KSena's Journal

And so, nearly all my vacation is done and over with... This last week I'll do nothing but laze around and not do shit. Well, apart from the necessary, of course. :-P

So, as you saw on my previous post, the midsummer trip and following week staying with my mom went really well! Better and more awesome than I had expected! So grateful for that! I love my mom to bits, and just to get to stay with her and be around her was bliss.

Anyway, we came home and we had just a few days and then my DEAREST snowstormskies came over! Which was AWESOME!

She didn't stay as long as she did last year, arrived late on Sunday and left midday on Thursday. So, effectively we had three days we could do something fun and hang out. And that we did!

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen photos of what we've been up to already. :-) (I'm very active on Instagram...)

We spent one day at Karlsborg Fortress, which is totally cool! If you want the history of the fortress either go there or check out the wiki-page I linked to there. :-D It's an incredible place. Biggest fortress in Sweden! And the short story is that it was built to protect Sweden's gold reserve, government and royal family in case Russia attacked. Historically Russia has been a very real threat to Sweden.

And the guided tour sure reflects that! It's called A Historic Adventure Tour! And an adventure it was. You get to see a movie about how life was like in the fort when it was active. And parts of the tour you get to experience loud fake bombardments and talking dolls as if russians are attacking the fort. So it was a bit hectic and.... quite exciting there for a while! I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with PTSD or any other mental illness!

Alexandra joined us to, and she might have been a bit to young. She was very frightened. The tour guide was great though, said she was a brave princess and feed her and the other kids 'gold coins', aka chocolate coins. :-) And both during and afterward we talked to Alexandra about it very clearly and properly and it seems as if she understood. She keeps saying since that loud bangs are bad. But that she's a brave princess. I couldn't agree more!

Pictures from Karlsborg: One, Two, Three, Four, Five

The day after that me and snowstormskies decided to take a shopping and having a SPA afternoon. And that we did! I usually don't shop much, but I got inspired by snowstormskies and do a fair bit of shopping as well. :-P Mostly useful stuff or things that have broken that I replaced. All good though! I did end up buying scented candles just like last year and the year before that. I guess that's tradition to do now when she visits. X-D

And of course that meant Alexandra got to have a calm day at home with dad, which I think she needed. :-)

So the spa was lovely and the shopping was nice and we ended up having a great dinner in the evening with Alexandra and Peting as well, so that was wonderful. :-)

Spa picture: One

Last day we got to do something together, we decided to go to Torpa Stonehouse. It's a pretty cool medieval mansion/castle that has been in the same family since it was built... and still is. No joke. :-) I took snowstormskies there the first time she visited, and she liked it so much she wanted to go again. So we did! The tour guide was really great, and did the whole tour in english even though she was very insecure in the language. She did great though! She even assured Alexandra there'd be no loud bangs! :-)

After we'd explored the house and all it's crooks, crannies, secret passages and all that, we went to a moderately small house outside where they sold a TON of handmade stuff! Like household items, knitted things, sewn things, leather work, metal work... You name it. :-D All handmade from people around the area. snowstormskies LOVES that sort of thing, and so do I, so that was awesome! Aaaand... we spent some money there, no surprise. X-D

We also went to a neighboring farm/mansion that was a bit younger, I think they started out there during the 1500's... There to they sold a lot of handmade stuff and things, so... we spent some more money. X-D Alexandra got a giant handmade softie snake that she fell head over heels for!

So we had a really good time, you could say!

Pictures from Torpa Stonehouse: One, Two, Three (Most are multiple images.)

Next day I helped snowstormskies clean up the little cabin she stayed in at the camping ground here, Borås Camping. She really enjoyed that little cabin, and it was really easy to clean up as well, to make it ready for the next person renting it. :-)

After that we went to have lunch, picking up Alexandra on the way. Peting choose to fix his own, since he felt his blood sugar levels had gone through the roof lately... Diabetes is such a pain, seriously! But we had a good time still, just us three girls. :-) Then we dropped Alexandra off, hugs all around!

Then I drove snowstormskies to the airport, waving her off. That's always the hardest part. I love, love having her here visiting! And she claims it's good for her somehow. I'm just glad she enjoys my company enough to come visit me once a year. She already plans for next year... ;-)

Saying goodbye: One

So that was the first post! Next post will deal about... adventures with my brother, our kids and Astrid Lindgrens World!

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Work is really taking up all the energy I have, no joke.

And apparently I got a second job. Of sorts, anyway. I've ended up talking on the local Radio during the Panel of Culture. Where we discuss various cultural things live on the air. Can get really interesting sometimes when I don't know anything about the subject even if I do read up on it online. So it's fun, it's interesting... AND I get paid! :-D Win-win!

At work it's... well, it is what it is. It's not silent, that's for sure. The loud teens make my head SO TIRED! So it's not unusual that I yawn or zoon out a bit during the day, because MAN! And let's not even starting on the list off names I'm being called on a daily basis. Siriously. These teens claim they need to have RESPECT! Well, you act like this, you don't desrve respect dammit!

I will admit though that after refurnishing the library things have calmed down considerably. It really has. So even though it's not quite or calm as in other libraries, I'd still call that a success. :-)

A less successful thing is the mornings I keep having with Alexandra, my dear daughter of mine. She's turning five in August. So she's in this period of wanting to do everything herself, and... that doesn't always work out so great. So to say she is SLOOOOOOW in the mornings is an understatement. Now I've even started to wake her just a lil earlier to give us more time, and it STILL takes us more than half an hour sometimes.

And what with the changes to the bus traffic, this makes me late to work. Nearly every single day. I am just SO FRUSTRATED with her right now! Especially her socks. OMG! She can poke around and pull around with them for SO LONG, it makes me want to tear hairs out of my scalp!

So there's that... :-P

I'd slacked a bit on the LARP front lately, even though I have picked it up again after being away for so long what with my broken leg. I do follow one of my LARP-friends on Tumblr though (he is doing AMAZING cosplay!), and I get notifications for his posts on my phone. Got one of them one day and lo and behold. It's a piece of art. A portrait of three vampire ladies. That I know very well, because it's three characters a friend of mine played/plays and I've been LARPing with her since 2001... Two of her previous characters and the current one.

And that piece of art is AMAZING! It's drawn/painted by another young LARP friend of mine, and I knew she was good... Now I know she's very VERY good! And I feel tempted to ask her to draw my current character to, because holy hell! She's amazing!


Originally posted HERE!

Can see why I want her to do my character to, don't you? :-D So tempted... You have to go check out the rest of her stuff! She is REALLY REALLY GOOD! I even signed up to be her patreon! (I wonder if she knows that nickname is me...)

I'm glad I've gotten my creative juices flowing with the LARP again though. It IS a beloved hobby of mine, and I won't stop any time soon. :-) On Saturday night it's my turn again, which will be awesome! But the best part for a working mom though is... I get TWO SLEEP IN'S!!! Oh, bliss... I can't wait. :-D

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.