Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

Apartment Clearance / Jacob Collier / Hvammsvík / Woodworking

2024-06-15Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 15 – 22 June 2024, posted online 24 September 2024. Fall colors are everywhere.]

With mom in good hands in Sweden, it was time to finish the big mom-move, as in fully clear and clean the old apartment. It was a good thing I was out of a job, as I needed a few days to recover after each session.

There were a few big events, such as a Jacob Collier concert, visiting the Hvammsvík hot springs, an MBA graduation, and Stanford alumni get-together.

As we were feeling pretty happy with the prototype veggie-box enclosure Anna and I had designed and built, we got Finnur to source more wood, and then I used dry days to build more.

In between it all, I tried to visit the gym on weekdays, and slowly nudge myself back to health.

Saturday 15 June 2024

Walking home from a university graduation party a little past midnight. The weather was amaaazing!

Moving Mom / Physio Gymming

2024-06-01Friends, Hrefna's family Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 14 June 2024, posted online 20 September 2024. One job interview completed this week, just got notified I’d made it to round two, but lots of unemployed fish in the sea.]

June kicked off with a presidential election in Iceland, and for the second time ever a woman, Halla Tómasdóttir, was elected. The position is mostly ceremonial, with lots of meets and greets, but holds (very-rarely-used) veto power over new laws.

Then it was prepping stuff, followed by moving it, to mom’s new abode, interspersed with a few “adulting” tasks around the house like cleaning the garbage bins, and taking care of a leaky car tire.

My sprained back kept being fragile, such as when I re-injured myself bending down slightly to wash my hands. I was therefore banned from carrying stuff, and instead reverted to my old physio exercises to claw my way back to good back health.

We leaned hard on the kindness of friends to feed us, which kept us in good spirits.

Saturday 01 June 2024

Arriving at the local voting location. There was a steady stream of people, but hardly any lines.

Garden Build / Goodbye Controlant / Hello Back Sprain

2024-05-20Friends, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 20 – 31 May 2024, posted online 11 September 2024. Bjarki sprained his shoulder at parkour practice yesterday, we spent a lovely few hours at the ER to get a diagnosis.]

In a fit of activity, I dismantled the old veggie-box lids Finnur assembled a few years ago, that had sadly collapsed. Anna wanted a more accessible design, so we we went about designing, and building version two of the veggie-box lids.

In that spirit, I spent the last week at Controlant burning through a lot of energy, to finish what I’d decided I should finish. This was mostly fueled by eating ridiculous amounts of 85% dark chocolate.

After my last day, energy was still running high, one could even say there was a bit of a disconnect between body and mind, which promptly translated into lifting too much at the gym, spraining my back. In retrospect it was good that I essentially got sent into mandatory rest, I might have crashed and burned even worse if I hadn’t. Oh, and there was yet another eruption, and we secured a new home for mom!

Second Whit Sunday (Public Holiday) – Monday 20 May 2024

With the newly built lidded-veggie-box-top frame.

Spring Tasks / Concerts / Work-Wind-Down

2024-05-01Guitar, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 19 May 2024, posted online 10 September 2024. I have sent in my first job application in since I quit my job in the spring, as I finally stumbled upon a job posting that spoke to me.]

After the weirdly high number of trips abroad in March and April, there was finally a bit of peace and quiet to start on “spring tasks”. Branches got trimmed, planks were screwed, music was listened to.

I also struggled with how long I would stay on at my job, as my brain toggled between “really need a break” and “really want to finish these tasks”. As the month passed, my stress levels increased (quitting is hard!), and I tried to compensate by going to the gym, which helped a bit.

Finnur had a lot of errands to do at the summer house (new fire-place!), before departing for California on a work-trip, so I ended up cooking a lot more dinners than usual. We also started apartment hunting for mom, as her old apartment was no longer a good fit.

Labor Day – Wednesday 01 May 2024

A little late to the game, with buds already forming, but once I got going it didn’t take too long.

In Amsterdam / King’s Day Avoidance / To Iceland

2024-04-27Finnur's family, Holland Standard

[Photos taken 27 – 30 April 2024, posted online 30 August 2024. Lots of rain incoming. Hello fall.]

Amsterdam turns into a party-town on King’s day to celebrate their king’s birthday. People wear orange, there are orange decorations everywhere, and partying crowds, particularly downtown. I’m not a person that runs to where there are crowds, preferring to stay very very far away, so I pulled my “I’m an introvert”-card, and declared that I would be not be joining the group going downtown.

Instead I wandered towards a cafe that was listed as laptop-friendly, and hung out there for most of the afternoon. Classic me.

The whole group then went out to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant, which are very prevalent in Amsterdam because the Dutch colonized Indonesia for almost 350 years.

The following day we traveled back to Iceland, and life resumed as normal.

Saturday 27 April 2024

The Dutch celebrating the birthday of their king. Finnur took this photo, as I was far, far away!

In Amsterdam / Walkabouts / 17th Century Dinner

2024-04-26Finnur's family, Holland Standard

[Photos taken 26 April 2024, posted online 28 August 2024. Yesterday a third (150 people) of the remaining workers at my last company were laid off. Oooof! The eruption has now created a baby-volcano cone.]

The following day the plan was mostly to visit downtown, perhaps do a bit of shopping, before heading to dinner at a restaurant that is housed in a collection of 17th century rooms. To get our coffee fix, a sister-in-law and myself started they day with a walk to a cafe a little ways from our hotel.

Friday 26 April 2024

The viow out our 11th floor hotel room window in Amsterdam.

To Amsterdam / Cheese Tasting / Canal Dinner Cruise

2024-04-25Finnur's family, Holland Standard

[Photos taken 25 April 2024. Posted online 26 August 2024. Volcano is still going, and it’s the first day of elementary school. The weather is finally nice enough to stain wood!]

Finnur’s parents had both turned 80 years old in the past year, so the siblings decided to replicate previous big-birthdays, and go abroad with them for a long weekend.

Miraculously, they managed to agree on a location and dates, although Icelandair did its very best to throw them off. Both of the flights that we had booked ended up getting cancelled (probably didn’t sell enough seats), and we were instead re-booked on same-day flights, but with less optimal departure times.

We got up at the crack of dawn (which is quite early in late April), fetched Finnur’s parents and drove to the airport. This was a child-free trip, and I was one of two spouses.

Thursday 25 April 2024

The view from my window as we approached Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

Confirmation / New Bed / Office Move

2024-04-13Us Standard

[Photos taken 13 – 24 April 2024, posted online 25 August 2024. Last night, we drove past the active volcano that erupted this past Thursday, as we had dinner with friends that live close by. Was cool, erm, fiery!]

The second confirmation party of this season was lovely. (We had invites for three others, but were traveling for all of them!?!). I took a few photos of the newly-confirmed-one before the party started, which is always so much fun.

The following days were busy with Emma finally getting a bigger bed, some spring cleaning, haircuts, moving offices at work, and goodbye events, although I still had a good month to go at work.

Saturday 13 April 2024

Confirmation flowers as table decoration.

Partial Eclipse / Ego-Lifting / Fireplace Arrives

2024-04-07Us Standard

[Photos taken 07 – 12 April 2024, posted online 24 August 2024. Last night the wind howled, and it felt like winter had arrived, minus the snow.]

I managed to scope out a jogging route amid trees on a windy Sunday, but had to admit that my left heel wasn’t enjoying life as much as it should. I therefore focused more on weight lifting, but then managed to strain my lower back during an “ego-lift” (defined as: “It’s when you lift weights that are too heavy for you, without proper form or technique. It’s about prioritizing your ego over your physical health and strength-building goals.”) Oh well: you live, you learn.

At one point I just barely remembered there was an ongoing partial solar eclipse, but I think I still managed to sort-of score cool-points with the kids. I took Emma mattress-shopping, and a new fireplace arrived for the summer house (Finnur’s project). Due to “the fireplace-guy” being swamped this summer, the fireplace was only just installed a couple of days ago (22 August 2024).

Finally, I went in for a very informal job interview (result: no job for me), and prepped for a confirmation photoshoot. I guess it was a pretty busy week?!

Sunday 07 April 2024

Jogging path, stuck between winter and spring.

Post-Move Deep-Clean / Sarah Millican Show

2024-04-01Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 06 April 2024, posted online 23 August 2024. The elementary school doled out the schedule today, and the weather played along with blustery chilly autumn winds.]

After the last of my siblings moved out from mom’s place, a lot of space opened up, and the opportunity to deep-clean in “peace and quiet” before mom returned from Sweden was too good to pass up. (Mom’s health isn’t quite up to deep-cleaning any more, and she’s done more than her share of cleaning in life so far!)

My sister-in-law and myself showed up, ready to remove some dust-bunnies, and move some furniture, leaving the children with their fathers. (For jobs like this, it’s easier just to get on with things, rather than rope other people into it, if they need to be instructed what to do. Instructions take mental energy!!)

Aside from getting dusty, there was a birthday party, gymming, my workplace decided to move the offices to a new building, a Sarah Millican show, picking mom up from the airport, and dinner with friends!