News, Views and other things

Fun for all the Family...

2007-12-08T14:56:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone, I've been drawing dead stuff...check it out:

This is Cecil.And me.

And we're in the student anatomy lab at Cornell Vet school. Cecil is one of my most recent acquaintances here in Ithaca. As you can see from the picture, he's a friendly soul who likes a joke as much as the next person, even if it's at his own expense. He's a little on the quiet side. But then he is a 10 year old dead, eviscerated iguana specimen so I suppose he's entitled to be a little less than talkative. I met Cecil through John, a professor at the Vet school who very kindly introduced us as part of my bid to complete my illustration portfolio in time to apply for the scientific illustration course at the University of Santa Cruz. Cecil, proved to be a great sitter. Very....still....and dead....and kind of messy....in short the ideal subject for an illustration. He was also rather smelly, but luckily I had a strong stomach that day, so I didn't feel to green afterwards. It's proving to be fascinating experience and I've been able to have a look at where Cornell prepares it's specimens, how they are preserved and so on. Weirdly, they have a bug colony that strips the soft tissue from skeletal remains they want to keep as part of the preservation process. Cool eh? Anyway I'm in the process of producing an illustration of Cecil so we'll see how it goes, but so far the whole experience has been really interesting for me.

Oh and just so you're not too grossed out here's a prettier picture.

In other news, we're in teh middle of panicking about moving back to the UK and then to Vancouver. There's lots to do, so let's hope everything works out.
Bye for now!
x

Back in time for 2008!

2007-10-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hi All,
At last!
It's been over a year since my last post. But as things are changing quite dramatically for us once again I thought I'd better get myself back into blogging and ready to document our forthcoming move to Vancouver which is due in early January!
Check back as I plan to post a new entry soon with a few new pics of the house and a few other snippets of news and gossip. But I'm off for mexican food now, (first things first) so bye for now and post again soon!
L

Some pretty pictures

2006-09-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

This post will be more photos than text, but I thought it might liven up the blog and save people having to go to flickr to retrieve pictures.

Firstly, here is Mr Woodchuck:
Look at that expression. Both satiated and guilty.
I tried to take a picture of Mr Mouse aswell, but he escaped before I could get his close-up.

Secondly I am very pleased with myself, having made huge efforts with tung oil and elbow grease to prepare our largest piece of maple butcher block. Here it is unfinished:
As you can see in this picture, Einar has made a great job of cutting out the sink hole and we've tested it out so we know it fits. Dad had visions of cutting the hole, putting the sink in and watching it fall straight through. So I'm very pleased to say that didn't happen! To finish it I sanded it down until smooth, then added tung oil sealer in 2 layers. After that I progressively added 3 layers of polymerized tung oil. After each layer I sanded the counter until smooth with steel wool, before wiping it down and putting on the next layer. Each layer takes 8-24hrs to dry. So this was a long job! I also had to seal and put a few oil layers on the underside and the edges, even if they weren't going to show eventually. The last layer is drying as I'm writing this and this is what it looks like.

Hopefully, because I wiped, but didn't sand the last layer I should be able to keep the gloss you can see.
If the surface stays tacky I'll have to add another layer and sand it. Of course, this sealer/oil application is an ongoing process, but I think that's quite a nice thing.

It'll need recoating a couple of times once it's in I suspect, (to make sure it's really protected against food and moisture) and then a couple of maintenance coats each year. But that's not a big hassle. It's certainly easier than repairing ceramic tile or laminate. Anyway, wish us luck!

In other (and suprisingly non-diy) news. Einar got a present in the post a few days ago.

It turned out to be a picture of St James's Park that I'd bought Einar, but that I couldn't find in time to ship when we moved. Mum and Dad found it when they were clearing the flat out. The frame had broken because it had fallen down behind a bookcase. So they re-framed it and sent it over. As you can see, this made Einar's day..

Of course this photo was put up on the wall immediately and Einar took a moment to give thanks.

It's actually quite a good job we've had lots of diy stuff to occupy us, because the weather recently has been pretty terrible. We caught the tail end of hurricane Ernesto, which is far less dramatic than it sounds. Basically it meant that it rained a lot. But there were no strong winds. So everything's been getting very soggy and waterlogged. Mind you we had it better than some places further south where they got 8 inches of rain in 24hours. Of course we are also lining up a whole series of tasks for Knut to complete when he comes to stay so that's been fun and has kept us out of the rain. He should be kept very well occupied after all our efforts :) I also hope that Knut will respect the fact that, while obviously not averse to having fun, Professor Vollset remains continously alert to the responsible, serious nature of his role as husband and wage-earner (see photo):

(N.B: Knut, if you want we can get you a headband too.)

Well, I think that's all my news for now. Hopefully we shall soon be able to post some pictures of cabinets and countertop all together and in place. Bye for now!

Waiting for butcherblock

2006-08-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

Howdy!

Time for another blog entry methinks. Hope everything is fine and dandy with everybody.
Einar and I are still busy with kitchen stuff. Our counter-tops are being delivered today, so yours truly is sitting in waiting for fedex and watching E-News, specifically "E Life True Story: The Story of Paula Abdul" . If I'm really lucky I may get to watch a channel called TLC later. Perhaps "lethal swarm: killer bees"- their usual evening-type offering. Other notable titles in this series include "the man whose arms exploded" and "when surgical tools get left behind"...ooooo the wonders of U.S TV, I can hardly wait. Still it's one step up from the piece on "anal bleaching" I saw on E-News a while back. I'm serious, imagine having to put that on your cv ..."job title: bumhole bleacher" ...priceless. Americans are crazy.

Anyway, things are fine in Ithaca. Well they're a little dusty and there's a mouse in a bowl in the dining room, but otherwise they're fine... The "thing in the rubbish" appears to have vacated which is quite a relief. Turns out that raccoons are a bit vicious. Our local news had a raccoon related story today. A pack of them have been rampaging through local neighbourhoods killing cats and attacking a dog and a child....I have a nasty feeling that the one in our rubbish may have been holed-up on purpose, using our rubbish pile as some kind of guerilla warfare-type base. He was probably sat in there for days coordinating these neighbourhood operations, wearing battle fatigues and a red bandana, polishing his AK-47.

Unfortunately however, it appears that we have swapped one form of undesirable wildlife for another, (see mouse reference above). I was sitting watching telly (or for anyone who may consider me as a future employee of any sort-writing my PhD thesis and being generally intellectual) when I spotted this disease-ridden furry thing scampering about behind the coffee table. With lightning fast reactions, developed while fighting my husband for the last beer, I used my initiative (future employers again, take note) to trap Mr mouse underneath a plastic bowl. So I've had to sit all day, waiting for fedex, while listening to a mouse perambulate round the inside of an upside-down piece of tupperware. This, I believe, is what they call "living the High Life". I'm saving the mouse for Einar to say hello to when he gets home. We may not have a child or a dog, but a mouse is nearly as good, I think. And if we can't get to the supermarket maybe we can have "mouse in a bun" for tea.

In other animal news, the woodchuck has been steadily demolishing all the fresh green shoots in the flower bed. I spied him yesterday on his hind legs pulling down the freshest, prettiest looking greenery at the top of stems that were just out of his reach. He examined each with a kind of expert epicurean curiosity, before shovelling the best bits into his furry chops and letting the stripped remnant of a plant spring back up. Our flower bed has now been severely mauled and is probably covered in woodchuck spit. Ah well. in addition to the woodchucks, deer, skunks, raccoons and mice, black bears are apparently on the increase in the southern finger-lakes region. Now spotting a woodchuck destroying your flowers is one thing, but if I'd looked out of my window and seen a black bear digging up my plants...well it just doesn't do do dwell on these things does it? I keep telling myself that if a black bear appears, Einar will know what to do, so I could just send him out to deal with it. I mean come on, I trapped a mouse, the man owes me. And besides he's good at bears, he's Norwegian.

Any other animal news for you?....nope, don't think so. What have I been doing with myself lately? Well apart from thesis, not much, sad to say. I've been making a few new friends who are humanities rather than sciencey postgrads, so that's been really nice. (Hi Hilary thanks for taking pity on me and making friends you're a star!) Oh and since my last post Einar and I have spent a lovely week in Norway with the in-laws. The weather was wonderful and my parents came over from the UK to Norway at the same time so it was quite a special get together. It was quite a trek back and forth from the U.S mind you so we'll have to try to spend more time in Norway next time we go. It was mum and dad's first ever trip to Norway and they seem so amazed at its beauty that they can't believe Einar could tear himself away to go to university. I think that counts as being impressed! Oh and I caught and killed my first fish (trout) while I was there. It took both Einar and Knut, his younger brother to teach me, but eventually I caught on and became a bloodthirsty fish-killer. I was quite proud of myself, you'd have loved it Uncle Pete, it was great fun, especially the bit where you get to bash the fish's head in with a rock (spoken like a true ex-veggie)!

So yes, I like to think that my fish-hunting attempts have got me some creep-points with my brothers in-law. Sadly I managed to let myself down when we were being accompanied back to the airport by Knut a few days later. Knut started sneezing or coughing or something and apologised. At which point I told him not to worry and that I could "squeeze out a fart" if that would make him feel more comfortable....

Yes, yes I know, in retrospect it all seems so simple, just SHUT UP Laura, but as we all know from previous entries, I have never been able to fathom these kind of social niceties. Knut looked genuinely distressed and said, "No" (Not that I expected him to say yes to my offer you understand. But his response indicated a genuine concern that I might actually attempt a bottom burp in order to even the score, and more to the point, that I was under the delusion that this was somehow socially appropriate) Anyway it woudl appear that once again my mouth got going before my brain engaged. But hey ho, I can't sink any lower, right...right? I think Einar may have put his head in his hands and wept gently at this point, but I can't be sure.

Having thoroughly embarrassed myself, we departed and since then have been recovering from all the excitement by doing diy stuff.

Gotta go, butcherblock has arrived! More anon!xx

Something in the woodshed....

2006-07-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

We have "wildlife".

This morning, my beloved came in from the garden to inform me that something was "hissing at him" from the pile of rubbish (stuff from the old kitchen, cabinets, drywall, wood etc) that is stacked up against the wall of the house.

A while ago we found a (harmless) corn-snake in the driveway. In addition we found out that there is a species of rattlesnake that lives in ny state (nowhere near us though and it's rare). Einar's brain had clearly abosrbed this information in a somewhat selective fashion- "corn-snakes=snakes=I am going to be eaten alive by a massive timber rattlesnake that has caught the bus up from the Southern Adirondacks specifcally to hunt for tender fleshed Norwegians."

In view of Einar's snake jitters, and feeling that it would be a little cruel to leave him to face this dangerous hissing pile of rubbish alone, I decided to march out bravely (and for tactical reasons behind my husband) to take a look.

I wouldn't say it hissed exactly. But it was making grunting piggy noises and shuffling sounds. It sounded a bit put out actually. Mind you it sounded even more put out when I gave the pile of rubbish an experimental kick. Was it even possible to get a pig infestation....?

Anyway, before we could figure out what to do with the piggy-sounding wildlife under our rubbish pile, the boiler repairmen turned up again. I should explain that (see yesterday's blog entry) we have been having a problem with our boiler. After finishing my blog yesterday the boiler man was still here, saying things like "oh my", and "this is NOT good" and "now what's THAT doing there" from the depths of the boiler cupboard. Eventually he emerged to tell me that there was water in the boiler where it shouldn't be and he wasn't sure how fixable the problem was. He'd done "stuff" he said, but had to order more parts as it was an old boiler type. These wouldn't be in until tomorrow. Even if he did put new parts in though he was concerned that more water would pour out from the boiler casing somewhere, in which case the only option would be to replace the whole thing....at a cost of $3-4000......Oh, and the bill for today's work would be $469 so could I write a cheque!!

At this point I think I began to gibber helplessly at him. $4000-Jesus Christ! This was it, were either going to have to leave. Either that or Einar was going to have to prostitute himself while I attempted to sell crack to the tofu-eating, vegan, Ithaca locals....Oh dear....

I began to have visions of scavenging in the rubbish bins of our neighbours in order to feed ourselves, while the boiler repairmen whistled cheerily from the cupboard under the stairs.

Seeing me wilt visibly at the thought of replacing the whole thing, he said he'd leave me to chat with my husband when he came home but could we call tomorrow when we'd decided. He could then order the parts if we had decided to risk fixing the old boiler. After all this I called Einar with the news and we spent the rest of the day worrying ourselves silly trying to decide whether to risk patching up the old boiler which might not work, or biting the bullet and using all our "fuck-up funds" to replace it. We were definitely not a pair of happy campers yesterday night.

But, this morning the gods appear to be smiling-believe it or not! We called the plumbers and spoke to another man (Dave) who said he was coming out with the guy from yesterday to take a look. Dave has done the plumbing on our house for years and so they'd asked him to come and check it out. Thankfully, when Dave and mate turned up, Dave rummaged around in the cupboard, went to get a part, then did some more rummaging and then..thank the lord...declared the problem solved! We practically wept with gratitude-this man was some kind of god, he clearly knew everything! So we also asked him whether he knew what kind of things made piggy noises and lived in rubbish. He thought for a bit, contemplated the rubbish, and suggested it might be a raccoon (one of those animals that have stripey tails and black fur round their eyes so that they look like minature highwaymen.) Having solved our boiler problem and helped solved the mystery of the "thing in the rubbish" Dave and mate then departed, leaving us very much relieved!

So that was that. We now have hot water-which is great because I was starting to whiff. We also have a new dishwasher which was delivered after the plumbers left. Of course we still have the thing in the rubbish pile, but then you can't have it all. Maybe we can keep it.......

more animal updates soon!
x

Up at 8am!

2006-07-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it's before 9am and I'm up! I know any Norwegians reading this will react somewhat skeptically to this assertion, but believe it or not, it's true. In fact....in even more shocking news, I have been up since 7am! The coffee's brewed, my cheerios are crispy (well actually they're a bit on the chewy side...they are a month old) and it's a lovely sunny morning.

Einar is getting ready to go for his morning run and I'm avoiding going for mine by writing this.

Now I thought that I should explain a bit about the blog entries that I'm hoping will follow this one. As you all know I have been shamefully lazy and haven't been keeping up with the blogging thing. This has meant that gradually a LOT of stuff has happened that I haven't written about. The knock-on effect of this has been that I have found myself trying not to do anthing that would give me extra blogging work when I finally got round to writing anything. It began with not taking many photos because "If I take photos I'll have to put them on flickr and write about them in the blog." Gradually I found myself avoiding any activities that I felt might be blog worthy....I had enough to write about what with all our guests turning up and forcing us to enjoy ourselves! So anyway, eventually I stopped doing anything that could be construed as interesting and now I have no life...but at least I don't have to write about it!

In a bid to remedy this situation and to make the whole blogging mountain seem more molehill-like, I have decided to blog about bits and bobs that have happened in the past few months but not attempt to recount what we did with all our visitors in minute detail or in organised fashion. The result will probably be a mish mash of snippets that don't necessarily inform the reader about what we've been up to in any coherent kind of way. There are things that have stuck in my head as blog worthy, but sadly a whole lot that is also worthy and probably more important/interesting has been jettisoned by my brain in favour of useless odds and ends. But....well....tough.

Well, what to tell you all first.... let me see.

Well, the electrician is here at the moment doing lots of exciting stuff like putting up recessed ceiling lights for us, attaching our new oven (delivered yesterday), putting sockets in for the dishwasher, the fridge the range hood etc. He must be working hard it's VERY NOISY!! :)

What else...oh yes, we have no hot water as our furnace has just broken! We discovered this the day before yesterday. So we waited for the electrician to come out to do all the other stuff (we though it was an electrical fault at the time) and asked him to take a look. Anyway, it turns out it isn't an electrical fault. In The electrican's words "something's fried" somewhere..... so I've had to call an emergency plumber out. Apparently one is on his/her way over when they're free. So I am currently very greasy as I'm avoiding having a cold shower. Einar got back from his run, was forced to shower in icy water with chattering teeth and is now at work.

So yes, it's all happening at 120 Eastwood today ;)

As for past events, well it was all rather special knowing that lots of people were coming out to see us. We felt really chuffed that anybody would bother! So yes, our guests were fab. They put up with humidity, a wreck of a kitchen, mosquitos, and frequent supermarket trips with great equanimity and good humour. We were very grateful! Mum and dad spent quite a bit of time when they first arrived going from one room to another and getting a bit lost. Mum would turn up in the kitchen with a startled expression, having expected to find herself in the bathroom. Gradually though they settled in and made themselves very useful by mowing lawns, tidying garden borders, washing up and generally making themselves indispensable. I'll be putting some pictures up of their time with us shortly. Oh! Just remembered, even before we had mum and dad to stay, our friends Jill and Jim (or "JillJim" as I like to call them....like "Bennifer" or "TomCat," only higher profile and better looking...) came to stay. In fact after my visa crisis, I flew back to the states and they picked me up from JFK. Then they very kindly ferried me all the way back up to Ithaca. They hired a car, a yellow one. Not a muted, understated yellow you understand. YELLOW yellow. It was great.

I think Jim was discussing hiring an understated silver car with the rental person, until Jill popped up and gazed with longing at the bananamobile. So the yellow car it was. We never lost it in a car park and the bugs loved it. What more could you want from a rental vehicle!

Had great fun with Jill and Jim although the weather was shocking for a lot of the time. Pictures from their trip are posted on flickr.

Right, well, as the electrician has gone off to have his lunch I think it's time I had mine. Who knows, sometime today I might get to have a hot shower!! Back soon everyone!
x

At last!

2006-07-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
apologies for being so crap at posting stuff. As most of you know we've had a lot of visitors (8 in all) in the past couple of months so I've not really been keeping up to date with "stuff". Anyway, I'm back! This is just a quick post to let you know that I have been wearing my poor fingers to the bone for you all and have posted a new set of pictures on flickr. For anyone who doesn't know, we have moved into our new house and have set about doing some of the much needed renovations to the kitchen and the downstairs bedrooms. So if you want to follow the story of our kitchen toddle over to my flickr photos and check out the "diy progress' set.

Spring is springing

2006-04-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Well today has so far been a day of frantically trying to get back in touch with everyone in the UK who I've been meaning to email for ages. I feel very industrious and not a little square-eyed! I've also put photos of our recent visitors and outings etc on Flickr for everyone so feel free to browse through those.

As regards my previous post, I realised I hadn't filled everyone in on the saga of the parking fine. I have to say I am still utterly ashamed of myself. I don't even know when and where you can and cannot park on my own street!!!! Si and Sara hired a car to get them back to nyc and I went to collect it with them. First though, I took them on a walk through Ithaca on a circuitous route that took us past a) firemen practising their fire-putting-out skills at a burnt out shell of a building, b) past blokes with big machinery carrying trucks sawing huge branches of trees, which nearly blinded us with sawdust and deafened us with noise c) across a massive freeway with a lethal sort of pedestrian crossing that appeared to rely upon people noticing we wanted to cross 6 lanes of traffic and d) through what I can only describe as the closest thing to a " 'hood" Ithaca has got. It's kind of near Fall creek (I think), but maybe further toward route 13(?) which runs out of town. Anyway, we were asked by a "youf" whether we had a cigarette as we passed her sitting on her veranda. I said "no". Resisting the urge to add either "shouldn't you be in school young lady" or "please don't shoot me." Of course I'm exaggerating (always the drama queen). It's just that as the Eddy street snob (wot wot) I hadn't come across some of the other bits of Ithaca before that and it didn't feel as comfortable as other parts of town. (Though I should say that it's nowhere near as rough as some bits of our beloved Newcastle, and not a chav in sight. ) Anyhow, after this wonderful cultural perambulation around Ithaca''s most scenic elements we gradually dragged our aching limbs towards the car hire place. Honestly I swear I didn't know that it was going to be that much of a hike to get there. We were knackered. So anyway, we get the car. Si does much better at driving round Ithaca than me and (despite the a few cases of "Simon, they drive on the right here," "no, Simon the other right") we manage to fill the car up and get back to the house fine. Then we park on the street near the house (along with all the other cars which also line the street on both sides). As I get out I notice a fire-hydrant, don't think anything of it. We don't tend to get them in the UK so I barely register what they are over here. I also find I have to be careful that my car door doesn't hit the metal post outside the door.

As it turns out, had I bothered to look up, I would have seen a nice clear sign at the top of said post that said in big letters and with arrows for idiots "No Parking Any Time." None of us noticed however, and we all went inside. Later, when Si got from the chapterhouse pub, having had a post work beer with Einar, he found he had 2 parking fines totalling about $87! They'd done him twice over! Once for parking next to a fire hydrant and once for parking in a prohibited zone (prohibited, of course, because it was next to the fire hydrant....) Bless him, Si had bought me some flowers to say thanks for having us; but by the time he got to me I'm not sure whether he wouldn't rather have thwacked me over the head with them! (Believe me Si, in your shoes I'd have beaten me to a pulp with those carnations). So there you go. Future guests be warned I do not know where you can and cannot park in Ithaca. I can barely understand road signs. I am in fact a menace!

Still, despite all this we enjoyed the company of all our guests even if they can't say the same! :)

In other news, I have also discovered that it can be hard in Ithaca to get a rounded opinion of the place. Local publications which recommend eateries etc are relentlessly positive about EVERYTHING. While this is understandable, it can be quite hard for example to find which are the good places to eat and the not so good. It can also be hard to find a good hierarchy of which trails are good and which not so good. Einar and I ended up trying a hike somewhere called Connecticut hill recently, that was mentioned in a book I bought. But when we got there it felt so lonely and barren that we got so disheartened we came away and went somewhere we've already been to but know we like! I think we're going to start tapping Einar's colleagues for honest advice on restaurants and trails, so that we know which ones are best to go to. Same with local wineries and wine trails, We can't see them all, so it's be great to be able to make an educated choice; instead of having to choose between descriptions and reviews that say "it's all great, all the time, no exceptions."

What else do I feel like telling you all today....hmmm.....Let's see. Well much as I hate to say it Einar and I are very house preoccupied at the moment. There's going to be so much to do. It's all very exciting! As those of you who I have been emailing will already know, Einar has turned into a home depot addict. He just likes to go there and stroke the 2 by 4 and gaze longingly at drill bits. I end up looking at kitchen worktops and cabinets and we usually leave in some heated discussion about whether or not we should have ceramic tiles on the floor or laminate wood strips. Descisions decisions! Can't wait to get into the house and get started. Oh, and we both hope furture guests are ok subsisting largely on bbq food. We're definitely buying a new bbq and are hoping that if the kitchen is too terrible to manage in (though it looks workable) or if we get too excited and start ripping things out early...(don't look so shocked you can all help. It'll be "fun", Dad, I know how much you live DIY so we'll think of something especially challenging for you,)....then we can still cook using the bbq. Shouldn't think this will happen. But I have a suspicion that leaving a young enthusiastic bouncy Einar alone with tools in his new house may be risky. It's equivalent to leaving a small child alone with a bag of m&ms and asking them not no touch it until you get back. Or leaving your new puppy alone in your sitting room with a variety of feather-filled cushions and chewable valuables. I worry that if I leave the Norwegian in the house alone with any kind of implement, particularly a hammer shaped one, then I would only have myself to blame if I returned to find him standing gleeful and victorious over a pile of rubble that used to be a kitchen.

Right, that's it. I'm getting that blogged out sensation once again so I think it's time to say bye-bye for now. Stand by as I'm sure that there will be more Ithaca news and views on the way in the near future.

Bye!
L x

P.S Tried Hershey's chocolate yesterday. Don't bother. Nowhere NEAR as good as the wonder food that is Dairy Milk, or even, dare I say it, Galaxy.....mmmmm Dairy Milk......... Peanut butter wrapped in a chocolate shell or slathered underneath a chocolate layer on top of a biscuit however, now that's a keeper.

Unemployed but full of bagels

2006-04-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

Hey folks!
Time for another news bulletin from across the pond. Well, as you can guess from the title I didn't get the job I was hoping for. Ah well, at least it gave me some useful interview experience. Still SUCKS that I am unemployed though. I also think I have ruined my chances at getting a career in the hospitality industry given that our first set of guests have just left, having been mocked, marched huge distances and encouraged to park in a location that got them $87 worth of parking fine! Sorry Simon, sorry Sara! Really hope you had an ok trip back to Newcastle. Hope that driving through NJ and Manhattan wasn't too traumatic!

It was really great to see some uk friends. Can't wait for the next batch! Unfortunately, the viking chose the day we drove to a hotel in nyc (for him to go to a workshop in Princeton, then pick our guests and me up and take us all back to Ithaca the next day) to get sick. God knows how he managed it, but he still drove all the way to nyc and then to princeton and back to Ithaca the next day. It must be that Norwegian stamina which is normally used for fending off polar bears in his natural habitat, but which in this case allowed Einar to fight off illness and new york traffic at the same time. (And before I hear any heckling from my various Norwegian in-laws, I continue to believe that polar bears roam the streets of Norway with impunity at night in packs like oversized vermin. We all know it's true, there's no point trying to deny it, it is a "well known fact" about Norway.)

Anyway, we all made it back to Ithaca (Me, Einar, Gio-who stayed for 2 nights before bussing it back to NYC, Si and Sara). Einar went all pink and sweaty and was running a fever so the poor boy had to turn in early. He recovered fairly quickly, but was under the weather for a good 3 days. I did my usual "caring" routine, which I think I have inherited from my mother. Mum always says she was a bad nurse when I was little because she would worry about me when I was sick and get tense and sharp with me as a result. -I don't remember this at all, but I do it when Einar's ill all the time. I fret about him, potter about with damp flannels mopping him with them ineffectually and in general appear both flustered and mildly annoyed. I am sure Florence Nightingale was just the same....Anyway, he pulled through despite my ministrations with the cold flannel, which would have soon brought on pnemonia in a lesser mortal and was soon feeling well enough to take some light sustenance in the form of beer, pizza and muffins, all of which aided his recovery immensely.

Gio, Si and Sara proved to be wonderful guests. They cooked, tidied, even bought us some groceries (future guests please take note). I was slightly put out that they didn't see fit to do some light dusting or perhaps clean the windows while they were here, but then you can't have everything.

Anyway Einar and I loved having them. Gio couldn't stay long sadly, but we did go out (minus einar) on her 2nd night here to our local sushi place and ate like kings. Sara had a bento box (very restrained) while the other 3 of us shared "the big red boat" which was a huge collection of sushi and sashimi served up on a wooden model of a boat about 2.5ft long. It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? We did have the leftovers boxed up to take back to Einar, but to be honest we ended up with a pitiful offering, because all of us kept saying "phew, I'm stuffed.....what's that one?......really?....well maybe just one more." I did however feel a tad old in that restaurant. It's a great place to observe some of the Cornell undergrads, most of whom feel obliged when at a sushi place to order sake-bombs. These things look lethal to me but big groups of students were lapping them up while we were tacking the big red boat. A sake bomb consists of a pint of beer with two chopsticks balanced across the top. In between the chopsticks is a small paper cup which is full of sake. The idea is to slam your fist down on the table so hard that the cup falls straight downwards (and still upright) from between the chopsticks into the pint glass. The hapless drinker then consumes this beer/sake mix before filling up the beer glass and the sake cup and doing the whole thing again. The result of this lovely beverage is no doubt happy drunkeness followed by a terrible hangover for the drinker. For any fellow non-bombing diners however, eating becomes a matter of bracing yourself for the next batch of sake-bombs; when all of the 15 people at the next table hit the table so hard and so loudly that you jump and poke yourself in the eye with your own chopstick. In any event it was a great night out people watching and sushi-eating.

Well more anon, but have done enough blogging for one night....back soon folks!

House update

2006-03-23T06:04:00.000-08:00

Hi there everyone,

Thought I would just post a little update for everybody. No news on the job front yet. Keep rifling through the post every time it arrives, but so far nothing. Ah well. Einar and I went to Aurora (where Wells is) a few nights back actually. C.J (lady who teaches history at Wells and who I know from a conference I went to in Cambridge last yr) invited us to her house for food. We met a bunch of people (all very nice), some of whom worked at Wells and some who didn't. Then we went to the morgan opera house in aurora to listen to an american folk band. They were fantastic! So all in all we had a great night. I have to admit that while lovely, Aurora is, how can I put it...unique...in a few ways. I got an inkling this might be the case when I was in a cafe in ithaca. Part of the graffiti in the bathroom there read "keep Aurora weird."

Anyway, It turns out that an old graduate of Wells College, Pleasant Rowland, made a fortune by inventing a doll called American Girl. She sold the company to Mattel in a deal worth $700 million and was made vice-chairperson on Mattel's board as a result. She invested a whole heap of cash in Wells College and the village of Aurora as a whole, apparently ruffling a few feathers in the process. Einar and I drove through Aurora before we knew any of this and were slightly perplexed by the atmosphere of the place. We stopped at a coffee shop and it was strangely "perfect." You went in and on your right were pretty notebooks, quilts, and crockery to buy. On your left was a cafe area with cakes and pastrys on display. And straight ahead were rows of glass jars full of sweets. I felt like I was in harrogate in betty's tea shop! So very nice, but a little, well, peculiar.

So there you go. Pleasant Rowland owns a lot of Aurora from what I can gather. Who'd have thought it?

On a slightly more disgusting note, check out this news story. Keep Aurora weird indeed!

What else, well the house purchase story has moved on a bit (some of you will know my news on this front and some won't so I'll fill you in.) We're in the process of buying a blue house in Ithaca. It's a 1950's techbuild so most of the internal walls are moveable. There are pics on flickr of it. Google flickr. go to the photosharing website, then search for vollset. Click underneath one of the pics that pops up, on the words Brit Abroad. That should take you to all the pics of the house, interior and exterior views. Be warned some of them are dull, they're there to help us remember layout as well as interest you lot!
So yes, we're currently waiting for our loan to be approved, which we hope to have done by next friday. Both of us are turning into DIY bores. We can spend hours discussing laminate.

Oh and one final snippet of news. It's a classic embarrassing 'Laura' moment. These things always happen when I'm trying to be good/polite. You know what it's like, husband has very intelligent, out-of-my-league type colleagues who are lovely and put up with my desperate ramblings in social situations (I'm talking about cornell faculty here, you lot from newcastle don't have the same effect somehow, sorry!). We go round for dinner to said faculty member's house and have great food with his wife (Lesley) and their two children. I'm terrified for the entire evening. Don't ask me why, I just was. I couldn't stop talking. It was like every time a silence fell I had to fill it in. Truly useless. Anyway, this guy, Robert, is academically brilliant, plays the ukulele, rides a unicycle and manages to have a family life. His wife is equally brilliant, has a variety of sciency degrees, but changed to the arts and now runs the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca. (I mean, what could I say? "I write my blog, eat peanut butter from the jar and watch the food network?")

It turns out they have pets. A very old cat (who was very sociable and talkative). He's got so arthritic that Robert says he spends his evenings lifting the cat on and off the sofa. They also have hermit crabs....Now I admit, at this point alarm bells should have rung, but I was so nervous that any alarms would have been drowned out by my inner voice which was begging me to a) shut up and b) stop sweating. So anyway we were chatting about these pets, and Robert was saying that these hermit crabs just need misting once in a while, but its kind of hard to tell whether they're alive sometimes. Then I, despite the voice screaming at me from the back of my skull, to shut up, for the LOVE OF GOD SHUT UP.....go and utter the immortal words "So Robert, you have crabs?" It's not a great line is it? Not, I think you will agree, a great thing to say to your husband's brilliant colleague in his own home, in front of his wife and children. So there you go. That has, I think, been the most embarrassing moment of Ithaca life to-date. I think it's best if I never go out. That way Einar can tell all the cornell folks that he has a beautiful, intelligent, coherent wife...and they never need to find out the truth!

Right that's it. Off to research kitchen cabinets!xx

2006-03-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

Oh, and while I'm on the subject, (well picking it up from yesterday anyway), that's another thing that is taking a bit of getting used to. Americans don't appear to drink much. Which of course is a good thing! But it makes making friends kind of an angst-ridden process. So Einar and I are learning to be good and not embarrass ourselves in company ;) The culture over here on fridays for example is very different to the UK. This Friday (today) Einar is playing football after work....at 10.30 pm...10.30!!!! If we were still in the uk we might be eating out, or having a meal at someone's house, or in the pub. Whatever we did we'd be relaxing and greeting the weekend with a few drinks. Not a drunken rampage, just a few. It's just that just a few for an american seems to mean 2 glasses of wine or 1 pint, drunk slowly over 2 hours and that's it. Anyway there will be nothing like that tonight, instead it's football for einar and knitting for me :) Yes people, that's right, knitting. I am learning to knit and chose a placemat for my first project. Of course it may be easy, but it is also I am discovering, incredibly dull. So yes, mum, I may let you down on the knitting front. I can do it, but perhaps a placemat was a bad way to start. only a million more rows of green plain knit stitch to go..... I may pass out with sheer excitement.

Well I'm all blogged out for now, so I'll sign off. But before I forget, I've put a few pictures of our current home in Ithaca on flickr here. Oh and I'm also trying to get a job...all very exciting. I've applied to Wells college, so I'll update you on how that goes as and when I hear anything. Bye for now! xx
P.S , here's a view of Wells, which is in the village of Aurora, 30mins drive from Ithaca

and here's the view Wells has over Cayuga lake. Looks lovely. Cross your fingers for me!

2006-03-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

Well, this is my first ever attempt at a weblog. If it's anything like my diary (kept for 1 week at age 13) it'll consist of 5 pages of salacious playground gossip. Then I'll give up because it's too much like hard work. Anyway for now, it's an attempt to keep all my friends and family in the UK and Norway updated as to what is going on in the world of Mr and Mrs Vollset, now we have upacked our spotted hankies and are living in the land of the free.

The first thing I must tell you people, is that the TV is GOD AWFUL...and I really mean that. They have a million channels, none of which is worth watching for more than an hour. Every night I pray to god that John Snow will make a leap across the pond and present a considered informative in-depth news programme-not that I actually take any of it in, but at least you know you're watching quality programming. So far no luck. As anyone who is in a relationship will appreciate, this dearth of decent telly has dire consequences. Einar and I are forced to hold conversations. It's not that we want to you understand. It's just that we have to. Decent (or even crap, but addictive) TV allows you to particpate in what could nominally be described as a collective activity with your loved-one, without actually having to engage with them in any really meaningful way.

So instead of watching TV we avoid talking in other ways. Usually we end up eating something healthy like bread and peanut butter. Or I end up falling asleep. Or Einar opens the laptop and surfs mutely for hours. Initially we solved the lack of TV problem by going out for meals all the time. (As our friends from Newcastle will already know, we are very good at this). This however is not financially viable as a long term option so we have had to re-consider. Tonight Einar may go to the gym after becoming morbidly depressed about his weight this morning. I did tell him he smelled of sausages, which probably didn't help matters. But it was an observation made as I was surfacing after a good nights kip, I wasn't on my guard. Anyway, he's probably at the gym as we speak. This makes me feel guilty of course. As I lean over the keyboard I can feel a roll of fat bunching itself up under my ribcage. That'll be the result of the 3 cookies I ate earlier instead of a rounded lunch with vegetables (and no cookies are not biscuits, they're bigger, chewier and I felt slightly sick after eating 3 at once.) So there you are. My husband is at the gym while I am at home writing a weblog entry and getting fat. My cunning plan to slide into obesity as a couple has been foiled.

In other news, our house is lovely. Very homely, if a little different to what we've been used to in the UK. It's quite a novelty to have a wooden house for me. Of course the viking just thinks it's completely normal. I sometimes worry about termites, or woodworm, but it seems to hold up just fine, even in the foot or so of snow that fell a week ago. It's a 3 bed house (though it feels a lot bigger. ) And as those of you who received an email from me will already know it has a chamber stove which I have just learned has this terrifying broiler thing in it. You turn the gas on, light it, lift this big lid on the stove top and suddenly it's as if the underside of the lid has errupted in flames. I am told this cooks things quickly. Either that or it's a kind of DIY cremation device.

What else...Well, Einar seems to be settling in well at Cornell. The job's going well, he's finding his feet and seems happy. Ithaca itself is a lovely town I think. Downtown is located in a valley with Cayuga Lake at the northern end of it. The city extends up hills on either side of this area. Cornell university and collegetown (where we live at the moment) are at the top of one hill and there are other areas (which I've not seen yet), plus Ithaca college on the other side, or thereabouts.

Cornell university is big by english standards. It's got a lovely art museum and I'm looking forward to seeing the plantations when spring and summer arrive. I've even bought a map with walking trails and information for you to borrow ma and pa (and indeed all our other visitors) which looks like it might be handy. There are also a number of wineries in the region that should be good for a tasting or two.