Back at work. :(

Just guess if the weather turned nice and sunny today....

Need more holiday!

A question for all of you out there who know about such things...

Using a SSD as boot (& programs) drive (on windows), good/bad (other than the price)?

The one that might come in question is the Imation SSD 3.5" SATA 128GB M-Class, so not top of the line, but is it worth it?

My little girl is 2 years old today! How did that happen?




( and a couple more )

A picture post, because I finally got around to uploading a whole bunch of Ronja pics..

( Read more... )

And the rest are still in camera...

I have a new shiny monitor at work, the first flat one I've ever had, this one. It's actually not that bad. I still prefer my old big clunky one, but it was getting old and worn, so needed a new one, and this was what I got. However, the tuning software that came with it doesn't like my computer, so I can't use it. I've managed to get it looking fairly okey, a bit bright on reds still, and I don't like what it does to low res photos, but for normal work it's okay. My computer only has some inbuilt graphics card, which is probably the reason the tuning software doesn't work, and I was wondering if it would be worth getting a real video card, but since I don't do any gaming or such on this computer I'm not sure, all the cards seem to be aimed at that sort of thing. I have no idea what to get, or what even to look for...

In other news, it's Friday. Finally. Yay.

We seem to finally be over all the bugs (fingers crossed). Both me and Ronja are on antibiotics, so I guess we'll see how it goes when their effect runs out.

Ronja is getting to be a big girl. She chatters away most of the time, talking long sentences already. She "kan själv" (can do it herself), or at least tries, with dressing/undressing. Usually she'll need a bit of help still, but she's getting better every day. At least she doesn't get angry when she can't do it, she'll just either leave it, or ask for help. She's got clear ideas what she wants to wear (I usually give her a choice of shirt), and she absolutely loves going to daycare.

She loves to watch Winnie the Pooh (the old movie from the 70s) or Maisy Mouse on TV, so much so that we have to limit her TV watching a bit. She still loves to read books as well, and play with her bricks, or her play kitchen. Also she loves to draw, we just need to get something better do draw with. She picks up new words every day, some days she'll repeat any word, like xylophone, some days she doesn't want to say anything (new). She know her name ("jojja cilia jennifej tuonevine"), and mamma's and pappa's name (first and last), as well as her grandparents' names, and most of her toys are also have the same surname as she does. :)

She can count to 12, always leaving out 5 and 11 for some reason. She recognises a, b and c, probably because we have those on her cupboard door, and also at least 1, 2 and 3, sometimes she'll get others right, but I think it's more of a fluke really. She knows all the basic colours and gets them right pretty much all the time now, and usually manages a few more as well. Red, blue, yellow, green, white, orange always, usually black, brown, purple, gray, sometimes light blue, pink and a few others.

She knows all sort of words in both languages, she'll say things like "nyckelpiga, pappa calls it ladybird". Swedish is still the stronger language for her, which is understandable, but she knows a lot of English, and speaks it more and more as well. She'll say things like "bery good" or "mamma, ready!".

I'm still waiting for a proper spring. We had quite a bit of snow again at the beginning of the week, now it's hovering around 0, which means it's melting during the day, and freezes at night. :(

Urgh, want summer now! We've been ill, all of us. I had almost a week off with fever, coughing and general ickyness, during this Ronja was okay (after having been ill herself for a week with similar sort of thing), now she's been home all week with fever, coughing and snottiness, having some very bad nights (and days sometimes). Andy has been ill on and off, and I'm off to the doctor today, think it's a sinus infection this time. So can we please have some nicer warmer weather now? With more sunshine and less snot, please?

Sorry I've not posted much lately. I've been too tired to think about writing anything. I think I'd prefer to hibernate in winter, it's not really my time of year at all.

I also seem to have lost some friends, which makes me sad.

We've had a bit more of a winter this year than last year, we've had some cold days and some snowy days, me and Ronja even managed to make a snowman this weekend. However, yesterday it was raining again, which means slippery weather, not fun.

I have a huge pile of pictures to sort out, once I get through them you can expect some picture posts as well.

Ronja is doing well, she did have some virus last week, but is better now. She chatters away happily most of the time. She talks lots and picks up new words all the time. She also seems to be picking up both languages nicely, even though Swedish is still stronger, which is natural, as she hears that more. Yesteday she was sitting with Andy playing with her lego bricks and told him "it's a flower" so she's also doing sentances in both languages, even if here too her Swedish is stronger. I really need to record some of her chattering sometime. What I really need (= want) is a video camera.

Argh.. I was bidding on a shirt for Ronja on Ebay, one I almost bought when we were in England, but didn't for some reason or other. The listing ends today, the seller had 100% positive feedback, and lots of it. Logged in this morning to find that the shirt was no longer on my list... couldn't find it when I did a search. Dug out the bid confirmation, which has a link, "has been removed or is no longer available". The seller is no longer registered. *sigh* The seller has feedback from yesterday, positive feedback as well. And I've not been able to find any other listings of that shirt. I guess I'll just keep looking then. Should have bought it when we were there.

Christmas over. Lots and lots of pressies for the little ones, busy and stressful for the rest of us, mainly because of stupid parents who can't be in the same room at the same time, resulting in everyone turning up at the last minute making things very stressful and busy on the evening. Plans have been made for making next year less stressful.

It's also turned colder, about -10 C for the last few days. Still no real snow though. Andy is obsessed with lego, and I'm going to try and be better about food this year (well, once I've finished off the choccy I have left anyway).

Need to do a real update one of these days.

Happy New Year! Lots of bangs here, Ronja slept through all of it. :)


PS. Andy now has the same sort of sore throat I had when we were in England, over a month ago.. And he just talked to his parents, they have it too. So I'm just hoping Ronja doesn't get it as well, it is not pleasant.

We're going to my sister for xmas, leaving later today. Andy will take the dog to my mum first (my sister is allergic, so we can't have him there), and then we'll load the car full of pressies, some food, and ourselves and drive there. She is actually working still tomorrow, but we've offered to look after her boy on Tuesday, so maybe we'll at least be some help there. I expect we'll have a very very busy day tomorrow, with cooking and looking after two little ones, and Wednesday won't be any less busy, with two very excited little ones around... Thursday we'll do the whole rest of the family thing and go eat at my aunt's place, which is okay, but I'd rather just go there some other day and be more relaxed. Oh well, we'll survive it I'm sure.

I doubt I'll have any time to read or write here for the next few days, so I'll leave you with a "card"

( Happy dark time of the year )

I think I might have finally beaten this cold of mine, or whatever it was. Fingers crossed it stays away as well... Ronja is a bit snuffly, but nothing too bad.

On Wednesday we had her 18 month check-up + dentist. They were all very happy with her development, she was running around, offering her hippo to everyone, and chattering away. :) She weighs 10.7kg and is 82cm tall. She's grown 6cm in the last 6 months. The dentist was okay, even if she was preaching a bit about bottles and food and such.

I still have a whole bunch of xmas presents to sort out, and no ideas for most of them (basically most people over 5 are problems), and I'm quickly running out of time to do the ones I do have ideas for (having calendars, and other such things made for grand parents etc.) Argh. Also work is going to be really busy the next two weeks, so wont have much time to sneak out for shopping during lunch breaks.

Christmas Gift Toy & MySpace Layouts at pYzam.com

The trip went okay, Ronja had a lot of fun with her relatives over there, and was a little charmer most of the time. She did manage to get another ear infection, but with the tubes in her ears it wasn't painful at least. I also managed to get a nice cold, which includes a very irritating sore throat, some snuffling and coughing. I spent pretty much the entire trip no enjoying anything I ate or drank, and sometimes just being was too much. It's a bit better now, but I went to the doctor today, since it now developed into some sort eye infection. I'll know tomorrow if I need antibiotics or not.

Ronja is talking lots now. She knows sooo many words, quite a few of them both in Swedish and English, although Swedish is clearly her stronger language still. Every day she learns new words it seems, and quite a few of them are really clear as well, some of course are not, but I'd say the majority are understandable to just about anyone who speaks the language, not just us that know her. And she does sentences as well, it's incredible how fast she picks things up. Every day we come home from day care she wants me to read her books, and books and more books.... It's exhausting at times, especially since we read the same books over and over, but she loves it.

And thanks for the Christmas card rodluvan!

Need to find a soft Maisy Mouse for her for xmas still..

Friday at the doctor went fine. We got there a bit early, she run around playing with toys, after a bit a nurse brought her some tablets (painkillers) and she took those and then got to run around some more. Then we went in and she had to lay on a table and they waved some gas in front of her until she fell asleep, that bit was a bit icky, but not too bad. They had informed me that some kids get really angry when they wake up, no way to get any contact with them at all, and I'm glad they told me. About 15 minutes after I left her in there the nurse brought out a screaming and squirming Ronja, and we got to go to the recovery room, where she was furious, she screamed, nothing was good.. they offered juice, which she did want, but she wanted to hold it herself, and as it was served in flimsy disposable cups, this was not a good idea. We got some juice into her, without spilling too much, and then she got an ice-cream, which she could hold herself. This was good. She finished it, asked for more, I told her there was no more, she wanted down off the bed, and that was that. She was running around pulling out all the toys, totally back to her old self. So we got to go home and eat and take a nap. Well, she took a nap, I was just about to put my feet up and veg out in front of the TV when my dad got there (I had asked him to come look after Ronja in the afternoon so I could go shopping, however, I didn't expect him to get there that early), so no rest for the wicked. I went shopping took the dog out, and then we had to go wake Ronja up. :) She had a great time playing with my dad, and when it was time for bed she went out like light.

I, on the other hand, had a nasty cold, so spent the evening sneezing and snuffling. Same with most of the weekend really. Now we both seem to have developed a bit of a cough. It's not bad yet, but it did wake Ronja up last night, and then later she woke me up by coughing so much. Mine seems more of a tickle so far, but it's irritating enough. I just hope she gets over hers soon, as we all could use some proper sleep.

Only two more days at work after today, then I have Thursday and Friday off before we fly to England on Saturday. yay, I guess...

I might have to buy this book, just because of the title. :)

In other news, Ronja is getting tubes in her ears of Friday. Saw the doctor today for a followup to the last ear infection, and her ears are still not okay. So instead of feeding her antibiotics all the time, they're going to put in tubes to let the ears drain and heal properly. It's a minor operation, only takes a few minutes, but they do have to sedate her, which will be icky and scary. At least she should be okay to fly after that.

Urgh.. I'm tired. We had a very snuffly little girl this weekend, and two very restless nights. Last night she had a tummy ache as well, which didn't exactly help her sleep. So having had very little sleep, I dragged myself to work this morning, another gray and miserable morning, not raining yet, but looks like it might start any minute. And now I'm bored, I don't actually have anything I have to get done today, so I might just as well have stayed home and got some more sleep.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this cold Ronja has now doesn't go to her ears again. We have a check-up on Wednesday, and then it's only 10 days until we're flying to England. Not something I'm really looking forward to this time. I expect we will have tired and cranky girl on the way there, a whole new place and people for her to get used to, so sleeping will be messed up, which again will give us a tired and cranky girl, throw in a cold (possible ear infection), time difference, bad weather (not that I know what the forecast is over there, but it's November after all), then coming home and having to deal with the time difference again... I'm expecting a very stressful time ahead.

I'm sooooo bored bored bored bored bored...

Suppose I should do an update. Last week was spent at home, with a tummybug. Ronja got it first, was home already on the Friday before with Andy, I got it on Sunday, and we were both home to Wednesday, which was less than restful for me. Thursday and Friday she was at daycare, so I got some rest then too.

Next week I have Monday off, and I'm going to go have my hair cut and have a bit of a wander around town. November 22nd are we flying to England to visit Andy's parents. That is if Ronja doesn't get another ear infection just around then. She's had three now, and we have an appointment to see an ear doctor for a followup to the last one in about two weeks. After three they tend to put in tubes if there is any more problems. Of course I hope she won't have any more, but since this one hasn't really gone away I sort of doubt it's sorted now. But ear infections and flying doesn't really work, so I hope we get it sorted before then, one way or another.

Need to find a good carry on bag for the flight. I actually saw a nice one yesterday, and it was just the right size, except the cheapy airlines don't have the same measurements for carry on luggage as the big airlines. *sigh* We're going on EasyJet this time, since they fly from Helsinki. Also hiring a car (don't remeber the company now) and a car seat of course. I guess it's going to be a forward facing one, which I'm not too happy about, but we'll manage.

Need to sort out a bunch of photos for a photobook, but never seem to have the time.