Hold your thumbs!
What is this crazy lady talking about?  Hold my thumbs?  Why?  To make the dogs jealous of our thumbs' opposableness?  Well, that was precisely my reaction when a Swedish coworker suggested that. Turns out that "holding thumbs" is like "crossing fingers"- a small, superstitious gesture in the hopes of making something come true.  As it turns out, it's not just a Swedish thing.

TV License
Sometime in early 2009 I received a phone call at work, on my mobile.  I remember it quite clearly because few people called me and no one had yet called my phone to reach Dave.  And in my terrible Swenglish I deduced (it turns out incorrectly) that I was part of a telephone survey.  I don't recall exactly how the conversation went, but I confirmed to the man on the phone that there was a television in our apartment. Then he said something that I translated as " you have to pay for your television" and I said that we already had a TV.  I was so surprised, this guy called, asked for my husband, asked me if I had a TV, and then told me that I needed to pay f

Label-lations (like sign-lations, but with labels)
Perhaps not the best name for a product, or at least not for hand disinfectant.  I have been seeing this all over the hospital because we are on orange alert regarding swine flu.  OK, I made up the orange alert part. 

Swedish Classic, part one
Lidingö Loppet, 30 km run DONE! Congrats Dave!

Our prisoner's dilemma
Towards the end of the summer, which on cool fall days like today feels quite a long time ago, we had a bit of a dilemma.  We were invited to someone's house for a small, casual dinner party.  Bring along the dog even.  Having rarely been the only non-Swedes around, we were interested to see what Swedes do when they're not surrounded by expats.  Just before we were to leave we got a quick text from the host, mentioning that after dinner we might sauna.  Yes, sauna, it seems, can take on any part of speech.  We grabbed our swimsuits just in case, but having heard rumors about naked coed saunas, we didn't know what to expect.  While I wrapped up our small gift