run guy run II :)

Surprise surprise... I managed to squeeze in another run before the end of the year. Ken and I did the same distance as the last time and we did it a minute faster.
I wanted to upload the map from my Polar, but the link to Google Earth didnt work so I`ll try again later this week.
I just hope I can keep this up when I get back to Oslo. It`s so nice to run in cool weather rather than freezing cold, and no ice or snow.
Now we are off to celebrate new years :)

new dress

This is my niece, Annika, in her new dress that she got from her grandparents in Norway. She loved it!

birthday dinner

My birthday dinner at Shogun, where we had sushi. Incredibly delicious!
It was a great birthday with Erik, Ken and Mom.

run guy run!

It's been way too long since I have written about exercising. In fact it looks like it's been about 2 months since my last "jogging" blog.
Well yesterday Ken and I went jogging!
Surprisingly it went much better than I feared. I managed to keep up with Ken this time (last year when I visited, I could not keep up with him at all).
We covered almost 7 km in 37 minutes. Not a fast pace at all, but a very nice steady pace. But the most important factor was that my pulse did not shoot through the roof like I had expected it to.
The temperature was about 8 Celsius and sunny, so it still required long sleeves and tights, but it was a great temperature to be out jogging with my brother.
I will not wait another 2 months for my next run ;)

happy birthday!

It was a wonderful birthday, and my 41st if anyone was wondering ;)
Had a nice breakfast with the family, then went out to see the new Avatar movie by James Cameron.
We opted for the 3D version... which is highly recommended!! I was blown away by the special effects and the 3D, which has really come a long way since the red and blue paper glasses we had to wear before. Now they look like those Ray Bans from the 80s, with regular glass that doesnt mess up your vision afterwards.
Anyways... go see it!
Went to a nice sushi restaurant, followed by lots o presents :)
Many lovely presents including the latest book by Lance Armstrong and some camera goodies.
Too tired to remember all now as I need to go to bed.
And it was nice reading all the birthday wishes on my Facebook page.
Turning 41 isn't so bad.

xmas lights II

More yard lights - Texas style.

xmas lights

Only in Texas!

xmas tree

Ken's Christmas tree. This is not even half the presents!

merry christmas!

The kids were up at 6:00!!
Since I was sleeping on the couch in the living room it pretty much meant that I was up at 6 too.
It's fun to see the excitement in the kids eyes as they look at the Christmas tree and the Christmas stockings to see what Santa had brought them. They asked me if I had heard him last night. I didn't see him but I had seen his shadow as he flew past the window.
It has been a nice quiet morning with coffee and 3 games of "Go Fish"
Now it's breakfast time.

welcome home uncle guy

schiphol airport

This is what the Schiphol airport looked like when I was patiently waiting for my transfer flight out.
Not difficult to see why we were delayed.

jetlag!

It's 07:00.
I'm wide awake!
I even took some Melatonin last night so I would get a full nights sleep, but I've been up several times already.
I'm staying at my brothers place and everyone is, of course, still asleep.
I need coffee!
Trying to work my way around a new kitchen, not wanting to wake up anyone, is not as easy as it seems. Everything seems to creek and squeek so much more when you're trying to be silent.
After searching through the cabinets, fridge, freezer, I finally found the coffee!
Bliss!
So I'll just watch some tv until the rest of the household wakes up.

destination houston - delays delays delays

It seems like every time I travel to Houston theres always problems. This time the oproblems started already before I left the house.
I wanted to be at the airport by 5:00 am so I had ordered a taxi to pick me up at 04:00.
At 04:10 there was still no cab so I called to find out what happened. Turns out there was a mixup and they sent a new cab. Also, the price they had given me was wrong and he said it would be 860 kroners instead of 550 kroners. Well, thats not my problem is it... they cant change the price on me after giving me a quote.
They were nice about it and will give me back the money they owe me.
I had bigger concerns.
The cab didn't come until 4:30. But he said he could make it there in 30 minutes, so I felt a little better. It was cold and icy weather, and as soon as we came out on the main road, E6, up towards the airport, there were 3 snow plows blocking both lanes, going 40 kmh (instead of 100 kmh which is the speed limit). My cab had no choice but to follow them in that speed.
I ended up falling asleep in the cab.
We didn't get to the airport until 5:30! The flight leaves at 6:25!
Luckily there were almost no lines, so I quickly checked in.
The flight left on time, and I arrived at Schippol airport on time. Next flight was scheduled to leave at 10:50 for Houston.
It was delayed until 11:15.
Luckily I always pack an energy bar in my carry on, so I ate that.
11:30 - We finally boarded, and they started to de-ice the plane.
12:00 - message from the captain: we should be leaving soon.
13:00 - conditions are not good. We don't have enough runway to make a safe lift off.
13:30 - we are still sitting on the ground, and I am getting seriously hungry. Message from the captain is that we may have to cancel the flight.
13:45 - we are allowed to take off anyway!

We finally take off and I am now eagerly awaiting some food!
The first round of snacks include a small drink and a tiny packet of roasted almonds. It's a 12 gram packet of maybe 10 almonds. I look at the stewardess with a desparate look and ask her if I can get an extra packet. She hesitantly gives me another packet.
Luckily the dinner arrived soon after. These dinners never really taste anything at all.

The flight was fairly nice and quiet. Not too much turbulence. I was watching some of the movies but I was sleeping on and off through G-force (the kids movie about gerbils) and the Harry Potter movie.

Anyways, we finally land in Houston! Only 2 hours late. I zoom through customs with no problems, and find both my luggages! And make it through the gates.
I can see Ken waiting for me waiving, and pointing to where the kids are.
I can see Mom and Stian and Annika holding a "Welcome home Uncle Guy" sign that they had painted for me.
It felt great to be back.

I felt kinda bad because the airline had not reported any delays to the people waiting, so Mom, Erik, Ken and the kids had been waiting for over 2 hours for me to arrive.
But all of that was forgotten when I got there, and we went out to get some dinner.

the eagle has landed

I finally made it to Houston, after a few delays here and there.
I've been up since 3 am and it is now 5:30 am, so I've been up for 26 hours.
So I will write a more detailed report tomorrow.
Good night! :)

advertising: rollerskating babies

Ok, this one was just too funny! Since it made me laugh it deserves to be in here.

into the darkness

I`ve been trying to stay positive these past few weeks.
But I always struggle with this time of year.
The darkness. The coldness. The loneliness.
Sometimes it`s all I can do just to get out of bed.
I don`t think anyone could have prepared me for the dark seasons when I moved back to Norway.

email etiquette

The "subject line" is not where you write an entire sentence!

fun with photoshop II

I may look skinny but I´m actually the world`s strongest man!

cycling in the snow

It was a cold bike ride to work this morning. Only 14 degrees at the most. That`s Fahrenheit by the way... which is about minus 10 Celsius.
I`ve added another layer of clothing to my already layered ensemble so my body isn`t really cold... but it felt like my face and eyeballs were going to freeze shut.
Still... it`s a good way to wake up, and it`s kinda fun riding on snow when it`s hard like it is now.

fun with photoshop

I`m working on next year`s catalog for work where "Circus" is the theme.

what, the president?

So the one day I decide to use the car to work (give me some slack, I`m still groggy from the virus) is the same day president Obama decides to visit our little country. I knew this before I started my car, but I figure how bad could it be way outside the outer loop?
Well... pretty bad.
It took me over 30 minutes just to cover 4 km (just past Bryn senter for those of you who know where I live).
When I finally exited the loop, Ring 3, the cars were at a standstill yet again. I still had a good kilometer left and saw no other solution but to park the car there, pay for public parking, and do a small jog the rest of the way.
This probably saved me at least 20 minutes, and it only took me 4 minutes on foot.
Only 2 out of my 7 students even made it on time, the last student coming in an hour late.

I`m excited about the president being here though. I just wish I would have taken my bike.
And I wish we could have given him a more white, snowy, wintery-feel Norway.

wheel change

I just need to laugh for a bit:

hugging the porcelain throne

(or "calling the moose" as we say in Norwegian).
I guess it was only a matter of time during these days of swine-flu and viruses. Monday was awful for me and I had no energy in my body. Sure enough, by Monday evening, whatever it was wanted to get out of my body.
I have to say though, I felt really good, or rather relieved, immediately afterwards. But the rest of the night would be sleep-less.
It took me all day Tuesday to get out of bed, and just eating a bowl of soup and some crackers was a huge step. But at least it stayed down.
I was back at work today... although I still feel pretty wiped out.
I`m still not sure if this was a virus, food poisoning or some sort of flu, but hopefully it will be the last time I have to hug the porcelain for at least another year.

porn

The secret is out guys. They`ve now proven that all guys watch porn.
Read article

It took them 2 years to figure this out?
Couldn`t they have researched on something a bit more important like cancer?

lazy hackers

I just received an email to my hotmail account. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but something tells me I probably should not reply to this one:

Dear Account Owner

This Email is from Hotmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every Hotmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account.

* Username: ...............................
* Password: ................................
* Date of Birth: ............................
* Country Or Territory: ................

Confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 48 hours for security reasons.

photo: no monkey business

Theres a new budding photographer in the Tiegergarten Zoo, in Vienna, Austria. The 33 year old orangutang, Nonja, has been given a camera that spits out a raisin when she snaps a photo.
So we get a sneak peek into the life of a zoo inmate. According to the spokesman at the zoo, she doesn`t really care about the outcome of the photos, she just wants her raisins.

You can find her photos on Facebook if you search for Nonja :-)

 

lost in translation

I love reading the Norwegian subtitles on tv. Todays best one:
"I feel like a beer"
"Jeg føler meg som en bjørn"

am I really that old?

So I`ve been tuning in to P4 RadioRetro today, which is classified as "Oldies", on my iTunes. Partly to guarantee that songs by Alexander Rybak and Lady Gaga don`t suddenly turn up.
But amidst the songs from the 60s that are played are songs by artists like Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Dire Straits, Styx, etc etc.
This is oldies?
Shit... I guess I AM old!

Or maybe I should just classify myself as retro...