Changes in Latitudes

Since the marathon I haven't gotten out for a run longer than 4 miles, but I have gone for lots of hikes on the ridge behind our place with Pancho. We have had relatively little rain this fall, so it will be weird to have a typical rainy week. The morning after the super/blood/eclipse moon, Lydia wandered out of the house and has not been seen since. She has been a part of our family since 1995 and things will feel so different without her. I hope that she found peace wherever she wandered off to for her last rest (if that is what she did). I will miss her dearly, and wish it wasn't the way she decided to leave us after being with us for 20 years. We love you, Lydy pity

Marius turned 29 last week! And sticking to tradition, he got his 3rd annual birthday pumpkin. We took it over to Tron and Rigmor's to show them (and grandma) a little taste of Halloween.  We didn't have scary music, but Grandma Oddny was interested in the carving and seed baking procedures. But once we showed her pictures that people posted on Facebook of the decorations and costumes she quickly "ba humbuged" the holiday saying "Uff, Americans" and waving her hand down. hahaha  Well, Halloween is still getting more and more popular each year. There's significantly more Halloween activity in Oslo than in Bergen. I even saw trick-or-treaters! (None came to our apartment nor the Engebrethsen's house though) I baked Marius a chocolate cake, and of course it had to be a scary cake! Marius tried to give Rigmor a little scare I also was contacted for an interview with a research group called Bioforsk. They work primarily with...

We drove from Copenhagen to Oslo in one day; it's only 6 hours. While we were still in Denmark we found a grocery store to stock up on cheaper beer and some road snacks. But then the GPS took us the wrong way, and we found ourselves in line for the ferry from a city just north of Copenhagen to Helsingborg, Sweden. Instead of backtracking to the bridge, we decided to take the 20 minute ferry ride across. We obviously went way north! Six hours later we were back in Oslo. We took it easy the next day and walked around our neighborhood and up the river. It was good weather for a long walk. Rigmor had us over for dinner and served moose "gryte" (a stew) and "Troll krem" (troll cream = lingonberry, egg whites and sugar) for dessert. We still had some must-sees to cover in Oslo. Mainly the royal palace and ski jump/ski museum. We made it in time for the changing of the guard. Skis varied by region and were over 15 feet long back in the day! Dad...

This weekend I earned my dry suit certificate. Dry suit diving proved to be quite a challenge, and I definitely need more practice. There seemed to be so many things going on! Marius and I took the course together out in an area slightly west of Bergen city center called Laksevåg (Salmon Bay) with Nemo Classic Diving. The course consisted of: A couple hours of theory: our instructor went through the manual with us and showed us the different exposure suits. Then 2 dives. The first dive was on Saturday, and the primary purpose was to get us used to diving in the dry suit. I was given a dry suit that turned out to be one size too big! I was getting air leaking out of my neck and water seeping in towards my chest. Every time I would add air into my suit it would escape through my head and then suddenly I found myself either rapidly sinking or shooting up to the surface! Marius and the other girl in our group had a great dive, meanwhile I was bobbing from 10 m depth to the surface. Wa...

[A look down the ski jump] [old ski poles with different functions] This weekend I went to Oslo to spend some time with Marius and his parents. When I arrived on Friday, Marius and I baked two loaves of cranberry walnut bread as a thank you for flying me out. Saturday morning we woke up to snow! It was snowing! What?! Marius started whistling "Deck the Halls" -- way too early!! We took a little day trip to Holmenkolen ski jump and went to the Ski museum. Nothing much to it, but when you're Norwegian all you think about is skiing all year, so the snow earlier that morning was quite fitting. Believe it or not, there is interesting history with skis; maybe I'm becoming more Norwegian now. Sunday was another morning of a little snow, however, followed by rain. After looking at some apartments that  Marius wants to buy to rent out to students, we went to the new modern art museum in Oslo at Aker Brygge. There was a warning when you walk in: "Some of the exh...

[Northeast Atlantic mackerel] As you know, I am writing my thesis on mackerel behavior in the Northeast Atlantic/Norwegian Sea. I held a presentation yesterday about where I am at with my work, and the final comment from my supervisors was that I need to speed up the data processing/cleaning if I want to meet my goal of having that finished before Christmas. I have been going through 100+ GB of sonar data (the process is called "scrutinizing" in acoustic jargon). It has been interesting so far. I am looking a little into vessel avoidance. This work is very tedious at the moment. Staring at the computer for 9 hours a day is not my cup of tea, but if I can get through the data fast I can enjoy Christmas time without worrying about getting behind on my project. [Fall in Bergen last week] So, nothing overly exciting has been happening. I won't be running Stoltzen Opp this year because I was only given 10 days notice to prepare and I would rather beat my time n...

While spring is arriving in Auckland, NZ, fall is making its arrival in Bergen. The rain has increased, the temperature has dropped to a chilly 11C and some yellow color is in the trees. This weekend we have been given clear blue skies and fresh, crisp fall air! We took advantage of it yesterday and took a hike up Lyderhorn and today we have to do some yard work before the rain visits us for the rest of the season.