Fjordward

T's dad visited us this past week and snapped this shot of H relaxing on Seamus. Gives you some idea of his size--and his generally accommodating disposition. (Vicious he ain't.) Indeed, as you can see, Pyrs are great family pets--if you can tolerate the surplus of fur and sharing your sofa.

Today, T had to go into the office, so H and I were left to our own devices. It was a drizzly day, so I decided to take H to the Astrup Fearnley museum to see the Warhol exhibit. The exhibit has been nicely curated, and H really seemed to enjoy the paintings. Though, there was a potentially embarassing moment, when I took H in search of what I had thought was the “permanent” collection and found us instead walking through rooms with Warhol's films on display, which, if you know anything about them, could have been somewhat problematic with a child in tow (and it is my own fault, as there was a sign about the explicit nature of the films at the entrance to that section, but I just wasn't thinking, since I thought we would be going into another area). Fortunately, the pieces we encountered were more confusing than provocative for H (with the split screens and conflicting dialogue), and, this being Norway, I didn't have to worry about the judgment of others for potentially exposing my child to nudity.

It was a good day, with me deciding early on that I would try to speak as much as possible in Norwegian throughout the day. I have just completed level 2 at Folkeuniversitetet and begin level 3 on Monday. I am nervous about having a new teacher and more challenging material, but I am encouraged by how much I have already improved my comprehension in the past 6 weeks. I have just gotten to the point where I am beyond frustrated at not being able to express myself in Norwegian without sounding like an idiot. But this is spurring me on to learn, rather than give up. I know I can do this, I just want to be able to do it NOW. (As any of you who know me will surely understand. )

Now, I am tucked up with a down comforter on the sofa and H sleeping next to me. (With T gone, she wanted to stay close, and she looks so cozy, I haven't wanted to move her.) I can't believe T isn't home yet—he went in some 8 hours ago, and originally thought he'd be home by 5, poor guy. Instead, he has just now pinged me to say they are going to do one more thing, go eat, and then come back to verify things—so he won't be home before midnight. Poor T--and poor doggies, who have to wait for their evening walk. (They're currently snoozing, and let's hope they don't dream of waterfalls.) Still, I can count on one hand the number of times T has had to work overtime at Opera, while back in the US, it was almost a daily occurrence. And I understand why it was necessary, given the project involved, so I can't begrudge them for needing him there--I just feel bad he lost his Saturday and couldn't be with us for the museum. While I was sanguine about him being away, H was pretty sad not to get to kiss her dad goodnight. Accordingly, we called him, so she could tell him about her day. (The Warhol exhibit was distilled down to “We saw some cows ... and fishes like from Little Einsteins!” -- referring to the cow & fish wallpaper on display.)

Hopefully tomorrow we can have a lazy Sunday and continue our quest for the perfect coffee table at the outdoor antique market.

I found a recipe for "Hyde Park sauce" online. Naturally, things being as they are here, grocery-wise, I couldn't find one of the main ingredients here, but I had something close, so I gave it a shot.

It worked beautifully, and it is incredibly easy to make. I haven't tried to make "Hyde Park" fries to go with yet (though I imagine that would be fairly straightforward to work out)--for now, we just use the sauce in lieu of tartar sauce for fish, since that is another thing we can't buy here. (To tell you how well my version works, it has sufficiently satisfied my craving for the sauce that this is one restaurant I can safely take off my "must visit in December" list. Sorry, Bick!)

A little taste of central Austin, any time we want it. Happy happy joy joy!

The first part of our summer vacation--a family trip to Telemark--is now over. We had a fantastic time and took a ton of photos. T's are on his blog; I have put mine up at Flickr, since there are so many.

This week I am also off work, having fun with H. T went back to work but will be off next week on H duty. (Her barnehagen is closed for 3 weeks.)

Summer in Norway is so pleasant--I do not miss the Texas heat at all, but I do miss those with whom we endured it.

Yesterday, T got the dryer upstairs and installed it all by himself--well H was with him to cheer on his efforts, but she didn't have much to offer in the brute strength dept. As it turns out, we live very close to a self-storage place, so he was able to rent a handtruck. That helped with the stairs part, but I don't know how he got it on top of the washing machine without assistance. (I was blissfully cleaning the kitchen at the time.)

So, yesterday we did several loads of laundry and didn't have to drape them on various things to dry. It was lovely.

Saturday was Syttende Mai, and it was rainy and very cold. Poor H had to keep her lovely new dress under wraps all day. Still, we managed to have a good time, and we enjoyed seeing everyone out in their finery--I envied the women their woolen capes. I will post a few photos later--given the weather, I didn't get as many as I would have liked.