dreams

Last night I had REALLY vivid dreams. Some were nice, others? Not so nice.

Like this one where I was on a bus and the bus driver was nervous? And she kept vomiting. I mean Hurl-o-Rama. And I was sitting next to her. And once, to keep her from crashing the bus because she was driving on this very high, narrow curved bridge, I had to catch her barf in my bare hands. It was not pretty. So I googled the topic, you know, vomit in your dream? And I got this:

Vomit

Vomiting in a dream may represent those things in life that cause you emotional stress, repulse you, and make you ill. This dream suggests that you are rejecting a thought, idea, feeling, or circumstance and that fast and, almost violent, cleansing is required. Examine your daily reality and try to identify matters that would cause such a strong physical reaction. Superstition-based dream interpretations say that vomiting in a dream symbolizes reversals; so if you are short of money you may have a stroke of good luck and your financial situation may improve!

Wow. Dreams are pretty damn interesting.

Does this mean i have man hands?

I found this article relating finger length to athletic ability.....

Now, my ring finger is, indeed, substantially longer than my pointy finger. Does this mean that I have latent athletic ability that I just never did anything with? I mean, I likes me a good workout as much as the next guy...but this finger length thing is interesting.....could have been a contender? Even thought I've never really liked running and only ever do it when being chased?

I also read somewherethat having a longer second toe than a big toe means you are smart. My third toe is longer than my big toe as well, does that mean I am extra smart? Smart and fast?

Or am I just a digital freak?

good news, bad news

Good news: I am wearing a pair of jeans today that I could not get into a month ago.

Bad news: I may not be able to get back out of them.

Other news: I saw a guy on the train today who looked EXACTLY like my friend Clark in Austin. Except for the fact that he was a goth sort of metal head dude, and dyed his naturally blonde hair black, he looked just like Clark. Clark, you have a darker side doppelganger here in Oslo!

In other OTHER news: To blog trolls: This blog is moderated and policed. Thanks to the miracles of the internet and the fact there really is NO such thing as privacy.....I know who comes here, I also know what your ip address is, how you get to my blog and what your ISP is. I know where you come from. I know a hell of a lot more about you than you think. I do not hesitate to block anyone who posts negativity or personal slams against me. I do not have a problem with healthy debate, but negativity is right out. So.....
Blog trolls, you know who you are, you are not getting through, EVER, so I suggest you go elsewhere. Get a life. Get a job. I don't know....but find something productive to do with your time, ok? I appreciate the obsession, but really, you just don't matter to me and could use your energies better elsewhere. How about taking all that extra time and working for a charity? Might be time better spent. Also? I spoke with your ISP as I do have your IP address, and guess what? I can press charges with the police. I talked with the police, too. They confirmed what your ISP said. I'm keeping records......just so you know.

that's just wierd.

Yes, I spell wierd wrong. I've never been able to spell it right and now the right way looks wrong to me so I just go with it.

But that's not the topic of this post. Don't get me confused. Where was I?

Oh..yeah.

I, just now, for the second time so it must be true, saw Dustin Hoffman in a TV commercial for Kapp Ahl. Kapp Ahl is a sort of a cheap family clothes store kind of thing. And there he was, complimenting a woman getting dressed in the morning on her impeccable taste in chosing a 199 kroner vest to wear to work.

Since when did Dustin Hoffman start doing commercials for schmatta? Does he do ads in the US for, like, Mervyn's or something? Cuz that's what he's doing here!

In other news....I finished watching Season Two of Veronica Mars. I cried like a baby watching that last episode. When the kid *bleeped* the *bleep* and she thought her dad was on it? OMFG! I cried. ('bleeps' added to avoid a spoiler. I have a friend who will borrow the DVD from me and I refuse to tell her what's happening. She can google it herself. She's sneaky like that.)

I think overall I liked Season One better, because there is more Veronica and Logan action (God Logan is HOT, he plays "in love" like nobody I have ever seen, every girl wants to be looked at like he looks at Veronica) and the story feels tighter and less confusing.

Though..... perhaps Season Two had more shirtless Logan, and that is something I can really get behind. Or, um, in front of. Or, hehe, under? Whatever, I think he should always be shirtless. oh yeah.

Stuff I was thinking

A random post...I offer no guarantees as to transitions, where my thoughts might head or what the hell I am talking about.

Mascara: I have two mascaras, both of which i love but both of which are very diffferent. One is Great Lash, that Maybelline stuff in the pink and green tube. Classic, waterproof, a little crispy on the lashes, small wand that I tend to poke in my eye by mistake, but a good solid choice.
The other one is called 'Backstage' by Dior, and I luuurve that one. The brush is HUGE and will cover your eyelashes if you even wave it in the vicinity of your face. As someone who is VERY nearsighted, mascara can get a bit tricky, what with the trying not to poke your eye out and concentrating on seeing and stuff. So I appreciate a good big mascara brush. If you are nearsighted, try this one out. Get the waterproof kind, though. I got the non waterproof and it can get leaky pretty fast, even from slightly teary eyes.

Coffee: I go to the nearby 7-11 (if someone will explain to me WHY there are 7 Narvesens and three 7-11's on every corner in every Norwegian town I would REALLY appreciate it...isn't one of each enough? I mean, there are two 7-11's and two Narvesens within 500 feet of each other right at my train station!) every morning for my coffee and bun. The guy that works there is SO nice. SO NICE. He always greets me with this eager bob of his head and a "go' morn". I luurve him too. I luurve him more than the mascara.

TV: So Rich was reading the Entertainment Weekly that we religiously subscribe to (we call it the Bible), and there was a list in there of TV that you must watch to have a perfect TV viewing week. American shows, mind you. He read out to me the shows...and 80% of them show here in Norway. Granted they are all a season late, and the TV channels here show them at really wierd random times, so that you have a hard time keeping up with when things are on...but they are almost all accounted for. I wonder how Norwegians feel, their TV being co-opted by American shows (in English, too, with Norwegian subtitles, leading, I think, to a nation of very fast readers), the shops all carrying American items, Burger King and McDonald's almost as prevalent as the 7-11's? Hey, we LOVE the TV being all American, PLUS we get BBC Prime and Food, but still, American pop culture is a total virus.........

Clothes: I wore leggings today. Yeah, leggings. 80's style, with black mary janes? I caved. They've been everywhere in the magazines, I swore I would not do it, but I caved. Now, granted, I would not be caught DEAD wearing leggings as, say, pants? Because my nearly 40 year old self knows there is nothing cute about a baggy sweater or a jacket over leggings, and honestly, it wasn't even cute in the 80's. But they are handy under a skirt when you don't want to commit to tights but want to still have something covering your legs. So I wore them under this black satin bias cut dress with a shorter, belted sweater dress over that. It was all very fitted and sort of multi-layered asian looking. With leggings. Yes, leggings. Sigh. Hey, I already bought the skinny jeans, might as well be a fashion robot and go all out. Besides, I wanted to wear the mary janes and they only ever look right to me either with leggings or white socks. Once 80's, always 80's.

I draw the line at the return of the stirrup pant though......

And I still haven't found a dress for the reunion.

Food: Tonight, out of some random boredom and desperation for something vaguely healthy for dinnner, I created the following dish:

Take some chicken breasts, drizzle with olive oil. Drag them through ground up tortilla corn chips that are seasoned with cumin, chili powder, garlic and pepper. Make sure breasts are coated in the chips a la Shake and Bake. Take a glass baking dish and dump a can of black beans in there, juice and all, sprinkle with chopped (or dried) onions. Place the chicken breasts on the bed of beans. Bake for 25 minutes to half an hour at around 375. (The oven was at 190 celsius).

Serve on a bed of rice, or spinach or salad. Yum. Sour cream makes a good garnish.

Exercise: I am sore from my workout yesterday. But good sore. I will go again tomorrow. I felt SO GOOD after my workout yesterday, I always have to remind myself how good it feels after. And what an absolute BITCH it is to make yourself go at first. But I did a good 25 minutes on the rowing machine at highest setting , and then another 15 on the elliptical, on level 7, 'glute workout'. THEN I lifted weights. I am sort of confused at how I have these totally strong stomach muscles, I can go forever on stomach exercises, yet my shoulders? Weak as a kitten. I swear, I was dying lifting 15 kilos on the shoulder killer machine. Embarrassing. A 6 year old kid could do better than me. I used to have good shoulders, I am not sure what happened.....but I wonder if I can get them back by November?

I am a pervert

Today, coming back from an exhausting day of shopping where I did NOT find the perfect thing to wear to my 20th high school reunion......(here is where the large digression starts)......

but the perfect thing to wear to my 20 year high school reunion may well be an impossibility, as does such a thing exist that will remove 20 lbs, 20 years and the accumulating ravages of those years? Me thinks not. But I try. I have decided that I think I want a Diane Von Furstenberg classic wrap dress. Always wanted one, they look great on me, and it's time to splash out the money. A basic not so great dress here costs as much as a DVF stateside, so why not just get the DVF? Well.....I don't know where to find one in Oslo. Damn. And I don't have time to get one in Houston before the reunion as we get into Houston the night before.....unless i can make a run for the Galleria and get one there...and maybe get my hair done and my ass lifted as well? Surely they can do that in a few hours, right? I mean, how hard can this 20 year reunion thing be?

Ok, so I digressed, but I am really stressed about this and I have to find just the right thing that balances comfort and fabulousness with fashion-edginess. I was sort of known for my clothes in high school, you see. Gotta keep the image up....even if the ass isn't.

DAMNIT I digressed again....

OK, so on the way home from my disappointing shopping experience where I did NOT find the right thing, though I did find a couple of alternative things of interest....all black, natch.....I walked by a little table of collectible ceramics, etc., that a local lady was selling. I do have a thing for vintage glasswear, though i have been restraining myself from buying anything these past few years as, well, it all has to get moved anyhow, so what's the point? Ah, but then I saw this plate, this very collectible child's plate from the thirties and I knew I had to have it........

I mean.....just WHAT is that lamb doing to the boy and why does he have that sort of focused expression on his face? I just LOVE this plate, it's so thirties charming and innnocent and yet totally perverse....or, once again, is it just me that is such a sick puppy? Maybe I should keep my sick mind to myself? .......Here's a close up....(insert porn music of your choice here)....



I've entered an alternate world, people. I am Sick Disney. Anti-Disney. Disney as seen through the eyes of Marilyn Manson.

Anyone wanna come join? It's kind of fun here......

rising above

Sorry I have been such a lame blogger of late. You know how sometimes the world just decides to make you its bitch and you just sort of have to go with it? It's kind of been like that. Everything's ok, in general, just a sort of low ebb that has cast me into a time of thinking and pondering. We all have those at times. My mom (and my aunt and probably my good friends too) would be telling me to stop thinking and just go out into the world and BE, and I am slowly working my way back to that now. In fact, my aunt bought me a book entitled "Women Who Think Too Much" but I haven't read it yet because, well, I think it might be too thought provoking. How's that for a conundrum?

Anyhow, the world is carrying on in its inexorable movement forwards. Fall is slowly gaining its hold on Norway, and today is one of those perfect crisp clear days you get sometimes in Texas. You know, right after that first Blue Norther runs through and blows away all the heat and guck and just leaves you with "Ahhhh'? It's like that outside. So, I am going to grab the iPod, go for a walk and wander away the thoughts and worries.

However, I did want to leave you with one thing:



While I was in the US this statue(?) appeared in the plaza outside our flat. I am of two minds about it.

First mind is: Aw how cute. And up close, it's really pretty because that mottled texture is actually tiny bits of mirror and porcelain all mosaic-ed into the surface. The kids love climbing on it and it is so Bambi/Creatures of the Forest cute.

Second mind? Holy shit that thing is EVIL. Is it a rat or a deer? See the eyes? The empty, alien slanted eyes? I bet those things glow red at night and suck in the life force of any thing that passes by. It is aimed directly at our flat...I am sure this is why I am so tired. And you see the innocent child sitting so delicately and trustingly in its paw? If you take your eyes away from that rat/deer/alien, for even a second, that hand pops up to the statue's mouth and it opens into a nightmarish slavering maw that EATS CHILDREN whole. But it's all done in a time warp sort of thing so that no one can see it because it happens too fast, yet scarily slow for the victim, so that the child is in an endless hell of getting its legs and arms eaten off. (Like that time in Buffy? Season 6? Where she had the tiny pin on her? That made time warp and flash but no one noticed it but her? Because the Triumvirate were trying to fuck with her head? Yeah, like that.)

I swear, I leave for a week and the forces of cartoon evil come to my doorstep. It's. Looking. At. Me.

Definitely worse "from" than "to"

I can definitively tell you that the jet lag is worse coming from the US than to it. When you leave the US to go to Europe you are guaranteed a loss of a night's sleep. When you go to the US, it's just a really long day.

Anyhow, I left my parents at 11am US time and got to ST Louis by 2pm. Returned the rent car (and boy were those folks at Avis NICE. I was not expecting that, but everyone was really NICE.) Got to the airport and waited in the stupid American Airlines line. St Louis is alos apparently a hub for the military and there were army guys everywhere, all so young. SO YOUNG.

The flights from St Louis to Chicago and from Chicago to Heathrow were fine. The Chicago to London leg was PACKED. There was not one free seat. Luckily I had an aisle seat, but unluckily the lady sitting next to me had some sort of bladder problem so every time I even began to drift off for a nap, she'd tap my shoulder so she could get out. I started to hate her.....

The flight attendant for my area had neon pink dragon lady nails, a big blonde hairsprayed bun on her head and the attitude you would expect from someone who had such things. Lots of eye rolling and fake sweetness, but you just knew she'd like to poke those nails into most of our eyes.

Got to Heathrow in plenty of time, with a couple of hours to shop, even, but that was all taken away by the LONGEST FUCKING SECURITY LINE IN THE UNIVERSE. I had to transfer from Terminal Three to Terminal Four, and some genius obviously underbudgeted for security there, because there were about 1000 people in line for security and there was...ONE...yes ONE...security machine working. And the line was like one of those lines at Disney Land/World, where it keeeps snaking around but you never see the end of it? Each time I thought I was there....nope, another false end. GOD it was annoying. And we had no water, no nothing. I was dehydrated like crazy. There were these tables all along that circuitous route where we were supposed to deposit any lotions, etc, we had because they weren't allowed through security? So at each table I would use someone's left behind hand lotion or whatever, and moisturized whatever part of me was dry and cracking. The folks around me caught on and so we all had soft hands and un-ragged cuticles.

Finally got through that and told them (after I got my stuff, of ocurse) that they really needed to open a second line. They apologized in the inimitable Britsh way....

Got back to oslo at 6pm (11am US time, so 24 hours straight, once again), was in bed by 7:30 and got up today at 2pm. To say I was tired was an understatement.

I still am.

Will everyone please say a little prayer/send good thoughts to my dear friend Karla May? She's having a helluva time at the hospital and could use the karmic good feeling right about now.......

gauntlet thrown down

Mags (and sorry I cannot link...but for some reason, on my mom's computer? I can't link. However, look at my link list and there Mags is.) has thrown down the haiku gauntlet.

Thus I present: Haikus to the lower parts of my body.

Skinny jeans. Big ass.
Something here does not look right.
Ack! Crack escaping!

My knees are frowning.
They are 20 years ahead
And groan frequently.

I'm sure this mirror
Is a lying sack of shit.
My hips aren't that big.

My scale hates me too.
It's in league with the mirror
To mess with my head.

My waist is tiny.
My ass is bootylicious.
My thighs? There's the rub.

I throw the gauntlet at Bookhart. Wait, I mean I toss the gauntlet before her. I'd also like to see Bonnie throw out a few......And Amamgets. I bet you'd come up with something fun........

third time proud!

I am happy to announce that i am a god mother for the third time! (Not a god mother in the "godly" sense, mind you, but more in the "Oh, God, let the kid hang out with Aunt Karla, maybe she'll explain the birds and bees so we won't have to" sense. Hey, I take what I can get.)

Anyhow, Julia and Heather have had their son, Griffin, yesterday. Griffin weighed a bit over 9 lbs. Heather did end up having a caesarean, but for all intents and purposes, as I heard last night, mother and baby are doing well and Griffin already knows how to feed like a champ. Julia (my pal since I was five years old) is stunned, happy and already worrying about how to keep the germs and dirt out of the house and away from "the Griff".

I better learn how to play football...I'm gonna have to teach him or at least watch it with him.....the kid's gonna be a big 'un!

My other two godkids are Bookhart's Wonder Boy and Her Majesty......and prouder of them I just could not be.

The only thing better than being a godmother is being a grandmother, so I hear.......

I'm scared

Watching TV is scaring me. If this is really how most Americans are thinking, Houston, we have a BIG problem. My parents live in quite possibly the most conservative state in the country. They test market ads for the Republican party here. Between those and the ads for the stores selling used Bibles and religious materials and "inspirational music" and the ads for churches looking for new members, it's taking away my joy at seeing American tV.

The worst ad, the one that infuriates me to a point that I can hardly breathe, is one by this "advocacy group" called Progress for America. I am not even going to give them the benefit of a link from my blog. Just go find them and that horrendous ad will show first thing.

Seen it? Oh my GOD! Can we say progaganda and fear mongering? It is the most biased, insular, zenophobic piece of shit I have ever EVER seen.

Yeah. I know. I can hardly watch tv. And my parents have this very advanced big screen system and like, 6 remotes? So here we are, all hollering, " Change the channel! Turn it down! Make it stop!!" whenever that hideous ad comes on and Mom and Dad are picking up three remotes each and pointing them at various media appliances and they only succceed (because they couldn't find their reading glasses along with the remotes and so can't see what buttons to push) in getting the suround sound on louder and the ad getting bigger and I am under the sofa keening in agony at the term "islamo fascists" which for fuck's sake isn't even a real word, y'all!

And then the evening news comes on and here's all these people talking about 9/11 (which was tragic, don't get me wrong) and how they won't fly even domestically because they are too scared and how those evil muslims are out to get us and how we as 'murcans must stand together and be strong and support our president and BLAH BLAH BLAH.

And then they talk about GWB and show that clip of him where he says "Islamo FASCHISSHTs" and his wet icky lips go flappy in the breeze around a word that he has practiced probably 12,000 times with Karl Rove, et al, so that he could get it right and that he STILL can't pronounce.....maybe because it's a made up word and shouldn't be used at all?

And believe me when I tell you we are NOT watching Fox news, this is just the regular ABC/NBC/CBS stuff.

One of my long time favorite songs is the one by David Bowie and Trent Reznor "I'm Afraid of Americans". That song is alot more meaningful now......

My observances of the past few days

It's possible to book a flight to the US on Tuesday and fly on Thursday for the same price as if you had booked three months in advance.

Lately my life is a little more exciting than I would prefer.

The Skymall catalogue that you find on flights to the US RULES. Really, who can resist Skymall, with its dryer lint vaccuum systems and its dog hair removers and "back massagers" and its bug catchers that you attach to the vaccuum. (Lots of vaccuum focused items.) I freaking LOVE Skymall.

I flew from Oslo to Heathrow to Boston to St Louis. From St Louis I drove three hours to get to my parents house. I think that day qualifies as extreme travel. I was up for 24 hours straight. All my flights left the gate on time, but somehow either got hung up on the wait for take off or landing so that I always arrived late. This meant I was always running to catch the next flight. I never really managed to get anything to eat except for the tiny meal they served on the Heathrow-Boston leg. On the drive from St. Louis I was so hungry I stopped at a Taco Smell and literally snorted my food. Then I felt sick. I haven't had that much grease all at once in months.

Boston airport sucks. I would have not had to run had the damned busdriver who drove us from terminal to terminal not decided to take a bathroom break and left us all sitting on the bus. It was three pm, my flight left at three thirty and I had yet to make it through security. I could have killled that guy. AND the guy at security who decided that I looked like an obvious risk to national safety (was it the wild red eyes? the Einstein hair? the way I was huffing puffing and panting while shifting from foot to foot because I had just run an airport marathon and dammit I had to PEE but did not have the time as my flight left in THREE MINUTES?) um where was I...oh, yeah, ...an obvious risk to national safety so he had to study every document i had on me, TWICE, and then slowly, oh so FUCKING slowly, make his little x mark on my boarding pass to show that he had saved the world froom my obvious terrorist tendencies?

So anyhow, now i am at my parents and just trying to relax.

I'm not succeeding.

Yer My Obsession

A little while back Bookhart did a post about her obsessions. As I am sorely lacking in things to talk about and need a little structure for today's post, that seemed a good idea to follow. So, forthwith, my obsessions.

"Comfortably Numb" Scissor Sisters. That song is all over the UK and damn, me likey.

SexyBack, Justin Timberlake. He used to be my closet obsession, but I'm out of the closet now. What a great ass shaking song. And so hot. But am I the only one who just doesn't GET the video? (Actually, apparently I am not.) There's too much going on and too many people and I have NO idea what's happening. I'm thinking it's a spy something? I'm confused.

Project Runway. Can't get enough. (Note, I linked to the PR fan site as the Bravo site sucks big fat donkey dick...I hear alot of folks call it Blahvo.)

Norwegian Boller. (Quit yer sniggering.) Boller are these little buns (QUIT IT!) that you eat for breakfast or a snack. Yeast rolls, slightly sweet, with a hint of cardamom. I especially like them when they are jus a tad underbaked. Floppy, bready and oh so yummy with coffee.

My iPod. The more I use it the more I can't be without it.

On the iPod, I love Penn's podcast. That is one opinionated, but funny guy. He's charming, smart and very Libertarian, which I agree with in many ways. He's also very "keep yer religion off me, please" which I find VERY comforting in this strangely fundamentalist age we are in. I'm so TIRED of religion pitting against religion, and all of them trying to convert everyone, so Penn saying "Hey, me atheist so don't eventry it" is oh so nice. However, I will admit that I can't listen to Monkey Tuesday. Monkeys freak me out and a whole hour dedicated to them is a bit much for me. To me, all monkeys are Bad Monkeys.

Losing ten lbs in two months. Dudes, I'll tell you what, I've got the motivation now and its SO gonna happen. I've totally got abs of steel already. I'm totally stealth buff. You know what stealth buff is, don't you? It's when you are in seriously good shape, with ripped abs, and one of those dimpled butts, and those muscly arms like Madonna but you have this layer of flab over it so other people don't feel bad that you are so buff. See? Stealth buff. I've been stealth most of my life. I finnd it's easier to go stealth than to show the ripped physique to everyone. I find it slows conversation because they just can't concentrate on what they are saying. Madonna? she's not stealth. She's just buff.

Dior Capture D-30 face cream. Cuz I don't really have a problem with wrinkles (yet) but I do have some sun damage and this crap is supposed to be the magic bullet. "Out Out damn'd spot. Out I say!"

Mac Powerpoint eyeliners. I now have 7 of them. They come in lovely colors. They rock. When I left London via Heathrow they were making all the women deposit any lipsticks, eyeliners, etc, in a bin for destruction before security, because of the concerns about women's makeup blowing up airplanes. I'm all "fuck that! These things cost me 13 bucks a pop! so I sort of snuggled them through in the bottom of my purse. I mean they are wooden pencils for Crissakes, how will they find them in security and think they are other than, well, a pencil? So I took the chance, and did not turn them in and they went thru fine. Sorry, a girl's gotta have her eyeliner.
(By the way, when I left Norway? Apparently my underwire bra was a security risk as well because, dudes, I literally got FELT UP by the chick with the beepy wand. I mean, she felt every bit of my breastular area. I told her that if they outlaw underwire bras at airports they will have a woman's riot on their hands. It's bad enough they are taking our makeup away, but possible floppy breast syndrome is NOT acceptable. AND there was NO WAY in hell I would take my bra off for extra searching, if it was coming to that. Luckily, the beepy wand gal had a sense of humor and just laughed and said that no, she did not think they would make underwires illegal, for then she would be in trouble too. I really only have two rules when it comes to going through airport security: I will not bend over for ANYONE and I will not allow skin on skin contact.)

Summer. I am obsessed with the passing of summer.

pissing, pissed....

It's pissing down rain like nobody's bidness. As it was yesterday. I am fighting off a cold, so have been a complete slug. With weather like today, though, why go anywhere? The good news is, after a long dry summer, they say the reservoirs are filling back up. AND, since much of the electricity here is hydropowered, that means that electricity rates will not skyrocket to three times last year's price as was being threatened. More water means more electricity which means cheaper prices. So that's good. But all this rain and dreariness tells me that summer is officially over, the time of tank tops and sandals is done, and it's back to my clunky warm boots and having to wear tights with skirts. Sigh.

In a complete change of topic, I always think that George Bush and company can't piss me off any more, and then I read this. This insanity with Congress raising taxes for expat citizens. To balance a tax cut for rich people back home. If you are not an expat you really can't get the full impact of how stupid, idiotic and ultimately anti-american this law is, but let me tell you it's fucking up international business like crazy. America is the only country in the world to tax its expatriate citizens, and now it looks as though we will be heavily taxed for services we don't receive, to a country we don't live in and for a President I, for one, don't support.
America is obviously trying hard to withdraw from the world scene in any way but with war. So why NOT make it hard for Americans to have jobs overseas and support things like, oh, I don't know, CHEAP OIL for the US? I meet people in the oil industry ALL THE TIME, there are many of them over here, and over-taxing them certainly seems like a strange way to keep that oil cheap, which everyone in the US seems to think is so important.
I mean, really, fuck all those expats, they don't live here and their votes don't count. So let's raise their taxes, their companies will decide it's too much trouble to have Americans as employees, those people will be forced to come home to 'Murca, and then you will have a lot of unemployed over-qualified world travelers on your hands who are REALLY pissed off. And on the dole. And who vote.....Democrat. George Bush (and also Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, what a xenophobic twat) have NO idea how the real world works. We Americans living overseas are, at this point, pretty much the ONLY ones showing the rest of the world that America ain't so bad.....mostly because Americans are now too scared to travel and those who do pretty much only go to London......

Damn, there goes my heart rate. GOD I get pissed off at this crap sometimes. I'd be interested to hear from other American expats on this point....have you heard much about this issue?

OH, yeah, and happy Memorial Day. Or is it Labor Day? I can never remember. Speaking of Labor....Heather! When you gon' have that baby?????? And another shout out to Karla May, who from all reports seems to be recuperating well and is in fairly good spirits.

Birthday fairy

I got a larger than normal haul of birthday cards on my birthday, and it seems the birthday fairy was at work.

Just wanted to tell everyone thank you for taking the time and energy to send me a card all the way out here to Norway. You know who you are, and just wanna say: THANKS!

I really appreciate it.

In other news, seems like summer (or shall we say "weather that is not cold") is hanging on here for dear life, and I also would like to give a shout out to the weather fairy for a glorious warm and sunny summer here in the North of the world. Summers like this are what summer is all about, and has done alot to restore my faith in Norway, a place that should be as beautiful as this all the time. When you live in a giant photo opp, it's only right that the weather cooperate.

Right. Now I am going to watch season two of Veronica Mars, that my dear friend Julia (late of Oslo, now in Houston) has sent me. I was willing to trade sexual favors for it, but she agreed to send it to me without either of us having to do anything we would regret. Nice to have wise and altruistic friends such as she. Also, neither of us is actually gay, and so sexual favors weren't much of a temptation for her. Or me. So it all worked out for the best. Even though she does have an Angelina Jolie quality about her......