What if you held an auction....

...and nobody came?

Well last night was a bust! Nobody came.

Poor Greg. I felt bad for him, but he accepted that he'd screwed up the advertising. Too little, too late. There was a little radio advertising. He missed the deadline for one paper, forgot to put the time in the other ad. The flyers that were (supposedly) delivered to businesses in the mail - well he checked with his neighbours and only one of them had gotten it.

So there was no shortage of helpers, but only 2-3 customers. Guess we'll try again tonight although I don't see how it will be any different. He was talking about renting a truck and taking everything to an auction house, but I don't know for sure what the new plan is.

The only thing I know for sure is - it's NOT ALL COMING BACK TO OUR HOUSE!!

no dog

and I am sad. But it's about the worst possible week to try to introduce a new pet 'cause it's going to be chaos around here. And Sally is a lovely dog but she does need some training - not a perfect right out of the package dog like Ruby was. However I'm sure she'll get adopted very soon so I'm not worried about her...and me, well I'll keep on looking. But maybe not this week!

Talk about altered books...

I found this site at dooce.com... Wow! I would love to see one of those up close. Many of the comments refer to the poor books. Please! I don't think any altered book artist uses anything but ratty old books that would end up at the dump otherwise.

I'm supposed to be organizing boxes

but instead I'm taking a trip down memory land with every box that I do look in. Just opened a box of stuff that was in my Mom's curio cabinet. She collected swans, so it's heavy on the ceramic & glass swans. Some of them are beautiful - I'm keeping a couple of my favourites - and some, well, let's just say somebody might want to buy them... Also in there was my grandfather's silver christening cup from Norway which I'm keeping. A couple of days ago we found the copper tea set that my mom liked so much. Teapot, cream & sugar. Made in Sweden and presented to somebody on their 50th birthday in 1916. Not the initials of anybody in our family so who knows where that came from. Like I say, my mom loved that thing & didn't mind polishing it now & again, but it's not my style at all. So I guess it'll go... But boy do I have a hard time letting go of 'stuff'.


Earlier this afternoon I went down to the SPCA to meet a dog I'd seen online on Thursday. Her name is Sally, she's a border collie/dalmatian cross and cute as anything although she needs to lose some weight. So I put a $20 deposit on her so nobody else can adopt her before they close tomorrow. It's really not good timing but what the heck. We'll see what the Mr. says tomorrow when we go see her again.

Help Wanted

So Greg is shutting down his computer business at the end of this month. This is the news I got when I got home from my trip! He has to be out by the end of the month. He's been trying to sell it with no luck so he's just packing it in. (His rent was being dramatically increased.)

What he plans to do is auction off his remaining stock and also get rid of all of our junk at home at the same time. He's not hiring an auction company but is looking for an auctioneer wannabe and some people to help out at this gala event which is going to take place over 2 or 3 days next week (I know, short notice isn't it?). Wednesday through Friday I think.

He also plans to auction off some stuff as a fundraiser for the food bank (which is right across the street from his shop) and was wondering whether any of my scrapping buddies might want to help out by putting in a few hours or donating any works of art, the proceeds of which would go to the food bank, or to another charity of your choice.

So I know I'll be spending the next several days in the basement sorting through all the boxes of stuff down there and wishing I were still in a foreign country ;) But if anybody is willing to give us a hand, just let me know. Thanks!

shoes

Well here I am back home again and feeling not that great. Jet lag I guess. But not too jet lagged to spend the day mostly on the computer! So for those who are interested, I've found pictures of the 3 (count 'em) pairs of shoes I bought in New York. I find pictures online as my size 11's don't photograph so well!

Last Day in New York

Well it's been a blast but I guess I'm ready to go home. Today I'm really tired. We went on a 4.5 hour comedy cruise last night. The comedians were mostly very funny but the 2 hours beforehand trapped on a boat with poundingly loud & unfamiliar music with only about 6 people older than us - well that was a bit much.

But otherwise it's all been great. I saw lots of things I didn't get to last year: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Macy's,Time Square, Tony Bennett at Radio City Music Hall (which is absolutely enormous!), the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters, and the United Nations. Tonight we plan to go up the Empire State Building. I've had a ton of dinners out, several cosmo's and done lots of shopping. Gee no wonder I'm tired!

This time tomorrow I'll be en route to Montreal, then Vancouver, then home to Kelowna by evening. And a day of rest before going back to work on Friday. Oh and I've taken about 300 pictures since I left home!!

another year older and deeper in debt

So you know how the Scandinavian countries have a reputation for being expensive? Well I'd never really bought into that before - probably because I never go out to eat while I'm here, and I don't usually buy much of anything.

Well this time I did eat out. Heidi and I went for a fabulous sushi dinner last night. It was soooo good! A sushi sashimi combination, not a huge amount, but enough. We also had dessert, Heidi had a 'banana split', I had a chocolate pineapple cake - both beautifully presented - and a beer and coffee each. The bill was nearly $200 for the 2 of us!! At home it would probably have been about $45 each. So that was a shock...but an excellent meal!

I've also bought a few things - a couple of books, a pair of earrings, some other little stuff. After I get through the dutyfree shop I hope I have enough to get some shoes in New York! which reminds me I'd better do some online banking...

Heidi and I had spent the afternoon at the Folkmuseet (folk museum) which is an open air museum containing about 250 old buildings which come from all over Norway and have been rebuilt on this site. It's in the same part of town as the Viking Ship Museum, Kon-Tiki, Fram etc. The last time I was at the Folk Museum it was raining so today instead was a beautiful day.

Blogging from Norway

OK I wasn't going to udate my blog while I'm away but what the heck. I'm drinking so much coffee that it's difficult to sleep so I might as well be productive after everyone else has gone to bed.

An uneventful flight over to New York and just spent not quite 24 hours there. After hanging out at Starbucks across from Mark's apartment for awhile I decided to take a bus tour for the afternoon. We didn't have the most interesting guide but it was relaxing just to sit there on the top of the double decker and gawk around. Unfortunately I've already forgotten what most of the pictures are of.

On the train to Newark airport I met an American family who were on their way to their first trip to Norway, meeting distant relatives. They were fun to talk to and since we had plenty of time to kill before the flight it was great to have someone to talk to.

When I arrived here we immediately drove up to my cousin's 'hytte' (cabin) in Gausdal which is north of Lillehammer. They have a very nice place up there, out in the country but with all the modern conveniences. The pictures are from there: view from the kitchen window, Gudbrand cutting the grass on the roof, my brother Hans & I, and a typical rural scene a little ways down the road. We did a bunch of shopping and getting the hall ready for Saturday. The reunion itself was fun, I have cousins who came from Sweden, France, New York plus me and all the rest who live in Norway. A very multilingual lot too.

So now we're back in Oslo for a few days. I fly back to New York Thursday morning. Tomorrow I'm meeting my friend Heidi for the afternoon. Bye for now!

Last installment of people I'm looking forward to...

and this time I'll be taking digital photos!! I discovered I don't have any pictures on file of anybody else: my other cousins, my half-brother. Ridiculous! But here's where it all started.

This is my great-grandparents, their children & another relative (the shortest girl). The man in the back with the moustache is my dad's father (Harald) and the reunion is for all the cousins who are descended from him. He and his wife Marie had 10 children and there were 23 grandchildren. Apparently about 30 people will be at the reunion, including a few spouses. I'm the 2nd youngest of the generation. My one remaining uncle will be there as well - he's 86!

Well this isn't getting any packing done though is it? Never mind that, it's dinnertime...

People I'm Looking Forward to Seeing part IV

dinner in meat packing district
Originally uploaded by fteleglow

And of course my buddy Mark in NYC! We've known each other since undergrad days at UBC, were in many of the same Linguistics and Spanish classes in 1979 & 1980. Holy cow do you realize how many years that's been???

The people you find in the library

I just have to tell you about this guy who was in the library earlier this week. Picture Matthew McConnaghy(sp?) with just a slightly different face. This gorgeous young man walks up the stairs, wearing a little tank top & long shorts, very Matthew-ish from People magazine photos, I nearly get whiplash watching him go by.

Quite awhile later he (and his shorter much less interesting friend) comes up to the desk to ask if he can have some Scotch tape. I am once again mesmerized by all those muscles and his blonde curly hair. Then I kind of come to and pay attention to his request. He wants some tape to hold together 2 origami flowers he has made. His Michael's bag is on the counter and I can see he's got their papercrafts encyclopedia inside and he's holding these 2 cute little paper flowers. So I tell him about Andrea's paper petals class and we have a little talk about paper flowers and then off he goes.

Not your typical Greek god...

Making Friends

 
Well for at least one evening Zoe and Timmy got up close and personal - and nobody was injured! The truce didn't last long though.

Looks like we'll have Zoe here till Sunday when I will drop her off at the kennel where she'll be for a week while her mom is away on vacation. If I weren't going away as well we could probably keep her longer. It's funny 'cause we're finding her to be really quite a good dog (although she doesn't really like Greg) and she walks well on the leash etc. which stuns her mom because, as is the case with some children, the dog behaves better with other people than she does at home!

So incredibly busy at work this week - I'm just exhausted and looking forward to the weekend where I have nothing to do except laundry, pack, pedicure & lunch with the MIL and family. Hopefully I will get some quality sleeping done too.

blog tag...thanks to Tara!

5 things in my refrigerator:

1. milk

2. Tazo Chai concentrate

3. eggs

4. something green that needs to be thrown out (there's a few of those actually)

5. apples

5 things in my car:

1. Donna Leon book on CD

2. water bottle

3. clothes to go to dry cleaners

4. dog leash

5. gum

5 things in my purse or backpack:

1. wallet

2. cell phone

3. pen

4. flight itinerary

5. passport

5 things in my closet:

1. purses

2. old toys

3. scarves

4. slippers

5. clothes

5 things in the world I want to see before I die:

1. Antarctica

2. New Zealand

3. Cook Islands

4. Queen Charlottes

5. Stonehenge

Thanks Tara - that was a challenge (especially when realizing we really need to go grocery shopping!!! However not my problem, Greg can do that when I'm gone!)

Zoe

 

No she's not my new dog. I'm just dog-sitting while Zoe's mom is in hospital. You can see that Zoe has some border collie in her and I do often call her Ruby by mistake. She's a pretty sweet dog, and is just beside herself that the cats won't play with her. We finally got them to come in the house and it's just hilarious to see Zoe in front of one of them, down in the 'let's play' position and whining because the cat is spitting at her. Apparently her own cat does the same thing sometimes.

So only one more week of work and it's going to be a busy one (see above hospitalization). Which is a good thing as otherwise time would be going by very slowly as it does when you're anxiously awaiting something. I need to get my act in gear, get some laundry & packing organized. Not leave it till the last minute, which is looking like a possibility right now.

People I'm Looking Forward to Seeing part III

Fern & Heidi
Originally uploaded by fteleglow

This is my friend Heidi, whom I met online at the Norwegian Digital Archive website (http://www.digitalarkivet.no if you're interested in Norwegian genealogy at all). She had posted a question about some relatives who came to BC, I did some searching for her, and the rest - as they say - is history!

People I'm Looking Forward to Seeing Part II

Holly with Berit in Lillehammer
Originally uploaded by fteleglow

This is my cousin Berit with Holly when we were there two years ago. She is my "big sister" and a zanier person you could never hope to meet.

People I'm looking forward to seeing Part I

This is my cousin Harald Kristian "Haka" famous in my family for having shown up at my parents' doorstep before I was born and my mother exclaiming to my dad "oh he's not bad is he!" in English whereupon Haka said politely "thank you!". My mom was soooo embarrassed.

The most surprising part of this story is that my mom shared her opinions on good-looking men with my father!!

Countdown begins

Well with less than a month to go I guess I should start doing some thinking & planning for my trip. I'm taking a milk run to Oslo for my cousins' reunion (søskenbarn-treffet in Norwegian) on September 1st. Since I was planning to go to New York this spring, and had already booked my Aeroplan flight before hearing about the Norway thing, I'm combining both holidays. But it means I'm spending the day of Aug 28th flying from Kelowna-Toronto-New York (arriving around 10 pm) and then turning around and flying out to Oslo at 8:15 the next night. I arrive in Oslo nearly 48 hours after leaving home!!

But then I have a week in Norway, flying back to New York on the 6th (the day after my birthday) until the 12th...no way was I flying on September 11th! I'm sure I will have a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing all my cousins again. But maybe once I turn the calendar to August it will all seem a bit more 'real'!

Canine-less in Kelowna

I did go to the SPCA at lunch on Friday, visited the dogs. Buddy is cute but he's definitely a border collie through and through and he's also pretty young, and very focused. Obviously too much work for this family! Many other cute dogs, including Humie (pronounced 'who me') who is lovely but can climb 6 foot high chain link fences. Furry (formerly advertised as 'Fury') is a shepherd/lab cross who I've been kind of interested in for awhile and Friday I actually got to meet her briefly while she was on her way back to her kennel. Mike, the kennel guy, thought she might be a good match for us - she's a pretty low maintenance dog. So today I got Greg to go the SPCA with me and had another look at her. But you know, it was the same impression that I got the very first time I saw her: she just seems to be in her own little world. You call her name - she ignores you, she doesn't come over to the door when you approach (virtually all the other dogs do) and just seemed kind of zoned out. So I declined the invitation to visit in the quiet room with her. Maybe I'm foolish but I think there has to be a spark there right off the bat. So I'm okay with that. I will continue to look.

Stayed up till 1:00 last night reading Harry Potter! Very tired today but it was a great read. I can't say anything else obviously but I liked it a lot and didn't cry too too much. So then it was Holly's turn and I'm shocked that she's not that interested in reading it asap. We left her home today so she could read (she starts a 2-week day camp tomorrow) but she only made it through about 70 pages before moving on to something else. However I read a couple of chapters aloud to her just now and she enjoyed it so we may have to do it that way. That's all right, I kind of wanted to re-read it immediately anyway!