A Real Fixer-Upper!

Hello Friends. I'm excited about easing back into a better habit of posting to this blog. With that in mind, I thought that I would share a couple of pictures and stories from my recent trip to the hospital in nearby Enköping, where I underwent a voluntary surgery to remove some hardware that had been placed in/around my elbow last summer .

So last summer, I broke my arm a couple of times. And after a suitable recovery period, I was still noticing, in a painful way, the protruding ends from the screws used to hold the bone chip in place. For once I actually planned enough in advance and scheduled a surgery a few months in advance, to occur in late spring.

So, on Friday the 17th of May, I got a ride down to the hospital early in the morning. A short stay in the waiting room, attempting to read Swedish gardening magazines, and then I was prepped and made comfortable in the operating room. I was out under general anesthesia, but as the gas and the injection started to take effect, I was being introduced to a bunch of doctors and nurses that were going to be sitting in and observing the procedure. That was incredibly strange, because I was coping pretty well with getting all the instructions in Swedish up until I started to fuzz out and then all the new people talking in Swedish became a real challenge.

Well, I guess it all turned out okay, because a couple hours later I woke up and was given a tube full of (lucky for me, thoroughly cleaned) screws, washers and wires as a souvenir. I was reminded of a previous surgery experience in my life, when I was expected to drink a glass of juice, and eat a sandwich. Back then, Mom helped me finish my ginger ale to expedite my escape from the hospital. This time I was able to manage on my own, though I still felt a bit dizzy from the drugs when I shucked my scrubs and got back into my street clothes to catch the bus back home.

Explains all those dreams I had where I was a hardware store in a previous life

Later that evening I headed up to an orienteering event in Sundsvall, where I got to be a super-fan for Sam and the rest of the Linné crew at the final event of the Silva League races. Here is a photo from facebook of Sam finishing the chase start/mass start final on Sunday. It's a cool shot by our friend Camilla, as neither of Sam's feet is touching the ground.

Flying to the Finish

I wasn't running in the Silva League races, but I did go out in the forest and orienteer on some open courses. I appreciated having an excuse to take it a bit easier and walk on the steep hills :) A few stitches won't keep me out of the competition for long!

In closing I will include a photo taken now, almost two weeks later, showing the current status of my healing scar. As you can see, I have already lost 10 of my 13 stitches, a few which spontaneously pulled out and several more from bad habits when it comes to wound care.

Still, even with the excellent progress shown here with the wound healing up, I wasn't able to put direct pressure on them yet and therefore I opted to skip the plank section of our Monday night Rockgympa session. Maybe next week!

Firsts

Yep, there are still plenty of things we haven't done yet in Uppsala and this weekend was filled with Firsts.

On Friday night, I tried flavor tripping. We used a tablet form of the berry and ate limes, lemons and tomatoes. It was pretty amazing. We liked it so much, we had everyone try it at Sunday Bloden Fika.

Basically, it gets rid of the sour/acidic flavor and all you are left with is the sweetness. Therefore, eating a lime is like drinking limeade. Eating a tomato is just weird. It's pretty awesome, but I think the first experience was the best, when it was so unexpected.

Then, on Saturday night we made sushi. Although Ross and I bought a sushi mat years ago in Newton, we never even opened it. When we were home over Christmas raiding our storage locker, we found the sushi mat and brought it back it Uppsala. Between four of us we made 88 pieces of sushi. While watching Melodifestivalen, we ate 83 of the pieces.

Lisa and Sebastian preparing the items for filling.

Ross, Lisa and Sebastian rolling and cutting.

It was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I prepared the rice earlier in the day, following the recipe here. I made 3 cups of dry rice and that was just enough for 11 sushi logs. We then filled them with some combination of smoked salmon, shrimp, cucumber, carrots, lettuce, avocado, red peppers, and sesame seeds. Of course, then I added plenty of wasabi. Heavenly.

The third First of the weekend was ice skating with the long distance blades. We drove down to Ekoln Lake with Boris and Alli. I skated once last year in Oslo, but before that it had been years. I was a bit wobbly at first, but after awhile (and once the shin and arch pain went away) it started feeling natural again. It was the most beautiful winter day. Full, bright sunshine and still relatively warm, about -6°C. And the ice, oh, the ice. Since it was warm last week all the snow melted. The last few days have been below freezing again and everything refroze into a smooth surface. You could skate anywhere you wanted around all the lakes. It didn't matter if it had been plowed or groomed. Boris wore his gamin, and you can look at the track.

Ross, Boris and Alli

Ross, with ice in all directions.

The castle of some sort.

Me!

Inspecting the giant crack. Suspect part of it was what we heard at the beginning- sounded like thunder.

Ross, and the sun is going behind the clouds.

Ross and I.

Final look over the ice as we were skating back in.

Very little (none) running this weekend for me, but it was still great fun. Ross went and ran district champs on Saturday and ran well in the 3k (9.34). He had a race plan to run 38 second per 200, and he executed his plan well. Soon he will be running 9.00! :) Just for fun, he tagged on an 800 at the end.

Living in a snow globe

Uppsala really is meant to have snow. I didn't realize how much we were missing out on last year. Working now it great, I enjoy making money again and being with students. But I miss have free time during the day to go outside and play. We've had some beautiful sunny days recently, which also means temperatures around -15C. Stunning, but cold. I'm still biking to work, which many see as crazy. But it's quite nice after a stressful day at work. Plus, I'm now often biking in the remains (or beginnings) of daylight. Summer is coming!

Biking home from work, 3.45pm

On Saturdays we are going to Västerås to run on the indoor track. It's a real treat and I love going. I miss track running. Last Saturday it was about -22C outside. I got to run indoors in shorts and then enjoy the view on the car ride home:

 And just because I can, two pics from home. I miss you!

Yep, I look like I'm going to attack the camera. I was just excited :)

Snow

More snow continues to fall here in Uppsala. My little weather widget calls for snow everyday, but it's only a centimeter or two.

The sun is rising later and on my morning bike commute to work I even saw the sunrise... at 9.05am.

Actual beer

 I continue to bike to work. Last Wednesday during our snowstorm I was biking through the wind and snow, glancing up only occasionally to see if there were any bikes coming towards me on the bike path. I was surprised at one point to glance up and see not a cyclist, but a skier coming towards me. That probably would have been faster, especially on the way home where I ended up walking. It was faster than dragging my bike or trying to take the bus.

Grocery Store beer

I've sampled a few holiday beers over the past few weeks, although my cold had stopped me from trying more. I actually enjoyed the low alcohol Frosty Bulldog the most. Last night I made delicious eggnog and am enjoying a morning Eggnog Latté.

We also went skiing up in Harsa, about a three hour drive north. We were only there from Saturday to Sunday, but we had a very cozy house and the trails were beautiful.

View from our rented house over the frozen lake

Commuting

My commute this morning on my bike:

Just after collecting my bike from the indoor bike room.

Down the quiet side street.

The morning bike commutes have been a bit more slippery than the evenings. Both of these past two mornings it has been snowing and the plows hadn't been out on the bike paths recently. By the evening there was more gravel down and it was freshly plowed. What I do enjoy, though, is that they often don't plow all the way down to the pavement. This would leave space for water to pool during the days and ice to form. Instead, there is always a layer of snow and gravel on the ground. With snow tires being mandatory on cars, and more people have studded tired (some even on their bikes!), this seems to work quite well.

Leaving work around 4. Last bike outside.

Uppsala Training Weekend this weekend! Planning on a nice long orienteering run in Lunsen tomorrow, followed by two sessions on Sunday. Lots of out of towners here too - over 120 people participating. Should be beautiful tomorrow in the snow! After some dire weather predictions of -14°C, it's only going to be about -5 tomorrow. I can deal with that. Good thing I have wet socks :)

Weekend Fun

This weekend was the Linné Gala, which signifies the end of the season and time to relax and have fun. The organizing crew (which included Ross) did an amazing job decorating, serving wonderful food and having lots of games and awards. Plus, great music to get us through the night. Ross won the Sunshine Award for all of his enthusiasm and cheering.

Solstråle Ross

Sunday was, due to a late night, a lazy day, but I got excited and baked one of my favorite seasonal Swedish deliciousnesses (yes, that word is a noun).

Lussekatter (saffron rolls)

I put on Christmas music and pretended that it was December. With no Thanksgiving to hold you back, Christmas celebrations can start a lot earlier.

Plus, they made my Monday morning at work much better.

On Wednesday we are headed to the opera in Stockholm with some friends, but also Ross's parents! Eric and Mary are flying in on Wednesday and will be staying with us through the weekend. Hopefully we will get to show them all the exciting Uppsala sites... like the forests. The weather has improved, since it's not constantly raining and it's above freezing, so I hope it continues this way while they are here. The morning bike commutes to work are beautiful, as I'm often biking during sunrise. Soon it will be completely dark, but for now it's quite magical.

October

October in the US

Em and Baby Ben! Bath Time.

Boggle Games at North Americans. Really, we did race prep...

Delaware Water Gap. iPhone doesn't do the colors justice.

Exploring with Alex, Ross and Karen

Being tourists in the woods.

Fall! With pies, and pumpkins, and apples and cakes and donuts!

This is why I love fall. So excited to stop at the stand.

Look, I'm pie!

October in Uppsala

It's hard to tell, because it's the iphone, but it's a gigantic moon rising by the cathedral.

Clothing Exchange party. Combined with a fantastic brunch and, of course, an urban o course. (Link to Claire's blog about her year in Sweden and with Linné)

Bowling with work - the winning team. Notice I was not on it. It was a horrible bowling evening. I need to brush up on my skills.

Sunset outside the apartment.

And we moved, in September. We didn't go far, just across the street. But instead of living in apartment 23, we now live in 4. The walls have yet to be decorated, but we'll get there!