Halloween Joke

Here's a little bit of Halloween humor compliments of my wonderful mother in law that I'd like to share with you all today...

An extremely modest man was in the hospital for a
series of tests, the last of which had left his bodily
systems extremely upset. 

Upon making several false alarm trips to the bathroom,
he decided the latest episode was another and stayed
put. He suddenly filled his bed with diarrhea and was
embarrassed beyond his ability to remain rational. 

In a complete loss of composure he jumped out of bed,
gathered up the bed sheets, and threw them out the
hospital window. 

A drunk was walking by the hospital when the sheets
landed on him. He started yelling, cursing, and
swinging his arms violently trying to get the unknown
things off, and ended up with the 
soiled sheets in a tangled pile at his feet. 

As the drunk stood there, unsteady on his feet,
staring down at the sheets, a hospital security guard,
(barely containing his (laughter), and who had watched
the whole incident, walked up and asked, "What the
heck is going on here?" 

The drunk, still staring down replied: "I think I just
beat the shit out of a ghost." 


Happy Halloween!

Here's hoping that this brought a smile to someone's face. I know it sure made me giggle a bit. I hope that everyone has a fantastic (and safe!) Halloween weekend.

Soon to come... pictures from Stockholm! (Assuming that Blogger lets me upload them)

Sick and tired and overwhelmed

You know those weeks where you have entirely too much to do? This was one of those weeks for me. Monday when we got back from Stockholm I was bombarded with reality as soon as we stepped back into our apartment.  The piles of laundry had turned into mountains after adding our clothes from the recent trip to Stockholm, the dishes were heaped on the counter right where I'd left them (I had hoped secretly that they would manage to do themselves), and my text books were staring at me from the corner reminding me that I had two very important exams coming up. Now that may not seem like I have all that much to be doing, but you would be surprised how many hours you can study for two exams...

You see, over here in Scandinavia land.... they do school a little differently. Instead of having four or five classes for a semester, you have two or three classes for eight weeks. This means that they don't really do midterm exams. This also means that my two exams I have in the next four days account for my entire grade in both of my classes. Pretty scary, huh? Yeah... I'm pretty much terrified.

For those of you who might not know me well enough, I get the worst test anxiety possible. It doesn't matter that this is my fourth year of college and I've taken more exams than I can even remember, it doesn't matter how prepared or unprepared I might be, I always feel like I'm going to blow chunks all over the test set in front of me. Every time.

And this, dear friends, is why I've been ignoring you all week and have yet to post about our lovely trip to Stockholm last weekend. Please forgive me? I promise that I will get it done first thing on Thursday after I finish the eight hours blocked off for my Paper Technology exam. Yes, eight hours! I don't even know that I'll be able to stay awake that long, let alone function and try to think. We'll see in a few days....

It's a good thing that this weekend is Halloween... I'm going to need an ice cold drink and LOTS of candy to console myself I think.

Peace, Love, and Swedish Meatballs!!!
-The Bogarts

Malmo and Copenhagen, Take Four

Our last day in Copenhagen was fairly uneventful to say the least. Unless you consider the ten plus miles we hiked around the city trying to find stores that were open on Sunday an adventure... Believe me, it wasn't all that exciting. We left most of our gift shop seeking for Sunday thinking it would be a good way to kill time before our flight left that night. I guess we didn't really consider the fact that most of the shops wouldn't even be open... oops!

But we did stumble upon a botanical garden during our journeys through the streets. It definitely wasn't in peek condition, being that it was the end of September, but it was still a nice area.

I believe that those are real grapes on a grape vine, folks. At least that's what they look like to me. But I was too short and too scared to pick one to find out...

After leaving the botanical gardens, we walked past the Rosenborg Castle on our way back to the hotel. Its a very old castle used by royalty for many years as a summer home. Right next to the castle grounds is the "King's Garden". It is a large expanse of green grass with trees and statues scattered throughout. Very beautiful.

Yes, that guard was really pacing back and forth between the entrance gates to the castle. He acted annoyed that everyone was taking his picture, but I knew better. He loves his job.

The last notable thing we saw in Copenhagen was this copper man. I would have taken a picture straight on, but Shannon said if you don't pay them they get angry if you photograph them. And since I wasn't really interested in paying him... I just waited until I was out of his peripheral vision to snap a photo. I'm very very sneaky! :)










After heading back to the hotel to get our bags, we hopped on the train, arrived at the airport, and bummed around there until our flight took us safely back to Lulea. The End.

I hope you enjoyed the re-cap of our adventures through Malmo and Copenhagen. For any of you considering visiting Scandinavia, I would highly recommend this trip. I think a long weekend is the perfect amount of time to explore all the major things both cities have to offer unless you feel like getting more in-depth and seeing all that there is to see.

Up next! Adventures in the capital of Sweden! Ryan and I are taking a little trip down to Stockholm this weekend by ourselves to explore the city. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers with the continuing threat of terrorist attacks over here. We're not too worried (actually we're not worried at all), but for the sake of my mother's blood pressure it couldn't hurt to have some people thinking about our safe return Monday evening.

Have a happy weekend all!

Peace, Love and Swedish Meatballs!!!
-The Bogarts

Unseasonably warm my rear end!

For all of you back home who may be a bit upset with the lack of 70 or 80 degree weather this week, hopefully this will make you appreciate the extra warm fall you've had a little bit more even now as it slips away.

This is what I woke up to this morning...

No, that white stuff covering the ground is not extra white sand. Yes, it is in fact SNOW! In the middle of October. While everyone back home in Minnesota has been enjoying this "unseasonably warm" weather I have been forced to suffer through the "unseasonably cold" fall here in Lulea. Apparently, last year they didn't even get snow to stick until almost December.

But that isn't the case this year. The snow was still here as the sun went down... And being that the forecast is showing highs in the low 40's with many more chances for snow over the next ten days, I don't foresee it melting anytime soon. I just thought you should all know who to thank for the nice weather you've been having. Yes, all of the wonderful sunshine and warmth you've seen throughout October is entirely due to my absence. I seem to have a knack for bringing the bad weather with me where ever I go... Poor Sweden. They probably would have never let me in if they only knew that two months ago.

Malmo and Copenhagen, Take Three

Saturday morning in Copenhagen began as every good morning in Denmark should... with some Danish pastries. Mmmmm! Just look at that chocolatey, gooey goodness. It makes my mouth water all over again just looking at the picture...







After we were sufficiently stuffed with sugar it was off to the National Museum. Here we learned about the history of Denmark starting in the prehistoric age through the time period of the Vikings, saw some more beautiful art, and looked at all sorts of coins. Plus, they had a really sweet gift shop too.

One of the things that Denmark is very famous for is amber jewelry. They have innumerable jewelry stores throughout the entire city with all different styles. I convinced Ryan to buy me a necklace. It's a four leaf clover with a different color amber in every leaf. I love it.

This was my absolute FAVORITE thing I saw at the museum. It's kind of hard to see from the picture, but the picture that looks just like a swirled mess on the canvas looks completely normal on the metal bar in the middle. Can you see it? Isn't it awesome? I can't remember who did this piece, but they are an absolute genius. I wonder how they even figured out that it would work... oh the mysteries of the world.






After the museum, we walked through the city to find where the canal tours started. And as we were walking we stumbled upon a pretty fountain.... that had bubbles in it! So we stayed to play for a bit.

Ryan and I were too nice when we fed cake to each other at our wedding... so we made up for it by having a little bubble fight.

Then we made some bubblemen. Get it? Because they look kind of like snowmen? Only the bubbles were a lot harder to form into balls than snow is...

And Manuel gave Ryan some implants... which also were not very round. hahaha








Shannon and I finally managed to drag the boys away from the fountain and we made it to the canal cruise.

This is the yacht that belongs to the creator of Microsoft's Excel program. I'll forever think of this boat while I'm crunching numbers for a class... I can only dream that I'd make enough to one day own something this nice.

This is a famous church in Copenhagen that you can climb to the top of on the spiraling outdoor staircase.

One of the most famous things about Copenhagen, the statue of the Little Mermaid, was conveniently gone on some exchange thing. For those of you who didn't know, the Little Mermaid was first made famous by Hans Christian Andersen (not Disney) and he lived in Copenhagen.

After the canal cruise, we cleaned up and headed to the famous amusement park Tivoli Gardens.

The park originally opened in 1843. It has beautiful gardens, old time rides, delicious full menu restaurants, and carnival games. It is basically like a botanical garden wrapped in with an amusement park and it's amazing. If you ever visit Copenhagen, this is the #1 thing I recommend you do.

It's so beautiful that couples even come here on their wedding day to take pictures in the gardens!

They have a statue of the Little Mermaid's sister in Tivoli since the real one is on vacation. The sad part is, she is an exact replica of the original. Same size and everything. But she doesn't get to be the famous one... she's just the ugly step sister. Sucks to be her!

Ryan just had to get cotton candy while he had the opportunity. It's his favorite. We all decided that the girl who made it for him must've had a crush on him... based on the size of his cone compared to the bag in the background. Too bad for her, I guess she didn't notice the ring on his left finger. I was just happy that he had enough to share some with me.

This was the one and only ride we rode on while in Tivoli. The ride tickets were a bit outrageously priced... it cost each of us $15 just to do this one ride! But it was sooo worth it. We waited until it got dark and rode the swings up a few hundred feet in the air until we could see out over the entire city of Copenhagen. It was really quite terrifying once you were up there because it was pretty windy that night. But I think we had the best view in the whole city. It would've been a bit easier to concentrate on the spectacular view if we weren't spinning so fast and getting tossed about by the wind, though. Needless to say, my eyes were watering and my legs were shaking by the time we came down. Those are always the best rides...

We stayed in Tivoli until around midnight and then headed back to the hotel to crash once again. It had been another jam-packed day and miles upon miles of walking.









Day three donezo.

Our last day in Copenhagen wasn't nearly as exciting, but I'll still put up a post about it anyway. Don't feel that you are required to read it though. I don't know that I would waste my time. ;) Until then....

Peace, Love, and Swedish Meatballs!!
-The Bogarts

Malmo and Copenhagen, Take Two

Our second day in Malmo began rather early so we could check out of the hotel and have as much time as possible to explore before heading over to Copenhagen late that afternoon.

We made our way downtown to Gustav Adolf Square where we picked up some delicious pastries (from the same little shop we stopped in the day before) and fresh fruit from the farmer's market. It was the best breakfast I've had in a loooonnngggg time. The raspberries and plums we had were ripe and juicy, and the pastries were out of this world. Plus, we got to sit in the sun on a park bench in Southern Sweden and enjoy all of this wonderful food on a beautiful Friday morning. How much better could it possibly get?

We took off towards the converted fortress museum (Malmo Museum) after wolfing down our breakfast. Boy was it an interesting and diverse place! They had all sorts of exhibits there....

They had an aquarium area that had all sorts of fish and underwater creatures as well as a few amphibians.

I can't remember what this particular species of fish is exactly... but I just thought he looked creepy. So I took a picture of him to share with all of you so that you could think he was creepy too.

They even had dinosaurs! Not real ones though....

Rounding the corner after the dinosaur exhibit.... we came to their hall dedicated to "Tolerance". They had a variety of stories from around the world about violence/intolerance witnessed by Swedish people.

There was even one from Duluth, MN!!! Pretty weird, huh?

The story was an account of a young Swedish boy living in Duluth who witnessed a crime but never spoke up or told the police that the man they let go was guilty. (That's what I remember translating from the Swedish writing anyway... it was something along those lines.)  I think it was supposed to teach us that by keeping silent, we are promoting violence? I don't really know for sure.

Not that I should feel PROUD to say my college town is in a museum exhibit about violence....

But it is pretty cool to see a picture of an area I live next to in museum in a foreign country. Even if it isn't for the best reasons.

After learning about tolerance, we looked at some fake cute baby animals.













And then... we entered their "Health" exhibit...

Here we learned that HIV-AIDS is spread when you love someone... haha.

And we learned that love can also lead to babies...

And then Ryan got scared. So we high-tailed it outta there real quick-like... :)

Learning about the formation of babies was a bit much for the boys... so we went to the war history part of the fortress.

And then we moved onto some art exhibits...

Some of the art was really beautiful...

The scale of this picture doesn't really portray it very well, but this mural was painted in a massive dome. From far away it looks like tiles, but it's not....

And some of it... was a little... demented?

Not to mention strange....

They had this whole upper area that resembled an attic and it was filled with nothing but giant projection screens of... what would you call them? Independent films maybe? I don't know... Apparently it was art to someone. To me, it was just weird.







After getting our fill of nature, history, art, and all sorts of other lovely things... we headed to the train station to meet up with our friend Manuel.

And then... it was off to the chocolate factory! This is the last original chocolate factory that is still up and running in Sweden. They pride themselves on making "real" chocolate by adding as few ingredients as possible. Unfortunately, you have to schedule a tour in advance to actually SEE the factory... but we got to see a miniature museum exhibit about its history and sample some chocolates. They were fantastic!

Having liquor added for flavor was a very common theme. I thought the Bacardi Razz hearts looked nice, although I didn't try one.

Ryan, however, jumped at the chance to try their whiskey flavored chocolate. Go figure. ;)

He and Tyler both decided to try it....

Ryan is convinced now that the best thing to mix with whiskey is chocolate. After sampling a little bit, I'd have to say I agree. Although I'm not sure we'd have Katy Smith's vote on this one.... And she is THEE Whiskey Girl after all! ;)

After the chocolate factory, it was a whirlwind of suitcases, backpacks, busses, confusion, and different passes for about two hours until we finally boarded the train to Copenhagen.

But we made it on the train! It was just a short ride across the bridge and under the water to Copenhagen. That's right, I said under the water!

Speaking of water! Our hotel in Copenhagen was called the CabinInn. Not because it resembled a backwoods, Minnesota-style cabin though...

But because it felt like they had built a hotel around an actual cruise ship. Complete with the tiny room and bunkbeds.

And the airplane-sized bathroom that is completely taken up and when you wrap around the shower curtain to take a shower. Did I mention that it makes the entire floor wet too?


It's a good thing we didn't plan on spending too much time in the room. If we had, I might've been a little disappointed. haha








After checking out our new digs... we did a little exploring on our way to find some food...

Where Ryan decided to impersonate statues...

Yes, I know I chose to marry him. Yes, I know he is beyond weird. I love him anyway...

After moseying around, we finally found a place to eat dinner. I can't even remember the name of the place now... but they had really good food and horrible service. I don't think our waitress liked waiting on the Americans... haha sad but true.

After dinner, we made the game plan for Saturday and passed out from exhaustion. I don't think we even made it to 11 pm before everyone was snoring....

And that's that! Day two of our weekend excursion. Sorry about the delay between posts. Blogger has been having some issues with me and uploading my images. I'll try to make her cooperate to do a post tomorrow. No promises though.

Until next time...

Peace, Love, and Swedish Meatballs!!!
-The Bogarts