Woke up around 06.30 from thunder and heavy rain. The thunder was really close and you could feel the massive sound from it in the bed. The power of nature…
Around 06.50 I picked up my Tungsten C and wanted to check my email but there wasn’t any network to the rest of the world. Oh, well. During thunder things usually break, but normally it is on the other end, at the university. That was not the case today. After we got up and showered I started looking for the error and found that the 16 port switch on the second floor had stopped working on the auto-uplink port. A quick switch to a 5-port brother solved that part, got a link light but still no conectivity to the rest of the world. Hmm, let us verify the 8-port hub downstairs. No link light to the switch upstairs. That port on the hub was broken as well and I moved the cable to another port on the hub and it all started working. Verified the 16-port switch and yes it was broken. Called Netgear and I am getting a new one, again. This is will be the second time it is replaced with a new one.
Everything felt OK and finally I could eat my breakfast. Half way through Johanna wonders where Jennifer is and she heds up to check her email. “Gubben, I have no net.” Hmm, I have net on the other computer but not on hers. Some detective work shows that the ethernet card on her computer is broken and after a quick swap her computer is up and running again. Update the DHCP server to give her the right IP-number. All great.
Hmm, perhaps I should fix Tina’s blog so the RSS-feed gives the full entry? Hmm, I cannot change anything on her blog. Log in as Tina. HUH, she doesn’t have any permissions at all on her blog besides posting new entries. That is strange. After 1 hour I give up. I cannot increase her rights and I cannot add myself as an admin to her blog. That blog is living on its own in cyberspace.
What a day. And it is only 11.10… I really hope nothing else got lost during the night.

Today I have had a wonderful day with the family. We took a bike ride to Karlsvik where we had a picknick on the beach. The water was warm enough for Johanna to go for a swim and Tovah didn’t want to get out of the water at all. The spot we found was just after the camping and fir the first hour we were completely alone (it was a bit cloudy before lunch) and the water was knee deep on me for about 100 meters from the shore. Perfect for just walking along in the water on the sandy sea bed. We ate our picknick food on the beach, sushi, fresh fruit and the last of the brunch bread I baked a couple of days ago. The weather was just perfect, not too much clouds and not too much sun. It was nice just to lie there and relax with J next to me.
On the way back we stopped at Storheden for some shopping and we actually managed to find some clothes for J at H&M. That happens very seldom. Food was bought at Överskottsbolaget and COOP Stormarknad and when got out the latter it was raining a bit and it looked like we had just missed a shower. When we were leaving the parking lot we met Magnus and Johanna and they looked soaked. It didn’t rain at all on us on the way home. Lucky people.
At home it was dinner time. We made paprika soup and pancakes with whipped cream. It is Sunday, right?!! :=) After dinner Tovah wanted to bath some more outdoors so we filled up here smaller inflatable pool. J did some gardening when I played with T and around 19 we started a fire and prepared to burn some sausages. While waiting for the ember out friend the hedgehog came on a visit. He was heading up on the mountain but stopped for some crackers before tumbling along.
It is now 20.45 and J is putting T to sleep. I think I will try to get into bed right after J comes down as I am totally beat. I have been living alone for 1.5 months and having the rest of the family in the house drains my energy, in a positive way!!
All in all it has been a very nice day.
Tomorrow Jennifer is coming for a visit and we will see what happens then.

Sleeping is wonderful when you need it. Sleeping is something you not always get to do when you have a 3 year old daughter 🙂 Tovah wakes up every day between 7 and 8 and of course immediately thinks that everybody else also has to get up. Actually, only daddy has to get up, not mummy. I could have sleepy another 2 hours or so 🙂 But I am up, ain’t I? T even helped me do my situps.
Yesterday we went for a picknink. We were heading for Karlsvik but just as we left the house it started raining. After some shallying we ended up in a small gazebo just next to the University, next to “Pussen”, the small pond. We were sitting there eating, laughing, having fun and when we got cold we took out an extra blanket. It was quite fun actually.
When we got home we made sushi, while Johanna cleaned her room which at the moment was more a junk room than her room 🙂 We watched some movies and when Tovah was falling asleep I sat on the porch and read a new book, “Ont Blod” by Arne Dahl. It started quite strangely but I soon found out that the first chapter depicted someone’s strange thoughts. While I was sitting there I got a visit from my friend the hedgehog. I call him Taggi. It is amazing how much noise these creatures make when they walk through high grass. He comes every evening and I found out yesterday that he really enjoys Digistive crackers. He first was very scared and shy but after eating half a cracker I could take photographs so close that I had to use the macro setting on the camera. He totally ignored me and camera flash.
During the day yesterday I was really tired, to little sleep and to much brace the last days waiting for Johanna.
But now it is a new day and unfortunately it is cloudy but thankfully it isn’t raining. Perhaps we’ll take a road trip around town with a picknick in Karlsvik. We’ll see what the ladies of the house say.
If you are in Luleå and read this and see us floating by on our red strange bikes then stop us and say hello! 🙂

The big day is here, J-T day. They arrive TODAY but later than expected. Their train is delayed (well that was to be expected as trains seldom are on time unfortunately). This means I can take later bus downtown (cannot walk as I have to take a heavy car seat with me for T). It feels like like going out on a first date, but ten times worse. Not worse in a negative meaning but stronger. There is more at play here than at a random date.
T = Tovah
J = Johanna