Sunday

Once again, it is Sunday afternoon. It's been a nice and relaxing weekend... enjoyed the "art" of American beer-drinking (I hardly know what wine tastes like anymore), late dinner at the Osteria in the Highlands (ordering my favorite Italian dish melanzane alla parmigiana), an afternoon at the book store (finally I had finished the book I bought at the airport in Göteborg when moving here in May, it took me forever!), dinner with friends at a Thai place just nearby, made my personal best in bowling, listened to Charles while he rehearsed his elevator pitch and resume for an interview he'll be having this week, breathed the hot and extremely humid (but at least it's air) air while taking a nice long walk in Emory Village (it was also the first time in my life that I actually took the car to get to a place to take a nice walk), read a couple of the free magazines that you can get all around Atlanta (Charles has a problem with my habit of getting out of the way to get these magazines, but at least I know what's going on in Atlanta and some articles are actually very interesting), started reading the book I bought yesterday - "Anybody Out There?", Marian Keyes, took a little extra care of Casey (who we found out on Thursday has an ulcer on her eye and is currently being treated with antibiotics). Finally it has started to thunder... the air has been so heavy and humid all day.

Yesterday I had my first little throw of home sickness. I think I have actually managed quite well these past three months, but I think my decision of not going home to Sweden for Christmas, kind of triggered it. Even though I believe that I'm doing the right thing to stay here over the holidays... just the thought of not seeing my family and friends, makes me sad. The most difficult is not being able to see my beautiful little niece Ayda, who is growing and developing every day (she's turning 1 in a month). After her spending the past month with her dad in Turkey, I finally got to see her again via web camera on my dad's birthday last week. What a sweety! Good news is that there is no doubt that I will be going home for my brother's wedding in July next year and hopefully Charles and I will have some visitors before then. :) We are actually waiting for our first visitor, Chloe, one of Charles best friends, to arrive in only three weeks!

Well, I think I'll continue my Sunday afternoon reading on the couch, while listening to the thunder, with Casey laying on my chest. I hope you all had a great weekend! Take care!

Kram!

Casey in action

While getting ready for bed, Charles managed to catch Casey in action drinking from the tub...

Bathtub water drinking cat

It is Sunday evening again and I am really looking forward to Monday morning! Don't you just love it when the alarm clock buzzes and... just kidding... even though I really enjoy my job and I am morning person, I definitely do not look forward to Monday mornings. Luckily Mondays usually pass by quickly and we can all look forward to that it'll be Friday in four days again. :)

I don't know about you guys, but I had a pretty darn good weekend. Cocktails among dinosaurs, underground hip hop club, couple of hours on the phone with my best friend Anna (hearing about her adventures in Barcelona), workout, shopping at Atlantic Station and Lenox Square, Indian cuisine with friends, enjoying sleeping long (even though Casey was acting up this morning), tidying up the apartment, filing my feet, relaxing, enjoyed the classic "Trading Spaces" with Eddy Murphy... just to sum it up.

I just had to show you this picture of Casey that I took earlier today. She has the habit of drinking water from the faucet that drips in the bathtub (she will not drink out of her own water bowl) and today she just kind hung out on the side of the bathtub. When she comes to us with a wet head, we know that she's been drinking water. During the past couple of weeks I have caught her drinking water from the toilette! Pretty disgusting... but to get that problem out of the way I'll have to train Charles to put down the lid after using the toilette... that will be a challenge! ;)

I hope you all manage to make it through Monday tomorrow! For some of you I know that it will be extra difficult, my dad going back to work after three weeks of vacation and for some it will be a pleasure, Ingegerd who will just be starting her four week vacation.

Oh and one last thing... Happy Birthday to my best Swiss friend Sophie and to my professional soccer playing cousin Emma!

Sunday

Hello,

It's Sunday afternoon and I just finished having a small snack (crackers with peanut butter) after chatting with my parents through msn. It has definitely been a very easy going Sunday so far, even though we actually had plans for the day. We were supposed to go with some of Charles' classmates to Lake Arrowhead, a lake one hour south of Atlanta, to go swimming and sunbathing for the day... but I realized very early this morning that it wasn't going to happen. I woke up shortly after 6 this morning, primarily because Casey was trying to get our attention, but also because I heard the hard rain hitting our window. So yes, it was raining and when it rains here (which isn't very often) it certainly rains a lot. Even though the rain ruined our Sunday plans, plans that I had really been looking forward to, I was also kind of excited about the fact that it was raining. You probably think I'm a bit strange, but I even got up out of bed around 7:15 this morning, because I was excited to go and sit on the balcony to listen, feel and breath the rain. I believe that this excitement lies in my childhood memories of the heavy rain fall in Wichita.

This past Wednesday we celebrated 4th of July at Centennial Park in downtown Atlanta. The park was totally packed with people when we got there. There were musicians performing, people barbecuing, families picnicking, people standing in line to buy drinks and food and tons of kids standing in the spraying fountain waiting to get totally wet (as you can see on the picture). We found a little spot to spread out our blanket, where we had a little picnic ourselves, but we took the fast way and had picked up burgers at McDonald's. :) It was a long wait from after we had finished eating, until it was time for the fireworks... but when they started it was all worth the wait. Of course I didn't expect anything less than a spectacular show and it definitely was. Less fun, was the walk back to the car, walking in a crowd of thousands of people and then trying to get out to the highway, but we managed. You can check out Charles' blog to see a couple of firework pictures.

Even though I did go to IKEA quickly this morning, to buy a second wooden chair to hang clothes on (so now Charles and I have one each and I don't have to complain each time he messes up my folded clothes on the chair :) ), it feels like I have been at home all day. But luckily, we will be leaving to have a cookout at one of Charles' classmate's house soon. Because of the cancelation of the "lake day", everybody is going over to the eat food that was planned for lunch... which sounds good to me. We won't be staying too long, so that Charles can study for his finals that he has next week.

Have a great evening! Talk to you soon again!

Kram! Bisous!

4th of July!

Today is the 4th of July, independence day! The best thing about it is that I'm off work today! :) Some of us collegues at work celebrated the fact that we would be off today by going to the usual after work bar yesterday. I spent a calm evening at home, while Charles was playing softball with some friends from class. We went to bed quite early and had a wonderful 9 ½ hours of sleep, without Casey disturbing us too much in the early morning. (We have learned that Casey, our cat, gets quite bored early in the morning and trys to wake us up by "talking" to us, scratching the wall and biting on the night stand lamp cord. Usually, she calms down after giving her some food... but it doesn't always work. So now we have also gotten her a cat tree and some toys to keep her activated. So far, it seems to work... hopefully it'll last.) Anyway back to waking up this morning... Charles and I decided to start the day with taking a nice walk. As it was 8.30, the temperature at that time is relatively cool, probably in the mid 70's (mid 20's celsius). After work it is usually too hot and humid to actually enjoy a walk... it does get nicer once the sun starts to set, but then you'll be attacted by mosquitoes.

So after getting out of bed, feeling so happy and joyful that I had a good night's sleep, thinking that I'm off today and we were going to take a nice walk before I go to the gym to workout (which I haven't done in a week), I start to gather some of the clothes that I had laying on the floor. I pick the clothes up and (oh my god I can hardly thing about it) I feel how an enormous something with more than 4 legs crawls down my bare legs (aaaahhhhh!).... and oh yes did I scream and jump and fly back on to the bed were Charles was only half awake! And I see a huge and I mean huge cockroach crawling away on the floor and they move fast, probably knowing that his life was in danger. Luckily Charles was able to crush it with a shoe before it had time to hide.

Now this is ultimately the worse thing about living in a hot climate... all the horrible bugs and critters! Now you all probably think that I am exaggerating and are thinking "big deal, it's just a bug"... but actually even though this is the first time I actually had one on me (eeehh that gives me cold shivers just thinking about it), this is the forth time I've been suprised by cockroaches in my home! After the second one, which crawled under the door to the bathroom, while I was sitting on the toalett... I put out little traps, but it really doesn't seem to work... I guess I just have to learn to live with it.

Puh, enough about roaches (if you want to learn more about them you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cockroach to read more about them ;) ). Anyway, after this traumatic experience... I managed to calm down and we took a nice walk and then I made it in time to a morning aerobic class. I'm still wondering about how I'll spend the rest of the day, pool or shopping I guess, Charles will be studying all day. This evening we are going downtown to celebrate the 4th of July with thousands of other Atlantans and Georgians in the 95 degree heat. We'll try to blend in like real americans and enjoy the entertainment, activities and a hotdog or two before the highlight of the festivities beginn - the fireworks! I remember celebrating the 4th of July in a similar way as a child, so I'm quite exicted about experiencing this once again.

To all you americans - Happy 4th of July! - and to everyone, take care!