Yesterday I invited Markus over for the dinner. Actually, dinner should have been a week ago, but I was sick last weekend so it had to be this weekend instead. I made lasagne and there was a caesar salad and baugettes to to go along with it. And for dessert, an almond snickers cake.

I have to say that the lasagne turned out quite good. Even though I didn’t make a white sauce to go with and decided that the top of the lasagne should focus on blending the different cheeses I used together. And instead of red wine to the lasagne, I decided on a white semillon chardonnay. And it went quite well. So dinner to me was a success. Just next time I will make my own noodles for use in the pasta. It just feels better to make the pasta and the sauce myself.

And the company was nice too. I like Markus a lot. It is always relaxing to sit and chat with him. 🙂

I woke up this morning still full from yesterday. And I have 6 squares of lasagne left. Anyone want some?

Since I last wrote (and I don’t remember when that was)

• It seems the negotiations for my potential local contract are going to go on for a few more days. I told my family of what I was thinking about in terms of staying or leaving and they will be supportive either way.
• I had dinner with Markus on Friday. He made a delcious fish and risotto dish. We got drunk on bubbly and wine and went out and hung out like we used to. It was nice.
• I was devastated on Saturday. Missed coffee with Ola and Ali but had other things which I had to give higher focus to
• Spending a hell of a lot of time to get control of my music collection — re-importing CDs so that the information shows properly, removing duplicate copies of the same CD (some CDs I had burned multiple times of selected Real Media Player for the initial import which was a disaster when it came time to port over to iTunes, but the original digital copies were made years ago

And on top of all of it, there is a lot that is going on at work, and that means travel between here and Denmark regularly for the foreseeable future.

But I am relatively healthy (recovering from what I thought was a cold but was actually a respiratory infection) and maybe even a bit wiser.

For those of us who are single, and get through Valentines Day on 14 February, there is Singles Awareness Day

http://www.singlesawareness.com/

I personally like this holiday. There is a misconception that everyone wants to with someone. Just like there is a misconception that everyone enjoys being single indefinately. The truth is that we all probably lie somewhere in between. There are those moments when having someone in your life would be terrific. And then there are those moment when there isn’t enough booze in Ireland to make you leave The Single Life.

But no matter where in the spectrum you are just now, happy Singles Aware Day! 😉

*** goes to look for bridge 😉 ***

I added 2000 songs to my iTunes this weekend because I was sick and barricaded myself in my flat. A lot of the songs were actually rock songs from CDs that i totally forgot I had. Like Alice In Chains (the song “No excuses” is one of my favourites), Fiona Apple, Alanis Morrissette, Sheryl Crow, Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Filter, The Verve, The Doors, Seal, Edwin Collins, Stereophonics, Sublime, Dandy Warhols, and some others that I can’t remember. I even (shamefully) found my “Best of Taco” CD (did he really have song other than “Putting on the Ritz”). But I also found some great stuff from Whitney Houston, Aaliyah, Toni Braxton, Brandy, Queen Latifah (oh jeez), Salt-N-Peppa, Mc Lyte, and a few others.

But I have definately been in a rock mood all day. On the flight to Helsinki tonight, listed to all rock songs, played a little air guitar, and just plain old made up the lyrics when I didn’t know them.

I like the fact that I have such diverse musical tastes. Unfortunately, the visual perception people have of me is such that they expect me to name all the hottest rap, hip hop, and R&B groups. And those artists do have a place in my collection. But the important part is so do many other musical styles (like I completely forgot that when I was in South Africa I bought a CD from an south african artist called Brenda. And the music is quite good). And some brasillian music I found was cool too.

But for the moment. Rock on 😉 When I am done adding songs (probably in April), I will have about 15,000 songs in my iTunes Music Library. And about 200 videos 🙂

I’m a dork 🙂

For the past couple of days I have been so tired and drowsy, and I could’t understand why. I have had a pretty bad cold the past 4 days.

I had been taking DayQuil, which does not make one drowsy. And I had also been taken Advil Multi-Symptom cold medicine.

Since I lost the box a few months ago, I had just assumed that it was non-drowsy like DayQuil. But then I went to the website and found that it is not. It has stuff in it to make one drowsy. I am not complaining. At least it explains why I have been awake and alert one moment, and slumped over the side of my couch the next.

I wish I known earlier though. Markus and his friend were going to come over for dinner, but I just become so devastatingly tired that I couldn’t eat dinner myself. Instead I took a glass of water and went to bed.

Well I decided that last night I should stay in. Even though there were plenty of people calling and asking me to go out just for a few hours. But I was actually feeling weak. I would get dizzy when I stood up, and I ended up sleeping about 15 hours yesterday. And it was all much needed sleep in fact.

Yesterday was quite weird as well. Imake chicken tikka masala for dinner last night. and throughout the day was drinking white wine. when i fell asleep after dinner, i had a really hard time breathing. i mean very hard. so much so that i thought about going to the hospital. I am wondering if I was allergic to something in the dinner I made (never happened before= or whether I was just too congested to eat food that was a bit spicy? Not sure.

So today is all about more relaxing and recovering to prepare for the week. And in the process of sitting around the apartment, I will be burning about 30 CDs. I have about 6400 songs already in iTunes. And I need to get all of my CDs into iTunes before the end of April. And I have about 230 CDs to go. When everything is said and done, I should have around 8000-9000 songs in iTunes (not counting about 200 various types of videos). And now that I think about it more, I think I am going to need a new media backup drive. but I don’t feel to pay SEK 8000 for a terrabyte drive. But I may have no choice in the matter if I want to save all of my music, and make a complete system backup on my desktop and work laptop.

For those of you who read this who are not scandinavian (and that is most of you), we are now in February and it is still dark at 07.30.

What is striking is just how dark it is to be 07.30 in the morning. In most places now, the sun is well on the way up.

We only have about 6-8 more weeks of this. And then in late April and early May, the sun will never set completely, and the exactl opposite will be true.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend! 🙂

I have a cold. It will require rest, relaxation, and some Baileys 🙂 I have been pushing my rather hard the last 2 weeks, and I will push myself even harder the next week when I have to be in 4 countries in 4 days.

I tried to go to the gym with a cold. Bad idea. I nearly passed out because I couldn’t get enough air when I was doing any aerobic activity (cycling, running, stairs, etc). I actually stopped after 25 minutes and went home.

Still haven’t eaten yet (still full from lunch), even though I know I am not really full and that I just lost my appetite due to the cold.

But no worries. Just rest and relaxation the whole weekend. And Nyquil and DayQuil 🙂

…to the other end of the pendulum. i am all for protest and boycotts when you think the cause is justified. but the burning of buildings and destruction of property? not a fan. yeah, and i have a problem with the death threats and the additional pictures never being published by the Danish newspaper being attributed to the newspaper.

unless the muslim communities get it together and protest in a peaceful and organised way, they will lose what support they have from people outside the muslim communities.

and oh yes, Fleming Rose should still keep quiet. indefinately.