first night of hiatus in Sweden!

Hejsan! I've taken 2.5 months leave from work and am spending it in Stockholm. I planned to be there before Christmas, then when I found out The Soundtrack of Our Lives were playing on December 16, I knew I had to get there on time for that. TSOOL is one of my very favourite Swedish rock bands, and seeing them 3 times in 3 nights in 2007 kinda kick-started my interest in Sweden. Now I have a lovely Swedish boyfriend and am temporarily living in Stockholm! funny

 

Today is the 14th day of visit! I vowed to take it real easy for the first two weeks because I was pretty burned out, and it worked! I'm just about 100% relaxed now!

rescued dog dance party

I was in a bad mood tonight, repetitive strain in my fast-typing parts, and I was too tired to get to yoga but then when it was too late to get there on time I really wanted to go ... wah wah wah ... but then I came across this adorable video! Much better mood now!

OK GO is such a fun band, maybe you watched their other videos, esp Here It Goes Again, a million times on YouTube like I have.

Sometimes dogs being made to do tricks for a long time seems cruel but these pooches look joyful....am-I-right? They're all rescued dogs! And the band has a webpage supporting animal rescue.



One of the fun things I do for practicing Swedish is to count dogs when we're out walking, and try to describe them with the Swedish words I know ... so many dogs out there!

en hund, hunden är söt
två hundar, hunden är svart
tre hundar, hunden är liten

I still can't pronounce "sju" which means seven...just three letters but so tough to pronounce, you have to make a sound kind of like clearing your throat!

double medalist in the Knitting Olympics

Hiya! I got two projects done during the Knitting Olympics. I knit a cabled neckwarmer, in red for Team Canada. It's a bit too big so I'll probably re-knit it. I must have cast on too many stitches, which would make sense because I cast on in a rowdy bar with lots of knitters while watching the fantastic opening ceremonies! The cables are pretty cool and I love the true red colour. Then I found a fantastic wooden button shaped like a heart:


I sort of have dual loyalties with Canada and Sweden, so I also crocheted OS-mössa, the hat worn by the Swedish Olympians. The Swedes say "OS" for olympiska spel, which means Olympic games, and mössa means hat. Virka is crochet. This is the first time I saw the hats, I snapped a picture of the tv showing the Swedish Olympians in the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremonies. The mittens are really great too!


There were kits for sale in Sweden with the yarn and pattern to make these hats and there was a mad dash for them and they sold out fast. Here in Canada I bought the yarn randomly, used a pattern from a blog, and whipped it up in a couple nights, which was fantastic because it was the first real project I successfully crocheted! Crochet is so much faster than knitting!

Here I am wearing the hat and holding up a head of broccoli, because I thought the green flowers the medallists got looked a bit like broccoli, but they weren't.


I really loved the Olympics this time 'round. I always like them, but I got extra excited this time. The snowboarding! The freestyle skiing! THE HOCKEY! Both the Canadian women and men got gold again.

I got really into the curling, too. The Swedish women beat team Canada for the gold medal game. The Swedes had pink brooms! And they were in a rock video awhile ago. The band, Hammerfall, was in Toronto last week but I didn't go, but check out the video with the awesome curling team, it's pretty funny!

eNn eX eNn eEe

I caught 21 shows in 3 days! Pretty much all of them were great. Here are the terrible-quality pictures I took:

1. Steve Poltz
He was playing Silver Lining when I got there.

2. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
He's vegan and rocks hard.

3. moja

I wonder how many times they get compared to the White Stripes.

4. Machetes

5. The Wet Secrets
"It's a crying shame you don't know just how hot you are..."



6. The Oholics
Very young and lovely Swedes.



7. New Odds
It was the suit that got them the gig...



8. Major Maker
It suddenly struck me that Lindy looks a teeny tiny bit like Sean Tully on Coronation Street, if Sean were 7 feet tall and straight. But not really. But sort of.



9. Semi Precious Weapons
It costs a lot of money to look this good, so we should buy swag from them.



10. White Cowbell Oklahoma
Madness! How have I not seen them play before?



11. Camp Radio



12. The Superfantastics
Sweet melodies, cute lyrics and check out that drum kit!

13. ironic HUE



14. Hugh Cornwell



15. Julie Doiron
Sweet as ever.



16. Evan Dando



17. Mannequin Men
Loved these guys



18. Foxfire
Shiny dancey fun!



19. Grimskunk
Loved them too



20. Redd Kross



21. The Oholics
Still not tired of Swedish rock.



22. Hilotrons

International Record Store Day!

Today is International Record Store Day, so I listened to some records then went shopping for more records. I didn't find what I set out for, but of course I didn't go home empty handed:

Lots going on at Canadian record stores. Have you seen or read High Fidelity?!

I love my hot pink slip mat! Magnolia likes to sit on the side space over the 8 track deck on my record player:

She collects records too:

Funny that there are so many media stories about how shocking it is that people are still buying vinyl, or going back to buying vinyl. It's a lot like all those media stories about knitting being back in the spotlight. Just a few:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_21048.aspx
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13645_1-9849540-47.html?tag=nefd.blgs&tag=nl.e777
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/commentary/listeningpost/2007/10/listeningpost_1029

Easter in NJ + NYC

Spring's coming, believe it or not! I took a little trip to the US for family Easter and jam packed a lot into 5 days. I've been there a few times, but this was a first for Magnolia.

The first night was to see Sahara Hotnights at The Knitting Factory:

I always eat at different places when I'm there, even though I usually like everything enough to go back, but I ate first night at Whole Foods, even though we have it in Toronto, just because it was right there when I needed it. The next morning though, I had the most delicious non-bacon, non-cheeseburger at Curly's Vegetartian Lunch. Thanks for that recommendation, Krissy! It's a small little place on the East Side, and the non-cheeze was was divine!

Then lemon spelt vegan cupcake at Babycakes!

And later a small bowl of French onion soup at Kate's Joint, I was in the 'hood looking for something that was closed but not hungry. It was alright but I think they could've put vegan cheeze on it, like I do when I make it.

Employees must brush teeth:

Black cat taking a nap on the bin for 7" at Generation Records:

Magnolia thought these Barbies looked ridiculous in fur coats.

I love peanut butter too much, so I had to hit this place! Not all vegan but vegan-friendly:

That was right across from Sacred Chow, where I met up with friends from here and there for a fabulous night:

Magnolia played a bit at FAO Schwarz:

Magnolia was very patient in the long line to get up the Empire State Building. She liked to see the Chrysler Building from way up high, because it's in the SaTC theme:

And later we saw a Chrysler Building replica made of Lego at Toys R Us in Times Square:

In New Jersey we visited lovely relatives, walked the Jersey Shore:

.... caught a peek of the Easter Bunny at the pub:

..... had an Easter Egg Hunt with chocolate hiding up high:

... and dog-safe treats down low. Daisy didn't know what to make of the rush for the Easter Egg Hunt:

And of course there was more eating (I didn't eat this but it's pretty):

Hoppy belated Easter!