Kayaking & Eruption-Monitoring on Vacation Eve
[Photos taken 08 – 13 July 2023, posted online 14 April 2024. Today I want to clear out the garage, ooof.]
We’d gone ahead and bought a couple of kayaks at Costco, and then scratched our heads long and hard on how to transport them to and from the lake. Thankfully we found roof-racks for the big car, and after some more head-scratches, the roof racks were installed, and a YouTube video consulted on how to fasten kayaks on top. We invited the soon-to-be-Swedes to the summer-house for a bit of a farewell, and lucked out with the weather!
We then held our collective breath until yet another volcanic eruption began. It was far away from everywhere, and would last for just under a month.
Finnur remained at the summer house, working remotely during the day, and oiling/staining wood outside of working hours. There’s a lot of wood that needs to be taken care of there… Meanwhile I cooked (once), weeded, gymmed, and prepped for my formal summer vacation!
Saturday 08 July 2023
Mom’s South-Coast Birthday-Trip & Bjarki’s 16th Birthday
[Photos taken 25 – 30 June 2023, posted online 16 March 2024 from Brussels. Yesterday I saw dinosaur fossils, and The Smile (nearing dinosaur-status, but not fossilized, yet).]
We went on an afternoon-trip with mom to celebrate her birthday a few days prior with a fleet of four cars, then attended another university graduation party (we know so many studious kids!). A few days later, we celebrated Bjarki’s 16th birthday, and he took his first driving lesson, thankfully returning unscathed.
Sunday 25 June 2023
Mowing-time, Birthday-time, Biking-time & Ducks!
[Photos taken 10 – 15 June 2023, posted online 14 March 2024, from a cafe in Brussels that has a smoke detector that is almost out of battery. Peep!!]
Upon returning home from California, the grass had grown to time-to-mow-length, there was a birthday, more work to do in the garden, bread-baking, insensibly fed ducks, purchased kayaks, and e-biking along the rocky coast.
Saturday 10 June 2023
Confirmation Season Continues
[Photos taken 01 – 08 April 2023, posted online 16 21 December 2023. The start of this blog post was written in a cafe in Dublin, Ireland!]
The confirmation season continued in full swing, as Easter vacation began. We attended two confirmation parties,
Saturday 01 April 2023
Waterfalls, School Visits & Confirmation Parties
[Photos taken 18 – 31 March 2023, posted online 02 December 2023. Frozen days ahead of us, but little snow predicted, hardly any snow this season so far.]
We actually went on an outing to the lavafield-waterfalls (Hraunfossar) from the summer house with friends who like sight-seeing. The rest of the month passed in a blur of confirmation-related events, junior college school visits with Bjarki, hosting dad & Shirley for an evening, Anna’s school project, and gymming.
Saturday 18 March 2023
Emma’s 10th Birthday Parties, Gymming & Summer Housing
[Photos taken 11 – 28 February 2023, posted online 14 October 2023. There’s a bit of white stuff on the ground, it won’t last.]
We had no sooner arrived from Tenerife than it was time to prep for Emma’s 10th birthday! She ended up getting three parties, one with each family-wing, and one with her classmates.
As February went on, I took an annoying number of selfies in the gym, the weather did all sorts of things, yule lights came down as the daylight stayed for longer, the yard got a bit of attention, and we managed to make sure the summer house was ok. Then February was over!
Lake-Skiing, Late-Yuling, Iliza-Seeing & Gymming
[Photos taken 07 – 13 January 2023, posted online 09 September 2023. Fall is in the air, it’s getting wetter and chillier.]
My social media got filled with people on cross-country skis in glorious weather, so I gathered up my courage Saturday morning, found the skis I’d bought the previous season, and headed out to a nearby lake, where a group of people were maintaining tracks. I found out that I was about the slowest person there, but I still made it around the 4.5 km around lake, phew!
We went on to finalizing Yule two-days late, with tea, yule-tree-disposal, and the breaking of the ginger bread house. In the following week, I got myself a new covid shot, we went to see Iliza perform, and I kept visiting the gym!
Saturday 07 January 2023
Misty Hiking, Delayed Confirmation Party, & Northern Lights
[Photos taken 12 – 30 November 2022, posted online 21 July 2023. Gosh, darnit, my eyesight is changing really fast these days, I get the feeling that in the olden times I should be dead by now!]
Tearing me out of my “just started a new job” stupor was a day hike to Stardalshnúkur & Þríhnúkar on a rainy-misty day, but the clouds cleared at good moments, and good memories were made.
We attended a covid-delayed confirmation party, I tried to find a new gym/work balance, Finnur took photos of northern lights, yule-tide outside lights were put up as the darkness grew, yule-tide shopping began, and life kind of went on as usual.
Saturday 12 November 2022
Hello Controlant!
[Photos taken 01 – 11 November 2022, posted online 19 July 2023. The weather finally turned summer-like in July, and I’m officially on summer vacation, whoohoo!]
I started working for Controlant on 1st November. It’s an Icelandic startup from 2007 that was in the right place, with the right connections, at the right time, when Covid-19 hit, and Pfizer needed a way to monitor in near-real-time the temperature of the covid-vaccine that needed to stay below -80°C / -112 F at all times, before use.
The Contolant logger and monitoring-platform was chosen, and delivered great results, coming close to eliminating transport losses due to temperature issues, which generally hover in the 20-30% range (!!!).
I’d had my eye on the company for a while, and actually remember speaking to one of the founders briefly about it in the teacher’s lounge when I was teaching at the University of Iceland some 10 years ago, and he was still a graduate student!
Anyway, when I joined I was employee number 4-hundred-and-something, and now it’s up to 5-hundred-and-something. It’s interesting times!
As a side effect, my brain was completely fried for a while, as I tried to learn a lot of new things, and I barely took any photos besides of me going to and from work, it seems!
Tuesday 01 November 2022
Do. All. The. Things. Part. England
[Photos taken 22 – 26 October 2022, posted online 01 July 2023. After a mostly miserable and fall-like June, we might get a week of nice weather starting tomorrow.]
The younger kids got two days of winter-break towards the end of October, so we decided to journey to England and say hi to (grand)dad, Shirley, and Anthony.
I made the unilateral decision that Anna would not be traveling with us, since she was busy at university (they have four 12-week courses, followed by one 3-week group-work-course). Thus this was the first trip abroad with just Emma and Bjarki tagging along.
Saturday 22 October 2022
