Friday, August 31, 2007

cooling my heels

Still not working. On Tuesday I called my doctor's office: no result on the mrsa test yet. On Wednesday, a week after I took it, I called both in the morning and in the afternoon. Still no results. So I got on the phone to the laboratory that is running the test, and guess what? They had received the test but it wasn't labeled. So now I have had to go and have it taken again. I was fuming! This means another whole week before I can start working. A week without income. "You don't have to pay anything this time" they said when I had retaken the test! I should think not. Their mistake has cost me a weeks wages!!!

The weather is still predominantly sunny, but cooler. Definitely with the feel of fall. While waiting for the mrsa results, I am cooling my heels at home. Meantime I am spending my time cooking, gardening and working out.

On Tuesday and Friday mornings I go to spinning followed by toning exercizes. Thursday afternoons is orienteering training, and last Saturday I orienteered in a competition. Came in last (by 20 minutes) cause I didn't realize that a ski trail was supposed to be the path marked on the map. Next week I'll finally start dancing again. Husband has agreed to go swing dancing with me. That will be Wednesday evenings.

Since Husband has stopped eating meat, I'd got one of Molly Katzen's cookbooks second hand on the commons in Ithaca. She's the lady who started the Moosewood restaurant, and I'm trying out some of her recipes. Unfortunately many of them use various wines and other alcoholic beverages, and as a non-drinking family we don't have that sort of thing in the house, and I can't bring myself to go out and buy it just to experiment with recipes which I might decide I didn't like...

In the garden Husband and I built supports for the raspberries - a storm had broken off all the branches full of nearly ripe fruit - and planted a new strawberry patch with the runners from the old patch.

Friday, August 24, 2007

As soon as I turm my back...

Father called today. My sister, Ilian is in the hospital again. Some sort of intestinal blockage. They don't know why yet. I talked to her. She sounded tired, a little depressed. Can't be much fun tied to the bed with a tube in her nose waiting for the blockage to resolve. She said her friend Helena was keeping her company. Family are all far away. I hope it's nothing serious. Norway seemed so safe. An out-of-the-way corner of the world. A haven. But no sooner am I there, than Ilian is back in the Hospital. Should I have stayed? I don't know.

The kids are doing well. School started this week. The boys have started college. They are in the same program and each has recieved an advanced laptop with state of the art software.
Audun has been working in the evenings after school. He has a surprise visit from his girlfriend this weekend.
Tormod is volunteering every evening at the student pub, where he is chief of security.
Irene has been making all the cakes while the pastry chef is on vacation. She makes delicious cakes! Now the baker has bursitis and Irene has to do the baking as well. She worked a 9 hr day today and her days off are cancelled. She looks tired. But what a feat to be entrusted with so much responsibility after only a couple of months!
Ingvild loves school! She has chosen theoretical as opposed to practical math, and has applied for spanish as a forein language. They have been dancing and singing in the choir the past two days. A former friend of Tormods has been hanging out with her alot. He has just restarted high school at 19 after 2 years in a vocational program to be a mechanic.

It's been a beautiful week. Sunny, 70's. The farmers have been combining all week and Husband is overworking again, doing the feeding and milking while the farmer is out on the combine. I'm still hanging out at home. Still waiting for mrsa clearance before I can start work. They say it will take a week before I get the results of the test.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Home, sweet home

"How is it to be back?" is what everyone asks me. What shall I say? I miss the climate. Where the summer in Ithaca was sunny, whether cool, or hot, dry or humid, with the occasional thunderstorm, here it is cloudy, cool (50's and 60's), humid, rainy, with the occasional cool, breezy, sunny day thrown in.

But I love the hills and forests! And I love being back in my own house and garden, living with my husband, my children close by, surrounded by my pets: Topsy the border collie, the cats: Sebastian, Pirill, and Funky (Puseline hasn't been home since I came back), 2 cockateils, and a beta fish, newly aquired.


My own house and garden! Husband has taken such good care of them: the house clean, neat, the grass short, flower beds weeded and vegetable beds turned and ready for planting next spring. We will plant a new strawberry bed this fall. Of the apple trees, one has apples, the other does not. One of the plum trees is loaded, the other has one (!) plum. One of the blueberry bushes has blueberries, as does one of the red currents. The black currants and gooseberry bushes are hanging full. I picked the gooseberries today for a cake as my good friend Nils came for dinner tonight, and to introduce his new partner.

We are getting settled. Ingvild has made her home in the the cabin. We have been to Oslo (70 miles) to get dance duds for her. She is happily reunited with all her friends. 7 of them met us at the airport, falling all over her with squeals of joy. Since then she has been at two slumber parties and is planning one herself for friday.

I have been promised a temporary job at the ER in Hamar (closest town, 10 miles away), but can't start until my mrsa status has been cleared (whether I am a carrier of pennicillin resistant bacteria). I have a doctors appointment next wednesday. Today I will see the dentist and the optician to have my teeth and eyes checked. So now I have 2 weeks of vacation to enjoy, because the earliest I can start work will be the 28th.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

On the road again!

It's my last night in Ithaca. I'm sitting at my laptop - everything else is packed away. A cool night breeze is coming in through the open windows, where the rain is splashing on the street below.

I have finished packing. 19 small and 9 large boxes sent to Norway by mail. 5 suitcases, a backpack, computer bag and handbag packed to the gills.
Tomorrow morning early we go to the farm for blueberry pancakes with my parents. Then at noon Father will drive us to the airport. We fly first to Washington DC, then to Copenhagen and finally to Oslo, where Husband will pick us up.

If only it were possible to work in Norway, but live in Ithaca! However there are some logistical problems that I have not been able to solve so far, such as the 8-10 hr commute and the 6 hr time change. *sigh*

Friday, August 3, 2007

Free but Unemployed

Night before last I had my last shift at the hospital where I have worked for the past year. Next week I go back to Norway. Here's how I spent my first day as a free woman:
I went to a day spa and got a massage and a facial, then to cost-cutters for a haircut. On the way home, I got some Thai takeout and watched an old movie: the scarlet pimpernel.
This morning I got up at 4:30 to see Audun off on the bus to New York. He is going to Blizz-con in L.A., then went back to bed and slept until Husband called at 8 am. This morning I started packing and did some errands.
Tormod called while Father was over for lunch.
In the afternoon I walked my sisters golden retriever, Finley: "Take me back to California!", he seemed to be saying,"It's too hot here". It is 103!
This evening my parents and I visited my brother, Roland to watch the DVD they had brought back from Brazil about the Alliance for Childhood. I brought fruit salad and we admired Roland's garden.
I'm staying over at my parents farm tonight, leaving Ingvild to babysit the dog.
Thus passed the first day of my last week in Ithaca.