Changes in Latitudes

[Mom and Marius on Fløyen] My mom came to Bergen on her way to visit Carolyn in London. It was a great gift to have her in town for my birthday. Marius and I left our offices early on Friday to get her at the airport, and of course there was some delay on her end. She can tell the story - it's too long for me to tell here. Bottom line, we were at the airport at 1pm and she didn't land til 3:35. We took her out for pizza and beer that night, and the next morning I woke up before her and Marius...but Marius made us some great Norwegian-style pancakes for my birthday breakfast! [My birthday cake] We spent the day walking around Bergen and up Fløyen. The walkway up the mountain was very icy, so Marius had to help us flatlanders along. I got some nice gifts from Marius, Rigmor and Tron, and Mom and Dad for my birthday. We had a HUGE cake (which Marius also baked)...he was a great host. And later that night we drove over to see Marius' Uncle Kjell to borrow Aunt Beate...

[Attempting skate skiing] [Marius is powering up the hill!] Had a good ski trip with Marius Saturday morning, and in the end we were visited by goats! We got home around noon and Marius liked the new regime of getting up early. He said he felt like he had already done very much with his day. We gave the apartment a good thorough cleaning and worked on the kitchen knowing that Sunday could be for relaxing and working on school/work stuff...but not really. [The goats at Totland ski loop - this year they had babies!] [Cozy Saturday night with knitting, tea, chocolate and raisins] This morning (Sunday) I woke up to make some coffee and grabbed a box cutter to collapse an empty box to be taken outside. I managed to slice my finger tip, so I reached up to grab an napkin for the blood, but woke up on the floor! There were some blood puddles and I let out a scream. I didn't know how long I was passed out for. Marius came running to the rescue! He wiped up the blood...

[My favorite one on the card was: quit Stalin, be my Valentine] This year was our first Valentine's Day together, even though in May we will have been a pair for 4 years. Last year Marius was away on a conference, and the year before that I was in NZ. This year we thought we'd kick off our Valentine's traditions with the bar set high - on our standards. Last weekend Marius and I had done a little shopping so we agreed to buy the other what we had our eye on and exchange them for Valentine's. I got Marius a new thermal, box of candied almonds, and fixed the hat that I had made for him (he said it was too itchy, so I lined it with fabric and sewed it in - it looks even cooler now!). And Marius got me a muffin baking tin, spatula, gloves to use for touch screen devices, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  [Excited for Valentine's Day!] Of course we had a gym date together - almost the same as any other day, but this time I had a weight lifting buddy ...

This weekend Tron and Rigmor flew me out to go skiing with them and Marius at their winter cabin. Both Saturday and Sunday I woke up almost 2 hours before everyone, so I took a short 3k run before breakfast and managed to read one scientific paper (for my thesis) before the run each morning. Saturday we took a long 21.5 km loop in the sunshine. And Sunday was a shorter 15 km loop over "That Damn Mountain" which I failed to cross the first time because of white out conditions and the onset of pneumonia...however, today I conquered it without a single wobble or fall! It was a very nice, relaxing weekend with good company. Now back to my thesis and the job hunt!  [Rigmor and the trail getting covered by snow drifts] [Beautiful sky on Saturday!] [Not to mention a great sunset too] [More of Saturday's sunset] [We thought we'd have him roll around up there to see how dusty it was] [Sunday morning before everyone else woke up; soon became clouds] ...