Yeah, so it’s 11.19 in Central Europe and 05.19 where I am in Atlanta.  I am so wired for sound that I can sleep. That and the dogs have taken over the couches.

I arrived into Atlanta today and met Steve at the airport.  It is always good to see Steve, and a very fun weekend has been organised from what I can tell.  Tonight Manny Lehrman played at WetBar and it was a great night.  The music was terrific and the crowd was mostly okay.  Got a bit too crowded and drunk in the end, but when you live in Sweden you are used to these things.

But still, we decided to call it a night at 02.30 and then we came back and chatted for awhile and now I am still awake.  Steve is trying to sleep and is watching some tele.  Steve’s flat is really nice.  If I were to live in Atlanta, I would live in midtown.

Steve has a dog, Gracie, but he is dog-sitting two other dogs as well..Daphne and Ariel.  I will save you the long stories until I take some pics of them.

But for now, I just need to make myself tired so that I can get some rest.  Tomorrow is another great party day out.

Hugs to everyone 🙂

So on Wednesday I went home to the family compound.  I saw my mother, my 2 sisters, my step-dad, my aunt, and 2 nieces and a nephew.  It was nice to see them all.  And of course, I saw April (one of two ofour huge dogs, King was sleeping in the bed and refused to move), and the 4 cars (two of which are super cute kittens only a week old).

We were chatting and talking and talking and chatting for so long that we lost track of time.  Finally we just decided on chinese food for dinner…hahaha…

I spent a large part of the day in my storage locker in Quincy, trying to figure out what I would move to Sweden later in the year once I had my own place.  I chatted with the loan officer on Monday to get a sense of how much money I would be able to get.  She’ll come back to me next week.  I will then spend a good part of the summer looking for a place to move into by September.  I am looking for a place where not much needs to be done in terms of renovation, but in Sweden, most apartments get renovated.  I might start out my not renovating at all and just leaving the renovation for my second flat.  At any rate, it means for trip back up here in November to organise movers and a second shipment of stuff.

I also managed to figure out what I would like to throw away from Storage, and a lot of storage is already empty in fact.  I have a box, boxes of books and other materials, and some papers and files in “long-term” storage.

Finally, I there were a bunch of things I just figured I would give to my family.  So I gave them my DVD player, expresso maker and coffee grinder, some kitchen items, portable stereo, some computer equipments and pretty much everything electronic.  I can’t use it for Sweden.  Today I will bring them a lamp…and maybe some other things.

From my personal collection, I managed to find my rolex watch I thought I lost, a car adapter for my US phone (comes in handy just now), and I think I will take back with me some expresso and coffee glasses which can be used immediately at my flat (more stylish).

Oh well, now I am tired.  And I have promised to make the family dinner tonight.  For 8 people.  Whee!

I have been back less than 24 hours, but here are some thoughts:

• Most American television still sucks in general
• PBS television rocks
• Jet lag still manages to get the best of me
• I have so many errands to get through today and tomorrow, I hope that I can complete most of them…
• I am excited to go visit my family tonight and tomorrow night
• I am also excited for the weekend

Well I figured that it was time for an in-flight update, especially as I
have not done one of these in-flight updates in a very very long time.
Going to the US I had decided to upgrade my flight from economy class to
business class, mostly because I need to use up the points before I lose
them anyway.  So from my perspective, it was a no-brainer and the number of
points to use was only 10,000. On the return trip home, when I need the
upgrade the most, it won’t be possible because I am flying Finnair from
Boston to Stockholm in a direct flight. But I am rather happy that an air
company has decided to start flying that direct route. No airport
transfers and I get the entire day in Boston as the flight leaves at 22.00
or something like this.

Now that I am in flight, I am excited to be heading back to Boston.  Of
course, I am on my third glass of champagne and about my 6th drink, so that
might also have something to do with how I feel, but I can’t really be
certain 😉

It will be nice to see family tonight if I am not too tired.  But I am
still staying at a hotel.  It is for their own sanity and mine.  I don’t
want to go into all of the reasons that a hotel is the right decision, but
it just is the best thing to do.  The primary reason being space
considerations.  I can hack 3 days in a hotel before staying with Steve and
gracie for a weekend.  And then maybe for the last couple of days I will
stay with my family.  Or actually the last night.  Maybe I will make them
dinner.  We’ll see.

At Heathrow airport I was naughty…there was a Bollinger Grand Cuvee that
just screamed to be purchased.  It even comes in a glass case.  It was
begging to be purchased and I had no choice.  So I took advantage of it.  I
also bought some batteries because you know, one can never have enough
batteries 😉  And even on the flight there are some things in duty free
that I want to buy that I can’t get in Sweden.

On the AA flight itself the airlines staff is nice enough.  The staff comes
around with loads of drinks.  And they knows I like champagne. This trip I
will try and take some more pictures of Boston and Atlanta and introduce
everyone to the cast of characters. But for now, there are 4.5 hours left
to get to Boston, and I have 3 hours to sober up so that I can drive.
Wheee! 😛

I got up at 04.20 this morning to begin the long haul to Boston. At least at the moment I am sitting in the Finnair Lounge waiting for my flight. And to make matters worse, I didn’t even get buy any champagne here in Stockholm because they no longer carry Cristal or Dom Perignon. Maybe at the airport in London if I have time…

At least I managed to buy a box of Finlandia vodka chocolates (no Steve you can’t eat 45 of them), and some Swedish t-shirts for when I am outside of Sweden. And that entitled me to a free Arlanda Airport beach towel. Hee.

Anyway, type more if I get an opportunity. I’m on vacation for the week. That means that I refuse to answer my work mobile phone immediately, e-mail is just a distant memory, and I will try and relax even though my schedule is packed!

Ciao bello!

OK, so here are the rest of my pictures.  I actually like most of them.  I am nowhere near as good of a photographer/artist as Sipho or Malte, but I get an “A” for effort 🙂

The complete set of pictures can be found here 🙂

And today I get to go to the Moderna Museet with Fredrick.  That means..more pictures! 🙂

And with one well-placed call from Markus, I’m off to Lino for a couple of hours.

ciao 🙂

Introducing Rainer…he’s a cool german guy. He’s gets a featured spot in my journal…

He has his own website: TheFutureIsWild

check it out

Here are some pics of things from the History Museum. Rainer and I went there today and it was quite nice. There will a much more complete set, but I can’t release them juuuust yet 😛

The virgin mary…how appropriate and fitting. Proof that there is re-birth after 30!

The high cheek bones come from my mother…not that I am complaining

Stuff, stuff….

…and more stuff…. 🙂

There will be other pictures once I can exchange with Rainer all of the photos I managed to take.