Settling In

Kitchen

We've mostly moved into our new place and we're really enjoying it.  We still need to hang pictures and move a bit of furniture around, but it's starting to feel like home.
Check out the flickr gallery for more pictures.
Last night we had some new friends over for dinner; it was the first real test of our new kitchen.  We have a two burner gas range and a four burner induction range.  The induction cook top is amazing.  It can boil a quart of water in under a minute and can do a pretty decent job at simmering.  Unfortunately, many of my el-cheap-o-numero-segundo wal-mart stock pots don't work on the induction top.  Yesterday I had at least four pots and a couple of pans going while I was preparing dinner and had to use the gas burners for some of the cheap pots.  Anne and I discovered that the gas burners, even the little one, have two settings: incinerate and charcoal.  It's sort of like cooking at home with a Whisper-Lite.  Sauteing onions required a complex dance of two seconds on the burner, five seconds off while stirring and scraping the pot bottom to prevent burning.  I am now officially in the market for an induction compatible stock pot.

Master Bedroom

The master bedroom and living room both have fantastic views of the small boat harbor just a hundred meters from our front door.  Just beyond the harbor is the fjord that leads into Stavanger.  Sometimes in the morning I can catch a tourist cruise ship heading into town.  It's pretty spectacular to see something so massive moored in the little downtown harbor.
The rest of the house is equally comfortable with two smaller bedrooms just opposite the master bedroom with bright, south facing windows.  One has become the office and the other is a guest bedroom awaiting its first guest.  Yes, that's an invitation.

Appliances In Norsk

We're settling into our house and really enjoying the newness of it all.  The neighborhood is amazingly beautiful with great views of mountains, islands and sunsets.  This time of year the sun doesn't really set until around 11:00.  It's really incredible to watch from a big picture window right by the couch.
Right now I'm watching the last golden rays of sun fade from the windows of houses off in the east and the mountains to the north slowly fade into the rosy dusk of the evening sky.  We're not quite far enough north to get the midnight sun, but we will get some very, very long days (and nights) around the solstices.
The architect that designed our house did a fantastic job choosing a beautiful raw oak floor, nice counter tops, cabinets, closets and appliances. There's a great microwave/convection combination oven and below it a great little convection oven in the kitchen.  The convection oven has some great pictures printed inside the door to help you figure out which setting and rack combinations work for which food.  The microwave/convection on the other hand is just mysterious.  Last night we managed to half-heat a jar of spaghetti sauce by stabbing at the buttons and twiddling the dials until something happened.  We'll have to take a stab at translating the manual at some point.  The rest of the kitchen is pretty self-explanatory though the induction stove-top is a little scary.  It can bring two liters of water to a rolling boil in less than two minutes.
Downstairs we've got an interesting condensing dryer and a front-loading wash machine.  The dryer doesn't have a vent, but rather a really clever condensing manifold that cools the hot wet air to a point where the water condenses out.  It collects the water in a container at the bottom that needs to be emptied every load.  It's a little slower than a vented dryer, but it seems to work quite well.

Below the dryer is really the star of the show though.  There's a brand spanking new front-load washing machine from Whirlpool.  It has a bagillion settings and a spin cycle that runs at 1400 rpm.  No kidding 1400.  In case you need something to reference that to it's about as fast as something that's REALLY FREAKING FAST.

Quick Update

[What's the opposite of post script?  Pre script?] P.S. The Skype number works, but we don't have regular internet access (we have to go to town and a cafe) so you can only leave a message for now.  That will change once we're reconnected to this decade.

Hey everybody,

Sorry for the loooong break in posts.  We have been in the process of moving into a new house and it's been sort of all consuming in one way or another.  All Norwegians and residents are required to have at least two pieces of Ikea furniture in their homes; we've made the obligatory trip and are the proud owners of Billy the Book Case, along with a few other things.
We're mostly settled in, and almost entirely unpacked.  Unfortunately we don't have any blinds or curtains yet so we're sort of on show for the Total office across the street and the harbor below.  We have one room with super-classy cardboard curtains, but you have to be careful where you undress.  If you were to say, shed all your wet and gross running gear in the basement by the laundry room, you might have to make a mad dash up two flights of stairs while trying not to expose yourself to neighbors on one side and the offices and harbor on the other.  But who would do something that dumb?
The view from our place is spectacular, especially in the evening.  As the sun sets over the fjord, the houses to the east of us are bathed in the most spectacular gold and red light.  And the mountains to the north are just spectacular.  The inside of the house is beautiful and we will post pictures once we're tubed into the net.
We're at least a few weeks out from having a phone or interwebs at our house.  Lyse has promised supper fast internet delivered at super slow speeds.  They told us that we're on the expedited list, but that could still be 4-6 more weeks.  I think they might have to mine the glass, grow the workers and then lay the cable all the way from Oslo or something.
We started our first batch of beer here, it's a porter.  It is working hard at the first stage of fermentation and boiling away like mad.  It smells delicious and is dark as night.  We need to find a local home-brew store to get some more supplies from so we can start another batch after we bottle this one.
This weekend was Ascension Day and then Independence Day (17 Mai).  The weather was wonderful and everyone was dressed in their regional national costume.  Again, pictures to come.

Labor Day and Belgian Hospitality

Belgian Mine Hunter, Crocus

Yesterday, 1 May 2010, was Labor Day in Norway and most everything was closed up except for a few museums and restaurants.  Anne and I headed down to the Norsk Oljemuseum and were pleasantly surprised with what we found.  The museum has tons of things to play with including a semi-functional drill floor complete with a segment of turning drill string.  There's some amazingly complete models of platforms, ships and rigs.  The historical segment showing the history of the earth as it pertains to Norwegian petroleum is completely interesting as well.
After a few hours there we wandered back along the water front; there were a bunch of ships  moored along the harbor including a massive 150' pleasure yacht.  Behind and in front of the pleasure yacht were Naval vessels.  As we were speculating why the boat had a decompression chamber, a master diver Chief Petty Officer hanging out on the back deck invited us aboard.  We had to surrender our passports to the guard as we came aboard, but then Dirk, the CPO, filled our hands with Jupiler Beer and made sure we were never dry again.
Dirk showed all over the Belgian Ship, Crocus from the massive V12 diesel engine in the stern, the explosive ROVs (yes, they can explode when ordered) all the way up to the bridge.  They're here on a tour to Norway to work with a local company to calibrate their instruments and charts. Typically they work to destroy unexploded ordinance left over from WWII.  Apparently the bombers based in the UK would dump any un-used bombs into the ocean as they returned from missions.  Whenever a bomb or old mine shows up, the Crocus locates it with some awesome sonar equipment, then either the divers or one of the explosive ROVs blows it up.  Awesome.

USA Number for Easy Calling

We've purchased a Skype number in the USA for easy calling for all you folks in America.  You can call us for whatever the usual connection fee would be for calling a number in Colorado.  For most of you with cell phones, this call will only cost you minutes.  If you're calling from a land line, whatever you would normally pay to call Denver is all you pay.  The intertubes are magic.
Right now, as of 2 May '10, we don't have a real phone attached to that number so it will just ring our computer.  If we're not around, the computer is off, Skype isn't running or the hotel has burned down, we won't answer, but you can leave a message.  We'll eventually hook up a Skype phone that rings no matter if the computers are on or not.
If you'd like to know what this magic number is, shoot me or Anne an email.  I'm a little paranoid about leaving a number out on the interwebs where anybody can pick it up.
Don't forget that we're +1 GMT.  Check the clocks on the sidebar to  help you figure out what time it is where.