God Afton From Sweden!

Swedish lesson for the day: “God Afton” is Swedish for “Good Evening.”

And Sweden is where I am RIGHT NOW! (Congrats to Donna for guessing correctly!) It’s late Thursday evening as I write this, and I arrived Tuesday at noon, after a day and a half of traveling (including the adjustment for time zones). I already have a ton of pictures of share, but before I get to those, a reminder/welcome!

• If you’re reading this BEFORE FRIDAY: Set your TiVo! My episode of “The Jeff Probst Show” is airing again tomorrow. Click here for when it airs in your town. Or, what the hell, just watch the segment here.
• If it’s Friday (or beyond) and you’re visiting because you saw me on TV, then… WELCOME! Thank you for stopping by. I’ve been blogging for almost 3 years now, as a way to keep myself accountable and on-track. I hope you take a second to look around, and click on some of the headers at the top of the page. My Story So Far… features my life-long battle with weight, and how I met my friend and mentor, Richard Simmons. The Photo Gallery and My Favorite Posts are pretty self-explanatory. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ (all excellent ways to learn about new posts), or sign up to receive new posts via email – there’s a “Sign Me Up!” box in the right-hand column, under the black-and-white photo. (I’m a few subscribers away from reaching 500, so sign up and help me reach my goal!)

Ready for Sweden pictures?

This is my home for a little over a week:

I’m here visiting one of my best friends, Katherine, her hubby Peter, and their two sons, Stellan and Kai. I’ve known Katherine since college, and she moved to Sweden 4 years ago when she married Peter, a Swede. They used to live in Stockholm, but a year ago they moved about 45 minutes out into the country. They have a few acres, and it’s beautiful. This is the view I’ve been waking up to:

There’s also two adorable little boys. Stellan, on the left, is my Godson and almost four years old. Kai, on the right, just turned two.

They also have a very affectionate yellow Labrador retriever, named Pepper…

…and 8 chickens.

And a trampoline!

So far, we’ve mostly hung around the house and caught up. I’ve been on that trampoline a lot. We’ve run a few errands. Today we went to a birthday party for a friends’ 1-year-old daughter. We’ve played brannboll, a Scandanavian game that’s vaguely baseball-like. It’s been fantastic.

We’ve also eaten really well. When Katherine and Kai picked me up from the airport, we didn’t head home first, we stopped at the market to buy produce. Here’s the produce section of a Swedish supermarket…

…including bizarro-looking strawberries that look more like wax or candy to me than fruit:

My first night here, we went to a picnic at Stellan’s preschool. Katherine made a big salad with cucumber, tomato and chickpeas, and topped it with chicken and eggplant she cooked on the grill:

For dinner the next night, we hung out outdoors. Nights in Sweden during the summer are long and warm – the sun doesn’t set until well after 10pm. Katherine grilled everything: a piece of roast beef, potatoes with lemon and herbs, asparagus. She even grilled a salad: she put a romaine heart on the grill, and topped it with grilled pepper and pear. My plate:

I’ve been staying active. Two boys under four years old keep you on your toes, and yesterday, Katherine and I took Kai and the dog for an hour-long walk in the forest near their house.

Tomorrow we’re going to start shopping and prepping for a small party we’re having on Saturday in honor of Swedish Princess Madeleine, who is getting married. We’re going to dress up and make a multi-course meal fit for royalty. Katherine is sitting on the couch next to me with her laptop, researching menus, so I should probably go and help her.

Keep it up, David!