Lakeside Reflections

Florida

2009-03-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I just got back from a week in Florida. We started out in the Tampa area, where his parents live. We visited the Lowry Park Zoo and met this guy--he ate a cracker right out of my hand!
And then we socialized with these little lorakeets--they drink nectar from cups. I don't think Kevin was as excited as I was to have tiny bird feet scuttling all over his hand.

See, I have a much bigger smile on my face! The lorakeets and I are posing with Kevin's parents, Maria and George. (As you can see, we are dressed for chilly weather--it was about 60 degrees that day, and the native Floridians were panicky about the cold! I laughed so hard when I saw a sign at McDonald's that said, "Brrr, it's cold out there! Warm up with some hot chocolate!")

We also went to Homosassa Springs Park, where they rescue injured manatees. There were some gorgeous flamingos. I wouldn't want a plastic one in my front yard, but wow, the real ones are amazing!

I had never seen an ibis before, and was really excited to snap this guy's photo. Later, as we had to stop our car to let a flock of ibis walk across the street, and as I shooed them away at various picnic areas, I realized that they're probably about as common as pigeons in Florida. Still, they're very cute!

After leaving Tampa, Kevin and I drove on Rt. 41 towards Ft. Lauderdale to see my aunt and uncle. We stopped several times to look for alligators. Unfortunately, because the weather wasn't very warm, we didn't see any gators basking in the sun. We did spot a few floating in the water, and when we looked closer, we realized that there were also a bunch of manatees--they're hard to see, but they look like big potatoes floating under the surface of the water. You can make out their little noses coming up for air.

It is really hard to get a good photo of a manatee! Even in the best of conditions, like at Homasassas Springs, where they're lined up at the salad bar, they're not so photogenic.

The best shot I got of one was in the underwater viewing area.

Oh well, I'm still thrilled that I got to see them out in the wild, even if it does look like I just took a picture of some underwater rocks!

We went through some beautiful swamps on our drive on Rt. 41.

And more swampy goodness:We did spot a few gators swimming around, but again, it's hard to get good photos of submerged animals!

It was much easier to get a good photo at the park! Those are some brave little turtles!

After a wonderful dinner with my aunt and uncle in Fort Lauderdale, we drove down to Islamorada. This is the view from our hotel room:

We took a walk on the beach and found this little guy swimming in the shallows right by our feet!

We also went snorkeling, but I have no photos of that. It's too bad, because we saw some amazingly beautiful fish. It was our first time out, and I definitely learned a lot about what not to do! I get seasick, really, really seasick, but more than anything, I wanted to go snorkeling. I probably overdosed on Dramamine because I was so determined not to get nauseous. My plan worked--even though the water was choppy, and we had to ride on a boat for 30 minutes to get out to the coral reef, I felt fine. I got my flippers and wetsuit on, adjusted my mask and snorkel, and I started swimming. It was awesome, and I was so thrilled to see so many amazing fish--striped ones, spotted ones, spiny ones, every color of the rainbow. I don't know if it was because of Dramamine-induced drowsiness, or if I'm just an idiot, but I would see something, get super excited, forget I had a snorkel in my mouth, and try to tell Kevin to "Look over there!" and get a ton of seawater in my mouth. Or I'd see something, get super excited, and try to get a better look by lowering my head, and get a ton of seawater down my snorkel. All the Dramamine in the world can't save you from a belly full of salt water, so I spent the last 5 minutes of our snorkel trip gagging and retching in the water--I'm so much fun to vacation with!

The sunsets are gorgeous in the Keys, so we made sure to eat dinner on the Gulf side every night.

Another extreme sport I really want to try--kiteboarding! I chose to just watch this time.

We also went kayaking through the mangroves.

We saw lots of egrets, herons and ibis, tons of fish, and this guy:

Iguanas are actually an invasive species, and DNR traps them and euthanizes them, but we decided to let this one hang out in the mangroves in peace!
On Saturday morning, we had a long drive from Islamorada all the way back to the Tampa airport. We got up at the crack of dawn (which was very painful after the fruity drinks we had the night before!) and started driving. We made a quick stop at the Shy Wolf Sanctuary in Naples. A friend from New York who winters in Florida volunteers there, so we stopped by to say hello and to meet some wolves. Like this guy:

The first time a wolf put his mouth right up to my face, I was a little worried that maybe he would bite my nose off or something, but he just licked me. The wolves, wolf hybrids, coyotes and foxes at the sanctuary are so sweet and gentle with people, and I loved petting them.

At the same time, it infuriates me that this sanctuary needs to exist. These are wild animals who should never have been kept as pets. Unfortunately, a lot of the southern states don't have many regulations about owning wolves and other wild animals, so people buy them, get them home, and realize that they can't be trained like dogs, or that they're destructive and dig and chew, and so they get rid of them. The lucky ones end up in sanctuaries. They're too tame to be released into the wild, but too wild to live in a home.

Anyway, I'm very glad I got the chance to see them, it was definitely an experience to remember. I'm sure that the poor guy who had to sit next to me on the plane will definitely remember too--the wolves smell kind of wild, and after petting and hugging several of them, I'm sure I did as well!

We had such a great time, and definitely hope to make a tropical escape part of our winter routine!

A Solid Decision

2009-02-24T15:57:00.000-08:00

Kevin started his new job at the beginning of December, and this week, for the first time, he is on an international trip. He is in England for five days...after coping with five week long international trips at his former company, this is nothing! It's so great, I feel like we finally have our life back! (Also, at the old company, Kevin flew coach on Continental. Now, he either flies in the company jet, or, in the case of this trip, business class on Virgin Atlantic. Yep, I think this was a good career move!)

Old Dog

2009-02-02T07:52:00.000-08:00

When we were in Chicago, I got carded at 3 different bars, so I guess I have been feeling a little young and sassy lately. On Saturday, I decided that I was young and sassy enough to try something new and exciting, and I even managed to talk Kevin into risking life and limb with me--that's right, we took a snowboarding lesson! We ski. We aren't great, but we have schussed down intermediate trails in Lake Placid, Breckenridge and Lillehammer without falling. I didn't think that snowboarding could be that hard...I was wrong!
We went to a tiny little ski center by our house because they offer good deals on lift/equipment rental/lesson packages, and also because their hills looked small and gentle. Our instructor was maybe 16 at the most--I was right, snowboarding is a young and sassy sport!
He told us how to put our snowboards on, and after a couple of frustrated minutes, I was ready...all I had to do was stand up. Which I couldn't do. At all. Every time I started to stand, my snowboard started sliding, and I ended up flat on my back. Finally I flipped over on my stomach, got on my knees, and then, gracefully, butt in the air, I walked my hands backwards and I managed to stand. Young and sassy indeed--I believe I have seen toddlers right themselves using this technique!
Once I was upright, I snowboarded about 2 feet, and then firmly planted my face in the snow. The instructor explained that I needed to keep my toes up to avoid pitching forward, so on my next try, I fell flat on my back. This pattern of me struggling to stand, snowboarding a yard and then slamming into the ground went on for a good 15 minutes...I got snow in places that I didn't think snow could go! Up my nose, in my ears, in my underwear and beyond... Finally, after about 4 miserable attempts on the bunny hill, I kind of got it. I still fell 3 times on one tiny hill, but between the falling, I was sort of steering myself, and sort of slowing down and stopping when I intended to, and sort of loving it!
Kevin was also kind of getting the hang of it, so our wise teenage instructor decided we were ready to try the ski lift. Which we were not. Getting on the ski lift was okay, and riding the ski lift was okay, but disembarking was, um, agonizingly painful. I glided off, and for a couple seconds, I thought I would make it, but then I crashed. Kevin, who was right behind me, crashed into me--a snowboard with a full grown human attached hurts like hell when it rams into your shoulder blade! After I got my breath back, I did make it down the ever so slightly larger and steeper hill. (Don't get me wrong, I still fell, repeatedly, but moments of actual, honest to goodness snowboarding happened, too!)
I ache all over now--Advil helps a little, but I have been walking like an octogenarian since Saturday night. Who's young and sassy now? Not me! I used muscles I didn't even know I had, and I bruised every square inch of myself. I now know that skiing is nothing like snowboarding, in fact, just about every technique I would use to steer, stop and just keep myself upright while skiing caused me to pitch face first into the snow while snowboarding. Despite all the frustration and pain, I loved snowboarding, and I can't wait to try it again! Kevin is not so sure--I think he'll stick to gliding down mountains on his skis, while I tumble and crash down bunny hills on my snowboard!

My Kind Of Town

2009-01-26T10:44:00.000-08:00

Chicago was awesome (well, it was insanely cold, WAYYYY colder than central New York, but still, it was awesome)! Kevin had to go for business, but since Chicago is the city we lived in when we first got married, and since tomorrow is our 8th anniversary, it seemed like the perfect time for me to accompany him. We stayed overnight in the suburbs on Friday with one of my best friends from college, Jen, and her husband Steve. Jen drove us in to the city on Saturday, and we took a trip down memory lane...here's our first home at 1000 W. Washington St. We had a loft in this building--1/2 of the building was a book binder and 1/2 was a Nabisco factory. Our loft was on top of the old oven!
Directly across from our old loft is Harpo Studios--we saw the limos pulling up every day, the lines of people waiting to see a taping of "Oprah," but we never saw the woman herself. No luck this trip either--she is elusive!

After a yummy brunch at Le Peep (which is housed inside our old apartment building) we were done reminiscing and ready to see some new things. Our first stop was The Drake...it's a gorgeous old hotel ovelooking Lake Michigan. I always was curious about what it looked like inside, and I finally found out, as that is where Kevin's company paid for us to stay. Woo hoo!

Another first for us was a trip to Millenium Park to see the "Bean." I loved it and took a ridiculous number of photos...the only reason I stopped was because I could no longer move my fingers to work the camera due to the frigid weather!

A view from under the Bean:

And yet another Bean picture:

And finally, me and Kevin in front of the Bean:

And part of the Chigao skyline including the Sears Tower seen through the gridwork of the new (to us anyway) amphitheater in Millenium Park:

After hitting a few bars in the Gold Coast, we decided to end the night on a nostalgic note. We cabbed it back to West Loop and ate dinner in Greektown, then finished up the night at our old neighborhood haunt, Emmit's. A scene in Ocean's 11 was filmed at Emmit's while we lived in Chicago, and I remember how excited the waitresses were because they got to meet George Clooney and Matt Damon. This visit, we didn't actually get to sit in George and Matt's booth, but it was still a perfect end to the day.

Oh yeah, one other first for me--Jen made me get on Facebook! I'm always the last to jump on these trends...I don't think I really used email until 2002. Now I have another way to procrastinate, I mean, reminisce!

Yep, It's Still Snowy Out There

2009-01-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

Bandit & Big Bertha

2009-01-05T10:38:00.001-08:00

An 18 year old cat was recently dropped off at the animal shelter. I can't fathom how anyone could own an animal for 18 years and then just take it to a shelter, and situations like this make me kind of bitter towards people. Of course the cat, Bandit, ended up getting sick--she was stressed out so her immune system faltered, and there are so many germs at an animal shelter. Young cats generally recover quickly with antibiotics, but I was scared that such an old cat wouldn't stand a chance, so I ended up fostering her until she got better. Here she is hanging out under the Christmas tree:
I learned many things during her stay at my house. Useful things, like if you are trying to squirt a syringe full of Pedialyte down a sick cat's throat, and said sick cat squirms and writhes and you accidentally squirt it into your own eye, it stings like a bitch! And similarly, if you are trying to squirt Zithromax into a sick cat's mouth, and said sick cat squirms and writhes and you instead squirt it into your own mouth, it is sweet and sticky and will make you gag (not so much the taste as the realization that you probably squirted some sick cat saliva into your own mouth too!) I also learned that a sick, old cat who crawls into my lap and starts purring and kneading her little paws will melt my heart. Finally, I learned that there are some truly wonderful, generous people out there--Bandit was just adopted this weekend. The family knows she doesn't have lots of time left, but they wanted to give her a good home for the remainder of her life. I am so happy for her, and it makes the inadvertant Pedialyte eye wash totally worth it!

On a completely unrelated note, our 14 year old TV gave up the ghost a couple of days ago. Kevin and I discussed it and decided that we would get a moderate sized plasma flat screen to replace it. You know how when you go to a Christmas tree lot, and all the trees seem really small, and you end bringing a much bigger tree home than you had intended, and then you end up lopping a bunch off the bottom just to make it fit in your house? Yeah, same thing happened at Circuit City--the TVs all seemed kind of small and unimposing, so we ended up getting a 50" model. We can't lop any off the side, so I guess we're stuck with a ridiculously massive TV. We have named her "Big Bertha":

And yes, we watched "Darjeeling Unlimited" starring Owen Wilson for Big Bertha's maiden voyage, and no, it was not very good. And then we watched the "Daily Show" starring John Stewart, which was very good indeed!

Pretty Snow and Ice Courtesy of My Little Norwegian Friend

2008-12-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

The teenager who used to catsit for us in Norway emailed me some photos of the frozen Gjovik landscape. So pretty! Much nicer than what we have going on in New York--we got over a foot of snow, which was gorgeous. Then the temperatures soared up into the 40's, so now we have slushy, muddy puddles everywhere. Yuck!

The Prison Barbed Wire in the Background Makes the Photo Even Better!

2008-12-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Washington D.C.

2008-12-15T07:27:00.000-08:00

Our trip to D.C. was fun--we got the required touristy stuff out of the way on Friday...we saw the Washington monument:
And the Capitol Building:

And the White House Christmas tree--unfortunately the President had just landed, so the park the tree was in was blocked off for a few hours. Lots of people milled around waiting for the gates to open, but it was really cold on Friday, so we snapped a picture and left for the comfort of a warm restaurant!

On Friday, we also went to the American History Museum--I was really excited to see Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch on display--I had no idea that the original Oscar was orange! His color change was explained away with, "He lives in a garbage can and rolls around in muck, so he turned green." I was very disappointed that the first ladies' inauguration gowns display was temporarily closed, but at least I also got to see the ruby slippers from 'The Wizard of Oz" and Julia Child's kitchen.

On Saturday, we went to the Spy Museum--best museum EVER! I usually have a 1 1/2 hour attention span at museums, but we were at the Spy Museum for almost 4 hours and I was enthralled the whole time. We saw some really cool, high-tech spy gadgets--the lipstick pistol was my favorite!

The weekend was mostly about good food and drink, though--from Lebanese tapas to homemade noodles in Chinatown to pitchers of sangria and margaritas to French toast, oh my, did we ever eat and drink! Thank goodness we walked miles around the city, or else I might have had to ask for a seatbelt extender on the flight home!

Speaking of the flight home, we missed it! We got to Dulles, checked in, and went through security with about 30 minutes to spare. We went to our gate, but a flight to New Hampshire was boarding, so we went to the bakery next to the gate for a drink. We heard announcements for Binghamton, Savannah, Providence, but nothing for Syracuse. We had seen a sign saying that flights close 10 minutes before their scheduled departure, so we went back to the gate 20 minutes before our scheduled departure. We sat at the gate for a couple of minutes, and then decided to ask the gate agent if the flight would be on time...he told us that our flight was closed and our seats had been given away to other people! We were completely floored--it had never been announced, and we were there in plenty of time! Also, our bags were on the plane--don't airlines usually passenger-match and page people who have checked luggage but haven't boarded the plane? The gate agent obviously realized he had screwed up, as he offered us 2 free round trip tickets to anywhere in the continental U.S. for our inconvenience! We ended up getting on the 10 PM flight to Syracuse, and arrived home at 11 PM instead of 6 PM. Our bags were waiting for us at the airport, and now we have free tickets, so this morning, I am very grateful for all the craziness, but yesterday, when I was so tired and just wanted to get home, I really wasn't feeling the gratitude!

Catch Up

2008-12-08T10:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in weeks--everything has been kind of crazy, but life seems to be calming down a bit now. Kevin has been at his new job for a week and seems to really like it. He will be traveling to Bath, England in mid-January for work, and then to Chicago at the end of January. I'm planning to accompany him to Chicago--I'm so excited! We lived in Chicago when we were first married, so it will be fun to wander around the old neighborhood--we lived in West Loop, which was "up and coming" when we lived there, but I have heard it has arrived now! Hopefully we'll get a chance to eat at my favorite restaurant in Greek Town, see Millenium Park and "The Bean," which were built after we left, and reconnect with old friends.

We're also going to Washington D.C. this weekend...I have heard that their Christmas decorations are gorgeous, so I'm looking forward to seeing them. I have never been to the Smithsonian, so that is high on the list of places I want to go. Kevin bought a guide book, so hopefully by Friday, I'll have a plan. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

I definitely need a little mini vacation--I have been so busy with all the holiday events and fundraising at the shelter. I love it, but it will be great to have a weekend off. This past weekend, I was helping with our Pet Pictures with Santa fundraiser when the local news showed up. I wasn't really expecting to be on TV, but publicity is always a good thing, so I gathered my thoughts and gave a quick interview. My mom called later last night to tell me that she had seen me on the news. I asked if I had stumbled over my words or said anything stupid, and she replied, "No, you sounded fine, but I'm guessing if you had known you were going to be on TV, you would have made more of an effort with your clothes and hair." Um, ouch! Oh well, hopefully the majority of viewers were more interested in my message then in my messy pony tail!

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

2008-11-20T16:30:00.000-08:00

At Long Last, Kevin's Head

2008-11-18T19:09:00.000-08:00

He Is Going to Be Insufferable Now!

2008-11-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

Kevin has been away from home on his last MASSIVE business trip since the beginning of October. Seriously, 5 weeks abroad is insane, and if anyone at his company is really wondering why he resigned, they need look no further than his itinerary. He's flying from China to Norway right now, and he called me on the way to the airport to tell me about his Asian farewell dinner. He received so many gifts that he had to buy another suitcase to haul everything back. I asked him what kind of presents he was given, and he answered, "A tea set, a traditional Filipino dress shirt, a little Chinese good luck charm, and, um, a statue." I asked him about the statue, and he replied, "Um, well, it's kind of a statue of me." That's right, his coworkers in China took a photo of him to a sculpter. And now Kevin is lugging his own bust home... He will probably receive another farewell gift or two from his coworkers in Norway, and as awesome as a clay homage to his head is, I'm kind of hoping that the Norwegians choose to honor him with chococolate instead! I know the statue is a huge honor, and it was very kind of his Chinese coworkers, but seriously, how will I ever be able to top it? This Christmas, as he opens his usual dress shirt, sweater and book gifts from me, he's going to be all, "Yeah, the sweater is a nice color, but do you remember when someone commissioned a statue of me?"

Overwhelmed

2008-11-04T21:34:00.000-08:00

I blinked back the tears as I cast my vote today, I trembled as I watched the election coverage on TV this evening, and as I listened to President-Elect Obama's victory speech tonight, my heart soared. I have voted in other elections, but never have I believed in a candidate so much. I'm so proud of and hopeful for our country!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T22:29:00.001-07:00

Where I'll Be This Weekend

2008-10-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

I leave for Las Vegas tomorrow morning. Am I going to gamble, to see the shows, to hang out with Paris Hilton? Um, no. Actually, I will be here:
http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?i=33ec6f31-64ad-4c18-acca-85ae57ac5524
I am so excited!!!

Yay Fall!

2008-10-16T16:18:00.000-07:00

I have been having massive computer problems lately. The Dell guy has been out to the house twice now, once to replace the motherboard, and then again today to replace both the screen and the motherboard. The computer is still not working, so tomorrow I'm supposed to send it in to Dell for a last ditch effort to revive it. I'm guessing I'm going to end up with a brand new laptop since the old one is still under warranty. In the meantime, I'm plodding along on my very old, very slow laptop from the days of yore (or 2007, whatever). Its lack of speed and reliability have discouraged me from even trying to blog or email much, but since I took some pictures this weekend of the pretty foliage, I thought I'd give it a try today.
Behold, autumn leaves:
And more leaves plus a waterfall:

And the best part of autumn of all, a haunted house:

The Syracuse fairgrounds is now home to a creepy carnival and 4 very spooky haunted houses--you have to walk in that scary, gaping clown mouth. Eek! I love Halloween so much, and after missing out on it completely last year due to living in Norway, I am celebrating it with a vengeance this year! In addition to the haunted houses, I'm going to a costume party on Halloween. I have no idea what I should dress up as--any suggestions? Keep in mind that my Halloween pet peeve is the stupid girl who wears a leotard, stillettos and pointy ears and says "I'm a cat!" I was at a costume store today toying with the idea of being a jester...I really want to be a Harlequin clown but I can't find a costume anywhere. I think I'll hold off on buying a costume until after I get to Las Vegas next weekend. I'm guessing that there are probably some amazing costume stores there. (And no, I'm not going to dress up as a show girl! Or Sigfried or Roy!)

Happiness is a Warm Puppy

2008-09-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

It poured rain all day today, but despite the weather, I spent the afternoon with a group of volunteers, 3 dogs and 4 cats at an outdoor adoption event. I got very wet and cold, not to mention incredibly muddy playing with the 2 large-breed puppies we brought with us.

How cute are these guys--it's insane that they're both under 6 months old and this gigantic already! Anyway, I came home chilled and damp and covered in muddy pawprints, but so happy. I love these shelter animals so much...I wish I had room in my home for more. I feel so blessed to be able to spend my days with them, they are so full of gratitude for every walk, every treat, every cuddle, every game of "fetch".

Now I'm off to take a nice, hot shower, and then to relax in bed with a book...there will be many more slobbery kisses and muddy pawprints tomorrow!

Reason #592 I Will Vote for Obama/Biden in November

2008-09-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

I generally leave politics out of my blog. I'm not an expert, and I have no desire to engage in a political debate. I'm not trying to offend anyone...I have some wonderful friends and family who are staunch Republicans, and I love and respect them. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind about their vote. That being said, if you are undecided thus far, and you are concerned about the rights and welfare of animals (wildlife, farm animals and pets) please read this article:
http://hslf.typepad.com/political_animal/2008/09/humane-society.html

The Vocabulary of a Marriage

2008-09-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Kevin and I will have a conversation, and at the end of it, I realize that anyone eavesdropping would think that we were raving lunatics. On any given day, we might discuss spongy ghosts, filthy bears and tons of other seemingly random, crazy topics .
When we first moved to our house, we were plagued by water...our driveway and garage flooded every time it rained, the roof leaked in about a dozen places (it took the roofers who replaced the roof about 3 times to finally get it right and leak-proof!), water would gush in through the downstairs windows during a downpour, the line to the refrigerator ice-maker leaked through the floor and into the ceiling below, and the washing machine died a spectacular, explosively watery death. I theorized that perhaps we were being haunted by a damp spector, a spongey ghost if you will, and the term stuck. Now, if one of us yells, "Ahhhh, spongey ghost, spongey ghost!" the other one knows to come running with a towel!
We bought our house from an interesting character. He was a big, burly man who polished his rifle and talked to us about bear hunting while we measured for tile. When we first toured the home, we found a bottle of vodka in EVERY cabinet, and since then, we have heard from neighbors that he was known for walking around the yard with a drink in both hands (and a cigarette in his mouth). Based on the amount of grease that coated every surface in the kitchen when we moved in, he must have cooked a lot of bears during his time here. Kevin and I started calling him the "damn dirty bear hunter" but that was quickly shortened to "filthy bear." Whenever we discover some half-assed repair or renovation, we just curse the filthy bear, and go about fixing it.
I kind of like being in this odd little club of two, speaking in our own "secret code." Are we particularly crazy, or does every couple create a unique language over time?

Getting to Know You

2008-09-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I went to the Syracuse Irish Fest last Saturday. It was fantastic!
There were some great bands, including "Enter the Haggis".

As wonderful as the music (and the free-flowing Guiness) were, my attention soon wandered to the beautiful architecture of Clinton Square.

We have now lived in the Syracuse area for 10 months, and we realized that we don't really know the city at all. This is partly due to Kevin's crazy travel schedule, but also partly due to that feeling of, "Eh, there's always tomorrow." When we lived in Chicago, we definitely did go out and do things, but we were usually spurred on by out of town guests who wanted to see the sights. There was so much more to see and do that we never got around to--our loft was directly across from Oprah's Harpo Studios (we could watch the celebrities' limos pull up to the building) but I chose to watch her show on TV instead of bothering to get tickets. I always thought "Someday" and then we moved and I have been kicking myself ever since! When we moved to Norway, we knew it was going to be for a limited time, so we really did take advantage of living there. By the time we moved back, several Norwegians told us that we had seen and done more in Norway than they ever had. But now we've fallen back into that rut of thinking we have all the time in the world to get out and explore our new city. Kevin and I vowed on Saturday, "No more! We're going to hang out on Tipp Hill, in Armory Square, by College Hill! And once we get to know Syracuse, we're going to expand our horizons and check out the Thousand Islands and Lake Ontario, and heck, maybe we'll even venture into Canada!"
We have definitely made progress--Kevin already has a favorite building in Syracuse, the very cool art deco NiMo building:

Bloggy Ups and Downs

2008-09-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

I have not been feeling like writing much lately...because I have a site meter, I have a pretty good idea of who is reading this blog (it lets me know the city, state and country in which a reader is located) and I think this knowledge makes me censor myself to the point that it is no longer a joy to write. Instead, I'm constantly thinking about not offending anyone, about not hurting anyone's feelings, about not letting certain people too deep into our life. Some really funny things have happened lately, the kind of things that make me want to call a friend and exclaim, "Can you believe that s/he wore that/said that/did that?" but I can't write about it for fear that someone will recognize themselves in my blog and be hurt. In summary, central New York is full of quirky, wacky characters...I wish I could tell you more, but I can't!
A couple of days ago, something happened that made me appreciate all the blogging I did in the past. Kevin downloaded a bunch of updates onto my computer and somehow all my files, including all my photos, were deleted. I lost all my Lofoten pictures, but thankfully my best photos of the archipelago are saved on the blog, I lost all my Grand Canyon photos, but again, the best ones are posted on the blog. (Luckily all the photos I took while living in Norway are saved and backed up on another computer.)
Anyway, the point of this ramble is that I'm trying to think of a way to continue this journal, both as a way to keep in touch with friends and family, and as a way to preserve memories for myself, without oversharing or offending anyone. Or maybe I'll just post tons of pictures of cute animals. Whatever, I'll figure something out!

The End of an Era

2008-08-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Kevin resigned from his current company last week. (I couldn't write about it until it was announced to all the employees, just in case anyone who works there reads this. Yes, I am delusional about having an audience.) Anyway, Kevin was getting so worn down from all the travelling...there were a couple of months when he was at home for 6 or 7 days all month long. By July, he was so frustrated with the situation that he half heartedly started perusing the job listings in the paper, and found a local recruiter who specializes in career opportunities in finance. Within a week he had interviews at 3 companies, and within 3 weeks he had an offer. His new commute is 30 minutes, and while he will still have to travel a bit (to England, China and Canada) he will be able to spend the majority of his time at home in New York. He is actually in Norway right now, and will have to go back there and to China a couple more times over the next several weeks, as his contract requires him to give 3 month's notice. I know this was such a hard decision for Kevin to make, as he really likes his job and the people he works with (who are not making it any easier by showering him with compliments and lamenting the fact that he is leaving.) We both believe that this decision is the right one for him, personally and professionally, but that doesn't do much to alleviate the sadness of this prolonged goodbye. The new job begins the first week of December, and the new company seems wonderful, so at least there is a lot to look forward to during this difficult time.

Wacky Wedding

2008-08-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

The picture in the previous entry is of Kevin and me all dressed up at the wedding we attended this past weekend--Kevin wears suits for work on a semi-regular basis, but I am generally clad in jeans, a tee shirt, and a pony tail with some muddy pawprints and tufts of fur as accessories, so I felt the need to document that I actually wore a dress and slapped on some lip gloss! The weekend wasn't just about me donning a dress, though. We also visited Sleepy Hollow...here is the charming Old Dutch Church, built in 1697.
And Washington Irving's home, Sunnyside. (Irving wrote the very spooky headless horseman tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.")

The wedding was, um, interesting. There weren't any full-fledged wedding disasters, but there were definitely a couple of moments that made me laugh. Apparently there wasn't a rehearsal, so when the groom's uncle walked up to read a Bible verse, he started reading the wrong verse. After a couple of lines, the groom cut him off--the uncle grinned sheepishly, shrugged and went back to his seat. There was also a "singer" who performed mid-ceremony. She was really into the song--think John Mayer-type facial contortions. Unfortunately, unlike Mr. Mayer, she was unable to hit most of the notes she attempted to sing. It was so awful, Kevin and I were both shaking with (silent) laughter.

When Kevin and I got engaged 8 years ago, one of the first bridezilla decrees I made was, "Absolutely no singing at our ceremony!" I have been to so many weddings with horrific vocalists--everyone has that one friend who believes she can sing, and who would love to grace the wedding ceremony with the gift of song. As is evident during "American Idol" auditions, the ratio of people who believe they are wonderful singers to people who can actually carry a tune is shockingly high! Before anyone could offer up their vocal talent to our wedding I had a harpist hired--potential awkward situation averted!

I was almost responsible for creating a wedding disaster of my own last weekend. I chose to wear some very strappy high heeled sandals, and then I chose to drink several daiquiris. I teetered, I tottered, I was a Weeble--I wobbled but I did not fall down!

All Spiffed Up

2008-08-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Sails

2008-08-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to write these days--everything is fine, but not really blog-worthy. I'm busy at the shelter, Kevin's busy at work, we're enjoying summer, yadda yadda yadda. In lieu of actual content, I'll just post a couple of photos from the lake. This is Kevin's little sailboard birthday present:
And this is our neighbor kayaking with her little dog--he even has a tiny life jacket!

At some point, hopefully I'll have more to write. We're going to a wedding in Scarsdale this weekend, so maybe Kevin will finally get to witness a wedding disaster. Any time we go to a wedding, his fingers are always crosssed that a member of the wedding party will faint, or the candles on the altar will catch a bridesmaid's dress on fire, or the bride just won't show up, or best of all, when asked "Does anyone know of any reason why this couple should not be wed?" someone in the audience will jump up and say, "Yes, actually, I do!" I'm not generally the type to wish misfortune on anyone, but should Kevin's wedding disaster wishes come true, at least I'll finally have something to blog about!

In the meantime, if you have any funny wedding nightmare stories to share, please comment freely--Kevin will be so grateful!

Cat TV

2008-08-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

Viva Las Vegas

2008-07-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

I have been a bad blogger lately, but I'm finally posting some photos from our Las Vegas trip. We stayed at the Venetian...check out the tack-a-riffic hall:
And the view of the mountains from our hotel room:

And the massive bathroom in our room--our hotel room was so swanky and nice, there were fresh orchids in the bathroom every day. It was pretty tough to leave and return to my orchid-free home!

This is a small section of the Vegas strip. We visited New York New York and rode on the insane roller coaster--seriously, the scariest roller coaster I have ever been on. The lights of the Vegas strip are even more dazzling when seen from 203 feet in the air and upside down!

We also visited the older section of Las Vegas on Fremont Street. The casinos were a little sketchy and the food was downright terrifying:

We wandered from casino to casino, winning some money at the blackjack tables, then losing some money at the blackjack tables. I loved the crazy acrobat shows at Circus Circus:

Since we were enjoying our tour of all things cheesy and cliche in Las Vegas, we stopped by the Mirage to check out Sigfried and Roy's white tigers. How cute is this little tiger cub?

In addition to tigers, the gardens at the Mirage had leopards:

and lions:

and dolphins:

We had such a fantastic, carefree time in Las Vegas, but the highlight was definitely the Cirque du Soleil show "Love" which was set to Beatles music. It was incredible (the 32 oz. margaritas we bought at the concession stand made it even better!) and we left the show in awe of the choreography, the artistry and the athleticism of the performers.

It's nice to be back to reality, but I would love to go back to Las Vegas for another dose of fantasy in the near future!

My Morning Began with a Bat, I Mean Bang

2008-07-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning, went to the kitchen to have some cereal, looked up and saw a little bat hanging in the doorway to the dining room. All the cats were standing underneath it, looking up, licking their lips and making their "I want flesh!" chattering noises. I'm very proud of myself, because I was cool, calm and collected, baby! I grabbed a bag of cat treats, lured the cats into the utility room and shut the door, then I grabbed a step stool and a couple of potholders, opened the front door, gently scooped the bat up and set it outside. I think the poor little thing was in shock, because instead of swooping away to freedom, it just sat there spitting at me. I know a photo op when it hisses in my face, so here is the photographic evidence of my crazy morning:

And no, I will not put this particular potholder back in my kitchen...based on the number of bats we see flying out of our eaves every night, I'm guessing I'll need it again for bat duty!

Finally, Some Grand Canyon Pictures

2008-07-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I set out last Saturday at 5:30 AM from Las Vegas to see the Grand Canyon. Here we are at an overlook in Hurricane, Utah. (Late that night, on our long drive back to Las Vegas, we were pulled over in Hurricane, Utah for speeding, so we have all kinds of memories from that town!)
And here is a long horned steer--too cute!

We stopped by Zion National Park in Utah to see the incredible sandstone formations.

How amazing are these rocks? I have never seen anything like this before!

While we stopped to marvel at the sandstone, this adorable little lizared scurried by:

I love vintage 1960's signs so I always take pictures of them. (I have a bunch of cool sign pictures from Santa Cruz too.) I snapped this photo quickly, and it wasn't until I got home and was going through my pictures that I actually read what the sign said...um, is the economy really so stagnant that the ladies of the night have to bake pies in the morning just to make ends meet?

We were driving along towards the Grand Canyon when I spotted this sign and begged Kevin to pull over so we could take a tour. What an amazing place--I could have spent the rest of our vacation there! If you haven't heard of Best Friends, here's their website: http://www.bestfriends.org/

After our tour, we got back on the road and drove into Arizona. (I was able to add 3 new states to my list of states I have visited: Nevada, Utah and Arizona. I still have Mississippi, Alabama, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii to visit. I definitely think Hawaii should be my top priority!) It was quite overcast by the time we reached the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We paid our $25, drove into the park, and it started pouring rain, thundering and lightening. We debated turning back, but since we had already paid (and driven more than 300 miles to get there) we decided to make the best of it. This was my first impression of the Grand Canyon, as I was shivering out on a ledge, being pelted with icy rain and trying to avoid being struck by lightening!

We hid in the car until the rain let up a little, then we ventured out again. We walked along this path to a couple of different vistas and absolutely fell in love with the fragrance. It was a blend of cedar, sage, juniper and cliff roses mixed with that fresh rain smell--I wish my blog was scratch-n-sniff, it was such an incredible scent! I'm kind of obsessed with finding a candle or potpourri or linen spray or something that smells like that now--I want to wake up to that fragrance every morning! (It wasn't just me going nuts over the scent, Kevin wouldn't shut up about it either!)

I got a few more shots of the Grand Canyon, but it was still very foggy and overcast, so I'm not very happy with any of my photos:

Anyway, despite the inclement weather and the speeding ticket, we had a wonderful road trip. I would definitely love to go back to the Grand Canyon and see the south rim (and the north rim in the sunshine). I'll write a bit about Las Vegas later...

An Alien Landscape

2008-07-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

I returned from my first trip to the southwest on Tuesday night...it was so beautiful, but so different from any landscape I have ever seen. I have tons of pictures to sort through, but right now I'm just trying to catch up on laundry, vacuuming and grocery shopping. More pictures will follow, but for now, behold the crazy, twisty tree!

Culture Schmulture

2008-07-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

Some of Kevin's Norwegian coworkers have been in town the last couple of days, and we went to a musical with them last night--"Les Miserables." I saw the musical in 2000 in London, and I found that 8 years later, I had the same observation: If Javert didn't keep stopping and bursting into song, he probably could have caught Jean Valjean! I used to be in drama club in high school--I was obsessed with plays and musicals, and I even used to think that "Cats" was kind of awesome. At some point I must have lost my ability to suspend my disbelief (and any and all appreciation for overwrought songs and jazz hands!) When I go to musicals now, I sit quietly and politely applaud whenever appropriate, but in my head I'm composing goofy little songs like "I want coffee and donuts, coffee and donuts from Dunkin Do-o-nuts, Do-o-nuts," to the tune of that "Barber of Seville, Figaro" song.
Kevin and I are flying to Las Vegas on Friday. We have plans to drive to the Grand Canyon, to see the Beatles-themed Cirque Du Soleil show and of course to play a little blackjack. I think this might be the kind of culture even I can appreciate!

The Boonies

2008-07-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

We live in the middle of nowhere...I knew this before, but yesterday, the point was really driven home. There is a 25 mile stretch of highway between the animal shelter and my house and I guess I was a bit more observant than usual as I drove along. I passed about 15 vehicles parked in front yards which were for sale by owner, including a huge pontoon boat and not one, but two old hearses. (The hearses weren't even for sale by the same person, they were a few miles apart...what are the odds?) I also drove past a couple of "Deer Processing" signs, and a very perplexing "Meat Madness" sign--I probably don't want to find out what that means! I passed a few 4 wheelers racing through the ditches on the side of the road, but most disturbing was the guy on a dirtbike...he was wearing protective safety gear and a helmet as he sped through the fields, but the chubby, bald baby who was balanced on his lap was not! I arrived home just in time to see the neighbors trussing a whole dead pig to a spit in preperation for today's pig roast. I'm really not one of those preachy, judgmental vegetarians, but seeing a whole animal like that, ears and snout and all, was too much for me--the sight of it made me cry a bit. It's a lot easier to watch someone eat a hamburger, with its total lack of facial features!
There are some benefits to living in such a remote area, though. At night there are no city lights competing with the starlight, so the sky is all twinkly and beautiful. We routinely see deer, rabbits, ducks, geese, squirrels and tons of songbirds in our yard. There is almost no traffic on our road (although I fear that the ratio of drunk drivers to sober drivers may be disproportionately high in this area!) And there are lots of gorgeous things growing in our yard, like pears:
And roses:

And these pretty red things:

And apples:

And these beautiful blue things:

And these lovely yellow things:

And these attractive pink things:

Hmm, when I lived in Norway, I used to blame my ignorance of the flora on the fact that I had never seen these strange Arctic plants before...now I don't have an excuse. Beyond the basic roses, tulips and dandelions, I really don't know what anything is. But they're beautiful to see, and all the flowers and the stars and the wildlife and the amazing lake views more than make up for the, ahem, quirks of rural life!

Adventures in Boating

2008-06-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Kevin turned the big 3-6 yesterday. He had been talking about getting a little 2 person sailboard for months, but I know he would never buy it for himself. Kevin never wants to spend money on himself--he has to be coaxed into buying socks when his old socks develop holes! (I don't quite understand this--I'm not a huge shopper, but if something is getting threadbare, I suffer no guilt when I replace it, and oh my, shoes, I never suffer guilt when it comes to buying shoes!) Anyway, I found a cute little blue and white used Dolphin sailboard at a local boat shop and had arranged for it to be delivered on Friday while Kevin was at work. I had planned to set it up in the driveway and adorn it with a huge red bow so he would be surprised when he returned from work on Friday night. Unfortunately, there was a mixup with the delivery van, so the boat ended up being delivered on Thursday evening when Kevin was already home. In the end, it was probably a good thing...that boat was HEAVY and Kevin was very helpful about unloading his own birthday gift! Also, I have never been around any kind of sailboard/sailboat thing in the past, and they are complicated! I would never have been able to figure out how to put it all together anyway....Kevin would have arrived home to a jumble of sail and mast parts in the driveway, and me shouting "Surprise, I got you a sailboard puzzle for your birthday!"
After rain and thunderstorms on Saturday, we were thrilled that Sunday was bright, sunny and breezy. Kevin rigged up the sail, and after slapping on some sunscreen, we headed out onto the lake. The wind was perfect, and we made it all the way out to a distant island in about 30 minutes. We capsized once, but it wasn't a big deal. We had our lifejackets on and it wasn't too hard to flip the boat up again. At that point, we were feeling very self congratulatory about our mad sailing skills...and then the wind just stopped blowing. I have horrible motion sickness, but when the sailboat was zipping along, I had no issues. Once we just started bobbing around with no forward motion, I became violently ill. Not once, not twice, but three times. I ended up sliding off of the boat into the water, grabbing onto a rope and directing Kevin to just tow me, because the pitching of the boat was too unbearable. We made quite a lovely picture, I'm sure...Kevin desperately whipping the sail around, trying to catch a breeze, and me miserably trailing along behind the boat! After about 3 hours, we finally drifted close enough to our house that we both swam the sailboard back to shore, much to the amusement of our neighbors. Oh, and remember how I nonchalantly mentioned that we had slapped some sunscreen on? That was a bit of foreshadowing...my application of sunscreen was patchy at best, so between that, the 4 hours out in the midday sun and my natural deathly pallor, I am a freaky, streaky, red and white zebra of a mess right now! Kevin's skin is naturally darker than mine, so although he got a little burned yesterday, today he is all brown and healthy looking, damn him! Not that you can tell from my rehashing of our sailing story, but we did actually have a lot of fun out on the water too. Now I know that in the future, I must take Dramamine and slather on the sunscreen, and that it wouldn't be a bad idea to check the forecast before we decide to sail too far from shore!
Kevin's birthday was capped off with a veggie burger, watermelon and corn on the cob picnic on the patio. We also went to see "Get Smart" that evening--we laughed so hard, it was insanely funny! And nothing could make a stinging sunburn feel better than sitting in an aggressively air conditioned theater with a big bucket of icy cold Diet Coke! Now I have 4 days to recover before the insanity of the 4th of July weekend. I'm sure there will be more sailing and the neighbors have threatened us with, I mean invited us to their annual pig roast...yikes, I gotta go take a nap now!

And A Bit About Gjovik

2008-06-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

Before my trip up to Lofoten, I spent 3 days in Gjovik...there it is, nestled on the shore of Lake Mjosa:
And a view of the fields across Mjosa:

When I left in November, I was so thrilled to be moving back to the U.S. that I really didn't think that I would miss anything about Gjovik--I could not get out of there fast enough! I think spending a few days again in Gjovik was a good way for me to gain some new perspective on the 15 months I was there. I remember spending massive amounts of time by myself when I lived there. When Kevin was on a business trip, days would go by where the only person I talked to would be a cashier in the grocery store. Yet when I was back for 3 days, so many people were excited to see me again and I spent the entire time surrounded by friends...it's hard to reconcile this with the experience that I had remembered. I suppose that anytime you go back to visit somewhere you once lived, everyone comes out of the woodwork because there is such a limited time to see you, but I also think I was so depressed when I lived there that I completely stopped reaching out to anyone and I isolated myself. After feeling that in many ways, 15 months of my life had been wasted, it was incredible to go back and realize that no, I had actually managed to create a life for myself there, I had managed to make friendships...that the time, while not always well spent, was definitely not wasted!

I am still very grateful and happy to be back in New York, and that was definitely driven home on the Sunday I spent in Gjovik. My friend Heather from norskkurs drove up from her home in Nore to hang out with us for the day. Unfortunately, Sunday is not the best day of the week to spend in Gjovik--the streets of downtown were completely deserted, nothing was open anywhere. We ended up sitting by the lake for hours, eating ice cream from a kiosk and pistachios from the Asian market. Here is a picture of Kevin and Heather and their huge bag of pistachios:

At some point, we did finally find a Chinese restaurant that was open for lunch--yay for immigrants!

In addition to seeing Heather, I went for a long walk with my teenage friend (who used to catsit for us). His family is planning a vacation to the U.S. this fall and hasn't decided between New York or California, so he had tons of questions for me. He is quite obsessed with seeing celebrities, he also wants to see an impressive skyline, to visit a great beach and to enjoy some cheap shopping. I told him it's possible to see celebrities in either NYC or LA, but probably more likely in LA, NYC has the great skyline and the imposing skyscrapers, California has the beautiful beaches, and as for shopping, he's Norwegian, any shopping he does in the U.S. will be cheap for him!

Kevin and I also spent a day with Anders and Nina and their family, playing croquet in their garden:

I had another tiny epiphany during our croquet game...everyone kept pronouncing it "crockett," which I found very endearing. And it reminded me of all the times I was too inhibited to speak Norwegian because I was so embarrassed about my American accent and so fearful of making a grammatical error. (Hence why the best Norwegian conversations I ever had were after several glasses of wine--I probably slurred my words, but wow, was I ever uninhibited about talking!) I wish I had reached out more, that I had been braver and less cautious when I lived in Norway. I think it might have made my time there so much happier. Oh well, I learned, I grew, I'm better for it, yadda, yadda, yadda!

Nina and I also drove up to my old house. It has been sold (for an obscene amount, I'm still in sticker shock!) and the buyers plan to put another $400,000 in renovations into it. I was amazed at all the progress they have already made. There is a giant pile of rubble outside--obviously the hideous kitchen and bathrooms have been gutted. The outbuilding which was falling down has been lifted up onto a new foundation and reroofed. I was so happy to see this--it was a great old house in an idyllic location, and it was sad that no one had taken care of it for decades. I wonder if they will change the color of the fabulous violet guestroom?

Anyway, I spent 3 wonderful days in Gjovik followed by 4 fabulous days in Lofoten. It was a rejuvenating vacation, and absolutely what I needed. Now I'm back and very happy with life in New York, but without a lot to write about. I'll blog occasionally, but I'll try to refrain from posting every random thought that pops into my head or every cute cat picture I take!

Lofoten Pictures: Part II

2008-06-22T13:01:00.001-07:00

This is the adorable little fishing cabin we stayed in for the week:
Lofoten is full of cute little rental fishing cabins. Some are rustic, and some, like ours, are very modern. We had a full bathroom with a washing machine and a full kitchen with a dishwasher. Both rustic and updated cabins all boast gorgeous water views!

Lofoten is known for torskfisk, or dried fish. Here are a bunch of them hanging up in a shop (the same shop where we rented the car). I didn't enjoy the look or the smell of them so I didn't try any, though I was tempted to buy a doggy "snack pack" for Kermit and Honey. I decided it wasn't worth stinking up my luggage, especially since the dogs would be just as happy with Milk Bones!

Here are tons of the fish drying on racks in the sun. We asked a taxi driver how they manage to keep the sea gulls away...he cheerfully answered, "We shoot them!"

And here are yet more racks of fish drying on the remote island of Vaeroy:

We took a ferry bright and early on Friday morning from Moskenes to Vaeroy in hopes of spotting some puffins and other sea birds. Vaeroy is gorgeous, and we took a wonderful hike on the seaside cliffs.

We also suited up to go on a spectacular raft trip to see the famous "bird cliffs." Our guide was just wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, so I thought maybe our heavy flotation coveralls were a bit much, but oh my, it was crazy cold out there! Who knew I could be so happy to be dressed up like a dirty, fish scented, orange Pilsbury dough boy?

We saw tons of birds: razor bills, sea eagles, seagulls and even a couple of puffins. Unfortunately, when you are in a raft going 30 knots through choppy waters, it is very difficult to get good photos of birds soaring overhead. The ride was amazing, it really felt like we were flying with the birds, but I have very little photographic evidence to show for it! Here are a bunch of, hmm, I'm not sure what, let's say they are some type of duck, okay?

And here are some nesting kittiwake seagulls. The sea eagles have eaten most of the kittiwake chicks and eggs, and our guide said that so far this year, only about 45 of the chicks have survived.

This would be my one and only photo of a bird in flight which turned out at all.

I'm so bummed out that none of my puffin pictures turned out--they are so cute, like fat little penguins with bright orange beaks. If you want to see one, you can go to this site: http://www.audubon.org/bird/puffin/puffins.html It's nice to know that there are people out there who are even MORE excited about puffins than I am!

After our raft ride and our lovely hike, we still had about 10 hours to kill before the ferry back to Moskenes. Vaeroy is pretty, but 10 hours is a long time to spend on a very isolated island with one small cafe and one convenience store. Luckily the convenience store sold decks of cards, so after wandering around some more and hanging out on a beautiful beach, we ended up back at the ferry terminal with a bunch of junk food and played cards for the last couple of hours. I taught Michele and Victoria how to play blackjack--just in case our next vacation together ends up being near a casino, we'll be prepared!

Lofoten Pictures: Part I

2008-06-19T05:17:00.000-07:00

This is a view of one of the islands of Lofoten from the ferry--at this point, I have no idea which island, but I loved this photo's dreamy look so much that I decided to post it and admit my ignorance!
This is the village of Sorvagen, where we rented a fishing cabin. The village was charming, the cabin was adorable...I felt like I was standing inside a postcard througout the whole vacation!

The weather was quite chilly and overcast the first couple of days we were there, but we channeled our inner Vikings and braved the elements! We went on a few gorgeous hikes--this was the view just steps from our cabin door:

And this was the view once we reached the top of a huge mountain...I mean, ahem, a medium-sized hill:

We had reserved a car...that was, um, interesting. First, we called the woman at the car rental shop. She gave us directions and told us we could walk there. After walking quite a distance and seeing no car rental business (or any other business) we hailed a cab. It's a good thing we did, because the shop was still several miles (and one long, dark tunnel) away. (I think that anyone giving directions needs to realize that just because it is technically possible to walk somewhere does not necessarily mean that it is a good idea!)

When we arrived, we realized that the business wasn't so much a Hertz or an Avis, but a fish shop specializing in dried fish (torskfisk) and whale meat which happened to have one ancient 2 door Nissan with 250,000 kilometers for hire. We were all feeling cheerful and adaptable (not so adaptable that we were willing to sample whale meat, though!) so we piled in and drove off to explore the archipelago.

There are some gorgeous North Sea beaches throughout Lofoten. This one in the picture below is called Brunstrand. As beautiful and inviting as it was, it was also very cold. People do travel to Lofoten to surf and in August the water warms up enough to swim, but mid-June is far too early in the season to do much more than stick a toe in, squeak and run away!

This is the town of Eggum. We were told at the tourism office that we should definitely check it out, as there is some crazy statue of a head there that is really worth seeing. The town is tiny, we drove through it a couple of times, and we never saw any kind of cranial sculpture. Oh well, the drive was beautiful, the town was picturesque and the Nissan chugged along without incident, so no complaints!

On the drive back to our cabin, we passed this building with a flock of sheep grazing on the roof. How did they get up there? Is it possible that they climbed the ladder? Even the sheep in Norway seem hardier and more rugged than their American counterparts!

There really isn't a good way to explain how amazing this vacation was. Yes, the pictures are nice, yes, I can recount little anecdotes here and there, but I just can't recapture the crazy joy of this trip. Michele and Victoria are a couple of the funniest people I have ever met, and we all got along so well. I can't remember the last time I have laughed so hard for 5 days straight. We're talking about taking a vacation together next year too, maybe to Paris. I can't wait, but in the meantime I have so many awesome memories to savor. Like our trip to the bird cliffs...I have lots more photos to post, so stay tuned!

Too Jet Lagged to Blog

2008-06-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my trip to Lofoten--it was wonderful and gorgeous and amazing, and I have lots to write and tons of pictures to post, but I am way too tired to right now. The midnight sun was beautiful but it also made going to bed at a reasonable hour impossible. Here is a picture of the view from our cabin taken around noon:
And here is a photo of the same view taken around 1:30 AM. See how crazy light it still is? We sat around, talked, laughed and drank wine until the wee hours every night, tricked into thinking it was still early by that bright sky.

So now I'm jet lagged in addition to being incredibly sleep deprived...I have lots more to post, but it will have to wait--my bed is beckoning!

Drug Dealer

2008-06-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

So, my 4 kittens got adopted today. They went in pairs, which is exactly what I wanted. I'm sure all the employees at the shelter were very happy to see them go, as I might have been a tad bit obsessive about their care. I had been grinding up L-Lysine tablets and sprinkling the powder on their food (it is supposed to boost the immune system). One of the women who works at the shelter joked that everyone suspected that I was lacing their kibbles with cocaine. I laughed, because obviously that would be ridiculous...I was then reminded me that the accusation was not made completely out of the blue.

A couple of years ago, I was at the shelter when someone donated a carload full of pet food, litter, blankets, toys and treats. At that time, several students from the local college were volunteering as well. We all hauled the donated goods into the building and started to sort through everything. I grabbed a little Ziploc baggie full of catnip and started doling it out to the kitties. I was surprised that the catnip smelled kind of funny and was clumpier than usual, but I continued to serve it up until it finally dawned on me that it wasn't catnip at all, and I was actually giving the kitties pot! Apparently the baggie had fallen from one of the student's pockets when he was carrying the donations into the shelter. That incident ruined any "street cred" I had, but at least we had some mellow, mellow kitties that afternoon!

Anyway, now that my kittens are no longer homeless, I can finally relax and look forward to my trip to Norway. I leave tomorrow evening, camera and extra memory chip in tow. I probably won't blog until I return to New York, but I promise to post tons of Lofoten pictures once I'm back. Cross your fingers for some puffin sightings!

Mission Accomplished

2008-06-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

On Memorial Day, Kevin worked all day to finish our bathroom. He didn't quite get everything done, so the next morning, even though he was scheduled to fly to Manila at noon, he feverishly installed the medicine cabinet and caulked everything. I was very impressed--he completed the project with 5 minutes to spare, hopped in the shower and was in the car with his suitcases just in time to make it to the airport.
So here is the new bathroom:
It is so tiny but so pretty--I really love it!

And the vintage faucet on the sink is my favorite detail in the room.

So that mission is finally accomplished. Unfortunately the other project which has been consuming all of my time and energy, my foster kittens, is not going as well. They went back to the shelter this weekend but were not adopted. There are a lot more homeless kittens than there are adoptive families, so who knows how long it will take. Seeing them sitting unwanted in their little cage is breaking my heart. A pretty bathroom is nice, but nothing would make me happier than finding good homes for my kittens!

A Vegetarian Confession

2008-05-26T06:09:00.001-07:00

I haven't eaten red meat since 1987, but all the neighbors have been grilling burgers this weekend, and oh my, they smell so GOOOOOOOD! Oh well, we have Morningstar Farm mushroom burgers in the freezer, and topped with a slice of cheese and slathered in mustard, ketchup and pickles, they're almost meat-esque. Really, the only thing they lack is that yummy, yummy charred flesh aroma...mmmm.

Kitten Update

2008-05-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Introducing, from left to right, Mimi, Gigi, Kiki and Fifi!

My little feral foster kittens are doing so much better! They purr when I pick them up and are becoming very social and cuddly. They are still quite wary of other people, so at this point, I'm just trying to bring everyone who comes over to the house in to meet them...the UPS guy seemed very surprised when I dragged him inside yesterday! (Obviously, I'm kidding. Please don't leave me comments about how dangerous and foolish it is to invite strangers into my home when I'm here alone!) They are scheduled to go back to the animal shelter on the 31st of May, so hopefully over the course of the next week and a half, they will make even more progress. I would like to keep them a little longer, but they will stand a better chance of being adopted quickly if they are still tiny, and also, I'm going to Norway on the 6th of June! I never got to see the midnight sun in Lofoten while I lived there, so I'm traveling back for a week and flying up to the archipelago with Michele and Victoria, my American expat friends (aka the ladies who kept me sane when I lived in Norway with all their supportive emails and blog comments!) The upshot for you, the reader of my little blog, is that my regular "all kitten and farm animal all the time" programming will soon be interrupted by photos and anecdotes from one of the most beautiful places on earth!

Blessed

2008-05-15T21:51:00.001-07:00

Although there have been a few issues with the house (leaking roof, flooding garage, rotten deck) I can't imagine living in a more idyllic place. These geese and their chubby little goslings spent the afternoon foraging for food in the backyard:
And every morning I open my eyes to this lovely sight:

It would be even better if those stupid power lines didn't block the view, but whatever, it's still gorgeous. Seriously, I feel blessed to call this home!

Hiss

2008-05-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

The employees at the animal shelter have been asking me to foster a litter of kittens for the past several weeks, but because of all the noise and mess of the home improvements, I had a good excuse to refuse. (It's not that I don't enjoy fostering kittens, it's just that I have the tendency to fall in love with them and keep them, and at this point, I need another pet in the house like I need a hole in my head!) Unfortunately, on Monday, the landscaping crew packed up their tools, so I no longer had a valid reason to say no. In the past, I have fostered mother cats and their kittens, but on Monday I was asked to take a litter of 4 feral kittens who were found inside a pipe at a construction site. They are probably about 5 weeks old and have never had any contact with humans before...you can imagine how terrified they are.

When I first brought them home, they sounded like popcorn popping, hissing and spitting and hopping in the air whenever I dared to peek at them.

It has been 3 days now, and they are already so much better. Instead of wearing leather gloves to handle them, I can reach in and pick them up. They will accept a bottle of KMR (Kitten Milk Replacement) while I hold them, and they will even lick Gerber's chicken baby food off of my finger. They still don't enjoy being held and petted, but as long as I keep the food coming, they will sit quietly and tolerate the handling.

This little girl is the kitten who is the most social. When I am feeding another kitten, she will creep out of the cage and sit by me, trying to score more snacks.

This kitten is also coming around pretty quickly and will let me pick her up and pet her with few protestations. She seems very curious about coming out of the cage too, and if I sit very quietly by the cage, eventually she will sneak out and look around.

This little girl is a bit shyer than the first two, but she has made a lot of progress since Monday too. She still flinches and squeezes her eyes shut when I try to pet her...I really hope that she will mellow out a lot more.

And then there is this little spitfire. She is a tiny ball of fury and rage and will growl and try to smack me every time I put my hand in the cage. Even when I am holding her and feeding her, she growls and snarls the whole time she drinks the milk from her bottle or gobbles the chicken. I guess she has made a bit of progress...a couple of days ago, she wouldn't groom herself or play or eat in front of me, but now she will do all those things in my presence.

I am still worried, though. I only have a small window of opportunity to socialize them before they get bigger and not so attractive to potential adopters. In addition to hand feeding and cuddling them 4 times a day, I have been hanging out in the room by their open cage for a couple of hours a day, just reading or checking email, so they get used to human activity. I also turned on a radio in their room. (I have heard that animals are soothed by classical music and also by country, but I couldn't find a classical station with good reception and I hate country music, so instead we are listening to 40's and 50's lounge singers--these kittens are very familiar with the smooth sounds of Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Sammy Davis Jr. by now!) I even have tried a new-agey tactic--I have been squirting a couple of drops of Bach Flower Essences "Rescue Remdy" into their water dish every day.

I can't think of anything else I can do to socialize them, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would be most appreciative. And of course, if anyone is actually interested in adopting a feral kitten of their very own, let me know!

At Least I'm Consistent

2008-05-07T07:16:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time, I lived in Norway. I blogged about my life there, and included many photos which I took during my explorations. Many people who were looking for photos of that lovely country found my little blog...and were sorely disappointed. Somehow, the number of photos of cute Norwegian farm animals greatly outnumbered photos of fjords, Vikings and glaciers.

We spent this past weekend on the gorgeous Cayuga wine trail, but did I take any photos of the sparkling lake, the vineyards, the blooming fruit trees, or even of our friends? Um, no, but somehow I did manage to take about a hundred pictures of these cutie pies:

This little goat was at Button Grove Winery...I think his name was William, but I was a bit tipsy when I met him, so I could be mistaken!

Doobie is a miniature donkey who resides at Swedish Hill Winery. Several of their wines are named after him, and his portrait graces a couple of the bottles.

And finally, this is Melody, a Scottish Highland cow who lives at Button Grove Winery. I spent a ridiculous amount of time feeding her treats while she rolled her big cow eyes at my slurred words and stumbling attempts to remain upright!

Wonderful Weekend

2008-05-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

Our wine tasting weekend was so great! In addition to yummy food and wine, we also got a chance to visit a couple of the amazingly beautiful waterfalls around Ithaca. This is Buttermilk Falls:
And this is Taughannock Waterfall:

And this is me and Kevin in front of Taughannock Waterfall:

I had tasted many, many wines before this photo was taken, so it is truly a wonder I didn't lose my balance and plummet over that wall!

Only 48 Hours Away

2008-05-01T06:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Kevin and I are going with some friends to: http://www.cayugawinetrail.com/ to enjoy the annual Wine & Herb Fest. After weeks of construction/renovation dirt and noise, I am so ready for this little wine-saturated retreat!

Roofs and Woofs

2008-04-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend, the animal shelter participated in a home expo event. We brought some kittens and an adorable bloodhound mix and settled into our appointed booth. The bloodhound got SO much attention from everyone attending the expo--the whole time we were there, the dog was surrounded. He ate ice cream and candy, rolled over for belly rubs and gave lots of wet, sloppy hound kisses. We were so happy about the crowd's reaction until the director of the expo told us that the man in the next booth had complained about us because everyone was looking at the dog and no one was checking out his roofing business. We were disgusted by the guy's reaction, because how could anyone begrudge a homeless dog getting some attention, but we were polite and walked the dog to the other end of our booth, away from the miserable roofer. I must admit I felt some perverse pleasure seeing the continued lack of activity at the roofer's booth, despite the fact that the dog had been moved. Really, how could a guy slinging shingles compete with the droopy ears and soulful eyes of a hound? Would you rather spend your time looking at this:

or this:

I know which one I would choose! Oh, and there is a happy ending to the story. The dog will be going to his brand new home next week!

The Bows Will Be Ripped Out By Morning

2008-04-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

Poor Honey, she's so exhausted after a day of pampering at the grooming salon! She is collapsed in a heap on the couch, her eyes are droopy and she can't even keep her tongue in her mouth. At least her little red bows are still perky!

An Overactive Imagination

2008-04-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

When we first bought our home, there was a sagging, splintered, 20 year old deck sitting on top of a row of storage closets at the back of the house. Kevin ripped out all the storage (good thing he did, it was all wet and rotten inside) and then we cut a hole in the brick wall and installed a sliding glass door so that we could have access from our bedroom to what will someday be a lovely cobbled patio. A couple of weeks ago, a construction crew ripped off the old deck and built us a sturdy, non-sagging deck. Today, the landscapers began excavating all the dirt from under the deck so that we will have enough head room for a patio. Here is what the back of the house looked like this morning before the landscapers got here:

Now the backyard is teeming with backhoes and ditch witches, and the area under the deck is a big, muddy pit. I have been hanging out in the house, out of the workers' way, trying to keep the dogs from stroking out about all the activity in their backyard. At one point, one of the landscapers rang the doorbell to tell me that they had unearthed something concerning. I immediately blurted out, "Did you find a dead body?" He seemed a little surprised at my question, and said, "Um, no, we just found 2 big intake pipes from the old septic system...we haven't pulled the caps off yet, so I guess there could be a dead body in one of them." Yikes, did I actually seem so disappointed about the lack of corpses in my backyard that he felt the need to give me a little hope that one still might be uncovered? I'm kind of paranoid now, thinking that if a corpse actually is exhumed, the landscapers are going to tell the police how I wouldn't shut up about finding a dead body, and that will make me seem most suspicious indeed!

More Progress

2008-04-18T08:50:00.001-07:00

The walls and shower are all tiled now, we are just waiting for the new toilet, sink and glass shower doors to be delivered. I can't wait, but I have a nagging feeling that I'm going to be obnoxiously overprotective of the new bathroom. "You can admire it all you want, but if you actually have to use the facilities, please go upstairs!"

My Junior High Social Studies Book Was Wrong!

2008-04-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

For the past 3 weeks, Kevin has been on an insane trip around the world for work. He started in China, then on to the Philippines, then to Singapore, and now he is in Brazil. He has been to all the Asian destinations numerous times, but this is his first time in Brazil, and I think I was a lot more excited about it than he was. I repeatedly asked him to take tons of pictures and to tell me all about it...we had a chance to talk about his experiences on the phone yesterday:

Kevin: I know you want me to take pictures, but what kind of pictures? The whorehouse? The dumpsters? The hotel isn't in a very nice area of town!
Me: Monkeys and parrots, obviously!
Kevin: I'm in the middle of a city of 1,000,000 people, there are no monkeys or parrots.
Me: Can't you take an afternoon off and visit the rain forest?
Kevin: Um, no, Porto Allegre isn't in the rain forest part of Brazil, it's in the plains. If I left the city, I could take pictures of beef cattle for you...seriously, people are crazy for steak here!
Me: So you haven't seen any cool animals at all?
Kevin: I saw a cat earlier today.
Me: Like a panther?
Kevin: No, like a cute little house cat...I'm in a city of 1,000,000 people, remember?
Me: So basically, you're saying that there is a wider variety of fauna sitting in our family room right now than you'll be able to see during your entire trip to Brazil?
Kevin: That is what I'm saying.

The Hottest Seat In The House

2008-04-12T06:26:00.000-07:00

Why I spend WAYYYYYY too much time vacuuming our couch:

Progress

2008-04-08T07:31:00.001-07:00

The floor in the bathroom is now tiled (if you can't tell from the photo, the dark squares are a really deep blue) and the tile guy is working on the walls today. He is doing such a great job and he is so nice, but I hate having people working in my house! Even though I'm paying for their labor, I feel so guilty if I'm not bustling around being productive too. The tile guy (is there an official term for this vocation? I think "mason" only refers to brick and stone layers) had time on Sunday, so he arrived bright and early (8:30 on Sunday morning!) to install the radiant heat. To me, Sunday is the day to stay in your pajamas all morning, eat pancakes and read the paper. Unfortunately, since I can't bear the thought of lounging around while someone is working in my house, instead of struggling with the New York Times crossword, I vacuumed and mopped all the floors in the house. Right now, he is toiling away while I am on the computer--he doesn't know I'm blogging, though. I'm doing lots of pen chewing and brow furrowing, so maybe I've tricked him into believing that I'm working on some monumental project, or writing the next great American novel. Gack, I can't sit around anymore, the guilt is becoming too oppressive, I should go grab a broom!

Birds!

2008-04-04T09:57:00.001-07:00

I was driving to my mom's house in Sherrill, NY, and passed this little pond covered in ducks, geese and seagulls.
The noise of their wings when they took off was unbelievable!

When I got to my mom's house, I mentioned all the birds and she said she had actually seen them on the local news...nope, there isn't much late-breaking, hard-hitting news around these parts!

Set Your TiVo!

2008-04-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (Friday) on Oprah, Lisa Ling is going to do an expose on the horrors of puppy mills. I am very pleased that the issue will finally get such a massive audience. Animal rights advocates have been trying to educate people for years, but Oprah is so hugely popular and influential that I think this one show may have more of an impact on the puppy mill industry than all those years of lobbying and protesting. (I guess that's kind of sad commentary about our society, but whatever, I'm just grateful that she uses her incredible power for good!) Part of me really wants to watch the show, but the other part of me knows that by the end of it, I will be a sobbing, blubbering mess...I can't even sit through an entire ASPCA commercial without bursting into tears. (You know the one, all those abused animals staring at the camera to the tune of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." Damn you, VH1, for playing it at every commercial break!) Anyway, if you do watch Oprah tomorrow, let me know what you think!

Warning: Extreme Hyperbole Ahead!

2008-03-27T05:51:00.000-07:00

According to my doctor, living in Norway almost killed me! I had blood drawn for a routine cholesterol screening, and although my cholesterol is perfect, she found that I have Vitamin D deficiency. The whole time I lived in Norway I took a daily multivitamin and I regularly drank milk, but between the total lack of sunlight during the winter and the chilly, rainy weather this past summer, I was rarely exposed to the sun. Although it is fun to announce that Norway nearly did me in, it's not actually that big of a deal, I just have to take a Vitamin D supplement. My doctor did say that one of the symptoms of a Vitamin D deficiency is fatigue--and all this time I just thought I was extremely lazy! I guess the next time Kevin wants me to help him with some major, exhausting home improvement project, I can just say, "I would love to help, but my vitamin deficiency is getting me down."

The Damn Dogs!

2008-03-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a long to-do list. After cleaning the house, I had to run to the bank, the post office, the grocery store, Target and finally, the tile store to place my order for our soon to be new-and-improved bathroom. I got home late in the afternoon, tired and ready to spend some quality time on the couch with a book (okay, who am I kidding, People magazine--don't judge me!)
When we aren't at home, we shut the dogs in the bedroom so they don't destroy the house or chase the cats. As I opened the bedroom door to let the dogs out, a strong, menthol-y odor hit me. I looked down and there was a mangled purple plastic cap on the floor, along with a chewed up label...one of the dogs ate an entire tube of Burt's Bees Shea Butter Hand Repair Cream! Both dogs seemed fine, jumping around and wagging their tails in greeting, but Kermit's furry white ruff felt suspiciously sticky. I quickly called the Burt's Bees hotline and was assured that there are no toxic ingredients in the lotion, but the plastic packaging may be a problem. The very nice lady (who did a superb job of not laughing her ass off when I explained the situation) asked how much the dogs weigh and then estimated that the gastrointestinal systems of dogs that large could probably handle the plastic bits. She advised me to feed both dogs a few pieces of bread to help coat the plastic, and then just watch them carefully. I also called my friend Katrina who is a vet (she did not do quite as good a job of not laughing her ass off) and she reassured me that most likely the dogs will be fine, and that there was no reason to rush them to the animal hospital unless I see signs of distress over the next couple of days.
I'm no longer panicked, both dogs seem just fine this morning, but I am still baffled by why they would choose to eat such a strange thing. There are some yummy scented lotions out there which smell like vanilla or berries or caramel, but my tube of Burt's Bees smelled a lot like Vick's Vapor Rub! I didn't buy it for its scent, I bought it for its effective skin moisturizing properties! I also feel really sorry for the guys who are scheduled to build our new deck in the backyard tomorrow. I'm guessing that the shea butter and sesame oil in the lotion are going to have a rather, ahem, unfortunate effect on the dogs' intestines, and the backyard is probably not going to be the most pleasant place to spend time for a few days...I hope the deck builders wear their rubber boots!

After Pictures to Follow in (Hopefully) 4-6 Weeks

2008-03-23T15:54:00.000-07:00

Some people spend Easter Sunday at church, some people spend it feasting on ham with pineapple rings, and some people enjoy hunting for eggs in the backyard. Kevin and I spent our day destroying our downstairs bathroom. This was the bathroom before, in all of its tiny shower, wooden toilet seat, dingy tiled glory:
This is how it currently looks, all gutted and water damaged.

We have big plans, though, and hopefully in about 6 weeks, they will all come to fruition. The bathroom is about the size of a postage stamp (seriously, it's 4x8--so teeny!) but I think it will be gorgeous. We decided to go for a '20's-'30's look, so the walls will be tiled with rectangular subway tiles with a tiny blue glass tile mosaic border around the top of the room. We ordered a beautiful pedestal sink with a vintage faucet which should be here within a month. I'm so excited about the room, but it's hard to envision exactly how it will turn out. At this point, the bathroom is a filthy pit of rubble, so there's really nowhere to go but up!

From Awww to Ewww in 2.5 Seconds

2008-03-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I have been meeting with a few landscapers this week to get estimates on putting in a new patio in the backyard. This morning, one of the landscapers came over with his portfolio. As we were flipping through it, he pointed out one acreage full of overgrown grasses and explained, "This guy had me plant clover all around his house so the deer would come up to graze." I said, "Awww, what a nice idea!" The landscaper then continued, "So he could shoot the deer from the comfort of his porch!" Eeeewwwww! I think even the most enthusiastic of hunters would agree with me that there is nothing even remotely sportsmanlike about this--it sounds about as challenging (and ethical) as shooting a cow!

If You Enjoy Garden Statues, Avert Your Eyes Now!

2008-03-18T17:47:00.001-07:00

The previous owners of our house left a couple of creepy little garden gnomes in the yard, and now that the snow has mostly melted, they have resurfaced. Honey found one of them today and invented a brand new game--gnomeball! The rules of gnomeball go like this:

Grab the gnome by the head and start running while a collie* chases you, barking madly.

Stop and chew on the gnome. When the collie gets too close, growl at him. Continue to chew and growl while the collie jumps around yelping.

Once the gnome's hat is sufficiently chawed up, drop the gnome** and find a stick to play with.

*Yes, the game requires a collie, no other breed will do. Yes, I know this is very specific, I didn't make up the rules, Honey did.

**I know some people go nuts for these disturbing little garden gnomes and are probably horrified I let my dog gnaw on them. If I knew of a "Rehome a Gnome" program, I would participate, but since I don't, I guess the dogs will enjoy many rousing games of Gnomeball this spring.

What The?!?!

2008-03-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the guy behind the counter at Dunkin Donuts gave me a senior discount! What the hell!!! I was gloating just a couple of short months ago about being carded for beer--what happened? I mean, sure, I enjoy discounts, but not when said discount implies that I am 34 years older than I actually am. I guess I have 2 choices: I can either choose to believe that I am looking a bit worn around the edges and totally freak out, or I can choose to believe that this particular Dunkin Donuts employee is actually an escaped mental patient. I shall choose to believe the latter!

Rainwoman

2008-03-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

Last night, Kevin returned home after work and told me that his boss had asked him if we would consider moving to China for 6-9 months so Kevin could oversee the relocation of the Singapore operations to the Chinese facility. After repeating the conversation with his boss to me, Kevin asked me, "So what do you think?" I lunged at him, grabbed him around the neck and started strangling him until he finally gurgled, "It's ok, we don't have to move again, I'm sorry I brought it up!"
I'm obviously exaggerating a bit. In reality, all the blood drained from my face, I felt dizzy, and I started stammering like Rainman, "China definitely won't have my favorite TV shows, definitely no "Lost," I definitely won't be able to eat my favorite foods, definitely no margaritas and burritos, and we definitely can't take the animals with us." I think Kevin realized that the idea of moving again (halfway around the world, no less) was enough to send me careening toward a padded cell, so he quickly assured me that he had no interest in taking on the project, and he was just as shocked and horrified as I was that his boss would even suggest that we disrupt our life so dramatically.
I was still feeling a little twitchy after our talk, so I decided some retail therapy was in order. We bought some gorgeous new patio furniture and an outdoor fire pit. The shopping spree made me feel much better, but I did mutter, "We definitely don't want to leave our lake house this summer, we definitely wouldn't have a patio with comfy furniture, a cozy fire pit and amazing lake views in China!" all the way home.

At Least I Didn't Lose a Tooth

2008-03-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Some people exude grace, poise and elegance...if you have been reading my little blog for awhile, you know that I am not one of those people! I was vacuuming the sofa this morning when the upholstery attachment flew off of the wand, then the wand snapped back and cracked me in the face. Blood filled my mouth as I raced to the bathroom to assess the damage. Thankfully all my teeth were still firmly rooted in my gums, but my lips were swollen and sporting a couple of nasty, bleeding gashes. So pretty! I think that if anyone asks me what happened to my mouth, I'm just going to tell them it was a botched collagen injection. That sounds a little more glamorous than, "The Dyson kicked my ass!"

Snowed In

2008-03-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of friends were supposed to come over for brunch this morning, but since we received about 14 inches of snow overnight (and it is still snowing hard) they had to cancel. Now we're stuck in our freshly cleaned house with tons of yummy breakfast foods, the Sunday paper and a Tivo full of unwatched TV shows...if I was a cat, I'd be purring right now!

Eek!

2008-03-07T20:58:00.000-08:00

The good news: Kevin is back from Norway, and he'll get to stay in the U.S. for a whopping 3 weeks before leaving for his next trip.
The bad news: A couple of days ago, I stumbled and dropped and broke the very nice, very expensive digital camera Kevin got me for my birthday last July. I haven't told him yet, and am not looking forward to his reaction.
I think I need one of those digital cameras designed for children--Fisher Price or bust (literally) for me! Seriously, the cost of an item is inversely proportional to the length of time it takes for me to destroy said item. And Kevin wonders why my adorable, shiny red VW Bug sits in the garage all the time while I toodle around town in our old station wagon!

NYC

2008-03-02T20:31:00.000-08:00

New York was fun and kind of crazy, and now I need a nap! We stayed at the Millenium Broadway Hotel, steps away from Broadway and Times Square. We had a gorgeous corner room on the 30th floor--this was our view:

And all of this madness was just around the corner from our hotel:

On Friday evening, we met up with Kari and her husband John for dinner at a vegan restaurant called Zen Palate...oh my God...best food EVER! Even our meat loving friends thought the food was fantastic. I may have inadvertently made happy little yummy noises as I gobbled my mushroom forest entree. Later, we waddled off to see Clay Aiken and company in "Spamalot." Kevin and I thought it was hilarious, but Kari and John were a little baffled by the coconuts, the killer rabbit and the general goofiness.

After the show, we braved the freezing rain to savor frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity. I immediately went into a giddy, chocolatey trance (or a diabetic coma, whatever) but Kevin thought the frosty drinks tasted like glorified Ovaltine. (That didn't stop him from polishing off every last drop, though!) We all refrained from ordering the $1000 frozen hot chocolate, which contains 24 karat gold. Does anyone actually ever buy one? I find it hard to believe that even the richest of people have a desire to gild their intestines, but I could be wrong.

The next morning we met Kevin's friend from college, Michelle, for brunch at Norma's. She ordered the chocolate French toast, which is basically thick, gooey slabs of chocolate cake marketed as breakfast food. I indulged a bit with an asparagus and lobster omelette. We kind of laughed about how decadent it was to eat lobster and chocolate cake at 9 AM until we realized that Norma's also has a $1000 menu item, a fritatta made with 10 oz. of some kind of special caviar. Suddenly, our lobster and cake meal seemed like an exercise in restraint!

After brunch, we walked off a small percentage of the calories we consumed at MOMA. I was really excited to see Van Gogh's "Starry Night" up close and personal--I loved the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, but I was so disappointed that "Starry Night" wasn't on display there. I'm not generally all that interested in art, so once I got the chance to see my favorite painting, I was ready to go. We did wander around a bit longer, and now I know that I enjoy Kandinsky's work more than Picasso's...who knows what stunning revelation I'll have the next time I set foot in an art museum?

We had planned to be cheesy tourists and skate at Rockefeller Center, but the rink was closing as we arrived, so we had to settle for a photo op instead. Since my head still looks like it was licked by cows (bonus points if you know what sitcom that line is from), I let Kevin and Michelle do the posing while I hid behind the camera.

With our dreams of skating dashed, we decided to drink. We took the subway way down into the financial district so we could have drinks at a pub frequented by George Washington, the Fraunces Tavern. I thought this cute old neighborhood, dwarfed by skyscrapers, was photo worthy:

And here's a picture of the Fraunces Tavern:

It is allegedly haunted, but although we diligently drank and drank and waited for ghosts, none appeared.

Later, we met Kari, John and a couple of their friends for dinner at the Carnegie Deli. I know it's kind of a landmark in New York, but honestly, I was grossed out by the size of the food. Pastrami piled a foot high is kind of icky! I tried blintzes for the first time...they were okay, but they can't compare to frozen hot chocolate.

Kevin and I arrived back in Syracuse at 2:30 this afternoon, and at 4:00 he had to return to the airport and fly to Oslo, poor guy! I'm really happy to be home, and although I had fun in New York, it's wonderful to look out of my windows and see the lake and trees and squirrels instead of flashing neon lights. (The dearth of honking horns and cabbies swearing at each other is also a welcome change of pace!)

And finally, your reward for reading the whole rambling account of my trip...a picture of my terrible hair. (Ignore the buggy eyes and chubby cheeks and the fact that all my "America's Next Top Model" viewing was for naught as I have no neck in this photo, and instead focus on the crazy feathering effect going on. Seriously, I have no idea what I should do with it, I'm just grateful that it grows really fast!)

A Bad Hair Day

2008-02-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

Kevin and I are going to New York City for the weekend. My college roommate and friend Kari (who now lives in San Francisco), will be in town for a conference, so Kevin and I decided to cash in a few of our frequent flier miles and join her. I'm really excited, but also kind of intimidated...Kari is very accomplished and polished, and I am, um, not so much. She was wearing Ann Taylor when I was still in Osh Kosh B'gosh! I am surrounded by animals every day, and since I know that my clothes will get furry and muddy, I don't buy anything too nice or expensive...I am a Gap girl. But, since I actually want to be allowed in to New York City restaurants and night clubs, I did go out and buy a couple of articles of clothing which require dry cleaning...eek!
I also decided to do something with my hair, which may have been a mistake. I have very, very fine hair, so I generally can't get it to do anything. (Unless the humidity is high, when it quadruples in volume...remember that "Friends" episode when Monica was in Jamaica for Ross's dinosaur conference, and her hair kept expanding? Yeah, that wasn't just a sitcom gag, that is my reality!) Anyway, my usual hair routine is to shampoo it and put it in a ponytail. It's not particularly attractive or interesting, but it keeps it out of the way. I have been noticing a lot of gray in the past few months (I blame Norway completely--I left the U.S. with 5 gray hairs. I knew where they were and I plucked them out whenever they started to grow in. I returned from 15 very stressful months in Norway with dozens--if I tried to pluck them out now, I would be bald! Yep, it's gotta be Norway, it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that I'm getting old!) Kari not only dresses well, she also has the prettiest, shiniest hair ever, so I decided that my ratty gray ponytail just would not do. On Tuesday I went to a local salon, hoping to magically erase the gray and maybe get a sleek bob. The stylist was really nice and gave me some suggestions which, under the influence of the hair dye fumes, seemed like good ideas. She said that because my jaw is wider than my forehead, we could create the illusion of a wider forehead with lots of shorter layers on top. This made me nervous, so in a panicked voice, I said, "But I don't want a mullet!!!" She assured me that she wouldn't inflict a mullet upon me, so I relaxed and gave her the green light to work some hairdressing magic. When she was finished, my gray had been covered with some light brown highlights, and my hair had that kind of sexy, tousled, bed-head look. The stylist showed me how to achieve the soft, loose waves with mousse, volumizer, a blow dryer and a round brush. (Sadly, I owned none of these tools, so after my hair appointment, I dashed off to Target to stock up.) Unfortunately, what the stylist didn't realize is that I am a moron when it comes to my hair. (In junior high, while trying to create mile-high mall bangs, I got a round brush so tangled in the front of my head that my mom actually had to hack it out with scissors. I had a massive bald spot where my bangs should have been, hence the super perky side ponytail I sported for several traumatic weeks in seventh grade!) But I figured that I am older and wiser now, so on Wednesday morning, I hopped out of bed, showered, and eagerly grabbed my new hair styling tools. It's funny, I'm capable of writing and drawing and typing and opening jars and all sorts of different activities which require opposable thumbs, but as I held the round brush in one hand and the dryer in the other, the 31 plus years of experience using my hands just vanished. After 20 minutes, all those layers looked like they had been chopped by a weedwacker. No soft, tousled waves, just strange tufts of hair sticking out at odd angles. On the plus side, the gray is definitely gone. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what color the hair is if it looks like it has been groomed by chimps!
It's okay, though, I have a new plan. I am just going to buy Kari lots of strong cocktails all weekend so that she never notices that a muskrat appears to be hanging out on my head. Or maybe I'll just buy myself lots of strong cocktails all weekend so that I don't care about my stupid, shaggy hair. Yeah, that seems like the best solution!

Shells

2008-02-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

Last night, Kevin and I and a couple of friends had reservations to go to a nice French restaurant. Kevin was trying to figure out what he should wear, so he asked me what I was planning on wearing. As I zipped past him into the bathroom to shower and dress, I answered, "Khaki pants, a brown jacket and a shell." When I emerged from the bathroom 15 minutes later, Kevin was standing by the door with an expectant look on his face. He looked me over, and then said, "I thought you said you were going to wear a shell." I pointed to the turquoise sleeveless blouse I was wearing under my jacket and said, "This is a shell." Kevin looked a little disappointed--apparently he thought I was going to wear an actual seashell out to dinner. I don't know whether he thought I was going to wear 2 of them mermaid-style, or if I was going to stand on one a la "Birth of Venus!" I'm really not sure how I feel about this...I can count the number of times that I have felt smarter than Kevin on one hand, and last night as he scanned me for seashells was definitely one of those times. Feeling smart is nice, but at the same time, after all these years together, does he really believe that I'm batshit crazy enough to wear a crustacean creation to a nice restaurant?

An Interesting Souvenir

2008-02-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

Kevin is finally home! Yay! 3 1/2 weeks is way too long to be apart, but we got through it. We celebrated his return home with fabulous Korean food and several Tivo'ed episodes of "Lost." What a crazy, addictive show that is! Kevin brought me a funny little present from Norway. When we lived there, I was always cracking up at Norwegians' obsession with being the biggest, longest, strongest, oldest in the world...the road maps are riddled with sites such as "world's longest tunnel," "world's oldest stave church," "world's strongest ocean currents," and "world's largest underground cavern for public use." During his trip, Kevin stumbled across a documentary called "Katie Melua--Concert Under the Sea." This woman performed the world's deepest underwater concert, at 303 meters below the sea off the coast of Norway. I laughed and laughed when I read the cover of the DVD--what wacky new superlative title will they come up with next? I can't imagine, but as long as Kevin continues to travel to Norway regularly, I'm sure I will stay well informed!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T19:03:00.000-08:00

I was sad that Kevin had to be in China on Valentine's Day, but I decided to make the best of it and have my mom and a couple of her friends over for an elegant Valentine's lunch. They are all widowed or divorced, so I wanted to make the day kind of special for them. I bought them each a little box of chocolates and set the table with red tulips, wine glasses and even little heart place cards. Unfortunately, although I have Martha Stewart intentions, my end product is usually more the 3 Stooges. As I was preparing a beautiful raddichio and pear salad (radicchio leaves, sliced bosc pears, toasted walnuts, raspberries and shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese topped with raspberry-walnut vinaigrette--so easy, so pretty, so yummy!) I sliced a chunk of my finger off while chopping up a pear. It was hard to tell for sure since the salad is full of the red hues of radicchio and raspberries, but I might have bled into the bowl. I wasn't taking any chances, so after stopping the bleeding, I threw away the possibly sullied salad, grabbed a clean bowl and started anew. At this point, I was running a bit behind schedule, and really hoping that the rest of my preparations would go smoothly (and that my guests would be a few minutes late). But, it wouldn't be my slapstick comedy of a life if something else didn't go wrong, and suddenly I heard the telltale hacking sound of a cat coughing up a hairball. I grabbed a wad of paper towels and raced through the house, trying to find the nastiness. I checked all the couch cushions--no hairball. I peeked in all the corners--no hairball. The doorbell rang and I was torn...should I answer the door and risk my guests stumbling upon (or stepping in) cat puke, or should I leave my guests outside in the cold while I continue to hunt for the elusive pile. Thank goodness I decided to continue my search, as the hairball had been deposited under the dining room table--nothing ruins a meal faster than a puddle of vomit! I quickly cleaned it up and sprinted to the door. Did I trip and twist my ankle on the way down the stairs? Of course I did! I was panting, flushed and limping when I finally threw open the door. Not quite the composed and collected impression I wanted to make when ushering my guests into the new house for the first time! It really wasn't a big deal as my mom and her friends are very casual and easy going, but it made me realize that I'm probably not ready to handle anything as complex as hosting a dinner party just yet!
Actually, everything ended up turning out very well. Everyone loved the food, and they were all very touched by the boxes of candy. I think it was good for me to throw myself into a festive little Valentine's Day celebration too--it helped keep my mind off how much I miss Kevin, and how he won't return from China until next week. After my guests left and all the dishes were done, I drove to the animal shelter. (Not the one where I just applied--I still haven't heard from them.) I took some pictures of the new animals, I cuddled with some cats, I played with some dogs. On the drive home I still felt kind of down, wishing Kevin was around so we could celebrate over a romantic dinner...the big bouquet of roses, box of chocolates and thoughtful card which were waiting for me when I arrived back at the house definitely cheered me up!
Thanks, Kev! Happy Valentine's Day! I can't wait for you to come home!

Crazy Cat Lady

2008-02-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

The animal shelter where I currently volunteer is a 45 minute drive from our house. Kevin has been encouraging me to start volunteering at another shelter which is much closer to us, so on Thursday I decided to check it out. As soon as I told the receptionist I was interested in volunteering, I was given a 2 page application to fill out. I was kind of surprised at how much personal information was required to volunteer--this application asked about my career experience, what veterinarian I use for my pets, my personal views on euthanasia, what special skills I could bring to the shelter...it even asked for a personal reference! All of these questions seemed a little invasive, but I went ahead and answered them...until I got to the question, "How many animals do you currently have?" Usually when people ask me that question, I say, "I have 2 dogs and mumble, mumble cats." I had to write a real number, though, so I took a deep breath and wrote, "I have 2 dogs and 8 cats," knowing that the shelter staff would probably take one look at my application, dismiss me as a crazy cat lady, or worse, a cruel animal hoarder, and throw my application in the trash. I know that my pets are all well fed and well groomed, that they all receive regular veterinary care, and that I scoop out the 8 litter boxes twice a day and vacuum the house once a day, but I also know that the majority of people who find out about how many cats I have think that my house must smell like a monkey cage at the zoo. (I assure you, it does not!) They also wonder how I could possibly have accumulated so many animals... here is how it happened:

This is Nekko. She is 14 years old, and she was Kevin's cat before we started dating. (Her name used to be Emily, but I insisted that we change her name. Some people suggested that I could learn a new name faster than the poor cat could, but I responded that the cat is very clever and I'm not actually all that bright, so we went ahead and changed her name to Nekko--she learned the new name quickly.)
Unfortunately, I am very allergic to cats, so in order to continue to spend time at Kevin's house, I needed to go to an allergist. I started getting weekly injections which made my alleric reaction to cats subside. Even though I went to all this trouble for Nekko, she really didn't like me at first, and I was swatted and hissed at a lot during the first couple of months. I decided that if I was going to continue with the annoyance of weekly shots, I should at least be able to have a cat that would allow me to pet it. A friend of mine had recently moved to a farm, and her new barn was full of barn cats and kittens. I only meant to adopt one kitten, but I just couldn't choose.

This is Frank. I loved his orange stripes and his spunky personality.

And this is Estelle. I thought she was adorable, no tail and all. How could I have left one of them behind in the barn? Frank and Estelle were named after Frank and Estelle Costanza from "Seinfeld" because they fought and squabbled with each other during the whole ride home. They will both be 8 in April.

Kevin and I moved to a loft in Chicago with our 3 cats, and while we said that we would really like a dog some day when we had a house with a yard, we had no intention of adding any more cats to the family. Then we moved to upstate New York. We bought a house, but it really didn't have a yard big enough for a dog, so we decided to hold off on adopting a dog. I started volunteering at the animal shelter, and the first month I was there, I met Abner. He was about 4 months old and really badly behaved. He would sink his little teeth into anyone who tried to pet him or hold him and his little eyes would squeeze shut with the force he would put into the bite. Even though he was absolutely adorable, it looked like he probably wasn't going to be adopted. I decided that maybe all Abner needed was a big house to run around in, lots of toys to play with, and some love and attention, so I brought him home. I was very wrong, and the first month we had him, poor Kevin had to sleep in leather gardening gloves to protect his hands from Abner's teeth. When friends came over, we would warn them to not make eye contact with Abner and to not make any sudden movements with their hands--most of our friends left our home unscathed, some were not so lucky. Abner did finally grow up (he is 6 years old now)and he actually turned into one of our nicest cats. He purrs like crazy all the time and he only bites a little bit!

My mom decided that she wanted to adopt a shelter cat too, so I suggested she take Toonces home. Toonces has chronic sinusitis due to turbonate damage, so he sneezes a lot. No one wanted to adopt him because of his condition, so he sat in a cage for a year at the shelter. My mom loved him, but unfortunately her dog did not. Her dog was elderly and blind, and Toonces really wanted to play and wrestle with the dog. The final straw was when my mom walked in to the kitchen to find the little dog on her hind legs in the corner, trying desperately to fend off the blows from Toonces, who was trying to engage her in a boxing match. I couldn't bear the thought of Toonces going back to the shelter, so I took him home. He was happy, and Abner was really happy to have a playmate to wrestle and attack. Toonces is now almost 7 years old.

Kevin and I and the 5 cats moved to a bigger house closer to his office in 2003. The first morning we were there, a very handsome black and white cat literally knocked on the back door. I gave him some food, and then asked the neighbors about him. Sylvester had a home once upon a time, but his elderly owner was sent to a nursing home, so he had been surviving by begging for food from the neighbors. For a couple of months, I stayed strong and didn't let him in the house. I took him to the vet to get his shots (luckily he had already been neutered), I made him a cozy bed on our front porch, and I fed him daily. Then it started to get really cold and snowy, and he would sit on our outside window sill, look in at us, and cry. Obviously, Sylvester became cat #6 in no time. We aren't sure how old he is, but the vet has estimated that he is probably 9 or 10.

Although we already had more cats than we ever intended to have, we were finally living in a house with a big back yard suitable for a dog. Kevin and I both had collies when we were little, so when Kermit the Dog came in to the shelter, it seemed like fate. He was probably about 5 years old at the time, so he is about 10 years old now. Kermit made himself at home and made friends with the cats, but it was obvious from his joyful reaction whenever he met another dog that he really would be happiest if he had a canine companion.

We tried to find another collie that was up for adoption, but when we checked the collie rescue website, we fell in love with the soulful eyes of a golden retriever/beagle/collie mix named Honey. She is now 4 years old.

We now had 6 cats and 2 dogs and we were sure that we would not take in any more pets. I still really wanted to help homeless animals, so I decided to foster pregnant cats and their kittens until the kittens were old enough to go back to the shelter and be adopted. One of the mother cats I fostered had 7 adorable black and white babies. It was amazing to watch them grow and develop, and although it was heartbreaking to say goodbye to them, I did bring them back to the shelter when they were 3 months old. 5 of the kittens were adopted quickly, but 2 of them developed ulcers in their mouths. They were sent to the sick room of the shelter for almost 2 months while their ulcers healed. By the time the kittens were well enough to be adopted, they were no longer tiny and cute and no one seemed interested in adopting them. I couldn't bear the thought of them languishing in their cage for one more day, so I brought them home.

This is Figaro.

And this is Elf. They will both be 4 in May.

10 animals is absolutely our limit, and we haven't added any more to our menagerie since 2004. All 10 of the animals moved with us to Norway in 2006, and all 10 of them moved back to New York with us in November, 2007. It makes perfect sense to me why we have the number of animals we do, but I know that to an outsider looking in, it seems weird and crazy. I'm not expecting to get a call back from the animal shelter where I applied to volunteer, I'm sure they think I'm unstable. It's fine, I enjoy volunteering at the other shelter and I really don't mind the drive. And I feel good about what I have done to help homeless animals, and what I will continue to do. I know I'm not an animal hoarder, and as Kevin has said, I'm still one divorce away from being a full-fledged crazy cat lady!

Job Security

2008-02-02T06:02:00.000-08:00

As long as the U.S. dollar is weak and the Norwegian kron is strong (and the price of Norwegian goods stays sky-high), Kevin will always have a job at his company. Since moving back to the U.S., he has traveled back to the Gjovik office 3 times, and each time he has brought an extra suitcase full of merchandise from the U.S. to his boss and coworkers. He has delivered a whole suitcase full of Ralph Lauren sweaters to the CEO, a motorcycle helmet to the VP of Operations, and on this trip, a bicycle frame to the VP of Sales & Marketing. It's good to know that because of his special niche at the company, Kevin has a lot of job security. (And even if I'm wrong and someday he finds himself job hunting again, at least he can add "International Smuggler" to his list of experience on his C.V. now!)

7 Years

2008-01-28T08:24:00.000-08:00

Kevin and I celebrated our 7th anniversary yesterday by hurling ourselves down a snowy mountain. We went to a small ski resort called Greek Peak that is about an hour from our house. It was nice and we had a great time, but I did question the appropriateness of the name of one of the slopes. Obviously, with a name like Greek Peak, it makes sense that the various runs had Greek names, but I think naming a slope Elysian Fields was quite an error in judgment! While poised at the top of the hill, I don't want to picture my soul going to its final resting place--it takes some of the joy out of the experience! We really did have fun, despite a trio of small girls, probably about 7 years old, who screamed like banshees the entire way down the hill. Luckily they were only behind us for one run, as their shrill, piercing shrieks rattled me right out of my blissful ski zone.
After we were done skiing, we snuggled by a roaring fire and toasted our marriage with champagne...hmm, that doesn't sound like us! Nope, instead we packed up our skis and zipped home to prune our apple and pear trees. Kevin left this morning for an insane 3 1/2 week long trip to Singapore, Norway and China, so he wanted to get the fruit trees pruned before they start to bloom...crazy to think that it really might be spring-like before he returns! We also finished hanging all of our pictures, so it is official--there is nothing left to unpack! There are no boxes left, everything is in its place, we are totally done! (Except for rebuilding the deck, adding a patio, doing some intensive landscaping including adding a pipe and pump so that our garage doesn't keep flooding, redoing the downstairs bathroom, replacing the downstairs ceiling, and replacing several of the light fixtures.) Okay, so maybe we still have tons of things left to do, but we are totally done unpacking! Yay!

I'm Married to a Robot

2008-01-22T08:23:00.001-08:00

It has been awhile since I have written anything--I'm just starting to recover from the weekend. On Saturday, I woke up at 9 to begin working on the house. (Kevin had already been up for 4 hours, working on a plumbing project.) I painted our bedroom, cleaned, ran errands for Kevin at Home Depot and Lowe's not once, not twice, but three times, helped Kevin move all of our bedroom furniture in the bedroom once the paint dried, and then unpacked all my clothes and shoes and hauled them into the bedroom closet. By 1 AM, the final box was unpacked and I was close to collapsing from exhaustion. Kevin was still going strong--by this point he had installed a counter top, run pipes and installed a sink, hooked up our new washer and dryer, sanded and painted a wall, and cleaned and organized the attic and the garage. I fell into bed and didn't stir until Kevin woke me up at 11 (once again, he had gotten up at 5 to work on more home improvement projects). I was still sore and stiff from Saturday's insanity, so I was not nearly as helpful on Sunday. I caught up on all the laundry that had accumulated since the death of the old washer, I vacuumed, but mostly I spent a lot of quality time on the couch, begging Kevin to just take a break and relax. When he finally did sit down, it was not to rest, but to start working on a project for his job. This week is audit week at his company, so every day he will have to get to work early and stay late. I just don't understand how he can get by on 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night and continue to accomplish so much every day--I need at least 8 or 9 hours of sleep just to function. I went to the grocery store yesterday and I was still so tired and foggy that I walked off with an old man's grocery cart. I wandered around the produce section while he followed me, saying, "Miss, miss, you have my cart!" By the time his voice finally registered in my sleepy brain, I had pushed his cart all the way to the bakery aisle! I apologized profusely, but I didn't offer an excuse for my dopiness...I don't think he would have believed it if I told him, "I'm sorry, but my husband is a robot who never sleeps, and I made the mistake of trying to keep up with him this weekend." Oh well, lesson learned, and I think it is best for everyone if I take a nap now!

Another One Bites the Dust

2008-01-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

I think our new house has some seriously bad juju! Our washing machine died in a most spectacular fashion--sudsy water everywhere, quickly soaking through the few boxes still sitting around. (They are now unpacked--nothing motivates me to unpack quicker than the threat of all my possessions mildewing!) On the bright side, we have a lovely matching front-loading Whirlpool washer and dryer set scheduled to be delivered tomorrow afternoon. I'm a little OCD when it comes to doing laundry, so the idea of a brand new, shiny washer and dryer has me all atwitter!

My Latest Conspiracy Theory

2008-01-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

Kevin and I visited Home Depot at least 4 times over the weekend, and I have developed a crackpot theory about the store. Whenever I go there, I immediately get very dazed and loopy. Maybe it's all the orange, maybe it's all the fluorescent lighting, maybe it's the rows and rows of tools...but you know what I think? I think Home Depot pumps in some kind of gas that subdues women! Under normal circumstances, I would not be able to tolerate watching Kevin contemplate nuts and bolts for 10 minutes, but while under the influence of the vapors, I just stood there, staring off in the distance and thinking happy thoughts. I trailed behind Kevin, aisle after aisle, feeling stoned. I looked around and I don't think that I was the only woman who succumbed to the gas--there were lots of us milling about, allowing our husbands to make all sorts of ridiculous tool purchases with no argument, listening to our husbands talk animatedly with employees and other shoppers about pressure treated lumber, miter saws and grout. Am I upset about being drugged against my will? Not so much! In fact, I really hope that Macy's starts using the same technology on men! I dream of the day when Kevin stands contentedly outside of the dressing room, holding my purse and my purchases, while I try on outfit after outfit. Each time I emerge from the changing room modeling a new garment, Kevin snaps out of his stupor long enough to murmur, "That looks fantastic on you, and it doesn't make you look fat at all!"

SERENITY NOW!

2008-01-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to pouring rain and flooding in the garage (I wouldn't have been too concerned if a lot of our boxes weren't stacked in the wet garage). Instead of unpacking more, I spent way too much time getting to know my wet vac and pump. Luckily, my very clever friend Gita came over to help me figure out how to get the water out of the garage. It ended up being no big deal, but at this point I am just so exhausted and overwhelmed that I tend to overreact to every new stressor that comes my way. I certainly have not stuck to my "no more swearing" resolution over the past few days!
Anyway, Kevin is now back in the U.S. and will be landing in Syracuse in a few short hours. I'm focusing on that, on how we will unpack and find space for everything together, on how we will continue to work on the many, many flaws of the house and eventually make it perfect (and hopefully leak-free). Kevin emailed me some really beautiful pictures of the snow and the sun low on the horizon which he took in Norway. I'm taking a few deep breaths and enjoying the tranquil scenes...serenity now!

And kudos to anyone who knows which sitcom character screamed the line "Serenity now!"

The Chaos Continues

2008-01-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

The movers did eventually arrive and get the container unloaded. This is the scene we found when we opened the container--note the little antique table in the middle at the top of the photo. It wasn't wrapped in protective bubble wrap and is now in several pieces. Note all the small, loose articles scattered around. To say that many of our possessions were damaged is an understatement. The Norwegian movers wrote in permanent black marker on several of our things, including our file cabinet. They also stuck packing tape directly on painted surfaces, so you can imagine how the paint looks now!

This is my favorite example of the craptastic packing job--several things stuffed into a cat bed and wrapped with tape. Seriously, the aquavit must have been flowing when this creative idea was concocted. The insurance adjuster is coming over this morning to inspect the damage I have found so far--the chipped finish on the couch, the mangled Husky tool cabinet, the shattered antique chess table...the list goes on and on.

In the meantime, I am contending with boxes, boxes and more boxes. Sigh. Really, I can't complain--my friend Craig came over yesterday to help me put together my bookshelves and rearrange lots of furniture, his wife Katrina is coming over today to help me unpack more, and last Monday, my mom and my friend Gita helped me paint the entire second storey of the house so the walls would be nice and fresh before the furniture arrived. I have amazing, wonderful people in my life, so in the end, who cares about a broken table or a marred sofa? Not me (not much, anyway)!

Losing It

2008-01-08T05:30:00.000-08:00

I have kept my cool (for the most part) during this whole nightmare move, but I have officially lost it now. Our container arrived at 7:45 this morning, but our 6 scheduled movers who were supposed to be here by 8:00 haven't shown up yet. It is 8:35 now--we have 2 hours to get our container unloaded and more than 1/4 of that time has been completely wasted. I'm running on 3 hours of sleep, I can't reach anyone at the moving company, I can't even reach Kevin because he is in a meeting and the tears just won't stop running down my face. If the stupid movers ever do show up I hope they unload the box of booze first--I think I need a drink or 5!
*Edited to add* Someone from the moving company just called--they're leaving the office now! If you only have 2 hours to unload a container, why the hell would you leave your office 40 minutes after you were scheduled to be somewhere? It will probably take them about 15 minutes to reach our house, so if I'm lucky they will be here for 1 of the 2 hours the container will be here. Seriously, if the truck driver decides to enforce this 2 hour rule and takes off before the container is unloaded, I hope he accelerates quickly--maybe the rest of our belongings will tumble off the truck in front of our house!

Resolutions

2008-01-05T18:52:00.000-08:00

In 2008, I resolve to:

1) Stop procrastinating so much. Hmm, I'm doing my New Year resolutions on January 5...I definitely need to work on this!

2) Stop swearing like a sailor. Due to all of the moving turmoil, I have cursed approximately 1,347 times since the ball dropped. Luckily, our furniture is supposed to arrive at 8:00 on Tuesday morning, and we have 6 movers scheduled to meet and unload the container in 2 hours, so maybe I'll be able to tone down the saucy language by February!

3) Stop watching so much mindless TV. I have been glued to the "America's Next Top Model" marathon on VH1 this week. Today I was at the animal shelter taking pictures of dogs to put online on Petfinder, and I actually found myself saying, "Work it, Mango! Looking good, Ginger! Beautiful, beautiful!" Yeah, I really need to turn off the TV and read a book or something!

4) Start eating better. I feed my pets all-natural, by-product free food, yet I gobble down buckets of preservatives and chemicals. I need to drink a little more water and a lot less Diet Coke, I need to put down the donuts and pick up some grapes.

I should probably make a few more resolutions, but I'll get around to it later. The damn Oreos are calling my name, and I'm pretty curious about what Tyra and company are doing now. Eh, I have almost 12 months to improve, right?

Drive-By Moving

2007-12-31T09:23:00.000-08:00

The shipping company called today--not to let us know when the container would arrive, but just to notify us that the container will only be left at our house for 2 hours. The Norwegian office told us we could have the container up to 10 days, and now the American office is saying that we need to unload all of our worldly possessions from our stuffed-to-the-gills 40 foot container in 2 hours. Maybe if we had a fleet of 25 strong men to help this would be possible, but since we still don't even know when the container will arrive, scheduling a fleet of 25 strong men might be a bit tricky! I think the best line from the phone call was when the lady on the other end told us that her company doesn't ever do residential moves--why the hell would Kevin's company relocate us using a shipping company that doesn't ship personal goods? I'm so baffled and furious and honestly, a little hysterical right now. Kevin leaves for Norway on Wednesday the 2nd for 10 days, we don't know when our stuff will get here, we don't have movers lined up because we don't know when our stuff will get here, and when the stuff actually arrives, I will have 2 hours to haul it all off of the container. But it's not all bad news--the shipping company wouldn't have called if our possessions hadn't cleared Customs, right? That's something to be grateful for, isn't it? Ack, 2008 isn't looking too promising so far!

***Edited to add: We have talked to someone else at the shipping company only to find out that there is no record of our container clearing Customs and the port is closed today and tomorrow. I guess this means that there is still hope that all of our things may fall into the ocean and we get to collect the insurance money! I'll drink a toast to that!***

Bad Dog!

2007-12-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

This is our cat door. It leads to our utility room where the cats' food, water and litter boxes are located. We can't just leave the utility room door open because the dogs are far too interested in the cats' food, so we decided the best way to keep the dogs out was to install a little cat door.

Unfortunately, this is Toonces. He weighs about 20 pounds. Because of his, ahem, heft, we couldn't install a normal cat door--instead we had to use the small dog version. Still, we really believed we had bested our dogs. After all, Honey weighs 55 pounds, and Kermit weighs a whopping 78 pounds...no way they could fit through that tiny door, right?

Wrong! Kermit managed to stuff himself through and eat all of the cats' food. His belly must have been pretty full after his feast, because he got stuck trying to make his escape.

We did scold him for his misbehavior, but of course not until I had snapped a couple of photos of him wedged in the cat door.

In case you're keeping track, so far Kermit has gotten his head stuck in our fence not once but twice, and now he has managed to get stuck in the kitty door. I can't wait to find out what's next on his to-do list!

No worries, Kermit is no longer stuck, and he's completely fine. (Except for the stomachache from eating 4 bowls of cat food!)

So Frustrating!!!

2007-12-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

Although Kevin's company is international and has a lot of experience in relocating people around the world, it is shockingly BAD at the whole relocation thing! The reason that our container of furniture is not at our house yet is because it is still sitting in port right now because the proper paperwork to go through Customs wasn't done and because no one bothered to pass our contact information on to the shipping company. Kevin managed to talk to someone at the shipping company today and is now on his way to Kinko's to copy and fax our passports to them so that the container can proceed through Customs. It doesn't look like our stuff will arrive at our house until after Kevin has left for Norway on January 2nd, so I guess I'll be making all the tough decisions about where everything goes on my own. I am just so grumpy about all of this--I have very little tolerance for incompetence in general, and I also really miss sitting on comfy sofas, eating off of real plates at a real table and having more than 5 days worth of clothes!

Bah Humbug!

2007-12-26T05:49:00.000-08:00

Our house seems to be falling apart around our ears right now! It rained heavily on Sunday night and we found out that our brand new roof leaks...in 3 places! Our garage also flooded due to all the rain and melting snow--our wet/dry vac got quite the workout that night. In the past couple of days, 2 of our toilets have overflowed, the pipe to the refrigerator's ice maker has been leaking into the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom, and our microwave apparently shoots sparks. Honey has also figured out a way to escape from the brand new, ridiculously expensive fence. (The sole purpose of its purchase was to keep her contained...sigh.) In other craptastic news, our container of furniture has not yet arrived, and because the 26th is a holiday in Norway, we can't reach anyone at the shipping company to find out what's going on. (The movers we had scheduled to unload the container came bright and early this morning--oops!) We really did have a very nice Christmas at my mom's house, but as soon as the last present was opened, the last gingerbread man devoured, we had to return to our rotting, flooding, exploding and unfurnished house. Bah!

Woo Hoo!

2007-12-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

I bought some beer at the local grocery store and I got carded--WOO HOO! Okay, the cashiers are probably told to card anyone under 30, I probably was not mistaken for a dewy 20 year old, but still, I look younger than 30. That still deserves a woo hoo (albeit in lower case letters)!

Fun with Lasers

2007-12-20T06:46:00.000-08:00

My mom has asked for a laser pointer for Christmas two years in a row now. (Laser pointers are the best cat toys EVER! The darting red dot gets even the fattest, laziest cats to race around like kittens.) Last year, I tried to buy a laser pointer at WalMart but was told that due to the risk of retinal injury, WalMart refuses to sell them. I was kind of shocked and blurted out, "But WalMart sells GUNS!" I mean, I'm no physician, but it seems like the potential for causing bodily harm and/or death via rifle is quite a bit higher than the potential for injury via laser pointer. Anyway, I headed over to the pet store and bought one for my mom there. Unfortunately, the pet store's laser pointer was kind of cheap (and my mom's cats spend hours every week happily chasing the red dot), so now it is no longer working. This year, I got smart and went straight to Staples--they sell the high quality, ergonomically designed laser pointers. I guess their philosophy is that if their customers are smart enough to figure out copiers and fax machines, they are smart enough to use a laser pointer without putting anyone's eye out! And best of all, with that last purchase, I do believe my Christmas shopping is done--woo hoo!

Lake Effect

2007-12-18T06:57:00.000-08:00

Those crazy, 6 feet high snow drifts in my backyard were sculpted by the fierce wind from the lake. The snow is really pretty, but the dogs are not pleased--until I shoveled some paths for them, they just sat dejectedly by the gate. They had no problems with the snow in Norway, but winter in central New York has already defeated them!

The Suburban Jungle

2007-12-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to be at Petsmart today, taking pictures of pets with Santa (the profits go to the local animal shelter). Instead, I'm stuck at home due to intense snow, wind and sleet. I did go to Petsmart yesterday, which was so much fun. I love seeing all those cute dogs, although I have to wonder if tiny leather dog jackets and pink dog dresses are really the best use of expendable income! One customer came in for a picture with her python--I felt sorry for Santa, but he was a pretty good sport about it. (Except for when it started slithering up closer to his face!) While the snake was hanging out with Santa, I chatted with its owner. She said she dresses it up for Halloween, at which point I blurted out, "As what, a sock puppet?" Yeah, tact isn't always my forte.
My animal adventures weren't over once I left the store. When I got home and let the dogs out, Kermit saw the neighbor's little Yorkie hanging out in its yard. He raced over to the fence, which is wrought iron with bars spaced about 4 inches apart. My 75 pound collie managed to squeeze his head, a leg and one shoulder through as I watched his contortions in horror. At some point, the hard, cold reality of physics hit him, and he realized he was stuck fast. He tried to back up, he whimpered, he wiggled, and finally he collapsed in a pile of defeat, his head still wedged through the bars. At this point, I was a little panicky--what should I do? Call 911, call his veterinarian, or just slather his head in butter and hope for the best? Thankfully, my ill-conceived butter plan never came to fruition, as Kermit gave one last mighty heave and his head popped back through the bars. I would love to think that he has learned his lesson, but I have a feeling that the next time a dog or cat or squirrel darts past the fence, he's going to try to follow it again. Maybe I should invest in a tub of Crisco to keep on the patio, just in case?

Let It Snow!

2007-12-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

For the past 24 hours, the local meteorologists have been announcing that a "snow event" is approaching. Unfortunately, if the howling wind and Arctic temperatures are any indication, I think this "snow event" is going to be less about jazz hands and show tunes and more about icy roads and frostbite. Oh well, I'm sitting by the fire with a mug of hot cocoa right now, so bring it on!
(It doesn't sound like Kevin is faring much better in Norway--he said it's currently about -15 Celsius. And he has no cocoa!)

Everyone I Know is Afflicted with Pica!

2007-12-12T10:17:00.000-08:00

I just got off the phone with Kevin, who is still in Norway. He mentioned that he tried lutefisk for the first time last night, and that it wasn't too bad. I guess the consistency is less like jello and more like a hard-boiled egg (does that really make it sound more appetizing?) and he actually kind of enjoyed it with some mustard. He also voluntarily ate rakfisk last night. Kevin is staying at the old inn owned by the company and raided the fridge--to me, this rakfisk/lutefisk combo sounded like the nastiest midnight snack EVER! Anyway, as I was making "eewww" and "gack" noises on the phone, he went on to tell me that he plans to eat more of the rakfisk tonight, because there is a lot of it left over at the inn and he doesn't want it to go bad. At this point I cracked up, because how can fish which has been fermenting in the ground for the past several months go bad? I mean, hasn't the rakfisk really gotten as awful as it's going to get?

Speaking of conversations with people who will apparently eat anything, let me share an insane chat I had with my mom:
My mom: I need to get a new alarm clock.
Me: Oh, did your old clock break?
My mom: No, but it was made in China.
Me: Um, okay, and why exactly is that a problem?
My mom: Haven't you heard about all the Chinese product recalls? There's lead in the paint!
Me: I think the recalls are just for kids' toys.
My mom: Well, if lead isn't good for kids, it's probably not good for me either.
Me: *blink, blink* Toys with lead-based paint are bad for kids because kids put their toys in their mouths. Unless you're planning to gnaw on your alarm clock, I think you'll be safe!
My mom: All the same, I think I would feel better if I had a new alarm clock.
Me: Ok, whatever you want to do. *sigh*

Note to self: never tell her that the walls in her 100 year old house are most likely coated in lead-based paint!

Yikes!

2007-12-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

Kevin's company hasn't sold our old car yet, so he has been driving it around Norway over the past few days. Unfortunately, as he was driving back from a bank meeting in Oslo yesterday, he got caught speeding by one of those pesky little photo boxes (he knew he was caught due to the blinding light which flashed in his eyes as he drove past). The good news is that since Kevin was caught speeding in Norway, the infraction won't affect our insurance here in the U.S. The bad news is that since Kevin was caught speeding in Norway (a paltry 8 miles over the speed limit) the ticket will probably cost more than our mortgage payment. Is it wrong that I'm really grateful that this happened AFTER I got my fabulous little laptop Christmas present?

I No Longer Speak English

2007-12-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

Kevin arrived in Norway this morning, and he said that Gjovik doesn't have as much snow as we have in New York right now. (As you can see, the dogs are very pleased with the weather!) It has snowed off and on since Friday, so unfortunately our plans to replace the leaking roof have been postponed until the mercury reaches 40 again. We also realized that our snowblower is somewhere adrift on the Atlantic, so we needed to come up with a plan to deal with the drifts in our driveway. Kevin called several guys who advertised snow plowing services, but none of them drive out as far as our neighborhood. In a last desperate attempt to find someone with a plow before leaving for two weeks in Norway, Kevin decided to make a "Help Wanted" sign for the front yard. Sadly, our brains are a bit soft and mushy from the stress of the move, and we couldn't figure out how to word it. Kevin wanted to write "Plowman Needed" but I thought that first, that's sexist and might offend plowwomen, and second, it's a little old fashioned sounding. We could really go old-school and spell it "Ploughman"! I suggested we write "Snow Plower Needed" but Kevin said that "plower" isn't a real word. It was ridiculous--we discussed what to write on this sign for 20 minutes, and finally resigned ourselves to the fact that we are not clever, and that our English skills leave much to be desired! We ended up writing "Snow Plower Needed" and the very next morning, we got a phone call from a guy with a plow. What a relief--instead of spending hours outside shoveling the driveway, now I can use the time to brush up on my rusty English!

TNR

2007-12-03T20:40:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I volunteered at the local feral cat clinic for the first time. There are lots of farms around here and people tend to dump unwanted cats at farms, assuming that the farmers will be happy to take care of them. Unfortunately, cats multiply quickly, and 3 or 4 cats become dozens in no time. Once a month, one of the area's animal rescue groups hosts a free spay/neuter clinic to help combat the cat overpopulation problem. Most of these cats are terrified of humans and not adoptable. Instead, they live in feral cat colonies, residing in barns, mousing and being fed by the colony's caretaker. Because the cats are wild, their visit to the cat clinic may be the only veterinary care they ever receive. The cats are trapped in humane traps, brought to the clinic and anesthetized. Once asleep, they are spayed or neutered, given rabies and distemper vaccines, microchipped, treated for fleas and ear mites and their ears are tipped to show that they have been sterilized. Yesterday, 42 cats were treated at the clinic (apparently, that's not very many--in the spring, the clinic takes care of up to 70 cats!)
The weather was awful (snow and freezing rain) but so many volunteers braved the roads to help. Veterinary students from Cornell drove more than two hours to assist with the surgeries. It's easy to become angry at all the irresponsible people who don't take care of their animals, but yesterday I was reminded of how many people are out there trying to make a difference, trying to make life a little easier for all those poor stray cats. I was amazed at how efficient the whole process was. Five veterinarians assisted by vet techs performed the surgeries, then the cats were carried to my station where one lady vaccinated and chipped them and tipped their ears while another lady recorded the chip numbers and vaccine batch numbers. My job in the assembly line was to put the cats back into their traps and carry them over to the recovery room where another group of people monitored their vital signs and kept them warm with heating pads.
Time seemed to fly, and before I knew it, the last cat was beginning to wake up in the recovery area. I know I had just a small part in this whole process, but I still felt so fulfilled at the end of the day. At the same time, it's heartbreaking to know that this clinic was only the tiny tip of a massive iceberg--there are so many more cats out there, and there will be so many unwanted kittens born this spring. When I finally made it home through the snow and ice, I hugged my own kitties tightly (and gave them some catnip!)

We Moved Just In Time!

2007-11-29T07:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like Norway has been bumped from its position as the best place to live in the world. Not quite the best- Aftenposten.no I guess it's a good thing we got out when we did, as living in the second best place in the world just wouldn't do! Although, Norway did lose its first place status only days after we moved back to the U.S. Is that a coincidence, or did our presence make the country just a little bit more fabulous? Hmm, something to ponder...
All joking aside, where does this data come from? It seems like "The Best Place to Live" is pretty subjective. For instance, sure, Norway and Iceland are both clean and safe and have a high standard of living, but they don't have Dunkin' Donuts...in my opinion, a country without 24 hour access to glazed donuts and iced lattes could never be the best place on earth to live!

Ho Ho Ho!

2007-11-28T08:05:00.000-08:00

Saying that my dogs bark a lot is an understatement. They woof when they're happy, when they're bored, when they're anxious, when they see a leaf flutter down from a tree. Unfortunately, their barks sound exactly the same if they see a squirrel in the yard or if an axe murderer is lurking at the door. There have been several times when I have been in the shower and have heard them frantically barking, so I jumped out, threw on my clothes and ran to see what was wrong...only to find out that the neighbor's cat had dared to step into their line of sight, or that the guy down the street was hanging his Christmas lights on his porch. This morning while I was showering, the dogs went nuts again. At first I ignored them, figuring that it was probably just a sparrow or something equally ridulous that had them all riled up. But the barking continued and even grew in its intensity, so I sprinted out of the shower and into my clothes and opened the front door, decent but dripping wet. It was the Dell delivery guy! Kevin ordered me a brand new laptop for Christmas! This will be my first laptop that wasn't a hand-me-down from his company. It is really thin and light and it's red--so cute! I called Kevin at work and shrieked in his ear for a few minutes to say thank you. He asked what I planned to do with it first, and without hesitation I said I want to create a slide show of all the animals who are up for adoption at the animal shelter where I volunteer. There are tons of fundraising activities coming up over the next couple of weeks, including gift wrapping at Barnes & Noble and pet pictures with Santa at Petsmart, so maybe playing a slide show of the shelter's adorable homeless animals (on a festive red laptop) at these stores will help to get a few of them a new home for Christmas!

Seriously?

2007-11-26T17:19:00.000-08:00

This is a ridiculously cheap price for a cup of coffee even by American standards, but after a year of paying Norwegian prices, I almost drove off the road when I saw this sign! Can you imagine paying just 50 øre for a cup of coffee? I have no idea if it's particularly good coffe, but I will definitely have to give it a try. Hmm, I wonder if the diner serves crazy cheap pie too?

Cujo

2007-11-26T05:49:00.000-08:00

Because our house is a rubble-filled mess right now, we have been staying in the attached in-law suite. The dogs have been going a little crazy in such a small space, especially since their fenced in yard isn't finished yet. I got the brilliant idea to take them to a local doggy daycare--in addition to a huge fenced in yard with agility equipment, there is also a massive indoor arena with fun toys, yummy treats, cheerful dogsitters and lots of other friendly dogs. Kermit LOVED it--he raced around like a maniac and made several new canine friends. He was so joyous, bouncy and energetic that the owner of the facility even asked me if he was a puppy--he's about 9 years old!
Unfortunately, Honey attacked every single dog she met. She got right in the other dogs' faces, snarled and growled, and backed them all into corners. The owner of the doggy daycare cracked me up--she was trying so hard not to offend me by saying, "It's not that Honey is a bad dog, she is just a bit of a bully. She isn't a dangerous dog or anything, she's really wonderful with people. I just don't think that our facility is the right fit for her." Obviously I was not offended, as it was pretty hard to ignore that Honey wanted nothing more than to intimidate all those dogs into quivering pools of submission. I dragged her back to the car and then hurried back to get Kermit, thinking that he would be distraught without Honey. Um, no, he didn't even notice her absence as he raced around with his puppy pals. I think that once a week, Kermit will get to go to doggy daycare while I take my vicious little Cujo for a walk. Maybe we'll even work on a little obedience training--it would be so nice to take her for a walk without dislocating a shoulder!
The picture above is of Honey right after we returned from the groomer last week. The tiny blue bows on her ears make me laugh, especially given her jugular-ripping tendencies!

Home Sweet Home

2007-11-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

I arrived back in New York with the animals on November 12th, and Kevin joined me on the 17th. I am so grateful that all the pets made the trip safely and that they seem to have adjusted really well to all the crazy changes. (I think they have adjusted better than I have--I still find myself blurting out the occasional "Tusen takk!" to cashiers and braking for cars to my right at intersections!) The past two weeks have been really hectic and our house has been buzzing with the sounds of saws and drills. Brand new, gorgeous porcelain tiles have been laid throughout the second floor, a door-sized hole has been cut in the back brick wall and an elegant wrought iron fence has been partially installed in the backyard. Progress has been made! Unfortunately, the carpeting still needs to be ripped out and the tiles still need to be placed downstairs, a door which is on order still needs to be positioned in that gaping, door-sized hole, and that elegant fence still needs 3 gates installed before it will contain the dogs. Oh, and when we were cleaning out the attic yesterday, we realized the roof has been leaking and probably needs to be replaced in the very near future. What was that whoosh I just heard? That would be the sound of our money beating a hasty retreat from our bank account! The house (and our finances) might be a mess, but the view is incredible--I took the photo above this morning while watching the Canadian geese paddle around on the lake. I really have nothing to complain about-- being back home has been incredible. Spending time with friends, volunteering at the animal shelter, shopping at my favorite stores, even scouring the kitchen appliances with Kevin...I have loved every minute of it! And after a couple of short weeks, our house will be perfect and the whine of power tools will be just a distant memory!