party hats and our sort-of Darth Vader chair

It was so cold today. Like a biting, freezing, killer cold. The sun eventually came out, but it was really struggling. I took a few pictures (and burned out countless retinal cones, no doubt) of the sun behind the clouds...they are all kind of surreal and creepy.

They look it, but they weren't shot in black & white. It was just so gray out, and the Stockholm sun just looked like an odd floating white golfball.

It probably felt especially cold because I didn't properly bundle when I went out to buy balloons and stupid party hats for Stu's birthday.

Just a note on Swedish birthday hats, they are very much like the cheap dollar store party hats you buy in the States, but they are not cheap! They sell them separately, so I bought exactly 9. (Maybe I'll make a few more out of paper.) We are having a birthday party at our place on Saturday, expecting a large number of people, and we can't afford to put them all in silly party hats.

I am hoping Stu wears the one with the pony on it. It just screams "Birthday Boy," doesn't it?

And the party hats are being modeled by our new chair:

Another inexpensive Blocket purchase. Of course, because it was Blocket (the Swedish Craigslist) it should be no surprise that the guy told us his place was just a short walk, and it turned out to be about 700 meters from Skanstull T-Bana. Which maybe isn't so far, unless you are the one hauling a 55 lb. chair down the icy street. Well, actually, I carried the cushions and kept an eye out for cars at the cross-walks, Stu hoisted the thing over his head and shoulders and managed to get the thing all the way back to our place in perfect shape.

Upside-down and from behind, this chair looks a bit like a white Lego Darth Vader head.

And Stu, in his giant billowing winter coat, looked very much like a bobble-headed Lego Darth Vader from behind. I wish I had gotten a picture. Better yet, I wish the party store had had Star Wars party hats. Dern Sweden.