Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Wednesday

I had planned on spending a few hours at the pool today, but it looks like it is really gray outside, no sun at all. It is very hot still, of course, so technically we could go. I just don't like swimming with no sun...

I think today will be mostly packing and getting ready for tomorrow. We will leave around 8 AM, drop the dogs off at the kennel, then straight to the airport.

Since I am going to load the pictures from my camera off on the laptop every day, I might very well blog a little each day, that way I got everything we did fresh in my head too. We will see if there is any energy left at the end of each day!

I was up early working and forgot to eat breakfast today (plus there is no bread, since I didn't want to go grocery shopping when we are leaving and all), so I think Sarah and I will just go by Hungry Howie's for an early pizza lunch today...

Yesterday Sarah and her friends managed to turn her room and the living room up side down, but at least they had fun playing! I just really want to leave with a clean house, so that is on the agenda today, for sure...

See you in DC!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Vet visit

Bob ans Stan are 10 year sold now - that would be nearly 80 in human years.

They are starting to get a little gray and a few "old age" problems, but nothing that has been too much. Stan has a cataract on one eye since 2006, so he can only see with one eye. But he does really good anyway after some adjustment. He is a very active dog in great physical shape.

Bob has always been a little sickly, he had kennel cough when we got him and almost died. He still suffers from chronic bronchitis, but nothing that gets in way of him enjoying life. When he was younger his knee (patella) used to pop out, but this was something we could easily fix, and in 10 minutes he was back to normal.

Now it seems he has developed osteo-arthritis of the knee, and we have done what we can, but he won't use his leg much. Today we talked to the vet, and while the dogs are being boarded during our vacation Bob is scheduled to have his teeth clean, so they are also going to take an x-ray and some blood while he is out from the meds anyway.

The x-ray and blood work should determine if Bob is a candidate for knee surgery. If he is, there is a great chance his knee can get back to normal again, so we hope he is! We really want him tom be able to really enjoy his last years (he should have about 5-6 more years left since the average min pin gets to about 16 years old).

Both Bob and Stan are family members and have given us so much, so of course we want to return the favor if we can. I guess we will find out after the trip if he can have the surgery or not. Today they gave him a steroid shot that should provide him some relief for a month or so.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Monday

We had a nice, slow weekend. Yesterday we went down to Venice Beach, but unfortunately the algae Coccolithophores was in bloom, which turns the water into a milky/turquoise soup with 0 visibility, so no snorkeling. But it was lovely and warm, so we had a few relaxing hours in the surf and on the sand. At least we found 9 fossilized shark teeth, really good once too!

Our beach day was wrapped up with a tropical lunch at Sharky's, of course.

I have quite a lot of work to do, but I think I will take today off to clean and do laundry. I need to go trough all the clothes to see what we are bringing to DC on Thursday.

Now our 5-day stay in the Smoky Mountains is all set. If you remember last Thanksgiving, we stayed in the south end of the same mountain ridge, known as the Blue Ridge mountains.

This time we will stay in Gatlinburg, on the Tennessee side. I found us a cabin with an awesome view. Our visit should coincide with the height of the fall foliage show!

The cabin is also equipped to the nines with cozy fireplaces, great decks with wonderful views, outdoor hot tub, indoor jacuzzi, sauna and our own, indoor pool (!).

Add to that a home theater system with lots of DVDs, bot a Playstation 2 and an Xbox 360, plus a game room with a pool table, air hockey and other things, there might be a risk we don't want to leave!

We are making a list of things we want to do, but so far we decided to go horseback riding in the mountains and go on a zip line through the tree tops. And lots of hiking, of course!

But for now, our focus is our imminent vacation in the DC. We have planned it our pretty well, and have tickets at the ready for most the things we want to do (that you can get tickets to).

We have even squeezed in a guided ghost tour one night! Should be a great trip...

Have a wonderful day, all!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Happy Midsummer Eve all Swedes!

Today I am going to be super swamped with work. The projects just kept coming in last night, and almost all are due today (or actually Monday, but I don't want to work over the weekend...)

Sarah will be off camp for two weeks due to our vacation, so with the weekend she is getting 5 days off here at home. Hopefully we can squeeze in a visit or two to the beach and pool!

Today is Sweden's second largest Holiday, after Christmas, Midsummer Eve. The last time I celebrated Midsummer was in 1998 when I was in Sweden for a visit. To me, Midsummer is all about the Scandinavian light, the typical foods, the atmosphere. So there is no point celebrating it here. Hopefully we can be in Sweden over Midsummer one summer, so Sarah and Ken get to experience it, but usually we tend to go in July, so who knows?

This morning when Sarah was having her breakfast she lost another tooth! Now she has lost 4, and she has 2 more that are loose. She looks like a toothless little old lady with that grin of hers.

Here she is from this morning:



Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Another vacation...

Southwest Airlines is having a 2 day super sale - so I just booked us on a flight to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee in October, got us a great deal on a rental car. Now I just need to find the perfect, cozy cabin, and we are all set for a relaxing 4 night cabin getaway when the fall colors are at their best!

I love long weekend trips, just the perfect thing to look forward to, not too much, just enough to get away and relax a bit!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Monday

We had a nice Father's Day here yesterday with good food and just a bit of relaxing. We didn't make it to the beach since Sarah cut herself a little at the pool on Saturday, so it might have stung too much in the salt water.

The poor kid had a pretty unlucky day: after we went to the movies Saturday night and we were in the car on our way home, she started complaining that her back hurt. She said it felt like something bit her. Ken and I thought she was just whining, so we were not exactly very sympathetic to her. Turns out she had sat on a bee that stung her back! Ahh! :-)

I did the mistake of starting a new (very good) book on my Sony Reader yesterday afternoon. When I read a good book, I just have to read it to the end right away. Not a good thing when you have a lot of work to do the next day and the book is almost 1000 pages...

So I am going to contain myself and not read until this afternoon...

This week will be mostly work and more work. I am also migrating to a new accounting/bookkeeping system, so I am sure that will take some time. Luckily one of Ken's employees have been assign to set the basics up, which means I don't have to enter in all the super boring stuff, which I am very thankful off.

Next week we are leaving for DC on Thursday, and Sarah has the entire week off from camp. Perhaps we can squeeze in a few pool visits, if I can get this job finished that is (but it is going super well, so I hope to be done this week).

Now, off to work...

Saturday, June 19, 2010

What am I doing right now?

Watching the Swedish Royal Wedding live, of course!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Work

I spent two days cleaning like crazy, and last night the big project came in, so now I will be very busy working until we leave for vacation July 1.

I spent the morning doing less fun administrative work like sending out invoices, doing some bookkeeping and so on. But that is part of having a business as well. I can't beleive I have been doing this 10 years full time now, 9 years as an incorporated company! Time really fly!

I just took the dogs for a short walk (too hot to move around out there), Sarah is off with camp on a field trip today, they were going to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. Sounds like fun, hopefully they won't melt in the heat. I sent a few frozen water bottles with her, hopefully that will help. And money for ice cream!

I got a cold glass of Coke on the desk, time to get to work!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Typiskt

Igår städade jag för fulla muggar, men det var en riktig grovstädning som tog sin lilla tid, så riktigt allt blev inte klart.

Bla sparade jag Sarah's rum tills idag och alla golven.

Röjde precis i Sarah's rum och skulle börja dammsuga där när jag inser att dammsugarpåsen är full. Letade i hela huset, men inga nya påsar finns någonstans.

Jag älskar verkligen min lilla svenska Electrolux Harmony, det är verkligen den bästa dammsugaren som jag någonsin haft, men av gammal erfarenhet vet jag att det är stört omöjligt att få tag på påsar till detta lilla undervek i någon affär här. De måste beställas via Internet.

Inte så kul när man har golvet fullt av sand och damm! Men men.. de är beställda nu, ett extra stort lass som nog räcker ett år eller så. Skulle ändå beställa en ny ryggsäck till Sarah.

Hon har tjatat i flera månader nu att hon tycker det är lite pinsamt att gå omkring med en Musse Pigg-ryggsäck (den är från när hon började Lekis), och att hon inte gillar Musse längre, det är för barnsligt (rullar här med ögonen...).

Så jag hade lovat att hon ska få en ny tills hon börjar 2:an i höst, men när vi pratade igår kom vi fram till att vi ska betsälla en NU, så hon kan ha den på DC-resan. För hon kan ju inte ses på flygplanet med en Musse-ryggsäck, gubevars!!!

Så jag passade på att handla det hon helst ville ha: en Bakugan-ryggsäck (inga gulligulliga rosa skapeleser för henne inte). Hon älskar verkligen att leka med sina Bakugans, inte för att jag tror att varken hon eller hennes vänner till hundra fattar vad det riktigt går ut på...

Så den här är nu på väg till henne från Amazon.com, min favvo-affär på nätet...

Och eftersom jag har mycket jobb på väg in så får jag nog ta till ett knep som min syster berättade om: klipp upp den fulla dammsugarpåsen i bakändan, töm den och häfta ihop, så har men en påse som i alla fall klarar en dammsugning till! Har inte provat ännu, så får se om det går bra. Nöden har ju ingen lag!

Go Silly Bandz!

Monday, first day of camp, Sarah was a bit scared when Ken dropped her off. Before the actual camp starts the kids hang out in the big gym. We are talking lots of kids!

Sarah did not see anyone she knew, so of course, it is a bit intimidating. Ken had a hard time leaving her since it looked like she was about to cry.

She did have a good day after all, but that time in the morning was a bit tough. So I suggested she should wear those darn Silly Bandz in the morning, and perhaps she could trade with other kids. It turned out to be the perfect ice breaker, and she had a great time!

So those rubber thingies are at least good for something... :-)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Hot

So hot here. And unbearably humid. Yesterday morning I got the not so brilliant idea to walk with the dogs up to the nearest mail box to drop off some mail. It was almost painful to walk in the heat. Bradenton has a record heat wave, it has not been this hot since 1998, and much of the southeast is experiencing high heat right now. With the humidity it feels like around 42 degrees C.

It is difficult to function outside, and I marvel at how the people could live here in Florida before AC came around. Plus, they wore a lot more clothes back then too... And worked hard outside as well! Crazy!

Ken was talking with a friend about Sand dollar beach yesterday, and the friend was very familiar with it. His brother swims there a lot. That is, until very recently.

They had been standing on that sand bar, with the deeper lagoon in between them and the beach, the same lagoon Sarah and I was snorkeling in (together with a bunch of other people too).

All of a sudden they saw a huge hammerhead shark jump up and pretty much slice one of those huge tarpons in half, right in front of them!

They were trapped on the sand bar and just had to stand there and see the bloody feeding frenzy take place. After the scary incident they talked to some locals that said this lagoon always is teeming with tarpons. And tarpons is a favorite food of sharks. So no locals ever swim there!

I shudder thinking about those sharks that probably were in there with us! So no more snorkeling at THAT beach... :-)

Monday, June 14, 2010

Snorkeling off of Anna Maria Island

Wow! We love the north shore of Anna Maria Island. We have actually named this beach Sand Dollar Beach, since there are a lot of sand dollars at this spot. We always have a great time here, but with snorkeling gear, an entire new world opened up to us! Amazing!

This stretch of beach has a short shallow end, then much deeper water, shaped like a lagoon, with an outer sand bar. We have always stayed away from the deeper water since at least I think it is scary when you don't know what is below you in the deep.

But now, when I got a full view of it all, I am amazed! The waters here are crystal clear, so the visibility is very good. I laid for hours just floating around, looking at this new world opened up to us. Once in a while I would dive down to the bottom to pick something up, even if it sometimes was hard to reach all the way down due to the depth and it often required 3-5 tries. It is hard not to float in saltwater!

At first, we saw many schools of smaller fish, they did not seem scared at all and came right up to us. Perhaps it was their own reflections they saw in the diving masks?

Then we encountered the first wow of the day: an Atlantic Spadefish! This guy was almost playful, following after us and kind of hanging out.

Atlantic Spadefish

Ken had to take breaks now and then, since he actually got seasick in the mild chop. Sarah did so good, no problem swimming in the deep water or even diving a little. When it was just her and I, I had her bring a swim noodle just in case, since it sometimes is good to have something to hang on to while you catch your breath after accidentally drinking some ocean water (rather than mommy)... We snorkeled all over the deep water, holding hands so we would not get separated by the current. All of a sudden we are face to face with a huge Tarpon! Oh my, both of us were screaming in excitement underneath the water, through our snorkels. The Tarpon did not move a fin it seemed, just calmly looked at us before slowly making its way...

Tarpon

If this doesn't look like much to you, look at the picture below, to see the size compared to an adult! The first thought that ran trough my mind when we saw this guy was "Barracuda", but then I quickly realized it was a Tarpon. Later that day, we actually heard I guy had caught one from the beach. It took him over 4 hours to get it to shore, it was huge! So after looking at the picture here below, you can understand we almost crapped ourselves :-)!

Then I kept hearing this odd sound underneath the water. A very peculiar, kind of organic rustling. I couldn't figure out what it might be, and it kept coming and going. Almost a little creepy, actually. I asked Sarah if she could hear it, and she could. While we were listening to the sound, all of a sudden it got louder and louder.

It was a humongous school of Yellowfin Snappers! A little unnerving having this carpet of fish (not exactly tiny) under us, but after awhile (they kept coming and coming, lots of them) we relaxed and just enjoyed the beauty of them. These guys are yummy to eat, by the way... They seemed to hang around for a while, so a little later I actually had to shoo some of them away so I could dive to get a nice shell I had spotted. Cool!

Yellowtail Snapper


Then I saw a little Atlantic Stingray scurrying away from us, the first Stingray I have seen locally for years. I know they have been having a lot of them up north in the Clearwater area, with lots of people being stung by their painful barbs after accidentally stepping on them...

Atlantic Stingray

We saw a lot of creatures on the bottom: Spider Crabs, lots of other types of crabs (especially hermit crabs), shells moving around with snails inside, sea urchins and so on. What we mainly was looking for was live and dead Sand dollars. Dead once (which are white and hard) to take home, and live once (which are brown and leathery) to just look at. We would never take a live animal such as a Starfish or a Sand dollar home, they belong in the ocean...

I found a whole bunch of dead Sand dollars, Venus Sunrays, Olives and so on.

One of the Sand dollars I found

and one of the Venus Sunrays...

and one of the Olives...

The only thing missing was to find a live Sand dollar. They are cousins with the Starfish and live in a similar way. And at the very end I looked down, and there one was, just laying around on the bottom! It was really cool seeing it up close, it was not as "suctiony" as a Starfish. After laying him back down in the sand he slowly started to bury himself underneath the sand.

A live Sand dollar

So not only did we get a beautiful day at the beach, we got loads of exercise. Sarah fell asleep like a stone at night, and she is now off to her first day of Summer Camp...

Lets now just hope we get to do a repeat of this beach day next weekend, but it is not looking favorable for that, the oil seems to be creeping closer and closer to our shores, unfortunately...

Friday, June 11, 2010

Friday!

Sarah and I had a nice day celebrating the first day of summer break.

But first I had to clean dog puke from pretty much every corner of the house. Bob had eaten something, what I don't know, the day before. And late Wednesday night he started walking in circles all over the house (i.e. not feeling good). This is not the first time! He tries to eat anything that looks like grass, including house plants, so we let him out on a leash in the back yard where he ate grass like a cow.

I took him for a couple of long walks, but nothing.

So he got to sleep in the living room, since we knew the next phase would be the puking phase (again, not the first time...).

Too bad I forgot to close the doors to the office and Sarah's room... He had really favored those rooms to deposit his little grass mounds. Not fun. And why does he always feel the need to puke on anything but the tile floor?

So I have been washing blankets, clothes and rugs yesterday and today. But at least Bob is back to normal, and we still have no idea what he ate...

Sarah and I spent about 2½ hours at the pool. So warm! So nice! This was our first visit to our neighborhood pool for this year. I got to try out my new diving mask, and it was such a nice feeling being able to dive and actually see where I was going. She played with an 8 year old boy, and later the neighbor's kids came too.

After our pool visit and a shower we headed over to Ci Ci's Pizza for a "First Day of Summer Break" celebratory lunch at the all you can eat pizza buffet. Apparently Sarah really charmed the manager; he gave her free tokens to get toys from all the toy machines they have there, and at the end he gave her an entire box of cinnamon buns (27!) to take home.

After our lunch we went over to the next door Sport's Authority to get Sarah a new dive mask. She is getting better and better at diving, so a new one will help. Her old one is all made out of rubber and not very good, leaks a lot too. So she got a really good one made out of silicone with tempered glass. It should last her for many years to come.

Then home to do some work, since I had taken most of the day off.

Today, probably another pool visit, and then cleaning the rest of the day. And a little Friday "mys", which loosely translates to hanging out with the family, watching something fun on TV and eating something yummy :-)!

Tomorrow Ken has to work, so Sarah and I are doing another movie at the mall-thing. This time we will see "The Karate Kid". Sarah is very excited to see this one, and I get all kinds of fun memories from seeing the original back in 1984 when I was 10, the second one 1985, the third 1989 (but by then I kind of lost the interest), and the last one in 1994. I LOVED those movies, so cool. I was doing karate moves all the time :-)!

Sunday will be fun day again. We are planning on going snorkeling off of Anna Maria Island, and hopefully finding some cool shells and seeing some awesome fish.

Oh, and yesterday I was thinking that Sarah needed an extra bathing suit now when summer camp starts, but I had a feeling I might have one put away in a box somewhere. I usually buy clothes when they are on sale in bigger sizes, so sometimes I have clothes laying in boxes for years before she grows into them. So I went looking for that bathing suit and found it. Perfect fit! I had gotten it at an end of summer sale many years ago for $2!

I though all the clothes in that box were all bigger sizes, but after a closer look it turned out only one skirt was bigger, everything else was 7 and 8 year old sizes! Item after item, it was a virtual Christmas! I had forgotten about all the nice things I had gotten her, all one super sales! Thank goodness I looked in there now and didn't wait until next year... It was probably at least 30 outfits in there! All from the GAP, Old Navy, The Children's Place... Really nice stuff!

Hope you guys all get a great and relaxing weekend!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Last day of 1st grade

Today is the last day of school. I think it is sad they don't celebrate the last day of school like they do in Sweden. I have such nice, wonderful memories form this day in Sweden as a kid.

You always got a special outfit, usually a summery dress. Sometimes you had flowers in your hair. The medieval Gotland church in Hemse was decorated with flowers and fragrant birch.

Everyone sang their summer songs that had been diligently practiced for weeks. The church filled with all the parents and siblings, the wonderful acoustics of the old stone church...

It was a proper and joyful ending.

Here, nothing.

Just a regular day.

Sarah will have 5 days off until Monday when Summer Camp starts. It sounds like she is really looking forward to it, especially having swim classes every day. She learned to swim pretty good last summer, so she is eager to get better at diving this year.

I think tomorrow we will hang at the pool (hopefully I don't have to work too much tomorrow). That will be our first pool visit for this year. This weekend we are planning on snorkeling off of Anna Maria Island. Ken and I are pretty blind without our glasses, so snorkeling has really not been an option for us. But now we have gotten prescription diving masks (not too expensive at all, if you are interested, go to www.GetWetStore.com, I highly recommend them!)

It is going to be exciting to see what type of shells we can find this way, we saw a bunch of people finding huge shells on deeper water while snorkeling. And who knows, it might be one of the last times we can enjoy our beaches for quite some time...

The last time Tampa Bay had to deal with an oil spill was in 1993. It was fairly small, about the same amount that this new oil spill pumps out in ONE day. It took TWO YEARS to get the 14 miles of beaches that were affected back to normal. So you can imagine what might happen here if/when this oil spill comes ashore...

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Tired

Not much going on here. The last 5 days I have been in a super slump. It is just most likely a lupus induced slump. One of the negative sides of this disease is that you sometimes just get super tired, can barely muster up the energy for anything.

I had to force myself to drive to the store and get groceries yesterday. I have been getting plenty of sleep, have been sleeping before 9 most days, and I wake up very rested. I have been eating very healthy with lots of fresh fruits, so the food should not be a factor either. This type of tiredness is one of the reasons lupus patients are often seen as lazy, since people can't understand someone can just be tired form nothing. Oh well.

Luckily my other symptoms, like joint pain, are pretty mild, just my hands that are somewhat affected.

So it feels like all I have had energy for is work the last few days, for that pretty much just require mental energy, and that I have plenty.

I am going to see my rheumatologist tomorrow afternoon for one of my twice annual check ups, not much he can do, but I will find out how active the Sjögren's disease have been, since he tested those markers with a blood test lately. I have had a lot of inflammation in my salivary glands, so it feels like it is just a bit more active than usual.

The humidity is about 80 % today, and it is about 37 C. That equals numbingly hot. So that doesn't exactly help either, forget about taking the dogs for our regular long walks, none of us can handle it in this heat!

Since I am done with work for today, I am going to watch Swedish TV. That is about all I can work up enough energy for right now...

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Oljefunderingar...

Det ser inte speciellt ljust ut för Floridas kuster, eller kanske för östkusten här i USA i allmänhet. Enligt beräkningar kommer oljan så småningom att ta sig med golfströmmen runt Florida, längs med Floridas östkust, upp längs kontinentala östkusten, vidare med strömmen över till Island och sedemera ned mot Storbritannien. Enda trösten i detta scenario är väl kanske då att British Petroleum får smaka lite på sin egen förstörelse...

Ken och jag har diskuterat mycket upp och ner vad gäller oljan och vad vi ska göra om nu Floridas kustremsa blir förstörd. Vi älskar verkligen havet och naturen i dess omkrets, och som jag nämnde tidigare så skulle det vara oerhört svårt att faktiskt orka bo kvar här om det nu blev total katastrof.

Vi tror nog båda att vi i så fall skulle lämna Florida och flytta till en annan stat. Eftersom vi har en hel del krav vad gäller närhet till hav och natur, så dyker en stat upp igen och igen. Oregon. Jag tror att vi i så fall skulle hamna i Portland-området (bor du inte precis utanför Portland, Anne? Rekommenderar du att flytta dit? De städer som ser fina ut är Beaverton och Hillsboro enligt vad jag har sett.)

Detta är ju ett stort steg, emn vi båda skulle tycka det vore ett äventyr att komma till en helt annan miljö och få upptäcka den. Det stora problemet här är ju Kens företag. Det är ju inte så enkelt att komma på vad man ska göra med en revisor-firma. Det bästa vore om en manager anställdes som kanske kunde äga 10 % och sköta ruljansen, men det skulel nog vara ganska svårt att hitta en sådan person.

Själv tycker jag det bästa vore att sälja kunddelen av företaget och kanske köpa en likandne kunddel av typ en CPA som ska pensionera sig i Portland-området etc.

Själv är jag och mitt företag mycket flexibelt, det är ju bara att omregistrera aktiebolaget i den nya staten och lite annat administrativt.

Så mycket att tänka på. Tur att vi inte har köpt nytt hus här ännu. Vi väntar och ser vad som händer, och om en katastrof blir faktum åker vi i så fall upp till Oregon och kollar läget. Så ganska allvarliga tankar här alltså.

Den här oljekatastrofen är inte att leka med. Imorse hörde vi lokala rapporter om att oljan skulle ligga 7 miles utanför Tampa, men vi har inte sett någon bekräftelse på de stora nyhetskanalerna ännu. Alla står i beredskap. Vår kommun är en av 19 i Florida som just nu ligger under undantagstillstånd i förberedelse på katastrof.

Flera organisationer har satt igång att snabbutbilda folk som kan hjälpa till med upprensing av olja och även ta hand om fåglar och andra djur som kommer att bli utsatta.

Stränderna i norra Florida, i den sk Panhandle, har börjats stängas. Oljan har börjat komma i land där.

Vädret spelar såklart en stor roll i hur illa saker och ting kommer att bli. Starka vindar kan hindra oljeuppsugningsbommar från att stanna där de ska (som de gjorde i Louisiana). Orkanvindar kan svepa oljan med sig långt in över land.

Och så hör jag att BP nu inte tror att de kommer att få bukt med utsläppet förrens i augusti! Herregud, säger jag bara...

Friday, June 4, 2010

Det har varit mycket denna vecka

Så det är skönt att det är fredag!

Imorse efter att jag släppte av Sarah vid skolan lyckades jag åka förbi banken, åka förbi YMCA och betala Summer Camp för hela sommaren (lika bra att betala allt på en gång, så slipper man komma ihåg varje vecka). Sedan till kemtvätten för att lämpa av Kens jobbarskjortor, sedan en tur på Wal-Mart. Ett nytt duschdraperi behövdes, och lite annat smått och gott.

Skönt att komma hem, ta en liten fika (om nu mintchoklad och Diet Coke kan räknas som fika) innan det blir lite intensivt jobbande innan Sarah ska hämtas tidigt från skolan vid 1 för att skjutsa henne till en årlig koll hos doktorn.

Döm om min förvåning när det var något hårt i chokladen! Såklart vart det den där tanden som ska fixas till som hade gått sönder!!! En stor bit av hörntanden hade gått av. Och min tandläkare har stängt på fredagar... I alla fall gör det inget ont alls, så det kan nog vänta tills på måndag. Jag hoppas att de kan liksom göra något temporärt så det inte går sönder mer (det är lite vasst också). Jag har ingen lust att behöva betala $750 för att fixa den här tanden NU, när det nästan blir gratis i juli då försäkringen börjar gälla, eller hur?

Så går det att temporärt fixa till den lite så kör jag på det. Men det vete sjutton...

Så en hel helg med trasig tand, inte kul alls. Suck ja! Det kunde ju varit värre!

Annars har jag och Sarah planerat att gå på stan imorgon och se på bio (Marmaduke), vår vanliga lilla date. Det blir nog en god lunch också! Ken jobbar i vanlig ordning.

På söndag blir det Sunday Fun Day som Ken och Sarah har döpt det till. Då blir det Venice Beach, hajtandsletande och lunch på Sharky's.

Jag vet att ni alla säkert följer oljeutsläppet i Mexikanska Golfen på någon nivå. Personligen känns det oerhört stressigt att se dessa bilder och tänka på vad som säkerligen kommer att ske med Floridas kust. Jag lider något oerhört när jag ser de djur som de visar upp på TV, nedkletade med råolja och helt försörda. Så oerhört fruktansvärt!

Jag har en stor ilska inombords mot de som är ansvariga för detta. För jag tror helt klart det är snikenhet, girighet och politik som ligger bakom slarvet som gjorde denna ofantliga katastrof möjlig. Så fruktansvärt onödigt!

De visade bilder från Alaska där den stora oljekatastrofen skedde för 23 år sedan. Vid en första anblick ser det OK ut. Men gräv bara lite i sanden längs med kustremsan så ser du olja överallt. Det luktar illa. Oljan är i högsta grad fortfarande där!

Hur ska detta påverka Florida och andra kuststater? Det har redan lett till ekonomisk katastrof för de som livnär sig på fiske, eftersom stora delar av deras fiskevatten nu är avstängda och fiskeförbud råder. Och de som fortfarande KAN fiska har svårt att få sälja fisken, eftersom ingen vågar köpa fisk från Florida.

Dessutom har många fiskare hjälpt till att bekämpa oljan, och nu är deras båtar totalt förstörda av oljan...

Hur kommer turismen att påverkas? Bara nu över Mermorial Day var tydligen beläggningen på Floridas hotell ner något enormt, eftersom folk inte ville riskera att komma i kontakt med oljan.

Alla dessa djur, det marina livet. Fasanfullt!

Själv känner jag att jag faktiskt inte skulle vilja/orka bo kvar här om kusten blir förstörd, det skulle liksom vara för mycket. Men var skulle vi då flytta i så fall? Ken är licensierad som CPA här i FL, det skulle ju vara bökigt att fixa ny licens i någon annan stat. Dessutom tror dom att oljan potentialt kan påverka hela östkusten, så vart "flyr" man liksom? Jag bara måste bo nära havet...

Jag har haft en sådan olust hela veckan i kroppen, nästan som en depression, på grund av allt det här. En katastrof utan dess like, absolut.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Ojsan

Hur ska jag hinna med allt idag? Jobb, jobb, jobb, hämta Sarah, hem, duscha och middag, sedan samling på YMCA inför Summer Camp...

Jobbar, jobbar, jobbar. Oj sjutton! Fort som fasiken iväg för att hämta Sarah. komme rpå pricekn till skolan. Men vanurå? Ingen här!

Upphämtningen är om 1 timme... Ridå.