-run-bike with Todd, then a bike ride with my dad, and finally a bike ride (alone - the others played Americans and took the car) to the beach. Marvelous.

Country Road

Country Road
Originally uploaded by tabita.

Here it is (or at least part of it). I spent a good bit of my bike ride this morning taking pics of the scenery. More on Flickr. David, I'll show you in person after I get back from Göteborg on Monday. Can't wait to see you! :)

Now I will join my family in watching the rest of Sense and Sensibility (once again...). Good times.

Cruise Time

Stockholm Archipelago
Originally uploaded by tabita.

Since we didn't really have a honeymoon after our wedding (one weekend trip to go to the embassy in Stockholm was pretty much it), we decided to go for a little cruise to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.

Destination of choice: Helsinki, Finland. We left on Sunday at 5 PM and spent the evening cruising through the Stockholm archipelago. It is the most amazing nature experience ever (OK - I've never been to the fjords, but I just can't imagine anything more idyllic). Miles and miles of little islands with little red and yellow houses. I want to buy an island - it's on my list of things to do.

Anyway, the ship was lovely. We avoided the fancy restaurants and hung out at Robert's Cafe (which seems to be the equivalent of Starbucks in Scandinavia). Dinner and breakfast. :)

We arrived in Helsinki on Monday morning and found ourselves in the heart of the city. It is a quite compact city, so we walked to everything. We saw several churches and did a lot of browsing of "Stockmanns," which is like the Harrod's of Helsinki. I bought cherries at the market. Yum. We also spent some time just sitting on a bench in the park and chatting. Sitting time is good.

My favorite "meal" of the trip was a visit to the Fazer Cafe for hot chocolate and sweet bread. Fazer is the premier chocolate manufacturer in Finland, so you can imagine the quality of the cocoa. Splendid.

Hotel was nice (for Europe) and in the morning, we partook of a Finnish breakfast buffet which was right down my alley. Lots of ecological bread and berries.

Day two brought us to one more church, which was carved out of a rock. Very cool. It also brought some actual shopping - one of my favorite pastimes (when I have the time). Picked up some gifts and swell jewelry.

Blah, blah, blah... We returned on Wednesday morning and stayed in Stockholm to visit the "Nordiska Museet" where I learned lots about my own country (weird). For example, I learned that in the olden days, Swedes mostly celebrated namesdays and not birthdays, since a lot of people didn't know when they were born. I also had some Indian food - lamb curry with nan. Good stuff. I am trying to condition my body to be able to eat Indian. It's going quite well.

Eventually, we made it back to Järna, the suburb where my parents live, where Rebecka greeted us warmly and immediately asked for her presents, which we bestowed upon her.

Flickr has more pics and words.

Midsommar

Dancing around the Midsummer Pole
Originally uploaded by tabita.

Ok - this is a little after the fact, but I thought I'd devote one post to this old, old Swedish holiday. It has its roots in pagan fertility rituals and celebrates the longest day of the year, which is Sweden is anywhere from 20 to 24 hours. These days, Swedes dress up, make wreaths, eat traditional food such as pickled herring and new potatoes, and dance around the midsummer pole on midsummer's eve.

We spent midsummer by hanging with my brother David and his wife Emily and daughter Ester. We went for a picnic in a park in their hometown, Örebro, where Todd and Rebecka also checked out the Örebro Castle. Later on, we met my parents and one of my aunts with family for the traditional herring dinner. I managed to stomach one of the slimey pieces (not a big fan). After dinner, it was time to dance around the pole. Rebecka and I danced our hearts out for about 35 minutes with loads of other people.

The rest of the evening contained ice cream, "kvällsmat" (evening meal), chineese checkers, and fun in general.

It was an excellent midsommar.