jibberjabber!

yesterday, it was snowing outside heavily... christmas music filled the house, and the scent of christmas goodies floated through the air X) oh christmas.

Mary was making a goodie that is highly similar to loveletters we eat mostly during CNY, except the shape of it is conical. there is even patterns on the pan she makes them in !
i was surprised at how little batter is used XD
she closes the pan, waits a few seconds and its cooked! she has to quickly remove it and shape it with a wooden thing she has before it hardens to a lovely crisp. om nom nom. while we eat loveletters plain, norwegian fill it with cream and jam. i think i still love it best plain XD
on the catty end, the brothers were being cute again.
no, i did not place them this way, they actually did it themselves XD after this they started cleaning and hugging each other, it was so cute but i didnt get a satisfactory video.
i did get other videos though. this is robert showing that having a cat jump on your leg with claws is not painful. disclaimer : wear thick jeans.


then we have the daily cat fight these two kittens love to do XD


today we're heading to Rosenby (rose town?) in Molde because its open from 2-6pm for xmas shopping! i'll take pics there. i cant remember exactly which part in molde it is, but i think its a small section we always go to when we go to molde. ah well, blog again tmr!

lazy blog post

just... feeling so sleepy. its only 10 ish. so i'll just post pics..

this is pre-sliced frozen chips that was pretty tasty after baking.
this is the workplace's lunchroom. i helped mary set it up for a meeting for all the staff, which was to hand out their huge xmas gifts of nummies and other stuff.
i even peeled mandarins and placed them nicely on a plate. i hate to peel oranges but mandarins are fun! XD
the new Viking shoes that mary got me and stian hath arrived as well, mine is blacker than alex's (hohoho). his looked all black on the com, but it had some brown all over. he liked the name of his though - Sniper boots.
last night me and mary went to visit her mother, Molly. i've been to her house perhaps only once before... 4 years ago when i was first learning to knit my first scarf! and gramma laid out a nice spread.........
we spent a few hours there, in the Hawse of Knitting. For the first time i had to help mary with her knitting because there was some mistake somewhere. It was easy for me since i had done a very similar pattern before hehe.
then just two hours ago i was at church just a 5 minute walk away to listen to annlaug and elbjorg (mary's two oldest sisters) sing in the choir. i miss being in a good choir. and i miss getting yelled at by the conducter hahaha. it was such fun times XD
and right before church i was rushing to bathe, dress, and do my nails. why i had to do my nails before that is probably due to this need to cover up a broken nail patch :P but its been two days without nail polish to give my nails their rest every 4-5 days.

the white part of my thumbnail was ripped halfway off today when i tried to stop a 20kg++ box of large G hooks from falling too loudly. so i marched off to my best friend google and one of the solutions was perfect since all the required items were at hand, the most essential being super glue and a tea bag!

the cashew nut is just to make me feel better as i munched grumpily and fixed my nail.

basically google told me to glue the nail together but be mindful of the skin, then cut a piece of the tea bag and use some bonding agent over it. Most sites say i should use a clear nail polish/base/topcoat. but i wanted it to last and not have to repatch it every 4 or so days, so i superglued it all. muahhahaha.

the result is pretty interesting, with the teabag becoming rather transparent after glueing but i didnt do a fantastic job at placing it neatly. it covers almost the entire nail now.then google said to buff the nail and voila. i didnt bother taking a pic of that after, it just looks neater and smoother thats all.

think i'll go sleep now since i keep yawning till i'm crying. g'night world!

finally a video!

finally got the mood to come blog again, had pictures but was feeling really tired lately. i have aches all over! i even managed to burn a nail because i used a lighter and didnt pay attention. i only found out afterwards with a big black burn mark on the nail O.o.

....plus one of the kittens was super attention craving today and he rubbed his wet little nose all over my arms. a slight delay in washing them resulted in RASH. i'm avoiding scratching them now so they dont get worse. it took just a minute for them to start rashing ...

then he was super playful and went crazy with the toy, jumping in mid air and twisting to catch it alot.... until he twisted in midair and grabbed my thinly-trousered leg. so now i have a scratch to boot................. but got a cute vid afterwards. XD


yesterday i made fried rice with an omelette on top since the pan is too big to have a cute omelette to wrap rice in. everyone liked it alot, and that's my hubby eating his rice.
i also made japanese curry the day before, something mary REALLY loves. i should have made it more often but i left my boxes of curry in trondheim :P

in this pic, you can see the mess in the living room as i was wrapping huge bags of goodies. The kittens each occupied a potato chip or candy box and were quite comfy in it. For some reason, their half sister lilo was intent on stalking them that day to yell what alex interprets as 'piss off!'.
and had to include this one cuz it just looks so sily.
yesterday mary made gingerbread cookies! it was premade dough and she wanted to try it. The process was fun for me because i didnt have to roll the dough, she did XD
they're really quick to bake because its so thin, but i really would have liked it browner because its softish and i like crispeeehhhh.
some of the results were funny, with a pregnant or fatty woman....
then there was one with saggy boobs....
alex also shoved some raw cookie dough in my mouth insisting it was good that way too. but i think i prefer my doughs baked, unless its ben n jerry's cookie dough ice cream! oohhhhh now i want ice cream.

on another note, i finally completed the doily for robert's mother! whew! it isnt hard to make but rather time consuming. mary asked if i was going to make one for her mother but i told her i didnt want to make the same pattern twice XD. i'll make her something else instead, that's smaller.

dear fav cousin, thanks for letting me know you read !

pics pics pics

went shopping at elnesvaagen yesterday to grab a few balls of yarn, chocolate that alex likes, a new bowl for my baby and a toy for the kittens. the last was a great expenditure XD 25nkr for the attention of almost all the cats in the house and two hyper crazy kittens!

took a pic of me before i went out, wearing my new scarf which i made using the 'broomstick lace' method of crocheting. people here love it! i got compliments from a cashier today and she wanted to know how to make it hehehe. of course the color and the yarn type also makes it look nicer :D hehe it has a nice sheen to it, unlike dull looking wool.

other than that, not much of my dressing has changed since i brought only 1 coat and the same pair of boots!
gonna be getting new shoes soon though. mary ordered a pair each for me and alex so we can walk comfortably on ice without worrying about slipping. honestly cant wait to try them! but i almost never walk on ice here since we get driven all around. back in trondheim we walk everywhere, so it will be VERY useful.

yesterday for dinner we had Ribbe! pork ribs. it takes 3 days of marinating in salt and pepper, and then cooked for almost 3 hours! the first 45 mins its cooked at a higher temperature, partly in water so the skin rises and becomes rather puffy. then its left in the oven at a lower temperature for the next two hours, but needs to be checked and temperature adjusted at intervals so it doesnt burn. so that's robert adjuting!
so it slowly browns...
and browns... to a crisp!
then its roughly cut up to be served...
and OM NOM NOM NOM NOM. the sound of it CRACKING in the mouth. heaven. looks a lot like what you can find at a chicken rice stall but the skin in ribbe is much puffier and crispier! this is one of the christmas dinners in norway.
and because i noticed a fun way to take pics, i took a pic of me again with a cheesy smile. its an xmas ball hanging around the main door. hubby didnt join us yesterday at elnesvagen so i didnt take a pic of us together (but there isnt much to take a pic for/with, since we go direct to a mall, which isnt very interesting looking).
Today was loads more tiring since mary went to buy 7000nkr worth of sinful food at a store after work. See all that trolleys in the picture? there's four. and that aint all of em.

mary and robert wanted to kid around with alex, so they marched into the house (alex was home today) and asked in a casual tone if he could take out the groceries. Alex said sure and came down. ohhhhh what i would have given to film his reaction....

priceless X)

the entire back huge boot was filled with goodies.

i bought myself some cornflakes for just 10nkr, and look how huge it is! X)
in the store, they were displaying xmas decorations and these were actually made by mary years ago! its just amazing, i dont think i have patience for that because sewing is not my forte hehe.
From the store we could see the workplace, and one of the workers had decorated the top of the crane with what looks like a christmas tree! or at least, lights shaped that way. its hilarious but he's really good with setting lights, his house was beautiful to look at but i didnt get a pic.
concluding this post with a pic of me and my elusive hubby. :D his hair was cut yesterday till slightly above the shoulder.

cooking and nails

yesterday i was asked to cook dinner, which was decided that it would be springrolls with rice. somehow people here have the impression i can cook rice well? XD how much rice have i cooked in my life, i wonder XD. especially with my motto of 'if there's too much water its porridge!'

didnt use the wok this time because its an electric wok. Those dont generate enough heat for frying, so i used a pot on the stove instead. Works very well!
have i mentioned that frying is my biggest cooking phobia? especially when you place it in the oil and it POPS like crazy! thankfully i didnt get splattered on this time. WHEW. and i'm really happy how the spring rolls turned out. Very crispy and good!

disclaimer: the springrolls are NOT made by me XD they were bought by mary from someone else who made them
then i spent almost 2.5 hours doing mary's nails O.o .

that includes a little drying time in between and some time she spent on doing her cuticles i guess. honestly when i look at the work i cant imagine how it can take so long, since acrylic dries really fast.

at least the results are cute XD mary made a request to have her 'angel girls' on her nails, so thats what i came up with haha. had to mix paint around to get a blondish shade for hilde's hair hehe!
the snowman is my favourite though!
and finally a pic of my own nails , done earlier in the day. magic words heard when doing my nails... was of mary asking alex to vacuum instead since i have wet nails. HOHOHOHOHO! merry xmas!

we're heading again to elnesvagen to do more xmas shopping, i'll see if hubby wants to take a pic with me!

2 more weeks!

2 more weeks to xmas dinner! whee!

mary's been busy decorating the house, but i think the xmas tree comes only next week. i love the glow it brings into the living room and piles of mysterious little packages scattered under it :D

right now i'm working on an extra xmas gift for alex's grandma, and the pattern is in norwegian. good thing i have enough crocheting experience. the store we bought the yarn in was selling cheap jeans for 100nkr so i happily grabbed a pair. i have NEVER seen such cheap jeans there yet. usually i see them for 300-1200. ouch!

mary insisted i take the next two pics for alvin.
in this one, he's supposed to be waiting for santa XD
all week i realised now i've been wrapping. finally finished the last batch... but..
this needs to be done to them too...so they can be mailed out. but i'll be done on monday, and then i wont have to be standing on my feet all day any more! YAY!
then i have to clean up my mess too. 'woohoo'.
mary has also started making xmas goodies. i imagine aarthi and alvin to enjoy such stuff? this particular cakey thing she's making is my favourite xmas goody here. she's lining the metal tins with crust dough while i buttered the tins.
then they are filled with an almond,butter, sugar and egg mixture before getting topped with a simple adornment. i have to play with food,especially when dough is involved XD

can you spot the 'XD', the angry face, the pig face and a cat face? mary was like 'Tiiiinna! now you make me play with the food' and she makes a piggy one too XD
sadly, the faces dont show up very well when baked because the mixture rises abit and evens out, and the colors are so similar after baking.

havent taken any pic of myself lately, because seriously people... how would you feel taking a snap of your face at random places and times? i dont feel very comfortable doing it unless its visiting some new place and i want to be part of the scenary. but come xmas i should post more i guess! or if we go somewhere. hopefully it snows more then i know i'll get alex to take pics of medoing things like making snowangels and snowmen XD

X_x

today we went to Eide to get some xmas cakey stuff for mary, and me to buy some yarn to make alex's grandmother something nice for xmas since she's so generous with us.

in the store mary went to, they were selling fancy marzipan shaped like... fruits and pigs!
i thought they looked awesome, and the pigs hilarious XD. The fruit reminded me of some snack i used to eat... it has this jelly like outside, and sweet yellow pasty thing on the inside. it was also decorated and colored like fruit. Anyone know what its called?

The shop in Eide that sells yarn also sells clothes for men, women and children. one particular shirt i just had to take a pic of. maybe if i buy it, wear it and take a pic, post it up... more people would read this huh? hahaha
really tired so this is kept short. the last two days i've been standing on my feet from 8:30 to 3:30, except for the short lunch break and two 10 minute breaks. i've been wrapping, wrapping, wrapping.
yeah and that pic dont even show half of whats wrapped. they are wrapped in xmas paper then wrapped in brown paper for mailing btw. whee.

gonna spend the rest of my day sitting down!