Starting the countdown, again

Hello everyone.

We have just under seven months left in Sweden. 205 days. 29 weeks and two days. It's funny how some counts seem longer than others. Regardless, time is going to fly.

It's been a little over a year since we last checked in, and yes, we are still alive. Most of you who might read this already know everything I have to write, but for the sake of completeness, I feel the need to bridge the gap.

We've already been in Sweden eight months longer than we had originally planned. When we moved to Sweden two years seemed like a long time, but everyone knows that time flies when you're having fun. As most people know, I extended my contract 11 months from February 28, 2010 to January 31, 2011, so we're three months away from the adjusted move-home date. However, a second contract extension is in the works, so we're looking at a May 31, 2011 departure date. We're also discussing options for moving home, and right now our goal is to travel for about three weeks, ending up in California the third week in June for my sister's wedding. Life back in Minneapolis should start around July 1. I don't really know if "starting life" is the best way to describe our return to Minneapolis. We'll be living out of suitcases in a hotel room for about a month while we figure out all the logistics that go into moving to another city - where to live, rent vs. buy, one car or two, etc. It'll probably be the more difficult than any of our adventures so far, but I also imagine that it will be just as fun as it will be frustrating.

We're already tired of moving, so hope the transition from Sweden to Minneapolis is relatively hassle free. We've moved three times since we last wrote. Once from our old apartment in Uppsala to a temporary apartment in another town about 50 miles east of there for about two weeks. We had a gap between rental contracts and really didn't want to pay for a long-term hotel stay. Luckily, my coworker had an empty apartment for some reason. Miranda loved the 90 minute bus ride which stopped pretty much everywhere between our temporary apartment and the university. By comparison, my 40 minute bus ride into Stockholm wasn't bad at all. We moved back to another apartment in Uppsala at the beginning of December, but only had a six month contract there. Since June 1 we've been living in the suburbs of Stockholm. Nice location, still a bit farther out of the city than we'd like, but living in close proximity to Stockholm is pretty nice.

My big news is that I just sat for another actuarial exam on Thursday. It was my first essay exam, and my first exam after a multi-year break. I got off to an early start with my studying in July, then everything fell apart by mid-August. I didn't really pick up the books again until mid-September and with Miranda's help I made a strong push over the last six weeks, averaging 20+ hours a week of studying on top of a busy work schedule. I still fell far short of the rule-of-thumb 350 hours to pass, but it was a solid effort to reach the 200 hour mark before taking the exam. It went better than I expected, but I still don't have much hope of passing. The Society of Actuaries tend to be pretty tough graders. Results come out in mid-January, so for now I'm just relaxing and returning to my non-career as a blogger.

During the last six weeks Miranda pretty much took care of every worry around the house, allowing me to literally work, eat, sleep and study. It was awfully nice of her, but it didn't take long for the tables to turn.

Miranda is tied up with her thesis now; she's been doing some work here and there since March, but she made a big push in September and October to wrap up her research. Now she's in the writing stage with a goal of finishing everything but the final edits before Christmas. The turn-in date is January 4th or 5th with her defense coming the following week. She's doing her best to move forward as quickly as possible. It looks like I'll be helping a little bit with her statistical analysis, but I'll probably be helping more by taking on the house keeper role for the next two months. She's already informed me that I'm a boring chef, so I guess I need to step it up. The grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch probably didn't help, but tonight we'll be trying a pepper-encrusted steak with a Roquefort sauce and a few different side dishes. My goal is to make Miranda eat her food, then eat her words. I'll probably fail on the latter, but it's worth a try.

Other big news, we'll be home for a few days over Christmas. I'll be home about a little over a week, coming in on the 22nd and flying out on New Year's Day, while Miranda will stay an additional week. One holiday season away from our families was enough.

No other travels planned yet. We have a list of destinations we hope to visit before we leave at the end of May, but that's about it. I don't really have travel fever yet, but I'm sure Barcelona is going to sound nicer once the sunlight disappears.

We're filling our free time with fitness. Miranda and I are registered for the Stockholm Marathon on May 28, 2011. (Who runs a marathon before jumping on a plane to travel for a few weeks?) We won't start our marathon training until the end of January, so right now we're trying to get in shape to handle the physical and mental stresses of daily running.

Miranda has fully embraced the concept of cross training, mixing it up with a daily workout selected from the following list: spin, core, yoga, pilates, aerobics, tae bo, body pump (endurance weight lifting), a few other classes and occasionally, a run. Some of the classes involve partner work as well, giving Miranda a nice opportunity to exercise her Swedish as well.

I have been sticking with what I know, running, supplemented with yoga, individual weight training and a rare spin class. Due to a nagging knee injury which is likely related to my über-weak core, I think I'll follow Miranda's advice and tag along to a few of Miranda's classes; at least until the knee pain goes away and I start to shift from my off-season weight to a more appropriate training weight. Tae bo and aerobics don't interest me, but everything else is fair game.

That's all for now. Glad I got the catch-up post out of the way. Check back soon for more posts. I'll try to make our mundane lives sound interesting, but in reality, I'll probably be posting about food or exercise.

Hej då!