PanDOH!

This short clip with a panda and a baby gave me a giggle fit of stupid hampster proportions.
A friend of mine had the best comment. "Now I see why the pandas are threatened by extinction. Panda in the woods, puts baby down to munch on some bamboo. Finds more bamboo further away. And even more over there. Oh, and that spot over there has lots! Something's mumbling in the back of Panda's head, it feels like I've forgotten something, what can it be, is it importa... oh, more bamboo!"

Plato who?

First day back at school today. Or, college as you americans call it. This semester I have philosophy and writer's workshop: biography/essay/feature/travel. The second part is fine. Even wonderful, because we have the same professor as last year's workshop. But philosophy? Philosophy first thing monday morning, still coffee-craving and not back in study mode? Plato and truth? I started to get the hang of things after the second break, but before that? The lady could have talked gibberish for all I knew.
Another thing that only made matters worse... We were told to meet there today. But the class started last week. So everyone had had their introductions last week, and instructions on what to read for this week. Sooo... Nice surprise, getting there and finding out I should have read an article on Plato and one of his dialogues. ARRGH!
I was fighting the urge to sing "Bruces' philosophers song" (Monty Python) the entire time.

On Saturday I finally had the chance to see The Ark live. I've absolutely loved them for five years, and missed every opportunity to see them live because of work or because of life in general. But I'm glad I did saturday... Whoah! They're one of the best live bands I've ever seen, and I've been to a lot of concerts (although not all of them have been with quality bands...).
I'm not even sure I have the words to describe it, it was just wonderful! They're actually doing a US tour in October, so if they're playing somewhere near you, go see them! Why...? Because their music rocks and because they have a presence on stage that's unlike anything else I've ever seen. The mood was so... happy in the audience, and it sounds silly, but you felt loved. Everyone were friends. And they're not even a tree-hugging hippie band!

On another note, personal life has been very hectic this last week. Grandparents in Germany have both been hospitalized, grandpa is out now, but only because mum went there yesterday to take care of him. Grandma had to undergo surgery, and it is still uncertain if she'll recover. It looked very bleak on saturday, but when I talked to mum today grandma was awake and aware of her surroundings again and that's a good thing.
So... My week has very much consisted of waiting by the phone. Not recommendable. Which is another reason that concert was very welcome. Of course, if I hadn't bought the tickets so far in advance, I wouldn't have gone at all, but I'm glad I did. It was a real cheer up in a really tough week.

Münster's Lamberti church photos.

Wikipedia article on Münster and the St. Lamberti church.
I've loved this church as long as I can remember. To me, it's a symbol for Münster and the beautiful architecture you find there. It's a gothic church, with an insane amount of details. That's why I've uploaded larger versions of these photos, please do view them because they're amazing (not that my photography skills are amazing, but the details on the church I mean).
If I ever marry in a church, which I'm not that keen on, because I consider myself a non-christian and marrying in a church then would be hypocritical, but if I ever do marry in a church, it'll be this one. That would mean I'd have to convert to catholisism first, and accept all the crazy catholic things, but I love this church so much I would do it.




This is the "Prinzipalmarkt", the one the zoo made a mock up of. It's an experience in itself, walking down here. You can also see the size of the Lamberti church. And it's not even the largest church in Münster. They have so many churches, all in a walking radius. Münster is worth visiting simply to see all the gothic and romanesque churches.



Front portal up close.


Side view. My Oma lived in one of the houses in the back here when she was a kid.



Make sure to check out the larger version of this. Insane, I tell you!



Cages in the tower where they put the anabaptists (see Wikipedia article). As a kid, I always imagined seeing bones up there. Of course, it didn't help that Oma ept agreeing that, "certainly, there are bones up there, heretics' bones!".



Last one for now. This illustrates the whole idea with these gigantic churces, stretching upwards toward Heaven.


So... this was the short version of my holiday. I hope you enjoyed it!

The post in which you get to... what the heck, zoo photos here.

I have quite a lot of zoo photos from the Münster Allwetter Zoo, so it gets its own post.



The jackass penguin we petted! The girl is my cousin, and I was third in line here. The little pingu was very patient. And soft!




Orangutans hiding from prying eyes.




Meerkats. I love "Meerkat Manor" on Animal Planet, so seeing these guys "live" was really funny! They were a lot smaller than what I had expected. And fatter! Perhaps my piggers could use one of these as a look out in their cage?




The guinea pig Opera. This was the stage, modelled after the "Prinzipalmarkt" in Münster, with the Lamberti church (including cages) in the background. See the similarity for yourself in my Lamberti church photo post. By the way, notice the piggies sitting under the houses, seeking shelter from the heat.




A big bear looking goofy. This looked like the laziest bear in the entire world. It lay on its back scratching itself (luckily I videotaped that, it's hilarious) and just generally... hanging around.




A pot bellied pig in the petting zoo. We tried to feed this with the food from the food stand. But the stupid goats rammed us when they didn't get any, so I dropped all my food and ran. This piggie let us pet it though, even if we just had awoken it from its nap and given away all the food.




Here's the napping porker. Gotta love that snout!




Love feeding a lorie.




Me feeding one. This is a major pre-pounce moment, 'cause the stupid birdie BEAKED ME right after this. So much for wanting to feed the feathery jerk.




Love feeding one of the elephants. It was impossible to get both Love AND elephant in the same shot without stepping so far away you only saw people anyway.




Look, I couldn't even get just the elephant. This was by the way the one who snotted on you when flinging its trunk out again to be "refilled". Ewww elephant boogers...




Another bea, gnawing on some sticks. Looked kind of cuddly, but I didn't want to risk getting my head bitten off.

That's it for the zoo photos. That is, I have a lot more of them, but you get the reader's digest version of them. Teehee...

The post where Spiff returns and brings photos.

First, photos from Color Fantasy. Yay!



A bit backwards this, but this is the Color Fantasy when docking in Kiel, Germany on our return. We started driving at 5 am, both because we wanted to have some time to spare in case something happened (a flat tyre, heavy traffic) and because it was way cooler that early. Off course, nothing happened and we arrived around 8.30 am. And the boarding started 12.30... Anyway, we saw the ship dock and that was a bit entertaining to watch.




An interior shot from Color Fantasy.




Exterior. This was on our way down, you can see the Oslo fjord in the background.




Our cabin on the way down. We paid a little extra to get this one, but it was worth it. On our way home again we just had bunk beds and that wasn't as charming.




The "shopping street" inside the boat. Funny coincidence: I took this photo on our way down, not knowing that on our way home the first window on the right side in this photo would be the window to our cabin on our way home. I don't recommend that though. It was quite noisy.
The shopping street was quite a disappointment. Nothing of interest. Which was kind of lucky anyway, it meant we saved a lot of money. Teehee...




My "After Glow" (left) and Love's "San Fransisco light" (right)




And just in case you don't believe that he had that, look here. It's pink and he's drinking it. Hah!




Here's the infamous fake tattoo. Love's mum is a bit prudish regarding these things, so she freaked totally when she saw this. "IS THAT REAL?" she basically shrieked, making Love and I giggle hysterically. If she only knew all the things he does sometimes... He's had a mohawk several times, but she has no idea. Teehee...




These are some of the italian ice creams we had. By the way, the one on the right was a "kiddie sized" fruit mix. I don't want to see what the adult sized one looks like, but I'm pretty sure you can be three persons to share it and still have enough. Oh, and Love and mine? Three scoops. Gargantuan scoops, that is! But yummy.

Doing evil deeds again.

Sorry, no photos yet. Love only has Fireworks, and I don't know how to use that program.

But instead I can tell you that I'm being evil again.
We have these... gigantic spiders showing up sometimes. Usually in my kitchen sink. I'm too chicken to attack it directly, so... What to do? For instance, boil half a liter of water and pour over said six-legged monster. Works like a charm! That only leaves getting the crumbled up body out of there, and that's icky enough. *shudders*

And when talking of icky, disgusting things... Love found a dried up SLUG behind the old shelf here in the office. The shelf was placed directly below the window, and somehow a slug had slimed its way through and fallen down behind the shelf. Ewww... sometimes I HATE living in a basement.

But definitively going to see this movie.

Clutter and me.

Just a quick post from your computer-less Kjersti.

They picked up Spiff almost two weeks ago, and they still haven't returned him. Getting mildly worried and absolutely paranoid that someone has stolen it and that I'll never see it again. Not to mention how frustrated I am about not having my Spiff around to play with and write on. Ugh... Bad Targa people!

Another reason for really missing Spiff is that I have a new desk. The old one was only borrowed (although I am fairly certain she said I could keep it), and it was ugly anyway. So now a sparkling, light cherry (my favorite!) humongous desk with shelves is waiting for Spiffs return.
Except it's not really sparkling any more. Not after me "tidying" up my clutter and spreading it across the desk and the shelves I mean. Love is an IKEA genious and put it so beautifully together (even though it's not an IKEA desk, they didn't have any that I wanted), and it looked so gorgeous standing there all brand new. Until diseaster Kjersti struck. Man, I don't know how I do it. And why I have to save these little pieces of crap anyway? I even got boxes to hide away all the clutter, but it didn't help. There's still clutter there. Love is so eager to take a big, black garbage bag and throw it all away, I'm sure. He already threatened my Furby yesterday! How dare he, my punk Furby... Besides, the Furby has been turned off since before we went to Germany.
But I love me boxes. They're dark brown covered with faux suede, and art deco-ish handles. I'll of course show you when Spiff returns. I have so many photos to post, it's not even funny. I did find them on a CD I burned, so I might be able to post them here now before Spiff returns. Depends on what software Love has put on this computer.

BAH!

The AC adapter (or whatever it's called) for my brand new laptop has somehow passed on to the eternal. Laptop out of power, basically fucking useless.
Targa customer service? Scallywaggin' pirate scoundrels, they want to pick up the entire unit and keep it for ten days. Because I'm obviously too stupid to know that when the little green lamp doesn't ligh up, the adapter doesn't work. And bastards wanted me to take back ups of my stuff. Well, how then? Do you have a hampster I can borrow to power the laptop while I do so, mr. doodoohead? No? I'll just remove the hard disk then. Is it this entrance? Oh, thank you. *screwing out 8 screws* OH, you meant the OTHER entrance? Not the service one, but the other? Gee, thanks for telling me.
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH! That's what you get for not choosing Dell, people. I miss the Dell tech support... At least they didn't talk to me like I was an idiot. ARRRRRRRGGH!

BTW, I got this in Germany. An Alessi toilet freshner. The irony strikes me... I'm pissing on Alessi. Even though they have some cool stuff.

Meme-thieving again.

Fourth laundry load now... *sigh* Need something else to do. So stole this from Karla who also stole it, so I'm not feeling very guilty.

1. Have you ever been searched by the cops?
No, but have been patted at concerts and air ports.

2. What color are your eyes?
Blueish green.

3. When was the last time you went sledding?
I think December three years ago. Company trip with Love's work.

4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone?
I think I prefer sleeping with Love next to me. I don't sleep well alone any more.

5. Do you believe in ghosts?
Don't know. Can't say I've seen one.

6. Do you consider yourself creative?
To some degree. Not as creative as Love, who has an over-active imagination that sometimes throws me off. But yes, creativeish...

7. Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie?
I'm not a big fan of JA. Not AJ either, but less not-fan than of JA.

8. Who was your first crush?
First grade, a guy in my class who moved away.

9. Do you have a secret that no one knows but you?
Sure.

10. Have you ever been ice skating?
Numerous times. I grew up with skating all day until you couldn't feel your toes.

11. How often do you remember your dreams?
Usually. At least the ones I have right before waking up.

12. When was the last time you laughed so hard you cried?
When Love had a little accident while trimming his goatee/donut. He looked like he had a moustache like those caricature french people with berets and baguettes. Oh man... I just couldn't stop laughing and he was so mad with me.

13. Can you name 4 songs by The Beatles?
Yes. Four albums also.

14. What's the one thing always on your mind?
Money issues, family issues.

15. What talent do you wish you had?
I would love to be able to wiggle my ears. No, not really.

16. Do you know anyone in jail?
No.

17. Have you ever stood up for someone you hardly knew?
Maybe? Don't remember though

18. Have you ever been punched in the face?
Nope.

19. Do you own any stuffed animals?
Erm... Yes. Most recent addition? A Furby. Please don't ask why. It was a bargain, but more like a curse really.

20. Do you have a major crush on someone?
Like, how...? Celebrity? Elf? Always having crush on an elf.

21. Do you miss someone right now?
Yes. Family in Germany.

22. What are you listening to right now?
Love nagging me. "What? Another meme? Is that all you can come up with?"

23. Has the death of a celebrity ever made you cry? John Ritter shocked me, but I can't recall anyone making me cry.

24. What color underwear/boxers are you wearing?
White boxers with black rhinestone scull in front. Arrrrrrrr!

25. Where do you work?
Gas station

26. What ended your last relationship?
Never been in a serious relationship before Love.

27. What food do you crave right now?
None. Just had dinner. Very stuffed. Salmon gratin. Cream makes stuffy...

28. What was the last TV show you watched?
Gilmore Girls, one episode from season 3.

29. What is the last thing you ate?
Salmon gratin with rice. And two yogurette Maracuja bars for dessert (they're tiny). Hence the stuffed Kjersti.

30. Are you on any medication?
No.

31. What side of the bed do you sleep on?
The one by the window and where the most spiders are. At least it feels like that.

32. What color shirt are you wearing?
Brown t-shirt with "luv 70s" in outlined letters yellow, orange and red in front.
Should have been wearing my black "I (skull with hearts instead of circles as eye holes) ROCK" t-shirt. It's kind of cool, kind of.. not.

33. What is your favorite frozen treat?
Italian ice cream, or home made smoothies with raspberries and blueberries.

34. How many tattoos/piercing do you have?
Right now, one FAKE tattoo on the lower part of my back (right above my ass, that's right). It looks really cool, I'm surprising myself by actually wanting one for real. It looks kinda kinky showing when my t-shirt slip up or when I sit down. Bah... if only they weren't so damn permanent. Love has one down his arm, also fake. Almost gave his mother a heart attack yesterday, we had a very funny situation where she out of no where suddenly noticed it and yelled "IS THAT THING REAL?"

35. Can you imagine yourself ever getting married?
Maybe. My mum sure can imagine it though. She does all the time. And what plans she has...

36. Have you ever done something to instigate trouble?
Not really. Have had many ideas though.

37. Do you like your nose?
Yes. It has a nice shape and no anormalities.

38. What color is your bedroom?
Pastel yellow

39. Where do you live?
Norway

40. Are you an aggressive driver?
Right now I'm an "how the heck can I get this thing rolling after breaking without stalling the engine"-kind of driver. Of course, that's after just one trial.

41. What color is your car?
British racing green. I kid you not. Only british cars are allowed to have that colour.

42. What do you smell like right now?
Laundry detergent, fish (it doesn't help to wash your hands... ugh) and... dunno. Not going to sniff around to find out.

43. What is your favorite color?
Apple green

44. What character from a movie/TV most reminds you of yourself?
Lorelai Gilmore because of the coffee craving and constant talking.

45. Do you enjoy giving hugs?
Depends on who's receiving. But generally yes.

46. Do you own a digital camera?
Yes.

47. What books, if any, have made you cry?
I don't cry from books.

48. Are you a jealous person?
No, not really.

49. 69? I never really got the idea of that one. Sure, technically yes, but... No.

50. What shoes are you wearing right now?
None.

51. What is your major weakness?
Coffee. Ice cream.

52. Do you suffer motion sickness?
Sometimes at sea. Although our trip home now went fine without any pills. Usually I take one as a precaution, but they make me sleepy, so it's not that great.

53. What's the best pizza?
Had one incredibly yummy mozzarella and salami with mushroom one in Germany.

54. Longest relationship?
The one I'm in now. Four years when we were in Germany.

55. Are you afraid of thunderstorms?
No. But wary, as Karla said. I had a big thunderstorm trauma when I was four, when lighning struck the neighbour's house.

56. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Happy and loved.

57. Have you ever given or been given an engagement ring?
No.

58. What was the last gift someone gave you?
Got a mug and bowl with cows on from my 10 year old cousin.

59. Who would you call first if you won the lottery?
Mum. Naturally.

60. Can you cook?
Yes.

61. What is your favorite jelly/jam?
What is is? Jelly or jam? I don't like jam. I like jelly as in the dessert though.

62. Can you swim?
Yes.

63. What is your first memory?
My 3rd birthday. I had picked out a cake shaped like a car in mum's cake recipe book, mainly because it had silver sugar balls on it, and when she made it there were no silver balls on it. I was very disappointed, and have had a fascination for those silver thingies ever since.
I also remember my hide out in the garden, in between the gooseberry bushes. And I remember mum keeping winter apples from our apple tree in the basement.
This all happened when I was three, because we moved when I was three and a half years. So all my memories of our old appartment is before I was four.

64. What item would you like to have buried with you?
My Furby. It's cursed, I can't leave it to anyone else.

65. What are three things you're dying to have right now that would make everything just about perfect? Private jet and loads of money. Then I could commute between Germany and here.

Penguins, hot, italian ice cream, stuffed car, fresh rolls, sex on the beach.

She's back.
We've been in Germany for the last couple of weeks, left on thursday the 13th of july. Paranoid Kjersti did of course not want to very publicly announce that, "hey burglars, we're going away for two weeks, come get our stereo" (the TV is starting to act up though, so they could have gotten that one).
Anyway, we just got back yesterday and I'm almost done unpacking. And threw in the third load of laundry right now. Love, poor thing, had to go to work today (I start on thursday), so the task of getting through the dirty laundry was mine today.

But I've petted a penguin!! At the zoo. It was soft, actually. And had feathers. But the softness completely threw me off, I kind of expected it to be more sticky than silky. BTW, it was a jackass penguin *giggles*
The zoo visit was probably the most exciting thing that happened this vacation. I've been to the Münster All Weather Zoo many times as a kid, but not since then. Well, Love and I took my 10 year old cousin and a friend of hers, and had the best time. We fed elephants, loris and of course penguins. And got very close to some lemurs. They're cheeky things!
But petting the penguin was by far the coolest. I'm very fascinated by those birdies, they walk funny, they look funny and they're simply too cool.

Finally traveling with the Color Line "Color Fantasy" ship was also an experience to remember. They've done their best to make it look like a real cruise liner, and it's more refined than their other ferries. Better cabins as well. Oh, and they serve funny long drinks. "Sex on the beach" wasn't really my kind of nummy, it was too sweet, but the "After Glow" was great. Love enjoyed his "San Francisco ligh", but I think he was relieved there was no umbrella. The drink being pink is a serious enough hit on his masculinity.

In the apartment we rented, I found an old (2005) US womens magazine. "Women's world" I think. Whoa... Talk about world's apart. I mean, it had the same basic ingredients like those kinds of mags here, but boy... No diet here would list pancakes for breakfast as acceptable. Nor do the recipes include pound cake, twinkies, gum drops and ready made frosting. Not ONE recipe had ordinary ingredients like flour, salt or milk. They were all about already finished products. For instance, one cookie recipe had a box of cookie dough and a box of frosting listed in the ingredients and that was it.
If you'd put a recipe like that in a Norwegian women's mag, the housewives would revolt. I can see it clearly, "Allers" printing a recipe for "Pizza Grandiosa" (Norwegian stick-ten-minutes-in-the-oven taste-like-paper-and-cheese pizza) - buy said pizza, preheat oven, remove plastic wrapping and bake for ten minutes. Serve warm.

Besides that, what did we do in Germany? A lot of time spent with family. We tried to spend a couple of hours with my grandparents every day. They're getting very old, and health isn't as good as it was. But we looked at old family photos and had dinner at noon. My beloved aunt (mum's sister, but ten years younger. By far my favorite relative.) and I did a lot of babbling, to Love's great frustration. And we explored every little dorf there was in the area. Having the poshmobile with us, it was no biggie. Especially "fun" was last Sunday when there was going to be a "wiesen fest" in a tiny dorf. Sure, we were up for it. Except when we arrived, the whole shebang was three stalls of "fish a turtle and win an ugly stuffed animal" and a pommes stall. Instead we hit the "barefeet park" that was the big attraction in that dorf. Which was basically walking for 40 minutes around a big field with occasional pebbles and tiles to walk on breaking the poky straw path.

Oh, and we were fortunate to catch the heat wave that struck Germany the last couple of weeks. We had between 30 and 35 degrees celcius every day in the shade. On one occasion actually 40C. Let's just say it involved a lot of showers and outfit changes. We were constant sticky and sweaty, it was very weird. Unusual for us anyway. But I'm not really complaining. It was more fascinating than annoying, and thanks to the heat I haven't gained any weight. We barely managed to eat dinner at all, it usually was just fresh rolls with yummy ham or other nummies. Even the half a grilled chicken each that we had with the grandparents was a bit too much (even though it's the best grilled chicken I've ever tasted!). So the lack of major meals probably made up for the numerous enormous italian ice creams we had. Especially one place in Telgte, you get the most humoungous generous sized portions. We actually ended up ordering kiddie portions. Dang... I have photo proof, of course. Will upload loads of photos when I get the time for it.

We managed to squeeze in a little shopping also. For instance the not just one, but FOUR kick ass cool jeans I got for 80€. I always have such stress finding good jeans because I have hips. The ones I get over my ass are way to big around the waist, and not to mention too long. Even though I'm 1.74m. But four jeans and two adorable tops.
I also found Gilmore Girls season 4 there, so guess who's happy!
Man, the car was so stuffed on our way home... Mum was also in Germany this summer, and left the morning the day we arrived. And had of course left behind three tons of stuff for us bring back for her, because we had the car with us. Among the three tons a doll that looks like a real live baby. *sigh* She claims she needs it to pretend she has a grandkid, because we're (Love and I) so slow producing any for her.
The numerous soups and fixes for gulasch and different schnitzels, and kirsch did also eat up some room. We even had soups stuffed in the pockets of our seats.

All in all it was a great trip. It was our first real holiday together, and it was so fun showing Love all the things I grew up with. And it was so strange coming home again, to a very sterile and tidy apartment that didn't feel like home... I always get like this when coming back from Germany. Everything is "doof". Norway is ugly. The houses look like shit. They're in all mis-matching colours, and look badly kept. Norwegian roads are bad and the speed limits are too slow. The food is un-appealing and you can't even get a decent shorle here. And everyone speaks Norwegian. Bah... I feel very strongly against speaking Norwegian when getting back from Germany. It usually lasts a couple of days before I'm back to normal, but until then everything is "doof".
And I keep thinking of the little things we experienced, and how many of those things will be forgotten. Like when we missed our turn and ended up in the tiniest little dorf I've ever seen. Schwamm, I think. Something like that. Or getting fresh rolls every morning. Or walking around my dorf, looking at the well kept gardens and the charming houses. Or the poor porsche parked on the street. Or the libelle zooming crazily over the corn field. Love's face when he first saw the size of his "pizza ice". Switching channels and being freaked out by freaky Hansi Hinterseer (don't ask). Stopping for a tomato mozzarella sandwich on the road. Driving into the middle of nowhere just to find out there was nothing there. Sitting in the dark watching a thunder storm on the horizon lighting up a dark sky. Gnomes in every garden. Being hit by a wave of heath when walking home from grandparents, a pool of not-moving burning hot air that knocked the wind out of me. Running out of money on the way home, having to live off tuc crackers and mini salamis for a day.

Well, I can honestly say we had a great time. So how was your summer?
ps: visited starbucks again and had an iced coffee mocha. Love mooched half of it, mean thing.