Milo and Lillie are on their way

We've been in the moving process for a while, but until this morning, it's been all paperwork and electronic plans.

We've filled out custom forms and picked up Elliot's medical records and made hotel and airline reservations, but today it really feels like it's all really started.

Today Milo and Lillie were picked up.  Milo is about 100 pounds and Lilie is about 60 pounds, so their airline crates are too big for any plane that flies in and out of the Stavanger airport.

So, in the exact opposite way they arrived, they left this morning.

Yesterday, a man drove from Oslo, spent the night at a hotel here, then came by this morning to drive them around the country today.  And tomorrow morning he will put them on a plane to Atlanta.

They will arrive sometime on December 2nd and will be taken to what I like to call "sleep away camp" where they will stay until about early January or so when we are somewhat settled in our house.

It's kind of odd that our dogs will be back in the United States before we are.

I have really mixed feelings* about leaving, but just today, Elliot and I had been in town for his last check-up and a great leaving lunch with some friends.  We were walking back to our car and we ran into some of our dearest friends.

Instead of just heading home, we sat and visited for much of the rest of the afternoon.

I'm not sure how often that will happen back in Atlanta.

So if you happen to be anywhere near a kennel in Southwest Atlanta over the next month or so, stop by if you have a minute and say hello.

I'd hate for our dear hunds to be lonely.




*In the ideal world, we would have stayed another year.  Our friends are fantastic and the travel has been  wonderful, but I miss the US and most of what that entails.  And we miss family like crazy, plus dear Elliot needs to know his cousins...

Things I Learned Today, Installment One

So our camera broke today. An error message saying "Memory Card Error" popped up on the screen instead of the inspired photo I was trying to take of the giant shrimp statue in the harbor.

Husband replaced the memory card, but was too embarrassed to take it to his friend, the technophile, because it is so out of date. So for a while, until we get a new one, we'll have to do without photos, but not for tooooo long....

In the meantime, I'll add in links when I appropriate (or deemed so by me...).

Today, we got a loaner car. It's a Saab 93 diesel (wagon, natch...) and we'll be driving this one until our actual car comes in the mail or on a boat or via train or however it is that cars get to places when they are not being driven. So Husband ditched work early and picked me up for a Friday afternoon drive.

We went all over the area and into the country side and here are a few things we saw and a few things I learned.

1) If you are driving along the road and see a sign that says "Fartputer" do not be alarmed. Slow down because, if not you will soon be flying over Speed Pillows, which are speed bumps.

2) A goat is a geit, which is pronounced Yight (rhymes with sight). More than one goat is a geiter.

3) It doesn't matter that it was cold enough that we were buttoned up and wearing gloves. On this afternoon, the sun was out and the waves were breaking. So, car loads of people were pulling up to the beach, stripping down and then zipping up their wetsuits all for a few hours of surfing in the afternoon sun.

4) Not all cars in Europe are stick shifts. Some of them are automatic, one of which, in our possession for the next month or so, is parked right by our front door.

Happy Easter

Norway, along with many European countries, shuts down over the Easter holidays. Stores are closed. No one goes to work. I'm pretty sure that the mail doesn't come as well.

The entire country just stops, packs up and heads out of town.

So we are too.

For the first half of the week, we're going to a friend's ski cabin. The we'll be back in Stavanger for a night.

On Wednesday of that week, we're leaving for Scotland and will spend about a day or so driving around the Highlands and then to Edinburgh for four days.

Husband wants to see the Highlands for the landscape and history.

Me, I am dying to go to Loch Ness. Yep, it will be touristy and perhaps even cheesy, but I grew up on a diet of monster stories and folklore. I soaked up everything about the Yeti and the vampires and the Frankensteins. And really for all their creepiness (and occasional murders and blood-drinking), they always seemed a little bit lonely.

One of my absolute favorites was the Loch Ness monster, Nessie, for those in the know...

Who is Nessie, you wonder???

The thought of taking a boat tour of the loch with the (yes, I know it's slim to none, but humor me for a moment, please) possibility of a sighting is too scary and delicious to even fathom.

I don't care a bit if every shop for kilometers will be hawking Nessie goods or if it's like the Disneyland of mythical creatures.

I'm lobbying to stay at the B&B overlooking the lake.

Loch Ness Clansman Hotel

Then we'll head south to spend a few days sipping on whiskey and shopping in Edinburgh.

Though, I also saw a note that Scotland may shut down for Easter as well. If so, we'll just keep driving to England.