6-7-8

six years

seven years

eight years:

happy anniversary to us! drinking yoghurt smoothies and lattes in sweden together certainly doesn't suck (along with nana, papa and owen at condeco in göteborg)-- and we got to have an early anniversary "date night" courtesy of nana and papa last week. we went to cazzanova on the square for dinner--and the appetizers were definitely the highlight: carpaccio and goat cheese and pear bruschetta. we then strolled through the brightly lit evening and enjoyed some pints at the bishop arms (children under 23 and mother in laws are strictly forbidden--engraved decorusly on the wall) and watched the procession of bikes over the bridge and old american cars down kungsgatan.

and though we've missed birthdays, mother's days, and i think spent 1 out of the last 5 independence days together, we seem to always come together to celebrate being together. really, what could be more important?

owen on age

overheard while owen was on the phone with grandma and grandpa:

grandpa how old will you be on your birthday?

oh. that's REALLY old! you can touch the top of the clouds!

grandma, how old are you?

oh, you can touch the top of houses or maybe even hotels.

me, i can touch the middle of the window.

chicken soup for the epistolary soul

a couple of weeks ago owen very carefully and lovingly wrote two postcards to his grandparents--but i only had enough postage left for one card and tucked both in my bag until i could pick up more stamps. on our way down drottingggatan we walked by the post box and out of habit pulled the cards out and dropped both in. i realized (ok, michael realized) my faux pas and a few blocks later i tried to explain to the postman that i needed to put stamps on my postcard. of course he directed me to the presbyran--a little conveince store where i could buy stamps--and pedaled away on his mail bicycle (see previous post for pic). anyhow, i put my faith in the yellow and blue posthorn and yesterday guess who got their postcards? yup, grandma and grandpa--one with 12 sek worth of stamps and one with no postage at all. grandpa was convinced that it was owen's carefully written message that made it through the stamp police. it just goes to show you that stamp fairies do exist! they do! they do!

oh, and today we hit the mail lottery--two care packages from our best friends and pictures from grandma and grandpa and stickers from missy! xoxoxo

look what we won at lisberg!

yes, 2 kilos of toblerone! after about 100 sek our number came up on "topphjulet" or tobelrone wheel of fortune and we joined the hundreds of happy swedes at lisberg
parading around carnival sized chocolate. mmmm. chocolate souvies for everyone when we return!

Midsommardagen

Midsummer's Day which took place last Friday is a very big holiday here in Sweden. There were several choices for us to go and celebrate the traditional Swedish way with a couple hundred people or so. We chose to go to Alsters herrgård, the birthplace of the Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding.

The weather didn't start out too good, but by the time the actual festivities started, it had cleared up a bit. It started out with the actual raising of the maypole, then there was a wedding ceremony (not traditional). Then some traditional dancing, and then finally everyone was invited to hold hands and dance around the maypole. Owen especially liked the song Små grodorna ("The little frogs").

Waiting in the rain/sun:

Raising the maypole:

Traditional dancing:

Owen and other kids who couldn't wait for the dancing to start:

uppsala: from linnaeus to ogentheow

last weekend we drove to uppsala (pronounced oops-uh-luh) to pick up my parents who had flown into stockholm earlier in the week (the town's about a 15 minute trainride from the bustling swedish capitol. it was an idyllic couple of days spent enjoying the fruits of carl linnaeus' labor--from the meticulous linnaeus garden to the tranquil uppsala botanic garden. here are a few of my favorite snapshots from this lovely university town--with three cameras between us we spent most of the time in macro mode (i couldn't take enough of the botanic hand scrolled flora markers) or trying to get owen to pose in front of garden statues (the best shots, though were when we caught him singing to ladybugs or playing in the dirt).

on our way back to karlstad we stopped at gamla uppsala to see the ancient burial mounds--which date back to medieval swedish history and most notably (at least in terms of literary priorities) are the connections to the legendary beowulf poem

owen's swedish mirror dance

we're a bit behind uploading our pics... but please enjoy the following "swedish! mirror!" dance (done in the "mirror room" at Värmland's Museum's awesome science center) in the meantime:

celebrating claudia

this afternoon we went to the uppsla cathedral and in the sacred quiet of this gothic church i lit a candle for my beloved cousin claudia who passed away this week after a nine year battle with breast cancer. it was an indulgent, however brief moment of mourning. today her family and friends are gathering not to mourn, as she insisted, but to celebrate her life amid loved ones and the ballads of rick springfield. although we're on the other side of the world, we too are celebrating claudia--and really, if any one had the blessing to know her (even if only long enough to see her smile) how could you not? she was a vivacious, beautiful, funny and courageous woman. last week her daughter asked that we contribute to a "why we love claudia" memory book--i don't know if she had the chance to read the contributions before she left us so in the spirit of celebration (and because i know she will continue to bless us) i'll share ours:

We love Claudia because she has always celebrated family and friends and shown us how important it is to be surrounded by loved ones. We love Claudia because when she was in California she would call and ask: "Do you want to meet us at the beach in 15 minutes?" and of course we would always say yes (the books, the laundry, the other appointments could always be rescheduled!); likewise if we were within driving distance she'd gather up the family and meet us for lettuce wraps or coffee or cheesecake. . . We love Claudia because she puts the cool, the celebrate, the courageous in cousin; we love Claudia and always will.

here are a couple of the pictures my dad found looking through our albums--i think they capture the cardinale cousins at our best!

l-r cassie, jim, me, vince, amanda, claudia, ginny, sal (mary rose wasn't here yet!)

the cardinale girls-- singing and signing " young at heart" for grandma and grandpa's wedding anniversary (weren't we all so hot!): mary rose, amanda, ginny, claudia, cassie, me



Claudia Claudio Memorial Fund

in search of sverige posten

today owen and i went searching for the post office--we saw the swedish posthorns on boxes and even on this bike!

i checked the map of karlstad but only saw P for Parking and no Post. found posten.se and got excited over new scandanavian stamps. we even found a real live post lady and asked how to get to the post office--she looked a little flustered and said oh, there's no post office. what? how can that be? i mean, shouldn't it be a cathedral, gothic, grogeous building with marble floors and a griffin perched out front. nope, the post went broke so it's all online and stamps and packages can be mailed from the ica maxi. so today we trekked up to the market and found the stamp queue, snaking its way from the summer muskmellons to the crates of 1.5 litre ramlösa bottles. and we bought stamps, mailed a package to owen's best friend, then took our postcards and searched the square for a proper post box. i imagine it's only a matter of time until we're conducting usps business in a stater bros. all that said, inky postcards and affixing frimärken still holds its thrill, hallowed building or not.

"welcome to our swedish room!"

this is owen in one take, unscripted, and full of swedish enthusiasm!

swedish pantry

while it may not be swedish, we pulled together a tasty meal for dinner last night since owen readjusted his clock by taking a "nap" from 2-9 pm. michael had picked up some pasta, cherry tomatoes and feta cheese earlier in the week and to our fortune had also mistakenly grabbed up a tin of kalamata olives instead of olive oil. while out yesterday we grabbed a pot of fresh thyme (potted herbs are very popular in the market--everything from sage to italian parsley) and so when our dinner plans fell through we had a lovely dinner date. i highly recommend this dish whether or not you only have half a dozen ingredients and one stovetop burner!

our apartment is working out nicely--it's fairly spacious (compared to the hotel rooms we're used to!) and very functional with a little dining table, couch, desk, and even a dresser and mini armoire. we're nearly "settled in" and you can see our kitchen and "dining room" area as well as a bit of our "living room" behind michael . more pics of the rest of our pad soon.

"my tummy loves swedish food!"

so far we love what the swedes call fika--taking a break with coffee and something sweet. while getting our lunch at ikea yesterday owen immediately spied the sweet table and exclaimed:

mommy can we get some of these good things?

the "good things" we chose were good indeed: the traditional chokladboll which is exactly what it sounds like--a chocolate ball. mmmm. and dammsugare punsch rolls--someone posted a good description and recipe here--which are these grashopper green rolls dipped in chocolate and filled with punsch liquer which gives it an amaretto-like sweetness. and although ikea sweden is exactly like ikea costa mesa their cinnamon rolls (and they do take credit for inventing these sweet treats) known kanelbulle are smaller and a bit more savory and tasty!

p.s. to travelling with a 4 year old (a lot of bathroom talk)

first of all, let me say again that owen is a super-traveller. he patiently made it through a 4 hour and an 8 hour plane ride, traversed 3 airports, 2 security check points, and a 3 hour car ride. all this after 14 days of "getting ready" to go to sweden and at least 2 months of anticipating being with daddy. so for a long trip with a 4 year old i have to admit it we had it pretty easy--this was especially clear to me in the international security line standing behind a woman traveling solo with 3 kids: one infant strapped in the baby bjorn, two toddlers in tow. nonetheless, we had a few funny moments--

on the packed flight to chicago we were next to a business traveler on the aisle who was friendly enough--chatting to me about malcolm galdwell and genius theory and his son in law school--until he fell asleep (michael pointed out that it was bad protocol to do so in the aisle seat next to a mom and a preschooler). let me sidetrack and note that this was the first flight i didn't have to do a standing diaper change in the cramped in-flight bathroom--and i was both excited and little concerned about owen getting up to use the bathroom (this comes back later). anyhow, owen rather loudly announced: "mom, i have to POOP!". and of course he meant right now, that moment. so i had to wake up sleeping guy who had to get up and get out of the aisle so we could run to the bathroom. he didn't talk to us the rest of the flight.

in the elevator up to terminal 5 owen points to me and tells a college student: "this lady is going to sweden to see her husband."

and back to the bathrooms. owen LOVED the swirly blue toilets on united (b. reminded me of the blue arm in h. thompson's fear and loathing). but HATED the toilets on SAS. when he flushed it he was so terrified by the ominous sucking sound and echo that he started screaming "my ears! my ears! make it stop!". i was convinced he had burst an eardrum and was having pain from the pressure on the cabin and was going to get him some benadryl. but as soon as we left the bathroom he was fine. i asked how his ears felt--"they're fine mommy, but don't EVER flush the toiled again. it's too loud." the rest of the flight i could only get him to use the bathroom if i promised i wouldn't flush and had to wait until he was well down the aisle before pushing the button.

luckily, we have a very quiet toilet in our room with a cool "pull" flusher.

we made it to abba land!

owen posing with his favorite dancing queens at arlanda airport (after 12 hours in the air as a super traveler!) in the stockholm hall of fame

countdown to season four!

it's been a bit manic here as we get ready for our 4th season abroad--this round's been especially exciting because although this is a relatively "brief" stay (5 weeks in karlstad then a week or so stop over in helsinki, finland and biarritz, france) this is the first time owen's been involved and really aware of what's going on. he's been checking days off the calendar and counting "sleeps" until we leave. tomorrow we do our final pack and by the time coffee's ready on thursday we'll be in the air! we promise to keep everyone posted and hope to stay connected with loved ones via blogspace. i'm also looking foward to having owen not only color but write his own postcards!