A Day Without Linnea

Since Davin had a special day with Farmor by himself ... today was Linnea's turn. They will also visit Erik & Anna and spend the night. Linnea was so excited and she has been talking about it ever since we set a date for her. She is a much easier child to let spend the night somewhere and in fact ... she already has had a sleepover with a friend. I think I need to let Davin have more sleepovers as it is good for all of us.

Anyway, Farmor arrived at 9am today so we actually had to get up at a decent hour. We had just enough time to get her breakfast and pack the rest of her stuff. Then she was off to have fun! I can't wait to hear what she did when we pick her up tomorrow.

At lunch, we had to pick the name we recognized.
Although, Staffan spells his name a little differently ... it was close enough for us.

For the rest of our day we decided to do that shopping in Ljusdal that we didn't get to yesterday. First up was going to the plumbing store to buy some things for our new bathroom and also to pay for the work the plumber did. Oh boy, I should know better than to expect to go into a store and find something cheap. We don't really want to spend a lot on this bathroom but we do need to make it usable. I didn't like the mirror/vanity that was in our basement so I thought we could pick something up for maybe $100 or so. Well, everything we saw with lights (we have no light in the 1/2 bath except for the vanity) was at least $500-$800! I settled for a vanity without lights for $88 and decided to buy lights from another store.

We also are considering buying a door for our living room so if someone was using the sofa couch, maybe they would like some privacy from the rest of the house. Well, it turns out we need to figure out the finish of the doors we have now and then they have to be specially ordered. It only takes a week or so but it isn't like walking into Home Depot or something at home and buying a $30 door. Plus, the kind of doors we have are outdated and they don't sell them anymore so we probably won't get an exact match. Oh and of course ... spend more money than I thought because they only sell solid wood doors instead of the hollow doors we have. We have to send them photos of our doors and then they will give us some suggestions and how much it will cost.

Then it was time to eat lunch and we went back to the kebab place we went to previously. Davin had his PB&J that we brought and we had the same thing the last time we were here. It is called a "kebab plate" which has kebab meat with a white sort of yogurt based sauce on top. They make it spicy by adding a tomato based sauce as well. All of this is over a bed of french fries and there is a green salad served on the side. It is a Turkish dish that the Swedes have adapted and I really wish you could find it in the states. Sorry, I didn't take a photo. Too hungry!

Here is a photo of a Swedish kebab that I found on flickr.

Next up was a trip to an appliance store which wasn't far away. We want to buy a dryer and we finally got a hold of an electrician so we hope the outlet will be installed next week sometime. We had a hard time again deciding what to buy and well you can buy something cheap ($589 was the lowest) but you also get what you pay for here. If this was at the beginning of our trip, I would have paid for one of the higher end dryers but we went for something in the middle at $737. It will be delivered next week!

We decided it was time for one more stop and we went back to the furniture store just north of Ljusdal. We were looking for some folding chairs but didn't find anything cheap so we decided to try Ikea again. We did find a light for the bathroom that we hope works out and a cover for the table outside. Davin had a popsicle before we left and then we stopped at the beach. It was a hot day and my car said it was 28C or 82F so it was definitely a good day to spend at the beach. Maj & Ingvar were camping with their trailer at a spot we drove right by to get to the furniture store so we decided to try and find them on the way home. They were there and we had a great time. I will blog about that next with photos and everything.

After the beach, we had dinner at a Chinese/Thai/Japanese place in Ljusdal that Maj recommended. We were a bit suspicious because Swedish Chinese isn't usually very good. However, it is something that Davin will eat and we had no more sandwiches for him to eat. We decided to try it. Fredrik had Sweet & Sour Chicken (Chinese) and I had Panang Curry with Shrimp (Thai) plus a plate of sushi (Japanese) to share. Davin really loves Japanese food but sushi was the only thing on the menu. He devoured his food! He even tried things he never had before and he liked them! Maybe we can experiment with some things when we get back home.

Sweet & Sour Chicken (sauce on the side)

Sushi plate! It actually wasn't bad. It wasn't great either but I think for Sweden it is pretty darn good. I liked their "Futomaki" rolls because instead of egg (which Davin can't eat) it had a slice of salmon or tuna. We already ate two pieces before this photo was taken. 

My Panang Curry with Shrimp. It was good but VERY spicy.
Also, it had pineapple again which is weird but I just took it out. 

Finally, we stopped at the German grocery store (Lidl) before we left so we could buy more peanut butter. It is the only place we have found it so far. It is a small store and they also sell all sorts of discount items too. Maybe it is like the Walmart of Sweden? Haha! Then home and we pretty much all collapsed from a busy day.