friday confessions and some long-awaited ship pictures

in light of the new pope (is it just me or are you also humming don't cry for me argentina every time they show him on television?) i thought i'd revive my old friday confessions (tho' i remind you that i am not catholic - i was always a little envious of the catholics, just having to say a few hail marys for their sins and then going along their merry way):

~ one thing i love about living in europe is that you can wear the same clothes two (or even three) days in a row and no one thinks anything of it.

~ i am a crazy chicken lady. the antics of our chickens endlessly amuse me and i even tell stories about them. in public. the silly chicken that was sitting on 16 eggs out in the horse barn freaked out the day it snowed (it was her on the roof of the little rabbit condo) and didn't go back to the eggs, but ended up very high up in a birch tree. she even spent the night there and it was -10°C! i think she had one of those moments we all get as parents, where for one shining second, we get a very clear picture in our heads of how much work is ahead and she just freaked out at the prospect of all 16 of those eggs hatching. yesterday, i counted the eggs again and noticed there were 17 (someone's helping her out). and now, this morning, she's back on the nest. they'll never hatch, as she was off them for a good 36 hours and it was cold! but there she is. my confession is that i find this utterly charming.

~ frankie is a weirdo of a cat. he comes running when he hears running water or the vacuum cleaner. most cats run and hide, but not frankie. i confess that i find this charming as well.

~ i'm doing the oprah-chopra (that rhymes better than what they're calling it) 21-day meditation challenge. i've had a hard time shaking off a cough (surprise, surprise) and the notion of perfect health appealed to me, so i thought i'd give it a whirl. i have learned so far that i can't meditate to save my life. my mind refuses to be quiet and just let me concentrate on my breathing and the mantra. it flits off in all directions and i keep having to drag it, kicking and screaming, back to the meditation. i wonder if i'll get better with practice or if i'm just not cut out to meditate?

~ i miss how i used to be able to write things that were effortlessly funny. i'm not funny anymore and i miss it. and i don't know how to get it back. am i too content to be funny? or did i just lose my mojo?

~ i forgot all about sharing the rest of my photos from the port at esbjerg, so here they are:

a little ship being repaired in the dry dock

barges

an adorable old wooden boat. and those chains...swoon.

a little lighthouse ship that's now a museum.

rusty and gorgeous. i kind of want to hug it.

the island commander

such an interesting coincidence that the island commander was in esbjerg last week when i was there. i was onboard this very ship when it was brand new and in the harbor in oslo during nor-shipping in 2009. this. exact. ship. it's a PSV (platform supply vessel), carrying all kinds of things back and forth to the offshore oil rigs.

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happy weekend, one and all! i'm off to a weekend embroidery course with artist anne brodersen, together with my bloggy (and real life) friend elizabeth (of landanna).

friday confession or just another random list

i haven't done a friday confession in ages, so i thought i'd revive that idea and get some things off my chest (despite being a disciple of appleism, not a catholic).

i confess...

...that i was gleeful this week when a little drama worked out against the dramatist. kinda proving that drama isn't all it's cracked up to be. i also confess that it was all i could do not to openly do a little happy dance when the drama queen was put in her place. i actually walked away for awhile, not to be seen looking a little too satisfied.

...i have little time for such dramas anymore and easily become impatient with them.

...that i swear a lot while i'm driving.

...i really, really am not fond of the "let's see how far the car can drive after the gas light comes on" game. (sadly, this seems to be husband's favorite game.)

...i might smother him in his sleep for that.

...i got a lot less done this week than i hoped i would.

...i'm pretty surprised that mira seems to be proving to be a good mama to her 5 baby bunnies. bunny instincts are pretty strong.

...when i was in school and they had that "no running in the halls" rule, i thought that was for the others, but not really for me. so sometimes i ran in the halls. but only if i thought no one was looking.

...i don't talk to my parents often enough.

...that a couple of days this week have really gone by slowly. in a good way.

...i need to do the blog makeover i've been pondering now for a couple of weeks.

...that i don't miss the corporate world. not one little bit.

...i do, however, miss traveling. and planes. and airports.

...i think denmark's new fat tax is pretty lame. i can appreciate needing to do something about public health when you have a state-financed health care system, but shouldn't unhealthy fat products - like potato chips and pork rinds - be what's taxed, rather than basic baking ingredients like butter and cream? they say there was broad political backing for the tax (which is so complicated to calculate that companies have had to hire whole new fleets of accountants), but it seems they neglected to ask whether there was public backing (which i just accidentally spelled baking in a freudian slip) for it. i never heard even a whisper of debate about it.

...i'm happy that it's friday.

happy weekend, one and all.

friday confession - because it's been awhile....

my dear friend polly used to do friday confessions and i've done my share as well.  at the moment, i'm reading jonathan franzen's the discomfort zone and it's giving me a strange desire to make all sorts of awkward confessions... or is it confessions of awkwardness? here are just a few:

~ when my sister and i played battleship as a child, i totally cheated. all. the. time.

~ i'm not that fond of chocolate. if it disappeared from the earth tomorrow, it would make no difference to me (please don't hate me).

~ i had a beautiful black and white gelding when i was 13. one day, i went to get him in the pasture and he bit the hell out of me, on my back, of all places. actually picked me up by my shoulder blade and shook me. and i never told anyone at the time, because i knew he would be sold immediately. no one noticed that i couldn't really lift my left arm for a good week.

~ i am a total sucker for a crime novel, even a crappy crime novel. i just reread stieg larsson's millenium trilogy and i have to say the man is the swedish dan brown, but still, i read like a maniac.

and i'm afraid that's all for today...i spent the little time husband allowed me before the computer today (he's a packing slave driver, i tell you) writing a foodie/wine post over on domestic sensualists, so please do check it out!

happy easter one and all!

friday confessions - halloween

it's friday. the day dawned cold and frosty, but clear and eventually the sun made its way over the horizon. but despite the crisp freshness of the air and the last glories of the autumn colors glowing in the sunlight, i confess i'm in a mild depression. and it's not just because voldemort has split his soul into multiple horcruxes and the challenge of destroying them all seems so daunting.

autumn brings about mixed feelings in me. while i love it the most of all the seasons, there is a sorrow about it. the leaves on the ground are beautiful but melancholy in their decay. there is a sense of passing. i have a vague dread of the dark months ahead, made worse, no doubt, by how very dark it gets in these northern climes i inhabit. so in all, i'm left feeling mildly depressed.

i also confess....

~ that panic is about to set in because we've invited 20 3rd graders to a real Halloween party tomorrow and i have no idea what i'm going to wear. pirate? witch? morticia addams? zombie cheerleader?

~ i have a lot of cooking to do for the halloween party. since i've got harry potter on the brain, i'm wondering if i can come up with some butterbeer and cauldron cakes?

~ i love carving pumpkins. we carved the first round last night and will do more this evening in preparation for the party. i'm looking forward to it with a childlike anticipation that almost throws off my mild depression.

~ i wonder if i'll finish sabin's costume before she gets home from school?

~ i do wonder how we're going to fit everything in tomorrow...party preparations, riding lessons, costumes...before the kids arrive at 4 p.m.! eek!

i'm really grateful for all of the encouraging comments and emails from all of you after my post about moving on to something more creative as a job. it comes pretty close to lifting my mild depression. thank you so much.

i hope you have a lovely weekend!

p.s. have you checked out our halloween week over on across ø/öresund? there also will be halloween-related recipes going up on domestic sensualist (as soon as i get some pictures taken). be sure to check out both!

friday confession - last one in the lounge

my dear friend polly (who isn't really called polly, but who will forever be polly in all of our minds) does friday confessions and i haven't done one in a long time, but as i sit here in the lounge, drinking free wine and having a multi-subject IM chat with my sister which involves telling her to just jump in and change her life, i thought that since it had been an awfully long time, i'd offer up a few friday confessions.  forgive me odin, for i have sinned....

~ i love really long sentences with lots of parentheticals.

~ i wish i worked in the same country as i live.

~ i did my first couchsurfing this week. and it was great. it changed my entire week for the better. and i heard great stories of adventures in exotic and out-of-the-way locales.

~ i don't really get those people who choose the nobel prize for literature.

~ i totally get those people who choose the nobel peace prize.

~ i wish they had the really good olives here in the lounge. but alas, they do not.

~ i fear the coming weekend is going to go by too quickly.

~ i'm pretty pleased that i'm going to istanbul on tuesday. even tho' i come home already on thursday.

~ every time a season kicks in in earnest, i'm convinced it's my favorite season.

~ i'm going to tivoli on sunday with a good friend. oh, and my child.

~ i'm really happy the cleaning girls are coming tomorrow.

~ i told husband this week that he was my sanity. and he did that little almost snort that sabin does when she's proud.

~ i fear it was a snort of fear, not a snort of pride.

~ it's a little disturbing to me how few people were on the train to the airport and in the airport today. if the economy is down in norway, it's really, really down.

~ it's mysterious to me why we are working frantically to finish the house and have it in beautiful shape, only to sell it and move away from it. why didn't we do all of this before?

~ i hope you'll all go check out (and vote for) my friend michelle's story in the latest issue of discounderworld. she's awesome. and she's the only other one i know who found her husband in macedonia like i did.

~ i think polly's pictures are getting better by the day.

~ and now, i confess i'm going to fill my wine glass and see if by chance they've put out some olives...

do you have anything interesting to confess this friday?

friday confessions happiness

(happiness) my new chucks

in the engine room of a brand new PSV

(confession) one of three new pairs of shoes i bought this week.

happy husband doesn't read my blog.

(happiness) a brand new engine room

(confession) it made me miss all the great engineers

from my old job. they were so cool.

(happiness) the view from up here.

(confession) i'm not that fond of heights.

(happiness) noticing a heart shape in this bit of a ship

(confession) i let everyone think i was just taking pictures of the ropes.

(happiness) mirror self-portraits

(happiness 2) my hair's getting long

(confession) this isn't that great a picture but it's the best one i got.

i was in a hurry.

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(happiness)--on monday SFgirlbybay used my most famous flickr moo pic in her post on inspiration boards. thanks SF girl! :-) (confession) hers is one of those blogs that i feel unworthy of, so it's especially validating fun. i knew someone had to have used it somewhere because hits on that pic suddenly went up dramatically. i've been woefully neglecting flickr of late. i guess because i'm all about twitter at the moment. oh yeah, and i've been working like a madwoman of late. (confession 2) i don't have that pic on this 'puter, so you gotta go look at it on flickr.

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(happiness and confession) i'm happy to be headed home today.