The worm turns

I remember Mom you are always looking for a chance to say, 'The worm turns'.

Here is my story about the election. Last summer I got a sunburn and laid down on my left side and was able to rest for about two years I mean hours and then I got up and turned to the right side, but I was still unhappy.

Fall vacation

Anders and Fredrik have fall vacation this week. Along with Karin they took the train up to Vallentuna on Monday, and I went to Odense Denmark to be the external reviewer for an exam in Environmental Chemistry. There were 18 students in the class and we gave them each a 30 minute exam - 9 hours of work, a long day. I got up at 4 to make the 3 hour train trip from Lund. They got me a hotel room Monday night in Odense and then Tuesday morning I took the train back to Copenhagen and worked another long day and got back home to Lund late Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I took the train up to Vallentuna and am here now with my family, visiting Margit. We just got back from a walk to the church where Karin put flowers on her father's grave. Its a beautiful fall day today - blue skies, sun on the lake, and there are lots of birds around - a woodpecker, many pheasants, birch thrushes. Tomorrow (Friday) we will take the train back down to Lund and Saturday I will pick up our new (used) car. Lots of travel.

Happy Birthday Anders!

Thanks for the National Geographic Kids subscription, Grandma! Anders is always excited when it arrives - great animal pictures and stories. He is getting better at reading - and reading English - all the time.


Something came over me and I made this fox out of carrot sticks and shredded carrots, with M&Ms for eyes. Its not as nice as the birthday cake Karin made in the shape of a fruit tree, but I did make it myself.


Here is big brother Fredrik - he's been playing with Anders today, helping him with a Pokemon game and building some things out of legos.


Here is the birthday boy - Anders - Seven years old! - when he first got back from his swimming lesson this morning. They swam through an underwater hoop today.

New Car

I went to a used car dealer yesterday and arranged to buy this 2003 Ford Mondeo wagon. We'll trade in our 1997 Ford Mondeo wagon which had too much rust. It seems like a good car to me but I'd like to talk with Dad about it. That was always fun. I'll go pick it up next Saturday - they are going to mount winter tires and have it inspected.

Halloween

We carved pumpkins and sugar beets this afternoon. Carving sugar beets is an old tradition in Sweden - and when you put a candle inside they smell like roasting sugar.


Anders wanted to carve 'a pumpkin in a pumpkin' and this is the result.

I spent three days this past week at an EU meeting in Valencia Spain, on the Mediteranean coast. Did not get to see so much more than the hotel - full of Japanese tourists - and the laboratory where the meeting was held - the 'European Photoreactor'. It was a good meeting and I got to see my good old friend Professor Claus Nielsen from Oslo. We ate like the Spanish - lunch at 3 in the afternoon and dinner around 11 PM. We flew through Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris and I was worried that the French labor strikes might affect our travel. The flights were fine, but they lost my bag on the way there so I wore the same clothes a second day until the bag returned.

Went for a nice bike ride yesterday, past an abandoned country church to a manor in the countryside. Had a nice view of the other side of the valley where there is a factory turning sugar beets into sugar. Saw a family of swans, two deer, a few hares and rabbits, and a lot of storks following a tractor harvesting sugar beets. Returned from the ride with beets from the ditch for us to carve.

Pumpkin!

Hi yesterday we dropped Fredrik off for a scout overnight. On the way back we passed a farmyard where they were selling pumpkins and picked up this prize:

Anders went to swim class this morning and came back happy.

Pictures

Here's the view from up top of the hill, looking across the water towards Denmark:


Fredrik is taking guitar lessons and is getting better all the time.

10-10-10

It is the tenth day of the tenth month of the year 2010 - as our High School physics teacher would have said, a full house!

I am spending the weekend, once again, preparing my teaching for next week. The first quarter is my most intense teaching quarter, with two classes and lots of students.

We bought two Siberian hamsters for Anders for his birthday and he and all of us are having a lot of fun playing with them. Their fur looks kind of like a huskie - white with grey/black patterns. They are very active and chase each other around and play games. I just helped Anders build them a slide, and he and Fredrik are in the workroom making a little wooden jungle gym.

Working at home

Hi I am at home editing some papers this morning, and this afternoon I will go to the World Energy Solutions conference in Copenhagen. The University has asked me to be at their booth to demonstrate the air purifier invention. They are setting up an interview for the TV news - I feel ambivalent, it takes time and is hard to get right. It helps my research only very indirectly. Also I will sit on a panel to discuss Energy Efficiency. I got a letter today from a doctor in San Francisco wondering if we would be able to remove anaesthetics from the air in operating rooms - and I think the answer is yes, we can. Anders was home yesterday with a sore throat but is back in school today. Fredrik is also back in school, but his voice is still scratchy and recovering from the laryngitis. Best wishes! /mj

Pappa Likes Food

Anders gave me this picture tonight, it's called, 'Pappa Likes Food'. That's a bottle of hot sauce above the plate.

Goodby cruel words

I am writing a lecture on Scientific Writing. Here are some of my notes:

Let's eat, Grandma!
Let's eat Grandma!

Man eating shark
Man-eating shark

Brevity is the soul of wit
Omit needless words
Less is more

Camp Food

Top Ten Foods for Camping and Hunting Trips.

1 and 2, tied, Fried fish (any species) and blueberries (fresh)
3. Corned beef hash with eggs
4. Pancakes with canned corn and fruit cocktail
5. Bisquick dumpling stew
6. Peanut butter and jelly
7. Scrambled French toast
8. Popcorn
9. Toasted marshmallow
10. Trail mix

Weekend

The weekend is here which means its time to prepare for next week: Write lecture for Scientific Writing; make lessons for Environmental Chemistry; Write a talk for high school students in Gladsaxe; Make presentation for World Climate Solutions meeting; Review a paper on laughing gas. But I did have a chance to bring in the year's harvest of cayenne peppers and tomatoes.

Wednesday

Anders was really excited because they printed his birthday in this month's Bamse comic. He showed me - Pappa! Its my name! And there it was, October 31, Anders Johnson. Karin sent his name in.

I've noticed that its getting harder to focus on things that are nearby - like books and computers, and so the optrician recommended that I get progressive lenses. They arrived today. I am still getting used to them, they say it takes a couple of weeks. Everything is swimming.

Still no result in the Swedish election - they are counting and recounting some of the votes. Maybe tomorrow we will know.

Things continue to be busy at work. I have some quizzes to finish correcting tonight, and then assignments to write for next week.

/m

Photos with Anders

Anders at swim school - that's him on the left kicking his way across the pool. The two young men teaching the class do such a great job!

Lunch with Grandma on the Long Pier.

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,
Karin has been up in Vallentuna for the last 4 days, helping her Mom to o through some of her father's things. My goal was to have fun with the kids. Its been busy and things went well. The kitchen is clean and I made loads of nutritious food. Fredrik still has laryngitis (three weeks now!) but is starting to be able to talk more. I kept him home from a scout hike and overnight - wind and rain and a sore throat don't mix. He played guitar, and played with his brother, and read Science Illustrated. Anders and I finished the birdhouse and got it put up in the pear tree, outside the dining room window.
You remember Allison gave the kids a book on making movies and I got them started on that. They put my digital camera on a tripod in front of a stage with lego characters. They would take a shot and then move the characters a little, and then take another shot. They were at it for hours and it turned out pretty well.
I have been doing a lot of work on the book lately - especially because we are teaching the class based on the book right now. I am writing problems for the students to go with each chapter. Takes a lot of time but I like the result and how it brings the text alive. The students seem to like it too but I have a tendency to write too many problems. Need to cut back, or only assign some of them.
I should go pick up Anders from school now - and then Karin from the train station.
Have you read about the Swedish election?
Love, Matt

Check the bearings

We'd always pull over in Faribault to check the bearings on the trailer when we were driving up north for vacation. Five kids, fewer as they moved away, and Mom and Dad in a station wagon and the tent trailer or the boat trailer loaded with gear, sometimes a canoe on top of the car. The idea was that Faribault was far enough from Owatonna that if something was wrong with the bearings it would have a chance to show itself. I quizzed Dad. Maybe water had gotten into the hub, maybe it wasn't packed correctly and would overheat and then we'd have to replace the axle and that would be really bad. We'd stop the car, Dad would get out and feel the bearings, and they were always cold, which meant they were alright. Then we'd get back in the car and drive to International Falls.