christmas is coming

christmas is coming. and we'll spend it in the states for the first time in a decade. hard to believe it's been that long. our bags are nearly packed and the laundry is nearly done. dinners are made from what's left in the refrigerator. i'm looking very much forward to seeing the child and i think she can't wait to see us. we've found a beautiful place to spend christmas and i'm hoping we will make good memories there. loads of good food, wine, games, skiing and fun are on the agenda. i go with an open heart, together with the person who loves and supports me most in the whole world. and i am hoping for good times and laughter. and making memories that will sustain us in the years ahead. 

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an interesting take on helping ease the pain of alzheimer's

which is all-too-painfully of interest to me these days.

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need a new podcast?
you can also find one here. or here.

making your own sunshine

this picture was in my head the other day. i even had to break into a new box of cloud cuckoo palace in order to make that sunshine on a stick when i couldn't locate the original one we'd built, or even the bits of it. it was a cloudy grey day and the notion of creating your own sunshine just popped into my head. and who better to do it than batman? what's funny is that aside from some shots of the yeti skiing that i took last winter, it rarely happens that i envision a shot in my head and want to create it. 

that notion of making your own sunshine seems a powerful one, these grey, dark, dreary days of winter. we haven't even had proper winter yet, it's been mild and rainy, tho' they promise snow tomorrow and over the weekend. i'll believe it when i see it. and in the meantime, i'm looking for spots of sunshine in my days. a day with less coughing than the day before. fun new projects at work that enable me to work with old (and super creative) friends. getting to geek out about ships again. finding a box of beautiful mixed mushrooms at the green market right when i wanted to make a mushroom tart. a solitary glass of wine enjoyed in a vibrant atmosphere. the pulse of the city. a short bike ride in the cold, clear air. the weight of a cat on the quilt at my feet. husband making my favorite comfort meal (ham, creamy spinach and potatoes) for when i came home. little rays of metaphorical sunshine. just when i needed them most.

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seattle art museum collects lego for ai weiwei.

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super interesting digitalization project at the ny public library.

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the nytimes' annual list of 52 places to go in 2016.

skåne is on the list.

(that's the bit of sweden just across the bridge from denmark.)

you might say we've been there, done that.

tho' at the moment, they're checking and double-checking passports on the way in.

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what kind of asshole dreams of killing a mountain lion?

oh, apparently one from my hometown.

yes, more guns please.

not.

#definitelynotastud

#ithinkimayhatefacebook

things i forgot (or possibly never noticed) about the US

somewhere near charles city, iowa

~ really wide roads.

~ the tendency of stewardesses on american airlines (delta in this case) to treat everyone like small, dull children. i was waiting my turn at the bathroom onboard, the stewardess turned to explain to me which doors were the restrooms, as if i'd never seen a plane before.

~ the intensity of the plastic packaging on everything.

~ fake sweeteners.

~  the ubiquity of strip malls. even the child care places are in strip malls.

~  it seems that all restaurants are chain restaurants.

~  enormous cars. lots of them.

~  car designs that look like the car is actually a tank in car clothing.

~  the heavenly interior of the gap. (where thankfully they have remembered that their core competency is the hooded, pullover sweatshirt.)

~  miles and miles and miles of cornfields.

~  blaring and constant ads on radio.

~  how incredibly cheap it is to go out to eat.

~  people constantly saying "sorry" and "excuse me." (bear in mind i live in a land where people will actually run over your foot with their grocery cart and not utter a single word which acknowledges your existence, let alone expresses remorse.)

~  gas stations that are veritable snack villages (and where you can buy a jesus t-shirt while you're at it).

~  fireflies in the ditches.

i find i'm actually suffering a little bit from culture shock. i've not been here for nearly four years and either i forgot about all that stuff, or things have really changed. however, i see no signs whatsoever of any shift away from enormous, gas-guzzling vehicles, so apparently in that area the crisis was short-lived. i'll be sneaking back with more impressions when i have a moment of peace.