Swedish Pop Culture 2012 - Anders Borg's Hair

Anders Borg is Sweden’s finance minister and everybody loves him! I mean, not really, but haters gonna hate, amma right? I don’t want to get into politics before I absolutely have to, but he is a guy that repeatedly scores very high in confidence polls, some claim due to his economic policies that have kept Sweden out of a bad recession in a time when the world economy is failing. Others say it is due to his awesome hair style, setting him apart from all the other ministers of finance in the EU. He looks like a rebel that just happened to stumble into a top meeting and is totally going to go ride a motor cycle home after he is done.

http://amzn.com/B006FTLQZI

Suri's favorite spot

The dogs are super tired today. Last night we had a bunch of coyotes outside, howling and screeching, and they all reacted to it in different ways. Suri was in his crate and whined a little bit. Lakrits went into full protective mode and sat in front of the glass door all night, barking occasionally, making sure nobody else got to sleep when he didnt. Tuula ran up to our bed and wanted to sleep near us, seemingly upset and frightened. Either way, nobody (neither dogs nor humans) slept very well tonight. So that means today is nap day!

Lakrits is so over it

He just can't seem to win over Suri. That's his brand new chew toy.

Redemption

I accidentally hit Jon in the head with a thermos and he actually fell to the ground and was blacked out for a couple of seconds. The worst couple of seconds in my life, during which I was convinced I had killed my husband.

He woke up, however, and laughed at my concern for his well-being, saying he was fine. And he was, apparently. But he also took the chance to remind me that I had promised to bake some cakes for his work. Smart guy.


French Vanilla/Fudge Chocolate Cake with a banana/cream/crushed milk M&Ms filling



Zesty Lemon Cake with banana/cream filling


Dark Chocolate Cake with caramel infusions and dark M&M topping

Swedish Pop Culture 2012 - Alexandramannen

This amusing sounding oxymoron (Alexandra = woman’s name, mannen = the man) is not very pleasant at all. In fact, he made life miserable for many young women whom he raped or sexually molested. While pretending to be a glamorous female prostitute a’la Pretty Woman in online forums and chats, he hoaxed very young girls into taking their clothes off in front of the web camera or meeting “a friend who looks good and is super nice” (ie himself) in person, where he forced them to perform sexual acts. The case became Sweden’s to date largest web-based crime and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2006.

New job

As some of you may know, I recently started working as a classroom aide at Peninsula College. We teach English as a Second Language to immigrants and refugees. After just one week, however, a teacher for a different class unexpectantly and they needed someone to fill in the next day. So I was promoted! That means writing lesson plans for three different groups, doing CASAS-testing and everything else that I never had to learn as a mere aide... SO much fun but lots of work!

Swedish Pop Culture 2012 - ABBA

ABBA

There is a very special love-hate relationship with ABBA. If it is played on a radio station in the country, people like to sigh and pretend to be super annoyed they have to listen to it yet again. If it is played on a dance floor in, say, Greece at 2 AM every single Swede will suddenly have developed a deep and undying love and yell “I am the Dancing QUEEN” before proceeding up on the nearest table.