OK, so since I have been traveling so much over the past weeks, and due to that after-party in January, most of my beer supplies had been decimated by Swedes. So today was the day that I decided to go to the Systembolaget and get some more beer. And besides the usual selections (Sopporo, Singha, Corona, and Carlsberg), I also picked up some czech beers, some indian beers, some french and german beers.

So this is what my beer shelf looked like before:

And this is what my beer shelf looked like after:

So my international beer selection is back on track. And since I leave for several other countries tomorrow afternoon, it will stay that way for at least a week.

There is a lot to write, but I just don’t really know how to put it all in words.

First, one of my friend’s partners got into a car accident. It was a lot for them to go through, especially considering they have had so much happen to them for the last 5 months. Second, I took sipho out to dinner and a movie for his birthday. We went to one of my favourite Thai restaurants in Stockholm and then we went to see Rent. It was an excellent play and also an excellent movie. I cried at several times in the movie, but I didn’t want anyone to know. Third, I just got back from Copenhagen and all I can say is that my mind is tired.

I am very down at the moment and very just blah. Just plain old blah. Dinner and the movie were the high point of the week (it’s always a fun time with Markus. There is just so much going on. And yet a lot of what is happening is out of my hands I think. I don’t know. In the past when I feel this way, I tend to go someplace else. Usually outside Stockholm. But the thing is for the last 5 months, I have done extensive traveling. So the problem — whatever it is — I am bringing around with me.

We’ll see…I can’t stay in this funk forever.

Well this weekend I decided that since I have been making my own marinara and pesto for a while, it was time to begin making my own pasta. Because it is really simple to make (flour, egg, some olive oil, and maybe a touch of water) and I wanted to be a dork.

So I started with something very eas – taglietelle. I turned out quite OK I must say. But I have also decided that I will save the effort for inviting people over to dinner. And also when I want a particular-flavoured pasta (a focus on specific herbs or spices) or I want to make raviolii (I already have what I think will be a brilliant recipie).

Well I am pleased with myself. I reached a milestone when it comes to my iTunes Music Library. Over the past 6 weeks, I have imported 2500-2700 songs into my iTunes music library, converting 251 audio CDs to the digital MP3 format. And in the process I removed songs which were burned with the wrong information or lost their formatting during the conversion previously. I also got rid of loads of duplicates imports. And for all of the duplicates I got rid of (when there duplicates, in most cases there were 2 copies for every 1 song) — I also got in a lot of new content.

So my iTunes stands at just under 7000 songs. Which is nice. I have a large selection of music all on one device 🙂 But since the search functions on the iPod are non-existent, I can’t take advantage of it the way I want to 🙁

But this is no time to rest on my ass. I have another case of CDs which need to be imported — about 80 more CDs before I can close my CD cabinet for a long long time. But not forever as some songs wouldn’t burn and I decided to skip them. But hey, you can’t have complete perfection. 🙂

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.