Hiccup

Hello Thursday! That was a much-longer-than-intended-break from posting but the days (and evenings) really have been full to the brim! The little guy above was spotted on my way to work this morning and he was also thoroughly enjoying the beautiful day flowers! The allergy season has been especially bad this year with thick yellow pollen coating everything and white fuzzballs making the world outside look like a snowglobe. Thankfully, it is coming to an end! The 17th of May (Norway's National Day) came and went and we celebrated as best we could with lit candles and flags in the dining hall, traditional food and a true soft spot for the country that has been my home for two and a half years, despite its many quirks! :) I find myself defending it to my fellow American A-teamers and then in turn laughing over queer things like "gulrot", which is a carrot, but literally translated means "yellow root" and is a "grønnsaker" or vegetable which literally means green thing. Ok, so it's a yellow root that is a green thing, but it's orange! You got me there...!! We performed our song in the competition in the evening and did well, but placed 5th. The winners were determined by which song got the most cell phone votes, which basically meant whoever had the most supporters in the hall. When asked which song he thought was the best, before the winners were announced, Kåre said he thought A-lag was the best in song, enthusiasm and content. So we think of ourselves as winners and it really was AMAZING to have 27 different countries all singing in Norwegian, with only 1/4 actual Norwegians! We are starting a new song for the end of the summer conference this week. Fun, fun! On my last trip to IKEA, I found, and purchased, this cordless, solar powered patio lamp. It gathers energy during the day and turns on and off automatically at night. It's pretty cool but I think I need several more to really get the effect. The only downside is that it doesn't shine in the evening if it's been a cloudy day, but otherwise, very cool! Today: We had a fun/crazy/busy day in the kitchen today. Ruthi had a birthday today and Abi Savage (Abbie, her name is Abigail Joy like yours!) was yesterday so we celebrated with an ice cream meringue cake. We also got a cool shot of the kitchen team for summer end-of-the-year A-lag book (not the one above). I got a copy of it and I'll post it a bit later. This is Florina's second week in the office with ordering everything, etc. and it's going very well. It's a learn-as-you-go deal like today, when we discovered we had no cucumbers in the fridge and the invoice was checked and she discovered she ordered 5 stk instead of 5 cases! Hehe, I'm sure we can manage to go 2 days without cucumbers! Tomorrow starts the beginning of the Pentecost Conference so we will be in event mode until next Tuesday. We are very short-handed again so I'll be helping out in the kitchen again over the weekend. Saturday is pizza day so we'll have fun with that one! And so I'm off to tidy up before bed and another busy day tomorrow! Cheers!