A field trip to Kosta

Today we went to Kosta to visit the Glass Hotel, the factory, the school and if we would be lucky one of the designers.  First we got a guided tour of the Glass Hotel which is truly one of a kind!  When I came last summer to visit the schools and the area with Mamma and Eva we stayed at the hotel but the guided tour was really cool.  The hotel is the showroom of the seven (I think seven) designers who work for Kosta Boda.  They designed different parts of the hotel and each got a hallway of rooms to design.  No two rooms in the whole hotel are the same.  Here are some of the coolest things I thought (the website has some great pics too):

Skulls made of glass.

.

Ladder to Heaven it was called... I like it and wish I hadn't heard the name b/c now I keep thinking Stairway to Heaven... which it totally isn't.

This was in the glass bar it is called Thomas's week... its starts on the Thursday... Sunday looks pretty good and poor Thomas appears to be aching on Wednesday... pretty funny I thought.

This is the pool/spa (which I missed while staying last year but it would have been SO cool to swim in)  those are exhibit boxes in the pool.  So they call it an underwater exhibit.  very cool.

That is looking right down into the water at one of the boxes.

This is water fall going into the pool with stepping stones and some fish swimming upstream.  It was so relaxing the pool the only noise was the waterfall.  

After the tour we got to wander around some and look at the hallways designed by the different artist.  I thought everyone was wandering around and apparently I was the only one or the only one to take so long... but I went down every hall and asked the maids if I could go in a few of the rooms to see how they were styled! It was amazing how different they all were! All the other students were very jealous b/c they didn't get to see any of the rooms!  

After that we went to the glass museum at Kosta and saw some really amazing things:

Look at the stems on those glasses!! They are hollow and those swirls are all separate pieces of glass I think.

These are pieces done by one of my favorite designer, Göran Warf.  You can just see a picture of him on the top shelf.

It is amazing how he can make the colors change so smoothly and make such thick pieces look so beautiful.

Though it is a little hard to see this was done by one of the best glass cutters in Sweden's history.  It is kind of like the greek vases that tell a story as it goes around.  It was so amazing, now even more so b/c I know how hard it is to do anything like that!

These were outside.  Those are cutting stones separated by pieces of glass and in some cases goblets.  They were about 8-10 feet tall I would say.  Then we went to lunch:

This is a famous gyro pizza... it is meat, garlic sauce and pepper on a pizza.  Everyone gets it, including my roommate Sarah.

This is what I got.  It is called a Tropical or something.  It has ham, sausage, shrimps, onions and curry! It was supposed to have bananas on it too but they got forgotten.  I split it with my teacher Maryanne and it was really DELICIOUS!! I am even excited to try it again with the bananas I think.  

After lunch we got a special treat and got to meet one of the designers for Kosta! Apparently Maryanne worked for him for a while and so he let us into his studio which is usually not open for visitors.  This guy:

His name is Kjell (kind of pronounced Shell) Engman.  He was great to meet and very happy to talk with us.  He showed us all the things he is working on and he was the one who designed the glass bar and pool at the hotel! He can blow some glass but says he isn't very good so he helps the master blowers and designs some pretty cool pieces.  Here is an exhibit of his that was in the factory:

This is a crazy guitar and what is even more cool is when you look closely you can see this:

Tiny faces in the checkered pattern!!! 

That is a dress hanging from the ceiling.

These were about one foot tall and each one was totally different.  On top of each one were these:

Some very happy, dancing, fat, naked ladies... Maybe b/c this was above them:

Gives a whole new meaning of air instruments! haha I am a dork! The one in the middle of the shot has a face you can see through the keys.  These really made me think of my mountain piano man <3 Anyway,  I am not totally sure what the whole thing says next to Kjell Engman's picture from the beginning but it talks about life in transition and wanting to make things that speak to all your senses.  But it ends with this great line

"The glass, the living mass is my companion."

Then we watched some of the workers in the factory. It was really amazing how efficient they were and how many products they could turn out.  They would have like 7 men working on glasses with this cool line on them and just go and go and go and make a million in an hour.  They would have like 3 guys blowing, one making the line, one putting the stems on and one moving them to the annealer.  But, the really cool part and pretty lucky to actually be able to see was this:

One of the major Kosta desingers working with one of the new(er) Kosta masters.  This guy's dad was a master before him and is really amazing! They lady does some interesting things and I think I read swims each day in the lake outside of Kosta even if she has to dig through a ton of ice! But they made this enormous piece with some gold and silvery looking bits in it:

This one took about 10 men working on it and the designer.  One of the blowers even looked like Christian Bale! There were guys to blow the first bubble, gather white bits, warm it, gather more glass, roll it in more bits, turn it in the glory holes, shapers and blowers and people to help them turn the pipe since the piece was so huge they had a hard time turning it with one hand and finally the master did the last finishing touches.  It was an amazing process to watch and I can't wait until I can make things like that! OK, maybe not that big but that cool and almost that big!

The day was ended with doing laundry at a snail's pace.  For some reason it takes like 2 hours to dry ONE TINY load of clothes here! Sheesh! But we also went to the lake again for sunset.  It is amazing how sunsets here last sooooo long! It is really great I think.  Here is a cool picture, not as cool as yesterday's but still cool.

Also, I got to talk to Sam.  Sadly he is sickly but he took his first leap into the world of blogs.  He wrote this for his band, Bad Circus, blog.  I thought it was very nice and you guys should see what my boyfriend is doing in his mountain home... so very far away.

I also learned a cool fact about glass.  Do you know how they make pink and red glass?!?!?! They use GOLD!  I don't know about you but I can kind of picture in my head what color they would use certain chemicals to make but that one was a complete shocker! Here is an interesting website about it... who knows how factual it is...

PS: I added some pics to yesterday's post that I forgot last time/couldn't find b/c I am an idiot.

never go the grocery hungry...

What a day...

In the morning I was in the cold shop.  It was really nice b/c there weren't that many people and apparently there were like 30 people in the hot shop in the morning! Chaos! So, I learned to use the 90 degree cutting stone today and also the make leaves... So I did this:

That is like a 1354651981 lines... very crazy and so hard to go straight!

These are the flowers I learned last week, done on a new bowl with 90 degree stems and my new fancy leaves!

I didn't have time to finish it but it looks pretty cool so far! It is amazing I can do something like that!  I can't wait finish the whole bowl!!! 

Then into the hot shop in the afternoon.  It was kind of full, I got to be on the side with the first year gymnasium kids, so I totally looked like I knew what I was doing! haha.  I worked on bigger cups again where you make a bubble and then take a second gather on it and blow the cup.  I was not getting enough glass b/c the level was so low in the furnace but Orca helped me and I made some really good ones! I had enough glass in the bottom of the cup and it was pretty damn even! I got a few "perfect!"s even!!! Hooray! Stig-Allen named the pipe cooler "kiss lisa" I don't know why but both him and Orca kind of giggle when they use it.  Silly old men :)

Then after school a bunch of us (Rosanne, Yenni, Bjorn and Josefine - Danish girl and me) went the gym in Nybro to go to yoga.  I was a little nervous b/c the yoga was definitely going to be in Swedish... and everyone that I was going with could understand Swedish....  And, for some reason I got put in the front of the class.  THE ONLY ONE WITH NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON was in the FRONT ROW! poor planning on my part I suppose.  It was an OK yoga session... I forgot how much I hate just regular yoga... it is sooooooo boring! All that breathing and sitting and breathing...  All I could think about was the dragon breather (super loud and growly) beside me breathing.  I was practically vibrating out of my little cross legged position!  It was also really hard to relax when you had to constantly look around see what everyone else was doing and try to copy it.  But it did show me how much I need to stretch doing this glassblowing!  I don't think I am going to join the gym... I don't think I will go much.  Maybe I will try some of the other classes, they have boxing apparently.  I could learn to kick some ass... maybe... probably just get knocked out by the boxing bag or something.  

But after yoga we went to the BIG grocery in the BIG city...  in the grocery here you can buy UNDERWEAR!  How weird is that?!?!?  I guess it is similar to wal-mart or something... but so different.  I mostly got candy and bad for you food.  It is not pretty. I WAS STARVING after yoga... so everything bad for you looked really good.  I kept walking past all the ice cream and cookies and drooling and avoiding the fruit sections b/c it was so damn cold!  I even thought about buying a variety pack of teas (they have to much here) but decided against it b/c it reminded me too much of the boring yoga...  Solid decision making on my part in the grocery store... 

I ended up having frozen pizza and beer for dinner.  I tried to take a picture of the cool beer but for some reason it wasn't on the camera when I plugged it into my computer.  Oh well.  It was Piston Head, Summer Lager... and the slogan was "keep it low and slow this summer."  And, it tasted pretty good!  Then I sat around and ate a ton of candy... so all that good for you going to the gym and yoga turned out to be kind pointless...  or maybe not... maybe it made the beer, pizza and candy taste that much better?

PS: Thanks everyone for the comments! They made me feel loved and like you guys are actually reading it! I was starting to feel like I was just writing and writing and it was kind of like yoga.... sort of pointless feeling.  But comments are GRRRRRREAT! (as Tony the Tiger would say).

Squeaky CHEESEEEE!!!!!

First off: Thank you Val for you suggestions on the music, I will look into them (I like the Kooks a lot)! 

So, not much happened on Sunday...  I went for a walk and ran into my advisor/teacher Rebecca and had a power walk through the woods.  She showed me how they have lights with these buttons for you to turn them on and it illuminates the track for 30  mins or so! That will be very handy when it starts getting dark at 3 PM!! Then I ran into some the of the 3rd year Nordic students who were going mushroom hunting.  I went with them but we didn't find any good ones so me and 2 of the other girls went home (after we found 2 ticks! YUCK!) but as soon as we left they found a TON of good mushrooms.  Of course...  Then home to watch an absurd but funny movie called Kopps and make lasagna... which turned out odd, but very edible! Then I did have a little culinary adventure.  I went and had Coffee Cheese... aka Leipäjuusto or squeaky cheese.  It was really good but weird.  Apparently it is a big tradition in Northern Finland.  So I had that with a Fin,  Dane, Norwegian and Englishman.  It was good but weird and really it was squeaky!  Read the link (thank goodness for Wikipedia!) it explains the whole situation way better then I can.  But here are some pics:

This is regular pan warmed with some cloudberry jam on the plate and the jar behind the plate.  You eat pieces with the jam and drop a few pieces in your coffee.  I didn't like it in the coffee so much... especially at the end when there were just pieces of weird cheese in your last few sips... weird.

This is cooked with cream in the oven for a while.  It was really good.  So rich and heavy! But delish and we all ate WAY too much! But it was hard to stop!!!

Then today, I am finally mostly over my sickness! So it was hot shop work in the morning.  We didn't have enough glass to work on the big molds today so we got to make little schnapps glasses! It is amazing how blowing into molds is completely different every time the mold is different.  This time we had to gather once, make a quick bubble, stuff it in the mold, then make a neck and be able to take it off the pipe before it got cold! Talk about working fast! It was amazing how quickly the molds cool the glass! It was nice to be doing something different.  The 2nd year Nordics are supposed to make mold blown wine glasses this week! I hope I get to try that too! 

Then in the afternoon we went on a little field trip to Hauges Hantverksglas.  They use recycled glass to make bottles and etc.  They don't have a big furnace where they keep tons of molten glass, just heating ovens where they heat bottles (anything from coke bottles to schnapps to vodka to whatever type of glass you can think of) and then open them up and put colors on them and make them into something new.  It is nice for the environment and much cheaper way to do glass.  Here are some pics:

They slumped a bunch of bottles into a bowl shape.  Pretty cool I thought.

This bottle was a fish... they opened the mouth and added the blue.  It was hard to photograph, sorry about the poor quality.

I took this one for Val since she was talking about it a while back and is the only person who comments on my blog... hint hint.

Then this evening I relaxed.  I am still a little tired from being sickly and really want it to go away ASAP.  Then Martin and Christian (the Danish guys) invited Sarah (Finish roommate) and I to the nearby lake and we watched the sunset which was beautiful! Also Christian went swimming! It was cold enough for me to wear my little winter coat... I couldn't have swam if I was "COVERED IN BEEESSSS" as Eddie Izzard might say.  

Tomorrow I start in the cold shop then back to the hot shop in the afternoon! I am excited and can't wait to try more cold working... and blowing! I am also glad that I am getting to know more and more people here like the 3rd year Nordic students and they seem really cool even if they put cheese in their coffee! haha

"Someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody; When I paint my masterpiece"

Hey everyone,

The other day I realized how nice it is to listen to music while blowing glass.  I was looking at iTunes for some new music to buy and I realized I have been way out of the good new music loop.  So, I am asking for suggestions on good new music that would be great to blow glass to from you guys.  I am up for almost anything except rap and death metal... It doesn't really have to be new to the world either, just new to me.  Let me know if you think of anything I might enjoy!!!  So far I have some Infamous Stringdusters, Albino!, Pirate Radio Soundtrack, True Blood Soundtrack, Black Keys and Warren Zevon....

kram,
t

In the mean time have you seen this: Mullets, 'Fros & Beehives: From Bowie to Bieber, Rock's Most Iconic Hair Styles?

fingerstache

So, Friday I went to the hot shop in the morning.  It was really early since on Fridays the school starts at 7:30!!! I made a few really good glasses and then got moved up to a little bigger mold with a little different shape which was nice.  Then after a really confusing moment with the teachers who thought I was in the 2nd year Nordic Programme I went to the cold shop for the afternoon.  It made me kind of happy that they thought that I could be in the 2nd year program!!! Must mean I am not total crap at this whole glass thing if they thought I could be good enough to be in that program.  Except I seem to have developed a depth perception problem... I am not saying my depth perception was ever the best in the world... but I didn't generally slam things into my own face... just walk into filing cabinets and etc... BUT I have been having a hard time not smashing all my teeth with the blow pipe! I think yesterday I finally chipped a tooth a tiny bit.  Not good.  You can hardly tell, but you know how when you feel things with your tongue they feel like they are the size of the moon or a crater the size of the grand canyon in your mouth.... well it feels like half my tooth is gone... It isnt!!!! I checked... but I keep rubbing it with my tongue and am hoping that it will remind me not to smash myself in the face with the pipe so much... hopefully.

In the cold shop, in the afternoon, I was the only student and Tove (the teacher who looks like my college professor Dr. Rebecca Ambers and so I always want to call her the wrong name) helped me do some more engraving.  Appparently, I was using a dulled drill head and was moving too fast when I did my swoopy waves.  Then she showed me how to do flower cutting! She of course made it look really easy and I struggled for a while but was able to crank out a few good ones.  I did an entire bowl to practice:

The one on the bottom right is Tove's perfect flower... the one on the bottom left is my first attempt... it looks like a moose coughed up my flower.  But I got better:

Then I met up with some other students to go to Nybro for some pizza and a liquor store trip.  It was me, Borsa (aka Bart Simpson/Richard), Bjorn, Fredrick Valentine (one of the Borsa's friends who works with mentally handicapped kids in kindergarten), Hadie, Camille, Karen, another girl who went to Nybro with long hair and came back with a euro fauxhawk and mullet, and some other girls too but I can't remember their names... one had ORANGE hair, a mustache tattoo on her finger aka a fingerstache....  this isn't her but you get the idea:

Then we went to the liquor store and stocked up for the parties that were going to happen in Orrefors that night.  I didn't want to pay for a bag, I always forget about buying damn bags here to I just put it all in my purse:

I thought it looked pretty sketchy, or like I was a homeless drunkard maybe.  Not a normal site in the states at least....

Then when we got back to Orrefors we all went our separate ways for a few hours then were going to get together for these parties.  I went to my apartment and just felt like complete crap.  I think the day of feeling like crap feeling finally caught up with me and I slept from around 6:30-9, woke up, ate some more, declined all party invites, struggled through talking to my absurd roommmate about where to go to find people and trying to get her to leave me alone in my coughing snotty misery... then back to bed to watch movies online.  I slept again until about 9 Saturday morning.  So carting around that heavy purse was sort of pointless... Unless there is a party tonight I suppose.  But who knows if I will go to any tonight either.

Today I had an appointment to go to the Nybro Riding Club.  It is on the way to Nybro, 15 mins by car, 20 by bus and 2.5 hours by walking google says.  I couldn't find a ride so I had to take the 10:05 bus there even though my appointment was at 12:30! So I got off the bus and wandered around the neighborhood and finally showed up at the stables at 11:30 but the lady said it was fine.  She had a group of beginners getting on their ponies to go for a little ride into the woods.  The kids ranged from 3-8 years old I think! It was adorable, they had a pony barn where the horses lived in stalls according to their size.  The smallest pony was TINY and named Sporty Matilda b/c she always tries to run away with the kids.  It really brought back memories.  I got a tour of the facility (they have about 300 students ride a week!) and lots of school horses and lots of private boarders also.  After the tour all the little kids brought their horses into the Ridhuset (indoor ridding ring) and lined up according to size with their parents waiting to be told to get on their ponies! It was adorable.  Then the instructor realized one mom had two boys and asked me to walk next to one of them for her for the trail ride.  The boy was named Marcus and this was his 3rd time on a horse! He was good, they went for a 15 min walk and even trotted some. I just had to grab the horse if it tried to run away or stop and eat grass.  I even asked in Swedish what the name of the horse was... Marcus told me "kim" and looked at me like I was crazy... so maybe I didn't ask correctly... Then they went back into the ridhuset and all got to trot in a group... Racer Matilda leading the way and it was barely contained chaos but the kids loved it!  Then I helped Marcus take Kim's bridle off and hang it up on the rack.  Here they have the nose bands under the bit... very odd looking to me.  I am to ride in a lesson on friday evening at 5PM!!! I can't wait!! She said the people I am riding with might not be as advanced as me but we would see how this goes.  My teacher will be Pia who has taught here for 35 yrs and supposable will get a big laugh out of having an American student... I am not too sure what to think of that... but I am SUPER EXCITED anyway! It was so nice today to just be around horses again and hear them and smell them and just be near them.  It made miss Justin something fierce but it isn't for forever and we will be rockin' and rollin' again! (I will remember my camera when I go for my lesson I promise)

Now I am taking another nap (trying to get healthy again by monday) and then I have a hot video date with my two best friends from high school at 6!  They are amazingly both in NC for labor day weekend and are hanging out together so I get to see them!!! I can't wait! And tomorrow, I might have a video date with my parents!  I think tonight and tomorrow will probably be pretty low key so it might not be until Monday before I write again.  I am alive so don't worry, just not doing anything too interesting.

"It happens every time, they all become blueberries." - W.W.

Today was a great day! I was exhausted and slightly stuffed up (in the nose) but things really went well in the hot shop.  I made my first keep-able glass of the day before 10 AM (we start school around 9) and I made quite a few before lunch! I didn't hurt myself a single time and have gotten really good at knocking the excess glass off the blow pipe after I have made my tumbler.  I also had a good afternoon, nothing too exciting, more the same but I got better at putting a proper bottom in the bottom of my tumblers instead of just a really thin one that could easily break.  Also, in the afternoon I brought my Ipod to listen to music instead of the usual yellow ear plugs.  It was really nice and made the time fly by - which is good and bad I think.  It got kind of interesting when the most hectic part of the afternoon started, 11 people blowing glass from 2 furnace holes, the song Devil Went Down to Georgia (that is the weirdest video I have ever seen by the way!) came on and it made things seem like they were moving super fast and crazy... I had to step back and drink some water for a minute after that.  I took a picture of one of the glasses I made yesterday for you guys:

I got one of the Finish girls to take some pictures of me.  Here I am warming my pipe:

Gathering glass on the pipe:

Standing around for a picture with a big goofy grin:

And rolling the glass on the granite marver table.

I like to think I look intimidating in my big aviators... but I think I look silly... my teacher laughs at me when I wear them.  Most of the Swedes don't wear glasses, but I really like them to look into the furnaces! On my left arm is a long sleeve to help keep the heat off of my arm when I gather.  It is made from come special material that wont burn even if you touch the glass I think.  I don't know for sure, I am not going to try it.

After school I went to pick some blueberries but I forgot a bag and I wasn't about to put all those staining little berries in my bag from my mom! But, I did run into the Finish girls picking mushrooms in the woods! They had so many and many different types.  All week people have been talking about picking mushrooms but no one knew what kind were edible (or eatable as people say here) in Sweden, so we just walked past and looked at them longingly.  Apparently, there are a ton of different types you can eat but a ton that are bad for you too.  The Finish girls said they would teach me which ones were good and take me picking with them soon and show me how to cook them! Here is a peek into one of their baskets:

I have fungus envy... in the best way possible.  There is really no way to make that not sound gross.

I found out this adorable cat lives across the street:

And here is the outside of the factory I work in every day:

My bench is right behind the second flag from the left.  And here it is from the window:

It is as chaotic as it looks.  Mine is towards the back near those papers hanging from the furnace.  

Now I am off to shower, brush my teeth again b/c they are bright blue from eating wild blue berries AGAIN! I think I could just look at them and turn blue like Violet in Willy Wonka... "Violet you're turning VIOLET!" hahaha.  And cook something for dinner... Did you know they have ramen here? It is a little different but mostly similar... and they cup soup... but that is totally different from cup-a-noodles, more like soup in a cup... and usually kind of gross colored, I think at least.

"Ahhhhhh! It's f-ing freezing!!!!"

I know that isn't the normal title for a blog about hot blown glass, but just wait for it...

Today was more of the same of this week.  Blowing tumblers in molds.  I am happy to announce that I am getting better everyday and people are really impressed by how little I have blown before I was here.  I learned that at most glass schools (like in Finland and Sweden) for the first 3 months you just learn to gather glass and blow a bubble, the next 3 months you learn to gather again on the bubble and shape it.  Finally, after 6 months you can blow into your first mold... and here I am doing in my second week of school! HOORAY!  It made me feel better that I wasn't as good at the people I am working with and that I am not total crap and will be able to do this for real!

This is the ware-cart full of stuff all the students have made the day before.  When I went to look at it this morning it was completely full from just 2 days! It is hard to find your stuff in there but once we take it to the cold shop I think it will be easier!

Here is what I made in the cold shop yesterday, I didn't do any work today there:

These are just stick figures hanging from the rim and sitting on the bottom sandblasted onto the cup:

Here is some practice engraving patterns we have to try... kind of boring but really hard!

This is my first attempt at deep cutting!

You lay out some line patterns on the bowl then cut it with wheels by free hand.  Look how nice and even my lines are! If you don't hold it straight then your cuts are crooked in the glass and one side is fatter than the other and it looks odd.

Here is more of the stick figures:

After class today we decided to go swimming at the nearby lake.  It was just going to be a few of us but quickly escalated into more than a few of us.  It turned out to be 9 all together I think.  The air temp was about 18 degrees Celsius, which is about 65 Fahrenheit I think, so pretty chilly.  

We got to the lake and there was a lot of standing around thinking about how cold it was going to be... the Nordic people think it is good for you to swim in FREEZING COLD WATER... weirdos!  So, finally I just jumped in and flew back out in a matter of seconds and screamed "AHHHHHH! It's f-ing freezing!!!"  So, I stood on the dock and took these pictures:

Rosanne is trying to push all the boys in while they are standing on the edge being sissies.

But, they got the best of her and she was the next one in!  I love the look on Bjorn's face... he is clearly very pleased by the turn of events.

Nick and Jonathan agreed to run in at the same time and of course Nick at the last second stopped and in went Jonathan cussing Nick as he flew into the water.

Back flips... why would you want to go head first into FREEZING WATER?!?!? 

BRAIN FREEZE

The water is actually black when you look straight down into it.  I was half expecting the Loch Ness monster (well Swedish version... the giant water troll Nessy maybe?) to pop up and eat Yenni whole!

Ah, what grace and form and poise... 

exactly what you would expect from an alcoholic 16 yr old in tighty whities.... right?

This is better. But this kid is able to remember that this isn't called Bathing, but Swimming...  so of course his dive would be better then the rest... I think he touched the bottom this time.  The only one to stay down long enough to touch the bottom I think!

We finally all got out of the water and sat around shivering in our towels before our long walk back.  I jumped in twice, once at the very beginning and once at the very end! I don't think I will be doing that again soon.  The rest of the people are talking of doing it weekly until it is too frozen to swim! I think I might just start taking pics and not swimming well before it is frozen...

On the way back to Orrefors we all realized we didn't have anything to eat for dinner! This was upsetting b/c the grocery closes pretty early and we had to stop on the way back to the Elevham (housing that I live in).  So while at the store it was decided that Rosanne and Yenni and I would cook some salmon together.  We got all the stuff and I went to my apartment to steal the good frying pan (there aren't many good dishes around here it turns out... maybe I would notice if I cooked more than just pasta and boiled eggs) and we were all set for an awesome meal.  Then Nick showed up b/c it turned out he was cooking the same thing and we all cooked together, a few times there were too many cooks in the kitchen but we all had jobs.  I was in charge of the salad (I served a naked salad... the Dosters would be upset, but there are people here who are allergic to anything and everything... I didn't even put the feta cheese in it, just the on side!)... and setting the table!   But it turned out to be REALLY good:

It is salmon, argula basalmic salad, rice, broccoli and mushrooms!  We all ate a ton and had no leftovers! And the great thing was it was good company, a home cooked meal and it only cost me 30 Kronor ($4.00 + a beer I already had!)  Hopefully the cooking together thing will continue... that I will participate in well past the time the lake is frozen!