Battle Of The Sexes….

And here I thought several of you would want to make me happy yesterday by leaving a comment and I only got one comment all day! (Thanks Fi!) Well, I forgive you guys…I’m sure you had your reasons…and admittedly there are many times I am in visiting blogs but don’t leave a message so I can’t exactly complain about something I do myself, now can I? But it’s so fun to get comments!!!!

So I’ve been teasing the Captain lately about being part of the “weaker” sex. I started by buying this sign….thought it was hillarious myself…but he didn’t see the funniness in it…hmmm?

He told me the other day he’s going to find his own sign to hang up on our unofficial sign wall in the kitchen…that ought to be a good sign….but will probably take him a long time to find one since I’d imagine most of these quote signs are made up by women and we won’t degrade ourselves…that’s not funny!!! HAHAHA!

We have kennel cough in the house also…we went to the vet on Thursday with Jackson who was hacking and coughing as we thought he had gotten something in his throat the day he and Nanna stuck off in the woods during the ski trip with the kids…but nope, nothing in his throat he has plain and simple, kennel cough, which is like a human cold for dogs. Very contagious and apparently the vet said, tons of it going around. Well, for being very contagious, only the MALE dogs in the house are affected…..so far! Hmmm….interesting….

They do look a little “weaker” wouldn’t ya say??

Not like my strong girls…

Look at those beauties…strong, graceful, and elegant! Not a sign of kennel cough!!!

Then yesterday the Captain took the two youngest to Brumunddal to drive go-carts. They called me on the way home and said, “Daddy crashed”…”WHAT??? REALLY??” “Yep…into a steel pole that wasn’t really protected very well by rubber tires” When the Captain walked in he was evidently in pain but wasn’t going to let on to exactly HOW much pain he was in. I kept insisting he let me take him to the emergency room but nooooooo….he’d see how he felt the next day. Through squinted eyes and painful grimaces he would move around the living room. White wine and Jegermeister were the only pain killers he’d allow himself and every time I’d ask if he was ok I’d get a half hearted, “yeah” in return. Say it with me people- STUBBORN!!!! This morning when I awoke he had already been up for a couple hours. He was watching JACKASS the movie, complaining what a stupid bunch of idiots these guys in the movie were and at the same time chuckling to himself over various scenes! He is still in pain but claims that the pain isn’t as bad as it was when he first got up this morning so it’s probably manageable and still not in need of seeing a doctor! Trust me, every arguement I can think of has been raised with this stubborn man, what kind of example he is being for his kids- not seeking medical help when he’s been injured, how he is leaving for Brazil tomorrow and if there is something seriously wrong he’ll only have Brazillian doctors from tomorrow and I’m sure they are all quality doctors….but nothing is working…he’s still not asking to go to the emergency room! In some ways I hope he’s right on this and it’s just something that needs time but in other ways I’d love for him to be proven wrong….to know he should have listened to me all along!! Stay tuned folks, I’ll let you know how this goes…

On a little more positive note, I wanted to share with you all my new curtains. Now, don’t go getting excited, again, this is no interior blog, I can’t even BEGIN to compare with you all who are the real interior geniuses out there but I’m SLOWLY trying to find a style…slowly…Now to give you some background, I have just left my Christmas curtains up, they were red and simple and the color was nice against the logs in my house and quite honestly I didn’t think very much more about it…but after surfing around at several wonderful interior blogs I began to think it was time for a change…Kid Interior, an interior chain store here in Norway, was having a sale on curtains and well, if there is one thing I love better then new curtains it’s curtains on sale!!! Ahhh, but what color to get? They had rusty pink, purple, cream, and dark grey, and a lime green to choose from. The pillows on my new sofa are light pink and rusty pinkish so I thought about pink curtains but the Captain put his foot down and said NO PINK CURTAINS….so we came home with the next best thing…

Purple!!! For the kitchen we (I should say the Captain…which amazed me) found the following…

They weren’t on sale, but since he picked them out and I liked them too, we went with these…now I really want to paint my green and red kitchen cabinets to a creamy color and I asked the Captain how I would go about painting the cabinet doors in the kitchen and all he did was let out a huge sigh and said, “Oh geez!” So I guess I won’t be painting kitchen cabinets right away but I’m not letting the idea go completely!!

For dinner last night I made a favourite of the whole family, Fløte gratinert klippfisk, or in English- yeah…hmmm..how would I translate this, well, let me start by saying, klippfisk is Cod fish that is salted and dried and looks like this when you get it:

Wikpedia writes this about klippfisk/Clipfish:

Clip fish are salted and dried fish , anything produced by cod , but haddock , long , tusk and saithe can also be used. Clipfish is a far more refined product than dried fish , and should not be confused with this one. Dried fish wiped out in the wind, and no added salt. Clipfish wiped now indoors, and is always added plenty of salt.

In Norwegian coastal culture is the clipfish an exotic touch. In contrast to the dried fish is bacalao a product that is introduced into Norway from abroad in recent times. Likely is it that Spanish fishermen "invented" the fish when they caught at Newfoundland and needed a conservation method , as early as around 1500.

I adore Cod fish so this is a favourite for me, I’ve tried clip fish in Bacalao which is a spanish dish and a friend I worked with once gave me this recipe I made for the family last night..you start by watering the fish down overnight…laying your salted dry fish in a bowl of water at night and then change it in the morning so you reduce the salt flavor. Then you cook up the fish, the best is to take the fish off the burner as soon as it begins to boil and just let it soak in the hot water for about 15 minutes. Then you de-bone and de-skin the fish so you just have the flakey fish meat. In the meantime you’ve cooked up about 8-10 big sized potatoes without skin just until they are tender enough to get a knife easily in and out of them- they won’t be completely cooked but almost. You slice the potatoes and lay them in a baking dish, add sliced onion pieces and some finely chopped garlic, then some fish, repeat with potatoes, onions, garlic and fish until you run out of ingredients.

Then you pour enough cream (or Fløte in Norwegian) and two eggs which you’ve beaten together, over the entire thing until you have covered everything or at least the potatoes then you sprinkle shredded cheese over the top and finish off with some crushed black pepper.

Bake at about 180-200C (350-375F) for about 30-40 minutes.

Should look something like this:

Serve with a crisp simple salad and some lovely white wine!! MMMMM……

For desert I made the Peanut butter, oatmeal, and chocolate chunk cookies I told you about in THIS post. The Captain’s eyes lit up and he looked at me and said he had a great idea! He’s been playing around with the idea of starting up with a fish truck here when he’s not out at sea. Going up to Møre, where we use to live, buying fresh fish and then selling it down here from the back of a truck (like the one we bought the clip fish from which was from Møre)…well his idea was that he would sell the fish AND my cookies!!! Fish and cookies eh??? Hmmmmm…….not sure that would fly- in the same truck?? Do you??

Oh and before I go..a little update. The Captain came out of the bathroom, sat down next to me and gave me a big kiss. He said if he hadn’t been in pain he would have come back and joined me in bed this morning…(oooo lala) and my response to that was, “well, let’s not go get any pain killers or anything!” and then he looked at me and said, “Would it make YOU happy if I go get an x-ray? Because I’d do it for you!” (you women out there know this is man talk for, I need an x-ray but don’t want to admit it myself but I’ll wrap it real nice by saying I’ll do it for you…) I of course answered that I’d be extremely happy if he would get an x-ray, even if I end up being wrong and there is nothing serious going on, it would make me so happy. So as I finish this post the Captain is on his way to Hamar to get an x-ray and find out how bad the damage is from yesterday. And that I will let you know next time we meet….

Until next time my friends…..

 

Flower Art

I will in no way try to claim that I am a computer artist. I am not even a computer literate…I can log on, log off, check email, and surf…and I can cut down photos and “fix” colors and make them soft looking. That is about the extent of my talents with computers. However this morning I’ve been sitting here in my pj’s and playing around with some of my photos and a photo program Sarah downloaded for me called, Photoscape. One of those easy programs for “dummies” like me and it’s fun to see what I can come up with with the different programs on photoscape!!

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.  ~Salvador Dali

Joy is a flower that blooms when you do.  ~Author Unknown

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness.  Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.  ~H. Jackson Browne

Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.  ~Janet Lane

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.  ~Robert Brault

And now a song which makes me happy to hear, this is Norway’s contribution this year to the Eurovision Song Contest which will be held in Düsseldorf Germany. The singer is Stella Mwangi ( I know, it doesn’t sound very Norwegian but Norway is growing and becoming international for every year…this is a good sign that they are open to a more international version of a Norwegian representative!)

Note: In Swahili, “haba haba” means “little by little”; “hujaza kibaba” means “fills the measure”

The Captain leaves for Brazil on Monday, so we’re going to enjoy our weekend together and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend also!! Thank you so much for taking time to stop by and visit my little piece of cyberspace!! If you like what you see, leave a little comment, that always makes me happy….and being happy is important, don’t ya think??

Until next time my friends…..

It Starts With Lunch, Then A Walk, And Finally A Couple Runaways…

So I thought of you all this morning as I was making my lunch…I thought of getting my camera to take photos of my lunch so I could share that with you…I know I know, contain yourselves…

First you start with a package of potato lefse (a Norwegian soft flatbread- kinda like a tortilla only made with potatoes)

Then you need some Snøfrisk which is like cream cheese only it’s made with 80% goat’s milk and 20% cow milk. If you can’t find this at your local store, cream cheese will work fine.

Next you want to cut up some sun dried tomatoes and red onion…

With some ham and fresh basil you put it all together…

And voila- LUNCH!!

The little monkeys at work asked me what I was eating and when I was telling them the ingredients they looked at me with squiggly little faces and said, “SNOW FISH???” (for the Snøfrisk) They are such monkeys….As an added note here, you can also exchange the ham, basil, tomatoe, and onions for smoked salmon and chopped leek on top of the snøfrisk (cream cheese), roll and bon appetitt!!

So I came home from work today and it was a gorgeous day so I decided I’d take Bently and we’d use the spark. The Spark is a nifty little invention to help Norwegians (and anyone else who happens to be in very cold places with snow and ice on the ground) around…

You can tell I use mine alot right?? Hahahaha, just kidding, we’ve had some snowfall lately and the kids haven’t had school this week because of winter vacation, they usually use this thing to get down to the bus stop fast when they are running late….I would come to understand why later on in my trip…but let’s begin shall we?

There is my spark all cleaned off for snow and ready to go with one Leonberger attached…sorry about the pee pee marks in the snow…instead of leaving bread crumbs our dogs pee on the snow so we can find our way home again…they’re well trained don’t ya think??

Heading down the first hill which is straight ahead in this photo (around the curve) I realized that those metal feet on the spark move quite fast on ice and snowy grounds and I’m not very talented when it comes to driving fast things. So after a wobbly descent down the hill I decided I better take it easy and figure out how to drive this thing before I throw caution to the wind and try another hill.

A bit past these woods I decided to throw caution to the wind again…a tad prematurely I’d soon find out…as I raced down the hill the speed of my spark increased like a ferrari on a race track. I knew a crash was eminent and all I could think of was my camera was going to be smashed to bits…I didn’t think of myself or even my four legged friend attached to the speeding “bullet” just my camera. When I realized we weren’t hitting flat ground and slowing down I decided it was time to ditch my ride in order to save my hide…all I remember was throwing the spark to the side and diving into a pile of snow right outside a vacation home (which hopefully wasn’t occupied when I made my life saving jump). My hat flew one way and I remember twisting my body so that I landed under my camera and my camera landed on me- saving it from any permanent damage…I on the other hand was left terribly shaken, embarrassed, and confused…I surveyed the damage- my hat lie a couple yards back, my spark was on the side and a stunned Bently was looking at me like- “what the hell just happened???” Trying to collect myself as quick as possible in case there was an audience watching me from the vacation house and trying to calm Bently down who was obviously shaken by our high speed race down the hill and finally our uncontrollable crash. No, I didn’t take pictures of this…but after I collected myself and my pooch we continued our walk…I’ll be quiet for awhile and let you enjoy it…

(psst….these are ski tracks, they are all over the island, The Captain has been on just about every one)

(psst..me again, this is a sign showing a path into the woods that leads from the place I am standing at (vikhagan) to the church (kirka). I thought it was neat and wanted to show you)

(psst….yeah yeah, me again…just wanted to tell you, this is looking from Helgøya toward Tingnes which is a little village next to our island. That bridge is what I cross every day to get to work and anywhere else I might need to go…)

(I know you’re wondering what these poles are- they are the top of the fence around the local park here on the island, you can’t see the rest of the fence, it’s under the snow…)

You know, spikes on your chin are actually quite fashionable in certain circles….

I think somebody’s cold……good thing he’s got that fur coat on!!!

I don’t know if you can make the photo big enough to see this but in the right hand top window there is a face in one of the bottom window panes….oooooo scary!!!!

As we got back to the top of the island and closer to home we met Julia who came skiing out of the woods….”ugh….you haven’t seen a couple leonbergers by the name of Nanna and Jackson have you? We lost them in the woods…” Not the words you want to hear so off we went as quick as we could to the house, yelling the whole time for Nanna and Jackson and getting no response. Thomas was apparently still in the woods looking for them and I jumped into my car and drove around to the back side of the woods in case they ran out on that side but no such luck. However, by the time I got home again Julia was pointing down into the field…and I saw them…Bonnie and Clyde…aka Nanna and Jackson trotting along the tractor tracks in the snow…

We called them and called them and they stopped up and looked at us, obviously exhausted from their little runaway romp in the woods…

We called and called and at times they looked like they would take the dive and jump into the snow in front of them and make their way home…

But they were too tired and weren’t budging….so Julia had to wade across the deep snow in order to make a path for our oh so spoiled four legged family members…

With the new path Julia had just made for them, the gang finally made their way home…

I was going to get mad at my two runaways but then I saw that face come up the hill toward me and how could I be mad at her?? They just found a great smell in the woods and had to track it a bit…they are kids…and the woods and snow = FUN FUN FUN!!!

Thanks for spending the day with me folks…I’ll try not to make it too long tomorrow…hope you’ll be back too…

Until next time my friends….