Sorry we've missed a few days of blogging. We've been all over the place and just haven't time to sit down and report back home in a while.

Sue Sena, the Queen Hag herself, arrived early Tuesday morning! We all met her bus from the airport and went straight for coffee at the Café across from Linda's apartment to catch up. We all freshened up and hit the town for a little sightseeing. Sue and Laszlo went to another outdoor café for fika and began counting manpris (capris worn by men….usually gays in the US), but gave up after the twenty-second pair walked by in the first fifteen minutes. We still don't get the gay fashion that all the men are wearing, but we're enjoying it. Meanwhile Jason and Jamie paid a visit to the local Fountain House clubhouse. (Fountain House is an organization dedicated to the recovery of men and women with mental illness; Jason runs their art gallery in NYC.) Everyone was delighted to meet another clubhouse staff member, and they gave us a tour of the facilities and sat us down with hot cups of coffee for an interview for their bimonthly newsletter. This particular clubhouse has been in the same location for thirty years, and in a scenario we are all too familiar with back in New York, was ordered by their building to move from their now-trendy location. But the clubhouse made a passionate appeal to the Stockholm government, who overruled the building owner and allowed them to stay, ruling firmly that Stockholm did not need another Galleria Mall; what they did need was Fountain House. This country's respect for and dedication to providing social services to its residents is so incredibly refreshing. And of course Jamie also met the one fag hag in the place, who promised to come watch us in the parade.

We then took Sue over to Pride House to pick up our admission bracelets and have another viewing of the NK department store windows, which seem to get more fabulous every time we pass them. Our hosts had another surprise up their sleeves for dinner. Linda prepared a truly amazing meal of risoni pasta (a little like orzo, but bigger) with goat cheese, parsley and prosciutto, which came out exactly like the photo in the cookbook, to everyone's amusement. Her friend Nicolas, a very accomplished and adorable pianist who is one of the most popular cartoon voiceover artists in Sweden, came by with a bunch of songbooks, and spent the evening regaling us with tunes from Abba, Broadway and beyond, with Laszlo's spectacular tenor riding shotgun. (We have already started planning a cabaret for October, with Swedish guest stars, so mark your calendars!)

Then it was off to the much-anticipated archipelago early Wednesday morning, to center ourselves and prepare for our panel discussion and interviews at Pride House. The archipelago is a a vast chain of over 1000 islands north and east of the Sweden coast, in the Baltic Sea. The ferry ride takes about an hour and forty-five minutes from the city, and its sheer beauty is almost difficult to put into words. Swans paddle serenely past the boats, sunburned men on the shore cast their lines for perch and bass, and exquisite summer homes line the rocky cliffs overlooking the sea for miles. You feel as though you're captured in a living postcard. We didn't say much on the ride – just drank it all in.

Linda's mother, Annette, and her stepfather Bo's house is on a tiny island called Nora Betto. We reached it after a quick walk through the woods, where they met us with open arms, big glasses of wine and beer and Moroccan lamb burgers grilled dockside. The house is simply gorgeous, enormous but cozy and beautifully renovated. After some sun, chat, and swimming in the chilly but refreshing Baltic, it was time for dinner, which was a feast so overwhelming we actually had to force ourselves to put our plates down. Then we retired to the living room, where Fredrik read Swish's chapter of Fag Hag, which he had painstakingly translated for us as a surprise the day before.

And there it all was; our preparations for Pride 2006, our revelations, musings and our mission, revealed through the eyes of an amazingly talented journalist. It was hilarious, touching and told as straight as an arrow. Jamie must have said "I told you THAT?!" half a dozen times, while Sue mostly listened and smiled with pride, and a tear or two standing in the corners of her eyes. We are really hoping to find a publisher to bring Fag Hag to the States; in addition to Swish's entry, it is chock-full of fag hag subcultures that would be fascinating to readers in the U.S. and U.K. So if anyone has a publishing contact, won't you please give them a nudge – just imagine how fabulous Linda's reading at Oscar Wilde Bookshop will be!

The reading was the perfect ending to a perfect day. We did a little brainstorming for the following day, had some after-dinner drinks, and then conked out in various beds and couches all over the house, the smell of the sea lulling us to sleep.

In the next installment – Josh and Reyna finally arrive in Stockholm! Gay boys fall at Reyna's feet all over Pride Park. And we put on our sensible (sorta) shoes and do the academic thing at Pride House, with great success. Stay tuned -

Puss puss!

P.S. Check out the Swish YouTube Channel for our TV News 4 Sweden. www.youtube/swishpride