Today's find!

All you Swedes in America: LOOK HERE!
In Sweden we eat this thing called "filmjölk". A very distinct taste and texture. Took for granted it was no where to be found in the US, as it usually is one thing that Swedes crave for being abroad. BUT... (bare with me and scroll down)...

TADA! (drumroll). I found this little puppy at Wholefoods! It's no Filmjölk, but close enough. Like Filmjölk's long lost brother. Welcome home! Check it out at: Lifeway.

New Favorite

See, crave and drool. Found a new favorite store: Club Monaco. For my convenience (and doom) it is located in the shopping mall right next to my new home. So much for my new sustainable, minimalistic new life style...

Coconut Water, even Madonna drinks it...

• Coconut water is more nutritious than whole milk; it has less fat and no cholesterol.
• Drinking coconut water is healthier than OJ as it has a much lower caloric count.
• It is naturally sterile, water permeates through the filtered husk
• It is a natural isotonic beverage, it has the same level of electrolytic balance that is in our blood and is identical to human blood plasma.
• Coconut water contains more potassium, less sodium and natural sugars than most energy and sports drinks.The coconut is a magical food as every part of it can be used in food preparation or as its own dish. The milk, meat, sugar and oil can be found in prepared foods, recipes, as well as non-food items such as candles. The classification of the coconut is difficult to determine, but what is not is its myriad of health benefits.

• It helps keep you cool by helping to maintain proper body temperature.
• It helps boost poor circulation.
• Coconut water carries nutrients and oxygen to your cells.
• It can help naturally replenish your body’s fluids after exercising.
• It raises metabolism and promotes weight loss.
• Coconut water detoxifies the body, fights viruses, and boosts the immune system.
• It cleanses the digestive track, balances the pH, and can reduce the risk of cancer.
• It can help control diabetes and treat kidney & urethral stones.

Text from: http://www.alwaysnewyou.com/

Okay... So you see all these benefits above, right? Of course I, being a bit of a health lunatic, fell for trying. And they left out the fact that it tastes like dead feet. Madonna, how do you do it?

Did you know?

I can't hear you!

Went to the gym to get some exercise crossed off the to-do list. Looked at the schedule and decided to go to a kick-boxing class. I did some boxing and thai boxing when I was younger, so I figured it'd be a kid's game for this veteran...

You know I was wrong. I did not see Le Jon coming. The trainer. It was 55 min of pure trying-not-to-puke-heaven. I write heaven because I loved it. He made us scream. Count the reps out loud. "I can't hear you", he kept screaming, no roaring. How often do you get to beat the crap out of something (if even just air) and scream your lungs out? Well I don't often enough apparently. So purifying.

And also... for the record... gotta love those who do the sport for real. Seriously challenging! Don't get abs like that for nothing, right?! Maybe they all have a Le Jon of their own.

TAKEN!

Tried to decide on which gym to go to... Went to try this one, Club One, out and it wasn't much of a game... They have 2, not 1 but 2(!) Saunas! My Finnish genes burst out into song (a happy one): I'll take it! Give me free access to a Sauna and I'll be yours forever!

Contradiction...

Happiness is having your basic needs met with a life full of love... and a Balmain jacket or two. Right?

Bliss

This is Elias. My cousin's son. He is a few weeks old and blissfully unaware of the world's cruelty and disasters. He only knows he is loved by a lot of people and that his basic needs, such as a home and food, are well covered. What a genius. If we just could be happy for what we have instead of always wanting more (I do want that Balmain jacket, let's not get carried away), life would be a lot more like this picture of Elias.

Even big things consist of small parts...

I remember being a kid watching my dad pay bills. A sea of bills scattered on the kitchen table to be more accurate. I looked at him with my 8-year old blue eyes, horrified, and asked: "Dad, how am I ever gonna be able to move away from home when I don't even know how to pay bills?". Well, here I am, all grown up, paying my own seas of bills. I guess my point is that a lot of things look scary at first, since they're new to you.


But by just doing, learning, eating one piece at a time even a elephant would be eaten and a sea of bills would be paid. Even a sea is just drops come together.

H&M is back!

Me and my sister from another mister. Hermine & Maria, changing the world, chapter 1. Starting with the alleged doom day May 21st 2011. From here we change the world, as you eat an elephant, piece by piece.

Put me in a cage!

First time in a batting cage, definitely not the last. Loved it, just can't hold anything with my hands now because they're shaking so much. Just do it? NO! OVER-do it! :) Exceeding is my lowest ambition.

I passed the DMV written driver's license test

Department of Mad Violations...?

Going to DMV tomorrow to do the written test to get a Californian Driver's License. Studying these old tests. This one question cracked me up:

"You are being chased by a police vehicle with its lights and sirens activated. You ignore the warning to stop and speed away. During the chase, a person in seriously injured. You are subject to:
a) Imprisonment in a state prison for five years
b) A fine of not less than 1000 USD
c) Attending an anger-management class

Yup, I'd go for the c), definitely. Need to shake that anger!

The power of inspiration

Okay here's the deal. I'm a long way from home and I'm in a pretty vulnerable stage one could say. I'm looking for a home as well as I am a job. I love it, seeing all the opportunities ahead of me. But at the same time it can be a handful without your closest rooters. So today I got this mail from my friend and mentor with a lot of love and "you-can-do-it's" if you may. But the best part was this below. Pictures for my wall of inspiration. Okay, so I say: BRING IT ON, I AM GAME FOR ANYTHING, especially with this group backing me up! :) LOVE YOU!

Sisters

This is my sister and me in Hawaii. Look at her amazingly perfect pores! Lovely! You could shoot up her nose (didn't want to write that other ominous whole, would be too gross) and it'd be a good picture. :)

Just happy to still have her around. Not just in my heart. Annika - Cancer: 1-0!

San Francisco lovin'

In the jungle only the fit survive

...even my lap top sleeve matches. Score!

Wohooooo!

So my sister asked me if I was happy. That made me think about what makes me happy. Well, today I got a revelation driving over the Richmond bridge in San Francisco... The "woohooo-moments" in life make me happy. The bridge made me go WOOOHOOO big time, you see.

A good time to take up blogging again...

It turns out...

...I'm a blazer-rat who's either at the office working...or frankly...at the office working. And since I'm a dedicated blazer-rat, there's no time over for the blog-writing-business. Which I cencerely miss. So here is my first posting in like three months and the future of the Mioli's blog writing looks obscure. But stay with me, don't lose faith in me.

I was standing on our balcony this morning looking out over Stockholm, when a deep thought about life hit me. Sunday mornings are like that sometimes for me. Before the sunday-evening anxiety kicks in, you know. :) Well there I was looking out at the building next door and remenessing. That building is, as it turns out, the exact same place I spent some of my scariest days as a child. It used to be a pediatric hospital and my littlebrother, six years old at that time, spent six weeks there after a horriffic traffic accident that he barely survived. When I moved in here in July this summer I looked out from the balcony and totally recognized the building with its large terrace, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

Then a few weeks back my mother came over for a visit and asked m if I remembered playing on that terrace while my brother, Marcus was there at the hospital (which is an office-building now a days). And all the pieces fell in place. I was seven years old back then but remember it as yesterday. And I guess that's my deep thought for today. Life goes by in a haste, one day you are at the hospital worrying for your brother's life, the next day you are grown up, married and looking back at those horrific weeks twenty-something years ago. It makes at least me ponder about what happened in between.