tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52662306588197429462024-03-13T20:45:49.701-07:00MilesInNorwayMostly true stories from Miles moving from Oregon to TrondheimMileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-112452351215793102011-04-17T08:28:00.000-07:002011-04-17T12:26:33.183-07:00BudapestI spent most of last week in Budapest, but I'm back to cloudy Trondheim again. I was hoping it would be a break from the crappy weather in Trondheim but no such luck. It was even colder in Budapest :( I was attending a Bluetooth conference at the Intercontinental Hotel there. That hotel has fantastic views of the river and the old chain bridge in Budapest. I recommend it especially if you can score a room on the river side. Every room has giant windows facing toward the river and the Buda castle, and when everything is lit up at night it makes for an incredible view.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTp79OI4GeRjT1hEpBLCPugR2VUwUePTWljmx16nfN3xtk-fu__4v0WceU0vzkmOPtr6Ua5zWq9lwzhSwrT-_7geMIH1ohhFKsa2WIV6kvQzPFzLysyCMc5984yKCXbeUM0xpBcxEDeQ/s1600/IMG_3456.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; clear: both;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTp79OI4GeRjT1hEpBLCPugR2VUwUePTWljmx16nfN3xtk-fu__4v0WceU0vzkmOPtr6Ua5zWq9lwzhSwrT-_7geMIH1ohhFKsa2WIV6kvQzPFzLysyCMc5984yKCXbeUM0xpBcxEDeQ/s320/IMG_3456.JPG" border="0" /></a> Unfortunately we were in the hotel at the same time as a group of EU finance ministers, so that meant that everytime you turned around you bumped into some guy in a black suit talking into his shoulder. And I'm not really sure why finance ministers need a 10 car police motorcade with all sirens blaring every time they drive 4 blocks to the parliament building. Couldn't they just walk like the rest of us? Has anyone ever in history attacked a finance minister? I doubt it. Not really worth the trouble. I enjoyed Budapest for the few hours I got to look around. The city was quite clean and most things are not expensive there. I hired a taxi with a friend of mine for 2 hours to drive us to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_Park">Memento park</a> and to the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadel_%28Budapest%29"> Citadel</a>. That cost about 60 euros for 2 hours, which didn't seem that bad. The Memento park is interesting if you like cold war history or things related to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It's quite stark, so don't expect a "park" in the terms of a nice shady place to read a book. It's more like a giant vacant lot with some grass and a lot of old communist statues. And they threw in an old Trabant at the entrance just for the hell of it. If you are looking for a good meal there I recommend this place: <a href="http://www.cyranorestaurant.info/">http://www.cyranorestaurant.info/</a> The interior is a bit crazy in a cool way (upside down tree as a chandelier), and the food was really good. I had some kind of vegetarian lentil stew or ragout and it was one of the best vegetarian dishes I've eaten - ever -. I talked to another guy at the conference who was a vegetarian and he said the same thing. I didn't pay the bill (thanks Nordic) but I think my share for a salad, main course and dessert with a couple of glasses of wine was probably around 35-40 euros. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA8jGXZTSf7v4EA2cxzZ4V7VTmArvTlEHOvZvdGhyIUSUS_XKgMKVhVd7M0OUFhyrcv3N9yQFMPT-7wJFTZqKj-_EyEV9e_IatoPkDAT6OJ43pGzobbnnTiSmra7EEq52Wm5w44Y1mIg/s1600/IMG_3496.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; clear: both;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA8jGXZTSf7v4EA2cxzZ4V7VTmArvTlEHOvZvdGhyIUSUS_XKgMKVhVd7M0OUFhyrcv3N9yQFMPT-7wJFTZqKj-_EyEV9e_IatoPkDAT6OJ43pGzobbnnTiSmra7EEq52Wm5w44Y1mIg/s320/IMG_3496.JPG" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBOXsuqa3grQd2VfzJJXUWRDaE_cyFKEFmnuU6yyA6TQ3qXwjN-d_DhS7RrWfzzuudDvEJS3kev1y9bCr0rwOwZ0tW8NqzP-ZbckW1xqH1LB6kjhCYR3MYFP7CQ42nF_Oejm2xhWA0Jw/s1600/IMG_3514.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; clear: both;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBOXsuqa3grQd2VfzJJXUWRDaE_cyFKEFmnuU6yyA6TQ3qXwjN-d_DhS7RrWfzzuudDvEJS3kev1y9bCr0rwOwZ0tW8NqzP-ZbckW1xqH1LB6kjhCYR3MYFP7CQ42nF_Oejm2xhWA0Jw/s320/IMG_3514.JPG" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Y3Illy80rr_qfQ_rRPeP9bXBOgScqomlglGT-TeATYnbYev_yzjf6y30Cp-vbIvpQwr7conTTyfgFqDmFB1tJ6g9dfhoCXHEQGyfFgJETohK4gW3AsBfe-_0-w1Zx1-c0uEAwkm0pw/s1600/IMG_3511.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; clear: both;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Y3Illy80rr_qfQ_rRPeP9bXBOgScqomlglGT-TeATYnbYev_yzjf6y30Cp-vbIvpQwr7conTTyfgFqDmFB1tJ6g9dfhoCXHEQGyfFgJETohK4gW3AsBfe-_0-w1Zx1-c0uEAwkm0pw/s320/IMG_3511.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img style="border: 0px none; padding: 0px; background: none repeat scroll 0% 50% transparent;" alt="Posted by Picasa" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" align="middle" border="0" /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-28484570499956767292011-03-28T11:31:00.000-07:002011-03-28T11:41:11.239-07:00The perils of optimisim<a href="http://localhost:59765/463f699909b69b24937ed715e6b0aa9d/image/2dab22207d5b2013.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="http://localhost:59765/463f699909b69b24937ed715e6b0aa9d/image/2dab22207d5b2013.jpg?size=320" /></a> I took my trusty mountain bike out of the storeroom a week ago, when all the snow had melted and the birds were singing and the children were running. Then the rains came, then the rain turned to snow, and oh how that unridden bike seems so wildly optimistic now. The last 24 hours have not been kind to your humble blog person (me). I think this week will almost certainly require some form of beer. I did finally make an appointment with a physical therapy office to get some exercises for my wounded knee today. My therapist Solvieg seemed quite happy with how much progress I have made in the 4 weeks since the surgery. The visit to a place like that makes it clear how different Norway can be in some ways to the U.S. First there was no receptionist in the office (that I could find) so I just waited silently on a chair with my shoes off, like everyone else. There was something odd about the other people there, I can't quite figure out what was going on, but they kept coming out of the therapy area in the back, then trading seats with another person who would then go back into the office. But they never said anything. Maybe those were magic seats or they just liked warm chairs, I have no idea. Eventually Solvieg came to find me and took me back to her office. Like all semi-literate foreigners, I of course had the wrong paperwork from the surgery clinic. No problem, she picked up the phone and called the hospital and 2 minutes later the proper papers were in the mail. No charge for my therapy sessions, I guess it was included in the $50 I paid for the surgery in the first place. Happily I wore clean underwear, as I was soon parading around in them showing off my awesome scar. After we did some basic exercises, it was time for the big room with all the cool therapy toys. It had some normal stuff that I could recognize from the gym, but also some rather odd equipment as well. There seemed to be a lot of aging pensioners dangling from the ceiling from some kind of straps and weird rope things. Some of them were sort of wiggling like fish that were hooked but hadn't quite died yet. At least one or two of them had given up even the wiggling and were just talking. Or at least one guy was talking, maybe the other one had passed on I'm not sure. I am sure it took them a while to pull his body out of the rope thingy later. I got to do the leg press machine and some balancing on a chunk of blue foam, which is much harder than it sounds. I felt a bit out of place as the only one there under the age of 85. All I know for sure is that when you get to the point where they start strapping you into the ceiling ropes, it's not far to the end of the road friends..........just keep wiggling as long as you can.Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-12843963424571842182011-03-13T05:26:00.000-07:002011-03-13T05:26:19.545-07:00The ugly truthKnee surgery hurts, that's the truth!<br />Actually it's the 2 weeks after that hurts. All that blue and yellow crud in the picture slowly ended up moving to my ankle and foot over the last 10 days. Det gjøre vondt! I managed to walk around quite well already though, so I think it is healing quickly, but it's never fast enough for me. My super nice landlord Vibeke has been giving <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkz4hAfeVxWzDBP8yKqf1mMjtR-3UsHjRTPmofT0FpHJOVCkewwjipByjY9lkDW8uXT81a8qNJodsrkJsF5i0xP_yx64j36zZihfqVrr60B6OLFUrZuMkmoKl5K4SL1Owg8fmrGJeQyA/s1600/IMG_3366.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; FLOAT: right; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkz4hAfeVxWzDBP8yKqf1mMjtR-3UsHjRTPmofT0FpHJOVCkewwjipByjY9lkDW8uXT81a8qNJodsrkJsF5i0xP_yx64j36zZihfqVrr60B6OLFUrZuMkmoKl5K4SL1Owg8fmrGJeQyA/s320/IMG_3366.JPG" /></a> me rides to work in the mornings, and then I am walking home after work. It takes me about 20 minutes to walk home instead of the usual 10 but I make it eventually. I pulled out all the stitches myself a few days ago, so my leg is starting to look almost normal now. As long as I keep moving it around and don't sit still for too long it is OK.<br />On Friday night we had our annual meeting for the sports and activity club at work. The Novel committee organizes all of our pay-day events (løningspils) and the summer party, the Christmas dinner and other activities. There are usually 4 people on the committee, so I was "volunteered" by my good friend Joel to join the committee for the next 2 years. This will be a good chance to get to know more things about Trondheim and the area restaurants and activities. I might even learn a bit more norsk if I try hard. We had our meeting at Tulla Fischer, which is a very nice cafe and bar in the Trondheim sentrum. They served us tapas until we were all about to explode, then we had dessert :). I recommend it for a nice evening out in Trondheim if you ever get the chance. The prices are typical for Trondheim, in other words $$$. Figure on around $75 (400-500Nok) a person for tapas and a few beers there. <a href="http://tulla.no/">http://tulla.no/</a> beware though that google maps has the wrong location for it if you are looking to find it on a map. The correct address is Kongens gate 8, across from the<br />Vår Frue Kirke.<br />The picture on the bottom is the entrance road to the psychiatric prison hospital in Strindheim across the road from my house. Still winter here!<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHST45o5FDxLb9fZVsKBqkayxgYQM2kTImZ1ADyiJBLjJYJY8LsdBul9WtBL8wcBAncN3w9hMap27yjlXnuqQ0Sx4_Ep4qsxHIdsZVjTBk6yHmdclwjAsiAM6foXOkhDL4yjj3dUl2Hg/s1600/IMG_3376.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; FLOAT: right; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHST45o5FDxLb9fZVsKBqkayxgYQM2kTImZ1ADyiJBLjJYJY8LsdBul9WtBL8wcBAncN3w9hMap27yjlXnuqQ0Sx4_Ep4qsxHIdsZVjTBk6yHmdclwjAsiAM6foXOkhDL4yjj3dUl2Hg/s320/IMG_3376.JPG" /></a><div style='clear:both; text-align:RIGHT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-41265597596413089162011-03-02T07:39:00.000-08:002011-03-02T07:39:58.853-08:00surgery!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2Pr9MU73uQ1zJ6TwYUEknawuhsHCKozR6KEUUIK5_3htq3ce7ACNfD09UU-GDgKN5m53Aqgk0rgjXyZiHJnyyKvkgggYeSkplrZTWwCcS_JZpaUbUSzSAbbVWytFTd_3eJ6-1RxSoQ/s1600/IMG_3362.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2Pr9MU73uQ1zJ6TwYUEknawuhsHCKozR6KEUUIK5_3htq3ce7ACNfD09UU-GDgKN5m53Aqgk0rgjXyZiHJnyyKvkgggYeSkplrZTWwCcS_JZpaUbUSzSAbbVWytFTd_3eJ6-1RxSoQ/s320/IMG_3362.JPG" /></a> I decided to post this picture of some flowers that a friend gave me because it looks 100 times better than my knee does right now. I am so glad to get that ACL surgery finished though. Hard to believe it took 7 months to get an operation that takes 45 minutes, but that's the way it goes. I had a friend drop me off at the Aleris clinic on monday morning and they did the operation there around 9:30, then I alternated between nausea and la-la land for about the next 6 hours until they kicked me out. I have to say that is amazing how much work they can do in a few minutes though through some very small incisions now. My leg looks a bit gruesome but it doesn't hurt that much and I think it will heal up quite rapidly. I am taking a few days off of work now and I hope to go back to my office on Friday. We are interviewing people for some testing positions so I sort of have to be there in person.<br />The Trondheim ice is back with a vengeance this spring, so I will have to be incredibly careful trying to get around outside on crutches. They make special crutches with spikes on the bottom I guess, but I look at it more like a warning from mother nature - you're already injured so if you can't walk on the ice, stay inside idiot!<br />The doctor told me maybe I can't run marathons anymore after this surgery, but I think that he and I both agreed that only people with some level of brain damage run marathons anyway so I am ok with not doing any.<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-43309517661663696172011-02-27T05:40:00.000-08:002011-02-27T05:40:16.050-08:00So long Februar<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoSk9kPuoXUFuywEWSC953f6CblACKuOYDub-x_bzmLn3nwGMI0narDlq9pP-qKgkQOaLjY2APs3ZRjx9LWLHwSMUgT3BR1qlgcy391-R-3lcvrc5opqB4zIBkQSg8Y3msvPJ7frY7zw/s1600/IMG_3349.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoSk9kPuoXUFuywEWSC953f6CblACKuOYDub-x_bzmLn3nwGMI0narDlq9pP-qKgkQOaLjY2APs3ZRjx9LWLHwSMUgT3BR1qlgcy391-R-3lcvrc5opqB4zIBkQSg8Y3msvPJ7frY7zw/s320/IMG_3349.JPG" /></a> This is my new favorite appliance. When I moved to this flat on Engvegen, there were no appliances included, so I sort of had to scrounge up a fridge and the oven to get started. Later I bought a freezer and now finally the dishwasher. The reason dishwashers are so great, besides the fact that they wash your dishes, is that you never have to clean them. <em>They clean themselves</em>.....think about that. I bought the silver colored one because it was about 1000Nok cheaper than the white one in the shop. I have no idea why. Is white paint that expensive? Anyway when I got it home and unpackaged it, I found they had wrapped it in this very cool blue plastic to stop it from getting scratched. I had to pull the plastic off the top to use it, but I liked the blue color so much I am leaving it on the door. Everything else in the kitchen is pure white, so when there is some nice sunlight coming through the window the blue plastic lights up like a nice patch of sky on a cloudy day.<br />Tomorrow I get my knee fixed at the Aleris Sykehus! Finally. It seems like 7 months since I hurt it. Actually it is 7 months since I hurt it. I have cleaned the apartment, washed all the laundry and stocked up the fridge, so I'm ready to survive for a week or so on crutches. Wish me luck!<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-56637825351877724142011-02-17T10:42:00.000-08:002011-02-17T10:57:25.376-08:00Vegas for the win<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfWjLrkdO9nTZjdeI4lzq4bg0jkvZJTTUJGSNLcAOkrUQcMjVgAZ8XtzyDxtr2yk3MvSl_myuXzq5eKZfL6s0MQ8tW8jh_qwQHO5itiFCNsF57_n8JArclsJeQu9gyP4d36bKqW1hWQ/s1600/IMG_3307.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfWjLrkdO9nTZjdeI4lzq4bg0jkvZJTTUJGSNLcAOkrUQcMjVgAZ8XtzyDxtr2yk3MvSl_myuXzq5eKZfL6s0MQ8tW8jh_qwQHO5itiFCNsF57_n8JArclsJeQu9gyP4d36bKqW1hWQ/s320/IMG_3307.JPG" /></a><br />I am safely back from 10 days in the U.S. I was in Las Vegas just in time to see the Packers win the Super Bowl, much to the joy of my Wisconsin centric family. I watched the game in a brew pub near the convention center with about 100 other people. Some Packer fans, some Steeler fans and some just <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EhvVhV6YEGkekVFVL7yvk0dUVT6K4tjlvr1VZ2tM5Jb9priKKMI0k8CAf_LBzG5ggahnH01gsTBrVd6zQK8ZprU7Nk3jIv6TTk6v8afenzNF3SAuQjTPRBLuSpnZ3Lm8c08vtvFBsA/s1600/IMG_3344.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EhvVhV6YEGkekVFVL7yvk0dUVT6K4tjlvr1VZ2tM5Jb9priKKMI0k8CAf_LBzG5ggahnH01gsTBrVd6zQK8ZprU7Nk3jIv6TTk6v8afenzNF3SAuQjTPRBLuSpnZ3Lm8c08vtvFBsA/s320/IMG_3344.JPG" /></a>people who bet on the game but didn't care who won. For some reason the Steeler fans all disappeared along with their crappy yellow towels by the end of the game. So it was left to me and 2 tables full of cheeseheads to whoop it up. I did my best to explain the rules of American football to my Norwegian colleagues, but I'm not sure they really grasped the exciting intricacies of the 3-4 defense or especially why there is a commercial break every 2 minutes. I did explain why the 5 fat guys on offense are not allowed to run down the field for a pass and they seemed to accept that without question.<br />I had more trouble at breakfast explaining what buttermilk pancakes were. Norwegian pancakes are not the same as American ones and frankly I could not really explain what buttermilk is. I even looked it up later on wikipedia and that was even more confusing. Something about sour milk, lactic acid, bacteria, and chunks of stuff that might be butter or maybe not. Anyway I don't buy it at the store so as long as it just stays in the pancakes I will be OK with it. We did a bit of shopping there at the Premium outlet mall north of the strip. I recommend it if you like lots of stores and decent prices on clothes. It was a bit cold when we were there in the evening though and it is not an enclosed mall, so be prepared.<br />After the conference was over I went back to Minneapolis and then to Wisconsin to visit my family. It was -20F the day before I got there, and almost 40F the next day, ha ha good for me.<br />I took the picture above at my sister's house in Wascott, the white tail deer were getting pretty frisky there after 3 or 4 days of above freezing temperatures. <br />I got to play some Wii Bowling at my dad's house on the weekend. I am not sure how many other 89 year old's have a Wii, but my dad sure seems to like it. Apparently there is a Wii bowling league down at the senior center in town, so my dad needs to stay sharp between matches. There is a competitive streak in my family and I'm pretty sure it starts with him :)<br />The entire state of Wisconsin was still in euphoria over the Packers winning the Super Bowl, so it was a great week to visit!<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; CLEAR: both"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BACKGROUND: 0% 50%; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial" border="0" alt="Posted by Picasa" align="middle" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-14537423000453829992011-01-25T11:46:00.000-08:002011-01-25T11:46:12.635-08:00Qu'est-ce que c'est?This is picture is somewhat relevant to the story....<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-xuhSaxfoocUvwY2KDvLXJX2sXJ20i1kSb1VIZ7k2132-L5YjNhsWVFduUwBytGuy8lK5jxUr48RNAmqmvWPCsJHn_IOq4ibku0MLGzxx5Vfl1T_16u_S8LORprn4gwZXB989__MPw/s1600/IMG_2080.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-xuhSaxfoocUvwY2KDvLXJX2sXJ20i1kSb1VIZ7k2132-L5YjNhsWVFduUwBytGuy8lK5jxUr48RNAmqmvWPCsJHn_IOq4ibku0MLGzxx5Vfl1T_16u_S8LORprn4gwZXB989__MPw/s320/IMG_2080.JPG" /></a> <br />I received a rude wakeup at 5 am a few days ago, when it sounded like a team of construction workers had descended onto the house from a helicopter. Well that might be exaggerating a little, but at 5am it was LOUD (and dark). I may have mentioned before that I live approximately 500 meters from a psychiatric hospital, where Norway likes to send their finest insane criminals. This tends to cause me some jumpiness at 5am. I live on the 2nd floor of the house, but generally in the winter I am too lazy to go down and lock the outside door to the stairwell, because well I'm lazy, I don't want to get my feet cold and my fleecy slippers fall off going down stairs. So I normally just lock the upper door into the apartment and go to bed. This was one of those nights. So my first thought after jumping out of bed was that an escaped prisoner was trying to hack his way into the house. So I ran into the hallway and sure enough, I could see that the motion sensing light in the stairwell was on. Now being it is 5am, I just woke up and I'm not really that smart anyway, I OPENED THE DOOR, to see who was in there. Fortunately for me, I did not receive an ax into the forehead. I didn't see anyone, but I heard something... which sounded suspiciously like a crazy person talking to themselves. I ran over to the small north window that looks towards the driveway into the garage. I see a shadow! Someone is walking alongside the house and mumbling. I've got you now serial killer, I thought. I ran over to the kitchen window facing the street to try to get a glimpse of the psycho as he came around the corner.<br />-and-<br />OK, it was the guy delivering the newspapers, singing along with his ipod. whew.<br />That didn't really explain all the noise until I went back over to the south windows, where I could see that the section of roof from this picture was now bare. The entire load of ice and snow had slid off at once. Since the roof is tiled, every time the ice bumped over a tile it shook the crap out of the house, waking me up and setting off the motion sensor. Mystery solved, although somehow that did not really help me go back to sleep. Next I will start working on that remote locking mechanism for the outside door....<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-334801281337663102011-01-22T09:23:00.000-08:002011-01-22T11:10:13.686-08:00Sigrid and Maria<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUtoVmZAHmXrhefjfz4r4Hb4CNKHRBrFabapl3N0BJY2t-wgruMv7ueS8ekTYJl6nfrtLlc-fDpt1o0OZaQdd86Tr77dzyzRyfx1fO35ArULYzAc9gyro_Shjq6fbr7hWoBT9NfS_3qQ/s1600/2011-01-201.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 267px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565065047737344530" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUtoVmZAHmXrhefjfz4r4Hb4CNKHRBrFabapl3N0BJY2t-wgruMv7ueS8ekTYJl6nfrtLlc-fDpt1o0OZaQdd86Tr77dzyzRyfx1fO35ArULYzAc9gyro_Shjq6fbr7hWoBT9NfS_3qQ/s400/2011-01-201.jpg" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div>I can't be the only that sees some physical resemblance between Sigrid Undset and Maria Amelie. Maria Amelie ( real name Madina Salamova ) is an undocumented Russian immigrant to Norway who has lived here since 2002. She has been in the news constantly in Norway in recent months, as the Norwegian authorities are preparing to deport her back to Russia. I have been reading her book "Ulovlig norsk" for the past few days. It is written in Norwegian so it takes me a while to get through it but I have managed about 50 pages now. She has quite an interesting story to tell. She actually managed to graduate from NTNU here in Trondheim with a master's degree, in spite of never having proper legal status. I happened to have a 500kr note laying next to the book cover the other day, and I thought "wow, she looks a lot like the woman on that 500kr note." I didn't know anything about Sigrid Undset either, so I had to look her up. Interestingly, there are 2 other coincidences between them. They both wrote their first books in their early twenties, and Sigrid, although celebrated as a Norwegian author, was not actually born in Norway either. She was born in Denmark to a Danish mother and a Norwegian father. Sigrid went on to win a Nobel Prize for literature, but who knows what will happen to Maria. It seems almost certain she will be deported in the near future, but I believe she would be able to re-apply for residency here after some period. Maria's case has generated quite a lot of controversy here in Norway, I am wondering if Sigrid were still alive what she would say about it?<br /><br />On a completely un-related note, I watched a nicely dressed woman in the neighborhood this morning trying to push the family car out of the driveway while her husband backed it up. They were stuck in the snow and melting ice but they were half blocking the road so I couldn't get through until they moved the car. Anyway after 3 or 4 tries of rocking it back and forth, they got it loose and it went back into the street. Of course the instant it shot backwards, she lost her footing, slipped and fell ass first into a huge puddle of melted snow and slush. Which goes to show you that when there is a car stuck somewhere, always volunteer to be the DRIVER!<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; CLEAR: both"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BACKGROUND: 0% 50%; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial" border="0" alt="Posted by Picasa" align="middle" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" /></a></div></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-16081432965736015992011-01-18T09:22:00.000-08:002011-01-18T09:25:02.725-08:00FBAR<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px" align="left"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWIbgV-qTYhlGxj4h2Mwjv_gMxGgTEta1ZwXJeQ7hn9TVXjFB87I68NSXDoqxu5wl0dRZJffwc_eprkWi8tLBJWD6cOjFq8AJ5_arc6lZk9eQgLaUOQr-m7QmPHBr5aMjqBnld7O1WVw/s1600/IMG_2866.JPG"><img border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWIbgV-qTYhlGxj4h2Mwjv_gMxGgTEta1ZwXJeQ7hn9TVXjFB87I68NSXDoqxu5wl0dRZJffwc_eprkWi8tLBJWD6cOjFq8AJ5_arc6lZk9eQgLaUOQr-m7QmPHBr5aMjqBnld7O1WVw/s320/IMG_2866.JPG" /></a> This topic will probably only be of interest to U.S. expats or soon to be expats. Being that it is getting close to tax time I wanted to mention the FBAR, which concerns foreign bank and financial accounts. Basically if you are a U.S. citizen who has signature authority over a foreign account or accounts that totals more than $10,000 <em>at any time during the year,</em> you must file this form the following year before June 30th. The form is not that difficult to fill out, but if you meet the criteria, DON'T FORGET! The government has some very severe penalaties for ignoring this requirement.</div>Here is one typically cheerful note from the instructions:<br /><br />Can cumulative FBAR penalties exceed the amount in a taxpayer's foreign accounts?<br /><strong>A. Yes, under the penalty provisions found in 31 U.S.C. 5314(a)(5), it is possible to assert civil penalties for FBAR violations in amounts that exceed the balance in the foreign financial account.<br /><br /></strong>Awesome!<br /><br />Note also that you do not mail this to the same address as your tax forms, it goes here:<br />U.S. Department of the Treasury<br />P.O. Box 32621<br />Detroit, MI 48232-0621<br /><br />Here is a link to the FAQ about it: <a href="http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=210244,00.html#FR1">http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=210244,00.html#FR1</a><br />and here is the current form: <a href="http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f90221.pdf">http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f90221.pdf</a><br /><br />So remember my fellow Americans, your ass may be 3780 miles from Washington D.C., but your wallet isn't! <div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BACKGROUND: 0% 50%; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial" border="0" alt="Posted by Picasa" align="middle" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-37549137792122251452011-01-13T11:17:00.000-08:002011-01-13T11:18:05.803-08:00Cranberry breadThese are some Wisconsin cranberries I found in the store over the holidays. Suprisingly, they weren't even that expensive for Norway anyway ($5 for 12oz). I wanted to make some cranberry bread from my mom's recipe to give away to some friends. The first effort was a horrible failure. I put too much batter in one pan, because basically I only had one pan. Then I cooked it about 3 times longer than the recipe said, and it still wasn't done.......argh.<br />Finally I gave up and and threw it out. I got another bag of berries and borrowed some pans from Joel for the 2nd attempt. That one worked. Cold cranberry bread from the fridge with some butter or margerine on it, that is some good stuff.<br />I managed to get sick twice over the holidays, right before Christmas and right after I got sick for the whole week between Christmas and New Years. That sort of took the fun out of it but we had some nice parties on Christmas weekend anyway.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicf8T6XvfUWCllUMBpOnBxnOMzSk8tAozdd_cCmVnVxaNtmZdQLXsIvbz5EfMTZzH9ym9oI-IFWllNh3vuBKMus99yK8laoPMjR__SsNjeALU4KJ2V2lE9CQ5eGf3PnVBOljLw12SIog/s1600/IMG_3265.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicf8T6XvfUWCllUMBpOnBxnOMzSk8tAozdd_cCmVnVxaNtmZdQLXsIvbz5EfMTZzH9ym9oI-IFWllNh3vuBKMus99yK8laoPMjR__SsNjeALU4KJ2V2lE9CQ5eGf3PnVBOljLw12SIog/s320/IMG_3265.JPG" /></a> Now it's back to normal work weeks and slightly longer days ( the sun manages to stay up until 3pm now ). In a few weeks I will be back in the U.S. for about 10 days. I will be first at a conference in Las Vegas and then I will stop and visit my family in Wisconsin for a few days on the way back to Trondheim. I am starting my shopping list now for a visit to Fry's electronics in Vegas and probably at least 1 trip to Target as well.<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-72005855045959041012010-12-11T11:14:00.000-08:002010-12-11T11:14:54.907-08:002 weeks til Christmas<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTeZPfh-MkKmj428B3R7mdKi-w6peqytu6sPZ44xLV4DEvG__g9zIAeJ6oMQIj0BktJ0hed-NuK-1PJV_0OCGKiFRa380QV0VFzd9_kHvChqKHYt2pa75GcXF4AZ0-7PHKFDVfsC4HKg/s1600/IMG_3244.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTeZPfh-MkKmj428B3R7mdKi-w6peqytu6sPZ44xLV4DEvG__g9zIAeJ6oMQIj0BktJ0hed-NuK-1PJV_0OCGKiFRa380QV0VFzd9_kHvChqKHYt2pa75GcXF4AZ0-7PHKFDVfsC4HKg/s320/IMG_3244.JPG" /></a> <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-7Qr-f6_D2Rp2Dv7475HnBfKmFWNKsVgW055SAZzJ-nfNirloCkq7tJABls63z5XJypS-gViPVnAYYUo5ArLK7J-a-s6FM6ZSdIhDqs7A7N3gTqpD94-my1ioElwVEpFkdtLvySdj-Q/s1600/IMG_3246.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-7Qr-f6_D2Rp2Dv7475HnBfKmFWNKsVgW055SAZzJ-nfNirloCkq7tJABls63z5XJypS-gViPVnAYYUo5ArLK7J-a-s6FM6ZSdIhDqs7A7N3gTqpD94-my1ioElwVEpFkdtLvySdj-Q/s320/IMG_3246.JPG" /></a> <br />Trondheim has had a serious winter so far, and it's not even officially winter yet. We had the coldest month of November ever measured (since 1788!) and now we are back to warmer weather and lots of snow. I decided to walk to the sentrum today to go to the julemarket, but I think I would have been better off taking the bus. You have to walk down some steep hills to get to the sentrum from Tyholt, and there is basically no way to avoid walking down slippery sidewalks and streets. I was walking down the first steep street today when a girl fell down about 20 meters in front of me. I didn't laugh because I figured I was next. I made it about another 20 meters past where she fell and I went down too. It hurt a little bit but I got back up and continued down the hill. I stopped at the Kristiansten fort to take these pictures, and then I had one more hill to go down to get to the sentrum. And sure enough, I fell down AGAIN flat on my back on that hill too. That one really hurt. Now I'm home taking ibuprofen<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSoPfHCmxOeKgZu8Vl3ZTCg66fLcN7wIjcRDn8Cxql_nNqeY2Q_CDc6uIPiQB8IrhDsxVCazinmGm_8AKX6WkoXST8tVkUQFEa2TXSYgk4IY0EMsPd9kweYczZGc3Rt_zEW6BMiCxlQ/s1600/IMG_3251.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSoPfHCmxOeKgZu8Vl3ZTCg66fLcN7wIjcRDn8Cxql_nNqeY2Q_CDc6uIPiQB8IrhDsxVCazinmGm_8AKX6WkoXST8tVkUQFEa2TXSYgk4IY0EMsPd9kweYczZGc3Rt_zEW6BMiCxlQ/s320/IMG_3251.JPG" /></a> illegally imported from the U.S. Probably shouldn't say that. I found it, yea that's it.<br />When we had our company Christmas party a few weeks ago I was awarded my very own first-aid kit as a prize for being the most consistently injured player on the soccer team. I guess I should have had the kit with me today, it might have helped to break the fall(s).<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjI5mI0W5LfV2YciDhBVRZ6-JHwkbeuXLswjivfj5-d8ncNyNhBOwmFo3oHqP33fghS0aaclvOHlBdxI_nmIUPI3Kp0D8GXweI9OY1dEhTmfWuA5xQUUorzRh_kwn_eECNqs9Ge_IcA/s1600/IMG_3252.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjI5mI0W5LfV2YciDhBVRZ6-JHwkbeuXLswjivfj5-d8ncNyNhBOwmFo3oHqP33fghS0aaclvOHlBdxI_nmIUPI3Kp0D8GXweI9OY1dEhTmfWuA5xQUUorzRh_kwn_eECNqs9Ge_IcA/s320/IMG_3252.JPG" /></a><div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-87139062656019291722010-11-14T09:05:00.000-08:002010-11-14T09:05:57.841-08:00Visit to Oslo<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgJcGs7le9dQVG78QjM7dOj-GID8twbpIqnMsKuP0dthJ19SZ6JrI70D3uKokHIbVg3_S8vePhxLPLlzlc3JY_hE5zXGvUNwB3D2x-gdlYWs3XlJGpr3Rt8Q5kK6lhyphenhyphen0-WX9F3YUkLw/s1600/IMG_3227.JPG"><img border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgJcGs7le9dQVG78QjM7dOj-GID8twbpIqnMsKuP0dthJ19SZ6JrI70D3uKokHIbVg3_S8vePhxLPLlzlc3JY_hE5zXGvUNwB3D2x-gdlYWs3XlJGpr3Rt8Q5kK6lhyphenhyphen0-WX9F3YUkLw/s400/IMG_3227.JPG" /></a> </div>I made a brief visit to Oslo a week ago to have a doctor look at my injured knee. I hurt it playing soccer in July, but so far I had not been able to get in to see an actual surgeon about what needed to be done. The Norwegian health system is quite good overall but it is very slow for non-prioritized injuries or health problems. Since the knee wasn't stopping me from working, they put you at the back of the list basically which for <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">ACL</span> tears is approximately 3-6 months. I paid for my own visit to see a doctor at the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ringvoll</span> clinic in Oslo just so I could have someone tell me for sure if it needs surgery or not. (It does). He told me they could operate on it in a week in Oslo, but since my company doesn't provide any insurance for injuries like that I would have had to pay the full cost myself, which would be around $5,000 <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">USD</span>. Or I can stay in the queue at the clinic in Trondheim where eventually ( January maybe? ) I will get the operation without cost or at very small cost. I decided to wait until January, since I've already waited 4 months, what will another 3 hurt?<br />I hadn't been to downtown Oslo for some 15 years, so I was interested to see how much I remembered. It looks mostly the same except for the giant Opera house they built in the harbor. That is a really nice building. It is covered with a white marble roof that you can just wander around on, a photographers/skateboarders dream. A really amazing place. I ended up walking way to much of course, and between wandering all over town and having the doctor yank around on my knee in the middle of the day it really did hurt by the time I got back to the airport in the evening. I lucked out on the weather that day as you can see in the photo, it was not very warm but the sun was out all day and it didn't feel cold after the early morning. It was also nice I must say to listen to people speaking a dialect of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">norwegian</span> that I actually could understand (most of it). People in Trondheim might as well be speaking martian for how much I understand but the Oslo dialect is close enough to <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bokmål</span> that I could get most of the words.<br />Today I decided to try and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">XC</span> ski a little bit with my friend Joel to see how the knee would feel. The answer was very quickly "not too good.....". I can't put enough pressure on that leg to turn the skis or snowplow on the downhill parts so it is a bit difficult unless the course was completely flat or had only left turns. Not likely!<br />Anyway I might try it a few more times this winter before I get the operation, because I think there will be no skiing after that for the rest of the winter.<div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-79535454736885382652010-11-02T10:38:00.000-07:002010-11-02T10:39:02.521-07:00Halloween in Trondheim<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhDHYqotxztwtZERhI42lAEz5n22qKLFPGc2mY3BN_VcRqRBNt8O1whNMLA_YJRa25jvEY0HrQQrYigs102vqcvm5zixpuJun_iRU2VkglmbFDREXgwc2Xg571vVTB3iMzEst_WMEcXw/s1600/IMG_3163.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhDHYqotxztwtZERhI42lAEz5n22qKLFPGc2mY3BN_VcRqRBNt8O1whNMLA_YJRa25jvEY0HrQQrYigs102vqcvm5zixpuJun_iRU2VkglmbFDREXgwc2Xg571vVTB3iMzEst_WMEcXw/s400/IMG_3163.JPG" /></a> I made a couple of pumpkins this year for Halloween and put them in front of the house. It seemed to work, the little munchkins stripped the house of candy like a swarm of locusts. A lot of Norwegian adults seemed quite mystified by Halloween in general, I think because it didn't really catch on here until about 10-15 years ago. But I must say that the kids have latched on to it now, the words "free candy" have pretty much the same appeal no matter what country you are in. There are tons of kids in my neighborhood here, there must have been something in the water here about 10 years ago. I was worried at first that maybe there wouldn't be any trick or <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">treaters</span> here but after an hour or so I was more worried about running out of candy. I eventually had to look through all the cabinets for old bags of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">Swedish</span> candies that I never finished. I gave away everything I had and I finally had to bring the pumpkins in around 9pm. Witches seemed to be the most popular costume for the girls, one time I had 6 identical little blond witches at the door at the same time. Or maybe it was more, it was hard to count when they all have the same costumes. Most of the boys I couldn't tell what the hell they were wearing but they all got candy anyway. Another American holiday successfully exported! I did notice also that most of the candy displays at the grocery store were filled with American candy brands. We want to make the rest of the world diabetic as well so we can sell more insulin monitors......<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-63643558873065907102010-10-11T11:57:00.000-07:002010-10-11T11:57:15.811-07:00Barcelona<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTVga53U8JT-3yL97GjK-mR0wiQa4FLDFvmVKaY2bHJ66q7NBdsj_5NUpHAFbUv5uFo1aI7yMXeUgolT8NG6avqaHoadhyphenhyphenMwbR-epZQ_gqDO0iVOnSnn3tHMngbVNypqIrvwVR4KkbMg/s1600/IMG_3090.JPG"><img border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTVga53U8JT-3yL97GjK-mR0wiQa4FLDFvmVKaY2bHJ66q7NBdsj_5NUpHAFbUv5uFo1aI7yMXeUgolT8NG6avqaHoadhyphenhyphenMwbR-epZQ_gqDO0iVOnSnn3tHMngbVNypqIrvwVR4KkbMg/s400/IMG_3090.JPG" /></a><br />I was in Barcelona all last week for a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bluetooth</span> conference. It was a nice break from the cold weather in Trondheim but now it's back to 8C and a bit of drizzle for the next month. Barcelona is a great city, there are lots of things to see there, unfortunately we didn't have so much time for sightseeing as we had to work during the day until around 5 or 6 pm. We did get downtown in the evenings and on Friday afternoon we had some free time so we went to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Sagrada</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Família</span> </a>church and to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell">Park <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Güell</span></a>. My friend <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bjørn</span> Tore got his wallet stolen on the metro on the way to the church, that sucked. The pickpockets are rampant on the subway there so if you go there keep your hand on your wallet! They will pick out people on the subway and then when it stops and everyone pushes up to the door they will grab your wallet and take off. I talked to another guy on the way to the park who also had his taken the day before. He chased after the guy screaming POLICE! until the guy got scared and threw his wallet back to him (minus all the cash). Other than that I thought it was great there, the food is good and not that expensive, there are tons of stores to shop in and lots of nice architecture and public art to see. I recommend avoiding most of the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">restaurants</span> along La Ramble ( the main sort of tourist shopping street ). The places along the side streets are cheaper with much better service. The <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">Sagrada</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">Famila</span> you pretty much have to see at least once in your life to discover what happens when people spend more than 100 years working to the design of an architect who must have been slightly touched in the head. It's awesome in a sort of head-scratching way.</div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-13600315066573051092010-09-21T11:53:00.000-07:002010-09-21T11:54:01.174-07:00Hiking in Trollheimen<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1JSHPq5sfo2OJbT2dRjyIzjlhQGlrKY2KrhecsibOY0a1moHef1vONJ9d3ZuBwMAombxkV0NnqW0aigzWA8u8khbP41DLXbDUYnNDVWQMCOlrjsSezz914PL3eL_TfcMEnoEO0tyk9g/s1600/IMG_2954.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1JSHPq5sfo2OJbT2dRjyIzjlhQGlrKY2KrhecsibOY0a1moHef1vONJ9d3ZuBwMAombxkV0NnqW0aigzWA8u8khbP41DLXbDUYnNDVWQMCOlrjsSezz914PL3eL_TfcMEnoEO0tyk9g/s320/IMG_2954.JPG" /></a> <br />These are a few pictures from a 3 day trip in a cabin called <a href="http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B8ldalshytta"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Jøldalshytta</span></a> in the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Trollheimen</span> area southeast of Trondheim. It was a beautiful day for hiking on Saturday and we had a total of about 20 employees from Nordic plus 15 or so wives/girlfriends and kids along. There were a couple of mt. hikes that the more <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">adventurous</span> people went on that took between 7 and 9 hours. The people with bad backs and injured knees like me :( stayed on this road in the valley. It was <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">beautiful</span> anyway but I sure would have liked to see the view from one of the peaks. Maybe next year. I went back the next day and rode the mt. bike down this road, that was really fun. The road is very rocky but it was actually easier to ride a bike on it than to walk on it most of the way.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghBv8Ar4kx2mKi62c2uJcuVZ-DsXhE3WaB46aAjEMwhv6t5s_PiF7-81CcKQGmQ-1gn3Fiym6iWtde6LGe4-cd2j6KvfXS9FwB7sbMLCSdQzt6_wjYJsppkGdXYPsn2lIMH-UHRmQwYw/s1600/IMG_2957.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghBv8Ar4kx2mKi62c2uJcuVZ-DsXhE3WaB46aAjEMwhv6t5s_PiF7-81CcKQGmQ-1gn3Fiym6iWtde6LGe4-cd2j6KvfXS9FwB7sbMLCSdQzt6_wjYJsppkGdXYPsn2lIMH-UHRmQwYw/s320/IMG_2957.JPG" /></a> <br />The cabin we stayed at is run by the <a href="http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trondhjems_Turistforening">Trondheim Touring </a>association and has a normal capacity of around 80 people I think, even though we had about 90 there and I heard there were 100 people there the weekend before. The staff at the cabin was great, they made breakfast and dinner for everyone and we made our own <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">matpakke</span> for lunch.<br />We slept 4 to a room in a giant wooden cabin where you could hear the people on all sides of you snoring away at night. Fortunately we were tired enough that it didn't matter. I would really like to go back and XC ski in that valley next spring if my knee recovers.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5IHTpOfw1Cqm_KH6Ufe_FOaKdIYrkUNPxLrjTZ6Ga1DUWFEjTQLT-0vxfxp-lvZaeMQ34MJGTTup_2sXOzK8dcKMO2PmZBkqNkroIfHy7QOBtCyTKGYlMcMe2mZNhp_fTYlAOaQ07Ug/s1600/IMG_2969.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5IHTpOfw1Cqm_KH6Ufe_FOaKdIYrkUNPxLrjTZ6Ga1DUWFEjTQLT-0vxfxp-lvZaeMQ34MJGTTup_2sXOzK8dcKMO2PmZBkqNkroIfHy7QOBtCyTKGYlMcMe2mZNhp_fTYlAOaQ07Ug/s320/IMG_2969.JPG" /></a> <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQb7Oinx6cqUbx7hAkL7ddHXAgnh4SofftSRseigsKqYM5_kBIx40cCpVQyhBVoA5WPDbpolbiGyBsbLEvGReODazO9DlFqgWVi6vlll1-XoFyiVPXsxtzPKEkMpPIGlR91EhNzPcG4Q/s1600/IMG_2972.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQb7Oinx6cqUbx7hAkL7ddHXAgnh4SofftSRseigsKqYM5_kBIx40cCpVQyhBVoA5WPDbpolbiGyBsbLEvGReODazO9DlFqgWVi6vlll1-XoFyiVPXsxtzPKEkMpPIGlR91EhNzPcG4Q/s320/IMG_2972.JPG" /></a><div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-69212155219161164992010-09-19T04:43:00.000-07:002010-09-19T04:43:21.590-07:00KorsbåndsrupturI am trying my best to learn norwegian vocabulary and making some progress, but one word I could have done without was "korsbåndsruptur". When the doctor reads that to you it means you tore the ACL in your knee :(<br />My doctor Elisabeth was doing her best to translate all the words from my MRI to english but I sort of stopped listening after I heard the torn ACL and ruptured meniscus parts. So I guess my experiment with playing soccer so far has these results: Spit my face open on a board in the indoor gym, injured my foot which took 4 months to heal, got kicked in the ear (twice) in the same match, Sprained my thumb, possibly broke my little finger although it seems ok now if a bit crooked, torn ACL and ruptured meniscus in right knee. Which means I still have one good foot, one good knee, and a good hand left. Should be good to go by next season!<br />I will see a specialist soon about the knee, most likely it will need some kind of surgery but I don't know for sure yet. It doesn't really hurt anymore but it doesn't exactly work right either. It sort of feels like it is going to bend backwards sometimes which is not a good feeling really.<br />I hurt it practicing soccer at the end of July but the Norwegian health system is not that speedy in dealing with non life-threatening problems. It took 3 visits to the doctor before they set up an MRI and then it took 2 weeks for someone to look it at after that. Hopefully it will work out. If not I have my eye on a nice used mobility scooter for getting to work.Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-23260483874658319942010-09-06T12:12:00.000-07:002010-09-06T12:12:06.337-07:00The Itunes shuffleSome time last year I decided to try and see if I could get Itunes on my laptop to play ALL of the unplayed songs just using shuffle play. (These are the kinds of thing engineers think of when they are bored). There are just over 2000 songs in my library, and probably around 500 of them were unplayed at that time. Now the list is down to 10 finalists to see which will be the song that Itunes hates the most:<br /><br /> Road Trippin' - Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication<br /> Where Did You Sleep Last Night? - Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York <br /> Polly - Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York<br /> November Spawned a Monster - Morrissey Bona Drag<br /> Spoon - Dave Matthews Band Before These Crowded Streets <br /> Country Girl - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà Vu <br /> The Spangle Maker - Cocteau Twins The Pink Opaque <br /> Road, River and Rail - Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas <br /> Percy's Song - Bob Dylan Biograph <br /> Selfless, Cold and Composed - Ben Folds Five Whatever and Ever Amen<br /><br />Of course the problem is that the fewer unplayed ones you have, the longer it takes for the shuffle to play one of them. I figure the last 10 might take 3-5 months before it plays them all. Another interesting thing is that I have some songs that have been played more than 20 times on shuffle mode, while these have never been played once. Not sure about that random play algorithm that Apple is using....<br />Feel free to vote on any of them that you think will be the last to go.....Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-7946899102895833872010-09-05T10:46:00.001-07:002010-09-05T11:01:57.720-07:00I went to the A-Ha concert last night in Lerkendal stadium in Trondheim. I thought it was a great show, they had a huge stage with giant video screens behind it and the background video artwork was really nice. The band played great and it seemed like everyone was having a good time: <a href="http://www.adressa.no/kultur/article1525634.ece">http://www.adressa.no/kultur/article1525634.ece</a>.<br />I was curious to see if the lead singer Morten could still hit the high notes from "take on me" and he did it! The lyrics still don't make any sense but the song is great.<br />It was a bit cold standing in the field for 3 hours (around 40F) but I was smart enough to wear my long underwear. Probably the first time I needed that for a September concert but Trondheim is already into the fall weather. There was an interesting mix of younger and older people there, since A-ha has been around since the early 80's. This was supposedly a "farewell" tour, but we all know that is no guarantee that we won't see the boys again in Norway.<br />Anyway just in case you haven't seen it lately, the greatest MTV video ever: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EXxMlIExpo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EXxMlIExpo</a>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-71044052790624138872010-06-14T12:16:00.000-07:002010-06-14T12:40:03.881-07:00Back in Trondheim again after a week at the Bluetooth UPF-36 in Beijing. That was my first trip to China. It's somewhat overwhelming to go straight from sleepy Trondheim to Beijing in one day. There are 5 times as many people in Beijing as there are in the entire country of Norway. I went with 2 other engineers from Nordic and we stayed in the Intercontinental Hotel which is basically across the street from most of the Olympic venues that were built for the 2008 Olympics. It seems like they don't really know what to do with all of it now though. All the buildings have big white fences built to keep people out, although you can walk up and down the open area between the bird's next stadium and the other buildings.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcN2oqAsJlySVxVqKO6yoM3yP4hBA4Sg3zAz4lbeppewtAkqpR0EwG6q1I6PEg3dOoHG_a6wOKAqOHvWKdaOMBNGuqFFkpWJnXn_2n1Ki7KkuMVN1yXp6yodi98rtaTjMdGMLRjvLtqA/s1600/IMG_2505.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcN2oqAsJlySVxVqKO6yoM3yP4hBA4Sg3zAz4lbeppewtAkqpR0EwG6q1I6PEg3dOoHG_a6wOKAqOHvWKdaOMBNGuqFFkpWJnXn_2n1Ki7KkuMVN1yXp6yodi98rtaTjMdGMLRjvLtqA/s320/IMG_2505.JPG" /></a> The hotel is very nice, partly because there is approximately 1 employee for every 2 guests. Any hotel or restaurant manager in the U.S. would have a heart attack if they saw how many people were working there. Most of them sort of standing around until somebody told them to do something. The staff was quite helpful though and many of them spoke english well enough to figure out what we were asking for. I did get admonished once by one of the bellhops for giving a taxi driver too big of a tip. The bill was 33 yuan ( about 5 dollars ) and I gave him 40. The bellhop rushed over and said "no no! bill 33 yuan you should only give him 34 now!" Well I thought a 3% tip seemed a bit stingy so I let him keep the 40.<br />We didn't have a lot of time for sightseeing but we did make it to the Great Wall the day before we had to come back. I enjoyed that except for the gaunlet of trinket sellers you had to wade through to get up there. The tourist areas in Beijing have some very aggressive sellers who will literally grab you or get in your way so you can't get by without acknowledging them. We hiked a long way on the wall, maybe 3 kilometers or so (uphill) until we got to a place where the restored part of the wall ended. When we got back to the entrance the guide that brought us there seemed surprised that we went that far.<br />"Oh, I never have a group go that far!"<br />(me) "How long have you been coming up here?<br />"12 years".<br />Leave it to Norwegians. (It wasn't my idea)<br />While I'm on the subject of tourists, is it my imagination or are Americans hard of hearing? Why are they SO LOUD? I could hear my fellow merican's coming like a herd of cheese-doodle eating rhinos from about a half a mile away on top of the wall. I pretended to be from Canada.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4E4kodgIxOedlUMX_EFQrmp4EzixN1qAsKjIzmEbSgEX1Yi08VIhrfB4yuEYhqJ92k0uGR41BK9GaaJIx00niewNclk2J1i1PwRDuDuZl62cGGtq_ygucqRHVa20tSedX-jOqS3KjtQ/s1600/IMG_2545.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4E4kodgIxOedlUMX_EFQrmp4EzixN1qAsKjIzmEbSgEX1Yi08VIhrfB4yuEYhqJ92k0uGR41BK9GaaJIx00niewNclk2J1i1PwRDuDuZl62cGGtq_ygucqRHVa20tSedX-jOqS3KjtQ/s320/IMG_2545.JPG" /></a><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; CLEAR: both"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BACKGROUND: 0% 50%; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial" border="0" alt="Posted by Picasa" align="middle" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" /></a>I was filming traffic out of the back of a van when there was an accident in front of us. Watch how annoyed the black Mercedes gets when he can't get by us. It has diplomatic plates and the special little blue and red lights stuck in the grill.</div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwuBehbnGETbWJN50py7ezj41n8xhsohWqRM4H1hqcJ-zXe5AzZtkrWyHHUfejV7-yzRgHA3mOM1za2vfIHsQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-83443983267071340672010-04-25T12:10:00.000-07:002010-04-25T12:10:37.005-07:00Geiranger in April<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgHcgTHQo2jlLl9utl_tYeyXDpjbBIDaioWCF_LLhKs_b9KH3vh5oVEQwH2yVqSNb7FwpDHqggmw1uKw1JfYE8EdwK7M9X_jxAbUPe3FZ0qqA5iA775qw4_a2xuugpcn9CzO1owTZedg/s1600/IMG_2158.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgHcgTHQo2jlLl9utl_tYeyXDpjbBIDaioWCF_LLhKs_b9KH3vh5oVEQwH2yVqSNb7FwpDHqggmw1uKw1JfYE8EdwK7M9X_jxAbUPe3FZ0qqA5iA775qw4_a2xuugpcn9CzO1owTZedg/s320/IMG_2158.JPG" /></a> <br />Thought I better put a few of these up before they get too old. Leif and Joel and I took a flight from Værnes down to Molde and then to Geiranger a few weeks ago. The scenery was incredible as is usually the case with flying in Norway. I put a few of the pictures here, and the rest are on my picassa site: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqsYi3M1kngeEZRDhTTmXUwReEhFUNvW5BoDFScbA709eYNH4XPIMjMgt8h3uo7x96DDroI2DFjt62S6s6Y6NbsCvZrxWbA4HcOIS4W7cMCgTRMysilEzq7y7ULKqEUZ6rnKj4-Ot2w/s1600/IMG_2162.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqsYi3M1kngeEZRDhTTmXUwReEhFUNvW5BoDFScbA709eYNH4XPIMjMgt8h3uo7x96DDroI2DFjt62S6s6Y6NbsCvZrxWbA4HcOIS4W7cMCgTRMysilEzq7y7ULKqEUZ6rnKj4-Ot2w/s320/IMG_2162.JPG" /></a> <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/mileslsmith/MoldeGeirangerFlight">http://picasaweb.google.com/mileslsmith/MoldeGeirangerFlight</a>#<br /><br />We got a bit lucky with the weather that day, we had almost perfect flying conditions for 3 hours which is not usually the case in Norway. We had some trouble get the flywheel to engage with the starter before we left Værnes, so we decided not to make a full stop in Molde as we weren't certain that we'd be able to take off again. That would have been bad I guess.<br /><br />I think winter has finally lost it's grip in Trondheim. We were still getting snow flurries at the beginning of last week but the sun came out the last 2 days and I think we may have actually hit 50F today. Whoopee! I ran a few miles with just a t-shirt on and I don't think I have done that since last October.<br /><br />There is a big week coming up for me I think. I have a 5k race tomorrow night after work, then on Tuesday there is a practice exam for the norwegian level 1 course. My head is completely stuffed full of adjectives and verbs and pronouns but I'm sure I'll forget at least 1/2 of it as soon as I see the exam. This one doesn't count anyway but it is just practice for the real final exam which is in a month.<br /><br />Tuesday night is also the 2010 outdoor debut of the indomitable Nordic Semiconductor soccer team. Well perhaps that is too strong a word. The fact that I'm on the team should be an indication that we are no threat to the Champions league anytime soon. I think the goal differential last year was something on the order of 150-2, but we remain undaunted. I didn't play last year but I'm going to try and help out this season. I bought some shoes and soccer shorts yesterday and I borrowed some leg guards from Joel so I should be all set. Except for the part about not having a clue how to play soccer :)<br /><br />On Wednesday I will be having a doctors appointment to see if I have a stress fracture in my right foot. See how I conveniently scheduled that appointment AFTER the 5k race and the soccer game? If you are going down, you might as well go down in flames....Cathie B if you are reading this I can see those eyes rolling!<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBqKrwGNCzRw739PiPkTMAbhxGUyS6OKrlS96fwcYM0G8VIr1CxiD_PnUMG-plSjKoqxqpRtD-qLPbOvJ2Lhqwym4WRnZYti0PW-WcritlcQNOHkhKsB3XvvHDvPtdKdS7mJBhTQHs8A/s1600/IMG_2173.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBqKrwGNCzRw739PiPkTMAbhxGUyS6OKrlS96fwcYM0G8VIr1CxiD_PnUMG-plSjKoqxqpRtD-qLPbOvJ2Lhqwym4WRnZYti0PW-WcritlcQNOHkhKsB3XvvHDvPtdKdS7mJBhTQHs8A/s320/IMG_2173.JPG" /></a> <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqot9PnPNWxAYCuCSdJNPhDryH1O6xi8ZdczvNXupfVam3SLBkntTIM2tnneY4rWV1IreTYZL-WaP8fiMISVjob93MLiMnhGY3yzU9y22Wxu5aGUEx4cFJwEgROTbDbs9n9iFYjTs_Og/s1600/IMG_2180.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqot9PnPNWxAYCuCSdJNPhDryH1O6xi8ZdczvNXupfVam3SLBkntTIM2tnneY4rWV1IreTYZL-WaP8fiMISVjob93MLiMnhGY3yzU9y22Wxu5aGUEx4cFJwEgROTbDbs9n9iFYjTs_Og/s320/IMG_2180.JPG" /></a><div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-29735848977536311042010-04-05T11:24:00.000-07:002010-04-05T11:26:27.050-07:00Påske in the mountains<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB3uD5IFe5fwt7XvgFOlyFctzwf9lp01q01_Wl1EPZ8lrk_P8dddJmiclUzp9c5rfU9rUcijGndLf3G6v7ccUr_8ewDtYyzMn0wONHQyrUN0PzMsgrAAo0ernloeahcySflH3muoMdBw/s1600/IMG_2126.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; FLOAT: right; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB3uD5IFe5fwt7XvgFOlyFctzwf9lp01q01_Wl1EPZ8lrk_P8dddJmiclUzp9c5rfU9rUcijGndLf3G6v7ccUr_8ewDtYyzMn0wONHQyrUN0PzMsgrAAo0ernloeahcySflH3muoMdBw/s320/IMG_2126.JPG" /></a> Easter is a great holiday in Norway. The weather starts to warm up but the snow in the mountains is still great for skiing and everyone here tries to take advantage of the 5 day weekend by heading to the hills. Leif and I decided to go back to Gålå in central Norway to do some skiing. We had been there once before but it was in January and it was snowing like mad so you really couldn't see anything. The weather was great this time, so we got two and a half good days of skiing in. The downhill area there isn't huge but the runs are fun and the snow was really perfect. We did downhill all day on Friday and then switched to cross country on Saturday. I'm not exactly sure how far we skied on Saturday, depends on which map you look at it was somewhere between 16 and 20km, plus the 2 extra km we added when we were momentarily lost :)<br />The hotel there is really nice - here is a link in case anyone else feels like checking it out - <a href="http://www.gala.no/EN/Default.aspx?tabid=568">http://www.gala.no/EN/Default.aspx?tabid=568</a><br />The price of the room included breakfast and dinner and they gave you little bags to pack a lunch in as well, so the meals for every day are basically covered by the hotel. I'm pretty sure I was the only vegetarian in the dining room every day but they were really nice and made up a good meal for me every day. There were a lot of families there so we had fun watching the little norwegian kids running around in circles and having fun. Didn't take them long to discover the ice cream cooler in the dining area.<br />On the way back we took a slightly longer way home through the Rondane mts. There is some incredible scenery there as well. It was well worth a little extra time to see it in winter. There are some large plateaus there just at or above the tree line, so in winter you just see an incredible view of pure white mountain peaks across a huge flat area with a few trees and cabins poking up. More pictues here: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/mileslsmith/20100404">http://picasaweb.google.com/mileslsmith/20100404</a>#<br />It felt like driving through Antartica or maybe the moon covered in snow. Would not be a very good place to run out of gas either. Anyway it was back to norskkurs homework today and then back to work tomorrow. Time to get the mountain bike out - I don't think the snow will last much longer in Trondheim.<br />Ha det! <div style="TEXT-ALIGN: right; CLEAR: both"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BACKGROUND: 0% 50%; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial" border="0" alt="Posted by Picasa" align="middle" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-30051934424561389642010-03-13T11:59:00.000-08:002010-03-13T11:59:58.095-08:00new and improved snowThe weather gods were having some wild mood swings this week. We had 4 days of very warm weather with rain at the beginning of the week, and I was beginning to think the snow was on the way out. Most of it had melted by Thursday which mostly just left wet ice and a lot of leftover grit from the whole winter. Then came Friday, the weather cooled down a few degrees and we ended up with about 8 inches of new snow. Thus my poor little Audi buried in the picture below. This was from Saturday morning after I had cleaned it off completely on Friday night. I finally took a spill on the ice walking to work last week. That was the first time I have fallen on the ice but I managed to catch myself with my hands before anything important hit the ground.<br />We had a group of engineers from around the world come to Trondheim this week for some Bluetooth related testing. I felt bad for those guys, they saw the worst week of weather we've had in about 5 months. Of course most of them left Thursday night or Friday morning right before it started snowing and everything looked nice again. Most of them probably won't be in any hurry to come back. I think at least 3 or 4 of them slipped and fell on the ice. I saw one of them go down pretty hard holding on to an umbrella. He fell backwards right on his tailbone. He got up again but he wasn't walking quite straight after that.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSjck44o6cGUJv7WjBGFdNgkn4yG_7ZFiDLUvI8ZAydAfRNEV18Y4HVqyrd-u1aBzGaZgzSSXQm5f1AUm3LI5LwMmc8ZwbXzZsTyNuFEFEeunqY3swvJX0N7A5GXEc4hnhvbWU2SqTw/s1600-h/IMG_2077.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSjck44o6cGUJv7WjBGFdNgkn4yG_7ZFiDLUvI8ZAydAfRNEV18Y4HVqyrd-u1aBzGaZgzSSXQm5f1AUm3LI5LwMmc8ZwbXzZsTyNuFEFEeunqY3swvJX0N7A5GXEc4hnhvbWU2SqTw/s400/IMG_2077.JPG" /></a> <br />The Norwegian class is going well. We have a tough grammar test coming up next week though so I probably should be studying instead of writing this but ja vel - jeg studerer senere.<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-73263345911929927632010-02-28T10:48:00.000-08:002010-02-28T10:48:22.834-08:00beatiful ski dayMy favorite time of year in Norway! The weather was beautiful this weekend. It was just cold enough in the early morning that even my battered old no-wax skis could get some traction. The sun was out all day and there is really something nice about the combination of bright sunlight, blue sky and white snow with an occasional mountain and fjord tossed in for good measure.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGRUkmJ6p1OFEAWPenvuGEUTBkByDG-axhCgyhOcuKCJ9MulmcxvIpIPO2aRSKlcBkg4OhXy5ajAxht9xYohHu8HH1YY2oTcW0Qc5gI6WlOdsYzG5-VFgJiDTylUYNnpgLvRsYnk1g9Q/s1600-h/IMG_2073.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGRUkmJ6p1OFEAWPenvuGEUTBkByDG-axhCgyhOcuKCJ9MulmcxvIpIPO2aRSKlcBkg4OhXy5ajAxht9xYohHu8HH1YY2oTcW0Qc5gI6WlOdsYzG5-VFgJiDTylUYNnpgLvRsYnk1g9Q/s400/IMG_2073.JPG" /></a> I got lost on the way to <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Grønlia</span> for a few minutes but the trusty map got me pointed in the right direction again and I managed to beat the lunch crowd to the warming cabin there. There is a really nice view from the cabin down over the lake, although admittedly the lake is frozen solid right now...<br />I tried the brown cheese with a waffle today for lunch. It actually tastes pretty good after a few hours of skiing, even if the brown cheese looks kind of strange. I have been working on my 3rd written essay for the Norwegian class today. It is probably about the level that a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">Norwegian</span> second grader would write :)<br />I'm struggling a bit with the all important description of brushing my teeth in the mornings - <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Jeg</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">pusser</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">tenne</span>? <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">pusse</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">tennene</span>? <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">pusser</span> tenner? Too many combinations. Google translate is not that much help with <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">grammar</span>, as it seems to be on about the same 2<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">nd</span> grade level.<br />We had a week off of class for winter break, now we have another month of classes before Easter.<br />I took a break from running after the race in January, but now I'm starting to circle the new neighborhood after work now. It stays light until about 6:15 now so there is plenty of daylight again. By the end of March it will be light until almost 9 pm, which is another reason March is one of my favorite months here.<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-36856135685569888732010-02-08T12:52:00.000-08:002010-02-08T12:52:59.132-08:00All moved in<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnJb4SqamZ6ozGx1FNxi3ICG1g3UDrinJQSDpnbhEzltyAIPe_ekAax0cfNhWVAGWqLpMNfe6kiu6QJR9zAK0s25UbALMGleInqomDR1BYxPWINDkK-PZNPzO_ojdBHem2WJq3r9MJA/s1600-h/IMG_1994.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnJb4SqamZ6ozGx1FNxi3ICG1g3UDrinJQSDpnbhEzltyAIPe_ekAax0cfNhWVAGWqLpMNfe6kiu6QJR9zAK0s25UbALMGleInqomDR1BYxPWINDkK-PZNPzO_ojdBHem2WJq3r9MJA/s400/IMG_1994.JPG" /></a> I have made it into my new apartment finally. Not without some adventures but that is to be expected in Norway I guess. Moving anytime is not really fun, it is particularly not fun when it is -20C outside. I don't have any good pictures of the new place yet but I'll work on that.<br />It didn't really take me that long to find a new place, but I feel lucky to have found something this close to work. Even though I had movers help me with most of the stuff, including all the heavy things, I think I still made about 30 trips in the Audi carrying the fragile things. Probably just as well after I watched the movers carry the "not fragile" things. I was berated by Vladimir (not his real name) an old Russian guy, for buying as he put it "the heaviest sofa in Norway". Thanks Vlad. I think he had his nephew or grandson or some relative helping him out. That kid is seriously rethinking his future after hauling my 5000 pound sofa down 4 flights of ice covered concrete stairs. I was down by the truck when I heard a horrible scraping noise coming down the stairs later. I thought, well they should be moving the bed now, but there is no way that horrible noise could be coming from them sliding my nice wood bed frame on the concrete steps.........oh yes it could. Thanks a lot guys. Even so I was feeling pretty good when we had managed to load the truck and get it to the new place in only about 2 hours. First thing off the truck - the sofa. 5 minutes later it's lying on its side in the driveway. Vlad didn't speak a lot of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">English</span> but I understood "There's no way in hell that will fit up those stairs". Crap. Next thing off the truck - the scratched up <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ikea</span> wooden bed. 5 minutes later that's lying next to the sofa. No way in hell that will go up there either. I said some bad words at that moment. Vlad and the kid continued on carry the things that actually WOULD fit up the cursed stairway, while I stood in the driveway trying to figure out what I was going to do when the house owner came home and found a bed and a sofa blocking her driveway. Vlad offered these words of wisdom "You know you're not in the USA anymore, they do sell smaller furniture here". I could see that the only way I was going to get that bed up here was by completely disassembling it in the driveway. Not fun if you have ever put <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ikea</span> furniture together or taken it apart, in the snow, when it's -20C while trying not to lose any of the 4 million little screws or <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">weird</span> fasteners. The sofa was either going to have to go up or out, there was no <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">disassembly</span> option. So I removed the metal frame off the bottom and told them to try again. This time the kid earned his money, stuffing that thing up the stairs like a giant grey sausage. They drove off shortly after that, leaving me in the driveway with the bed. I somehow managed to get it apart, but I haven't had the ambition to try and reassemble it yet. I think I have all the parts but a few missing screws wouldn't hurt anyway right?<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266230658819742946.post-48652896988582139772010-01-23T11:04:00.000-08:002010-01-23T11:22:31.536-08:00Frosty day in TyholtWe had a couple of days of freezing fog a week ago, so I was lucky enough to get some nice pictures that day from the Tyholt tower. This picture is looking down towards the Telenor office building where I work. The bigger buildings on the left are part of the NTNU marine science campus.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWtryX-8CiNIjG9jLCiQXt6_JrwrcXbBTaof2xNsjVec1MvjkncLtzEP0SZT429EEFXcpO-aaR7gs-viZmONZpd7DN82GQJejKdly0f4aWmMiN-GNVtSSyG1ijm7bUFFizeeKatLmPMA/s1600-h/IMG_2025.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWtryX-8CiNIjG9jLCiQXt6_JrwrcXbBTaof2xNsjVec1MvjkncLtzEP0SZT429EEFXcpO-aaR7gs-viZmONZpd7DN82GQJejKdly0f4aWmMiN-GNVtSSyG1ijm7bUFFizeeKatLmPMA/s400/IMG_2025.JPG" /></a><br />I have been very busy the last few weeks, starting when the owners of my building said that my apartment was sold, so I needed to find a new place. I technically had 3 months, but they were hoping that I would be out by the end of January, and through luck I did manage to find another place already. You can actually see it in this photo if you know where to look, but basically it's just behind those tall apartment buildings in the center of the pic. It should take me a whole 5 minutes to walk to work from there. I managed to talk the owners of my current apartment into paying for the move, so hopefully my back won't be destroyed by trying to carry a sofa down 4 flights of stairs. The new place I found is the top half of a house, with 2 bedrooms and about 80 sq. meters of space compared to my current 47, so having some extra room will be nice, except when the heating bill comes. I'll have to park outside now too, so I guess I have to break down and buy an ice scraper. I started packing up the last few days and it is quite amazing how much stuff I've accumulated in only 1 year.<br /><br />I also started the 1st level Norwegian course at NTNU last week, so now I have that for 2 classes a week until the end of May (6 hours a week). I think it will be quite fun actually, we have a small class of around 15 people, and almost everyone is from a different country. The first few classes were pretty easy, but I have a feeling it will get much harder soon.<br /><br />Just to make my life a bit more stressful, last week someone managed to duplicate my debit/visa card and go on some spending spree at Macy's in NYC. I got a call from the bank last Sunday morning asking if I had tried to spend $8000 at Macy's the day before, so I said "well no, I've been in Trondheim all weekend". So she said "OK, we'll have to send you a new card and then you can file a claim for the fraudulent charges." Which is fine of course except that it takes a week for the new card to show up and in the meantime I have no money and no debit card either. So I managed to live for a week on about $10 worth of change that I dug out of my change box. Yesterday the new card showed up, so I gave it a workout this afternoon and it seems to be fine. Yea for money!<br /><br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; CLEAR: both"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BACKGROUND: 0% 50%; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial" border="0" alt="Posted by Picasa" align="middle" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" /></a></div>Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292185271805356330noreply@blogger.com0