Work, Parents and A Crazy Old Lady

The last week has been crazy! Work is really ramping up, with the new Bonnier.com site production going into high gear. If anyone reading this happens to be from Bonnier, well, not to toot my own horn, but I think you really have something to look forward to. We're building a very slick social network/wiki tool with groups for all the businesses around the world, which we hope will effectively replace the need for the company-level intranets that exist now. Not that we're encouraging people to close down their old internal sites, but for those groups who were planning to upgrade and redesign, you now won't have to, because we're giving you something really good for free. And in this economy, I think that will make everyone happy.

My mom and dad (pictured above in their Icebar gear) are still in town, and I feel a little guilty because I've only been able to hang out with them in the evenings for the past few days. I was hoping to slip out of work early at least one day and accompany them on their activities, but it's just been too busy. And they go home tomorrow! Kind of sad. So far we've done some really fun stuff, though. I told you about the julbord in my last post—that may have been the week's highlight. But we also went to the Absolut Icebar, which they loved. It's a really silly place: A bar completely constructed of ice and situated inside a huge freezer kept at -5 degrees celsius. They give you a furry poncho and a fake reindeer skin to sit on, and hopefully you had the good sense to also wear a warm coat and gloves. Admisison includes a vodka cocktail served from a glass made of ice. The drinks were really good, and it was kitschy and fun for about the amount of time it takes to finish one cocktail. They were so tasty we were about to order another round, when we realized we were freezing our asses off, and could simply go to a different bar.

Last night we went to a random Thai restaurant because we were sick of Swedish food. The evening's dinner entertainment came in the form of a strange woman who sat down next to us and told us her left arm was completely numb from having surgery earlier that day, but it was okay because she'd just taken a pain pill. She was a rather older lady, past the age limit where everyone speaks perfect English, but she was chattering away in Swenglish anyway, which was sort of sweet. But then the pain pill kicked in and her English went downhill, and became a bit slurry. She started asking all kinds of questions about money ("How much did your hotel cost?" "Is it expensive to live where you live?" "You spent quite a lot to order all that food and you're not eating it," etc.). That was a little uncomfortable, but maybe just a cultural difference so we laughed politely and answered her questions discreetly. But THEN she started telling us that she's moving to Finland because she doesn't like Sweden's easy immigration laws. She thinks the country lets in too many Muslims. Whoa! She went on and on about this, getting increasingly snowed under by the second by whatever narcotic she'd taken. She wasn't drinking or anything, but by the end of the meal, we all had pushed our chairs away from her and were awkwardly looking down at our plates while she leaned over the table with a wagging finger saying "devil Arabs, devil Arabs" over and over. Yes, lady. Go to Finland. Go waaaaaaaaay north in Finland where you can be all alone with your fifteen cats and the open tundra.