Wednesday: groceries

I was getting groceries today and was surprised at the lack of things that I needed that were on sale.  But then I hit the frozen aisle and everything changed: most of the things I needed were on sale.

This week's amazing item was ice cream bars.  Lately there has been about one item per week that is on a really good sale and I end up saving $8-9 if I get a whole bunch.  So we've now stocked up on pepperoni, chicken patties, dark chocolate banana granola bars, and ice cream bars.

Isaac had a half day, so I decided to pick him up after my errands.  I got there six minutes after school ended and it was a pretty good time.  Most of car line was gone for picking up, but we still had to wait a few minutes to get out of the parking lot.  Making a left out of the lot was a little tricky, but not too bad.  I think I will try to not get there any earlier on days I pick up Isaac.

Isaac enjoys using AI to alter images, so today I got a Creeperchino.  Creeper was not happy about the picture - he said he looked too cute.

Tuesday: not Thursday

There were several times today I thought it was Thursday, only to slowly realized it is only Tuesday.

It was a busy day, as normal.  I worked hard today though, but am happy to report that I finished all the work that needed to be done at Hope.  I picked up Joshua from school, made dinner, went rock climbing.  Climbing had some success, some failures.

I'm trying to think of something interesting, but it was really a rather normal day.  

Monday: check

Today was a rather normal day.  I did my chores.  I drove people around...and around...and around.  I went to karate.  It was actually a really good class.  I mostly remembered my forms and we got through a lot of stuff.

As for chores, my raspberry jam set, the kitchen is still clean after dinner, and progress was made on some longer chores.

As for firsts, it was the first time I picked up Isaac at the high school.  I got there about ten minutes late and it wasn't too busy.  Speaking of firsts, I had Isaac make his own appointment for his next ortho visit.  Exciting?  More for me than for him.

vacation Saturday, part 1 (June 13): living museum, walking around

Fun fact!  The slightly extended Hilldore family was on four continents today: North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

The breakfast was great.  There was bread with brown cheese, which was one of the specialties in Norway.  (It's hard, but possible, to get in the US.)  There was a cold almond/not-oatmeal thing that was weird and good.  And there was a raspberry cocoa ball.  These were possibly the oddest.  They were quite dry, but still tasted very much like raspberry.  It turns out that most raspberry things are not dry.

We had several options of things to do today and Monday, but could mix and match a bit depending on weather.  We decided to to the living museum (Gamle Bergen Museum) in the morning.  Ben worked the public transit system like a pro, so we were able to bus over there.  Then we walked a short ways to the spot.  It was rather pretty and involved walking in a circle, kind of like the entryway to highways.

There were a few things outside the official museum, so we explored those a bit.  We found one of apparently several public swimming access points - and there were several people there!  They were also in the middle of restore a building and had printed out a (probably not paper) facade to put up.  It was rather funny, but at the same time blended in well and was a good option.

The living museum had several buildings to explore and there were several like skits throughout the morning.  The actors did a great job being in character and had to change characters several times throughout the morning.  The first skit was a maid working for the merchant and the 'farmer' boy that would come in from his island once a month.  They were in the middle of the slowest love story ever.

The second story was of the dentist in 1897.  I wouldn't believe it if 1) they didn't go out of character afterwards for a mini tour and 2)I didn't look it up afterwards to find out it was true.  Ok, so the story was of someone about to get married, but she had to get all her teeth removed first so that her in-laws didn't need to shoulder the cost of it happening later.  Her brother paid extra to give her morphine, but she kept running away anyway.  It turns out this is completely true: all the teeth were removed at marriage or confirmation.  Sugar had been introduced into their society but not good dental hygiene, so the teeth just rotted.  Dentures were expensive, so you would get one set and they had to fit you for the rest of your life.  If you were especially poor, there would only be one set of dentures in the whole family and you would just take turns eating.  CAN YOU IMAGINE???  (Turns out this was actually a rather common practice in a lot of western countries.)  After the skit there was more info on dentistry practices that I went to listen to.  I don't remember many specific details at this point, but found it all very interesting.

They had beds that would grow in length with the kids.  The main reason seemed to be the ability to get them into the houses (long ones were harder), but the more important reason might be that it saved a lot of space. No need to have a long bed for a short person.  They also had a few beds that would grow wider - during the day you could push half of it in for more floor space.

We explored for several hours, but I'm pretty sure that Joshua's highlight of the visit came near the end with a cat.  It was a nice white cat.  However, it followed us for the next ten minutes!  I was expecting a quick "hey cool, a cat!" but then we kept seeing it as we walked around.  It even let Joshua pet it's belly.  It seemed as though some of the houses are private residences, so maybe the cat belonged to one of those.

At the beginning, going up:

A small alley with Joshua:

Looking towards the fjord:

First Lunch: a bread with meat

Joshua with the cat:

Amanda and Joshua with cat:

Cat following us:

Ben with cat.  See?  It followed us a long time.

Oh, those silly kids.

Sunday: ok, this happened on Friday

Friday I joined a Google hangout with friends a little bit after it had started.  They were talking about puzzles.  Then Dusty said, "Ok, we're talking about 'old' people hobbies.  We've covered [something] and puzzles.  What else? ...Canning?"

Well, it turns out that I had ordered some canning jars and they had been delivered that day.  I kept forgetting to grab them, so while I didn't have a ton to add to the conversation about canning I was able to make it meaningful topic as I went to bring them inside the house.

Friday: overscheduled

 I overscheduled myself today with too many friend things.  I love friends!  But it was too much people-ing.  I'm exhausted.

Joshua had school pictures, so I took the lens out of an old pair of sunglasses to remove the flash in them.  Then I wore them in the morning.

Wednesday: urgent things finished

Today was full, with boring things, but things worked well.  There were no thunderstorms or even rain when Isaac was going to the bus stop, so I didn't feel the need to bring him.  Then Ben woke up a bit early and so brought Joshua to school.  

I had the laundry washed and dried by 11am, fairly amazing.  I even got most of it put away!  The kitchen was cleaned (and is still mostly clean), groceries and library books were obtained, Hope work was finished.  Several of the things that were "urgent" got finished, although there are several important things that didn't get done.  I feel more on top of things today, but we'll see if that feeling remains tomorrow.