last night i was thinking about precisely six years and the years before and the years to come. and even though you're there and i'm here it's ok--after all, we do have a history of this kind of thing and it's always worked out quite well because we always end up here and there together.
my favorite picture, you were there, in seattle and i was here. i think this is when we decided we'd both be somewhere, anywhere, together.
over there in dublin, deciding, i'm pretty sure, to take someone else along for the adventure. owen was born about ten months later i believe ;)
and here we are, together, here, all three.
there, in holland.
and right there, where you are now while we're here.
and here is where the here, all together, home pictures will go:
very very soon!
happy anniversary michael!
six years
6 years
Our special day today. I love you and miss you. I picked up your bracelet earlier and though you would appreciate some pics. It turned out very beautiful.. I also picked you out a special gift that will have to be a surprise for now.
QM2
the queen mary 2 has been in and around Alesund over the past few weeks... I haven't seen it since I hear that it docked during the weekday last week, but I found this picture of it next to the Hurtigruten boat that Cara, Owen, and I took a couple weeks ago.. and we thought that our cruise ship was big.
surprisingly tasty
while owen takes a ridiculously late nap i'm enjoying a leftover pasta toss--i boiled some fusilli pasta and added some frozen organic tj's peas (nice and sweet) in the water in the last couple minute of cooking, then once it was in the strainer dumped the remains of a jar of pitted kalamata olives, tossed in some chopped walnuts and half of an herb roasted chicken (shredded) and then added some lite feta cheese (trying it out--not bad, but does seem a bit saltier), a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh thyme from my pot owen watered for me outside. i think i could have done without the olives, but i'm really excited about the fresh thyme. it seems that instead of posting cooking recipes i'll review trader joe's faves and share what i come up with when mixed with some fresh herbs and pantry surprises--apologies for those right-coasters and atlantic ocean dwellers who don't have joe around the corner. perhaps you'll all have better suggestions. and, with michael home all july we might just have some inspired culinary feasts after all!
i heart wildrice
i've wanted to do more cooking posts but little cooking has happened (see wonderbread reference below) since my last enthusiastic rant. on tuesday, however, after the doctor visit adcventure i came home and realized my head was spinning from consuming little else other than the coffee i left on the kitchen table on my way out the door and the half cup of cold-brew i consumed at b&n for some post-trauma recovery (the other half i spilled in line much to the delight of owen who thought the mop and the mop girl were pretty exciting). so thanks to trader joe's miracles i managed to make an amazing little wild rice dish using some frozen chicken tenders i sauteed up with some shallots and half a yellow bell pepper, some toasted pre-chopped walnuts and some dried black currants. it needed more zip so i tossed in a handful of fresh blueberries and washed it all down with some screwtop big house red. and what made it all possible was the amazing packet of wild rice trader joe's has that is deliciously nutty (and not actually rice and i'm really into nutty) and that's all nice and cooked and sealed and ready to heat and serve. but the cool thing is that as i was googling for some rice images i came across a dozen or so blogs that ranted about the rice as the means for enjoying a culinary experience. one woman wrote about how it gave her time to enjoy the beauty of sauteeing zuchini and another blog centered it as the old-stand: one pack tj's rice, one fruit, one cheese, one veggie and some dressing. and b. had used the same rice last week with some dried apricots and pinenuts. and then my cooking diva friends are cooking gorgeous quinoa and writing about why getting back in the kitchen is better than therapy. and that's all. i just wanted to say that the rice made me happy. and that if owen hadn't been on an applesauce and toast diet it would have made him happy too. and, i think it will next week when i try those apricots.
art walk (and other ramblings from the week)
or make that art run, jump, dance, wiggle, sing, and sit.
nana joined us to meet our friends in san clemente for dinner at avila's
where we enjoyed some "awesome mama!" carnitas and cadillac margaritas. after dinner the boys enjoyed running through the downtown art walk with nothing short of unabashed joy. highlights include owen patting some surprised woman's "tushy" and then suddently stopping t
o sit in front of a local artist's rendition of the san clemente pier sunset. and then off again. then more laughing and screaming and eating ice cream and then dancing in front of the old hotel cafe to some swingy big band music where both boys danced and stomped and cheered with zest (youtube is down, so no videos yet) when we were leaving owen put a dollar in the tip jar and shouted "more singing please!".
it was a much needed respite after a week of stuffy noses, phlegmy coughs and lots of ickyness that put owen on a wonderbread and saltine diet (and of course the traumatic doctor's visit--owen just screamed and screamed "owen go home!" while crying so hysterically that he turned all red 
and splotchy despite the fact that lola was a doctor and "fixed" everyone with lotta's birthday present and we rehearsed with a pretend stethescope and said "aaah" and had loads of fun weighing ourselves on mommy's scale. but he did manage to say "thank you" rather sniff-ily to the "nice doctor lady"). anyhow, we called in the reinforcements and papa cooked us up some yummy dinner
yesterday (some ground beef and black bean burritos with some lovely peach salsa) and nana stayed on to help bulldoze through our upstairs (which is starting to resemble a landing station of the goodwill) beginning with the catch-all that is owen's closet (but sigh, can it really be that those adorable newborn rompers were two years ago!) anyhow, it's been a hectic, exhausting week and we miss daddy like crazy (home in 7 days!!!) but we're continuing the adventure-ing in toddlertime with family (sal & jenn came out last weekend and we planned nana's retirement party--lots of yummy stuff on the menu! watch for that next weekend!) , friends and neighbors.
saving money
A quick post while I am sitting here (in my hotel room) doing a data migration for our new system for Rolls Royce. Today I saved RR about 5000 NOK, which is almost 1000 USD. Apparently, we received some toll booth violations which Avis was quick to bill RR directly -- but since the car was rented out in my name, RR decided that I should be the one to pay them... So some two hours on the phone with Avis customer service and the toll booth company we got it sorted. We had a transponder, but switched cars, and didn't register the new car.. We had 7 tickets at 705NOK each. The funny part of the story is we tried explaning that the tickets will be take care of and Avis will be reimbursed, but a manager at RR told us that he just didn't want to see the invoices from Avis, that we should just pay them and expense to RR. So, I guess they weren't that impressed with us trying to save a bit of $. Anyway, re-reading it doesn't seem that funny, but it was a highlight of my day :)
mooday chocolate cake
one of our favorite poems from one of our favorite read-aloud books-- eric carle's animals animals:
The Birthday Cow
Happy Mooday to you,Happy Mooday to you.
Happy Mooday
Dear Yooday,
Happy Mooday to you!
owen's rendition, of course, includes--after each mention of birthday-- chocolate cake:
stopped in london for a pint
Yes.. I am back in Alesund. The plan is to get home in time to see some fireworks, so here until 7/4. I tried a different route this time, going through London -- SAS has a new flight from London Gatwick directly to Alesund. Since the British Airways flight from Seattle was all booked, I had to go through Vancouver... not sure if it was worth the effort.. BA economy class is pretty cramped. I did however get some spare time in London - had to take a coach from Heathrow to Gatwick - but got the chance to get a common British meal - steak pie, over-boiled veggies, and a pint of bitter... I think the beer alone is worth stopping in London for. Maybe I'll have to give Virgin Airlines a try, although I wouldn't get miles towards Alaska Air with them.
But now here in Alesund, trying to fight off a cold that I picked up from Owen (thanks Owen!!) - but just got back from a nice lunch from Rosemary's (complete with her famous chocolate cake!!) and I think I'll quietly get some work done, and rest for a bit. Not the same without Cara and Owen however, maybe the weather too, very gloomy.
i'll trade you a sea star for a dolphin
as michael set out on his 38 hour travel back to alesund, owen and i decided that rather than go back to the ranch and mourn the end of the "home honeymoon" we'd head up to our san c neighbors and crash their block party. so with matching nemo swim trunks (thanks grandma lynn for setting west up with two!) owen and west divvied up sea animals in the wading pool, ate platefuls of watermelon, played cars in the sandbox, and of course experienced the joy that only a bouncy castle can give. then thanks to the marathon play date owen crashed out in the car at 7pm and slept until 6am the next morning. i'm thinking this is how the rest of the summer should go. . .
cara cooks again
so my suitcases may not have gotten unpacked--ok, so i still have piles of clothes making a maze of our upstairs--but i did get back into my kitchen. and here are the highs and lows of our culinary adventures last week:
first of all i think one can never underestimate the joys of an omelet. no recipe here, but since i have reignited my love affair with trader joe's i highly recommend their light three cheese blend for absolutely everything. and fyi costco now carries gorgeous blocks of parmiganno reggiano for prices that leave you absolutely no guilt when chopping off huge chunks to snack on while you cook and drink some trader joe's reds.
and here are my unsolicited thoughts on those: last week i enjoyed one of my favorite week-night screwtop reds under $10--red truck and tried some new endcap specials-- the alexander & fitch cab-- as well as my favorite "splurge" the sebastiani cab (right at twelve bucks) which took off last year when food & wine declared it the best thing under ten bucks and then it was gone. but the new stuff inspired me to pull out the red wine glasses. i feel a disclaimer is in order as not to ruffle those real-live wine blogs and wine cellar junkies: i'm no wine connoisseur (although i did get married at a winery--isn't this a line out of an american express commercial?); i just drink what ever looks promising at trader joe's or whatever my favorite wine guy ed recommends from the reserve--who just launched his new website and anything he recommends is bound to be good and he doesn't get snooty with me when i tell him i'm not interested in spending more than ten bucks.
so other than omelettes and choochoo train banana whole wheat pancakes (thanks great grandma and grandpa fidler for the fun w&s pancake molds!) i thought i'd try to get back to some whole foods and eat lighter. i pulled out my fresh & light ws cookbook and made the zucchini 'pasta' with mint pesto for dinner with nana & papa. basically, you mandoline green & yellow squash and saute it with some cooking spray, chopped shallots and thyme then treat it like pasta with the pesto. now, it did not look like the ribbony masterpiece that my cookbook promised and although pulling out my mandoline was a thrill and papa brought some gorgeous fresh mint it seemed a bit disappointing. i loved the fresh squash, however, and think next time i'll just do a simple saute with some organic veggie stock and some fresh thyme. suggestions anyone?
but here's the winner of the week: real simple's barley risotto with asparagus and parmesan [recipe] basically, you cook the barley as you would arborio for risotto only instead of a starchy white rice you have this surprisingly nutty and chewy dish that even withstood a next- day reheat. the two-buck chuck sauvignon blanc really performed for me here and was a drinking-while-cooking wine especially since this was from march or april (mind you, i'm browsing through three months of back catalogues and magazines) and you aren't meant to simmer broth in your kitchen for fortyfive minutes with summer heat. but i'd do it again and even experiment with some dried mushrooms, peas and aha maybe this is where the squash needs to go. . .
favorite scandanavian find
the stelton thermos carafe:
this was one of our norwegian splurges--one of those ubiquitous and yet functional items we kept seeing in cafes and restaurants and decided we'd pick one up in lime green for ourselves. but we had no idea how amazing it really was until we filled it with two full pots of french press and were still enjoying perfect no-drip pour of hot coffee at three in the afternoon. highly recommended!
why i love being home with my boys; or: celebrating floods and father's day
These are my thoughts on father's day after four days of being home with my boys finally getting b's christmas card about why going back to suburbia after living in a sexy beach bungalow in laguna beach (mind you while her house was being rebuilt after a series of floods) was exactly where she wanted to be. . .
It’s all about having all the doors in your home open and passing beers out to michael on the patio, tripping over thomas legos and your neighbor’s little girl who is holding her own with the boys and chopping yellow peppers with your best friend in the kitchen (and sighing in unison: yes, this is how it is supposed to be)and drinking delicious amounts of $12 wine and really looking forward to doing 
posts about what you made for dinner from three trader joe’s finds and walking to the froggy park and not having to worry if owen will fall off the edge of the cobblestone into the canal. I wouldn’t trade any of our advetnures and I would go back in a heartbeat but I finally feel like I’m living that life I love here there or anywhere and eating green eggs and ham.
The problem with suburbia is this: you forget that you can live out of five suitcases if need be and you forget to make sand angels in the sand because it’s easier to walk the half block to the water park and the kiddie pool. You forget that on the other side of the orange curtain, beyond disneyland is the LACMA and the huntington gardens and that even if you’re no longer in the “Fridays off the 405” happy hour set you still make a damn good pesto and can pack a picnic for three and by opening those doors have a pretty happening bbq in your "convenince kitchen" which you love even if its not a stainless steel retro loft-inspired space it's your kitchen and you can pull out your best wine glasses right alongside the elmo sippy cups. And while there's the beach and the urban adventure who says pulling the red wagon half a block isn't where it's at? I'm just saying-- I think there’s a reason that nightclubs and
discos are opening their doors Sunday afternoons so parents can take their kids clubbing and eat popcorn while they show off some hip hop moves. Partly it's to prove to their non-suburban singleite friends that they've still got it and mostly it's because, well, they've still got it and want to share it with the amazing little people that give them perspective.
What I took home with me was a reminder to live artfully in the world--that I should not only feel guilty for reading Virginia Woolf and writing instead of sweeping but that it's an absolute necessity. Why at three am one morning Michael and I tried to figure out how we could sell our home and live in a boat somewhere between the San Juans and the North Sea was because it just seemed possible, that we don't want to live a banal cookie-cutter existence but drink cappuccinos out of porcelain cups and talk to moms who make jewelery out of postcards while their toddlers nap. But being home I realized that we're not alone --and that I know people like this and owen porcelian cups (actually brought home some pretty amazing ones from the jugendstil--but I think what I want to say is this: that while chopping those bell peppers in the kitchen we both were struck by Mrs. Dalloway and the reason why reading Virginia Woolf always makes sense--because we all want to live lives that feel whole and that bringing people together is a gift, the best gift.
part ii-- bergen pics
it's amazing how just 48 hours at home--"old home" as owen calls it--and bergen and boats and bacalo all feel so very very far away. and i don't think it's because it really is far away as a week of travel to get back to old home but because when it's all said and done we always come back to dorothy and the mantra "there's no place like home." but i still wanted to post these pics, not only because its become a ridiculous exercise in postponement or because bergen is a beautiful city but because these capture the best part of being in norway--the part where we're together as a family and that makes everything that much more amazing. so here's my "slideshow":
smiling at daddy on the "richard with" steamer ship:
owen and michael exploring the bryggen:
eating salmon on the wharf (no surprise that bergen is seattle's sister city):
riding up the flløibanen:
"mommy, trolls are not very scary":
bergen--ålesund--oslo--amsterdam--seattle--> (part i)
we're enjoying a crisp early summer afternoon here in seattle after what has seemed an endless gogogo since we left port for bergen a little over a week ago. this weekend had been reserved for picking up troll figurines and coffee mugs bearing norway flags while we took in our last bit of atlantic sea air and nomaden cafe cappuccinos. but as is the way with consulting jobs project deadlines got shuffled and our last week in ålesund was compressed into a last day. so, apologies for the delayed delivery on promised posts--here's an all-in-one bonus post written instead with a starbucks triple espresso over ice at grandma connie's cozy kitchen barstool.
first let me say that owen is a travelling champ. he spent the first and last hour on our nine hour flight (plus hour or so in taxi) from amsterdam chewing raisins and quietly "sssshhhhzzzzzzmmmmmmm"ing with a small airplane we picked up at schipol airport (but before you go thinking that international travel with a toddler sounds breezy try a diaper change standing on top of a "changing table" in an airplane bathroom. and of course explaining six hours into the flight that no, owen, you cannot open the airplane doors and yes, we'd all like to get off the plane). he slept for a couple of hours after
takeoff and his eyes shut the second we touched ground in seattle where he continued to sleep his way through passport control, the international luggage shuffle, customs check and the drive from seatac to p-town. when he awoke at grandmagrandpa's house he couldn't fit in enough play time hours with his cousins riley and macy in grandma's playroom with choochoo trains and vanilla steamers.
so i'll continue this post in tow-mater fashion (backwards for those of you who have not yet watched cars sixtyeight times). we had a day "layover" in oslo and took the flytoget downtown to visit the national gallery. this was of course, better than disneyland for owen who had been singing choochoo soul's bullet train obsessively (if i were a plane i'd be a jet plane, if i were a truck i'd be a monster truck . . . and if i were a train i'd be a bullet train!). when we arrived at the national theater square we were suprised by both the 93 degree heat and the "bondens marked" (a kind of culinary sampling of oslo with everything from reindeer jerky to rhubarb soup) along karl johans gate. we enjoyed a raspberry waffle cone and some free "pink milk" (just like lola drinks!) from the tine tent for barn (children) but
passed on the trek up the hill to the president's palace in the scorching northern sun. this was on friday--michael's birthday!-- and despite the madness getting there we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon when as a special birthday gift owen fell asleep on the cobblestone stroller ride. so, we got a close and uninteruppted look at edward munch's iconic scream and madonna as well as his more tranquil bathing boys and girls on the jetty (or bryggen--which we recognized as "pier" from our hotel moniker in ålesund and the famous street in bergen). if this all sounds like you've read this before it's because you have--only it was back in march on our way into norway at the munch museet while owen napped (but no scream on display at the munch--we looked closely at the painting in the national and were pretty sure we saw signs of damage but then munch's style and poetic angst invovles heavy layers of paint and even scraping off and reapplying until the canvas itself begins to crack--the kinds of things you notice in awe at a museum and miss in glossy coffee table books). anyhow, it was a memorable last-stop in norway; my favorite quote from the expedition: "look mommy--fingerpainting!" when owen awoke in the swanky museum cafe and pointed at the marble walls (look out for video post in the same cafe with the disco-esque light cube).
wow, been rambling on quite a bit and need to go up and re-pack yet again, but this time for the final hop: the "seattle -->" part of the journey. i promise (once again) a return to do part ii: bergen--ålesund.
norwegian funny
on friday we noticed the post box outside our hotel had been altered:
ost, by the way, is norwegian for cheese. hehe.
mommy has a blue nose
this morning owen and i finished off the last of our watercolor paper and i've been thrilled by his curiousity and impressed by how he discerns between grey and silver and dark orange and tangerine--but the best moments are those serendipitous surprises. like this morning when i'm trying to guide him to paint over the white chalk stars i've hidden on his paper he stands up and instructs me to paint his footprints purple and then he puts both hands down and says "how about light blue" and then he puts his head on the paper and says "owen's mouth" and i start laughing and then he lies on his side and says "now ear" and so i get these gorgeous profile outlines of owen's head and then he says "now mommy's nose" so i'm game and now i have a blue nose and orange ears and owen is a contented rainbow. and i just feel like this is the best adventure of all.
goodbye bergen!
after a sunny weekend in bergen (post and pics to follow) owen waves goodbye (and does a fine shark impression) from the ninth deck of the hurtigruten trollfjord:
Cruisin' to Bergen
(posted by michael)
We're packing up for our cruise ride to Bergen -- boat leaves at 12:45am (in 4 hours), and we'll arrive in Bergen at 2:30pm. We'll be riding in style in the Hertigruten. Check out the site for the ship cam. We are riding the MS Richard With on the way down, and the MS Trollfjord on the way back (Sunday 8pm leaving -- back on Monday morning 8:45am).
We meant to do this trip a week ago, but it was canceled due to illness on board.
Owen was very excited to go and pack for the trip: