More Snow Fun

What do you do with a bunch of little kids when it's snowy out for months at a time? Bundle 'em up and put 'em outside. It's raining today, which feels strange when there's about 3 feet of snow on the ground. Yesterday it snowed for a while, and then when the clouds were kind of clearing we went out and had some snowy fun. We made a little snow-woman. The kids used sleds on their backyard to great effect. They get so bundled up they can't see, hear, walk, hold on to hardly anything. Hats, mittens, wool pants over wool leggings, wool sweaters over wool undershirts, huge one-piece snow suits, and boots that are made to be tripped over. But did they have a blast? Of course!

Creepy little snow lady

Help getting out from under the table

Even a picnic table can be an adventure.


And here's a photo from a few days ago when the snow was still nice enough to ski in - Joshua coming up the hill after a wee ski.

Walking!

Walking is really cool. I will never take it for granted again that I can use both legs.

So the foot is healing. What a difference two weeks has made. Two weeks ago I was still completely dependent on crutches. Now, I've given them up completely and I even lift up the small children in the house. I'm now in training to be walking into town and back a couple times a day by the end of the month. Not a terribly long walk, maybe 20 minutes downhill, but uphill is a killer, and takes much longer. Not to mention the ice and snow on the way.

Walking is really cool.

Planning Begins Anew

I still can't walk, really. But we are planning anyway. We hope to be in Greece by the end of July. That sounds ambitious, but it's a good way to start. I've learned a lot about aiming high and not feeling devastated when things don't work out exactly as planned. Maybe we will only make it as far as Sweden by July.

After Greece, maybe Turkey. Or Italy. Other places to hit over the summer: Germany, Switzerland, Austria? Or perhaps we will start by going straight over the water to Scotland and working our way south via the UK. That would mean a stop in Amsterdam. Oh, Amsterdam!

We are actively looking for house-sitting gigs, which also might change the direction we travel. If you know of anyone who needs a couple of former chamber-maid/stewards to take care of their place for a few weeks this summer, please send them our way.

And check out our new 'Links to Other Useful Sites' page!
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There's more to add. If we've forgotten something, please just let us know. More new pages are in the works.

If you've been reading our blog for a while, and know how we traveled last summer, it will be obvious to you that everything can change quickly for us. We totally had a plan last year, and only the major elements didn't change over the course of the summer. Something similar will probably happen this year.

And by the way: Thanks for sticking with us.


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What is Going On?

We are finally back on track! That's what's going on. We spent four months in northern California, unexpectedly, and a few weeks ago we re-booked our return flight to Norway. The snowy photos? Norway. The hats? Knit by me (gimpy). I'm figuring out hats.

My foot is still not completely healed. I am supposed to wear the boot, but I'm allowed to stop using crutches. Took a week, but now I can walk around crutch-free while wearing the boot. It still hurts, but in that haven't-walked-in-four-months way. My foot needs some serious training. Which it gets. Walking, standing, ABC's, and coming soon: walking in the pool. Now that feels good.

It doesn't look like I'll get to do any skiing, which means Joshua has to do double duty. He bought some used cross country skis yesterday at the 2nd hand store for 60kr (about $10) and today Anders took him on a little adventure. They were gone for about an hour and a half, and Joshua came back having crashed twice, tired, and expecting to be sore tomorrow. Good stuff.

It's 5:45pm, and still a little light out. Joshua just came in and is now lying on the rug in front of the stove. Not quite dark enough to turn on the lights, but very soon we will.

It is quiet.

Natalia and kids are not yet back from a trip to visit Bestemoor (grandma), but tomorrow the house will be full again, and a routine that starts at 6am will become regular.

We will be adding a couple of things to the blog in the coming weeks. Firstly, a section about planning a bicycle tour, including resources we used and packing lists. Then I will write a little novel about a broken foot, in case other people in the world are having the problems that I did.

Welcome back!

every day

around this time, I want to go out and take pictures of the mountains.







- rolling post

snow is nice

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it has not been windy here recently

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Knitting Coziness While Knitting Bone

Four more weeks!! This time in blue. With a black heel.

It is a pretty color, and I still match some of my knee-high, argyle socks. But four more weeks in a cast!?!? Yikes.

I only complain because I can. I know how much better I have it than... whoever. I'm just feeling sorry for myself so you don't have to. The doctor says it's doing great! He's glad we went this route, and he says I'm lucky and I'm healing up well! Okay, super.

My mom, with love in her heart, gave me a card that says 'you've had a really hard year,' or something to that effect, referring to my poor foot. I laughed. I hope this was a hard year, because imagine the good years to come. I've had a disappointing couple of months, but all around, 2010 has been awesome.

Here is my ode to 2010 on New Year's Eve:


January: Wedding number 1 by bicycle, my own,
February: Laid-off (yes!),
March, April: Staying home, gathering gear, and
lemonade goodbyes,
May: Garage/party sales, goodbye weight of possessions, best going away party ever,
June: Left the big city, left behind a fun life, good friends, breathed the fresh air of home,
wedding number 2 by bicycle, 8 hours at a winebar, full bank account, one-way flight to Switzerland,
July, August, September: carefree, car-free,
plan-as-we-go,
practically weightless,
rain-or-shine,
friends all over the world, new and old,
bicycles, camping, detox, de-stress, slow down,
wedding number 3 by bicycle (and boat),
October: home again, grandma time, wedding number 4 by stretch hummer, broken foot,
November, December: gimpy, blessed with patient, caring, careful, active, tireless Joshua, a lot of fun family time (holidays), knitting knitting knitting, movies, books, wood stove, walker (roller), crutches, manly muscular arms, doctor visits, exchanging casts, knitting, quiet.



My complaints are... facetious. Therapeutic. Lemonade.

X-mas was fun.

we did some cycling! surrey-style. my mom was the fourth.

Corina bought us beeswax for make-your-own candles (Joshua did the 3 wick magic)

serious business (am I standing?)

mom, lighting the rum, plum pudding on fire

Knitting knitting knitting? You ask, excited.

I don't have a lot of creative talents. I like being creative, but not publicly (ha ha to those who might point out the blog). Cooking is one way I enjoy being creative. And by creative I mean creating things that are beautiful or useful or delicious. And wow, I can't cook on crutches. Luckily my cousins and aunt were all knitting at Thanksgiving, and I was given an extra set of needles and some spare yarn. I forgot that I knew how to knit. And so I've been creating things since then, oh-so-satisfying.

now lives in LA

now lives in Oakland

(love the crutch-feet in this one)

now lives in NY

now lives in Monterey

this one I have not yet sold; it could be yours!

There are a few more out there already (guess what everyone got for x-mas). And I started an etsy.com site: http://knitandride.etsy.com. There's not much on there right now. Of course, it's been my friends who've actually bought them. Etsy is a case of too bad, just way-so-much stuff to wade through. The chance of someone finding my stuff is almost zero percent. So don't be shy about passing along the site to people you know - hint-hint. I can knit to order, too. Working on a custom job now, will post photos when the sun comes out.

These babies are called cowls, or neck gaiters. Talk about a need for re-branding. Neck gaiter, anyone? We talked about this over x-mas, and brainstormed some new ideas. I keep saying neck cozies, because... well... I'm practical. But someone (probably my brilliant sister) came up with the name 'no dip scarf'. You won't dip it in the trash can when you take out the trash. You won't dip it in a puddle when you bend down to tie your shoes. You'll never dip it in your tea or coffee. And most importantly, you'll never dip it in the toilet.

Alas, to re-brand at this point would mean nobody would search and find my no dip scarves. So cowls they remain.

Wow, I wish I was blogging about bicycle touring. Where is my bicycle? Norway. As soon as I can walk and drag a rolling suitcase, we will be re-united. In massive snowstorms.

Happy New Year everyone!

Free Business Cards Arrive

Wow - boring post for those of you who already know how to get in touch with us. But we're excited! We ordered some free Vistaprint business cards so that in the future when we meet people along our way we can hand over the card so they can actually remember the blog info. And our names.

Foot Update - Bones are Magic

Finally some good news! It was getting pretty grim, just before Thanksgiving - my foot wasn't really healing visibly, the doc decided to put it in a cast, perhaps he would even recommend surgery afterall... gaaak! But just two weeks later and all is turned around. The latest x-ray experience was very exciting. The problem is a space, just under a centimeter wide, between the two shards of my broken metatarsal. When we went back for the 3 week check-up, the doc was surprised to see not a lot of healing going on. I had no idea what that meant at the time, because I was having a hard time envisioning the particulars of healing bones. I figured they might grow towards eachother? Slowly adding cells until they bridged the gap?

The x-ray educated all (Joshua and me) about what happens; now there is a hazy whiteness between the two pieces of bone. There are new bone cells just growing in between the two pieces. Magic! So I'm back in the hot seat in Elk, my back to the wood stove, and patiently waiting to see what happens in another 4 weeks! That'll be just after Christmas. Another week past that, perhaps, and I'll get my foot back... how much fun is that!?

I dreamt last night that I was running, literally running, around my high school. I was supposed to be in class, but instead I ran around playing frisbee on the football field, sprinting to try to catch the 'bee and not making it. Then I was running around full speed in the gym, playing basketball and loving every moment. I woke up with the feeling that I should be playing some basketball, what with all the free time I have right now, and how wonderful it feels to run. But it's cool. I'm working on hand-made Christmas presents.

I've gained important skills in sitting still and using crutches. Next up: knitting bone and learning to walk on two legs again. Below, the phases of this particular foot break. Sorry I don't have the digital x-rays. Things are a little low-tech with my used-to-be-head-podiatrist-for-the-Oakland-A's-in-the-80s-when-they-won-the-pennant awesome doctor.

The boot. Fun while it lasted.

Dead Sea mud treatment

Elephant. Can't even tell it's broken.

Caltrans #2 of 2 (they over-ordered on Halloween colors)

If I need a third cast, it might be black. Or maybe they'll have ordered some new colors? Joshua likes the orange. For safety. 

And on another safety note (TSA), we did travel over Thanksgiving and I got to experience the feel-down for the wheelchair-bound first hand. Very handy. The lady in SF was a Korean Pat look-alike, short, curly hair-cut and everything. She was super professional, and I liked her. She warned me that she'd be touching my inner thighs, around my waist and breasts with the backs of her hands, and the rest of me with the front of her hands. She asked if I was okay with that. I said yes. She then asked if I wanted to go to a private room with her for this... I said no, thank you. 

Wheelchair service is awesome. Joshua especially loved it, blowing past the people waiting in line. Of course he just had to carry the bags and follow, but the value wasn't lost on me, either. And yes, most people tip the wheelchair driver.