Yesterday evening was Henrik’s 40th birthday party. I was expecting a reasonably big bash, but this was definitely something. He had rented out a former church. (It reminded me of the Brewworks in Pittsburgh in and so much as it was a church converted to an entertainment establishment.) He and his wife decked the place out in reggae colors. They got some friends to DJ. There were disco balls and lights galore. And more than enough alcohol to drown 100 or so mature Swedes. Most of the guests dressed up for the raggae theme. So I got to meet a bunch of Swedes with fake black hair. That was amusing.

Apparently everyone in Sweden really does speak english. Tyson’s and my assigned seating put us at a table with more proficient than average speakers, so it mostly didn’t matter too much that we were the ignorant americans. The group of folks I ended up talking to included one dad who hadn’t managed to find a baby siter for his 6 month old daughter. She was quite charming and cute, and eventually fell asleep. The other two folks at that end of the table also had kids. So I got to hear a bit of how people in Sweden deal with having a family. It sounds like they not only get generous maternity and paternity leave, they also get some amount of time off for each kid until they turn 8. I wish I could get that…

Dinner ended a bit before midnight and then the tables got cleared out to make room for the dance floor. I was about partied out, so Tyson and I headed home. It sounds like some folks were still there until 3 or 4 in the morning.