Birthday in Norway

I turned 38 while I was in Norway. To mark the occasion, AH and I went to the zoo. It's not a great zoo, but it was fun. AH's not exactly an animal lover, so it was good of her to humor me with this little excursion.

It was early in the season, so not all of the animals were out and about. Disappointingly, this included Harald the moose. I really want to see a moose someday. (Amusingly, moose are called elg in Norwegian, and a Norwegian idiom for vomiting is "calling the elg." Apparently moose calls and hurling sound fairly similar. Who knew?) One of the animals we did see was a lynx. It was really cool, because it came pretty much out of nowhere, making lynx-y growls and working its way out of the woods. He walked right under us, and made AH a little nervous.



The zoo is really aimed at kids, and there are several kid-oriented activities and areas available. One of the more well-known is Kardemommeby, based on a popular children's story. I've never read it, but AH told me all about it as we wandered through the abandoned village. There's also a small auto run so kids can drive themselves onto a ferry and be transported across the 15-foot Skagerrak to Denmark. They then drive into a simulated Sweden and cross the bride from Malmö to Copenhagen. It was really pretty cute.




The most popular attraction at the park, aside from the animals, would have to be Kaptein Sabeltann (Captain Sabertooth). He's the white-faced pirate guy shown at the top, and he's huge with the under-10 set. I saw lots of kids running around with plastic cutlasses.

After we got home from the zoo and cleaned a up a bit, AH and I went to Lillesand to get dinner at the Hotel Norge. Traditionally, Hotel Norge has really decent food—nothing too foo-foo—with even better cheesy potatoes (known in Norwegian as fløte gratinerte poteter). I absolutely love the cheesy potatoes Hotel Norge makes, so I was looking forward to this with more than a bit of anticipation.


It turned out that the Hotel Norge now has new owners (despite the what the website says), and they are trying to update things in the restaurant, including both the menu and the décor. The building was erected in the nineteenth century, and the restaurant decoration has always reflected this with lots of crown molding, chair rails, and a light-blue-and-white color scheme. The new owners are trying a bit too hard to modernize things, adding taupe table runners and frosted glass votive holders. Another thing they've done to modernize the restaurant is to take the fløte gratinerte poteter off the menu. I was unhappy, to say the least. The meal was still good, despite the substitution of almond potatoes. I still enjoyed sitting with AH and sharing my birthday with her in Norway, which is a first for us.

We finished dinner and decided to partake of a small post-prandial constitutional (aka a walk after dinner—I just never get to use the word "prandial" in regular conversation, and I'm sure there are those of you who would say that's a good thing). We walked toward the harbor, past another restaurant. There was a window open to the kitchen, where we saw a massive tray full of fløte gratinerte poteter. Agonizing.

On the way home we stopped by Ulvøysund to look at the water. It was a little chilly, so AH stayed in the car while I took a few photos. (I'm going to put more photos from this section over on my phlog, so check there in a few days.)



My friends in Norway were very good to me on my birthday. AH took me to the zoo. AH's mom got me some fishing lures and a book on Norwegian fish. AH's friends Grethe and Ivar also got me some fishing lures and a book on Norwegian fish, along with some Norwegian chocolate. Have I mentioned that these people rock?

"Remember to check the water temperature"

Ah, the many creative uses of the die cut...

Are they still boys?

I had no idea they were even still together...

I found this funny

Your mileage may vary.

A quick update and my appreciation

Thank you, dear readers, for returning time and again to my blog, even though there's been precious little in the way of content over the last few months.

As you may know if you've been playing along at home, this spring I started an MFA program in Graphic Design (you know it's important if it's capitalized). I finished my first quarter on June 1. This, combined with end-of-the-fiscal-year pressures at work, combined to stress me out to the point that I acquired a case of shingles. They're pretty much vanquished at this point, but they were a pretty fair indication that I needed a break. Thankfully I was due to head to Norway for two weeks of doing absolutely nothing. However, this trip was taken with more than a tinge of guilt, given that Merujo's brother died just before I left. I felt terrible that I wasn't going to be here for her, and I still feel bad about it. She's off visiting family now, hopefully decompressing a bit herself.

That's about it, really. Summer quarter has started, but I'll try to regale you with a few tales of Scandinavia over the next few weeks. I took some photos that might be of interest, so even if you can't be bothered to read the squiggles on the screen, at least you can look at the pretty color pictures.

In other events, it's time to root for Brazil out of hemispheric loyalty. It's what I always do once the United States is eliminated from the World Cup. On the other hand, there's a tiny bit of me that would like to see Ghana take it. It won't happen, but I wouldn't be upset if it did.

That's about it. Stay tuned for future updates, and again please accept my thanks for sticking with me despite my lack of postings over the past three months. You rawk, and you know it.

Dolbyfest Spring 2006

Details coming soon. Dinner's in the microwave. Please stand by. Over.

OK. Finally.

The Dolby weekend was fantastic.

Gonzomantis came out from Minnesota, and he, Merujo, and I traipsed all over Maryland and Northern Virginia on our own incarnation of following the Grateful Dead. Except in this case we didn't bum any tempe patties from people in the parking lot, and we were mercifully spared any patchoulli odor.

We were comped at the first show by the man himself. Can't thank him enough for that. It was extremely cool being on a guest list. It was even cooler when we found out that we were the guest list.



Dolby stopped by our table to say hello prior to the show, which was very kind of him and very unexpected. The opening performer, Carey Ott, was quite listenable and ultimately very patient (after I plied him with questions after Monday's show). His set lasted half an hour. Our man took the stage after about fifteen minutes, and was kind enough to turn his head toward me during the first chorus of "Leipzig," for reasons which are fairly obvious if you know the song. I was a total dork and kind of lamely waved, because I was so stunned I couldn't think of what else to do at that particular moment. Even though I'd met him before (and he even bought me a drink at the Willard here in D.C. a few years ago), I must admit to being slightly starstruck at that moment. He's a flipping genius, and it's always a bit disconcerting (in a good way) when one of those types pays even the slightest bit of positive attention to you. I can't say that I'd like to be on the receiving end if he were angry. I have a feeling that the whole "passionate artist" thing would not be a good thing at that point. But I digress.

Our seats were right next to Johnny DeKam's video rig, so we could see some of what he was doing along with Dolby's music. Awesome stuff.

I suppose I should touch on some of the show's content. I won't gush because that's not really my style. However, there were a few moments that had quite an impact. First, the air raid sirens that opened the show and then segued into "Leipzig." Massive chills, and then increasing appreciation as the calls of mourning doves were brought into the mix as well. Second, the additional chords in the intro to "Flying North." I discussed this with resident tour groupie StevieD, and he agreed that there are certain chord progressions/structures that can have a deep resonance, a resonance that will provoke an unexpectedly emotional response. And although I'd heard the song a gazillion times before, the raw and open approach to "Budapest by Blimp" was unexpected (as was the song choice, frankly).

Sunday's show was just as great as the previous one. Our table was about 8 feet closer than Saturday's, which was good, as I couldn't really see the video screen on Saturday. (We opted out of ordering the house special for the evening: "Thomas Dolby Salmon." No joke. His tour manager brought him the listing from the menu and he reportedly just raised an eyebrow.)



Finally, and sadly, we arrived early at the Birchmere in Alexandria. Of the two venues, this was definitely better. Louder, too, to my delight. (Air raid sirens only work when they're turned up to 11, you know.) We sat with a few people from the
thomasdolby.com Forum, which was cool.



Even though I'd played fanboy in the past and had a few things signed by him, when I was clearing out some stuff at my mom's house I found this, and couldn't resist:



I felt a bit lost on Tuesday, as there was no Dolby gig to attend. However, Gonzomantis got to see one more show in St. Paul about week later. Lucky bastard. What makes him an even luckier bastard is that he got to hear "The Flat Earth" performed in its entirety, when the rest of us schlubs only got to hear the intro.

Although this is being posted fairly late in the game, thank you, Thomas, for a fantastic weekend. I'm looking forward to the tour DVD. Big time.