Carlo Maserati and Tank Coat Pitty

I´m feel like I´m going to get sick so this will be a very short message.

These are my newest loot in my garage!

Tank Coat Pitty is my 24th pitty from the first movie, now I´m only 4 pittys away from completeness!

Carlo Maserati is just a cool looking car from the second movie. It looks like I have to collect all the singles from that movie. Just a feeling I got.

Another feeling is this indisposition I got right now... They rang from the daycare center today. A wasn´t feeling well. He had diarrhea. So I got him home early.

Now I feel like shit. In Sweden we have this seasonal sickness called "Vinterkräksjukan". To translate it word by word it would be something like "Winter vomit sickness".

Yes. That´s exactly what it is.

Please let it not be that shit I feel right now...

Moose safari

I took the kids on a roadtrip this weekend. My wife hasn´t been alone in our house since we first moved in, almost three years ago. So she felt it was about time that we left her for some quality time by herself.

Fair enough!

Me, A and V took the car down to my sisters. It is a four our long ride and it´s no pic nic to do it by yourself. V had enough after threee ours. The last 55 minutes I kept singing kids songs over and over again. But when we got to my sister and her husband (not married, what do you call it then?) it was sure worth the trouble.

Yesterday was a smash hit. We went for a short car ride into the woods of Småland (Small Country to translate it word by word) and there, in the middle of nowhere - there was a Moose Safari!

Wow! They are big!

Especially german people like the Swedish Moose. A lot of small houses in Sweden has been bought by Germans who love our nature and of course we had some Germans on the ride in the Moose Park.
They seem almost babyishly fond of moose, the Germans...

We gave them apples and potatoes. (Not the Germans, the moose!)
A dared to give them from his hands, V did not. But both the kids were extremely thrilled!

And... well, so was I!

Two hobbies - two worlds

There´s a competition I can´t win. A comparison I´m bound to loose.

My wife has a hobby. It´s nothing at all like mine.

Her hobby gives her fresh air. It gives her dirt under the finger nails. It boosts the real estate value of ours. It makes our world look better. It produces oxygen. Yes her hobby even creates life. How could I ever compete with that?

My wife loves our garden. She loves gardening. She also has a blog where she writes about the progress, the changes and her running projects in the green place she has turned our small back yard to.

Meanwhile in a garage nearby...

I arrange my cars. I build some lighting arrangements. I put the cars in different orders. But mostly I take photos and writes on my blog. Or looks online for new cars.

My wife makes coffee and we drink it IN HER HOBBY. We invite friends over and barbeque in her hobby. And she often plants new flowers or vegetables together with our kids. In her hobby.

Meanwhile in a garage nearby...
A certain dad closes the doors to the collection of toys his own kids mustn´t see.

But I love it anyway. A small world of my own. Where I can breathe and power up.

It´s the same with my wifes world. Only... She invites the rest of us...

First hockey game

I took A for his first hockey game last weekend. It was great! I did it partly because I like hockey and I want him to experience that good feeling when your team scores. And I did it partly because sometimes we need some time just me and him together.

In January I wrote this about being the sibbling to a disabled brother or sister. We caring parents tend to see very much to the disabled kid (naturally) and not so much to the not disabled (too bad).

So every once in a while I try to focus on just A alone.

My (soon to be OUR) team did their job, an easy 4-0 victory and A tried to sing a long in a few of the hard core audience songs. He did good in one in particular: Hey Hey Douglas Murray!

Yeah, we ripe the benefits of that ongoing NHL-lock out and my team has both Douglas Murray and Gabriel Landeskog in the squad right now.

You can read more about the most succesfull team in Swedish hockey here - (and find out why we are in trouble right know).

I heard A talk to his friends at the daycare center the day after. He was clearly very proud. Told the kids about the penalty box...

Resisted a Diecast Disney Pixar Car - on payday

Yes. This is one for the books. I went to the store that sells flowers and Disney/Mattel Pixar Diecast Cars. I was loaded with my montly sallary. Rich as a... poor media worker in Sweden...
I looked at all the cars. Glanced att the flowers. Stared intensively at the cars for several minutes.

Then.

I walked away.

That felt weird. In a good way. But also a bit strange. Or healthy?

BTW: you can read more about that special flower-store if you click here and then scroll down a bit.

Moving Disney Pixar Diecast Cars? - Heck Yeah!

Why I am Al McWhiggin

No. This is not the time when I reveal my true identity. I´m still under cover. But I can tell you as much as this: I AM Al McWhiggin. And that´s not funny.

The "real" Al McWhiggin is a character in Toy Story 2. He looks like this:

According to Wikipedia he´s partially inspired by Wayne Knight (Newman in Seinfeld) who also does the voice of Al McWhiggin.
He is lazy, he collects toys and he... is not a very nice man at all. (He steals Woody, and he want´s to sell him to a Japanese toy museum.)
Pixar have made quite an effort to make him abominable:

I can´t help thinking that this is the way Pixar thinks and want other to think about us collectors of childrens toys. Even though they clearly make toys that just collectors care about (Golden McQueen, the special edition-cars like John Lassetire with surfing board etc.)

The message is plain and simple: Toys are for kids and should be played with.

But... Look what happens then:

These are two of A´s cars. Just look at those marks! I know that they´re made when A was having fun with his toys. But... It doesn´t feel good inside of me when I see this...

I often see the wording "Never been played with" in description texts to different cars out on eBay.
This is a profoundly sad thing to say about a toy.

I know that.

But... well, I wouldn´t buy an opened item without that text.

To prove I´m right:

I might be sick in several ways. But I´m right. Right?