While doing some research for the Cowblog, I came across the Infamous Exploding Whale and had to share this Dave Barry story which has nothing to do with knitting and nothing to do with Norway... except perhaps for the fact that I saw whale meat for sale at the local supermarket yesterday. Bleh.

posted by Theresa | 6:01 pm  | 

Whoa! Bagatell is an editor's pick on the Girl Wide Web over at Bust.com! And so is Tracy! How incredibly cool!

I picked up my first copy of Bust at Earth Fare in Asheville when I popped in to get some Kiss My Face Olive and Aloe moisturizer and some Burt's Bees lip goo, and even tho I can't seem to find it at the moment, I was very impressed. In fact, I think I'll go search further now...

posted by Theresa | 4:45 pm  | 

Oh yeah, I promised something here: The Dollywood experience, with my cousin, her man, my sweetie and the girls, was ... wet. Which was a good thing, considering the temperature. (The most marvelous piece of advice I received before going was Bring Dry Clothes.) We went on an indoor rollercoaster ride (which I vaguely remember from my last visit to Dollywood 15 years ago... or perhaps from even earlier when it was known as Silver Dollar City) called Blazing Fury. Lots of ancient looking animatronic type things, simulating a burning town ("først var det brann"), and occasionally there would be random streams of water pouring onto our heads ("og så dryppet det"), and finally, a sudden plunge (still in pitch blackness, you understand) into water ("og så en plask") simulating the "only way to stop" the raging fire.

The part about me catching a bird on my arm has to do with Dolly's Wings of America show in which they called for an "adult volunteer this time" while a big ol' buzzard was hopping around on stage. Fortunately I was holding a hat in my hand so when I manically raised my arm, she noticed me. The nice lady took me up on stage, asked me my name and where I was from and promptly told me to lay down and pretend to be roadkill. Naturally, being way too gullible, I almost fell for it. She then supplied me with a leather glove that reached from fingertip to shoulder and took me to the rear of the audience so that the vulture could fly from the stage, over the heads of the around 200 person audience and land on my arm. The girls seemed mightily impressed. Sigurd, who had been getting a lemonade with Kevin, saw me walking back towards the stage with the vulture on my arm when Kevin said something about it being me, but missed the flight because "I don't look at other women." Even ones, apparently, with scavangers on their arms. :O)

posted by Theresa | 4:10 pm  | 

Tirsdag 30. Juli 2002

Mmmm.... Strawberry-rhubarb jam. Thank you, Betsy! And thank goodness the strawberry-rhubarb sniffing customs dogs didn't catch a whiff!

posted by Theresa | 5:34 pm  | 

I've been trying to catch up on everyone's blogs while taking breaks from trying to find a place for all the regular stuff which didn't have a place when we left and all the extra stuff that I accumulated en route.

Becky's recently finished top is making me desperate to find a current Rebecca and Terri is making me want to acquire (more of a) a sock stash so I can make a sock stash explosion sweater.

Actually, speaking of sock stashes, I went to Earth Guild while I was in Asheville and bought 6 (8?) skeins of Regia 4 ply sock yarn in various shades which I love! I keep pestering people to "Look! See how it makes a pattern?!"

Unfortunately I didn't get to meet up with Stacey, but there will be a next time! I hadn't realized just how much energy the heat would zap out of us. It seemed to take 3 times as long to do anything (perhaps that was the fact that we had to get at least 6 people organized to go whereever we went) so we didn't get to Asheville as much as I had hoped.

Anyhoo, I'm to the heel-turning point on one of a pair of the Regia socks, but am now working designing something for Squib's Knitty.

(Post script: Wow, that ended abruptly. I just meant that the thing for Knitty is keeping me very busy. Which it is. :o)

A big thank you to Carolyn and Kate and everyone who left comments (I Love Comments!) Welcoming Me Home, congratulating us and generally making me feel loved. :O)

And a happy dance that Beth came back while I was away! And Squib's Knitty thingy!! I'm sooooo excited!

Plus all the new knit blogs (This one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one) that I saw while catching up on the list emails. Wow! If I haven't got a link to you here please let me know so I can add you...

posted by Theresa | 3:37 pm | 

Ah, readjusting....

Everything is still hanging out of suitcases, but we managed to fall asleep before 4:30am last night.

A couple of moments from our trip:

• The look on my ex-fiancee's face when we walked out of Hartsfield International Airport into the sweltering Atlanta heat.
• Chasing never-before-seen lightening bugs around in my parent's yard.
• Amalie's description of the day at Dollywood: "There was a fire, then there was dripping, then there was a big splash and Theresa caught a big bird on her arm." (I'll let you wonder about that for a day or so, then supply details.)
• Hearing "I most certainly do."
• Rings (which are like the one on the right) that say "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."
• Big fireworks on our wedding night. (I mean, it was the 4th of July.)

In home news: We caught the tail end of the Summer Parade in Oslo yesterday afternoon. When those overly-reserved Norwegians let go, they really let go.

posted by Theresa | 3:22 pm | 

Fredag 26. Juli 2002

Wow! You guys are so great!

I'm still a bit bamboozled from travelling forward in time, which somehow made Wednesday disappear. We left Atlanta at 10pm on Tuesday and arrived in Oslo at around 4 pm on the Mysterious Disappearing Day and I slept from 6pm to 9:30pm, ate some pizza my husband (!) kindly ordered, and slept off and on until about noon Thursday. Five out of 6 bags arrived from whereever they spent the night (Paris?) Thursday morning, but the one with the PIS cardigan did not arrive until this afternoon.

I finished it, by the way, around midnight on July 3rd and wore it while being married on (In)dependence day. Here is the only picture we've got so far of the big day. :O) It's fabulous being married!

posted by Theresa | 5:19 pm | 

Torsdag 25. Juli 2002

Hi everybody! :O)

posted by Theresa | 11:58 pm |