Hi there :)

Nice of you to stop by to read my blog :D I have just come home from my good bye dinner tonight at Peppes Pizza with 15 of my good friends :D It was great. Im really happy to have such a wonderful group of people around me.

Linda and Robert stopped by to drop of a belated birthday gift, that will come very well in handy while travelling. A 4Gb Memory card !!! Awesome. I think that is about the only thing that ive been thinking a lot about lately that I would have to get a few more Memory cards for my camera. Really great !

I spent most of my last day in Norway working and packing and sorting and arranging and, and, and. hehehe. Well. Its been a few busy days lately. I got my tickets and I got my insurrance and all I needed in last minute (compared to how I normally prepare for this long trips - like a few months in advance) but hey. I think most of it is ok now. I should have vaccinated the cat but lets see if Ill get someone to help me with that.
Today it has been pooring down most of the day and I cant say that Im not happy about going to sunny Houston. Its been about 2 weeks that they have reported 30C and sun every day on the weather underground website. Anyways everything is better than 0C and rain :D

At 7pm I left my apartment and went to meet my friends downtown. Most of them were there and we had a great time with Pizza and Beer. Myriam, Ellie, Ricard, Alexandra, Oyvind, Celine, Linda, Kirsti, Ornella, Asbjorn, Jorunn S and Margaret were there and it was a good time.
Im really happy all of you. Thank you for coming !
When we split up I went with Ricard and Oyvind for another bar until it was about time for the trains to take us home. We had a great chat and Oyvind entertained both me and Ricard with his incredible stories about his latest adventures. Man, ONLY to Oyvind can that happen. Hehehe.

I was home about 11:30pm and had a chat with Wendy. She is still in NL and was not able to meet me today but we will meet in Rotterdam in 6 weeks. :D Awesome. I cant wait. That trip is something Im really looking fwd to !

O, Im really exited about my trip tomorrow though !
Ill write to you as soon as I am online again and landed so that you all know that Im safe !

So, Im on my way.
I was done packing at 2 pm last night and got about 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up again. I got a cab to the airport and was there in good time. This entry is written from Amsterdam just before boarding the plane to Houston.
Just wanted to let you know Im safe and in Netherlands for the moment. :D

Ill update when I arrived the Hotel in Houston.

Finally after a really long flight I arrived to Houston.
The flight was 11 hours long and the first 4 of them were ok. That was when we were fed and my first book was interesting. I also managed to sleep about 2 hours. The 6 next hours I recall as being quite bored. That is something that has not happened in quite a while. Eh some years. Eh.. pretty many years actually.
Eventually I found some interesting programs on the video channels and finished up another book that unfortunately was not as interesting as it could have been. The last hour was quite good and suddenly we were landing. Wooo.
All in all the trip was good - Im just not used to forced relaxing any more.

I got a cab to go to my hotel that supposedly is on the opposite side of Houston from the Airport. The cab driver was nice and chatty and that kept me awake for the 45 minute long ride. I had no idea how big Houston is. 7 million people? Oups hehe. The 4rth biggest city in USA. Not that I actually checked before going :D

For the check-in, the personell at the Hotel were really helpful and nice. I was quite exhausted at the time and after several tries to make sense I figured I was in need for food and sleep.
Luckily there is a big grocery store right next to the hotel that is open 24/7 and I had youghurt for dinner ! It was quite interesting to see how inmense amount of unhealthy food was displayed in the shelfs although they also have a great deal of healthy food for sale too.

Once settled in my room, I had a few startup problems with the internet, the phone and such things, and after recognizing that I wasnt gonna understand how to solve the problem due to lack of sleep and long travel, I decided to go to sleep.
The inner clock was set to 4:30 AM Norway time.
Hopefully the jet-lag wont last too long :D

Anyways, Im quite ok and enjoying temperatures above 20C
Ill catch you later.
xoxox

A wonderful day. +32C, hardly no clouds, warm wind :D I like this place.

Today I had my first day at work and it was quite interesting. I was totally jet-lagged but managed to sleep until 6 o clock. Houston is 7 hours behind Norway so that is quite a good deal actually :D

I had breakfast at the hotel and when I was done I waited outside the hotel.
Staale, one of my Norwegian co-workers that are also here in Houston, and his dad came to pick me up and took me to work where I was introduced to a few of the co-workers I will have for the next 6 weeks. It was great. I think Im gonna like it there :D
Most of the day today was spent to get settled and finish up last rests of work I had to do before starting my tasks of the job Im here for.

Staale, Haavard and myself went for lunch at Chilis. It was so great to be able to sit outside and enjoy the sunny weather and have fresh strawberry lemonade ... love it.

After work they took me home and I stopped by Krogers to do some grocery shopping. Mainly my diet has consited of fresh fruits of the region, fresh veggies, yoghurt and pasta up until now.

At 7:30 the guys came to pick me up for a movie. Righteous Kill with Al Pacino and Robert DiNero. It was a great movie.
The guys dropped me off at home and I managed to stay awake to almost midnight Houston time.

Tune in later for more updates

Weather over Houston has been wonderfully sunny, about 30 C degrees and a few clouds, but mostly clear sky. We had some wind and the summery dry smell we have here takes me right back in memory to Costa Rica dryland and I realize I would soooo love to go back there soon :D

Hi again, Here are some updates from Houston and today has been a great day !

I woke up way too early, once at 5 but fell asleep quite fast, then again at 6 and I could not sleep until 7 again, but then I ended up sleeping until almost 10 and then I had like 10 minutes to get ready before Staale and his dad Haavard would pick me up to go to BuckHorn Ranch and Lakes for a Aker Solutions Company Family Picknick. It was about an hours drive from where we live, but it was a great trip and we tried paddle boats, the little train around the lake, horseshoe throwing and had a great lunch on top of it !
For the paddleboat trip we tried searching to see if we could see aligators as the crew members said that there was aligators living in the lake. We saw none of them but lots of nice black birds and trutles.
After the paddleboats we did the train trip around the lake. We got to see quite a few fishes jumping, turtles and we even saw one aligator in the water, but also the movements of others going into the water. It was quite a nice trip around the lake and in general it was a great day.

We had lunch at the Ranch and while we were almost the first to have arrived and there was almost noone else there when we arrived, we had been joined by loads of people by now. We didnt find anyone from our own office (Aker has like 5 offices in Houston) until after we finished eating. We greeted Per and his wife and kids before we headed over to the horseshoe throwing range. That was our last acitivity for the day at the Ranch.

But our day was far from over yet and out next stop was at Houston Zoo. It was a great day for the Zoo and it was also quite a good Zoo ! If you click the link provided here you can check out their web page to see what im talking about. Staale and Haavard dropped me off at my hotel where I freshened up and wrote a few emails before I was picked up by Melanie to go to the CS meeting at Agora cafe in Westheimer Rd 1765. Imagine Thats quite a drive from my place. About 18 kms down the same road !!!

Melanie, Andrea and myself arrived Agora at 10pm and guess what. We did not find any CSers. They had left the place without us .. Too sad. Well, we had quite a lot of fun though and we spent the night chatting and we found an Albanian guy that joined us + a big group of other locals visiting the cafe that night that joined in :D It ended up to be quite a nice evening and party even if we didnt find the CSers.
Melanie and Andrea drove me home and we continued talking for quite some while after arriving to my place. Both of the girls are amazing and Im looking fwd to join them for other adventures while here in Houston!!!!

Yet another day with +30C and sun. It was mainly sunny but at times party cloudy today. Someone once asked me if I dont get bored of weather with constant sun and warmth. I dont. I love it. I always loved it.

Considering I went to bed at 2:30 Houstonian time last night I should have slept longer than 7:30 but why stay in bed when you are not tired and have things to do?

I spent a few hours during the morning to go through last weeks emails and reply to the urgent ones as well as sorting out information for the New Years Party Im arranging. Quite a few people are showing interest and that is GREAT !!!!

I had breakfast and after that went to read by the pool for some hours. Nice way to spend the sunday. Swimming, Reading and Relaxing. Aint nothin better than that :D

After a shower to get rid of the worst chlorine from the swimming pool I decided it was time to explore my surroundings in my new neighbourhood.
I strolled out on Westheimer Rd and walked towards Houston Downtown, At Borders I stopped and picked up a Dutch language course for when Ill be 3 weeks in Netherlands soon and when I reached Target I entered to pick up some groceries. At Target, DownTown is still quite far away in walking distance.
I had walked almost 1400 house numbers down the street from 9965 to 8605 to where Target is located and by now I had started feeling the urge for lunch (5pm) and entered for shopping.
I picked up some and I had spent about 45 minutes slow walking or 30 minutes speed walking to reach there. Ive been told that its about 20 kms to downtown from my place. Luckily there are buses ! Ill have to catch one of those one day to get down there !

I was home about 6 and started cooking some lunch, Pasta with Chicken ! Yummy :D
I also killed a cockroach I found upside down. I carried him away and threw him in the bin outside the reception. No way Im gonna invite 700 cockroaches in this ones funeral.

I also dyed my hair darker, prepared for a new work day and wrote a few emails but not to forget, let you guys in on my incredibly interesting day :D

Stay tuned for more interesting adventures tomorrow .Have a fantastic day!

Some shattered rainfalls in the morning, 25C and rest of the day was sunny.

This morning I woke up at 5:45 and to stay in bed until breakfast started at 6:30.
I walked to work and to make sure I would find my way I had a little map. It is great to walk in these still pretty warm mornings.
I had lunch with Staale and his father Haavard in our new lunch restaurant, also called the Deli.

After work we stopped at the mailoffice, but dont you think that was closed for the day? How should we know the post office closes for Columbus day? Hehe.
So, we went to The Houston Galleria Shopping Mall instead.
Its quite an expensive place to go for shopping, but great design and nice shops.

I got myself a cell phone today too. Thats gonna help I think.

We had dinner at Kona Grill , where I tried the Chicken in Macadamia nut sause. It was sooo delicious. Service was great and dinner was just the best.

I also bought my tickets to go to California today ! Its gonna be great. Im gonna visit Dionne and Gregg in Norco, Marco and Alex in LA and Rachel at CS Basecamp in Berkeley, SF.
I cant wait.

The guys took me home after dinner and that was about all the exitement for the day!

This morning it had rained and it was wet all over. Still moist and warm though. Scattered clouds all day, but big parts of the day with beautiful sun too :D 25C

I was picked up this morning and while working I spent the morning listening to music and dutch classes. These days my work is to gather information and that is quite easy brainer work. I also had a phone meeting with Heidi in Norway and later in the day also with the team over here in Houston.

We had lunch at the Deli at work, but after lunch Staale had to go down to the Houston Galleria again because he forgot his cellphone at Kona Grill yesterday so he offered to let me tag along and of course I wanted to. Exiting adventures all over in this city.

The trip to the Galleria was good, I got a few postcards and window shopped a bit. After the Galleria went to pick up Staales car that had been up for repairs for some while. This was a detour that would have normally taken less than 30 minutes to drive there, pick up the car and be back at the office. Only problem was: Houston has 7 000 000 inhabitants. Lots of these dont drive very well and in high speed on the highways.... accidents happen. So, we sat in traffic jam for an hour to get up to the place the car was at.
Thankfully nothing happened on our way home and we were back at the office with 5 minutes to go before the department phone meeting !!!!!!

I would say Ice cold and PERFECT calculations of time.

Since we had a bit of a long lunch break we stayed behind some extra hours to make sure we worked full day and for dinner Staale and Haavard invited me to join them at their house for Home made mashed potatoes and Sausage. Haavard is a great cook and I like their company. :D

I was dropped of at home around 10 ish and was quite tired so went almost straight to bed.

scattered showers in the day / morning and sunny towards the night. Temps have fallen a bit and while mid day its still wonderful with temps around the 25C ish, in the mornings its going down under 15C.

Today wasnt a very intersting day though but ill sum it up at least.

I had breakfast and then walked to work as it was cloudy but no rain. I spent the morning working on gathering information about the applications I will work on and after the phone meeting with Anette in Norway I listened to music while working. The open landscape we sit in carry sound pretty well and its not always the best surroundings for concentration with loud speaking, phone calls on speakers.

I had lunch with Staale and Haavard again and after work it started raining again so I spent the night working on MDST issues and catching up.

My back problems are never ending and I went for 15 lapses in the swimming pool before I warmed up in the SPA before going to bed.

Another rainy day in the morning, then some sun, some clouds and some rain again before more sun. I love it though. Its about 25C every day.

At work we had a Celebration meeting to celebrate that Haavard had been in the company for 40 year as an employee in the AKER group. I got to know a spanish speaker, Sergio, so finally I have someone I can practise spanish with at the office.

At night the German girl, Andrea, that I met last saturday with picked me up at the hotel and we went to a the third thursday CouchSurfinig meeting at a Mexican Restaurant called Chapultepec. They had great food. I had chicken fajitas! yummy. Their Margaritas were awesome. Frozen Strawberry Margaritas. I could go on for some while with them.
I had a fantastic night there and met a few new people. Jordan and Lisa was sitting next to us and they were awesome :D We laughed heaps as we all became quite giggly after the margaritas :D
Andrea drove me home around midnight. Thank you Andrea!

Today was a particularly cloudy day. It was noticably colder than the previous days, but not colder than that T-shirt was warm enough for outdoor use. Maybe temperatures sank down to 23 today. I seriously didnt check. :D

I was so tired when i woke up this morning, I had my regular breakfast in the hotel dining area and Staale and Haavard picked me up at 7:20.
Work was quite effective today and my two Norwegian coworkers left a bit earlier than me today. Per gave me a ride home as we were the two last to leave. He has a great car. A white sports car. Really really nice, but cant remember its name. Ill have to check up on that at some later time. :D

My biggest achievement of the day was to buy the planeticket to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma for my last weekend in US. It will be for the 21-23 of November and I will go there to visit Oneshi. I cant wait. Its been 5 years since I saw her and Julio and I know its gonna be a blast !

I made pasta for dinner and wasted a few hours by the TV before I went to bed at 8:30. I was completely dead tired. So. Not such an exiting day today. More interesting readings will follow this one. Hehehe. Wishing you a wonderful weekend all.

Today we had beautiful sunny weather, 30C and mild winds. A fantastic day for pool activities.

I woke up around 8 this morning and my back was so tense again. I should have gone for that walk and the swim yesterday as I had planned to, but I was way tired then.

I spent a good part of the morning next to the computer working on my volunteer work for Coushsurfing.com but around 11 I went out to read by the pool. I was alone until maybe 2pm when I was joined by another lady.
Around 3 we started chatting and turns out she is Swedish but married to a Norwegian guy and lived in Oslo for 40 years. It was a nice and pleasant conversation in Norwegian. I must admit that I would not have thought that I would find another Norwegian tanning here, but then again. People that constantly live in the sun does not enjoy so much to be in it all the time, so what place better to meet someone from my part of the world than by the pool. When the Norwegian lady left an American lady started talking to me. She was there with 3 kids and as soon as we started talking we didnt stop for hours. She was so kind and we had a really interesting conversations. I think that Cin is one of those people I was supposed to run into during my life. She is staying at the hotel for all the time Ill be here + more with her housband, daughter and 3 grandkids. We also realized that although growing up a generation and a continent apart, our backgrounds are not that different and we had a lot in common.
I am so thrilled to be in this trip.

I spent 7 hours in the sun and it was such a lovely day. I swam, I was in the Jacuzzi / Spa pool and by the end of the day, my back felt a lot more agile than in days.

I went in when the Cigars came out, and Cin and her family went in with the kids, and the rest of the night I spent working on Couchsurfing issues and watching TV. I watched a program about the draughts under the big depression in US in the 1930s and it was a very interesting program. I also watched a few episodes of NCSI, CSI and a few others I barely remember and had a few long chats :D It became late before I got myself to bed.
Night folks.

Another wonderfully blessed sunny Sunday. 30C and just wonderful. I like this city :D Well, I kind of like anywhere where the weather is sunny and nice.

I woke up around 8ish. Quite impressed after going to bed at 3:3o that I would have to wake up that early... again.

I spent some time solving CUQs (again) before I went out to spend a few hours at the pool. I read in my Teach Yourself ... language course book and swam a bit, got my back massaged by the airbubbles in the Spa pool. Sundays are supposed to be like this.

Around 3pm I decided to seek adventure again and took the bus downtown. It was quite an interesting observation I did there. I felt a bit alone in the big world. Most of the people on the bus were men. Black men. Not that that bothers me at all. But where were the women? Why were there hardly no women on the bus?
Anyways. You may wonder why on earth I brag about taking the bus? Well. Most of the people I have gotten to know here have warned me several times about taking the bus. Mainly this rule applies after dark though as buses dont run regularly and they suddenly stop. It was even a funny sign at the bus stop that explained that buses may run irregulary due to traffic, accidents and / or bad weather. Continuing to speak about the bus, on my way home from downtown I asked the female bus driver how long it was safe to take the bus. It was 6:15pm and the daylight was about to disappear. Oh Honey, you should be where you wanna be before nightfall. Buses in this city are dangerous to be on after nightfall.

I took the bus down to Galleria. Galleria is not even halfway down the road. I live at 9965, Galleria is at 5000 something (streetnumbers we speak of now *yodavoice*) and the street still runs up to 13-15000 the other way. :D It takes a while to drive from start to end :D
Those 4500ish house numbers took the bus 25 minutes.

The Galleria Mall is a huge mall, a bit too expensive because of the more exclusive stores there, but its great for walking around anyways. I found me 2 new tops and not much more just yet.
It was still good to be walking around and looking at the people that were there.

So on my way home I hopped off the bus at Target and went for some more grocery shopping. I also stopped at Chipotle - a Mexican restaurant I got the taste for when in Minnesota 3 years ago, and brought home some food. I ordered a Taxi to take me home because by now it was almost pitch dark (ok I am adding a bit for the effects here) and I dont need to play it too unsafe on my first trip alone :D
It is half an hour walk to the hotel from Target.

At home I was delighted to have Mexican food ! It was soo good. I also had a long chat with Andrea, one of my newly gained new friends in Houston. She is so funny :D Im happy I met her and Melanie.
I spent the rest of the night organizing stuff for the New Year event. Not that it was so much left to call it the rest of the night :D
So. To those of you reading this early, have a great day while I'll take a nice nap :D

Tune in later for more updates from US :D
Hugs

26C, nice sunny weather. Not a cloud in sight.

I walked to work this morning. I started off just before 6:40 and while it was still dark when i started, the sun was rising in all its glory only 20 minutes later. It was a beautiful sunrise, indeed.

The first part of my day was quite good and efficient. Then I started getting cold and with cold i got a headache.
Like the iguana I have to come up to the surface at some point to warm up my body before I dive into the cold water again to continue working.
Around 1pm I gave in. It was too cold, I went out in the park surrounding the office buidlings and sat on a bench in the sun for a while. Its amazing how rapidly you warm up in these temperatures.

The rest of the day went better again and to make sure I move my back due to the tense lower parts of the back I walked home too.

I went to bed real early after watching a movie with Jodie Foster called The Brave One . It was a touchy movie and well worth seeing.

Today was another beautiful sunny day. most of the day no clouds were to see but around 4 we had a few clouds that covered up the sunset. Temps were about 26C high.

Staale and Haavard picked me up today at 7:15. I woke up by a text message 10 minutes before they came by, got dressed, got some food out of the fridge and packed my sack.
On my way out I went by the dining area at the hotel and picked up some food. My regular breakfast these days consist of omelet, yoghurt, chocolate milk and bagel.

We were at work before 7:30 and my back was in bad pains again. I am sick of having backpains and decided to get a backmassage.
After work I went on my second trip in bus down to Yorktown to Massage Envy where i had a date with Ken. Ken was a brutal massagist, but he sure knew how to work sore muscles.
The bus trip home today was completely full. People everywhere. I must say that, compared to Norwegians, Houstonians are very good at offering seats at disabled, old and pregnant people. If someone has a seat they are quick to give it up for someone that might need it more.
A woman with a cute little baby came in and the baby sat up a show that kept most of the passengers entertained and quite a few started playing with her, making googoo sounds and her mama was so proud :D

I got home just about 6pm and dinner was about to start in the cafeteria. I met Cin and Jim there again and Cin invited me to come with them to Walmart after dinner.
We spent 3 full hours in there and thankfully I managed to leave most behind :D I got myself 2 new skirts and a T-shirt.

I ended the evening in the SPA pool. It was soo warm and nice and I stayed in for almost an hour. I was in the other pool a bit too, to cool down once in a while. Cin and Jim came out after a while and we had a chat before I went in to sleep.

Most of the day today was quite cloudy with shattered rain throughout the day. At nighttime, after dinner, we had a thunderstorm. Temperatures were about 22 and very humid.

Today was qute an ordinary day at work. Not much to tell. When I got home I watched another 3 episodes of NCIS while chatting with one of my team mates from CS and working on related issues.
I had dinner in the cafeteria. Not much to brag about. Some dodgy hot dogs with a strange taste, but apart from that all good. As i returned from the cafeteria we had a tropical rainfall. I was soaked in 30 seconds.

The rest of the night I was a good girl doing housy duties like laundry Hehehe. It was my first laundry day in 2 weeks, but it was great to have it done !

Today was another beautiful sunny day. most of the day no clouds were to see but around 4 we had a few clouds that covered up the sunset. Temps were about 21C high.

Just a quick note, today was not among the most exiting days at work, but Staale and Haavard were kind to take me to a Mexican food store called Fiesta. It was great because I found so much interesting stuff. Tropical fruits, sauces and stuff I have not seen for so long. Yummy.
I even got a christmas gift done.

It clouded up around dinnertime and by the time dinner was done it was colder and I decided to go to my room to watch TV and have a chat with Derek about MDST. I was called on from the Reception to go there again. Cindy, Jim, Yvonne and Johan was waiting for me and they were sitting in the Reception playing guitar and having fun.
By the time I decided to go back to my rain it was pooring down and during the 21 seconds it took me to walk to the front door, i was SOAKED.
I showered and got back in my good chair and watched some more TV before going to bed.

The weather was still heavy and cloudy after the rainfall last night. However during the afternoon the weather became better towards the end of the day and temps also got better again. It was an average of 20C

Generally this day was not very interesting. I left work for the weekend at 3pm and had pasta for dinner.
I participated to some webdiscussions about culture in India which was very interesting and learningful. I also had a longer chat with Derek on CS teamwork and did some weekend catching up.
Today was also my promotion to be a global ambassador on Couchsurfing and I am really happy about that they accepted me for that !

Apart from these news. lets see. Not much more I think. I went to bed quite early as I was very tired.

26C, nice sunny weather. Not a cloud in sight.

I woke up around 8:30 ish and did a few hours email reading, answering and updates on different accounts. So much to pick up on in the weekends lately.
I think this means Im having more of a social life recently :D

At 11am Cin and her family took me to their favourite Park, The Arthur Storey Park, in Houston for a walk. Jim and the kids stayed at the playground while Cin and myself walked around the park a few times. Cin is great company. We have had a lot of fun up until now.
At the end of the walk the whole family joined in for the rest of the walk.

The park was beautiful. There is a beautiful little duckpond with amounts of turtles, ducks and other strange birds living there. The park has several small trails. Two of them pretty close to the playground,but there is also one that expands around the little lake that would take an hours time to walk around. Ill do that one next time I think.

I was completely fascinated by the birds singing in the trees. Zanates :D Those are one of my most precious memories from when I lived in Liberia, Costa Rica, Im thrilled to have them here too!!!

After getting back to the hotel I spent 2 hours laying flat in the sun by the pool, working on my tan and reading a book. Im really happy to be able to do so in the end of october. And I still have one more month before Ill go back to Europe.
A Norwegian couple, Eva and Charles, that I met a week ago too, came down to tan too. They gave up after an hour though :D The sun is still quite hot in the middle of the day.

At 4:30 we started preparing for a BBQ by the pool with Cin and family and another Norwegian couple that lives at the Hotel. The man also works at Aker Solutions, but in a different part than myself.
We had delicious food, good wine and great conversations. It was a really nice dinner party!

I ended the day in front of the computer (again! Doh! What a geek!) and went to bed as late as 2:30.

I have for very many years been a huge fan of the beautiful voice of Kari Rueslaatten and when I found this wonderful song i had to post it to share it with you.

It also has some beautiful pictures of the Northern parts of my country.

Kari Rueslatten with Nordnatt (Northern night)

Today was another beautiful sunny day. most of the day no clouds were to see but around 4 we had a few clouds that covered up the sunset. Temps were about 26C high.

My sunday was great. I woke up late, Did some catching up and went out to read and tan by the pool. Finally I finished the book Ive been reading and can start my next.
I spent some good 3,5 hours in the sun and if it werent for my back I think I would have had a perfect time. My lower back muscles are still as tense as never and .. its getting uncomfortable not being able to move better than this. Cin has some pills called Replenex that are an addition to the regular diet but will help for pains in joints and muscles. Ill give them a try. She says its about a half a week to a week to notice any difference. I need Kari to work my back.
Anyways. Sun was great, its funny though, how I always seem to be the only one by the pool or accompanied by one or 2 other scandinavians. None of the other guests spend any time by the pool. And its such wonderful days.

At 4 Lisa came to pick me up to go to a CS meeting. We went there and did not find the others (or we went somewhere and the others were not there) and quickly decided to go for shopping instead :D We stopped by 2 outlet stores and they had lots of great deals. Some real crap stuff too, but I found a Calvin Klein winterjacket for a great bargain and I got a shorts, 3 pair a socks and a sweater. We also vsited a Halloween sale. These stores are so funny :D Didnt get anything there though because Ive decided that anything Halloweenish Im gonna get to bring home will be stuff I bought on sale. No reason to pay full price this week and next week 70% off.

After shopping we went for dinner at Chipotle. Yummy. Lisa is a funny, well reflected person and we had so much fun together. I really enjoyed our evening.

When I got home I worked on Couchsurfing issues with Derek to get some of the issues away.
Got to bed at 11

A coldfront from the north has come in overnight and with a cold, strong, wind the +7C the meter showed, felt a lot colder. Although it was sunny and in places with no wind it was warm enough to sit still outside, the maximum temperature did not reach +20C (67F).
As for an example the wind speed was 42 km/h.

I was up early and decided to walk for work. I packed and prepared and went for breakfast at the dining area. GOSH. It was soooo cold. I had to immediately go in for my cotton jacket.
I picked up breakfast and lunch and went outside. It blew even more. I realized there was no way I was gonna be able to not freeze if I only had my jacket on. I went in for the down vest as well. Im glad I did. It was way cold. Fortunately it was enough clothes as I started to walk. It was a great walk though. The sun doesnt get up until 7:45 these days, but I try to get in before 7:30 every day. Gives me more daylight in the afternoon.

For dinner we had baked potatoes and some meat sauce at the hotel. It was great. i had too much of it though.

Cin came over to visit me and watch pictures, listen to music and learn about Norway. I showed her pictures of my family and of the northern lights (aurora borealis) and played music.
She was amazed by those pictures and we had a very nice time.

I ended the night responding emails and updating blog. Was in bed by 11pm.

This morning it was only +7C degrees warm and cold wind did not help. Not a cloud to spot at the sky though. At 1pm temps had rised till +20C and it was all nice and warm again. No clouds. A high of 24 expected in the afternoon.

Staale and Haavard came to pick me up this morning. From the alarm rang to we were on the road, I used less than 9 minutes :D Im a bit impressed by myself. :D I do showers at night though. What I did have time for was to get dressed, pack my bag and sweep the dining area and pick up food I brought for breakfast.

We had a North America Application Management phone meeting today at 11am and when that was over, Richard took me out for lunch to a typical Texan BBQ place called Blakes BBQ and Burgers.
Food was great and its good to get to know Richard a bit too as I am working for him to help him with the information that I am gathering and helping him so that my department will take the responsibility for the applications that belong to our portfolios.

In the afternoon I had a workmeeting with Richard to get more info about my work.

I walked home. Temps are getting better again and as I got home I started working on CS stuff. I did so till 7pm and I went out for a walk to Krogers. I met Yvonne and Johan (the Norwegians that also live in the hotel) and Cin and Jim that were sitting outside. Half freezing from the temps, but laughing and having fun.
I joined them for a while but when the others wanted to go in to catch the warmth, Cin joined me to Krogers. A trip that proved to be good as I finally found the right pumpkin carving equipment that Ive been looking for for sooooo long !!!! A big spoon with sharp toothed edges on 2 sides !! Wonderful. Finally I got one. A lady at work also got me this kind of a saw knife for pumpkin carving.

I stayed up working with Marco when I got home. The wonders of internet and communication via chat. I got to bed way late. Gonna be tired for work tomorrow

Today was another beautiful sunny day. Mainly there were not many clouds to see but around 4 we had a few clouds that covered up the sunset. Temps were about 26C high.

I had my first trip downtown to Houston today. A colleague took me to Sams club, that is a similar concept to the Norwegian Smart Club. After this we drove around downtown. Sergio showed me the theater district, the aquarium, the Toyota centre area, the skyline and the clubbing areas.
It was very nice to finally see the downtown area after having been here for almost 4 weeks already. The tour was over at 9pm and I was so tired after a long day that I just went off to sleep directly.

This morning it was only +8C degrees warm. Not a cloud to spot at the sky though. The maximum of the day reached +25C and no clouds.

I had dinner at the hotel and a long chat with Cin after work in the hotel garden and then Staale took me shopping. We first went to Sketchers where I got 3 new pair of shoes, except that
they gave me the incorrect bag with 3 pair of 8s instead of 3 pair of 11s. Strangest thing. I was pretty disappointed when I came home and found out.
After Sketchers we went to Target, I picked up a few christmas gifts and groceries and then we tried to go to City Memorial Mall. Only thing was... We got there at 9:02pm and the mall closes at 9:00 so stores were all closed already and people heading on their way out. Too bad. So we decided to give up shopping for the day. I had a chat with the Norwegian couple again as I arrived the hotel. They were outside smoking. I went to bed early.

Today was another beautiful sunny day. The highest temperatures we reached was +26C high.

Today was my very first Trick or Treat Halloween celebration. I mean. I have spent Halloween in Canada before, but that time my host family closed themselves in and didnt really participate to the celebration. I have also celebrated Halloween by Halloween parties where everyone dressed up and the party place was decorated and all set for Halloween, but its my first time trick or treating with kids around a whole neighbourhood that has been decorated and all people prepared for party.

At work there was a pumpkin carving competition. Some of my colleagues had carved their own pumpkins and they were to be voted upon but i really didnt pay attention to that part of the day. As soon as the workday was over, Staale and Haavard took me to Sketchers to change the shoes I got the other day (except the vendor gave me the wrong bag when i purchased them) and after we went to WalMart to pick up a pumpkin and a few other things that I needed for the party at Lisas place.
When we were done there Staale dropped me off at Lisa and Brians place. Lisa is a woman I met at the Couchsurfing meeting last week.
Brain was setting up the Halloween decorations in the drive way. A table for the candy and Pumpinks with candles inside, a boiling skull and lots of creepy decorations. It looked so great. Lisa led me in to their house and I met their son, Alex, a 4 year old little boy dressed up as a spider :D He was adorable.
I carved my pumpkin. It turned into the head of Jack Skellington (as some of you know I have a thing for The nightmare before christmas) and as I was performing this task, Pat and Tom came over to celebrate Halloween with us too.
Pat and Tom is a talkative, funny and sweet couple.
When the pumpkin was finished we took it out to set it up with the others and as we got out we had already recieved the first little visitors. little Nemo, the fairy and a princess along with the little spider that belonged to the house of course. They were so cute.

Lisa and myself took the little princess, her mom and the little spider trick or treating while Brian, Pat and Tom stayed at home to hold the fortress and give out candy. Its fascinating that so many had decorated their houses and gardens and in some places the owners had dressed up too. One house had set up vampires in the windows, a aircastle and a graveyard in the garden. It was so great and all the kids were so awesome, so cute in their costumes. There were all kind of princesses, fairies, dorothys, vampires, batmans and all other thinkable creatures. I had such a wonderful time.
When we had done one round around the neighbourhood we sat down outside Lisa and Brians house to hand out candy. We sat outside until almost 10.
Andrea and Nahoko came to join us at 9. They got a bit lost on their way, but when they came we had lots of fun.
Unfortunately they had to leave the party already at 11pm for another party they had committed to. They both dressed up fantastically. In the picture Nahoko and Andrea in front. Myself and Lisa in the back.
Lisa drove me home at 1:30 but we stayed talking in the car for a long time. She is amazing for telling jokes, she is a great and concerning person. I am glad I have found a friend in her.