Catching Up

There are many updates. The temperature hit 90 today, which is a bit interesting considering air conditioning is almost nonexistent here. The odd thing is, I pardon my use of the metric system, but in Norway, 20C (68F) seems much warmer than 68 back in Minnesota. I would consider wearing long sleeves biking whenever the temps were in the 60s. Here, short sleeve weather starts at 15ish. On the other hand, 30C (86F) seems cooler here than in the midwest. I am guessing there is much less humidity here, and we often have an ocean breeze.

I started painting the house, and am making OK progress. It is a bit overwhelming, working on this solo. Lise has been busy looking after Julian, and she is pregnant with our second child--- so no painting or changing the cat box for her. Pregnancy has some serious perks. She had her first doctor appointment this week, and could hear the heartbeat, which makes it all the more real. It is still quite early--- we are expecting in February. But already I can see time is passing much more quickly than when we were waiting for Julian. With him, I literally felt like a little kid, waiting for Christmas--- and time was standing still. Julian keeps us plenty busy as it is.

This morning I took Julian for a bike ride. I took him in the trailer up to the tower in Ullandhaug. Gravity takes on entirely new dimensions when towing a kid trailer.
When we returned he fell asleep, interrupting his normal nap schedule. We decided to head downtown to the Gladmat Fest--- promptly at noon to avoid the crowds.

Pushing a stroller through thousands of people tends to be a bit stressful, and we managed to avoid the intense crowds (and find decent parking). After Julian had enough, we stopped off at a new park by the oil museum, then headed home. Once home, we filled the inflatible kid's pool on our terrace in the backyard. One of these days I will post a photo of the warning lable inside. It is written in multiple languages--- including three flavors of English--- one for the UK, Australia, and the US. The US goes into all sorts of detailed warnings the rest of the languages seem to ignore. For example, you should not use the pool inside another pool. It is quite amusing.

I ended up taking the day off from painting, which was well-deserved. After dinner, I biked down to the biathlon in Sandnes--- on roller skis. I saw several famous biathletes--- none of whom I recall their names. After I returned home, I watched it on taped delay-- on TV. I even saw myself. I felt like a character in a Philip K. Dick sci-fi novel. At the race, I spied an new, old-style ambulance--- station wagon design--- and a Mercedes, no less. I reminded me of the ambulances when I was a kid. Around here, if anything serious goes down, helicopters are used. There are really no shoulders to pull over for emergency vehicles anyway.