Let's sum up the last 2 weeks:

flights: 8
airports: 6
miles flown: 14800
rental cars: 3
miles driven: 550
states: 4
parties: 1
funerals: 1 (mom)
weddings: 0
track meets: 2
hugs: 100+
ibuprofen tablets smuggled into Norway: 200
jet lag: massive

May Day

I promised a picture with no snow, so here ya go...finally!

Today was May Day, so we had the day off of work and luckily it was a beautiful day here. The sun was out all day and there was no wind so it was a great day for bike riding and walking outside. I set a new record for my longest continuous downhill today on the bike - 3.6 kilometers without pedaling. I think I can squeeze another 1k out of the same route but I need a road bike probably. The knobby tires on the mt. bike didn't give me enough speed on the first part of the hill.
After that I took the car on a nice drive down to past Klæbo, to Selbusjøen lake. That is one big-ass lake.
In the evening I rode my bike through the Kristiansten fort and then down through Solsiden and along the harbor. I saw a group of Norwegian teenagers throwing an American football in the park by the fort. They threw it end over end which I got a kick out of. I resisted the urge to stop and show them how to throw it properly. I think this was the most people I've seen outdoors since I got here. Solsiden was nearly standing room only in the outdoor restaurants and cafes. I think the lesson is when the sun comes out in Trondheim, get your butt outside....

More Language Fail

It's important to go full fart.

The risks of going partial fart are many.

Bring it on girl.

Easter ski trip

I promised I would stop posting pictures with snow in them - so I tried but at least this one has some moss and rocks and other stuff. My esteemed manager Torstein told Joel and Leif and I that he would take us for a little ski trip in a national park over Easter break. He wasn't kidding. We left at 8:30 in the morning and I think I got home at 9 at night. In between was many hours of skiing and a few hours of sitting around a campfire cooking up some grub. We also drove up possibly one of the worst looking roads I've ever seen in my life. (and it was a toll road) I was quite certain we were going to have to push that car out of some nasty looking mud ruts but somehow we made it through there. Torstein drove like a world champion rally car driver to get us through. I tried to get more pictures but the battery died after about 10 shots so this was maybe the best one I was able to get. We spent quite a bit of time skiing above the tree line, which isn't that high at this latitude (maybe 400 meters or so). Skiing up the small mountain wasn't that bad actually, it was much harder coming down the other side on narrow XC skis and wet snow. We all made it though, no deaths or serious injuries were reported. I didn't see any reindeer or big animals while we were skiing but of course on the way back we saw a moose about 5 minutes outside of Trondheim. I think this was the last week any skiing would be possible in that park, the snow was still deep in places but very wet and hard to ski in. Anyway I'm glad we were able to make that trip. Many thanks to Torstein and Eirik for guiding us.

Ah come on ...75%?

www.genderanalyzer.com was 75% sure that my blog was written by a woman.
I'm 99% sure that it wasn't, but I'll leave that 1% in there because there are no sure things in life :)
Happy Easter to all.

Someday soon

Someday I will publish a picture that doesn't have snow in it. Hopefully soon. My friend Cletus took this out of the car window when we made a little drive up to Jonsvatnet reservoir a few weeks ago. The days are getting much longer now, it is light until almost 9pm already. Yesterday was the first day since I got here that I was able to sit outside in the sunshine on my back deck without freezing.
Yesterday I helped Cletus move in to a new apartment in Lade. He is leaving next week to go and get his family in India. He hasn't seen his wife and children for 5 months (except on a webcam), so I'm sure it will be a happy reunion. We made a couple of trips to Ikea yesterday to get some beds and things so there should be enough furniture for them when they arrive in mid-April. I was approached several times by a somewhat creepy looking Easter-chicken giving out chocolates at Ikea. I passed as I already have an apartment full of chocolate. We stuffed my car as full as you could possibly get it and got everything he had from the company apartment to the new place in one trip. Cletus went off in search of a cable modem after that so I hope that he found one that works.
I will be making my first trip back to the U.S. in early May, so I'm looking forward to that. Well looking forward to some parties actually but not necessarily to the part about doing my U.S. tax return. I nearly had a cardiac episode this week when my laptop refused to boot into Windows for 2 days. I somehow got it back up although I have little faith in it rebooting from now on. I will only reboot if I really really have to. In the meantime I have ubuntu linux installed on the 2nd drive so I can always get that up, unfortunately I can't get skype to work on it yet.

Octodad

I am going to be the Octodad of Audi's. I only have 6 more to go. I purchased this fine 1996 example from a small dealer in Trondheim a couple of weeks ago. It seems to be in pretty good shape. I have only driven it a few times but so far no important parts have fallen off or caught fire. I did suffer the horror of paying $80 to fill it with gas yesterday. Leif and I stuffed it full of Ikea furniture yesterday and found out exactly how far forward you can shove the front seats and still drive. I think I have the Audi logo from the steering wheel embossed into my chest now.