baby snuggles and a chipmunk

August 13, 2019

Hope you’re having a fantastic day! I woke up around 5 and couldn’t fall back to sleep so I’ve been a bit tired all day, but that’s ok. I had my blood test done in the morning, I really hope for some great answers tomorrow. For the past two tests I’ve been kinda more excited to hear what my doctor will tell me…or, excited might not be the right word, but now I have really tried something on my own that can help me get my level down so I’m of course curious if it helped. Didn’t see much better result last week so I’m really hoping for better news now. 

So, what did we do this weekend? On Friday we took Thor to the vet for his annual checkup and to get some shots. He was such a brave boy, very proud of him. And he’s a healthy boy. He has gained some weight just like his momma but he’s still tiny. J and I went to have a quick dinner out and then spent the night at home with T and watched the movie There will be Blood. On Saturday we had our normal donut delight coffee, took T for a long walk and then we went to the gym for an hour. When we came back Thor looked like a completely different dog, he was all puffy. We called the vet immediately who told us to send a picture of him. Seems to have been an allergic reaction to the shots from Friday. He has had these shots before and never reacted. I thought at first he had got bitten by something outside cause he did scratch his face a bit when we were out. Jim gave him a tiny bit of benadryl (allergy pill) and then we kept an eye on him for a few hours. Aww, my baby, he looked like a chipmunk, or at least half his face did. But he didn’t seem bothered and was happy so not too much to worry about.

He doesn’t look as bad on picture like he did irl. He was very very swollen

Later in the evening he looked so much better. We gave him a tiny bit more benadryl. We decided he was fine to be left alone so we took a taxi over to our friends house. We ordered pizza and had a real good time. The boys sat on the balcony for some of the time while us ladies snuggled baby George. He’s two weeks old now and so small and cute.

J bought the Google Pixel3 phone last week so we tested some selfie option:)

On Sunday we took it pretty easy. Still kept an eye on T who’s face was back to normal. J and I went to this Mexican place with good rating for lunch and it was really good! We sat on our terrace for awhile and then we went for a walk over to Mill River Park for Paws & Pints. That was not really what we expected. Sometimes they have these events in the park with food trucks and drinks and usually it’s a nice setup. But this thing meant “bring your dog to the park, get charged to register your dog to be allowed to walk in the Stamford parks or get fined a much larger sum of money later, buy a drink and stand in the fenced in dog area and look at your sweaty pups”. Thor was actually being a really nice boy in the park, proud of him, he had a good time. You never know with him so we always have to watch him. Eventually we took our drinks and walked around in the rest of the park instead. Back home we were too tired to do anything so we just hung out and did basically nothing for the rest of the day. 

Midsommar away again

June 26, 2019

As I wrote in last post, we ended up celebrating Midsommar a day late. Thor had a spa appointment at noon on Saturday so after dropping him off we went home and I created a wreath of the daisies we had bought a few days earlier while Jim cut apples in pieces. I fixed my hair a little, changed clothes and made an apple pie.
We packed a picnic bag and drove to Cove Island. We found a spot in the shade. It was a bit cloudy and windy, but it felt Swedish haha. After awhile, we drove back home and not long after we could go pick Thor up at the spa. We had asked for a short haircut but leave a little in the face, but his face was as short as the rest, oh well, it’s hot outside and it’ll grow back. He kinda looks like a tiny fox or more like a cat now, not so much like a Thor, but whatever, he’s still cute.
For dinner we had grilled salmon and potatis with dill on everything, our apartment smelled like my grandma’s house back when I was a kid.
We grabbed drinks and took our exhausted puppy up to the rooftop and watched the sunset. 

We had a perfect Midsummer celebration! I’m very happy with how the day turned out. Midsummer is the one day a year when I really want to be in Sweden. The hours of light in a day during summer is one of my favorite things in life. When I was a kid I never pulled the curtains down when I went to sleep. I loved waking up when the sun hit my face in the morning. You don’t get as many hours of sleep during summer months but it’s worth it. On Midsummer, the sun doesn’t really go down, I love it!
This was my 9th (!!) Midsommar away from Sweden. Every year I tell my husband the same thing “Maybe next year we can celebrate Midsommar in Sweden”. I said it this year again and we’ll see:) 

Thor celebrated Midsommar on Friday when he was still fluffy

a day in NYC and first weekend in June

June 3, 2019

Hello! How are you lovelies? I am tip top. Woke up a bit later than I wanted today, but whatever. I have many things I want to do today, very motivated:) Most of it is by the computer which is boring for my little fluffis, but I will take breaks and take him for walks. It is a bit hot for him to go outside in the middle of the day though so I have to keep it short. His fluff is getting long now and our two regular groomers are fully booked so I’m not sure what to do, probably have to find someone new. 

Anyhow… On Friday I had a full day to myself again. Jim took Thor to work at 7:20 am and I enjoyed my breakfast in front of youtube for a bit. I had really planned out my morning well, no stress at all, I felt very calm. Breakfast, cleaning up a bit in the apartment, getting ready and then I went for a walk to the train station. On my way there the maintenance guy called and asked if he could enter our apartment (our bedroom curtain was broke again) and I assured him that Thor would not be there and bother him, hahah. 
I came to Manhattan a bit early so I walked over to Tudor City Parks. I have not been there since I performed with The Equus Projects there 2013. Then I walked to the Swedish Consulate for my 11:30 appointment. I was there for one minute and then I took the subway down to our old neighborhood, Financial District/Battery Park City. Oh my, it looks quite different. I bought coffee and tuna bagel at the market across from our old apartment and I didn’t recognize the place inside, a lot of improvements. With my lunch I walked over to the park where Midsummer celebration is every year. I sat on the grass on a blanket that I had with me for a few hours. Read my book, ate lunch and watched people walking by. I sat in the shade of course since I can’t be in the sun after chemo. It was a pretty hot day and I was wearing long pants, a thinner sweater and eventually a hat along with sunscreen to protect myself.  I was a sweaty betty for sure.
I walked up along the Hudson River and then into Soho and took the subway up to Grand Central and I arrived just in time for the last off-peak train to Stamford (peak trains costs more and are usually packed). My day was perfect. My legs were sore and I felt a bit tired, but I’m glad that I decided to stay in the city instead of going back home after picking up my passport.

My favorite place in the city is gone :'( Right after we moved they started to build a new bridge over the highway. This is outside of the vet and the grocery store next to our apartment.
The whole neighborhood including the dog parks is a shit show right now, I’m glad we moved before

First time that my passport photo didn’t look too terrible 🙂

On Saturday we had plans with D and G but late Friday night they booked a last minute “babymoon” trip to Belize. I needed to rest my legs that was still sore from the shots and from all the walking I did on Manhattan, so I didn’t mind not having plans anymore. We had a relaxed morning and in the afternoon we made burgers on the rooftop and then took Thor for a longer walk to the park close by. At night I was watching something on my tablet while Jim watched Svengoolie on TV – I was not at all interested in the movie they showed, Billy the kid versus Dracula from 1966, even the name sounds terrible.

On Sunday I got up two hours before my boys and did stuff on my computer. We had decided to go see the Avengers at the movie theater in the afternoon since the weather was kinda crappy in the morning, but when it was time to leave it was sunny outside and we decided to skip the 3 hour long movie and go have lunch at a bar instead. And then we had a pretty relaxed afternoon. This weekend we started to watch the new tv-show Chernobyl that everyone is talking about. Not sure if I like it or not. Have you seen it?

Not a too exciting weekend, but that’s ok. I couldn’t enjoy the sun anyway and I felt that I needed to stay calm and relaxed after treatment. Not all weekends need to involve some super extreme stuff, hanging out with hubby and puppy is enough:)

Memorial Day Weekend

May 28, 2019

Good morning, hope you had a wonderful three-day-weekend!

On Saturday morning we took Thor with us to Mianus River Park and hiked for an hour. Lots of bugs out and we don’t have bug spray for T (please remember that most human bug sprays are toxic for dogs), so we kept it shorter. I don’t remember much of what else we did that day. I cleaned the apartment, we drove to get a gift at the Scandinavian store, I did laundry, J went to the gym, we ate steak for dinner and watched the movie “Glass” at night. That’s it.

On Sunday I went to Daniela’s baby shower.

Yesterday I woke up at 6, took Thor out, made coffee and then sat on the terrace for maybe three hours just reading my book. J and T joined me when they woke up. So nice that it’s finally summer and we can enjoy the outside! Sunday was the hottest day this year so far with a temperature above 86°F, a day when it doesn’t matter if you shower cause you’ll end up wet and sticky once you go outside again:) 
After Jim was done at the gym we walked over to Tigin on Bedford to have lunch outside. They have a spicy bloody mary that I like and together with the fish tacos that I ordered it got pretty spicy. J went home and I continued to Target to buy black shorts to use under dresses but they didn’t have any, but I did end up with a cute pants-dress. When I had spent way too much time at Target I walked over to a Mexican place where J and Thor sat. 
At night we watched the movie “Zodiac” from 2007. Not the greatest movie, it was long too and this true story had no real ending, they never solved it. But it was a little interesting I guess.

This morning I got up early to get my blood test done. Now I’m hoping my doctor will send me a message or call me tomorrow with good news. Fingers crossed! 

a weekend mostly outside

April 8, 2019

Feels like I only share weekend updates with you guys. Oh well. Here’s another one 😀

This weekend actually gave us nice weather and we tried to enjoy it to the max.

Jim wanted to play basketball at the athletic club now before they close down. Since he was the only one in there I decided to join him but danced instead. Nice with lots of space.

We drove to costco around lunch time. We broke our previous record on how much money we spent there. Meat, more meat, salmon, bread, cheese, coffee, power bars, a $4 Fila sweater for me, two books and $25 puma shoes for Jim. Sometimes you can actually find some good deals, like a cheap sweater or real nice meat. We had a very awesome (and huge) steak for dinner that night. 

After shopping we took Thor for a long walk to the dog park and then we sat in the sun on the rooftop in our building for awhile. 

I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat so we took it pretty easy all Sunday morning. We had planned to go climbing but since I felt a little mushy we decided to bring Thor and drive down to Harbor Point instead. We walked by the water and then in the new park area. There’s a dog park as well and Thor got along with all the big dogs there…until one big dog attacked him and we decided to leave. 

Back in the apartment J went to the gym and I decorated our wreath that we have on the door. Why buy a new wreath when you can decorate the same one for each season? I’ve had two spring flowers in it after Christmas and now I changed into feathers and eggs for Easter. 

Then we went to our now normal weekend bar. I really wanted oysters so I first ordered 3 and then 3 more all just for myself:) later, Jim made burgers for dinner – with meat from costco of course. And then I was done for the day, just watched crap on tv before going to bed. 

I feel so much better today. Taking it easy yesterday was perfect. It was hard to get up when my alarm went off at 6 am, it took me another 30 minutes before I got up and took Thor out, but once I was up I was fit for fight. And then I went to the gym. Only for 20 minutes though before J had to leave for work. I have stuff to do today and we are going into the city tonight so I wanted to just get some cardio in right in the morning. Now I’m ready for a new week:)