I’m feeling so strange right now. I know this is not something new. I’ve felt like this before but in the moment it always feels strange and frankly bothersome. I’m feeling the need to do something. Anything but at the same time I’m having a hard time sitting still. In fact, I’m fighting to urge to go do something else at the present moment.

The last couple of weeks I’ve been so focused, I had ideas and I executed them. Now I have ideas and I can’t sit still long enough to even make half way. As soon as I get started, my ideas suddenly sound like crap and I no longer want to continue.

It’s just really hard right now ’cause the feeling is driving me nuts. I’ve been pacing around the flat looking for something to do. I wish Fredrik was around to give me a hug. 

There’s this cooking show on SVT4 called Leilas mat. It’s not a terrible show but there are elements of the show that make me go, “Huh?”

For example, there was a show where she made hamburgers and fries. She cuts the pickles and raw tomato on the same cutting board as the one she put her raw hamburger patties. Maybe there was a swap out but I certainly didn’t see one. Then when she’s making the French fries, she gives a little speech about safety and testing the temperature of the oil by putting in a piece of potato. But she’s deep frying in a pan with oil that’s filled up to less than 1 inch of the pot edge. When she puts in the potato, the oil splashes over the edge of the pan on to the stove. This woman is giving us safety tips on deep frying?!

For the most part, her show’s not too bad and her recipes look pretty good but shit like that makes me cringe so much.

Now that Fredrik is in the studio, I’m back to fending for myself. Being by myself is nothing new. I lived for most of 3 years by myself while I was in college and one of the downsides of being with a touring musician is that he goes on tour for many weeks at a time.

One thing I’ve noticed about living on my own is that I end up eating a lot of frozen foods. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not living solely on TV dinners and frozen pizzas. Although, every so often I do get a craving for TV dinners and frozen pizzas.

Anyways. Most grocery products are geared towards those living in a family unit. Not to mention buying in bulk saves you money and can be environmentally friendly. What we usually do is buy steaks and pork chops in the big package and chunk. We cut our own steaks and pork chops. Then I freeze the meat flat in a ziplock bag. After it’s frozen, I take the bag out and give it a few whacks to break the chops and steaks from each other. Now I can just take out 1 steak or pork chop when I want it.

Biggie over at Lunch in a Box has a great suggestion on how to freeze minced meat in individual portions using a ziplock bag. (http://lunchinabox.net/2008/04/11/speed-tip-make-individual-portions-in-freezer-bags/)

I tried it out when I made bolognese last night. Unfortunately the bolognese was a bit too runny to use the chopstick or ruler to divide. I just folded the bag in half instead to make 2 portions. Since Fredrik will be coming home on the weekends, we tend to need bigger portions of bolognese.

I used a zipper bag from IKEA. They’re pretty handy and each box comes with 25 larger (red) bags and 25 smaller (green) bags. You can’t find ziplock bags here in Sweden. I brought over 2 boxes of the ziplock brand freezer bags. They’re so versatile. We actually use them to store our medicines and for taking our shampoos and toothbrushes on vacation so if there’s a leak it doesn’t get all over our clothes.

Just Bento also has a great tutorial on how to make individual sized servings of shepherd’s pie. (http://justbento.com/handbook/johbisai/individually-frozen-shepherds-pie)

Ull scratched me last night during one of his fits and the cut rubs against the desk while I’m typing. I think I’m gonna take a wee break from typing now.

A couple weekends back, a friend of mine from my former SFI class told me about an UNLISTED Swedish course at Stockholm University. Deadline for application submission was April 15th. I’m going to have to send in my application as late and hope that they have the space for me. I really hope that I will be able to get into this course because I’m so sick of the one I’m currently part of. We found out the other day that the teacher we weren’t particularly fond of would be taking over next semester’s course. The only ray of hope in that is that they’re hiring a new teacher and he will be part of the course also. Here’s hoping this guy is amazing. The best thing about this new course is that it will be in Stockholm which would mean no more commuting to Västerås. So I REALLY hope I get in. **fingers crossed**

The other thing about this new course that’s a pain in the ass is that they want me to resubmit my school credentials. That means I have to make new copies, get them signed and send them over. I’m gonna see if they have any affiliation with the agency that is normal in charge of post secondary admissions and have my credentials on file. That would save a lot of time and hassle. I mean, where am I going to find 2 people to “witness” my photocopies? Fredrik’s in Örebro and I don’t know if the people I do know would do it. It feels a bit strange to ask them to.

The other day I watched a snippet of Oparah while I was knitting. She had Dr.Oz on her show. They were talking about some new show he was in and the kinds of foods that people should try to eat more or less off and a number of tests that were conducted for this show of his.

They did a test with these twins who drink a lot of water and the test was to see if drinking 8 glasses of water per day does have an effect on our skin like it’s been suggested in the past. As it turns out, there were no differences between the girl who drank loads of water and the one that didn’t.

One thing they discussed that I would like to give a try is cooking without salt. I tried that with my chicken today. I used only rosemary and black pepper to season my chicken. It came out quite good, possibly even better than the other times I’ve made chicken. I think I will try leaving out the salt more often. I’ll even cut down on the soy sauce and chicken bouillon.

My friend Ryan actually shouldn’t eat sodium. Apparently sodium was causing him some health problems, so he just cut it out of his diet.

Cutting sodium, sugar or anything else with strong taste tends to be hard at first. It takes a little while to get used to. It took me a while to lower the amount of sugar I put in my coffee and tea and now I hardly put sugar in my coffee at all. Most of the time I take it without sugar.

Last night I decided to take a chance. I left the safety of our flat and ventured out to meet new people. For those who know me well, it’s well known that I can be afraid of new people. It’s downright bizarre at times because I can almost chat up anyone. I suppose it’s more bizarre to be afraid of new people.

There’s a English pub quiz every Thursday night at the Southside pub in Zinkensdamm. Some of the members of Lost in Sweden have mentioned it and gone in the past. I was supposed to go sometime ago with Fredrik but Ull got neutered that day and we decided to stay home with him instead.

So I went without knowing anyone else that would be there. When I showed up, there was no one there. In fact, when the quiz started, no one showed up. That was a bit disappointing so I decided to leave. But then this guy chases me down, explained that he was supposed to be at the table that I was waiting at. As it turns out, the lady that reserved the table pulled out last minute. So I went back to join him and his 2 friends. We were later joined by a couple more people.

It was my first pub quiz and it was so much fun. I have to admit that of all the people sitting at the table, I was the big idiot. They knew so much more than I did. But I was in heaven. It was so nice to be surrounded by intellectual people and have intelligent conversation. The girl that was there knew exactly what I was talking about when I told them that I had missed this kind of conversation and being around smart people.

We won the pub quiz in the end. I actually won a drink to myself in the first bonus round.

Apparently there’s a regular pub quiz happening in another bar on Mondays with a Canadian quiz master. Maybe I’ll muster enough courage to go to that one day. I’d like to go to another pub quiz with these people. I went home so happy and feeling fulfilled. Just really hope they didn’t think I was too much of an idiot.

Someone has set up a mailbox for those who wants to leave a story of Johnny or a message for him and his family and friends. The number is (+1) 416-623-2085.

It’s such a tragedy that we’ve lost such a vibrant person. Johnny was too good to go so soon. Losing him is like missing a piece of the sun.

Rest in peace Johnny. Don’t forget to look down on us from heaven.

Credit: Daniel Morgan Lee

The Maui News’ article concerning the accident. (http://mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/503153.html)