Today I have, in addition to the crafty things, done the following:

- Got a hair cut. It’s shorter than ever! If “ever” is code for “eleven years”. This marks my first use of Photobooth on my shiny Macbook, and I’m not even going to tell you how many attempts it took to make me look almost presentable. When my sister saw this pic she said “but don’t you know that you need to take the pic from above and give the camera the emo look?” Sadly I can’t bring myself to flirt with the camera. I tried. I only end up looking like I’m possessed. I’m not even kidding.

- Watched two football games, none which involved RVP, pictured above. He’s just my favourite boy crush. And no, I’m not ashamed. What I did watch was Mexico-South Africa and France-Uruguay. In the former Vela did three ALMOST assists and was pulled off the pitch in the eighty-something-th minute without ever finishing anything up. Game ended 1-1, and I missed Mexico’s goal because I strangely enough got sucked into a hiphop playlist I’m composing… France game ended 0-0 and was immensely boring, but both Gallas and Sagna got hacked down. I think we can safely say that Gallas is just old and squeaky and would snap in half if anyone looked at him for too long, and that Sagna was lucky that he didn’t break his leg. They’re all gonna come back broken. Damn World Cup.

- Been told to hashtag all my football tweets so people can filter them out.

-Did I mention the hiphop playlist? I know. It’s so not my kind of music, but I got this idea that working out will be awesome with music with a nice beat to it. First thing I did was fall in love with Janelle Monáe, who is, um, not hiphop. But she’s brilliant, and I’ve been listening to this song ALL DAY. In short, she’s beautiful, an amazing dancer, her hair defies gravity and in this video everyone – and I mean EVERYONE – wears suits with bowties and cute little black-and-white shoes. It’s quite refreshing, and I can’t watch her dance enough. And I never care about those things. (I found some proper hiphop too, don’t worry.)

- Realised that, yes, my cats sneaks out the window and sits all rolled up on the window sill OUTSIDE my third story window, all calm. The day she sees a bird, however, we’re in trouble. Must be better about closing it all the way.

- Finished reading Valiant, from Holly Black’s Modern Faerie Tale trilogy. I thought it was the second book, but now I’m not so sure, because the first and second had totally different POVs and the main character in the first was only in one scene of the second. I might’ve read the third, or she neatly brings the two of them together in the third book, tying all loose ends up.

There was more, but now I can’t remember. Am so very tired.

Am on fifth day (or fourth?) of pathetic illness that is flooring me. Shamelessly. I dubbed it the Man Cold, because I feel just as whiny and oh-woe-is-me as my dad is when he’s sick. The thing that makes me whine the most is a) the inability to focus enough to write, b) the inability to stay upright long enough to cook, and c) the madness of the kitten, as she bored out of her mind climbs on everything in an attempt to get me to play with her.

She’s seriously displeased, in case you were wondering, although she seems to enjoy the daytime napping nearly as much as me…

Anyway.

When I say that I’m too weak to cook I mean that things like this happens:

Still, broken cookies are better than no cookies, yes? And besides, had I not let you peek behind the scenes like that it would’ve looked this good:

Tea, ricecakes with spreadable cheese, banana and two of the aforementioned cookies. And after I took that picture and collapsed on the couch from the sheer ENERGY needed for all of this I added a glass of orange juice. Because I hear it’s good for you.

Also, since yesterday I have watched seven episodes of Scrubs and bought the new Indelicates album. About the former I can say that I never knew I hadn’t seen it from the beginning (and OMG, JORDAN, I love her so), and about the latter? You can buy it for any sum you want to here. Yes, even zero pounds, although if you do, how cheap are you?

PS. Today Alisa tweeted the word SCHMEKL. It’s so awesome I want to start using it in daily speech, but um, I’m not Jewish. And I have no idea how to pronounce it. But seriously? So awesome. I love myself a good “sch”-sound. I suppose I could say “sjutton skjutna kyrkor tjohoade klyschigt och rysch-pyschigt” instead. No, that sentence makes no sense even in Swedish. And no, those are not swear words. But yes, they are all real words. And yes, they are all variations of ways we spell the “sch”-sound. Because why makes things EASY?

I think today’s game (1-1, stupid stupid STUPID Birmingham equalised in the 90th minute, final score 1-1) can be best summed up this way:

Millie (17.39)
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Kaia (17.40)
omg. really?
YAAAAY
do they HAVE to wait to the last ten?

Millie (17.45)
obviously they want to make a point against people leaving early.

Millie (17.48)
damn, arshavin.

Kaia (17.49)
gah
OH MY GOD

Millie (17.50)
oh god.

Kaia (17.51)
oh my fucking god

Millie (17.53)
sigh.

And yes, that was the part of the game when everything remotely interesting happened. We really needed a win as Chelsea beat useless Villa 5-1 and are flyyyyying ahead of us, but… yeah. Theo was the luckiest member of the squad. That says kind of a lot.

But once the game was over I went and made my cheapest trick for dinner, vegan style Pasta Alfredo, which always cheers me up. I have no idea how Alfredo is normally made, but I suspect it’s about 100% more cream and/or eggs, but this one’s just brilliant and easy.

You put some sneaky amount of oil (say two tablespoons) in a pan, sautee a few cloves of garlic and a handful chopped walnuts in it. When fragrant, add the same amount of flour as oil, in this example two tablespoons. Stir and let sautee brieeeeeefly. Then add some milk and spices (I use salt, pepper, chili powder and basil, fresh is better but dried is okay). A cup or so of milk, I guess? I never measure. And then, let it cook on low heat until it thickens.

That is all. So easy yet has a fancy French name (roux).

I’m eating it with pasta and steamed vegetables. I usually make some kind of breaded tofu on the side, but I couldn’t be bothered today (see stupid draw).

I blame Arsenal’s bad luck on me, by the way. In the last two days I’ve run out of yarn fifty separate times, broken a grocery bag as I lifted it out of the trolley, two minutes later flipped said trolley over, nearly emptied a full plate of (very hot) food in my lap, accidentally locked the cat onto the balcony (twice), missed a bus by two seconds and burned a piece of fabric so badly while ironing it that I had to start my project over.

So, yeah. All my fault. Sorry boys.

I have however written a lovely blog post in Swedish about Gabourey Sidibe (and learned how to spell her name!) that I may translate some time, written an OMG REVELATION moment for my forever-in-editing-process-project, beaten my personal best at the gym (yay!), submitted two semi-clothed pics (that sounds a lot more exciting than it really is) to this Swedish BMI project that a lovely blogger has started, and re-learned how to crochet.

Also, I’ve learned about oxford commas, which I use all the time, only I had no idea that it had a term until somebody tweeted it. I thought I was just a punctuation junkie.

Which, actually, I kind of am.

PS. I can no longer defend anything Amanda Palmer says or does. This makes me very, very sad.

I’m in no mood of being textually witty today, so here’s some pictures.

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First things first. Picked this parcel up.

Opened it.

Had this for dinner. (Yes, Anna, I eat by the computer.)

Kitten did this a while ago. Pic has languished in my camera because I don’t want to be one of THOSE people. But you know what? I AM one of those people. So yes, proud and exasperated kitty mummy can attest that it involved jumping from kitchen counter to above stove thingy and climbing OVER the open cabinet door and into my casserole dish. She was very proud. I was mostly bewildered. (Also, to make the crazy cat lady bit complete – isn’t she getting biiiiiiig?)

Last but not least, my aunt got me this vintage tea jar a while ago. Authentically vintage, not just looking like it is, too. And okay, must explain the text. “Salong” is a very old-fashioned word for sitting room, I guess, meaning one of those really shiny rooms that they used to only be in when they had guests, no every day about it. (Also? The Swedish term for living room can be translated to every-day-room, so, yes, “salong” is a special one, not used anymore.) “Thé” is an old-fashioned way of spelling “tea”. These days most people simply say “te”.

The text on the bottom says the following:

Follow the instructions in this jar carefully, and you will be presented with a strong tea with a rich bouquet.

Rich bouquet. I’m entirely serious.

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Also, have imposed writing-writing-writing-no-checking-Twitter-or-reading-blogs on myself from 8-10 pm every day. It works fairly well, actually.

Man, this week has been rough. Most because of my own vimsighet too.

Monday I ate curry and became really sick, as I’ve written here before. It literally did not cross my mind that coconut milk was anything but, you know, coconut milk, so Tuesday I ate it again, just to check. And yes, I got sick again. For two more days. And thing is, when you don’t regularly eat gluten you get SUCH a reaction when you accidentally ingest it, that it’s like, um, a really bad stomach bug. And that doesn’t leave you feeling too great, let me tell you.

So, yeah, three days of that which brings us to Thursday when I woke up with period cramps from hell, and promptly popped two Ipren (our Ibuprofen). And then, when I started feeling all weak and rambly and crazycakes I remembered taking my pills so I didn’t check that I actually had… Um, yes. You see where this is going, don’t you? I went to weaving, freaked out and made my grandma run me home after half an hour. Had a very strange day; lots of manic editing but at the same time nauseous and weak and crampy as hell.

And today? Friday? I took my pills, oh yes, and realised I didn’t take them yesterday as they were still in their little compartment, yet I had extremely bad anxiety while buying groceries. Probably placebo induced, because there’s no way only 24 hours without them have that effect.

It was extremely bad. “Backing myself up against a shelf and being unable to move” bad. When I got home I ate my vegetables (part of my yuckiness probably came from having no healthy foods at home!), but not before Mum managed to close the front door on the cat’s paw. We both freaked out and chased her across the flat, trying to figure out if she was hurt. It only was a second before I realised, there’s no blood and she walks on it okay, so I think it’s fine. Still, a few frantic moments there!

My plans for this weekend and next week?

Clean my flat. It looks disgusting.
Go to the gym a couple of times.
Do laundry.
Rejoice that the SNOW IS FINALLY MELTING.
Also, possibly bake.

No big things, but all with the hope of feeling better. Backlashes are okay, really. As long as you remember that they’re temporary and that you CAN feel better than that. That it’s not all there is to you.

Any suggestions for good podcasts? The less serious variety is better, I am not so good with concentration and zone out if the conversation going on is too brainy.

Also, my books shipped today! They might be here Monday, hooray!

Today one of my baby cousins turned 25. Well, she did yesterday and today she had her family-party-type-thing. I remember when we called her and the other two her age “the little ones” and wouldn’t let them play with us. Now they’re all freakishly grown-up and drink wine at dinner.

(I still drink coke. The smell of wine makes me dry heave at best, and I can’t have beer anymore.)

I actually had a good time. Sat at the very end of the table with my cousin Charlotte and another relative and chatted. She’s forty-something odd years and retired early (like, really early) because of her artrithis, and we bonded over getting tired really quickly when there’s lots of people around. I only lasted three hours, but it’s more than I have in the past.

I find myself wanting to blog more in Swedish, but I’m not sure ANOTHER blog is really necessary. It’s getting unmanageable as it is, and God, I can’t even remember the last time I updated my craft blog. I meant to, when I had a lot of pads for sale, but they sold out really quickly, so the pics is kind of outdated by now. Maybe I should just make the content for my FA-blog a bit… broader.

Now I’m back home, with a cat on my belly, a cup of tea next to me and my feet up. I am really loving reading through our Blueberry book, though I should probably keep going on the other one, as I actually passed the halfway mark. My arm is ouchy and I worry about RSI, because I read this really amazing post on being a writer who can’t write.

Then again, I’ve always worried too much.

This week my kitten has learned that she can indeed jump up on the kitchen counter, crawl down into the sink, examine dirty dishes, walk across the stove whether or not things are cooking on it and – the best part! – jump up on the thingy I only know as “fläkten”, where I used to keep things she wasn’t allowed to eat, such as pins, safety pins and other sharp things which she loves to play with. Oh, and knock my jars of tea off their shelf.

My reflex to this is OH MY GOD I NEED ANOTHER CAT.

Makes sense? No, not particularly. Though I think she’ll be less bored if she has a brother (two female cats seems like trouble), and maybe there will be less escapades of the not so amusing variety. Though, I of course have to have her fixed first, cos I do not want kittens, however cute they may be.

In other news I am seriously thinking about going back to university. Sounds crazy, but… yeah. I have 3/4 of a B-kurs, 1/2 of a C-kurs and I think if I finish the two and possibly another course or two I will have enough for a B.A., which is a fil.kand. in Swede-speak. A year or even six months ago this was out of the question. I couldn’t concentrate, I didn’t have the energy to even think about it, and so on. Now? It will still be a challenge and a big one at that, but I do feel ready to try. Maybe I’ll take those two classes from beginning to end, despite having done half or more of them, just to get back into the swing of things. I’m not eligible for any kind of financial aid (CSN) anyway, so it hardly matters in that aspect.

Deadline for applications is April 15th. Got some time to make up my mind.

Am still contemplating what to do about the Knitting Olympics. Making socks seems like cheating, but I have small amounts of yarn that I don’t know what else to do with and Knitty had some gorgeous sock patterns this time around. Maybe I’ll need to set a goal of more than one pair, just because. I mean, other people are attempting whole jumpers.

Of course, I can’t do it if I don’t have a TV. And if I make my parents come by with one (they have like five) I might as well pay a couple of hundred (kronor, not dollars, thank you) a month to get my football games on it… Right?

Possibly not.

Yesterday Tansy and I had a conversation (well, she held a monologue and I said “ooooh” a lot) in which she compared Doctor Who to Arsenal, and a certain episode I didn’t like to Denilson having a bad day. I told her to BLOG IT, but it’s possible nobody but me and her would ever find it amusing or relevant.

I remember that Russel T Davies was Arsene and Moffat (one of the writers) AND David Tennant are both Cesc. Apparently. And the new doctor is Aaron Ramsey, has been signed but nobody knows who the hell he is and if he’s any good.

With that said, I heart Aaron Ramsey, and think he’s pretty good, although he’s only played a handful games this season and scored like twice. But I still love him.

As for Doctor Who itself I’m about halfway through the first Tennant season, and I’m actually starting to like Rose. Which I did not, in the beginning. Eh, you know what? Why watch the Olympics? I can do Doctor Who marathons instead! A Knitting/Olympics/Doctor Who mash-up. With much tea and rice cakes.

(And frequent breaks to OMG-WHAT-THE-HELL-THIS-IS-AWESOME-ping Jenn and Tansy. Naturally.)

Um. I think my nerd-o-meter hit max so hard that it shattered into a million pieces. May have to upgrade to the deluxe version or something…

Ugh. Okay. So, let’s do this in list form, shall we? (I know. I always do. Shut up.)

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1. HAITI.
Everyone’s talking about it, I know. But I read that the best organisation to give money to is Doctors Without Borders because they were already there when the earth quake happened and there’s a lot of help arriving, but there’s a chaos in the only airport on the island, because, you know, so much help, so little room. So giving to some organisation that is (supposedly) there seems like a good idea.

(No, I haven’t double checked this info, so, if it’s wrong, correct me, please.)

If you’re a knitter, go to Ravelry; there’s a filter for patterns that pledge a certain amount of money to just DWB, and buying something shiny with that in mind would be great. I meant to do this with my patterns, but only two have actual gauge measurements and most include sizes such as “my hand” or “small-ish”, and I don’t want people to demand their money back. I did however make shiny PDFs of all patterns, and will add them to the pattern pages… soon.

2. TO-DO-LIST.
Girlie Jones posts her to-do-list and always have a ton of stuff on it. Mine is very short and I still didn’t accomplish more than half… This week it looked as follows:

1) Clean every room in the flat, not just the kitchen and bathroom.
2) Finish the soakers (insides) to your current batch of pads.
3) Cut out fabric for outside of pads.
4) Make cookies.
5) Read a book.
6) Post orders before Friday.
7) Do some editing.

The result was: 1) sort of, 2) yes, 3) no, 4) yes, 5) sort of, 6) yes, 7) yes. Possibly the last one should’ve been more specific, cookies were made just because I craved chocolate, I did read a lot, about half of one book and three quarters of another, and as for cleaning… Every room is (mostly) clean, but I still have to unpack the FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING box that has been standing in a corner since September, when I moved in.

3. GLUTEN ADVENTURES.
I’ve done good. Mostly. Today I cracked and ate four pieces of chocolate from a wrapper labelled “may contain traces of gluten”. So stupid. I know that it sets me back at zero. Really. But yeah, I did, and it ended mostly unpleasantly, so it seems like regular oats are okay though they shouldn’t be, but chocolate that only has trace amounts is not. Weird.

As this painful experience took place, however, I realised that this is what I used to do after every single meal. I mean every single one too. I never thought there was something wrong; at first I assumed it was something with the vegan diet, too many beans or something, and then, once I started eating dairy again I figured it was lactose intolerance (because, if you’re vegan for a while your body stops producing the enzyme that breaks down milk sugar, that’s what lactose intolerant people lack), but… yeah. Gluten it is.

I also baked twice with gluten free flour this week; corn muffins and chocolate chip cookies. Both came out good, although I was dubious about the cookies because the batter was so… glue-y when I put it on the cookie sheets. They floated out some more than they use to, but were crispier, which actually is yummier.

This must be fascinating to read. Seriously.

4. MACBOOK.
It’s very, very yummy. Am still learning, but am pretty much enarmoured and when I did have to switch back to print something (Mac and HP printer = not friends), it felt like going back in time about a hundred years. Okay, so a hundred years ago there were no laptops, but… Yes. Still.

Am very much in love, shut up all you who said “I told you so”.

I do find it amusing that the computers that were nerdy a decade ago, now is what everyone wants… I love when time passes and there’s a shift in values. Possibly this just means that I’m getting old, because I can remember the olden days.

5. JAG VILL INTE DÖ, JAG VILL BARA INTE LEVA.
Number One on this lists makes two through four look rather whiny, don’t they? But that’s how I always feel; I can’t really think of all the bad that goes on in the world, it becomes too much, it makes me anxious and manic in attempts not to think about it, and then things go downhill and it’s badness. Imagine my surprise when I read this book from a woman with my diagnosis who felt the same way.

Though maybe everyone does.

But this book is amazing. I so want my mum to read it, but the author is rather obsessed with suicide and I don’t want her to think I am. I’m not. I always felt that I wasn’t “worth” dying. How twisted is that? Basically, life was so miserable and I didn’t deserve anything better than that.

Odd, how depresison works.

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Anyway, return to number one on this list, please. Buy a pattern. Or send a text, like everyone tells you to do. You can also donate to Knitters Without Borders, this project Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has going on, and has had for years, actually. Apparently she’s gotten in 50,000 dollars in the last few days, all which are going to Doctors Without Borders.

Now I fall over, and kitten with me.

Everyone in the world are apparently doing “best of 00-talet” lists (er, do not know how to translate that, “the 00s”?), which is just too big for me. So I’m just doing the last year in a number of tens in alphabetic order. No ranking within each list, because that would be mean. And yes, I did this not too long ago, in the Lists of 30 sequence I did, but this is, um, different. Really.

Note: All pics are shamelessly stolen from my dear friend Google, except for a few that I took myself and the This is Arsenal one which comes from the LJ comunity GoonerGraphics and is actually my desktop picture…

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10 HIGHS
Because you should remember the good and pretend the bad never happened! Okay, maybe not, but I have no desire to list the lowest of the low of this year, so I’m just doing the awesome. (One year I re-capped what had happened each month and somebody said “whoa, you’ve got really shitty luck”, and she was right. So no re-capping. Just the best.)

	1 – All things Arsenal. It’s silly to put football down here, isn’t it? I don’t care. Since I was pulled into the Arsenal madness and started following every single game (as those of you following me on Twitter probably are painfully aware of) I’ve learned that sports are… um, brain washing. They make you insane and single-minded and you start saying stuff like “we have too many groin injuries” and “our boys are FRAGILE” and see nothing strange about it. (Other people, however, do.) So there. I’m sticking to this one, even though it’s kind of crazy and certainly nothing I would’ve thought a year or two ago…
	2 – Becoming with kitten. Once a cat owner always a cat owner. Or something. I love having her around, even if she demands constant attention, climbs the Christmas tree and follows me into the bath room, prompting me to say “oh my God, shut your mouth and act like a normal human being!”. And I guess she’s not a kitten anymore,and nearly a teenager, but let’s not talk about that. I can’t afford to have her fixed for another few months, so let’s hope she stays this age for a good long time.
	3 – Blogging and Twitter as a substitute for TV. I wrote the first entry of this blog on October 29th, 2008. Since then it’s become something I write in, if not every day so at least every week. It helps me a lot, even though I sometimes wonder if I share too much. As for Twitter, it has been a great help in finding new blogs and news and current events and such. I follow something like 80 people, which is a lot less than most, but just what I can keep up with. This is also where I get nearly all my news. I don’t watch TV, save a few select shows, and rarely bother with the news. Because my blogroll and my Twitter-people are plenty smart and keep me updated. They’re awesome like that.
	4 – Finding fat acceptance. Everyone who reads this blog on a regular basis knows my stance on health and weight, so I’m not going to say it all over again, but a year ago exactly I felt repulsed by myself and my body, put myself in a strict regimen of 1500 calories per da (which yes, included weighing my carrots and quit eating corn because they are more “fatty” than say cucumber), took long walks in sleet and rain and everything inbetween, telling myself IT’S SUPPOSED TO HURT YOU DISGUSTING FATTY KEEP WALKING, and forced myself to wear too small, unflattering clothing to punish myself. It was pretty awful, and when I, a few months later, came across Kate Harding’s blog Shapely Prose it was all turned on its head. It was quite revolutionary, and while I can’t say that I never wish that my body would be smaller, I most of the time is fine with it. And that’s an amazing feeling. I do want to start exercising again, but not to lose weight, just to get fit(ter), and that is something I never thought I’d say… I don’t know what yet, my mind goes back and forth between yoga, horse back riding, a traditional and super scary gym membership and running/walking. Suggestions for alternatives are welcome.
	5 – Getting a diagnosis, and starting to take the oh so elusive B12. My quality of life has doubled since my medications were changed and I started taking B12. Being able to be awake for more than four hours at a time is AWESOME. Here’s to hoping the last addition of pills will make my lows less frequent! Under this one goes also “getting out of my depression enough to care about other human beings”, and “actually remembering people’s birthdays and favourite what-have-you, because my brain isn’t stuck in survival mode”. Big stuff! (Note: These are not my pills. They are all boring and white and not all that exciting.)
	6 – Moving. I was hesitant, because my old city was, well, a city, while this is pretty much just a, um, little town with nothing exciting going for it, but I think we can all agree that it was the best thing I could possibly do. I’m still not well, but feel at least a bit grounded, for what is possibly the first time in my life, and it’s amazing to be able to ask my family for help with shopping and stuff when I have bad days.
	7 – Re-learning how to cook. I stopped eating eggs when I was eight because I found them “gross”. I could only keep eating meat for as long as I did (until I was twenty) by sternly telling myself that it wasn’t really meat and meat didn’t come from animals and there was certainly no blood involved… Then I moved away from home and had to start cooking my own food (yes, our Mum spoils us), and within a year I was a vegetarian. I find fish and seafood equally gross and once started crying because we had to cut into a fish in biology and it had small fishies in its stomach. So, um, that is a prime playground for all kinds of food related quirks. For the longest time I didn’t let myself eat or I ate too much and felt crap about it. It’s only in the last year that I’ve started cooking because it’s FUN. I used to like cooking, when I was a vegan, but the step from being all obsessive-compulsive about foods and eating to actually enjoying it again… was a big one. This year I also did a brief stint as an omnivore, which lasted about two weeks. Then I returned to vegetarianism because, um, meat is still “gross”. Sorry. That hang up I can’t lose, even if I could put the animal welfare thing aside (which I can’t). In all it taught me why I’m a vegetarian all over again. All good things.
	8 – Starting to read again. When I was younger I was the sort of kid that snuck extra books from the library when we were only allowed to check out a certain number, which was supposed to be “just what we had time to read in a week”. I was found in hedges reading, I could be seen walking and reading at the same time and so on. When we did a reading challenge in fifth grade where we were supposed to read for twenty minutes every day I had to ask for an extra form cos I ran out of space after a week. And then another one. And another one. Somewhere down the line something (depression, I think) happened and I just STOPPED. In late June of this year I started reading again, mostly YA, and I’m happy to say that I’ve read 52 books since then. Yes, I counted. I keep track of them with my Book List, because I’m neardy like that. Reading gives me a million ideas, I learn neat turns of phrases, I learn what NOT to do and so on. During my non-reading phase I thought that reading was a waste of time, cutting into my writing time, but actually it works the other way around – it’s reading that gives me my best ideas!
	9 – Visiting Edinburgh. Going to visit Scotland and get to meet a dear, dear friend. I was gone four days, popped anti-anxiety meds like they were crack (they kind of were) and it took me two months to recover, but it was so worth it. I want to go back already, because I loved the city and Scots are, although difficult to understand at times, the loveliest people ever. I love their accents, I love the mountains sneaking up on me, I love the tiny, tiny gardens in the middle of the city and I looooved the roof terrace of the museum of something-or-other, all the book shops, the vegetarian baked potato shop, the insane hills and curvy roads and of course, the tiny taxis that drove like mad. Aside from seeing Jenn for the first time I think that going to see Amanda Palmer in concert was the highlight of the trip; she’s just amazing and I will mention her again in a bit…
	10 – Writing. As for writing this was a big year. I finished my first big novel manuscript (Eld) in April or so, I wrote a number of short stories, one non-fiction piece, in November I wrote a lovely YA novel that needs about fourteen more rounds of edits (Mundane Secrets), and I also started another project (The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere) that I’m dying to get back to. In all, I did a lot of original writing and almost completely stopped doing narrative RP-ing, and it feels great to move on from that. I try to write a little every day, but obviously some days are better than others. I’m hoping that next year, when I do this (if I remember), I will have something more substantial to add to this one… (Note: This is what I’ve told myself every year since I was 15, and also, I don’t write on a typewriter, but I love this pic so much so I’m using it anyway.)

Runner-ups:
New Years with siblings and cousins in Gothenburg last year.
New Years with cousins and siblings in Stockholm this year. (Sadly kicked off the list as I am NOT GOING).
EVerything involving my siblings and cousins. Seriously. They’re that awesome.
Buying Christmas presents and doing random holiday things because I want to! (A year ago I wouldn’t have wanted to.)
Weaving. (This one was kicked off the list because of the little old ladies fat talk.)
All my crafting and of course my business doing fairly well.
All the new music. (It got its own list instead.)

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10 AUTHORS
I read 52 books this year, and hope to get another two in before the 31st. The ones below are the ones that stuck most with me this year. Eight of these are YA, one is non-fiction and one is adult fiction. Four are part of a series, so I think we can agree that series and YA are my personal crack.

	1 – Cabot, Meg: The Airhead series (Young Adult) These books look suspiciously fluffy from the outside (the paperback even more so, it’s pink and silver), but they are not. Trust me on that one. They tell the story of sixteen-year-old Em Watts who wakes up after an accident and finds her life tangled up with that of super teen model Nikki Howard – against her will. It’s really engaging, rather creepy, and full of drama. Airhead, the first book, is my favourite, mostly because Em acts kind of stupid in the second book, but I have yet to read #3, so I may change my mind.
	2 – Crowley, Cath: The Gracie Faltrain series (Young Adult) The story about Gracie Faltrain, who plays soccer with the boys, and has boy and friend and everything trouble. These books have a million different POVs, and I love them for it. Gracie is sometimes annoyingly dense, but the other POVs makes these books awesome nonetheless. My favourite character is Flemming, a totally minor character that I think you’re supposed to hate… Book #3, Gracie Faltrain Gets It Right (Finally!), is my favourite of these three.
	3 – Harding, Kate & Kirby, Marianne: Lessons From the Fat-O-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body (Non-Fiction) I’m not big on non-fiction, but this one is amazing. It talks about Health At Every Size, debunks myths about fat people and gently lets you know that being HEALTHY is a good idea, whether you’re skinny or not. I so wish this book was available in Swedish, because I want my parents (and really, everyone I know, regardless of size) to read it.
	4 – Lanagan, Margo: Tender Morsels (Young Adult) This one was probably the hardest read, but also one of the most amazing books I read this year. It’s about Liga, who bears two children after being raped (two occasions, about a year apart), and who ends up in a different world when she is so wounded from these two events that she wants to, you know, throw her baby and herself off a cliff. Margo has horrified people on several continents with the contents of this book, and continues winning prizes with it. She deserves every single one of them too.
	5 – Larbalestier, Justine: Liar (Young Adult) This book is about Micah, who lies about everything. It’s absolutely fascinating to read her story, because you have no idea what’s true and what’s not and then you think you know and just as you figure it out she tells you that you were wrong all along. It’s a great book, and the narration is amazing, but I really can’t say much more about it without going into spoiler territory, so let’s just leave it at that.
	6 – McCarthy, Maureen: Queen Kat, Carmel and St. Jude Get a Life (Young Adult) A book with three POVs, telling three very different stories. The first part is about Carmel who is overweight and lets it consume her life in the worst kind of way, and we also get to see her come out of her shell and come to terms with herself and her body, and that without losing weight. Part two is narrated by Jude, who is going to be a doctor just like her Argentinian father that she’s never met. She becomes horribly depressed and it’s fascinating (and painful) to see how it changes everything before she manages to turn things around. Katerina meanwhile is rich and beautiful but not nearly as happy as everyone thinks… I love Maureen McCarthy; her book Rose By Any Other Name is brilliant too.
	7 – McKinley, Robin: Deerskin (Young Adult) A painful story of a princess who is the daughter of the most beautiful queen in seven kingdoms. When her mother dies her father goes mad and forces her to run from his violence and delusions, and that’s when things get interesting… This book goes into the same category as Tender Morsels, painful yet beautiful and IMPORTANT to read. Especially if you are a teen, which I’m not, but I love this book anyway!
	8 – Murdock, Catherine Gilbert: The Dairy Queen series (Young Adult) These books are about D.J. Schwenk, whose parents own a dairy farm. She’s quite sporty, and in the first book she decides to try out for the boys football team. In the second book she concentrates more on basketball, and her family is a big part through it all. I love the narration more than anything, and can’t wait to read book #3. So far, though, I think the first one, Dairy Queen, is my favourite.
	9 – Rees Brennan, Sarah: The Demon’s Lexicon series (Young Adult) A book from the POV of the dark, broody bloke that is the love interest in most books out there. It’s fascinating to see the thought process of a guy whose main complaint is “why are you talking so much?”, and I can’t wait for book #2, due to come out in May. Even though Nick is no longer the POV. (Or maybe because of it.)
	10 – Waters, Sarah: Tipping the Velvet (Adult Fiction) I know. The rest of the world read this book ten years ago. I didn’t. It’s amazing, though, and I love how authentic it feels all through it, with the theatre terms and old fashioned language and everything that comes with it. Now I want to see the movie, and also, I am so not admitting how long it took me to figure out what “gay girl” meant, which is amusing considering that the direct translation for an old fashioned term for “whore” in Swedish is exactly that.

Runner-ups:
Cross, Shauna: Derby Girl (aka Whip It)
Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book
Johnson, Maureen: The Bermudez Triangle
McCafferty, Megan: The Jessica Darling series
Pierce, Tamora: Protector of the Small series
Roberts, Tansy Rayner/Shearman, Robert: Siren Beat/Roadkill

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10 MUSICIANS
Note that Ani DiFranco isn’t making the list. That is kind of a first, I think. Nice to be moving on to new stuff, though! And no, I am not picking songs. I can’t choose just one. I am choosing an album that meant a lot for me instead, because I’m special like that.

	1 – Amanda Palmer: Who Killed Amanda Palmer? It feels strange that I’ve only listened to her music for less than a year. It feels like forever. Before she went solo she was part of the group The Dresden Dolls and my favourite album of hers is actually the first Dresden Dolls album, but I would never have figured out how brilliant it is had a friend not zipped up and emailed me WKAP. So that’s the one that goes on my list. One of my favourites on this album is Strength Through Music which has the most chilling video ever.
	2 – The Bird and the Bee: The Bird and the Bee. Usually I like my music to be noisy in a very particular way. This album is everything but. It’s very smooth, and Wiki describes it as “a jazz-influenced electro pop project”. I guess that about sums it up. The first song I heard was Again and Again (video here), and I promptly fell in love with the simple and to the point lyrics: “You’re so stupid and perfect / And stupid and perfect / I hate you, I want you / I hate you, I hate you, oh / Again, again, again, again…”
	3 – An Horse: Rearrange Beds . This band I learned about from my Australian Music Fairy (yes, I just promoted her to that). We listened to it like crazy when it was just an EP, and then the whole album came out and there were YouTube videos and I started obsessing about Kate Cooper who is the singer and cute as a button. The song that first hit me like a ton of bricks was Company (video here), but I also really enjoy Camp Out (“This is a song for the one that I love / No, I haven’t met them yet / But I’m quietly confident”) and lately I’ve been all about Shoes Watch (“But I got so scared / That you might be a better me than me”).
	4 – The Indelicates: American Demo . This band was the opening act to Amanda Palmer when I saw her, and I fell madly in love in about two seconds flat. I love that the two front figures, Julia Indelicate and Simon Indelicate take turns singing, and that makes for very different listening experiences depending on the song. Two favourites, sadly not on YouTube, are Stars (“I’m in love with the boy next door / He treats me like a filthy whore”) and We Hate the Kids (“Absolutely anyone can play the fucking guitar”), but here is a link to America, which shows said vocal contrast between the two singers…
	5 – Jenny Owen Youngs: Batten the Hatches. Found this album by way of the excellent (and suitably depressing as all the songs I love) song Fuck Was I, which you can see here. I bought both her albums before going to Edinburgh, because I suddenly decided that I Had To Have Them for the flight. I hear Jenny is currently the opening act of Regina Spektor who is also the voice in the beginning of the song Voice on Tape (and don’t ask me how many months I listened to that song before figuring that out).
	6 – Kate Nash: Made of Bricks. I found out about Kate’s music through Female Appreciation Month, and it kind of hit me over the head like a well-placed brick (ha, ha, ha). She was this year’s Lily Allen, in a way, and the song Foundations inspired me to write a certain blog post, but I think my favourite song of hers is Mariella, which you should check out here, and not just because Kate has the most delicious British accent…
	7 – Lily Allen: It’s Not Me, It’s You. Lily’s first album was my post-break-up-fuck-you-I’m-doing-fine-really-I-am-music. I don’t think I listened to anything else for months. I didn’t get nearly as obsessed with this album, but it’s still a good one. I love The Fear (video here), Not Fair always makes me giggle and I Could Say is beautiful. Yes, really.
	8 – The Lucksmiths. I refuse to pick one for them, since they QUIT this year and anyway I love this graphic Google found me, which doesn’t belong to an album, I don’t think. This is a band I never thought that I would like. See above when I ask for noisy stuff. My Australian Music Fairy, however, disagreed and shared some music with me and got me hooked. She’s evil like that. I’ve got parts of four of their albums in my ipod and I so can’t choose one above the others. When I went to YouTube to see what there was of theirs on there I found this cover of The Smiths’ There’s a Light That Never Goes Out, which made me smile (disregard the video, okay?).
	9 – Pony Up!: Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes. I extremely randomly tripped and fell over Pony Up! when a friend sent me their song Shut Up and Kiss Me (“If I left you wouldn’t miss me / I don’t care, shut up and kiss me”, and later bought some more of their stuff to see if I liked it as much. I kind of did. I don’t like everything they do, like most of this list, but they’re still pretty damn brilliant. From this album I especially like The Best Offence (”My self respect means more to me / Than you do / Or at least it used to“).
	10 – Regina Spektor: Far. I pretty much like everything Regina does, so I don’t think anyone was surprised when I started obsessing over this album. My favourite song from it is, by far, Folding Chair (video here), but Eet is brilliant too. My favourite Regina song right now, however? It’s a tie between Chelsea Hotel #2 (a Leonard Cohen cover, available here) and Mockingbird, apparently a play on a nursery rhyme or something, which you can see here. Neither are on this album. Sorry about that.

Runner-ups:
Anything and everything by Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday
Rilo Kiley: More Adventurous
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: iTunes Originals

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STUFF, STUFF AND MORE STUFF
Wow. Nearly 4000 words now. That is crazycakes. I am pretty much done, but will toss in a short list of “extras” that I can’t fit in anywhere but still want to mention…

How I Met Your Mother, especially the unreliable narration.
Glee, and pretty much everything involving Mercedes and/or Kurt.
Post Secret, which is an oldie but I still love it.
Questionable Content, my favourite web-cartoon of them all, especially when there is Marigold and/or Hannelore.
The Guild, the best five minute episodes of web-TV you will ever see. With Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton, people!
Ill Doctrine and his defense of the Being Grouchy About the HAPPY HOLIDAYS Thing.
Shapely Prose and all its four (I think?) writers.
Bokhora, the most brilliant book review site in Swedish I know (the fact that their name translates to “Book Whore” helps).
Baby Power Dyke, blog that preaches the goodness of Rachel Maddow and recently got suspended (and un-suspended, thank fuck).
Any and all blogs by authors, publishers and literary agents that I read, which I can share if somebody cares, but the list is kind of long.

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I believe that’s all. Oh thank fuck for that, it would be sad to still be working on this by midnight…

I feel like crap. I’ve had a few intense days, at least by my measures, but I think I need to cut out gluten or at least wheat for a bit, just to see if it makes a difference. There has been a lot of bread, pasta and baked goods in the last few days, and I actually found something in the grocery store that is supposed to bind non-gluten flours together that I want to try. I have no idea if this is why I feel like death warmed over, but it’s worth a try, I think.

I am re-organising my iTunes library for reasons unknown to anyone but the neat freak in me.

And I’m really too tired to do more than post a few pics, but I can assure you that it’s STILL snowing and that I’m too old for drinking and aimlessly chatting to people. I did some of that yesterday and now I want to sleep for a week. Ash is agreeing with me on that note, and I am wondering if Stockholm for New Years wouldn’t be a bad idea… Maybe I can do a more low-key trip some time when there isn’t a huge party planned.

It always amuses me when snow stays on places it should not. A while ago I looked outside and noticed that the completely vertical brick wall of the house across from me has snow stuck to it. How does it do this? Does snow not believe in gravity?

One teenager kitty that isn’t blurry for once, and next to her THE PRESENT. The quote on the back of said shiny iPod says “just turn the music up and keep your mouth shut”. It’s apparently from a Jens Lekman song, that I now have to acquire, since it’s on there!

E. SUITED UP. I knitted. That’s about the extent of it all.

Cousinly things were done on Christmas Day. I was given a green bowl in the shape of a fish because green was our theme this year…