cruisin'

today we took a cruise to Geiranger fjord. There's been advertising at the two hotels open in town right now about this cruise, but it ended up only being us 5, and a guy from work (w/ his wife) as paying cutomers... there were a couple of the captain's family members who tagged along... so we probably only covered the cost of gas to get us there. The boat holds 35, so we had plenty of room. enjoy the pics, and happy Easter tomorrow! special birthday wish goes out to Melanie!!

Owen at the Geiranger Fjord center:


family up at Geiranger:


cara's parents sunbathing in the back:


shots along the way:






captain was too drunk, so Michael took over the wheel:


asleep for the journey home:

more snowballs!

although owen strongly objects to wind and cold he found snow and snowballs quite acceptable. even fun!

snow brings new visitors

guess who came to visit us in alesund?

after 27 hours of travel nana and papa joined the norwegian adventure. since it was 2 am back in california it seemed like a perfect time to get bundled up for a quiet walk around the city--and by quiet i mean absolutely still. everything shuts down for the holiday and it seemed as if we were walking through a painting of a quiet seaside village. a few boats made their way through the water and, of course the fish and chips stand was open. which was a good thing because shortly after we unbundled the wind gave way to hail which gave way to gorgeous snow flurries which made us all very hungry.

a few orders of jaf's fish and chips later we're back at the hotel, nana and papa napping, owen still running in circles giddy with excitement that we're all here--mommy, daddy, nana and papa. that, and waffles are on in an hour and a half.

trondheim

Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim:



it's about 4 hours drive from Molde to Trondheim -- more tolls, more ferrys, and more tunnels. We had to see all the sights really quickly because there was a storm coming through... Here are some more pics:

The Wharves:


The old town bridge:




On the drive back to Molde, there were several periods of snow... very exciting for mom and dad, but Owen was more interested in seeing more tunnels... There's about 15 kilometers of tunnels just outside of Trodheim.

same old job, easter week

update: well we were able to fool some of you, but most will be happy to hear that there is no new job in Norway, and we will eventually be back in California (hopefully).

We decided to take a 3-day drive around Norway, and started out from Alesund on Sunday, made it to the town of Molde. The highlights included Owen's first ferry boat ride, some long tunnels, the Atlantic Road , and a very cool hotel. enjoy the pictures.

Owen's first ferry boat ride:


"I don't hear anything":


Very windy day on the Atlantic Road:


Our hotel in Molde:


Today we went from Molde up to Norway's third largest city: Trondheim. We'll post more tomorrow!

new job, new adventure

well.. things went really well during Test Case 2 and our review at Rolls Royce. We didn't want to tell anyone about the new job offer until we had a plan -- I have received an offer to work full time for Rolls Royce -- here's a picture of me after my job offer (in my new Rolls Royce hat):

We decided to take the offer after two days spent looking for our new Norwegian home (more of a cabin, really) for the next two years, and today we've closed on a deal to buy this house up in Molde:


The plan will be to sell our place in Ladera Ranch, move to Norway (for a couple of years or more), and then who knows... We'll fill everyone on the details later -- we're so excited!

over tunnel on the bridge

i know i was going to let michael do the next post, and at the risk of being a bloghog i wanted to share this picture. this is "the bridge" i was talking about and that little speck of yellow building in the background is our hotel. anyhow this is such an owen face--but a rare one as he is actually looking at the camera-- and he took about ten minutes to walk across the bridge, stopping to put his arm thorugh each and every one of the circles doing a swoopy kind of movement with his arm singing "circle circle." this was after, of course, he ran past the statue i was going to take a picture of him standing in front of (a little boy fishing) and said "mommy! mommy! go over tunnel! on the bridge"

and here is owen a few seconds later, lost in thought, a more typical pose.and as i write this of course, i am struck that this is why we're here. not for pretty bridges and picturesque htoels on the water but for the chance to sit here quietly on a thursday evening with my boys. kcrw streaming. owen with colorcrayons and then on my lap. michael making tea. both of us have books and laptops but mostly both of us have each other and owen doing a "cookie! cookie!" dance. best go now. he does like to turn off the minifridge.

here we are, me and owen hanging out in alesund on some crazy barge outside of our new favorite cafe -- simply "espresso cafe" written with a fat sharpie on the glass window. it's connected to a designer gallery--swanky eggplant coloured couches and as owen calls it "people art". brie sandwiches and the best chocolate chunk brownies. perfectly decadent.which you know, i love in an everyday kind of way. our hotel is just one building beyond that white one on the left side along the water. michael took this picture last saturday when we went out exploring--but the two of us went back today and this entire deck was full of sunning teenagers and delightful old men in sweaters. and i say delightful because as i was trying to carry our tray down the stairs and instruct owen to sit on the top step until i came back to hold his hand one of the sweater men simply took owen's hand and hummed some kind of rhyme while helping him hop down the stairs.

and i'm finding that norwegians are either take-your-hand kind of friendly--yesterday we followed a lovely lady named gerta to the playground after chatting with her four month old at the "let's eat deli" because it was much easier than trying to give us directions. or they're-- scowl at you for trying to maneuver a stroller on cobblestone and cut in front of you at the vestland bakery while you dig through your purse and hold a toddler still at the same time--kind of people.

every day we do a bit more exploring and i've started to get a sense of how the town is laid out. there's water on all sides and this little bit of land that we're on is basically an island connected by "the bridge" which i'm always directed to cross and then turn left or right at "the light." maps are worse than useless and i must seem quite ridiculous standing on the corner turning it and turning it trying to pinpoint my location when in reality the entire town takes about 10 minutes to walk through.

we've got more pictures but i'll let michael post them up as soon as his week slows down--12 hour days everyday so far... but there's always fish pudding and brown cheese waiting for him at the hotel when he gets home ;)

van gogh's world

in case you're having owen withdrawals i thought i'd share a couple videos from this afternoon. you can get a sense of our "living room" set up which is quite nice and see owen's ikea toy spread. first, here are are a couple of "backstories" to these videos.

1. dooo doo dodo "elmo's world." ok, so if you've been remotely close to a toddler in the last say ten years you'll know who elmo is and most likely have caught a glimpse of the furry red monster's own show. so a few weeks ago on sesame street cookie monster opened the show with his spoof called, of course "cookie world." quite clever and funny and owen can't get enough of singing either song. which has led him to figure out that there can be all kinds of "worlds" and has started singing about daddy, mommy and owen's world. and of course mickey mouse and any thing he comes across that delights him.

2. a) while we were in amsterdam we saw lots and lots of van gogh. which was amazing. and my favorite. so for christmas i got a big gorgeous van gogh coffee table book which owen calls "mommy's yellow book” and is always asking to look at.
b) so i wasn't entirely suprised when we were at the national gallery in oslo and discovered one of van gogh's last self-portraits and i asked owen "who is that?" he looked at me and simply said "van gogh." that's my guy ;)

oh and 3. of course the choo choo train obsession leads right to the tunnel obsession. everything must be made into a tunnel.

enough already. here are the videos. apologies for no closed captioning. will interpret below.





"yeah la la yeah lala that's owen's world. that's owen's world! [me: doo doo doo] owen's world [owen signs "world"]

"la la la vangoghsworld vangoghvangogh . . . puh puh painter. . . yeah van gogh. . .[owen rolls up postcard of self portrait—story #4: at the gallery gift shop owen “holds” this postcard while i’m browsing and by the time we get to the checkout he has managed to chew off the corners and crumple it into a big wad so that when I place the loved postcard on the counter trying to smooth it out the cute norwegian girl just smiles at me and gives it to him for free] in the tunnel [me: a van gogh tunnel?--he had explained this to me earlier]”

hello norway!

after some twenty odd hours of fairly uneventful flying and a snowy layover in amsterdam we arrived in oslo monday afternoon to clear, crisp skies. owen power slept his way through dinner then we all enjoyed little einsteins at about 2 am when he woke up ready for the day.

and it was a beautiful day at that! we rode trains and trams and busses (oh my) and on the way up from the blue subway train owen turned around and said: "bye bye blue train--choo choo soul!"

we spent the morning at the vigelandsparken--a huge park with a beautiful statue garden by sculptor gustav vigeland and a massive (and very crowded) playground embracing the entrance. it was a lovely intro to the norwegians as a culture that values family and life at all stages. owen is the little figure on the far right in the picture --the typical tot wear consists of full-body padding complete with hat and boots. so you can see why owen pointed to the little boy in blue and said "mommy, blue people" and then turned to the little girl in red and said "red people." which makes perfect sense.
after a few rounds on the slide we joined the other families for a stroll--mothers with grandmothers, fathers with babies, groups of mothers and prams (on a tuesday afternoon--family is always first. on a surprisingly warm and clear day it isn't uncommon for mums and dads to call in sick to the office). owen is walking down the path and you can get a little sense of the bridge lined with statues which then leads up to an amazing people tower. the photo above is owen posing with a little boy and below is michael and owen with one of my favorites of a father and son. each statue really is a celebration of humanity and emphasizes the connections among old and young.

and then we went to the munch museet and were exposed to edvard munch's mantra--which goes something along the lines of all art is of humanity therefore all art is about suffering. his mother died to tb when he was five or so then his sister died of the same disease and i think his father died by the time he was sixteen. he's famous, of course for the scream which unfortunately was not on display. (we learned from the museum curator that it was still under repair after its theft and damage several years ago--security, by the way was noticeably tight.) however, we did manage to catch a rendition of the iconic work on our way back to the hotel. but michael and i still found the museum highly enjoyable--especially since owen decided it was a good time to take a nap (the picture of owen is notably under a painting of train smoke). so for at least an hour and a half michael and i wandered the small museum like schoolkids and discussed everything from the bleeding of people into landscape and the comparisons to van gogh (munch has his own starry night) and egon schiele (whose works will be displayed at the museum in may). owen awoke in the museum tea shop in time to have the last bite of chocolate cake and then we packed up and took the blue train back to our hotel. not a bad way to spend our first day in norway. . .

lunar eclipse

well.. here's how it went down here in Norway. We had a a good view of the moon about an hour before the Prenumbral eclipse began:



As the Prenumbral period began, a light cloud cover came, and stuck around for a few hours...



around midnight the clouds disappeared and I was able to see the moon covered, all but a sliver.. very cool. unfortunately it doesn't come out very good in picture form:

around town

Trying to take it easy this Saturday here in Alesund, but I had some friends outside my window who made sure that I woke up in time for breakfast.



Since the ice is pretty much melted everywhere, I decided to hike up to the Fjellstua resturant that overlooks the city.. here's a pick from the hike up, and view from the top:

daddy go airplane airport

michael is now three hours and ten mintues into the second and longest leg of his four hop flight back to alesund. and, not surprisingly, we miss him already. but i don't feel the sadness that i did when he last left--that awful stick to the inside of your chest empty feeling--but excitement. . .

because this blog is about to go family international once more. michael will be abroad just two weeks working on testlaunch (some technical computery term) number two or three.one before he comes back to the oc just long enough to send off the pets and pack up six suitcases once again for what i like to think of as our spring semester abroad.

in the meantime owen and i are still here at nana and papa's house (after a family bbq with sal and jenn and some mean poker playing--let's just say eight is my lucky number). we're dragging our feet to go back to the oc without daddy. but we'll have plenty to do once we get there--everything from installing slow-drip sprinklers for the roses to buying just one more capilene set . . .

puddle so funny

when it rains down here in sunnysocal it's quite an event:



the video gets cut off when owen says: "dry mommy? dry off?"

and now for some fun:

owen's first pony ride! and let me tell you, this boy has a natural swagger. he just leaned back in the saddle and galloped right along with "trigger"--the horse he chose himself (passing up "snowflake").

what i do-- or a really long justification/explanation for taking nearly three years to write 60 pages

so since i arrive thirteen minutes early to my office hours--70% norwegian chocolate, cafe au lait and cookie monster abc cookies in hand--i thought i'd do something i'd been promising (mostly to my dad) i'd do. and that's explain what it is i do when i have 'office hours.' and in doing so i'll also achieve something i always try to do when i sit down to work (but always end up postponing)--and that's begin by writing.

the black and white of it is this. i'm an abd phd with an ma in english literature. which means i've completed all the necessary coursework and passed my comprehensive oral and written exams for the phd. which is a step away from being a doctor--not, mind you, of anything life-saving (at least not medically so) but of paper. technically, of philosophy. the 'abd' literally means: all but dissertation. and that's where i'm and and where i've been for going on two and a half years. one of those years was spent with a glorious writing fellowship from my department during which time i wrote what's called the 'prospectus' which is a layout/proposal in essay-ish form about what my disseration will be about. the 'prospectus' is in some way the-cart-before-the-horse kind of thing because it's supposed to lay out all of the arguments, present the research and thread together nicely the two-hundred-odd pages you plan to write. and as all advisors will tell you--it's something you have to write your way through even though odds are what you write will be nothing like that.

my prospectus more or less says that i will write five chapters including an introduction (which is basically the prospectus) that argues that twentieth century literature can be read as a series of "deafened encounters." i argue for a 'modernism' that is tied by the era's preoccupation with not sound, but silences as a kind of counter to the "loudness" that is implicit in a century that sees the birth of the city (as in railroad tracks that don't yet go anywhere--but will eventually in Sister Carrie's evocation of Chicago) the machinery of two world wars (Dos Passos' USA trilogy is amazing for documenting this) and nothing short of a revolution in language (visual prose that seeks to mimic the sounds of movement as in Gertrude Stein's 'automatic' poetry). i propose to start across the atlantic with my beloved Virginia Woolf and stream of consciousness (a new way of writing that mimics the way we think and associate rather than the way we speak) and end somewhere with Joy Kogawa's Obasan which renders the silence of internment camps and the way they infect, so to speak, the body. In between I argue for a kind of "sign language" that literature engages--something, of course, close to home and something i discovered i've been bookmarking in my reading all along.

so actually, now that i've written that it all sounds pretty good. it's the in-between, of course, where you get lost. so back to my glorious fellowship--i did finish the prospectus which meant a lot of research. as one of my professors describes it--you bury yourself with books and reading and then eventually you write your way out. i read a lot about literary 'modernism' and a lot about a new field called 'disability studies' and tried to connect five chapters and come up with that one defining sentence that encompasses all of my readings.

that was the first year--oh, and being pregnant and mostly just wanting to sleep all the time. so in some ways i was really fortunate to have a pregnancy fellowship which was invaluable and has produced, if i say so myself, a beautiful, brilliant little boy. not as much paper, but definitely more love.

the second year i spent on what is conceivably my second chapter about carson mccullers. she was a queer little southern writer who wrote her first novel barely out of high school--and thanks to oprah you may be familiar with it: heart is a lonely hunter. it has, at its center, a 'deaf-mute' who all of these lonely townspeople are obsessed with. and it seemed like the perfect place to begin. my question of course was, why a deaf man? but of course i had to start with the burying-myself-with books and for me that meant obsessively reading every novel, short story, review and biography (there are three and one unfinished memoir) written about mcculers. and it's her life mostly that gets written about--she lived in a house with many famous writers and had horrible health (her first stroke happened in her twenties). in august i finished a draft of about 60 pages and am still revising.

the end goal is a tenure-track professorship at a university. but here's where it gets crazy. it's not a job that people pay a lot for, and there are many many many more people who want these jobs than there are available. like all industries, academia is going the way of part-time, temporary contracted workers which means droves of abds are teaching a class at a community college here and a class at a small university there--usually for less that minimum wage by the time you count up driving time, grading time, and office hours in an office that you don't have. oh, and of course all taht driving around and shuffling means you don't finish writing.

so early on michael and i decided that spending time writing and finishing made much more sense than running in place. and of course, when baby owen arrived, teaching a class here and there just to pay for daycare seemed absurd as well. the challenge has been of course, how to focus and sustain the writing with a new baby who suddenly is no longer a baby any more. to move forward towards goals that no longer seem so appealing. and much of my writing energy went to places like this--our family blog--and elsewhere with other new mothers and writers who were trying to make motherhood coexist with writing and careers that are considered frivolous by an increasiingly bottom-line world. but that's fodder for another post.

so, short answer. i'm working on my dissertation. there is no 'due date.' there is the 'job market' which posts available tenure track positions annually around october. sometimes there are ten jobs that you qualify for in your field--i could apply for an american literature job, a modernist job, or a geneeral twentieth century literature job as well as stretch myself for a disability studies job or a women's studies job. and someitmes there are three. i'm told applying for a job is a three-year process which means that whether there are three or thirty jobs there are usually hundreds of people applying for htem. usually with "better" degrees, more publications, more experience etc. but that in the end it comes down to "fit." i need to have two chapters done, at least, to apply for these jobs--one to submit, one for a job talk in the event that i get invited to interview and then get invited to give a 'talk.' i'd need to be done with both of these chapters conceivably by summer of the previous fall to give faculty time to write letters of recommendation and to begin putting together my portfolio--teaching statements, professional statments, evaluations etc.

so far i'm not there yet. and i may not be there next fall. in a few days i have a meeting with my chair to talk about where i'm at in my revisions of this chapter. i have some new ideas about how to frame it--and i'm excited about that. michael wrote me an amaziing valentine's letter and it's relevant because he reminded me about patience--reassured me that we didn't have to have everything figured out today, or even tomorrow. because in three weeks we're moving out of the country for anywhere from 3-4 months. and i'll take my laptop and i'll take my books. but i'll also take my toddler. and i may or may not come home with a baby on the way. we may or may not return to norway. and i may or may not apply for jobs next fall. right now i'm going to keep writing, keep reading (and this includes lots of dr. seuss and chicka chicka boom boom).

right now, this is what i'm working on and i think it's amazing in itself--it's the last few lines of walt whitman's "song of myself". which if you haven't read i highly recommend. i had ignored it for a long, long time. and i think, at least to me, this is love--or at least how we imagine or hope it to be so.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,

And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,

Missing me one place search another,

I stop somewhere waiting for you.

who's your friend?

sometimes you're lucky enough in life to find a best friend before you're even two.

funny valentine...

... picture:

owen sings again

mind you, owen can also count to twenty (while going down the froggy park slide), speak in four word sentences (this morning it was: mommy's hair is wet--while giving me kisses after i took a shower) and spell O-W-E-N. but mostly he's just so cute. i get to say this because i'm his mom :)

more in the suitcase. . .

so needless to say my neighbors think i'm running some kind of clothing outlet through my garage with all the llbean, landsend and jcrew boxes arriving at my front door. i just have two words: winter clearance! well, three and a few: zero degrees! and yes, yes, i was just reminded that i live in perhaps the most temperate climate in the world. yadda yadda. doesn't mean we're not going to need four pairs of long underwear, rain boots, yellow slicker, slow flurry mittens, and lots and lots of hats.

owen, anyhow seems to be enjoying just having a suitcase to sit in.



so of course as soon as i turn off the camera owen assembles not one but three buckles. that video is available upon request :)

blue for norway

getting geared up. if only we could find some pants. . .

sunday morning city walk

more pics.. my crisp morning walk around the city.. - enjoy -

Norge living

It's about 4pm on Saturday.. I just got back to the hotel from being out all afternoon. It was a really nice day and a good opportunity to explore.. Here's my hotel, and I believe this is my room..


And here's the day-time view from my room:



Another pic from my walk around the city... This is the Clarion hotel, and any tourist picture that you see of Alesund, you can easily recognize this hotel:



So.. that's it for now.. more pics later.. I'm eating plenty of fish... My favorite dish at the moment is Bacalhau. you can find it everywhere.. dried cod served in either tomoato (spanish), or this other one I had last night with potatoes and bacon.. yummy

and I think this is going to be a better location to have Cara and Owen come out to. Plenty of nice stores.. these indoor malls. and the people are so friendly. When I was checking out all the hotels, they made special effort to show me their rooms and all the amenities...

going to work

so hopefully I'll get to take some city pictures soon because the town is really nice, but it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get back.. maybe wait until the weekend.

the ride into work is about 30 minutes on some pretty icy/snowy roads, but the views are nice.. does remind me of the NW (up by the mountains). Tenfjord is very small town, maybe 2000 people... here's the road that leads to the RR facility.. and notice the circle K across the street! strange things are afoot..



here's the front of the building:



and here's the view of the fjord in front of the building:



and the view to the North along the same road:



keep in mind it was -12C this morning.. very cold for this California guy.

twinkle twinkle

and yes, owen really does say "good job mommy" at the end :)

Ålesund

after 28 hours of straight travel, four flights (Orange County to Seattle to Amsterdam to Oslo to Alesund), I finally made it to my hotel room where I am enjoying the free wifi. I'm pretty tired, but the flights were good, and everyone is pushing me to grab dinner, but I'm just going to sleep. Seattle was foggy, I'm surprised we even took off... Amsterdam was partly sunny around 32 F... Oslo was lightly snowing, they said -10 C (14F)... The trip from Oslo to Alesund was amazing.. we had sunny weather, so got really good views of the mountains and fjords.. Alesund is about -2C (28F). Here's a pic I took at the Oslo airport

I miss you guys terribly, but you'll be here soon.

this morning we dropped michael off at good ol' john wayne for the 6:30 am flight to seattle--the first of a many-legged journey to alesund, norway. since it seemed far too empty at home (sorry sierra) owen and i decided to hop on the 55 fwy instead and head out to nana and papa's in riverside. where else can you be greeted with hugs and fresh coffee at 5 am?

since we were already up and in need of more coffee we went to our favorite breakfast (and lunch and all things dessert) spot in downtown riverside. owen was sporting his new elmo sweater set (courtesy of nana ) and his hip naartje orange beanie (it's orange, mama bought that one) and papa wanted to get some pictures for a new watercolor painting. since owen doesn't do the "sit down and say cheese" pose we got plenty of owen toddling and tipetoing around main street. here are a few of my faves for an already owen-sick daddy:

the end of the week

it's quiet right now at the fidfam house. well, mostly. the superbowl is on but not too loud as owen's napping on the couch and michael is going up and down the stairs putting last minute things in his suitcase. so it's not really quiet, the gate at the top of the stairs keep clicking and the dog is pacing. but it is sad. and i'm not sure how to not feel so sad. it's the tradeoff of the adventure, of the blissfully quiet week michael's spent at home. doing a lot of this:


there was, of course the pen-lid incident which led to an evening in the ER and some dermabond over owen's right eyebrow. that too, not so quiet.

and then there was date night and mommmmeeee got to be cara--owen learned that the "c" on my locket means "cara" and that's mommy's other name--and wear impractical shoes and smudgy red lipstick and daddaaa smelled like our wedding day and nobody used color-crayons at the table. owen, of course played with uncle sal's old lego sets with nana and papa.

and so the being home and making coffee together at noon and having breakfast at ikea is all made possible by the packing of the suitcase for four weeks. in the meantime we will enjoy the sunshine, visit mickey, gather up our snow gear and hide out her ein the oc until its time for team norway.