Possible short term absence

We are moving this weekend into our new apartment!  Woohoo!!! Yesterday we actually went and bought a new (used) fridge/freezer combo to add to our kitchen.  The one that comes with the apartment, just won't be enough.  :)  So I will finally have more food storage space!!  We also picked up a new (also used) coffee table.  I am so loving it!  I can't wait to get the rest of the furniture into the apartment!

This weekend is also the biggest holiday weekend in Sweden, midsommar.  So virtually everything is closed and coming to a grinding halt.  Including the installation and transitioning of our utilities.  Namely, cable and internet. They say it could take a week maybe 2 for it all to be up and running in the new apartment.  If that's the case, I won't be online, let alone blogging, for a while.

So this blog is to serve as a little warning just in case.  :)  But I will try to write up my blogs on MS Word during the down time and just publish them as soon as the net is up and running.  So there might be an onslaught of new blogs in a week or two.  Hehehe.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!!!

Happy blogging all!

-FXA

Tour the new Apartment!!

So as you may remember from my previous blog posts that we are moving soon.  Next weekend to be exact.  And our new landlords have finished wallpapering and fixing up the apartment from the previous tenant.  My boyfriend went and picked up the keys today so I decided to whip out the digi cam and shoot a quick video showing you what it actually looks like.  In a previous post  I posted the floor plan I drew up online using a cool website.  In the floor plan you can see where we might place the furniture.  The apartment is completely empty in the video.  So you'll have to either refer to floor plan from previous post or use your imagination as to what it'll look like with furniture in it.  :)  Enjoy!!!

Bashful you say?!?

Well if your the bashful type you don't belong in Sweden.  I say that because you have to be prepared to let it all hang out when you go for many medical things here.  Getting a chest X-Ray??  Everything on top needs to come off.  What? You want a gown or a blanket or something to drape over you? DENIED!  Going to the gyno for your oh so fun women's exam...everything off.  That is kind of the same here, but here you don't even get a paper drape to put over yourself while your laying there with legs in stirrups.  Seriously!  Cannot be bashful here.

The best part is the use of windows EVERYWHERE!

I go into my gyno's office today and there was an entire wall of windows and the blinds were angled open so I could see down to the street (they were the horizontal blinds).  Naturally after stripping down and looking up and seeing the sun shinning and people walking around outside I said to my doc "umm, they can't see in here right!??"  Her response "nah, only one that could possible see anything is someone up in the church tower across the street."  So my response (being the smart ass that I am) was,"well it's not so far fetched to find a creepy man of the church!"

Two weeks ago I had to get chest x-rays done to try and find the cause of my 6 week long cough that wouldn't go away.  And the woman tells me to take off my top, bra and all, and oh by the way one wall of the x-ray room was a wall of windows into the centralized computer room for the department that handles xrays and mri's.  At any given time there is a handful or more of people in there.  And oh yeah, again blinds open.  I couldn't even keep a tank top on with bra off.  Nope!  Needed to be totally topless.

So yeah, can't be the least bit of shy and bashful about your body and nudity here.  That being said, it's not so far fetched to see people sun bathing nude or topless here either.  I guess it's a European thing.  It's definitely taking some getting used to.  But it's also teaching me to be more comfy with my body.  So I guess it's not such a bad thing after all, eh?

-FXA

Updates!

So I have surgery in less then 36 hrs and will be in the hospital for 2-4 days depending on how I'm feeling and if there are any complications.  And after that I intend to be bestfriends with some pain killers and next week we are moving and then I have my 2nd surgery.  Insanity right??!?!  What this all adds up to is I'm going to be very busy, very stressed, doped up, in pain and not likely posting much.  Just a forewarning.  :)

Now onto the updates.

Moving process is coming along nicely.  And after Wed it won't be my concern anymore.  As I'm exempt from packing, moving, etc thanks to my surgery.  Hehehe.  It's a valid exemption!

The veggies are doing alright.  My poor pepper plant has been invaded by aphids and alas I think the battle against them is a lost cause.  I still have pepper fruit on the plant and some new one growing, but virtually every leaf is yellowed.  I even tried the soap and water solution, but I think it might have been too little too late.  Everything else is growing wonderfully!!  I have already started using my parsley and dill that I grew from seeds in recipes!  And my green beans are about ready for their first harvest!!  The sugar snap peas have yet to bloom let alone produce, but they have managed to grow to about 4 ft tall.  Oh, and last week I decided to try planting broccoli seeds!  The little seedlings have already broke the surface!  So now it's a wait and see what happens game.  :)

Swedish language.  Well I have started speaking swedish in public!  Shocking, I know right!?!?  I have also begun chatting in swedish my "mother-in-law" on facebook chat.  While I haven't been in school since April due to illnesses, doctors visits, and all the other madness that is my life, I am still trying to soak up the language.  I even watched a few swedish tv shows.  And I'm bringing a couple of workbooks with me in my hospital bag to provide "entertainment" while in the hospital.  Because you know, when your high as a kite and freshly sliced open, the one thing you want to do is to study a foreign language.  Hahaha.  At least I'm making an effort.  Right?

So there's the latest and greatest (well maybe not greatest) of whats happening now in my life....on the other side of the planet!

-FXA

Let the car season begin!

This may come as a shocker to many of you (most of you in America), that Swede's are really into muscle cars and hot rods.  Especially American muscle cars.  Every summer there is a HUGE car meet/show here that is actually the largest American car show outside of America!  Its called Power Big Meet.  This blog isn't actually about that.  That's in a few weeks.  But my boyfriend is a huge car enthusiast.  He even has his own baby.  A '94 Chevy Camaro (Gen 4).  He's a member of the Camaro Club of Sweden also.  As a member we get to go to car club meetings, and we get to go to other car meetings as well via invitation.

So this past weekend the Camaro Club of Sweden was invited to attend a Hot Rod/Classic Car meeting in Västerås at the Autotek Garage.  So Nick and I went.  We were one of maybe 5 camaros there.  For the most part it was classic cars with a few newer ones thrown into the mix.  There was even a drag racer there, and it was a woman!!!  That made me happy!  Girl Power!  She gave us a display of her muscle.

So I'm not a big grease monkey like my honey.  So I just point and say "Ooh, pretty car!" Hehehe.  But I do have a fond appreciation for some of the cars at this show.  I do love some classic American cars.  They just don't make them like they used to anymore.  I actually told my boyfriend that I wouldn't mind if one day we owned one of these 50's-60's style cars.  I mean, talk about riding in style!  I asked if he'd be interested in one day buying an old one that needs some love and rebuilding it together.  Gives me a chance to learn more and us a chance to do something together.  :) Yeah, he wasn't thrilled about that idea.  He said he loves cars, but not that much to do all that work to them.  Hahaha.  Wimp!

Are you like foaming at the mouth yet to see what cars were there?  I know you are!  I bet you can't stand to read one more line of blathering dribbles.  You just want the pics.  Okay, here they come!

I did mention video too didn't I?  Hmm.  Well here it comes.  My apologies for the lack of visual and audio quality.  I took the video using my digital camera.  It was much more impressive in person.  Being that it is a small side street, she didn't have much room to let her rip.  Towards the end of the summer I'll hopefully be going to Mantorp which has tons of drag racing and drift racing.  I'll try to get better video then.  :) In the meantime, enjoy!

So there's the highlight of my weekend!

-FXA

Madness, Mayhem, and Moving!

June is proving to be like the craziest month of the last few years for me.

On June 16, I have one surgery.  June 27 we are moving into our bigger apartment.  June 28, another surgery!  Insane right?  I know!  Believe it or not, I didn't plan this.  My surgeries were supposed to be earlier, but had been delayed.  It just so happened that everything ended up having to be close together.  Oh and did I mention Sweden's biggest holiday is June 25/26 (Midsummer)?

Plus side for me is thanks to the surgery, I don't have to actually help with the moving.  Woohoo!!  Now, the negative side is that because of the surgeries and the moving, I've had to get a head start on packing and all that fun stuff.  My boyfriend will be working pretty much everyday he's not by my side with the surgeries and after-care.  And he's like the worlds biggest procrastinator.  So I don't expect him to get much packing done.  So between all the stuff needed to prepare for the surgeries, moving, and the fact that allergies and illnesses have kept me in bed on and off for the last 6 weeks I have been insanely busy!!!!  It seems as though I currently live in the sovereign state of chaos!

My boyfriend said to me last night that I am not to even be at the new apartment helping direct where to put things.  He seems to think I should stay at his moms in bed while everyone puts everything where ever in the new apartment.  HA!  Does anyone believe that is really going to happen?  In case I was physically forced to stay behind, I decided to make up a floor plan of our new apartment and to get an idea of where the furniture and things should go.  So I found this nifty website to help with that.  I was able to draw out the floor plan to the best of my non-architect abilities and then furnish it.  I could even change the flooring.  I was a little bummed I couldn't change the wall colors.  That would have been much cooler.  Oh, and it has a 3D option. They have different level accounts, but mine was just basic and free.  So I'm sure there are tons more cool things I could have done with a better account.  Oh well.  Below is the floor plan I drew up.




Note:  It's not exactly correct with measurements or any of that.  I didn't get that into detail. And a few things had to be substituted (we don't really have 3 fridges in the kitchen, we'll only have 2 combo fridge/freezers).  As for the furniture, again just used what they had on the website.  The colors are exact.  And we don't have a dining room table yet.  It's on the I really really want list.  :)  And I decided not to include all the piles of boxes that surely we'll be cluttering up the space for weeks if not months to come.  lol.  And I haven't completely decided that's where all the furniture is going to go (mainly in the living room). 


So there you'll see a pic of our soon to be new home!  When we get moved in and unpacked and all that I'll be sure to take pictures and maybe even a video.  :)


Bare with me over the next month with all the stuff going on, in case I don't post as much.  


Happy Blogging All!


-FXA

My apologies for the delay!

Hey all!

Just wanted to apologize for being lazy with the blogging.  It's amazing how the days just slip away.  I said to myself, got to post at least one blog a week.  Then last week I was like eh, too busy.  And this week I was like eh, the world won't stop spinning.  So it's my bad.

Quick little update on things.  The indoor garden is doing alright.  My pea plants are trying to see if they grow all the way up to celing.  My green bean plants got all kind of out of control so we had to go all mcguyver on them and construct a climbing and detention system.  My basil and chive seedlings are flourishing and i'm being equally as lazy about potting them as I have been about blogging.  Hey! It's on my to-do list.

Moving in a little over 3 weeks!  Lots and lots of stress to be had for all!  With that and surgeries coming up this month as well I have found myself stressed to the max.  Too much to do, and too little time to do it in! :)

So there's the quick version.  More to be coming later!  I won't slack this time.

-FXA