swedenusa

Here in Jönköping, there are pizzerias everywhere. I have written about some of the strange pizzas they make over here in past blogs but today I am going to focus on another aspect…

The Pizza Salad.

I personally am not a fan, but it comes free with every pizza so I give it to my wife in hopes that she will fill up on it…thus leaving more pizza for me! The pizza sallad is the white stuff in the containers on top of those pizza boxes. 

But this is really what makes me laugh.

I see this all the time! Why is there always pizza salad on the sidewalks? Note the spray patterns…there was some velocity here! Was this person upset with the pizza salad? Mir thinks that the pizza salad probably just slides off the top of the pizza box and hits the ground. That seems like a good explanation, but if it is so common, why isn’t everyone more careful?

Easter Saturday we spent with our friends. It was a sunny day with a brisk cold wind and we had decided to head out to a nature preserve. The preserve is known for the cranes that come there every spring and tourists from all over come to watch them.

None of us are bird watcher and really have little knowledge in the matter. After walking around and looking at the displays about the cranes we became a bit upset since we hadn´t seen one live crane. I tried to console the group saying that we probably won´t see any since they are shy or timid birds.

My friend finally approach one of the people working at the center and thought she would just in passing ask nicely if they had seen any cranes today. They started to laugh at us. “There are no cranes on this side of the lake… you have to follow the signs to see them”. We had of course seen the orange road signs directing us that way but ignored them.

After a fika that we brought with us we headed back into the car and backtracked to the orange road signs.

We found the cranes! 9 300 cranes were there that day and hundreds of tourists. Once again we were struck by the fact the we are not birdwatchers. Look at our friend´s camera and compare it to the german tourist!

I would like to start out by thanking eveyone for all of the well thought out suggestions. They were amazing!…So good, in fact, that I had a very hard time narrowing them down into a pool of potential winners. And honestly as I type this in my pajamas, I am not sure which of these names should win. 

I didn’t get much sleep last night because many of your submissions were running through my head. This whole contest has been a blast for me, but a little stressfull too because I need to pick the winner. It had basically come down to a few names. When I awoke this morning, I had an idea. I would ponder each potential winning name seperately and try think of a reason why it should NOT win. If I could think of a reason, then it would be eliminated. Here were the finalists that didn’t quite make it:

Rides Like the Wind- I love the Native American roots and I am actually 1/64th Pawnee Indian. But my ancesters were able to use every part of the buffalo. I, on the other hand, have a whole bag full of leftover parts from this bike which I have no idea what to do with. It just wouldn’t seem right.  

Ferris Wheel- I am scared of heights.

Night Rider- I am scared of the dark.

Chuck Norris- I bought cheap bicyle, that was probably manufacured in Japan, whch I had to assemble myself. It somehow dosn’t seem worthy of the Chuck Norris name.

That left me with only one name on the list…

                            WALTER 

To me…It looks like a Walter.

So, as I peddle Walter off into the sunset…I can’t help but think about everyone else who poured so much time and effort into this challenge. This should somehow be rewarded, SO…

I have decided to enter you all into a second chance drawing for a box of chocolates. On Saturday night, the Multi State Lottery Association will hold a Powerball drawing. I will let the red powerball decide who wins the second chance prize. Notice, each of your comments are numbered. This is your lucky number! Some of you have more than one comment, so you have a better chance of winning. The person who has the number which matches the winning red powerball number wins a box of chocolate! I wish I could send you all something, but I can’t because I bought Walter this month.

Best of Luck to you ALL!

Well, here it is folks…I have been trying to come up with a contest all weekend. And I think I have one…

But first a little background. A few months ago we had a little contest to see what this ad was selling. We had several guesses but only one (Irish) guessed correctly. Irish not only won the contest but she also enjoyed a variety of chocolates from Sweden and France.   

So here is the deal. A couple weeks ago I forgot to lock my bike outside of my school. When I came outside I discovered that it was missing. As most of you that read this blog know, I really loved that bike. Sure we had problems (changing tires, going up hills etc.) But, I really loved this bike. I loved it so much that I gave it a name. I named it “The Bäckahäst”. This is a mythological old horse-like creature that lives in water and devours animals, humans etc. I really thought that this name “fit” my bike…but now both Mir and I have new ones. Here is a picture of me putting the finishing touches on my new bike.

So, here is the contest. I need a great name for my new bike. It could be anything and I am open to both English and Swedish names. I think your possibilty of winning increases exponentionally if you can give me a good REASON why your name would fit my bike. It could be a word…or a phrase (just not too long because I have a bad memory.) It dosn’t necissarily have to be something that Mir would approve of, but it wouldn’t hurt because she does have alot of influence on the judge.

So good luck to everyone! The rules are the same as before. You all get 1 attempt PER DAY and the polls close on Friday. So the really diligent can get multiple trys…and with chocolates on the line…It pays to be diligent.

This week was a bit stressfull for both of us. Mir had a presentation for some of the local politicians, a great opportunity to talk about her team! But, as you can imagine, it was a little tough for her to fall asleep the night before.

I also had a presentation. Mine wasn’t as big of a deal, but it lasted about 50 min and I always get a little anxious before these things. Lucky for me it was in English!   

Anyway, today is Good Friday, so it is pretty quiet outside. It is a “Red Day” in Sweden so that means most everyone has it off from work or school. I think many of the stores are closed too. Today we are supposed to stay around home and consider what this day means. 

I promised another contest…Not the easiest thing to do in the age of Google…so trivia is pretty much out. But I think I have a plan. It dosn’t feel right to kick off a contest this weekend though, so I think I will save it until early next week…