So long Februar

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. They clean themselves.....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.
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!

Vegas for the win

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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 :)
The entire state of Wisconsin was still in euphoria over the Packers winning the Super Bowl, so it was a great week to visit!