Beauty in the Unexpected

Here is a link you really need to check out. It's an advertisement I actually discovered via somebody else's blog and I loved it! Melissa, I thought of you especially. If possible do the extended version of it, but you really need wireless. It took forever to download even with Gerry's highspeed connection.


www.bravia-advert.com

How come I can't get this to publish as an actual link?

Cookies!

We are having a cookie selling contest among the cashiers at work! I am ahead, but feel free any of you to drop in and increase my lead! Just make sure you get in my line so I can get credit for selling it to you.

I am also going to start keeping track of the odd names people have. Here are my first two:

Kully (guy)
Pepper (girl)

The "E"s

Meet Emma and Evelina- the two girls from Sweden who spent Christmas with us. What fun we had! They had been sight-seeing all down the East Coast, so when they arrived at our house they were all ready for some quiet days. Neither of them had ever been away from home for Christmas, so staying with a real family was ideal.

We spent ages sitting around talking, laughing, discussing languages, discussing cultural differences, and generally enjoying each other. They had never eaten turkey before except in deli form, so out grand bird was a big attraction. I think they even took pictures of it! They had fun adding new words to their already excellent English vocabulary (such as pine needles) and we learned tiny bits of Swedish. Did you know that the name Thorpe is the Swedish word for a certain type of house in the woods? Or that the Swedish word for knife is knive?

I had previously decided that Swedish was an unexpectedly beautiful language and was glad to be exposed to it again. The two of them chattered away with each other in Swedish, leaving us clueless but amused. The funniest was when their Dad called them from home. They were in the living room with us. One would be on the cell phone while the other kept up a patchy translation for our benefit. "Evelina just said that..." "Our Dad is teasing her because..."

Christmas trees are very similar in Sweden, but Christmas dinner is a different kettle of fish (quite literally). Swedish traditional Christmas meal consists of sausages, omelettes, various fish dishes, mashed potatoes, and I am forgetting the rest. Most of it was equally gross. Christmas morning they have cooked rice for breakfast. In the evening they mix the leftover rice with cream and serve it for dessert with fruit sauce. Sounds lovely, what?

Okay, enough on Swedish/American Christmases.

And the title? My family called them the "E"s before they arrived because they couldn't remember their names. It stuck even after they arrived. :-)

Observations on my life that have little or no import

1. One of my (managers) has the dubious distinction of being named John Brown. I find this highly distressing because every time someone uses both of his names my mind instantly supplies this phrase: "John Brown's body lies a molderin' in the grave."

2. Pet peeve- turning signal blinkers that blink twice as fast as normal ones. One feels like the car has ADHD or is high on caffeine.

3. The wind patterns across the rear window of my car are fascinating. As I was driving home from work today I noticed them because tiny, wet chunks of snow kept sliding down from the roof and getting trapped on the glass. They would track aimless but rather graceful patterns across the glass, chased by small eddies of wind. Good thing I didn't get into an accident while I was watching them in my rearview mirror.

4. Snow costs money. People have to get paid to plow, people have to fix their cars after they crash because of snow, and in the restaurant business one loses money because you staff the whole place waiting for customers who never show up because of the snow. This restaurant worker was bored all day long because nobody came in. There are only so many things you can do to keep busy if you have to stay by your register. I wiped counters, straightened stacks of paper bags, and restocked pastries repeatedly. Then I was left to contemplate the dust bunnies near the ceiling and talk to the other clerk (who doesn't have the gift of the gab). Thankfully they let me out a half-hour early.

5. I want to read Ann Coulter's book, How to Talk to Liberals (If you Must). The second-hand bookstore down the road has it. I know, because I have seen it on the shelf the last three times I have gone in their. Alas, I haven't the guts to buy it because the title makes me nervous. I don't want to get into a political discussion with the bookshop owner. I also don't want him to get the impression that I think all Liberals (including himself... wait, I don't even know if he is or not) are so foreign, and so illogical, that I need Ann Coulter to tell me how to communicate with them. Maybe he will be offended. How is that for wimpy?

6. Actually, I also don't buy it because I think Andrea has it, and I could always borrow it from her if I really thought I would actually read it.

7. The End.