Wednesday, December 18, 2013

A comment on the passing of Ray Price

First of all, my heart and thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. Thank you for sharing Mr. Price with the world.

Who's gonna fill their shoes has become a very relevant question this year ...

What did Ray Price's music mean to me? I am most fond of his 4/4 shuffle era with the walking bass ... my favorite song of his is "Heartaches By The Number" (written by Harlan Howard). I have had that song on my repertoire as long as I can remember.

Some friends of mine came over from Sweden earlier this year and they went to his show in Atlanta. They said it was very special and gave them memories for life.

That's what music is about, isn't it? To be touched, to have a memory that glitters in your mind and whenever you want or need to you can have a glimpse of that glitter again.

Thank you Mr. Ray Price for giving us so much glitter and touching so many. I honor your life's work. R.I.P.


Here's the story on News Channel 5 http://www.newschannel5.com/category/125220/video-landing-page?clipId=9641217&autostart=true

Cross culture thing ...

A co-worker asked me once what I missed the most from my old home country. My answer was "Besides my family, I think I miss a Chinese dessert called Fried Bananas the most". I think it puzzled him as much as it did me :-) It's kind of funny ... I live in the US, come from Sweden and miss a Chinese dessert!

In Swedish/På Svenska:

En arbetskamrat frågade mig en gång vad jag saknade mest från mitt gamla hemland. Mitt svar var "Förutom min familj, så tror jag att jag mest saknar en Kinesisk dessert som heter Friterade Bananer". Jag tror att han blev lika förvånad som jag :-) Det är ganska lustigt ... jag bor i USA, kommer från Sverige och saknar en kinesisk dessert!

Bananas, dipped in batter and fried. Served with Vanilla bean ice cream and syrup. Oh, it's sooo yummy!!!


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Christmas gift ideas


This is my zazzle site with different creations I've made. Hope you'll enjoy it and find something of interest to you! Great gifts for friends and family and Christmas cards and postage too!

http://www.zazzle.com/designbykrizrogers

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Never considered myself as being pretty ...


Why? It goes back to the days when I was in grade 4-6. I was bullied. Every day. The class "mates" said I was ugly and pretended I had a disease so no one could go near me or touch anything that I owned or wore. If it was my jacket or my bag, they had to be hung waaaaayyy away from where everybody else's clothes were. If I walked down the corridor, everyone hurriedly lined up against the walls so that they would not "catch the disease".

How can you get away from this?

After an incident where two teachers happened to walk in when my mates were throwing erasers on me, the teachers and the parents obviously had a meeting and decided to implement two things: The first was a competition where the best friend of the year was going to be announced. All of a sudden, there were class mates competing for my attention and for my votes. I got to know one of my mates real well and she got to know me.
The other was a class getaway where everyone in the class went to a beach camping. The beach was near my parents' summer house and it was an environment where I felt at home with boating and I could show my peers around. Even the "leader" of my peers asked to ride the boat with me. They all got to know the real me.

The solution to all bullying is: get to know the real person. He or she might be more interesting than you thought he or she was. Get to know them and you will like them and who knows, they might have the same dreams, skills and interests in life that you do. Eventually, you'll grow to love them. Get to know them. They can become your life long friends.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Chase #ChangedMyWorld


This particular video is made with the help of Magisto www.magisto.com and the soundtrack is Brad Paisley's "I Can't Change The World". Chase literally changed my world from Europe to the United States ...

http://www.magisto.com/album/bradpaisley/video/f3p9DQ0AQAkfDnIBAA

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Home Improvement I - Hemförbättringar I


 One of the first projects I did in our new home was to taint an old mirror frame dark red mahogany that was grey. I bought the taint, sandpaper and brush at Walmart and it worked well. Now it matches the other furniture and picture frames in the room much better. I have to do the same thing with the other mirror frame as well of course.

In Swedish/På Svenska:

En av de första hemmaförbättringar jag gjorde i vårt nya hem var att lasera en gammal spegelram mörkt mahognyröd som var grå. Jag köpte färg, sandpapper och pensel på Walmart och det funkade bra. Nu matchar den de andra möblerna och ramarna i rummet mycket bättre. Jag måste göra samma sak med den andra spegelramen också förstås.





Tuesday, October 15, 2013

What a wonderful world .... En så'n underbar värld ....

IT IS a wonderful world: Mountains, water, rivers, lakes, creeks, the sound of bubbling water, waves, boats,  trees, flowers, yes, roses, sunrises, sunsets, the wind in your hair on a beautiful summer day, ice cream, apple pie, cake, cookies, chocolate, pasta, potatoes, bananas, carrots, love, love and love, colors, cars, bicycles, airplanes, language, music, guitars, clothes, and more .... and more ...

... and what would we be without all of the above?

In Swedish/På Svenska:

DET ÄR en underbar värld:: Berg, vatten, floder, sjöar, bäckar, ljudet av porlande vatten, vågor, båtar, träd, blommor, ja, rosor, soluppgångar, solnedgångar, vinden i ditt hår en vacker sommardag, glass, äpplepaj, tårta, kakor, choklad, pasta, potatis, bananer, morötter, kärlek, kärlek och mer kärlek, färger, bilar, cyklar, flygplan, språk, musik, gitarrer, kläder och mer ....och mer ...

... och vad skulle vi vara utan allt ovanför?

Sunday, October 13, 2013

The Move - Flytten

Moving from Chattanooga to Nashville may not be a big step in a physical sense since I moved from Sweden, Europe to Chattanooga, TN, USA not too  many years ago. Nashville is a much larger city though. Let me put things into perspective: Chattanooga metro has 520,000+ residents and Nashville metro has 1,700,000+ (source: Wikipedia). A pretty big step for someone that lived in a rural area in Sweden where the population in the county is about 9,600.

I do like the conveniences of living in a big city: there are so many stores at almost a stone's throw's distance and the largest ones are open 24/7 and if you don't "feel like" cooking dinner, there are dozens and dozens of restaurants - fast food and others - to choose from very close by. Tonight we ate at a Pizza Hut only a few minutes from where we live. Now, to be fair, in Sweden, something there is not a lack of  are pizzerias. Every small village has at least one. No Pizza Huts though, only in the major cities. Hmm, how come I started writing about food again ...

Anyway, we have found our closest grocery stores and some of our favorite fast food places, unpacked almost all of our boxes, hung pretty much most of our pictures and bought a few new things to decorate or new home, so ... life is good. Thank You God.

In Swedish/på Svenska:
Att flytta från Chattanooga till Nashville kanske inte är ett stort steg på det fysiska planet eftersom jag flyttade från Sverige, Europa till Chattanooga, TN, USA för inte så länge sedan. Nashville är dock en mycket större stad. Tillåt mig försöka sätta saken i perspektiv: Stor-Chattanooga har 520 000+ invånare och Stor-Nashville har 1 700 000+ (källa: Wikipedia). Ett ganska stort steg för någon som bodde på landsbygden i Sverige i en kommun där invånarantalet är omkring 9 600.

Jag gillar verkligen bekvämligheten av att bo i en storstad: det finns så många matvaruaffärer i stort sett bara ett stenkast bort och de största är öppna dygnet runt. Om du inte "känner för" att laga kvällsmat så ligger det dussintals och åter dussintals restauranger - snabbmatsställen och andra - att välja mellan i närheten. Ikväll åt vi på Pizza Hut bara några minuters bilväg från där vi bor. För rättvisans skull så måste jag säga att en sak som Sverige inte lider brist på är pizzerior. Varje liten by har åtmonstone en. Inga Pizza Hut-ställen dock, bara i de största städerna. Hmmm, hur kan det komma sig att jag började skriva om mat igen ...

I alla fall, vi har hittat de matvaruaffärer som ligger närmast oss och en del av våra favoritsnabbmatsställen, packat upp nästan alla våra lådor, hängt upp i stort sett alla våra tavlor och bilder och köpt lite nya saker att dekorera vårt nya hem med så .... livet är gött. Tack Gud.

 All packed and ready to go ... Packat och klart för avfärd ...
There we go ... sådärja ...
In our new home ... I vårt nya hem
 A good investment (assembled it myself - born and raised in IKEA country as I am). We will probably hang the guitars on the wall.
En god investering (monterade den själv - född och uppvuxen i IKEA-land som jag är). Vi kommer förmodligen att hänga upp gitarrerna på väggen.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Working on my Chattanooga Bucket List


Nashville is calling and Chase and I will be living there from the first week of September, so we are working on experiencing things in Chattanooga before we leave. Last year we went to Lake Winnepesaukah http://www.lakewinnie.com/ and had a real great time, so we have that done already.
Two weeks ago, Aretha Frankenstein's http://www.arethas.com/ (GREAT pancake place!) was the destination and it was certainly living up to our expactations.
Our latest adventure was to go to Rock City. What an amazing and magical journey! A visual surprise was waiting around every corner. The beautiful views were breath taking. Time and money well spent.
http://seerockcity.com/
Lookout Mountain

The cliff The Lover's Leap ...


Suggestion: wear comfy shoes and watch your step



Happy explorer

Simply wow


View from the cafe over Seven States Flag Court

One tired hiker (no, just posing for the "dramatics")


... and the rest is downhill.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Favorite places to eat at in Chattanooga Part I


Souper Salad off of Gunbarrel Road. They are located at the same plaza as Best Buy and Hobby Lobby  .... http://www.soupersalad.com/. They have a great salad bar with everything imaginable. Not to mention their pasta salads ... especially their Fettuccine Pasta Salad ...  heaven for a pasta connoisseur like yours truly :-)  Soup, baked potatoes, tacos and pizza available as well. And all kinds of desserts. I'd do best to stay away from the latter though ... What I wonder now is why in the world I would write about eating and food when it was over five hours since I last ate ... sigh ... better bite the bullet and ... go to bed and forget about it. Dream about food? Who? Me? :-)

Sunday, June 30, 2013

An enjoyable hobby


Some of my hobbies are to grow things, to enjoy life ... and food. Preferably vegetarian. I do eat dairy products and eggs and if it is absolutely necessary and nothing else is available I'll have chicken or fish.

Anyway, one way I enjoy food is looking at it, so why not capture the moments in pictures:

A home grown green bell pepper that soon becomes an ingredient in ...

... salads that my husband and I made. He prefers French dressing and I Ranch or Vinaigrette dressing. We got a little creative and put peach slices and strawberries in the salads this time. Delicious!

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

This made my day


I can't help it. I have to post a music video by one of my favorite contemporary country artists Brad Paisley.

It was while researching the nominees for the Music Row Awards and who to vote for that I came across it. Since I want to be fair I watched and listened to all the nominated songs on youtube before voting. Much to my happy surprise I saw that Mr. Paisley was running around in Stockholm Old Town in almost all of the video! yeeaay!

Now he can say that he has walked where I have walked ....





 PS. I did vote for this song, not for the Stockholm views but for the message in the song about broadening one's horizon.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Spring in the air/Vår i luften

  
Spring is in the air

 
Here in Chattonooga they are saying that it has been the coldest spring since they don’t know when … main thing is that that it IS spring, and that everything is starting to burst with life: flowers are starting to bloom, the leaves on the trees are about to bud and birds are singing and nesting. Chase and I saw a bird that dropped a long straw of dry grass today, but Chase put it where the bird could pull it to the nest-to-be. A little later on the straw was gone, so I guess the bird made use of it after all.


The pear trees are blooming now and they are very pretty:

 



 

In Swedish/på Svenska:
Det är vår i luften



Här i Chattanooga säger de att det har varit den kallaste våren i mannaminne … huvudsaken är dock att det ÄR vår, och att allting börjar sjuda av liv: blommorna börjar att blomma, löven på träden spricker ut och fåglarna sjunger och bygger bon. Chase och jag såg en fågel som tappade ett långt grässtrå idag, men Chase lade upp det där fågeln kunde dra det till det blivande nästet. Något senare så var strået borta, så jag förmodar att det kom fågeln till nytta i alla fall.
 
Prydnadspäronträden blommar nu och de är väldigt vackra (se bild ovan).
 

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Christmas Goodies

Just before Christmas, my parents sent me and Chase a monetary Christmas gift. We bought some Swedish/European cheese for some of the money, and we went to see the movie Lincoln for the rest.

On Christmas day, I found some Swedish candy (Kexchoklad and Daim; I know that you can find it at some World Market stores here) in my Christmas stocking. Thank you Santa! :)

På Svenska/in Swedish:
Strax före jul skickade mina föräldrar en julklappspeng till Chase och mig. Vi köpte lite Svensk/Europeisk ost för en del av pengen, och vi gick och såg Lincoln på bio för resten.

På juldagen hittade jag lite Svenskt godis (Kexchoklad och Daim; jag vet att det finns på vissa World Market-affärer här) i min julstrumpa. Tack tomten! :)
 
 
The triangular cheese is a piece of Scandic Farmers Cheese (in the States it's among the higher price cheeses, but in Sweden it's among the lower price cheeses. Well, it's ok, because it is imported and I enjoyed it very much!). The rectangular is a Muenster cheese and the round one with red "shell" is an Edam cheese.
Den trekantiga osten är en bit Hushållsost (i Staterna är den bland de dyrare ostarna, men i Sverige är den bland de billigare ostarna. Nåväl, det är okej, för den är ju importerad och jag njöt mycket av att äta den!). Den rektangulära är en Muenster-ost och den runda med "skal" är en Edamer-ost.  

Believe it or not ... but I still have some of this candy left ...
Tro det eller ej ... men jag har fortfarande en del av det här godiset kvar ...

A Diverce Album

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