The Birthday of the Year!

In my defense:  There WAS a party.  It was in Spain! My little one-year-old granddaughter looked gorgeous, and you will be agog of the decorations!  This is in response to me being a cold-hearted "packer" and giving some unpopular advice.

C had some woeful comments on Friday June 11.  A combination of trying to do EVERYTHING at once, and leaving an entire life behind. Yes, H was looking for his driver's license.  I was in the next room and I wonder why I didn't hear a thing!?  After he left, I got up and was shocked to see wall to wall clothing on the floor.  And yes, my immediate reaction was...
What was she thinking?  I thought she was going to be conservative
about clothing.  I thought I would help by at least folding the
clothing, and then I decided I may as well make piles of everyone's
stuff, and then I thought I would let C put it back into the suitcase
and pack.  I saw how hard it is for C to decide on what to take for
Juju and I gave some advice, yet there was NO coercion, and I felt like it was C's decision in the end. (OK. Maybe I got a little vocal about the birthday dress.)  There were lots of clothing with tags still on them.  And about
half went back into the suitcase.  Juju will NOT be naked this year!
Of course, we are going to see things to buy too!   A
pile was made to leave here, and hope they still fit in a year. A pile
was made for M's little girl (England).  And a pile of used, get
rid of.  Unfortunately, the "birthday" dress is huge!  I tell you,
huge! for a little girl. Yards of material! It fits, but will certainly fit next year
too.  I told her I would buy another "etsy" $45 hand-made dress next year if it
didn't fit, and to be fair, I didn't know (until I read her blog) that
the rosettes were for us big people;  a beautiful touch, that only
Celina would think of.  It broke my heart when I read about it.  Of
course, her friends were/are wild (see comments), and mad at me for being so... heartless.
 They'll see that we'll have a party of all parties with decorations,
balloons, Mickey Mouse ears! and gosh... fancy dresses!  Aunt Torill arrived with a dress because she felt bad about the situation as reported by C.  And I'm surprised that her friends back in Bergen didn't send a "care package."

  And the cake!  We haven't even gotten to the confetti cake with whipped sugar icing (that I haven't made for probably 27 years).
You be the judge.  Here are some pictures! (Click to see all 24 photos!)

1st Birthday Celebration

More Socks

Progress!  As of June 11 in Bergen I was barely finishing one sock, with the intention of removing and replacing the toe.  I guess that doesn't really count as finishing, does it?

FINALLY: Yes, the PAIR is finished.  In less than a year, Bonnie, although only by 2 weeks...

My crazy split-toe, semi-spider, non-matching, bamboo socks:  TA DAH!

So you'll never mix up your feet!  Er, your socks...

At the same time, I am this far on the put-aside Vilai Socks, that I LOVE!  (However, I now LOVE these toe socks, too.)

These might be finished by Rochester NY!  I track my socks in miles...

Where in the World?

N 38 13' 43.0"
W 000 31' 29.3"
Try these coordinates in Google Earth and look me up!

N 38 is just a little North of Farmington, and W 000 is...  West, barely of the Prime Meridian.  I was surprised!

And here's what it looks like around here.
I'm madly hoping that the internet stays connected... been a little troublesome.

The view from our roof terrace.

And the front of our "apartment".  It's a quad-plex building, with 2 floors, 3 bedrooms, and roof top patio.  Exactly 2 minutes to the pool.  Miles from the beach.

Driving in city center: Alicante (no, I wasn't driving at this particular moment...but minutes prior I was going around this round-about, mmm, more than once...)

An interesting shopping experience with bovine.  Maybe making a get-away from Burger King!

View on the way back from shopping.  Huge "villa" development.  Doesn't seem crowded though!

I spend my days chauffeuring C and H to Intensive 4 hour a day Spanish classes.  Mostly I hope for this:

Aww.

España

Day 5 in Spain and finally got the weather, time, and camera coordinated. Took pictures of our place and the area and the beach or maybe I should say the shoreline.


 The sky is clear and the bluest of blues until you see the sea. Then it pales to the color of the water. Very inviting if you enjoy waves and salt. Not wasted on me though since I still like to look at it and smell the air.
I'm anxious to post my pictures yet we are suddenly not connected to the Internet.
Yesterday I made my way into the center of the city, braving traffic and missing turns to shop at a huge department store. My mission was to locate the cheapest stroller in town however I didn't shop at the cheapest place in town. The store was more like a Macy's on 9 floors.
Today my own personal mission was to get to the sea. I got the car dirty and I was splashed a bit by the crashing waves on the rocks.
With three grandparents to babysit I feel like I'm on vacation!



Here's Paella for 6:

And the Scandinavians ready to dig in!

Next we need a little (and I mean little) vino tinto.  Boxes in all sizes:

Grandma Alert!

Totally entertaining! (with a message...)

Party TIME!

Norwegians love to party!  Well, don't we all?  They love Summer! And again, don't we all?  And when it's Summer and Party-time, how can you resist?

We went to two parties on the last day we were in Bergen.  Both were birthday celebrations.

Party #1:

C is holding the birthday baby, and M is holding Juju.

Party Facts:

• Noon to 3 PM
• Grilling outside (Steaks, chicken, some Croatian meat patties, shrimp, burgers, hot dogs, I'm sure I forgot something)
• Raining
• 55º F
• Baby's First Birthday
• CAKE!  with Lady Bugs.  

• TONS of food
• Conservative alcohol use
• 4 happy babies!
• 1 not so happy toddler

Between parties we returned to finish the final clean out:  Bare shelves, which were totally laden last week!

Party #2  (Sorry, no pictures...)

Party Facts:

• 6 PM until we left at 5 AM
• Outside party tent attached to garage
• 40+ people
• Lots of alcohol
• Extra clothing available and lap blankets for all
• Windy, rainy, and 40º F (but, hey, it was light outside!)
• Nacho Soup and Nacho chips
• Lots to drink (including my favorite, Pims and lemonade!!!!)
• Multiple cakes
• Loud music, loud voices, speeches, and cold
• Truly the Viking experience: Drink and cold weather!

I slept through some of it, until the alarm went off at 4:30 AM.  The maxi-taxi arrived at 5 AM and we took two of the revelers with us who had NOT slept.  They cracked jokes in the back of our 10 seater bus.  They pretended to be our children and we were going away on holiday.  They made us laugh, even at 5 AM when they wanted to stop for ice cream!

There we were at the airport, and suddenly on the plane, and 4 hours later we were in line for a rental car in Spain.  The "year-off" for C and H had officially begun.  How about that packing with mother-in-law in tow?

See Hal.

See Hal study Spanish.

See Hal eat a chocolate donut.

See Hal write with the world's tiniest pen!

(Click on the pic to see the world's tiniest pen.)

Norwegian Summer Nights

Another whole month until the solstice, taken at 10:20 PM on May 26.  What caught my eye was the glint of sun from the reflection of the sun off windows on the side of the mountain.  It's easy to stay up until midnight!  Bergen is 60º North Latitude and surrounded by 7 mountains. (Click picture to enlarge.)

On the first weekend of my trip, there was a 7 mountain run.  The finish line was in sight of the apartment, and t-shirts were awarded to finishers.  You had to be in great shape or take a full 12 hours to complete the 7 mountains OR many opt for the 4 mountain run .  The highest mountain is included in both the 7 and 4 mountain run and is the pinkish mountain in the above picture.  From there you don't have to return to sea-level to get to the next mountain on the left side of the picture, but make the dip down and back up.  

That day, C's friend, M, and Florida native, completed the 4 mountain run and had the t-shirt to prove it!