Snær!

Or snow!  Finally, we have a decent amount of snow.  Sadly, the girls won’t have much time to play in it as we are departing for our Thanksgiving trip to the States tomorrow afternoon.  Perhaps we will have time for a few pictures by the now frozen pond before we leave.

We have had two dustings recently, which gave us enough for snowballs, but not much else.  Normally, the issue is that it is not cold enough and even when it does snow, the ground isn’t cold enough for it to stick for very long.  However, this week we haven’t reached freezing once, i.e., the temperature hasn’t ‘warmed up’ to freezing.

Yesterday had to be the coldest at -11 degrees Celsius.  Nothing compared to most of the Scandinavian winters, but pretty cool for Reykjavik and it has  begun to affect the tourist attractions. 

On Thursday, I took Caitlin and two of her friends, Amber and Katya, to the Blue Lagoon. Caitlin loves to go and since they are all still free at this age, it is almost cheaper than going to a local pool.  Given how cold it was, bound to be warmer, too!

We made the drive out to Blaa Lonid and as the wind buffeted the car on the highway, I realized how little I missed the drive to Keflavik.  Without the base, we are spending  6 fewer hours in the car per week. 

So, we wound around the road to the Blue Lagoon.  As we passed the Health Clinic, we noticed the icy blue water that normally flows out to the road.  Note the word, icy.  Yes, the normally warm and bubbling water was frozen solid.  I was thinking this did not bode well for our trip, but we forged ahead anyway (slightly miffed I had forgotten my camera).  We arrived at the parking lot and I was a bit surprised to see no more than 8 cars.  At almost 1 p.m. on any given day, the lot should be at least half full.

We hopped out of the car, grabbed our bags and turned around to face an earnest looking man in his typically tiny European car.  He apologized profusely and let us know the Blue Lagoon was "permanently broken".  I am fairly certain he simply mixed up his vocabulary words in his haste to reassure us that we could still soak in the soothing salt water, but we would have to do so at the health clinic.

So, we headed off to the clinic and enjoyed the smaller, yet still calming waters.  Unlike the regular lagoon (as it is under construction), the Health Clinic still has the indoor entrance to the pool.  This is much more preferable on an extremely windy and cold (minus 8 degrees Celsius?) day.  We managed to float for about 45 minutes before hunger (and windburn) pushed us back inside.

Despite the smaller dressing areas and lack of a cafe, it was still a pleasant experience.  Oh, and the best part?  Apparently, customer service is alive and welcome at the Blue Lagoon.  For the inconvenience of not being able to use the regular area, my visit was free. 

So, unless this turns into a raging blizzard, this time tomorrow night we should be on our way to the hotel.  We will be visiting my dad’s family, most notably, my 93 year old grandfather, Grandpere.  He recently downsized to a condo and we are excited to see it for the first time.

We have not seen my grandfather and most of my father’s family for two years.  Caitlin and Kelsey spent the day making cards for their cousins and Caitlin wondered aloud as to what her cousins would now look and sound like.  Despite the fact that they are actually my first cousins, Caitlin is 10 months younger than my aunt’s daughter, Maggie, and Kelsey is two months younger than Maggie’s sister, Casey.  Apparently, Casey and Maggie are also aficionados of Stephanie (from Latibaer), so I know they will have a lot to talk about upon our arrival.

So, if we are too busy to blog for a few days….Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

And the trampoline is still standing

but apparently the Dinoia family trampoline was the only one properly secured in Reykjavik.  Alert reader, Tom K., also known as Greempa Kirk, sent us an article this morning about Saturday’s wind storm to verify the severity of the vedur.

Honestly, we really didn’t notice that much, which is going to really make us immune to any weather conditions when we are back in the States and winds don’t generally reach 50 m/s (yep, gale force).    We had gusts of them Saturday night and many people lost trampolines, windows, you name it.  Our biggest excitement was hearing the top of the barbecue blow off and hit the house just after we went to bed. 

Naturally, I thought it was one of the kids falling out of their bed.  I was relieved to find out that was not the case, as the bunk bed situation is actually working for us this time around.  Lest I digress even more, I checked out said article and found a modicum of truth this time.

One has to understand that I am not fond of English language publications in Iceland.  Many of them are thrown together with the assumption, "Well, it is in English, it must be good!"   The Grapevine and Iceland Review both tend to fall in these categories.  While Iceland Review may have occasional interesting articles in their actual magazine, their online edition could use a little spiffying up.

As for the wind, well, it has since died down and today we actually had..snow (flurries)!  We are hoping for more, but after the pathetic snow season last year, won’t be holding our breath.

In other (more exciting) news, we had our bi-annual parent teacher conference with Hallfridur, one of the leikskolar kennari (conj?), at Njalsborg.  Basically, they love Kelsey!  I know, who wouldn’t, but still, it is always refreshing to hear it from someone who has really not known her for a terribly long time.

I think the fact that she is almost bilingual is quite impressive to them (and to us!).  We (somewhat gleefully) found out today that she is part of a regular lunchtable threesome with her friends Ronja and Nikolina.  We are so proud that she has created and nourished these relationships in another language so different from her own at age 4.  Frankly, it just knocks our sokkar off (thankfully, though, not our sokkarbuxar)!

And Cait?  Her conference is also this week, on Friday morning…but I have no doubt we will have nothing but good news to report.

Note:  Some (new) older pictures on the badge, but still worth viewing, of course.

Bailey er hérna á Reykjavik

Já, já Bailey has been released from his prison.  We paid the $2000 ransom and were awarded our kottur, much to the delight of the girls. 

For those of us who think us crazy for spending so much, well, we might be.  However, in light of everything that happened last year, we realized that life is sometimes just too short.  The girls desperately missed both animals, but Bailey is far younger and in better overall health than Maggie.  We figured of the two, he had the best chance of making it through quarantine.  Risking with Maggie would be too risky, as well, if the animal gets sick or simply doesn’t adjust, the authorities take it into their own hands.

So, seven months after beginning the process, Bailey is living ‘happily’ with us.  He has already been introduced to some of Cait’s friends as they had a special play date just for his arrival.  And lest any ASPCA officials lurk on this site, I should probably not mention that the girls have continued their habit of carting him around like a piece of luggage.  Despite the temporary discomfort, he does seem to enjoy the attention.

Of course, as illustrated in the photo, he immediately scurried to the top of the highest piece of ‘comfy’ furniture he could find.  He is apparently in some sort of competition with himself to see just how many frames and other obstacles he can avoid whilst jumping and then relaxing.

Velkommen til Island, Bailey-kisa!