Really grey weather, snow/rain and +2C. Today was a really heavy rainy day. It was mainly crap but a great day for staying indoor.

This morning I woke up feeling pretty productive. So I made new curtains for my living room from some fabric I had waiting for treatment and started the christmas cleaning project :D
I also put up the christmas portal and the advent star in my window, cleaned up amongst all the plants in the living room, did laundry, dishes etc while listening to music and chatting as well.
Jorun and her son Steinar came over around 4pm. I had a lot of clothes I decided to close the chapter on and if she wanted them she could have them. Nicer way of cleaning a path to your closet than to throw away the clothes to give them away :D

When she left I had a chat with Fla and after that I finished cleaning for the day and headed for the couch to relax with a couple of good movies. :D

This morning it started out raining BUT it cleared up during the day and it became pretty beautiful by the end of the day :D Around 0C degrees during the day. Somewhat colder during the night.

I had a really effective day at work today. After work I spent some time to try to find a mailbox but that was easier said and thought than done. Then I went to see the movie Beowulf at Colosseum with Ricard, Oyvind and Federica. It was really cool to see the 3D version with special glasses and all. It was interesting :D
Great to see the others as well.

When I got home kitty was pretty keen on contact. Poor little cat. He has been home alone a long time today. Good thing He is so good at begging for contact when I get home. And. Must I say. Im pretty amazed by him. He shows his love and affection in a fantastic way :D

Sunny and -3C degrees today.

Watching the sunrise from the office is a fantastic thing. During my last 6 years I have not worked in an office with such a great view :D The office location has fiord view, light all day and we even have a beach (50 m long - haha) just about 150 meters away from the office :D

After work I hurried back home. Im giving away some old furniture and have an add out for it so a couple of people were gonna come to look at the stuff. I did have the time to send off some mail and do some grocery shopping before I went back home though. Gift wrapping paper and stuff like this. Its starting to become urgent to get all my christmas gifts done.

One guy came over to pick up honey that I help my dad to sell. He has been a faithful buyer through years so its fun to catch up. A lady also came to pick up an office chair that Im giving away so it was a good day. The rest of the night I spent in front of the computer chatting with Rachel being educated in how to solve problems in the MD group on Couchsurfing. It was good to see we got a few of the complaints done. I also did some cleaning and house keeping.
Not the most exiting day of them all though ..

Weather today has been sooooooo horrible, It has been a suffer from start till end. Heavy clouds, mist and rain. Totally depressing. But, there was one positive thing about it. All the wet snow melted and all the ice in the streets rained away. That is actually more than good news.

I got in to work about 9am and got to it right away. Due to the outdoor weather and the view I praised so highly yesterday it was quite depressing. I longed for my bed. When the day was over ast work I stopped in the city and picked up a lot of stuff I had on my list (carton, a plant, candles, more giftwrapping paper) before I went home.
I was struck by a creative wave and set up my christmas tree (still need to decorate it but the master plan is clear), did a lot of party planning for New Year Eve, cleaned a bit and solved several different MD CUQs on CS. Its great to see Im getting a hold of it. Amanda and Rachel helped me though :D
Im still a newbie :D

Its so cozy at home with my new curtains. Especially when lighting up the fireplace as well :D
I made pasta with tomato sauce and tuna like Alfredo showed me in Bologna and practically made enough both for dinner, breakfast tomorrow and lunch :D At least I dont need to worry about that tomorrow morning :D

I had big plans on baking today as well but that kind of slipped :D
I need to do it tomorrow. I need to get that out of the way. Its 3 cakes for new years but they all have to stay in the freezer for some while (until the day of the party). Weee.
Oh well. As always.. got late in bed.

Weather today was sometimes nice, somtimes not and around 4 degrees Celcius.

After work today I did some shopping, Both of ingr. for cooking and some christmas gifts.
I also had a LOOOONG chat with Jarle, one of my old schoolmates from Arendal, and that was fun. We exchanged cooking recipes and CS experiences before I started the job I had planned for the day. I baked 2 cakes for NYE - actually I made 4 but the 2 first ones I did not do a good job on. Hehe. WAAAAY too much sugar an flour compared to the amount of eggs. Not so smart some may say. But the two next ones came out perfect. They now sit in the freezer waiting for new years. They are "Tres leches" cakes.
Really easy to make. I even posted the recipe on the couchsurfing cooking exchange group :D.

Today was another one of those cloudy days, Not as boring and heavy as on tuesday. Thank God for that.

After work today I met Oyvind and he took me home in the car. He had some planks that I need for fixing my couch. He left them all at my house and then we went down to Federicas place to pick her and her friend, Stefania, up. We had a date with Martin Fremer today at Lorrys. Celine and Ricard, Elisabeth, Myriam and Jeff and David Gu also came and it became a great night out.
It was Martins first visit since he moved back to Finland so it was great to see him again. He even brought the first bottle of vodka for the NYE party so thinks are looking better now. :D
I did go home early though to get up early in the morning to go to Telemark and my fathers house.

Weather was quite good, light clouds that sat over oslo when I left and continued all the way down to Sannidal. 3 Hours from Oslo.

I woke up early and I did the dishes before I packed my bags and ran off to catch the train to the city. On my way to the train I called my sister and my friend Jorunn. My sister for her to come drop the christmas gifts off at the bus station and my friend to stop by and take care of the cat. Poor little kitty will be alone for a day and a half. He, who doesnt like to stay alone even for a full work day will not like this so luckily Jorunn were gonna stop by with Margaret to cuddle the animal a bit. He will like that.
I met my sister at the bus station and she handed over all christmas gifts that they had bought for my dad and the family. She knew half the passengers on the bus and several stopped by to speak with us.
At 10 we set off. I had the best place ever, all up in front with lots of space even for stretching the legs. My seat mate was the father of an old school friend and we talked a lot during the whole trip. The trip became quite enjoyable and passed pretty quick :D
We even told each other a couple of jokes.
--------------
Old Agatha arrived heaven and knocked the Pearl gate and was immediately let in. She wandered around for a while and suddenly she caught the glimpse of her best friend, Louise, and hurried over to have a chat with her.
A - Hey Louise, Nice to see you but why are you up her?
L - Well, you see, I froze to death..
A - Wow. That cant have been a good way to pass.
L - Nah, wasnt that bad actually. As soon as the shaking and shivering passed I felt this warm spread in me and the next thing I knew I was here. But what about you? Why are you here.
A - You see. I was pretty convinced that my husband was cheating on me and I decided to come home early from work one day to check up on my suspicion. I arrived home yesterday and he was just sitting in the chair like nothing had happened. I was so convinced that he was having someone there that I started searching all over the attic, the cellar, the living room, even the kitchen and the bedrooms, but I found nothing.
L - Thats good though. You should be happy then
A - No, actually I was getting so caved up because I was so certain I was right that I had a heart attack and died from the exhaustion and stress from searching the whole house.
L - I wish you would have searched in the Freezer as well and we might have been alive yet both of us !!!
----------------
I arrived my fathers house at 1pm and it was great to see them all again. Linda was at a friends house and had to be told her big sister had already arrived. I was attacked when she arrived. Its so nice with tiny sisters :D
The greatest experience of the day was to get to know the newest member of the family, baby Ellen. She just turned 6 weeks and she is so tiny :D
A really cute child that smiles a lot, she hardly cries and she smiles a lot. We had a great time and I was served Pizza for for dinner and snacks for the night. We also watched Harry Potter - the order of the phoenix with Linda. That was fun. At least she liked it. I had already seen it but dont mind watching it again. :D We all went to bed after watching the movie as it became late even for us grown-ups.

Today was a cloudy day and lots of snow in Telemark. Though as we entered Oslo it rained. Crap.

I had big problems sleeping tonight cause my dad wanted my door to be open since the heat was on in my room. That meant that when they all started walking around in the middle of the night I woke up a number of times. The baby sleeps with grandmom downstairs and this way they had to go up and down when she woke up and wanted food. I obviously shut the door to the room to sleep and my dad came down to open it and then I closed it again.

Apart from that it was great. We had breakfast together and Linda and Ida (her friend) played most of the day. I was handed baby Ellen and she fell asleep on my lap as I was rocking the chair. Quite funny to see the little creature sleep in my arms. She is quite beautiful.

We had Pastel for lunch. Thats a typical Brazilian meat dish baked in a dow. Frankly quite tasty :D Grandmom Mathilde was the chef :D
After lunch Linda and I went outside to shuwel some snow. My father took the tractor and went to the cabin area and cleaned the roads up there. After having spent some time outside I fell asleep and just woke up in time for dinner. Wonderful Chicken dish :D Also Brazilian recipe.

My bus back to Oslo left at 4:10pm and my father took me there. All christmas gifts exchanged I left with as much as I came with :D
The 3 hours in bus were quite boring to be frank but the lady next to me was almost melting and I was freezing so when we exchanged seats I finally warmed up and fell asleep almost instantly. :D
Arriving home I did a lot of work. I fixed the couch, did the dishes and washed the covers for the couch as well. I also did some organizing for NYE and that was great. Finally it seems like I manage to get an overview.

Crappy weather but the airpressure was a lot lighter today. Still cloudy. +4 C

I had an amazingly effective day today. After work I started organizing The CS NYE party and activities for it.
I went shopping for christmas gifts and stuff and I even baked the last cake I had promised to make for the NYE party. It was the bottom of an ice-cake made with Daim Chocolate. Its GREAT. One of my favourites.

On top of this I did laundry and had time to relax for 90 minutes. Wow. That felt strange after all the stress lately.

This morning I started my day by preparing a dow for one of the 7 traditional christmas cookies thats a must to serve for christmas. They are called Poor man :D due to the ingredients that was hard to find and expensive back in the old days.
The dow is supposed to sit for some hours before cooking so thats just perfect considering I was gonna make them when I got home.

I was utterly most effective at work today. One of my applications was released for testing on friday and none of the users started the testing until today (after hard pressure). So to get the application approved from the CAB members we had to really work hard to get all testing and documentation done before 4pm thats the limit.

Hard work but It feels so good to be this effective :D

I also had an appointment with John and Hilde to meet them to exchange christmas gifts but it was cancelled and actually.. (considering all the tasks waiting after work to plan New Years eve party and baking before christmas).. Im quite happy about that. I can meet up as soon as I finish up all my house mom tasks first :D

Another beautiful day over Oslo. Its Ice cold. -10C but we do have a tiny tiny bit of snow about 3 cm up at my place and its actually so nice :D All christmasy !!! Yeay !

Lyrics from Nada Surf - Inside of love

Watching Terrible tv
it kills all thought
getting spacier than
an astronaut
making out with people
i hardly know or like
I can't believe what I do
late at night.

I wanna know what it's like
on the inside of love.
i'm standing at the gates
i see the beauty above

only when we get to see
the aerial view
will the patterns show
we'll know what to do
I know the last page so well
i can't read the first
so i just don't start
it's getting worse

i wanna know what it's like
on the inside of love
i'm standing at the gates
i see the beauty above

i wanna know what it's like
on the inside of love
i can't find my way in
i try again and again

i'm on the outside of love
always under or above
i cant find my way in
i try again and again
i'm on the outside of love
always under or above
must be a different view
to be a me with a you

i wanna know what it's like
on the inside of love
standing at the gates i see
the beauty above

i wanna know what it's like
on the inside of love
of course i'll be alright
i just had a bad night.
i just had a bad night.

winter vacation :D Weee.
Really happy about that .. i still need to work a few more hours before all done and be officially on vacation but.. Im off and in Trondheim at my grand mothers house now :D

I started out the day by installing a few programs on my laptop for work to do a documentation later. Still a lot to do at work. I also did the last piece of laundry and dishes and set up bills for payment :) So Im all set for vacation.

My mom and stepdad came to pick me up at mid day and we started travelling all the way up to Trondheim. The trip took 8 hours and poor Saffi was scared shitless of the cardrive the 2 first hours... He meowed and was shaking and really desperate. Then after our first stop he calmed down. LIke he understood he was gonna come with me all the way - not just get dropped off somewhere and separated from me again.

Then he relaxed and the little cat sat for the rest of my trip on my lap under a fleece cover and slept like a baby.
I also watched a norwegian movie called cold prey (fritt vilt) on my laptop.
And to complete the trip i also managed to watch 2 chapters of Men in trees. :D
Finally updated on that show :d

As we had arrived grams had prepared a nice evening meal for us all and all cousins and uncles and aunt that also lives in the house joined in on a happy meal. I got my old room in the top floor. I used to live here like 11 years ago :D Ouch.. time passes by so quickly. scary.
My cousin Ingrid and I shared room and we had a really fun time - on each our laptop on each our mattrass on the floor. hehehe. The kid is pretty cool and we had lots of fun talking.

we woke up by kitty walking all over us meowing - hoping to draw our attention. In his opinion... we had slept enough :D

So we went downstairs for breakfast and were immediately put to action on working and helping out. Doing dishes, preparing breakfast, and then .finally breakfast. after breakfast i helped grams clean in the kitchen drawers and ... well. mainly i actually helped her throw away old stuff.. hehehe.. The oldest item of the day.... expired in 1995 !!!!!! Cheesus.. Why save things for 12 years? And she had lots of stuff that expired in 1996, 1997 and so on.. I threw away A LOT....

Then I helped my aunt baking and ended up with 4 cakes. All gluten free so that cousin Ingrid can eat them too. Better that way :D
I did grocery shopping and slaved around. In the evening we all stayed downstairs having fun and talking a lot :D My sister and my brother-in-law arrived at 8:30 ish pm and then we had dinner. All the family gathered around the table. Quite entertaining :D
2 more days till christmas eve :D

Ingrid (my cousin) didnt want to sleep in the top floor tonight cause Tron (my step dad)s mom had been puking all day and she didnt want to get infected. Fair enough.. No one else wants too but the old lady has not been in my room and im not very worried.. Maybe I should be. Hehehe..
NAH

Norway is at its darkest today. And the sun turns.. From today the days will get longer and longer every day :D

Fantastic !!!!!

I woke up quite late. 10:30 and went downstairs to join on breakfast preparations. Mom was already at it for washing more drawers and closets and throwing away stuff :D
after breakfast i skipped kitchen duty and did bathroom duty instead :D That mainly mean... I put togheter a new closet in the bathroom, then i joined my uncle on shopping rounds and had fun with the kids and then more working :D

I also joined my uncle for the famous round of parting out christmas gifts and one of the best stops was at my grandmothers sisters house. She is always so calm about all and One of her kids was also at home :D Or, can we really call them kids when they are almost 40?
It was great to see them both and I cant wait for dec 25 for their christmas party :D

When we got back we had the traditional christmas dinner with rice cooked with milk. Normally we make a huge portion and save some for the dessert that is typical on christmas eve :D
No can do. After that we all watched the same christmas show as all years on dec 23 following all traditions :D

And the official duties of the day was over. As for the last updates on the NYE party.. Some new people joined today as well. .scary how many we are now...
82 signed up people :D

Gonna be awesome :D

Had some great chats before going to bed. :D just a few more days now :D