7QT - really quick ones!

1. I was using the Tasks feature in gmail to make a list of things I wanted to do in the near future. The list included the item 'sweep' which was corrected to say 'zweep.' I feel so confused. And blogger is trying to correct zweep back to sweep.

2. On a scale of one to ten, how stupid would it be to carry some homebrew on a ~45 minute walk to a cabin in the woods (while also carrying food/sleeping bag/camera/etc.)?

3. OH! An item I will be carrying that is not debatable is the makings for s'mores. Swedes don't even know about s'mores which is such a tragedy. I am so looking forward to sharing a bit of my gold (graham crackers brought directly to me from my dear mother when she visited last summer) so that they can have this experience!

4. For the past few Fridays I have had notably bad things happening, work-wise. This week decided to switch things up and deliver the news on Thursday. Basically I have to re-do about two months-worth of work.

5. I have no means of watching the olympics here. We don't have a television, and it is not being broadcast online (at least not for a free or reasonable price). I really wish I could be watching hockey, but the best I can do is to watch text updates from the IIHF, which I find surprisingly riveting. They have little webpages that automatically update every ten seconds and show info like shots on goal, saves, goals, and penalties. The anticipation of waiting for something to change is really intense. That is not sarcasm.

6. Although I must say, if Sweden plays the US in the gold medal game, we are either going to a pub or inviting ourselves to someone's house to watch. I would be so disappointed with myself if I didn't make an attempt to see that game.

7. And an info graphic to describe my workday yesterday:

- The End and The Link-up -

7QT - tiny cup photo, reading, dancing, and food (and working all night long)

- 1 -

Oh yeah.

Stylish Bruins players who must be thinking 'why is my cup so tiny?'

- 2 -

Alternatively, in the above photo, you might have noticed that nice outdoor wooden dance floor. I certainly did.

- 3 -

I'm not really proud to admit it, but right now I am reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Two years ago I tried to read these books, only I messed it up and accidentally read the second book thinking it was the first. As I was reading I figured out my mistake after realizing that the author was writing as though the characters had already been introduced to me. So then after reading book #2, I basically already knew what happened in book #1 and figured it wouldn't be as exciting, so I just went on to #3.

So now, two years later, I figured that since I couldn't even remember what happened in the books I did read, hopefully that would mean I had forgotten any spoilers to the first book. This way I could essentially start over. Except that once I started reading I sort of remembered at least one big outcome. Although I don't know how the outcome comes to be, and that almost seems to make it more thrilling? I don't know. Either way, I hate being so engaged by a book that is sort of a cheap thrill, but engaged I am.

Oh! My favorite part is that living in Sweden for a year has taught me some cultural context which I never would have picked up on before. For example, when the guy goes to live in a cabin that is not very well equipped, the author writes that there was not even a cheese slicer with the kitchen appliances. The essentiality of the cheese slicer to Swedes is a thing worth knowing.

- 4 -

Here are some thoughts on dancing, because a week wouldn't be complete without it. (Except for last week, because I had to miss dance to go to my first Swedish lesson.)

At the weekly dance sessions, I would classify several regulars as extremely good dancers. It is really nice to be able to dance well with someone, and it is interesting to see how certain dances work better with different people. When I first started dancing I was told that the best dancers will make you feel like you are doing everything right without any help from them. So when I end up dancing with certain people (ahem, like perhaps the person doing the instruction for the dance) I automatically know that if things aren't working out, it is really most likely to be my fault. Sometimes it is easy to start thinking that I've got the hang of a thing, and then we rotate and I start stepping all over the next person. Plus, even before the dance starts, just knowing that my partner is far better than I am makes me nervous, which causes me to be less good than I ought to be.

So, that is an interesting thing that I like to think about.

- 5 -

Have you ever bought a vanilla bean? I just bought the first vanilla bean of my life. Technically I got a pack of two. I should take a photo maybe, because they came in this long skinny tube. I feel like I just joined an elite club. The vanilla bean buyers. You should seriously try it.

- 6 -

Today is the Swedish National Cinnamon Bun day - kanelbullens dag. While still a fairly young holiday (introduced in 1999), it is certainly much loved by the people.

- 7 -

I'm running out of topics here, so let's talk about work. I am finally one of those physicists who uses a computer program that takes hours upon hours to run, so I can set it running, and just walk away (or go to sleep or whatever) and then I can brag about how I worked All Night Long! Seriously. 6pm last night until 6am this morning were incredibly productive.

- The End and The Linkup -

7QT - bicycle repair, cooking, and other fun things

- 1 -

Here is an unexpected thing that I miss about my husband. He is pretty good at keeping me informed of big current events. I have always been terrible at current events. The weekly current events quizzes we were given in seventh grade were the worst.

So when my husband is living in a different country, I miss out on so many little conversations, including the ones about current events. Maybe I should care enough to seek out that information on my own, but I honestly don't see that happening.

I think if there was a blog that posted several times a week with the briefest of brief news summaries, that might be good for me. The other problem is that biased reporting really gets me down.

- 2 -

Although I do prefer to watch hockey games that have a sportscaster who is a fan of my team. It just makes things better than an unbiased sportscaster when there is agreement with me and the tv.

- 3 -

- 4 -

I got a flat tire on my bicycle this week. Punka is the Swedish for that, apparently. Punka, indeed. I watched this video on youtube (as well as a few others, but this one most resembles my bicycle) to learn what I needed to do to fix it.

Even if you don't watch the video, notice that it took this man less than ten minutes to complete the task. It took me about one hundred minutes to do the same exact thing. Not bad for my first tire change though! Although, full disclosure, I got a lot of help from my landlord. My progress would have come to a full stop at least once if not for his assistance.

Now I need to decide if I want to try to patch the hole in the tube or just throw it out. Does anyone have any experience with this and want to give me advice?

- 5 -

This is one of the more interesting blog posts I've read in awhile. It discusses the topic of the first known music video to feature contra dancing. Oh how I love the spirit of contra.

- 6 -

I also learned from that article the "electronic duo" The Knife is Swedish. I have been told several times that music is Sweden's biggest export, and that it happens so often that you find out a band or group is from Sweden, which you may not have known for years and years. I was slightly skeptical about the latter part, since that had never happened to me. Then I read the above article, and now I get it! And for reference, one of the greatest songs in the world, compliments of The Knife:

- 7 -

Last night I made a dinner that was inspired by this coconut chicken recipe. I changed a lot of things though, just because the original recipe is not possible for me in my current circumstances. For one I don't have a dutch oven. For two I'm not about to turn on my oven and leave it on for such a long time (my apartment is small and using the oven is like using a space heater... in the middle of summer). For three I just made this all in a frying pan on the stove and used two chicken breasts instead of a full chicken. For four I just noticed that it only wanted half of the pepper, but I used a whole one and it was yellow. For five I was not able to get cilantro. For six I somehow had it in my head that bok choy was leeks, so when I headed to the store I was planning to buy leeks (even though my list said bok choy). When I got to the produce section and saw the leeks I realized then that they were not bok choy. Somehow when I saw the Swedish word for leek, it dawned on me that it was not bok choy, even though I don't know the Swedish word for bok choy and could not tell you the word for leek.

Long story short, it was very tasty, and I am glad I have leftovers for three more meals!

- The End -

Linking up with Jen!

Friday's seven - back in the US version

- 1 -

Public transportation!

I lived in the Upper Valley of NH/VT for six years and never once road on the FREE buses. Living in Sweden for nine months, and adapting to a life of frequent public transportation utilization, I can now proudly say that I took the FREE bus. Granted, here the routes and timetables are extremely limited compared to Sweden, so it would be very difficult to fully depend on the free buses, but I'm still glad I was able to try it out at least once.

- 2 -

And then I drove a car! For the first time in about nine months. I felt really low to the ground?

- 3 -

My husband got his PhD!

both doctors, nbd

Maybe you are thinking I am a horrible wife for making this third on the list, but let me present you with evidence to the contrary.

In the department there has been a bit of a tradition of writing limericks for the newest PhD. Here is the gem I composed for my husband (just keep in mind that I am NOT a poet and I had to google how to write a limerick, because I can never remember the form, and I still might have gotten it wrong):

There once was a man with his beard so exquisite,

Who with stellar models made a really good fit.

When he's not between the pipes,

at his computer he types.

Which his advisor prefers? We'll never know it!

I got bonus points (gave myself bonus points?) for throwing some hockey lingo in there.

- 4 -

Speaking of hockey!

Such an exciting game! I love how they are all hopping at the end. "Look at the jubilation!"

- 5 -

Speaking of athletes!

Last Saturday I got to go contra dancing! I even called a dance and also taught a Swedish folk dance. Lots of fun for me, despite being super tired and jet-lagged.

- 6 -

On Tuesday I stopped by the letterpress studio to check out Julie's impressive creation. Also, lucky for me, Bob was there, so we got to chat for quite awhile. Bob taught me everything I know about letterpress printing, and he is just one of those people I really like. He always prints his own 'Christmas card' each year, which is really a multiple page booklet which would take someone like me five years to complete. He said he would have sent me one but didn't have my address in Sweden, so I made sure to leave it for him for next Christmas;)

- 7 -

I've been doing a really good job of eating the foods on my list, plus more! Taza chocolate (thanks to Julie and Dave), maple cream soda, delicious Indian food... and on and on! So much deliciousness. At dinner the other night, one of the Dartmouth professors who had previously been doing a post-doc in England was talking about how every single place you live will leave you wanting foods you love but can't find in the new place. So, for example, when/if Greg and I leave Sweden, there will be foods that we miss from there. Already true for julmust and glögg, and I'm sure there are plenty of others that I don't even realize yet. At least I can always get myself to an Ikea cafe to get my fill of princess cake!

--------- The End ---------

As always, Jen has more!

7QT

Another round of quick takes.

- 1 -

I don't know how long this has been going on, but on my boss's door, just under where it says his name, it says "Jedi Master."

- 2 -

Earlier this week I realized that it was not totally dark at 3:30 pm. Hooray! The days really are getting longer!

- 3 -

I did some recruiting for the concert and dance on Saturday. I feel so true to myself! Also, it is like a tree of recruitment. I invite one person, who then invites two more people. Big things are happening here.

- 4 -

I watched Downton Abbey. Obviously it was good. The reason it is worth writing about is that I managed to spoil it for myself. I wasn't actually too worried about spoiling it, and guess what, the wikipedia page contains spoilers. Who knew?! It also doesn't help that I accidentally watched an episode from season three first, which was really confusing. It was like the time I accidentally read book two of the Dragon Tattoo Girl series first. I kept thinking about how much I had to focus to figure out who all the characters were and whatnot. At least with Downton Abbey I went back and watched all the episodes. With the Dragon Tattoo books the first one was never available at the library so I figured since I had already read the second I could just go for the third. And the first never ever became available, so I'll just never know how they started. Probably that influenced my rating on goodreads, but whatever.

- 5 -

If you need to work on the muscle tone of your teres major and teres minor, learn to dance the Bakmes.

- 6 -

You were hoping I included a little hockey clip, weren't you?



How crazy is that?

- 7 -

If a recipe name contains the word "skinny" I immediately lose respect for it. Can't we all just agree to stop that now? No one eats a chocolate chip cookie because they are looking for a healthy snack. I think in general I am just not a fan of adjectives in recipe titles.

I am not this kind of doctor (I really need to incorporate this phrase into more of my life), but I do have strong opinions on this topic which I'll share here. Recipes that replace items with all sorts of magical zero-calorie "foods" just sort of freak me out. The only item I am comfortable with consuming that contains zero calories is water. If we put other things in our body that are zero-calorie, it is because our body does not recognize these items as 'food'.

Keeping Busy

For the past two days I have been partly moping around, but partly keeping busy so that I don't start to feel too sorry for myself and so that no one else starts to feel sorry for me. Greg has had to go back to the states. I am not really looking forward to this Skype-phase of our marriage. I want to be cautious about wishing time away, but I am pretty much wishing this time will go quickly.

The night before Greg left he decided we should make some pepparkakor. This is the standard Swedish Christmas cookie, basically a ginger snap. Normally I have a decent instinct with baking. For example, if I am looking at a recipe that requires 6 cups of flour, I know that the yield is probably a bit high for a household of two, soon to be one. But when a recipe requires 15 dl of flour, then it is just like, 'Okay where is the measuring cup?'. So after we had about half of the cookies made (using our new cookie cutters shaped like a polar bear, giraffe, lion, alligator, and camel), Greg saw that the yield for the recipe was 300. Luckily I don't roll dough very thin, so we only made about 150?



And I cleaned the windows. Riveting! Just look at how filthy they were.



And of course the first day Greg was gone I finished the rest of the Reese's trees that my mother had lovingly sent to me when I panicked about not being able to buy any here. So today I made the peanut butter balls that we had planned to make before Christmas. I guess when you buy a most-delicious cake, any pre-Christmas baking plans get delayed.



Unfortunately (fortunately), though the peanut butter balls look so spectacular in that photo (it is salt sprinkled on top! so amazing!), the removal of peanut butter balls from plate was not a smooth operation. The chocolate majorly stuck to the plate. Unless I let them warm up a bit, in which it stuck all over my fingers. Needless to say, these are not presentable and will not be shared with anyone else. Sad day for me? I put half of them in the freezer so that I wouldn't eat them all in two days. Although a frozen peanut butter ball is probably delicious...

In other news I just like reading blogs and I am now obsessed with Ana's blog. I feel so lucky to have learned about 'super bust-out mode'. Basically, set a timer, pick a task, and get as much done with it as you can in the allotted time. Aim for quantity over quality. I just busted-out on the kitchen and basically got everything done in under the 30 minutes I gave myself. But before, I was looking at all of the mess and thinking about how it would take hours to clean, a task which was too daunting to even start.

I think it helps that I've created a super bust-out mode playlist on spotify. (Spell checker wants that to say spottily.) So far it has two songs, Party Rock Anthem and Kerncraft 400. It took a little searching for that second one, because I only know it as the Hockey Goal Song.

Elitserien

This year we have had a major lack in hockey compared to last year, when Greg was playing 2 or 3 nights a week (or 4 sometimes?) and also running goalie clinics for the mini goalies. Add in some Bruins games (watched on tv only, too bad we never got down to a game) and we were pretty much maxed out with hockey.

In Sweden, there is hockey all around, but we hadn't made it to a game yet. There is a team in Uppsala which plays in the second highest level league, so it should be easy enough to make it to games. Plus the tickets are quite cheap for what you get. But so far it just hasn't happened.

What has happened though, is Elitserien hockey! This is the Swedish Elite League, and let me tell you, elite it is! I don't think it is quite NHL level, but maybe more like AHL? Except that it is a totally different game, because the only thing I remember about the AHL is that it was more fightey than the NHL, which I found surprising.

We went down to Stockholm to see AIK play against Skellefteå AIK. There were a few similarities between the teams. Like having the same name (AIK), the same colors (yellow and black), fans wearing the same scarves, and calling the same chants. The fan sections were actually quite incredible. They were like fans at a college game, standing for the entire game, and yelling organized songs/chants/jeers/what have you. And they have names! The fans of AIK are the Black Army, and the fans of Skellefteå AIK are North Power. I took pictures.

Hockey

It took until February, but I have finally put on my ice skates this season. Just over a week ago was my first time out this year, and it was a beautiful day on Occom Pond. The temperature was perfectly warm for skating, but plenty cold to keep the ice solid. And the sun was shining so I got to wear my amazing pink sunglasses. What more could I have asked for?

Greg and I had been planning to go skating, mainly so I could get my ice-legs back, but we found out a visiting priest had brought his skates along, so we headed to the pond with him. I borrowed a stick, and we ended up playing a game against two kids.

They were basically skating circles around me, but I got a breakaway once and scored a goal. Take that kids.

Last weekend we were at Lake Morey for a pond hockey tournament that Greg was playing in. The ice was in beautiful condition, but I never really got inspired to put my skates on for that one. I did get some amazing pictures though!

The "pond" is huge and has a 4.5 mile skating loop around the perimeter.

So I skipped the good pond ice, but last night I got to skate again, this time at the fabulous Thompsen Arena. Our intramural hockey team had a game, and we were very short-handed, and no one wanted to be the goalie, so I got to have my first experience with that. In case you were wondering, it is not possible to obtain goalie skills by osmosis. That would have been really nice though.

It was kind of a scramble to get the gear on before the game started, so it ended up that I only saw one shot for warmup, which mostly was a test of whether or not I could stand back up after falling down while wearing gear. Luckily I could. It just took awhile. Then the game started, and the first two shots I saw made me feel invisible. I couldn't even move with all the padding I was wearing, and yet somehow, it was not enough to keep the puck from going right through me! After the second goal Sam advised me to keep my stick out in front of me a little further to "cut down on the angle". Oh yeah! I know all about angles! And for that matter, why was I standing as close to the goal as possible? At this point in the game I started to make more of an effort to keep my whole body a little further in front of the net to cut down on that angle too. Shots number 3 and 4 I blocked and it was amazing! In my head, the quintessential hockey goal song was playing, in celebration:

Unfortunately on the fourth shot that was a block, I also gave up a rebound, which was another goal. We ended up losing the game, and I ended up letting in more shots than I blocked. But the fact that I blocked any shots at all was a victory in my mind. I also felt accomplished once when the other team's good skater had a breakaway, but his shot was just outside of the net. I'm pretty sure that happened because I was playing so good positionally, I didn't give him any open net :)

And I was so wired after the game that I basically did not sleep at all last night.

And because I see them all over and finally took a picture, a gratuitous photo of a dog running on ice:

hockey!

This year the physics department gathered up enough interest to get our very own intramural hockey team! In previous years I have played with the debate team, because they would sign up in the co-ed league, which required at least two girls to be on the ice at all times, and for some reason they just didn't always have enough girls show up to their games.
This is a video from two years ago. I am on the yellow team, wearing green pants, and I'm pretty sure I got an assist, which is about the only good thing I ever did while playing with that team. Luckily Tim, who was filming, took note of this amazing feat by yelling MY name and not the name of the one who got the goal:)


This year our team is much less shaky, as there seems to be quite a bit of hockey talent in the physics/astronomy department.
Below is a picture of six of our guys and just one opponent. I swear it was during actual gametime... not my fault if the other teams gave up on playing offense. My favorite is how we have one player in figure skates. It just makes everything so much more like Mighty Ducks.


This kid is about to get clobbered by the astro professor who plays with us. He is not a small man to start with, but wearing full hockey gear makes him look downright intimidating. Also, please note that we have one fan in the audience!! woohoo!!


Aside from playing a few late night Monday games (one was after 11pm, so pretty much I was asleep on the ice), we have been playing out on the pond as well. Yesterday Greg, Dustin, and I were challenged to a game by a group consisting of a dad/uncle and a bunch of cousins/brothers between the ages of maybe 8 and 14. I was slightly intimidated, because pond hockey can get kind of out of control sometimes. At any rate, I agreed to play, knowing that I could just leave at any time. We took the youngest brother Paul on our team, and played 4 on 5. We had tons of fun, and eventually, with enough passes to Paul, he got us our last goal, which he was pretty pleased about, considering he was playing against his older brothers. We ended up skating for two hours and today I am quite tired and sore. All in all a good time, and I am SO glad I'm not stuck in Alaska and missing the entire skating season like last year!