My first marathon and other good news

Unknowingly I completed a ski marathon. How could that happen, right? Well 42 km means nothing to most of you including me, however 26 miles does. So when we reached the MÅL/Goal Mathias congratulated me on my first marathon. Nice surprise, and a little medallion with a moose on it for participating.
That was two weeks ago we participated in Matilla Öppet Spår(roughly meaning Open Trail) a non timed marathon. This marathon was a little less than half of what we will be doing in just a tad more than two weeks. With an eating break it took us 5 1/2 hours. We were hoping to make 10 km an hour, but in reality takes about 1h 20 min. The terrain for Wasaloppet the 90k/56 mile race, I have been told is not as difficult as in Matilla. No matter though, I am sure every part of me will be hurting.
The first three pictures are actually from December, our first venture out on skis. We were a good 6 hour jaunt up north visiting Thomas, Mathias' older brother. The following three were taken on January 27th in Matilla.
Other good news is that I was offered a job with ScanModule (where Mathias works) as an operator, overseeing the machines that make solar cells. It will be on a three shift rotation, so I suppose our daily routine will soon change drastically. The training begins on March 3rd. And now that I am an employee of ScanModule I can also participate in the ski relay, also Wasaloppet. However the 56 miles will be divvied up between 5 people. So it goes Feb 24th the big race then Feb 28th the relay. Soon there after I think I will have my head examined!!!

hi friends,

I probably have a lot to report since the last time was in November. Pathetically I can only find these pictures. Seems that we haven't taken any since October... This was at one time my new haircut Mathias called the hockey mullet. It is fully grown in and becoming increasingly annoying. I have come to particularly like the ultra short "insane asylum" bangs.
I have an interview tomorrow. As soon as I know I have a job I will be splurging on getting a hair cut, until then I will try to hold back from doing my own hack job.
The job is at ScanModule as an operator for the machinery that builds the solar cells Mathias is doing R&D for. I suppose I will have to start having a grudge against him because of the blue and white collar thing. However because of the shift, working nights and weekends, I will probably make nearly as much money. It will be great to start working again, so I hope it works out.
We have been training for a cross country ski race. Back in Oct. we bought skis and filled in a small slip of paper which resulted in me winning a ticket to participate in a ski race called Wasaloppet. I have begun regretting this since it is 90 km (56 miles). Unfortunately snow has been sparse in these parts so much of training is at the gym. I have far to go with technique out on the slopes. I could never have know what kind of science was behind waxing skis, it could make you crazy. I makes a noticeable difference if you have the wax right or not, especially when you are sliding downhill backwards into the 75 year old man that has lapped you twice in an hour. On the up side I have never had so muscular arms in my whole life.
When I come home we can all arm wrestle.

Ireland

Hey my peeps,

Well, a month has gone by since I was on the beautiful island of Ireland with my "bästis" Liz (as in bestest friend). Enough of the Swedish lesson.
As you can see there are no pictures. I am not quite clever enough to figure out how to get a picture from Liz's album to my blog, but I will send a link to the album and you will see Ireland 2007. There are 500 pictures for 10 days of travel, and that is the edited version. Lucky for me Liz has a clicky finger since I generally forget to take photos at all.

Here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/lilywilde

Let me know if you have problems. I will in the meantime beg Mathias to help me with my love/hate relationship with computers(mostly hate when they don't do what I want them to) and get some highlight pics up with a little explanation.

But a quick run through, we met in Dublin and took a train up to Northern Ireland, which is actually part of Great Brittan and uses the £. The rest of Ireland, or Republic of Ireland, uses the €.
It was gray and very windy but we only got light showers or drizzle. We went out to see the Giants Causeway which are all those hexagonal stones on the coast. We opted for the low road since it was so windy and were afraid we could be blown off a cliff, literally. We met a man later that day that nearly was.
Liz thought we should go to Bally Castle, but it turns out it was just the name of a town, bummer no castle. Pretty funny though and as we waited for the bus back to our B&B we had a pint of Guinness and listened to some locals talk. It was English, but nearly impossible to understand.
Then we headed back to Dublin, went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, took a stroll up to James Joyce's tower, and Forty Foot-a famous (formerly gentlemen only) bathing place.
We saw Feist in concert in a small venue. Highly recommended to those who like their music. I do remember though it was so hot my little toes felt like boiled sausages.
We waffled about renting a car. I was kinda excited to drive on the "wrong side", but in the end we took a bus tour. It was nice to not have to do the driving, but as with a tour you perhaps can't stay as long as you want or stop randomly. The good thing is we got a lot of history and information we otherwise wouldn't have known.
First stop, 10am Whiskey brewery with a complimentary drink at the end. I hadn't actually eaten breakfast yet, so you can imagine. . . I felt pretty happy.
We stayed in a small town and checked out a spooky little graveyard just after sunset. There was an Irish ensemble that played that night. Very nice, not as lively as I had expected but beautiful.
We saw numerous ruins and castles, thousands of sheep, endless stones(seems everything is built of them), Dingle Peninsula (that's right Klinger-Dingle), Cliffs of Moher, Celtic Crosses, tonnes of stuff.
The weather was wonderful, even warm. Seems like they got all their rain in the summer. Quite some luck for us.
Eventually we ended back in Dublin. Took it easy, ate some sushi, did a little shopping. We had a sweet hotel room for the last couple days.
Oh, nearly forgot, I ate bacon and eggs nearly every morning until I thought I may cease up my heart. And the tea, like a train hitting my taste buds!!
The last stop before having to leave was Christ Church Cathedral. Very old, very very old, with hundreds of hand worked tiles and sculpture. Something to see if you're ever in Dublin.

So, there is the short version. What can I say?!

yer gonna be jealous of me

I know this is rubbing it in BUT I am going to Ireland AND see my best friend at the same time. Just the two of us ladies getting a little raucous in the pubs. I am glowing. Imagine this a ticket to Ireland that cost only 70 bucks. Ok, I'll stop, right after I tell those of you who like Feist, we are going to a concert in Dublin. I am leaving on Sat. the 22nd of Sept and coming back the 3rd of Oct. So keep your eyes peeled for a blog with real pictures coming up in Oct.
I apologize for the rather boring pics. Mathias has a phone that takes pretty good pics and he is on a business trip so I can't get at them. This is incredible, we were in a snow storm last weekend while helping his brother move. You will have to wait for pictorial documentation later.
Speaking of Mati, poor guy picked up a wicked nasty cold from work. He had his face in a tissue all Sunday while we moved his brother, we were in the car from 7:30 am-10:30 pm, plus he couldn't miss any work because he had some guests coming from Norway and this morning at 4:15 am he got up so he could catch a plane to Copenhagen to meet some Turkish suppliers, plus he will be coming back today around midnight. He has meetings on Friday, we are going to Oslo on Saturday, and his boss is going to buy him lunch and have a meeting because they didn't have time during the week. Seems to be taking it like a champ.
As for my school situation I finally proved myself to the teachers that I am ready to take the high school level Swedish class(Swedish A) plus I am going to take a communications class which focuses on speaking and body language. I will be reading three novels in 12 weeks, real novels, and it turns out I chose a 600 page book. I am considering returning it for something slightly more conservative, like 200 pages. It does feel a lot like going from jr. high to high school!
I am not absolutely sure about continuing with a garden education after talking with my former boss. At this point I am not interested in educating myself further without the distinct possibility of employment. Volvo, I heard, is looking for more women to work in the factory. It is very close to where we live now, an advantage to working where Mathias is at. Nothing will come into focus until next year after I finish my Swedish studies.
Couple weeks ago I got myself a real artist desk as you can sort of see under the puzzle. I got the puzzle around the same time, 1000 pieces. I am excited to get some creative ideas flowing out. The artist co-op has started to come around as well so we work a little every week to get the studio finished.
Hope I haven't written so much you're bored. Feel free to comment, maybe?

summah time

Although it may appear pleasant in most of these pictures there has been a lot of rain this summer.
I have been pretty lazy, working here and there, but nothing this whole month. I am back in school studying Swedish again. My general aim now is to finish up a high school level of Swedish. I am pushing to do this as fast as possible. To help this along, Mathias and I have been speaking nothing but Swedish with each other for a few days. It is going well and it really helps because switching back and forth is confusing.
If all goes well I am looking into taking a distance class next fall, or even something as soon as February. Depends on which education I choose, but it will be with plants, trees, flowers etc. That is if I don't succum to the money monster and take a job just to make a buck. I am trying for a hopeful and enjoyable future. Money hasn't really been my goal in life, but it is nice to feel secure.
Speaking of that we will be looking at a house less than 10 minutes from Mathias' job. It's a sellers market here, but we will start looking and maybe something will happen next year. Unless ofcourse we find the dream find (which we can afford). Big dreams.....
There are some fairly random pictures, some from a recent visit from Jennifer and Marion, which was awesome and far too short. Mathias doesn't like to have his picture taken can you tell. And to balance that I thought you all might want a close up of my mug too.
Those who have been to Moxie, doesn't that last one look like looking down from Mosquito or maybe even out in Mount Desert Island.

early harvest

The chanterelles have come early this year and now we live in real mushroom country. This is the first tiny harvest. I am a bit proud to say it was I who found them, but it was only enough for one small omelet. Also there are vast fields of blueberries. They are a bit different here and take longer to pick because they don't grow in clusters, but on average they are a bit bigger.
The forests are really nice to meander through and I can really imagine I am up at Moxie.

Some of you have been asking about which glasses I chose. None. I actually found a kind of lens that works pretty well for me, so I am going with them for now.

The bike trip pictures never got taken, along with the entire outing. Our vacation was plagued with rain which makes for a rather uncomfortable biking and camping situation. I think we sat in front of computers for three days which thoroughly squished our brains to boredom.
I went back to work a few days before Mathias. During that time there was a festival which his younger brother and 4 of his friends came to and set up camp in our apartment. Whew! I am so not 21.

I am expecting Jennifer and Marion to arrive on the 8th of August, driving up from Rennes, France. I expect some more of you NARDs should be making a visit, and excuses like I just had a baby, or I have a pear orchard, or I'm Xandy and I never leave central Maine just don't cut it anymore.

Glasskogen, The Glass Forest

About a month ago Mathias and I packed up and hiked in the nature reserve not far from us. There are tons of trails and it will take us a long time to go through them all. It was the first really great weekend this spring. It was early enough that there weren't so many hikers out there with us. The day before we struck out I did a slew of new exercises all for gluts and I was paying for it during the hike. There is a huge difference carrying all goods on our backs compared to biking, and I was feeling a little less spry than I used to.
Friday we are headed out for another bike trip, 6 days. Next time I will post pictures from last weekends warm up bike trip.