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Showing posts from December, 2005

At peace for Christmas

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In Norway, all the eating and gift-opening and caroling and such is on Christmas Eve. No one goes to bed early, if they can help it. That leaves Christmas Day as a true day of peace (sleeping in, lethargy, whatever). It's a lovely calm and still wonderfully Christmassy. We got out and stretched our legs, in crisp and clear weather, with a light seen only at the extremes of midwinter and midsummer. Now at 3 pm, it was almost sunset, and the sun gave us its best pale light, transforming the landscape into deep blacks and umpteen pastels with hints of gold here and there. I was totally fascinated by the uniform and undisturbed frost of the piers as well as the light on Lysefjord (with the island that was Ole Bull 's last home in the background).

Goofy for Christmas

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I had help goofing off and being goofy for Christmas. On Christmas Eve with a dear friend and his two teenaged kids, I lost 30 years off my own age (and maturity), and totally enjoyed myself. Flower stuck in my hair and "bunny ears" courtesy the 16-year-old of the house. I was the photographer (again). I totally relaxed, totally had fun (and lots of tickle fights), loved every gift and every hug I got, and had a most happy Christmas.

Meme stolen from Beep

I do have something better to do, but want to let my just-finished frozen pizza settle first. Therefore, 40 questions, stolen from Beep's entry on her Livejournal . 1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before? Take an animal to the vet to be put down. 2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? My New Year's tradition is to spend a moment on New Year's Eve, meditating on what I want for the year ahead. I actually found my note for 2005, cleaning up. It reads in full: Over the years, I have prayed for many things every New Year's Eve. It really boils down to this: God, always be with me. For 2005, I want God to always be with me. And was God always with me? Well, actually, yes. That resolution is definitely worth repeating and keeping in 2006! 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No. 4. Did anyone close to you die? Oh, boy, yes. My sweet grandma, in July. I no longer cry myself to sleep, but I ju

Christmas stuff

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Last night, I finally felt peace descend on me. Final Christmas presents were in the bag, mail to America sent (late, but on its way), and I was suddenly a free woman again. I found myself in no hurry and decided to just sit for a bit, doing nothing. And so I discovered this year's Christmas decoration at our local mall. I'm not into nativity scenes. As far as standard Christmas decorations go, neither are Norwegians. They tend to stick to "nisse", their local version of a leprechaun, who is associated with Yule, or even the American Santa Claus. Previous years have had some rather tacky giant Santas hanging from the ceiling. Not so this year. I was a bit surprised at the gathering of wise men, angels, a shepherd and the parents with their new-born. Funny thing is, it appealed to me. I liked the subtle and simple way the eyes were made (so subtle you can barely make out the little crescents), the simple but effective way they differentiated between the magis' f

Under Construction

I'm redoing my homepages. Slowly, but surely I'll have something different to offer. I'll be spending the Christmas holidays working on it. Yes, in Norway's it's Christmas, not something generic in order not to offend anyone. We have a state religion, our king is head of the church, so it's Christmas. But I digress. I'll be taking some days off during Christmas and I hope then to get my website whipped into its new shape. For one thing, I have some things I want to write and publish, but want a cleaner style for that. I also want to publish photos more frequently, so am turning my main page (index.html) into a blog. So stay tuned!

How to raise ostriches in Norway.

Indoors.

The miracle of ostriches, sort of

One of these days, I'll figure this whole miracle thing out. I mean, it must be possible to be instantaneously cured, to have people just walk into your life and fix stuff for you, to create blue feathers out of thin air (that last is for those of you who have read "Illusions" ). In the meantime, I'm still doing the material version: I have a problem, I pray for a quick and speedy solution, and the solution appears as an item with built-in time factor. My slow miracle works, yes, but it reminds me that I still have a way to go in getting a grip on this whole spirit-in-a-material-world thing. So, I woke up at 4:30 am this past Tuesday, told myself (and God) that both the cause of and the cure for the rash in my armpits (!) would quickly and easily present itself to me. So what do I end up doing Tuesday afternoon? Visiting an ostrich farm, eating ostrich meat, and being told the virtues of ostrich oil on all sorts of skin problems, especially eczema-type stuff. I

It's my birthday, part 3

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It's been a long time since I baked pumpkin pie. It's my favorite, and I much prefer it to regular cake for my birthday. I don't consider myself housewifely at all, but there are some things I am very good at, and baking pumpkin pie is one of them. I'm good at rolling out dough. Don't know why, but me and rolling pins get along. My mother showed me a trick years ago: Pinching around the rim of the crust to make a decorative edge. It certainly does present the pie beautifully! Time for the pumpkin filling itself. Grandma loved my pies. She always thought I got the spices just right. I'm not telling you what I put in. That'll be my secret. ;-) I made two pies. One's done baking, and now it's the second one's turn. Yummy! I had two slices!

It's my birthday, part 2

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My mom sent me this cat figurine for my birthday. I was delighted, and chuckled at the feather sticking out of the left corner of his mouth. He caught him a bird! Then I turned the figurine around. I howled with laughter when I realized this cat has never been neutered. Thanks, Mom!

It's my birthday, part 1

So now I'm 45. It's a bit weird, thinking I've made it to 45. Don't quite know why 45's so different. Maybe because, if this is halfway in my life, that means I have to live to 90, and that may not be as likely as living to 80. At any rate, I woke up this morning feeling a bit weird. But, I shook that off, and had a great day, including a visit to the optometrist. I have to laugh at myself. I am very well aware that the two sides of my body are quite different from each other. I have an uneven walk (mentioned before here); when I hit puberty, I had a right tit for 6 months before I also got a left tit; the wisdom teeth on the left side of my mouth grew in straight and perfect, while the ones on the right went sideways and forwards; I have a lopsided smile; and today I learned that my left eye is slightly near-sighted while my right eye is slightly far-sighted. The optometrist suggested that what I really needed was balance. Heh.