Bad Weather, Good Progress

2019-12-08Finnur's family, Guitar, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 08 – 16 December 2019, posted online 31 May 2020. It’s yet another three day weekend, I’m getting a bit too used to them now!]

December marched on. The Sun deserted us for longer and longer periods of time, but life went on. There were family gatherings, Bjarki performed at the his yule-tide recital, I got a new view of a gymnastics hall, and the weather put its mark on all our lives.

Thankfully, the bathroom renovations marched on, and we finally had an operational toilet and shower. (No sink though.) Feeling inspired, a storage “solution” was installed in the garage, to lessen the chaos there. (50-ish images total)

Sunday 08 December 2019

The view by The Pond (Tjörnin) in downtown Reykjavik at 2 pm.
Earlier that day Emma got all dressed up, I can’t remember why.
… but I did drag her out into the cold for a nicer background. Poor child!
Back downtown, this was the view towards the old theater Iðnó.
The reason for being downtown was the annual adults-only yule-gathering at the Danish open sandwiches place with Finnur’s parents, siblings, and spouses.
My open sandwiches. The restaurant, Jómfrúin, also serves “regular” food.
I took a photo of what is called a biscuit-cake (keks-kaka) to share with people who were stuck behind the table. It’s literally chocolate covered biscuits.
On my way to pick up the car at 4 pm. Goodbye sun, for now.
Before dinner, I found myself in one of the gymnastics halls, helping to clear the floor because contractors were going to replace light-bulbs, and install a better sound system.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the markings on the floor before, they’re always covered by mats of varying sizes!
Many hands get the job done easily.
After dinner, I cleaned the debris around the shower-head hole, so that it would be nice and ready for the plumbers the next morning.
Emma requested a photo of Litli Tryggur.
We still have a number of English children’s books, they were so cheap back in the day.

Monday 09 December 2019

Huh, 2:10 average. This was an above-average energetic morning. (The rowing machine is annoyingly good at discerning one’s physical status.)
I’ve learnt the hard way to take the exercise bag out to the car before beginning work, to avoid forgetting it by my desk at the end of the day.
It was a rather stormy morning. But, look at all those gorgeous electric car charging stations!!
At home, we now had a shower head, and a shower-bottom! (Turns out the corner isn’t quite 90 degrees, and it required some tile-cutting, as dictated by our project manager.)
The underside of the shower bottom.
w00t, w00t! Water in the toilet!!
The route in Emma’s wall had been closed up.

Tuesday 10 December 2019

First task of the morning was finding a door stopper so the shower glass wouldn’t get shattered on the first day. I took it home and handed it to the plumbers that were gearing up to install the shower-glass.
By 2 pm I had arrived home from work, because the weather forecast was so bad that the schools (and most work-places) were closing, and the younger kids needed to be picked up.
Yes, it was windy, but not horrible, so we were fine walking home. It would transpire that our house sits in a rather sheltered spot in certain wind-directions, so we weren’t badly hit at all. But, if you listened you could hear there was very angry weather close by.
Wind blowing the fur on the hood a bit.
Shortly before three it was snowing pretty heavily.
Chillin’ at home.
Visibility not great, not terrible either.
Anna baking right before dinner. Yum!
Shorty before 8 pm. Our windows looking like yule-ads.
The big kids went outside to experience the weather that had shut down the entire capital area. They weren’t very impressed. Mostly there was an ominous loudness coming from the north, and there were reports of building material flying in various parts of the city, some not far from us.
A good time to shoot a yule-ad. 🙂

Wednesday 11 December 2019

Bjarki waiting for his turn to play at the yule-recital at the music school.
Getting ready.
A yule-song! I always feel a little sorry for the music teachers, because they’re essentially forced to spend a many weeks every year suffering through the same limited yule-tide catalog.
At home the carpenter had showed up, and installed all the cabinets! He’d been planning to arrive the day before, but the weather put a damper on those plans.
The corner closet with lots of space for towels, and a laundry drawer at the bottom.
The kids checking out the aaaalmost finished room. Yes, we now had a fully operational shower, sealed and all!
Happily, they remember to ground the shower bottom!

Sunday 15 December 2019

Minus 8.5 degrees outside? Brrrr!!!
It was a pretty day though.
Bjarki out in the snow.
The big project of the day was installing a storage “solution” in our garage. It’s handy having a tall handyman on hand.
I lost my handyman half-way through, but muddled on-wards on my own. After much head scratching I realized I was a few items short, so that’s where I stopped for the day.
We concluded the day at my brother’s place for a birthday party!
There were balloons!
Customary singing, pre-blowing.
…aaaand….. Eat! 🙂

Monday 16 December 2019

At work, there was a semi-fancy kumbaya at the end of the day.
Happily, Ikea is across the road from where I work, so I picked up the things I needed on my way home.
Success!! The corner has NEVER been so tidy! 🙂