[Photos taken 14 January – 01 February 2023, posted online 16 September 2023. Low pressure area spreading rain and wind this weekend.]
I managed to squeeze myself into beginner’s cross-country-skiing lessons on short notice (somebody dropped out). Three of the lessons happened on time, before the weather turned, and I missed the later two when the finally happened.
Aside from that, we attended a fun sewing-club new-year’s-party, there was baking, gymming, more gymming, a date night, a birthday cafe, a minor eye operation, and a trip to the summer house, among other things. There was also snow, rain, wind, aka the usual.
Saturday 14 January 2023
First cross-country-skiing group-lesson time, the calm before the action!
Chaos, as people tried to figure out which instructor they should be with.
Me with my friend, who pointed me towards these sessions. It was cold, but gorgeous, out.
The first lesson was just going back and forth on these tracks using various styles. It turns out it’s possible to move forward on cross-country-skis without using your arms! Who knew?!?!
That evening we got dressed up for a royal-themed new-years-party! We were supposed to pick a royal, and dress/act the part. I lucked out and scored this sweet “hat” from the hostess, turns out we’d chosen the same royal!
The table was beautiful!
Each of us wrote down five clues as to which royal we were. Since Princess Beatrice dislikes tights, I decided she was my spirit animal.
The princess in question! And yes, once the hostess had made the first hat (that I borrowed) she moved on to successfully replicating this one!
Sunday 15 January 2023
Emma took to braiding her hair in the evenings, to make combing the hair the next day easier. We discovered she could pull off a good Sideshow-Bob impression by putting her hair up!
Anna making weird bread.
Quite weird! But good!
Homework in progress.
The skies were pretty that night, and everything else was frozen solid.
Monday 16 January 2023
Bjarki got new glasses.
That day’s gym program. Try to see where the magic people-eraser in the photos app removed 5 people in the background! (Hint, look for weird blurs.)
Going straight from deadlifting to a cross-country skiing lesson was a little optimistic, but I muddled through. Was happy to learn how to push forward using hip-hinging and hands!
The instructors wore red, and had legs of steel.
It was another lovely night out.
When I got home, I discovered that one of the “skins” underneath the skis had fallen off somewhere!!
Tuesday 17 January 2023
Was happy to find a shop that could fix my ski in time for the next lesson.
On the other hand, my butt-size still exceeds whatever butt-size companies believe is the maximum that does anything outdoors, and could do with shelter.
Wednesday 18 January 2023
Squat day.
Thursday 19 January 2023
11 am sunrise in progress.
Went with mom to pick up her sleep-apnea CPAP machine. The hospital had a mask-mandate, and thankfully provided masks.
The back of the machine. It was smaller than I thought it would be.
Eating late but hearty lunch at work.
Cross-country-ski-lesson #3: going downhill!!
My friend looking comfortable and professional, as she’s already a proficient downhill skier.
I, however, am not a good downhill skier, and to add insult to injury, the other original skin fell off its ski, so I had less traction on one side. It’s weird how I’m fine with zooming down gravel roads on a bike, but not fine with going downhill on skis!
Friday 20 January 2023
The weather turned, suddenly most of the snow vanished, and we got pouring rain instead.
Getting the other ski fixed!
Upper-body day.
Saturday 21 January 2023
The thaw revealed that there was a lot of birdfeed under the feeders!
Time for a recycling center trip, as clementine-season was over.
The food was good, but the acoustics were not fantastic. Who keeps making restaurants with high ceilings, and concrete floors?!
Good fish!
Finnur’s brain kept being disturbed the whole evening by these painting-collages on the walls!
Sunday 22 January 2023
A snow storm left windows looking like they were in a holiday movie.
Finnur’s mom invited people over to celebrate her birthday!
Snow-scraping the public lot again.
So pretty!
We discovered that the continuous dry weather (minus that one day of epic rain) was playing havoc with the piano’s soundboard. There was about an octave that would double-bang on a single push. The piano expert told us to wait for more humid weather, and yes, the problem did fix itself!
Monday 23 January 2023
Evidence of box-squats.
Tuesday 24 January 2023
This was the week all the locker-pin-computers were “upgraded” to this keyboard. (The photo is much too clear, these keyboards exist in shaded areas.) Massive confused erupted, as the blue-backlight totally overwhelmed the markings on the buttons. It turns out that a large part of the gym clientele is middle aged and over, and many do not bring their reading glasses with them to the gym! To add insult to injury, the ✅ and ❌buttons were no longer colored differently, and the new keyboard had them to the right side, with the 0, instead of below. I spent quite some time helping people out!
Friends or foes?
That night we played pinochle, and I got one of the most useless hands in recent memory!
Wednesday 25 January 2023
Slight panic at realizing Anna will turn 20 this year!?!
Thursday 26 January 2023
Gym and work, work and gym, those were the themes.
Friday 27 January 2023
Post minor eye-op. An oil gland had clogged up, and needed unclogging.
Saturday 28 January 2023
Mostly back to normal.
We journeyed to the summer house, and lit a rare fire in the fireplace.
Sunday 29 January 2023
Pretty snow had fallen overnight.
Goodbye-time! I was not allowed to use contacts in my “bad” eye.
It’s weird when the views change so drastically between days.
Driving back, the light and clouds were interesting.
When you have to find the model number to find the instructions online to set the alarm!!?!
Monday 30 January 2023
Sweaty gym-proof.
Storms have a tendency to blow from right to left, as seen from our bedroom window. The lady of the house has a tendency to go out and push snow around.
Tuesday 31 January 2023
The current organization of the building I work in. We got news that our team would be moved to the first floor.
Wednesday 01 February 2023
I keep trying to remember, and failing, to make nice washing and dryer machine instructions for the younger kids to follow.
Last minute shopping trip, as the following day us old folks would go on a week-long-trip! That was not a garment made for me!
