Change in pace

Whew! 2 games over the weekend - first time for that since we played in the World Cup tournament in the very beginning of the season...this weekend we had one against Kareby (Saturday) and one against Jonkoping (Sunday). We have faced the two teams before, so there weren't any major surprises, rather there was a strategy for us to work on those things that we need to defeat other teams in the future. Working on the basics, working on the fundamentals, working on those things that we know we can always fall back on when we are in a tight situation in a heated battle towards the end of the season. It wasn't about killing the other teams as much as it was getting to know eachother more and working together as a team. It was a great weekend to build upon those skills, and we did defeat the other teams (9-0 and 16-0 respectively). How did I play? I'm never satisfied with my performance unless it's perfect, and in a sport like bandy, being "perfect" is impossible...so, I will say "I did a few things right, and the mistakes I made didn't lead to anything bad happening, but they did teach me more about the sport and my abilities." So, all was not lost, I'm happy with the outcomes, but I'm still frustrated with my own play! ugh! I want to be so much better than what I am!! Oh well...one day at a time. With those two games, it didn't lend much time at all to doing anything else in the city. Poor Thom and Reese....they've been thrown into the whirlwind of my bandy schedule and we haven't had much time to see Stockholm yet. This is the busiest time of the bandy schedule for us....so maybe more of Stockholm will come later....bandy first :)

Monday was supposed to be a training day on the ice, but when we got to the rink, the glossy wet surface was giving a clue to us that it was going to be too soft for training with blades on our feet and the chillers turned off from under the surface. So...lace up the running shoes and take to the hills....hill intervals, then core work! Yowie! My core was sore after the 30 minute core session and the 45 minute running session. I loved the workout though...I'm just a glutton for the punishment.

After training I head back to the apartment to try to catch some zzz's as I have to leave for Brussels on Tuesday morning - flight time: 6:20! Ugh! Cab came to pick me up at 4:00 AM. that was early. Off to Brussels for work, I'm in the office until about 5:30 and functioning on about 3 hours of sleep, a bowl of cereal, and a turkey sandwich for 14 hours....that was a tough day. What was tougher was the fact that I had to miss a day of training on the ice. Thom got to go to the practice and play goalie for them....I wish I could have been there too. Instead, I hit the gym for an hour and a half and did my own training...

Next day was "same same but different" - I went to the office, came back and did some more training. Somewhat sore from training last night - I am realizing that I need to do some of these other strength things more often - need to figure out when to fit that in though ;). Off to dinner, and now catching up on more work. This weekend will be a match against VAIK....It will be another good, tough match that will be fought to the end. I'm looking forward to it and ready to get back onto the ice again tomorrow! My flight is EARLY again, but I'll be happy to make it back to training. I heard that the wind chills in Minneapolis were about -38 to -50 F today --- whew! Glad I wasn't there!!!

Have to share a funny story - so the other night, we had just gone to bed when all of a sudden, Thom is standing near the window, pointing at the wall and says "SHIT! I can't get them out. Get them out of there!" I rub the sleep from my eyes as I had just fallen into a nice slumber...and ask "what is where?" He replies back "Them...in there" and points to the wall again. I ask "what are they?" and "where is there?" His response is very flustered and he is visibly angry and upset...he says "Shit!" again and lays down.... The next day....he looks into the bedroom (when he is wide awake) and says "The dumbwaiter - I wanted to get the trays out of the dumbwaiter! There..." it was hilarious. We don't have a dumb waiter back home...I've never seen one, but I've only heard of one that my friend Julie used when in Amsterdam....where in the world did a vision of a dumbwaiter come from? That is the mystery for now.

Enjoy the rest of the week!
KP

Rounding up the first week in January 2009 in Sweden

Friday afternoon, we were out and about to do some shopping at the outlets and when we arrived back home, there was a note through our mail slot --- our neighbor had written that our dog had been "screaming" a lot. DOH! Reese!!!! We went next door to talk to her about it and see what we might want to do, so after taking a look at the arrangement of her apartment, we decided we'd take the door off of the bedroom and move it to the hinges that are on the entry way to the Kitchen and see if we could put Reese's cage in the kitchen when we were gone. We did a series of different "doors" from blankets to towels to...you name it, we tried it. The move of the door was by far the best, and so far, we haven't had any more notes.....poor Reese, getting accustomed to her new surroundings!

We tested her sound proofness out when we went to practice on Friday night....whew! Saturday morning, I was back at it again on the ice, and I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning - it's better than watching cartoons as a kid I think :) After practice, I ventured with Reese to the Vet to get her pet passport (and yes, it looks like a true passport), then decided to take her to the "goodis" shop for pets --- the pet store! (You see, tradition here is that children often visit the Goodis section of a grocery store on Saturdays...if Reese is my kid, why not take her there too???) Thom was a sweet heart and cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, including laundry!! Back home to prep some grub for the bus ride on Sunday to the Sandviken game, and then to the grocery store. The game in Sandviken (2 hrs north of Stockholm) was a good match - they are a good team and have a few girls from the Swedish National team on their team. It was a clean, hard fought match where we came out on the top, 6-3. I was not happy with my total performance. I made some stupid mistakes and I hate when I do that! I was charged with a penalty against me for using my hand (like soccer, you can't use your hands). What sucked is that it was SOOO cold (-17 celcius) my hands and toes were freezing, so if it HAD hit my hand as the referee said it did, I would have been curled up on the ice because of the pain of it hitting my hands. I tried to show him (since I didn't know the Swedish words to explain to him) with the motion of my stick that I hit the ball out of the air. No luck - into the box for 10 minutes. At least it was heated :) Out of the box and I felt like horse poo for putting my team in that situation (they got a chance at a penalty shot - and our awesome goalie stopped it!! as well as 10 minutes short handed), I did think "long and hard about what I had done" when I sat in the box. I was determined to have a better second half. After the team meeting, I came out determined to play better. I had one bad pass that I will continue to have nightmares about, but....I also have a video trapped in my head of when I batted the ball out of the air and into the net! "Brus" (my fellow midfielder) had carried the ball to the right side of their net and took a nice hard 'pass/shot' towards the net. I was cruising in to grab whatever ball I could from in front when I saw that big juicy softball waiting to be hit! I stuck my stick up in the air (sure to not go above my shoulders) and used my left handed softball batting techninque to re-direct the ball into the far left side of the net. JUST barely inside of the post, and past their keeper! That was the game winner!!! (see the celebration in the picture) sweet! I now have 3 goals on my record and one penalty (not proud about the penalty). Next up - training on Monday and game on Tuesday against Jonkoping.

The game against Jonkoping was going to be a 'good match' for us. Jonkoping is new to the league and is a combination of 2 other teams. Their record for the season is not that good, but it doesn't mean that any team can take to the ice without preparing and thinking of them putting up a fight. We prepared for the game just as if it was the second best team in the league we were about to face, and it paid off in the end. The bus ride was about 3 hours to Jonkoping (SW of Stockholm) and led us to a rink that leaves much to be desired. The "score clock" was nothing more than a piece of metal with 2 hands on it, and no score to be kept on it. The ice....wow....um...let's just say that I've seen lakes with better ice on them. It was bumpy, rough, and like the other team had 5 other defenders extra against us. You couldn't carry the ball without it being stripped from you - not by the other team, but by the ice! I actually had some things that I was working on, but the bumpy ice didn't allow for much "working" on anything except different plays that we hadn't prepared for. A Time Out within the first half changed our strategy on how to play the attack and deal with the wind we also had to face. By the end of the first half, we were up 9-0. At the end of the game, we were up 20-0. This was one of those games where as a mid-fielder, you get frustrated because you don't touch the ball much and you feel like you don't contribute. Because you can't carry the ball (due to the ice conditions), most of the game is played in the air....between the back line and front line. So...where does that leave the midfielders? Playing the middle of the ice just "in case the ball doesn't go all of the way". At least I did have a job to do and I got to play....I can't complain. I learned something in that game...even if I didn't score one of the 20 goals, I learned more than could be put on a score sheet, and that is why I'm here anyway! One of the things that I did learn from Jonkoping is to never give up - they were a team that didn't give up from the time the first ball was played until the last whistle blew. That is admirable.

Next up - one day off, a day of training on Thursday, then 2 games this weekend - one against Kareby where we tied 2-2 last time, and another against Jonkoping...this time, on our home ice. Here's hoping I can work on some things these next 2 games.

I'll post more after those games....for now....have a great rest of the week and enjoy the weekend!
/KP

God Jul and Happy New Year

The time with Reese and Thom has gone by quickly! It's already been close to two weeks that they have been here and I feel like we have done a lot, yet we have a lot yet to do.

This week, after we got back from the bandy game on Sunday night, I had to work Monday and Tuesday, as well as getting some things done on Wednesday, so we pretty much laid low and did things that were close to the apartment. Christmas Eve is when they celebrate he holiday here, in fact, the children actually get to see Santa Claus deliver the presents on Christmas Eve (if you wonder how, I'll explain that later so as not to spoil any surprises for any children old enough to read and believe). I do realize now though, that since Santa delivers on Christmas Eve here, that is how he can deliver to all good girls and boys all over the world --- and yet he delivers in the US on the night of Christmas Eve. I get it now - might help you explain to your children how he can deliver all over the world.

We decided that we would venture to Gamla Stan on Christmas Eve to see the beautiful decorations and watch people milling around, as well as get some last minute gifts for some friends here. We had a lovely lunch in a cafe as well as enjoying some of the shops. Christmas day, I had an invitation to go do some training with one of the other team mates - including a 45 minute run including hill work out, as well as skating with her for an hour, then skating with the men's AIK bandy team for an hour. Yes, I had a great work out. I got home as fast as I could because we then were invited to go back to dinner with my old host family for Christmas night. It was a lot of fun to see the children and socialize with Miska and Camilla - I've missed them. Thom realized how I learned so much living with them and why I loved it - the way they teach you so much with small words at a time and the cooking that they do - fabulous! I got a new recipe from them and can't wait to try it on my own! The day after Christmas is like the "black Friday" of Thanksgiving weekend for us...it's their shopping day where all of the sales take place. We ventured out to run some errands and decided to head out to the outlets and see what we could find there....what we found were lots of people and shortened hours of the outlet mall, so we didn't get much done. We have found out from a few failed attempts that you cannot believe the Post Office here on their posted holiday hours online --- we've tried to get to the post office and have had them closed when the posted hours said they would be open. Oh well, Thom got to venture on the metro system to find the post office and a hockey shop that was also closed....Lesson Learned - they close pretty much everything the weekend after the holiday. Sunday morning, I got up early to meet a few of the gals at the rink for more training - was on the ice about 2 hours, then ventured back home to meet Thom and Reese to go for a small walk about the town. Work and training were on the schedule for Monday, along with some shopping at the AIK shop as they had a sale going on for the day. Tuesday was a full day of working for me while Thom did the laundry (so nice having someone else to do that for me :) ), and Wednesday was NYE. I had to work a bit on New Years Eve (boo!), but after we were done with that, we ventured out to the hockey shop to see if they were open and hopefully get some replacement parts for Thom's helmet! They were OPEN! Thom was successful in getting the parts he needed while I scored on a Reebok sweatshirt and pants (I love "rea").

New Years Eve was the best! It was Thom's birthday, but getting reservations anywhere here for dinner was impossible, even though I started the task in early November! We decided that for the day, we would walk around a bit, run some errands, (see hockey shop above), and then have Thom pick where he wanted to grab a bite. We ended up at The Bishops Arms which is right around the corner from the apartment. While we had hoped that we could call this our "local watering hole", we decided we shouldn't. With beers at 63 SEK (That's just about $9.50), it will get very expensive - we'll try somewhere else...it was even cheaper for a beer (56 SEK) in Gamla Stan when I went out with the gals! We had a meal there - mine was delicious Deer, while Thom's was VERRRRRY fatty Veal - not what he had expected and we walked away somewhat satisfied that we tried something new, but somewhat disappointed we didn't stick to instincts of going with the normal. Oh well.... Onto the festivities. We came home for a bit to play with Reese and tire her out - she loves jumping onto her ball! We did a little "pre-party", and then to the city - it was like our Fourth of July in a way - fireworks were everywhere --- and it is apparently legal for almost anyone to shoot off any kind of firework from anywhere they want! I have no idea how many firework shows were going on at one time, but the main one was shot from the Skansen Park area. We headed to Slussen to walk around a bit in Sodermalm, then to watch the show. After the nearly 45 minute show of fabulous fireworks, we decided to avoid the crowds in the tube, and we took the empty bus all of the way back home. Thom has said that it was by far one of his favorite NYE celebrations ever....glad that we were able to make that happen :)

The actual New Years day, most things were closed around the area, so we relaxed at home for a bit in the morning, then headed out for a couple of hours walking through Haga Parken. That was enjoyable for the whole family and really tired the pooch out! She had fun running through the fields of the park. I took them to the top of the hill so they could see Solna to the North and Stockholm to the South...it was a breathtaking view and lovely sunset. We saw some great ice crystalization on the top of the hill (see picture), and finished the walk off by the butterfly house and the sculpture garden. After the walk, I wanted to warm up and make the apartment smell festive, so I baked some gingerbread cookies. Not bad if I must say so myself...without a rolling pin or more than a small cookie sheet, I think they turned out wonderfully. They taste even better than they look!

So, for the rest of the week - I have training on the 2nd and 3rd as we prepare for a big game against Sandviken on Sunday! Should be a good match. We have quite a few games next week - one on Tuesday as well and Saturday soon follows. Busy week ahead of me - I'm ready though....

Hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas and ringing in 2009 was as fun for you as it was for us!

KP

They ARRIVED...and now we have things to do...

Sorry for the delay, but as you can imagine, my excitement for having my family together has been all consuming! The minute they walked through the gates in the International Terminal (terminal 5 at Arlanda) on Friday morning, it's been a whirl wind.

Boring stuff first - right before they arrived, I was informed that I'd be working on the Brussels/Sweden part of the SJM project, as well as continuing to help the project I was doing in Texas as well --- double duty at this point. Nuts - that means that I'm going to be working a lot while they are here, whereas I thought I was working double duty before so I might catch a reprieve - not so much. Oh well...it's life. So, that's what I've been doing when I am not spending time with the other 2.

Thursday night, I could not sleep...I was tossing and turning, looking at my clock, wondering "how much longer?" I called Thom about 30 minutes before I knew they were supposed to take off, and was informed that "It was almost too cold for Reese to fly!" Apparently, the gate agents weren't going to let little Reese Bonkers (RB) into the cargo area if it was too cold to send her up. Well, on one hand, "Thank you" on the other hand "UGH!". I mean, we want her safe, but we also want her here in Sweden!!! Thom had to wait in line for an hour at the ticket counter to get the verdict, and it was positive that she could fly! WHEW! I also knew that there was some bad weather moving into the Chicago area...and that airport has been hit with some serious storms, cancelling lots of flights (I was victim to it last December when I tried to return home from Australia). I had to hope and pray that they would get out of there on time and away before the storms hit. I was watching their flight status on flightstats.com and saw that they left the gate a little late....at least they were away from the gate and they would be on their way soon. I had to get up at 5:00 to catch the train at 6:00 to be to the air port when they landed around 7:30. I was a nervous wreck! What if the weather made them have to turn around? What if Reese got too cold? Ah...well, at this point, it's out of my hands, and I can't control it...I must roll with the punches.

Like a kid waiting for Santa Claus at Christmas, I was watching the dotted line go across the world towards Sweden. I got maybe an hour of sleep and was up before the alarm...onto the bus, train, bus and I made it to the airport by 7:20. They landed 20 minutes early (7:30 as opposed to 7:50), and I could watch the status on a little board in the terminal to know that they had landed and when the bags were all off of the plane. Most planes were on the board for landing and back off with all baggage unloaded within 30-40 minutes. So, when the "CHICAGO SK946" flight was on the board for over an hour and I still hadn't seen them....I was curious. I knew that another dog was on the flight with them from Chicago, and I saw a dog come out in a carrier and thought "Is that her?"....and then saw the massive size of the dog and was disappointed. Back to the position of waiting behind the barrier....and waiting....and waiting some more....THEN - the gates opened, my pooch was in her crate on a cart with Thom pushing right behind her. I went around the barrier and over to hug him. I was so excited to see them both!  Thom looked good as usual, and Reese was excited to see me, or at least excited to be out of the cage.  She was still a little drugged from the sedative we decided to give her for the flight, so when I took her out to go to relieve herself before getting onto the public transit system, she seemed a little out of it.  

We loaded the 2 big bags and Reese's crate onto the bus to get to the train station, then had to take an additional 2 busses home.  We could have gotten a ride from coach as he offered many times (thanks Oscar), but neither Thom nor I like to infringe upon people and we weren't sure how long it would take Thom to get off of the plane and get through Customs with Reese.  The customs part apparently wasn't too daunting as they only read the microchip in her and looked over the papers.  Of course though, as they were looking through the papers, Thom was worried about any questions they would have asked....but they were easy questions and they were allowed to come through the gates within 5 minutes of starting at customs.

Once they got here, I had them walk with me through Hagaparken (where Reese got very filthy!!) so they could get some fresh air, Reese could get her blood pumping to move the drugs through her system, and just move in general to try and keep them up a little longer to get them closer to a Swedish schedule.  At

2:30 they were down for the count....and napped until 9:00...and then we were all up until about 4:00 in the morning on Saturday...then back to sleep for a few hours, and back up at 10:00 to go to Skansen where they have a Christmas Market.  This park also has a zoo (where I saw Rudolph and his clan) and is near an amusement park, so

 it was neat to see all of that stuff - we will go back to that area to see the Vasa Museum.  I was hoping to find some good Swedish crafts there, but was a bit disappointed to see more food than crafts.  Oh well...    Later that

 night we went to Elin's house so Reese could meet Roberr because he would be letting her out of her crate on

 Sunday as I had an away game.  We also made Marsipan and had some Glogg.  Yum!  All was

very good and of course the company was great too with Elin, Roberr, Maria, and Linnea from the team.  Back home early and to bed we went because Sunday was a 4:00 AM wake up call.

From the house to the bus station in the morning, then we had to get a ride from there to the ice rink as the buses do not run that early in the morning.  We had a 5:30 departure from the ice rink to get to Kareby where we would take on yet another team.   The bus ride is kinda fun to see different areas of Sweden - as you can see in

 one of the pictures, we stopped near a place that had a really cool old ruin building along a lake.  This was just outside of Jonkoping.  Kareby is about 5 hours SW of Stockholm.  Norma

lly, we

 would have 3 subs on the bench, but we only had 1 sub this game and we were missing 2 of our super stars from the team.

We knew we'd play ok, but without them being some enforcement, it is a bit different on the team.  We did do OK - getting down 1-0 in the first half, then I scored at about the 30 minute mark of the first half to tie it 1-1.  Ended the first half at that score, then we weredown 2-1, but Mikkis tied it up for us again 2-2 and that's how we ended.  We weren't too happy, but at the same time, we had SO many opportunities where we either hit the post or missed the net, or the ball bounced just the wrong way for us, but the right way for them. I even had a rebound that if I had been 1 or 2 strides quicker, I might have beat the goalie to the ball and taken it in for yet another.  We are sure that we will beat them by a lot more in the next meeting with them.  Back on the bus for the ride home....and the bus made a grand entrance to the rink...by hitting the wall of the locker room and busting a few of the windows on thebus!  No real damage to the locker room, but the bus looked like it had been through a riot.  Oops!   We were all commenting on how well the drivers had been doing too....oopsies, maybe we spoke too soon!

Monday we slept in a little bit because we exhausted from the trip, but I got up and did some work while Thom cleaned the apartment and took Reese for some potty trips outside.  Then off to training where we did do a lot of skating and Thom got to take a lot of shots against him.  Unfortunately, his sports hernia is still bothering him as is his shoulder, his back, etc....  the joys of getting older I guess ;)  

Tuesday, I got up and started working and got quite a bit accomplished before we set out to get new bus passes and get money to pay the rent for the month as well as get some "Thank You" gifts for those that took care of Reese while we were off to the game, and for those who have invited us to spend Christmas dinner with them.  We are excited to have such open and welcoming people helping us out here.

The rest of this week - I hope that Old Town is open tomorrow so I can get a few last minute gifts, then we will relax and Christmas Day, I will go to the rink to do some training - some running followed by skating an hour with one of the teammates, then training for an hour or so with the men's AIK team.  I'm sure that I'll be skating really hard that day!!!  Training schedule is a bit altered this week due to the holiday, but it's great to see that so many people still want to take to the ice!  I love it - as Thom pointed out, it's amazing the dedication that the team mates have to getting out there and training.

That is it for now - the family has arrived and we are all getting settled in together.  I didn't

 realize how independent I had grown in a short period of time....I'm not used to having to get 2 people on a schedule and planning for it...takes a bit of adjustment again.  Thom is dealing with it pretty well though I'd have to say :)  I think we are all just happy to be back together again.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas (God Jul!) and a very Happy New Year --- I have to

figure out how to say that yet --- but I have another week and I'll post those wishes too ;)  If you travel anywhere for the Holiday, I wish you very safe travels.

God Jul,

Kristy, Thom, and Reese

(PS - Random picture of a bruise - yeah - you know I'm playing bandy when the bruise lasts for over a week and a half and is that dark still....;)  )

Last few moments as a "single" girl in the city

Here it is...the countdown is really on now (under 24 hours) before Thom and Reese get here. I can't wait!


Last weekend we played against West Strand AIK - "VAIK" - one of our close competitors and a rival of "AIK". It was a known fact that it would be a great match since they do have some of the top players on their team - some of their team members play for the Women's Swedish National Team. I will admit, I was nervous and afraid of messing up!!! The game was definitely a great one, and I loved it. I had SO much fun!! I even had a challenge against me with 2 of them against me while I carried the ball and I ENDED UP WITH IT! That was the best feeling - a great feeling of "I can carry the ball through traffic....Finally!" I also had one play that I was quite proud of where I was backchecking and took the ball away from their team right in the middle of our zone --- she just had to walk around 1 more person and she could have been in for a good shot on our awesome goalie - she probably wouldn't have scored because Linda (our goalie) is the best there is...no kidding either. But at least I felt like I contributed by taking that chance away from her. The final was 7-1. Great score for us! This weekend, we have a game that is another away game and it is about 5 hours away from here. Long bus ride, but I love it...we watch movies (in English with Swedish sub titles), and it's a way to get to know some of the players even more. The team is really fabulous - so very generous and warm. I feel like I have a family away from my family here. I can't say enough about the team...


The game was on Sunday, so let me back up to the fun I had on Saturday ---- Friday night I was exhausted from the week of work and training, so I went to bed at 7:00 PM and didn't get up until the alarm woke me at 9:00 AM on Saturday - I was up and ready to go shopping with some of the tjejer (girls) downtown. WOW! That was fun! We met around 11:00 at Sergels Torg - one of the landmarks in the area. Then we went shopping at a ton of stores. I had a blast just tagging along, taking in all of the great stores, wonderful fashion, and the laughter we all had. We had fika (coffee break) and did some people watching to rest our legs, then we went along and into one of the largest shopping areas of the city where I got a glimpse of Lucia!!! (Saturday was Lucia Day where they have a big celebration and sing songs, as well as indulge in Lucy-Kattes - a bakery treat with saffron in them). I have attached some of those pictures here. We managed to cap the day off with Sushi...oh my - it was WONDERFUL! I ate so much I thought I was going to explode...yummy and fresh! mmm! Also, in the store front of the shopping area, there are some very grand displays that all of the children try to see...very cute. It's like an animated story book is displayed in the store front. I did not get any pictures of this due to the numerous people that were taking it all in, but it was quite impressive. Perhaps I can take Thom down there some time this coming week and we can be the tourist and happy snappy with the camera. We have a busy weekend ahead of us once he gets here - Friday I will try to keep him and Reese awake and go for a walk with them through the park, then we'll head to bed early as I'm sure they will be exhausted from the time change. Saturday we will go to Skansen - one of the largest Christmas Markets! I will definitely buy some goods there - I've been waiting for it!!! The market is only open from the first weekend in November through the weekend before Christmas. Then, we have a "cookie baking" to go to with Elin from the team - like I said - the team is SO great. Elin has been absolutely wonderful with her hospitality, encouragement on the ice, willingness to invite me to training, parties, and social events; she is very sweet and always willing to translate for me...I am a very lucky person!! I have another bus mate who I try to ride the bus with to practices - Anna Munson - who has been working with me on my Swedish and helps me to understand some of the traditions and things that are going on!! So sweet! On Sunday we will go to my game - perhaps Thom will not go if he doesn't feel up to it and wants to sleep on Sunday instead. If he does go, Reese might need a baby sitter for a day - but maybe Elin's boyfriend can help us out. We will see and play that all by ear at this point.


It was yet another typical week this week with training and work. I did however manage to get out on Thursday to a wedding shoppe - I will not post those pictures here as that is a surprise :) Thom and Reese arrive tomorrow morning and I'm hoping I'll be able to sleep tonight in anticipation of their arrival - keep the prayers rolling in that Reese will make it just fine. I'll be tracking Thom's progress on flightstats.com ;) It's like mapping Santa's journey to my house...

I should post another blog next week, but in case I don't, I hope all of you have a VERY Merry Christmas!!!


As for now - off to another training session...

Board of Agriculture, Customs, and "Who the hell knows?"

It's been a week (and it's only Wednesday!)....a trying week, a tiring week, a fretful week that I am hoping will soon be behind me. The bandy was good --- it was the disaster that struck the day Thom took Reese to our vet, then took Reese to the USDA Vet who proceeded to tell him "Your order of operations of executing the defined requirements is out of sequence. They will not let her into the country." UM!? HELLO!? Couldn't they have told me that BEFORE? Like the first 10 or 20 times I called "Pamela" to get the information (Pamela is the "expert" on exporting animals - dear God, if our country puts someone like this as the "expert" in anything we're screwed!) Needless to say, we've not dealt with Pamela since the whole ordeal started this week.

Note to anyone taking a pet to Sweden:

1 - Implant the Euro Chip FIRST!

2 - Vaccinate against Rabies

3 - wait 120 days to do a blood draw to test for Titre (the antibodies to prove she is ok with Rabies) - but allow yourself 4 weeks for test results!

4 - 10 days or less before you will ARRIVE (not depart as Pamela told us) in the country, have your dog injected for de-worming and a flea/tick topical treatement administered, and a health certificate.

5 - AFTER you have that deworming and topical treatment, get the USDA vet visit done and obtain the Health Certificate endorsement.

6 - Ensure that your airline will NOT make your dog travel cargo...if your dog DOES travel in cargo, you will have to have a visit within 24 hours with the USDA Vet to get a "note" put on the certificate that your pet is healthy to travel in cargo. (*NOTE - CARGO is NOT the same as "Checked Luggage"....ahhh...yes...there in lies some of the issue).

We did all of this - except - we had steps 1 & 2 in reverse order. You see, Reese had her annual vaccinations in May. I found out in June that I'd be able to come to Sweden. So, I did some research, found out I had to have a European chip/ISO certified chip implanted, so I did that in June....wrong order! HOWEVER - If I were to leave in October, to get her Rabies Vaccination in June - - - 120 days puts you past October departure.

Another side note --- If this happens and you are like most people that you keep your pet up to date on shots, find out you need a chip so you go get it - there is a way to notate it! Call the Board of Agriculture and have them send you an instruction sheet on what the letter should be that the Vet can write to say "Yes, this is the dog that does not have Rabies, yes this is the SAME dog that has the microchip". HOWEVER - do not ask the Board of Agriculture if your dog will need the vet visit within 24 hours of departure...THEY HAVE NO IDEA! What I found most interesting is that the person who was helping me was reading some of THEIR own documentation and said "Pets will not have to have..." and then said "Oh, but this says something different, which do I....I will have to put you on hold." Great - they write the rules, but they don't know what they've written and apparently, 2 different people have written them. If the country that is setting the rules doesn't know what to go by....how am I??? Who the hell knows!

I did some searching and decided that Customs should know - they are the ones that make the call at the airport anyway of letting a pet in or not...call them. The Customs phone number you can find on the web through http://www.arlanda.com/ does not work. You dial it, you get some operator (who sounds nice) telling you the number is not in service (in Swedish of course) and she hangs up on you. (b!tc*) Didn't anyone tell her it's rude to just hang up??? I figured a way around it....call the airport directly. After 5 different numbers that the airport staff told me to call (call #1 - hang up, call airport, get #2, call #2, hang up...repeat through 5), I finally get a human on the other end who speaks very broken english, but we figure out how to communicate together....I ask "I have dog coming to live here, what steps must we take to get right papers?" (Sounds barbaric huh?) She replies in steps 1-6 above - very broken English, but I've read enough about it, I know what she's saying. I respond back with my question of "Should I take my dog to the USDA vet within 1 day before she flies here?" She responds back in the Fargo stereotype accent "Only if you plan on puttin' her in da cargo area". I ask "is 'checked luggage' considered cargo?" She replies back a firm "No". WHEW!

So, now we are waiting to see if Reese will fly in Cargo or not. Strange that I cannot find a non 1-800 number to call SAS in the US to ensure that she will not fly Cargo (I guess it's a European based company, so they would have a European # - but they won't know what SAS in US does necessarily - at least, after this run around I would assume that they don't know)...so, I have to bother Thom, once again as he's swamped at work and stressed out as it is...to call SAS.

As I've learned to say here --- "Fi Fon!" as an expression of exaspiration and frustration.

All I want for Christmas is Thom and Reese....is that too much to ask?? I now retract my answer to anyone who has asked "Is it easy to bring your dog to Sweden?" I was saying "Yeah - the removed the quarantine period in 2004, so it's a snap!" Now I respond "We'll see...."

Game time on Sunday against West Strand - BIG game....stay tuned...I'll have the latest on Reese and the game at that point.

As for now.....

How much longer til I see that doggie in the picture(arf, arf)

The one with the waggley tail

How much longer til I see that doggie in the picture(arf, arf)

I do hope that doggie's cleared to fly like mail

I must take a trip to Sweden

And leave my poor sweetheart alone

If he has a dog he won't be lonesome

And the doggie will have a good home

How much longer til I see that doggie in the picture(arf, arf)

The one with the waggley tail

How much longer til I see that doggie in the picture(arf, arf)

I do hope that doggie's cleared to fly like mail

I read in the papers there are robbers (roof, roof)

With flashlights that shine in the dark

My love needs a doggie to protect him
And scare them away with one bark

I don't want a bunny or a kitty

I don't want a parrot that talks

I don't want a bowl of little fishies

He can't take a goldfish for a walk

How much longer til I see that doggie in the picture(arf, arf)

The one with the waggley tail

How much longer til I see that doggie in the picture(arf, arf)

I do hope that doggie's cleared to fly like the mail

Rooooooooo!

KP

Routine...

Yes, I'm falling into a routine here --- so, I guess that means I don't have much to post from last weekend's blog.

Monday was a typical day of work and then Monday Night Skate Night!  This week, we really did skate a lot too.  (Last week, we were in the midst of the 8" of snowfall and ended up playing soccer (futboll) instead of bandy on the rink....yes, we still skated in the 8" of snow, but not as much as we did this week.)  I really enjoy our practices.  I'm noticing that I'm capable of more, therefore I expect more of myself, and when I don't perform as I think I should, I get frustrated with me.  That led me to doing more shooting practice later this week! :)

Tuesday more of the same - work and skate.

Wednesdays we don't have structured practices - it's more of a "train on your own night", so I decided to get my physical exercise in by going for a 5k run...that 5k run ended up being an 8k run through Hagaparken.  It's so beautiful there.  I will find a trail and decide to "see where this one leads" and I just follow it.  One of the trails I decided to follow took me up a hill to the

 highest point in the park, giving way to a beautiful view of Solna to the north and Stockholm to my south.  I didn't have my camera with me (I only anticipated running a 5k!), so I will have to make that adventure again (darn!) and take my camera with me to share the views.  

Thursday was more routine of working and training....

Friday I did manage to break away from work for a little bit (at 4:00) when I went to go hit some balls at the rink and then have a little more recreational fun after that...by heading to Gamla Stan with the equipment managers and one of my teammates.  We were going to go to

 a Medieval bar, but that was booked for some special event, so we went to an Irish pub instead - O'Connells.  I had a yummy dinner (fish and chips), and we all had some yumm

y adult beverages.  There was an authentic Irish band that came and played as well, and it was interesting how they could get everyone in the bar to quiet down when it was time for a slow, sad song.  (I learned that the Irish songs that were being sung were all about life experiences)  It was a fun (and late) night!!!

Saturday I got up to go take to the rink, but when I got to the rink, there was a game going on, so I came back to the apartment, cleaned a little bit, and logged into work for a little.  Sunday - woke up to get to the rink early and when I got there, Elin and I joined into a game of pick up 'hockey/bandy'.  Some of the guys had hockey sticks, some bandy sticks and we were playing with a ball.  It reminded me of the pond hockey tournament back in MN.  

The guys were some ankle benders, so I was trying to not go all out as I didn't want to take a stick in the shins or get tripped by someone else.  After we did that for about an hour, I took some shooting practice!  Then we were both starving so we took the skates off and headed home.  Laundry beckoned and relaxation was on the agenda for the afternoon.  As you can also see from the pictures, I managed to sample some of the beers here...I liked them all :)

Next week, I will FINALLY get my hair cut on Monday, head to the office on Tuesday to lead a meeting and pick up a package that was mailed to me (Thank you Thom! ---although, we are

 perplexed as to why the package was delivered to the office instead of my address --- you see, "SJM" was written on there, but the address was my apartment address....strange!).

  Wednesday and Thursday will be routine, Friday back into the office (if needed), and then we have a game this weekend!!!  yeaye!  It will be a big match as it is against one of our

rivals.

Thom is only about 10 days away from being here now!  The countdown is on...and I'm making a list of the things we will do once he gets here.  So exciting!!!