After cleaning her room, she decided to invite her doll for a dance

and a quick kiss.

Phone-cameras are the best inventions evah!

Vad konstigt det känns att slå upp tidningen och se sin egna nuna. Perle har sin suraste min på sig, vilket passar artikelns ämne i och för sig men egentligen berodde på trötthet efter vinterkräksjukan.

Nu står det i alla fall i tidningen om en av de prylar som tärt på mig och Miklas de senaste två åren, nämligen EU-kontorets otroligt slöa handläggning av vårt barnbidragsfall. Verkar egentligen inte så herrans svårt att utreda, svensk bäbis med svensk mamma, bor i Sverige borde väl få barnbidrag på studs... eller? Nej man har ju krånglat till det hela genom att göra ett litet Öresundsbarn, och den danska pappan jobbar i Danmark. Jag skrev till Sydsvenskan om det hela dels för att jag var trött på paragrafryttarnas ohjälpsamhet (synd att citatet "nitiska paragrafryttare" inte kom med, jag hade älskat att se såna ord i tryck) och dels för att jag tänkte det måste finnas hundratals till barn som är äkta dansk-svenska krångelfall. Eller gränsfall. ;) Hur många familjer bor inte i Malmö idag där den ena föräldern jobbar i Danmark? Eller bägge? Enligt en annan artikel i sydsvenskan förra året är det rena rusningen efter jobb I Danmark:" Idag bor 10000 svenskar i Danmark medan 20000 pendlar till Köpenhamnsområdet, uppger Öresundsinstitutet". Hur många av dessa tusentals människor har barn i Sverige? Hur många av dem har fått sina barnbidrag fördröjda? Med nästan åttatusen danskar boendes i Malmö - den största invandrargruppen efter jugoslaver enligt wikipedia - har man säkert en hel hög Öresundsbarnsfall. Borde man inte kunna reda ut dessa fall ganska snabbt, om man nu har upprättat ett helt kontor specifikt för att hantera "EU fall" - eller måste vi fixa ett "Öresundskontor" månne? Jag var helt övertygad om att här borde vara stoff nog för en artikelserie när jag skrev till Sydsvenskan, särskilt då EU-kontoret hela tiden påminde mig om hur många fall de har att hantera ("tusentals" etc). Borde de inte också känna till sina egna regler?

Två timmar efter att journalisten från Sydsvenskan ringde försäkringskassan ringde de mig (kors i taket!) och förklarade att allt var klappat och klart och den 27 skulle vi få vårt barnbidrag. Efter det fick vi två olika brev med exakt samma innehåll som berättade samma sak. Den 27 kom faktiskt barnbidraget in, retroaktivt. Nu får vi hoppas att EU kontoret har - som de dyrt och heligt lovat mig på telefon - faktiskt skickat de papper som de måste skicka till Danmark så att danska myndigheter också har koll.

Jag har inte ord att förklara hur tröttsamt jag tycker det är att man måste använda media som nån slags elstöt för att få försäkringskassan att lyfta på rumpan och ta itu med det jobb som de är heltidsanställda att göra. Att de dessutom kommer med nån klen ursäkt om jag inte är "tillräckligt tillmötesgående" (VA!?) är otroligt dåligt från en som jag förmodar är utbildad informatör - att skylla på offret är helt fel drag. Man ser i kommentarerna på Sydsvenskan att EU-kontorets misstag inte tillhör ovanligheterna. Det förvånar mig inte ett dugg.

Och självklart borde man få ränta på pengarna, men tror ni att man orkar slåss för det också? Inte jag, herrejisses. Jag drar hellre ut tänder utan bedövning.

I didn't post much about our trip to Boston, guess I got caught up with work when I returned. I loved it, Perle disliked the food a lot but we did discover that she likes pepperoni pizza. Phew.

This was in a food court somewhere in the theatre district of Boston. I can't recall what we did that day. Probably shopping - Miklas scored like a bandit in every store we went to. Annoying!

Good thing Dabitch likes pizza too. ;)

I'm cleaning. I'm cleaning my office, myself and all the loose ends on my websites, or at least trying to.

I've removed the contact page from this one for example, as it was never used for anything but spam and the occasional lost soul from Adland who thought this was the place to ask things like "where do I find X ad" or a recent favorite: "I have a great idea for a commercial how do I sell it?"

Disregard that I don't like being contacted on my personal site about Adland, since Adland has it's own contact form, and lets forget that adland has a specific adforum area for those "how do I find X commercial" questions for a moment, the recent mass of "how do I sell my commercial idea" is quite odd. Last night it culminated in a strange phonecall.

A bloke from the UK calls, I can hear that he's in a rather noisy spot, cups hitting tables and chatter in the background and he tells me that he has a blockbuster idea for a commercial that would sell every unit of Levis (or whatever) brand they had. It's that great, it's so great he almost doesn't believe it himself, he's got three outrageuously good commercial ideas and two great ones, and he wants me to tell him how to get them sold.

For a moment there, I was sure that someone was having me on. Possibly my old prankster DJ friend Michael. Or Perhaps Steven Hanson. Or even Alex Paton. Yeah, those guys are nuts. A brief second there I envisioned a Youtube video animation of this call being passed around the web forever. I didn't know what to say to the poor chap who "saw my company on the internet at this internet café and thought I could possibly help him with contacts to sell his commercials".

It is a bit odd that this questions has been asked at least once a week recently. My reply is the standard; "animate it, stick it on youtube, hope you get lucky." The people asking this sincerely believe that one hit commercial might make them rich for life, a bit like those people who dream of doing one novel and retiring. The truth is, a career creating commercials or novels never relies on one or three good ideas, but hundreds of thousands, and you have to work really hard for a long time before you get anything done. Ever. There are no shortcuts, lest they start some version of "Idol" called "Adol" where hopeful contestants compete to become ad-men (and women). Maybe here already is such a show.

To make the call even more uncomfortable, it was late, and my office is next door to this:

So, forgive me if I don't fancy giving random strangers career advice at ten thirty in the evening. Or any time at all, for that matter. I am not the ad wikipedia - and there is no tried and true method of "selling a commercial idea" apart from - *gasp* - having a job in advertising where you get paid to conceive of such ideas in response to a brief. Getting one of those gigs usually involves going to college first, pounding the pavement and working really hard. There are no shortcuts.

It's not quite done yet but since it is a little less messy than usual, I decided to take some pictures. I knew from when I was three months pregnant that my child's room would be 1) fun, 2) green, 3) a forest. I loved forests when I was a kid and had a much darker theme in mind, but as Perle gets to pick a lot of her own things it's still green, only slightly more romantic flowery than forest.

Behind the bamboo pink cherry-blossom curtain hides her Tiffany-style turtle which we bought together when she was three months old. The bamboo curtains are a sale-find from Indiska, two for the price of one at 50% off. I waited months for that deal to happen.

She has her desk by the window, with the chair that she helped decorate and hooks for her massive collection of purses hats and robes. Is that an orb in the shot? :)

Above her desk hangs a cabinet that my grandfather built for my mother, which I also had in my room when I was a little girl. In it are Maroccan camels, a pretty cat she got from her oldemor (grandfathers mother) and a tea set from Japan that I had as a kid. On top is her latest find, a really kitch porceline figurine of dancing deers in awesome pastels. We actually found it in the yard when the container for large rubbish was here, it's a little chipped but too good to throw away just yet. The giant bear is her piggy-bank.

In her bed her "transitional item" the giant red rabbit sleeps with her under cotton sheets with animal prints and a shiny white cover with golden deers embroidered on top which we found - oddly enough - in the trendy teen department of H&M on sale for 50 bucks (5 usd). Her nightlamp is a plastic elephant, though here it looks like a glowing ball.

She has a Jonas Bohlin zink shelf on the wall which I spraypainted 'the right yellow' to match my turntable back in -92 (yes, that was bad of me but I don't care) and underneath it another one for smaller books. Her seat here stores hundreds of small toys and the old doll is yet another flea market find.

On the magnetic bottom half of the wall, there's butterfly magnets pollinating the wallpaper roses. She rearranges their position every so often.

I wallpapered and lacquered an old Ikea cabinet to use as her closet, and to prevent any picky kids (I'm looking at you Perle...) from ripping the paper off I laced the edges.

I worried about which winter overalls to get since reports about really high doses of the EU banned compound nonylphenol have been discovered in practically every brand name overall in Sweden (test here), I didn't know which ones I dare buy. So I decided against overalls and went for hopefully poison-free thermo-pants and a heavily wool-lined army parka instead. Perle loves it, despite the fact that we skipped the bright pink probably poisoned overalls she pointed at first, and right as I took this shot she declared: "I'm a boy!"

We then went to Nesta for a snack and moms caffeine dose, when the waiter asked what Perle wanted to drink she replied "Cappuccino!", and so she got a little cup of steamed milk and acted all grown up, even reading the paper at the table. It's beginning to freak me out a little how much she looks like me at that age.

I got me a new phone, The Sony Ericsson s500i - and shot this video with it. Perle was expecting a picture as she declares "smile, smile smiiiiiile - klick!"

When you see an 1100 pound pumpkin, you are obligated to pose. It's the law.

....and the obligatory, "wait we're not ready yet" shot.

So, Caff decides to get hitched in witchtown, a.k.a Salem MA and the wee witch loves every minute of it.

First, she's impossible to stop while the poor photographer tries to get wedding pictures.

Who can blame her tough? She's just discovered that the best part of dressing up is swinging the dress around. Swing swing!

Then she nicks Presh's purse

Some cheese...

And my "comfy" heels. (it's all relative).

No wonder she's tired. Good thing she can dance and sleep as longs as dad lends a shoulder.

Now I know what she gets up to while I'm sleeping. Stealing my headphones.

"what do these ear-widgets do?"

"aaah, noisy!!"