I think I experienced a slice of heaven...

The weekend had some activities scheduled, nothing major though, and well, it turned out to be quite fantastic!
We had a late practice Friday night, so I took advantage of Saturday morning to catch up on some much needed sleep. Ok, I was up at 9:00, but still...it was sleeping in for me. After getting up and lazing around for a little bit, I decided to go for a run. Miska (house host) was up for showing me her 5k route and it was beautiful. It went along the lake side and was just so relaxing and pretty. I think it was a little over 5k, but she claims it just feels that way because we were running slowly --- (not really!). Because that was only 5k, I thought I'd go back out, but asked Camilla (house host) if she wanted to join me...she thought about it for a little bit, and said she would! She took me a totally different direction - to the trail for 9k more! WOW!

I've never been one for cross country running, but I may be changing my outlook a bit. The trail was awesome. Granted, it was muddy and slimy and slippery all at once because of the recent rain fall and what not, but it was a gorgeous setting! We ran through the "oldest golf course" to get there, and once we got there, I was in for a real treat. The trail was rolling with challenging hills and great terrain. We kept a very good pace throughout the whole thing, and it was just beautiful. Along our run, Camilla mentioned (towards the end) that she was motivating herself by thinking of a cold beer and a Sauna---ok, that sounded like heaven! It couldn't get much better than that, could it? So, I joined her and it was definitely a slice of heaven! I could get used to that!
We cooked some MN wild rice and had Ludde and Micro over for dinner - everyone enjoyed the "taste of home" - so much so, I've written home to ask for Thom to send me more :) Then, I was off to a birthday party for Frida E with the gals. It was a group of younger gals - most in their early 20's (if that), so I was the old one of the group ;) That was fine though because I got to see some more of the city and got to know a few of the gals even better. I really enjoyed talking to them, playing games, and learning some more Swedish words and songs. We also went to a club and we were out very late --- later than I think I've been since my days in college.

I came back home after staying the night with one of the gals (thanks Linnea) and got ready for a Futbol game of AIK. That was a really fun soccer game, even though it was cold 

outside, I still enjoyed it. The bandy team got to go down to the field before the game started and some were interviewed (glad I was not since I wouldn't have understood a word in the question!) AIK won the game 3 -1, and I have never seen such fancy footwork with a ball in all of my life. My favorite goal was scored by #29 when he did an awesome fake with his foot by moving it around the ball (with the ball in motion), and then kicked the ball to hook it around and into the inside post and into the net. Quite cool!

Now, I'm winding down and getting ready for a busy week ahead of me. Tomorrow night we will go to a set of trails and run, same with Tuesday, Wednesday is ice time I believe, Thursday more trail running, and Friday will probably be ice time. We have our first game on Nov. 15th, so we hope to get onto the big ice to practice a bit before 

then....as much as I don't like being cold, I think I'm ready for the cold weather so we can get out onto the big rink!

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween and enjoyed the weekend!Have a great start to the week!
Later,
KP