"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless." ~Bill Watterson

Apparently, thanks to Calvin I am having a very cold and white winter so far.  But it is November... NOT WINTER YET!!! I haven't seen the sun for DAYS and it isn't in the extended forecast :(

Oh well,  I went out to enjoy it anyway by doing more cross country skiing! I just looked on GoogleEarth and I skied about 3 mi (4.8km) I can't tell if my legs are sore due to the skiing or from the riding lesson yesterday! I am going to have thighs of STEEL when this winter is over with!  I put on the skis and went around the block towards to Kirsten and Anniina's so I could stop by and ask them if they could give me some pointers.  I had ideas of grandeur of course and had planned to go into the woods to the the beautiful trail I used to run...  I stopped by and Kirsten was in Kalmar but I convinced Anniina to come down and at least help me figure out which feet the skis went on.  I had noticed this time that they have little arrows on them.  While going around the block I had thought "should the arrows go together? or should they point in the direction of the feet they go on?"  Both seemed like logical ideas and the more I thought about it the more undecided I was... Annina said she thought they should point together... So, with my skis on the correct feet for probably the first time I decided to go down the road instead of the woods.  

 Arrows pointing towards each other!

 Look how nice and straight I keep them!

 I am taking these while actually moving! Then I fell over.

 Concentration face!

 The road to Stugby, the camping area.

 Little adorable red camping houses in the snow! The river is super high these days!

 I love the look of the snow on the big evergreens here.

 Then I took the road less traveled... ok, there was no road.. just snow.

To get here! This is the damn for this lake.

 The water is ROARING through the damn.

 Brrrrr!

 Back on the normal road!  I had to stop and pause and look around to breath and I realized I was looking down the whole time and not enjoying the view properly.

 Completely frozen mini lake! I wonder if we can skate on it soon!

 I made it the whole way you can see without falling! Even down that big hill! 

 "Over the river and thru the woods, 

To grandmother's house we go; 

The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh, 

Thru the white and drifted snow, oh!"

 This is that tree with the hole all the way through it.

 I love this house's gate.  This is the best shot I have gotten of it since the background isn't grass/gravel for once!

 Looking towards Orrefors! This is the view that means I am nearly home!! THANK GOD! I was exhausted.

 "walkin in a winter wonderlaaaaaaand!"

 Icicles of death continue to grow.

 There is a double layer of killers!  Interestingly enough this is the ONLY building in Orrefors with icicles... not ever the school or factory has them... What is going on in there?  Are all the rumor of drug production true?  Maybe the icicles are their defense against snoopers! haha  absurd.

Here I am very happily home with healthy pink cheeks! Haha I was sweating by the end of the trip.  I promptly put  on a pot of coffee and got the cookies out! 

Tonight I am cooking a bacon parmesean pasta (very similar to carbanera I think) for dinner then going to Kirsten and Anniina's for a little party.  But home early to be well rested for my ride tomorrow! I am very excited! I have already ordered a taxi and laid out all of my clothes... It is a lot of clothes!  Wish me luck! I will tell you all about it tomorrow!!!