7QT: bike names, allergies, dance, vals

1. I love the names of bicycles. Mine, for example, is the Viking Elegance 3. I actually saw another Viking bike just the other day, but the name was not quite as good as mine. The most favorite bike name I've seen is one that parks near me at the office. Are you ready for this? The Silver Apron. That's right. Do you have a bicycle? What is it called? I need to start a list of these.

2. Yesterday I went over to Greg's part of the building to water his plant. The first person I ran into saw me and said, "Greg's not here! You should know that!" It was pretty funny. I wish, instead of explaining my real reason for being there, I would have said, "Well I've been looking for him for five days now!" Next time…

3. I might have a cold, but I think it is more likely that I am being allergic to whatever it is that is spreading pollen right now. The pollen report says various grasses. Okay. Last year at this same time of year, I had been thinking I had a long-lasting cold. Eventually I started to realize that it could be allergies, and now it seems to be happening again.

4. Lots of dancing in a week = lots of joy in a week. That is how it has been going for me. I went to Ransäter for my second year in a row, and for now I'm still planning a post dedicated entirely to the event, so I won't write more just yet(:

5. Looking way into the future, I just found out that it will be possible for me to go to the next two Ransäterstämmans… stämmorna? Greg has been working on a proposal to host a science meeting in Uppsala in two years from now, which we just found out was accepted! The meeting takes place at the exact time of Ransäter, which is pretty convenient for me!

6. Now it is evening and I picked up some allergy medicine on my way home. I got a pill and a nasal spray. So far I've only tried the pill. We'll see what effect it has. Here's to hoping for positive results.

7. Right now I'm obsessed with this waltz. Why are waltzes just so lovely?!

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The End & The Link-Up

Allergies!

Last year I discovered I have allergies! Hooray! According to sources online, it is oak and birch that are producing the most allergens right now. The craziest part is that Greg ("he's allergic to everything") is not really having any reactions to whatever is in the air, but I am.

So, putting aside the fact that I now want to watch My Girl…

I've been reading all sorts of crazy articles online about allergies. This morning Greg told me he'd make some coffee, because he usually finds that helps with his allergy symptoms. He's told me this before, and it sounds strange, but it really did help.

That led me to this article, about foods that help with allergies. My reactions? I'm glad I had sushi for dinner last night. And I'm glad I dislike celery. And I always thought that eating spicy foods was good to help clear out your sinuses. I am imagining pollen being in my nose and just getting washed away.

That article linked to this article, about natural allergy remedies. Reactions: I won't be stashing clothes in my garage (I don't even have a garage). I also think I might have read this article last year. This morning we closed up our house to the outdoors, and the cleaning process has begun. Hopefully by the end of the day we'll have dusted every surface and mopped all the floors.

The internet is full of so many amazing facts. Here is an article about allergy facts, which had some information I found to be really astounding.

7QT: allergies, swedish, and reading edition

- 1 -

Last week I meant to link to this article that I read for one of my takes. Luckily I only forgot about it for one week, and so now it makes its appearance. I like Jonathan Safran Foer's writing, and I didn't even realize this was written by him until I was mostly through the article and had to check who the author was.

"Let’s assume, though, that we all have a set number of days to indent the world with our beliefs, to find and create the beauty that only a finite existence allows for, to wrestle with the question of purpose and wrestle with our answers."

- 2 -

And now I have allergies. How a person can spend nearly 30 years with no allergies and then have them is a very unpleasant mystery to me. Allergic to Sweden in June. I am not good at finding good weather forecasts in this country, so keeping that in mind, I found some webpages with pollen counts and allergy info. (I am implying that these sites are either not good or unreliable.) The next three days is in the category of "extreme" or "very high" or "three orange dots" depending on which page you check.

My husband is a longtime sufferer of allergies, and now I think I sort of get it. Why have I gone through three boxes of tissues this week? Because I have allergies. Why are my eyelids all puffy? Because I have allergies. Why don't my clothes match today? Because I have allergies. Is it really possible for a person to sneeze this many times in a day? Yes, yes it is, if you have allergies.

- 3 -

Is it proper English to say I need to bolster my reading habits? I love goodreads, and I love looking at the stats, but 2013 is not looking so good for me. See for yourself.

I hope 2011 wasn't the best it will ever be. Time to start reading children's books to increase the number of books, even though that doesn't do much to help with the page count. I actually have been reading the Anne of Green Gables books, which are quite entertaining. I don't think I had read any of them but the first either, so this is quite nice.

- 4 -

Plus they are mostly free for kindle. I got them from the Project Gutenberg page. (Amazon tried to make me pay $.99 for Sense and Sensibility. No thank you. I'll get it free from these guys instead.) The problem is that they do not have book #4 or #6. Luckily the local library had #4 so I got myself a library card. I love libraries. Also, this book return system is so high tech with a conveyer belt and everything. Unfortunately the library doesn't have #6 (in english, bara på svenska) so I'm not sure what I'll do.

Although maybe I should be reading the books in order of date published, as opposed to chronological order in Anne's life? I don't know. I need an Anne expert to help me out with this one.

Either way, I'm eventually going to need Anne of Ingleside. And borrowing the Swedish version is not my ideal choice. That would basically be doing the opposite of bolstering my reading habits I think.

- 5 -

Home rememdies for allergies that I might consider trying:
-saline solution (least appealing option, as it is intended to be sucked up the nose and allowed to drain out of your mouth or nose)
-shower more frequently (also not very appealing)
-drink mint tea (very appealing)
-keep the windows shut all the time (not ideal, but would solve more than one problem)
-eat wasabi peas (okay)

- 6 -

I was really excited to find this Swedish word of the day page. (Sidenote: this is why I can't quit google reader! I signed up for bloglovin but it won't let me import any ole rss feed.) Unfortunately, on thursday I noticed that listening to the pronunciation is not always correct. The sentence was something about "they sell" and the Swedish word for they is 'de' but it is pronounced 'dom' (which is actually pretty strange, even for swedish I think). So, I'll still try to use the page for new vocabulary, but I definitely cannot trust the pronunciation. Too bad.

- 7 -

For the first time in my life I was not the bona fide mosquito magnet! Normally mosquitos love me, but for some reason they were leaving me alone and bothering someone else. I was told that what you eat can make a difference, which is how I ended up finding that article. And, well, not to try to say a sample of one is statistically significant, but I cooked a dinner last night that was heavy on the garlic, and then ate leftovers for lunch today. Garlic for the win!

PS The food I invented was pretty delicious so I will share my methods. Frying pan on stove. Heat olive oil. Add shallots. Add carrot. Add green chili peppers. Add garlic. (The previous items were all added after the amount of time it took me to chop said item.) Add diced tomatoes or tomato sauce. Add a can of black beans. Season with salt, garam masala, coriander, a little cinnamon, a little ginger, a little chili powder, maybe a little turmeric. Let simmer while making rice. Delicious!

- The End and Jennifer's linkup -