It is still almost spring here, but not quite, and every day is gray.

But on the plus side, it is almost spring.

We have been watching the Melodifestivalen song contest on TV this year again. This time around Ingrid wants to watch it live so she can vote.

Every single Saturday I think about what a crappy way this is to watch a show. I’ll be so happy to put this behind us. Not only because I find it boring and the music is mostly crap (but that’s OK because I can sit and knit while I keep the kids company) but mostly because it is a totally unnecessary source of stress.

Having to be there on time can easily affect the entire afternoon, if not the whole day. “If we want to be ready for TV by 8 then we need to eat no later than 7:20, so we need to start preparing dinner at 6:30, so we have to be home no later than 6, and that means that if we want to go skating, too, we have to…” and so on. And then, “oh look, the show starts in 2 minutes, we’ll miss the beginning!” and “but I can’t clean the room now because then we won’t make it by 8 o’clock” and so on. It’s worse than a weekday morning.

So glad we don’t normally do this.