Anna's this and that

Three more weeks in Norway. We bought my ticket back with Happy. Poor doggie, one more trip aboard the monster (aka a plane in human-speak). I know he'll be okay, I just hate thinking of him alone before the departure and then in the luggage section of the plane. Speaking of him, I wonder how he'll adapt to my tiny flat in Warsaw. Here, at H.'s place, he wants to be out in the garden permanently LOL! He's such a jewel... we can't believe how lucky we were to pick this "model" from the shelter last year. He's the most affectionate, the most clever, the most wonderful dog one can dream of. Only "bad" side - he's not very much into defending us or the house, much too friendly for that. Last week we ordered pizza on a very busy afternoon and the delivering person was just delighted with that lovely doggie... which means that basically we can forget about having him guard the house. Ah, also almost each time we're back and he was left alone in the house, we arrive with the car (loud noise), we walk to the door (noise), we open the door (more noise) and still no dog! Sometimes he then runs down the stairs waving his tail madly, but sometimes H. manages to go to the upper floor in silence just to find him snoring on one of the beds... :)
I realize I haven't been blogging much lately but I must say I can't manage to get into a routine day here... Each day brings either work, or walks, or travels, or cleaning, or stitching, and I just don't seem to be able to respond to emails. I am sure that will change as soon as I am back home.

On the topic of cross-stitch, the news are upsetting. Okay, I finished the new Prairie Schooler kit 3 weeks ago but I don't like it that much. The sad thing is that two packages seem to be lost on the way from the US to Norway. One is the bookmark my partner stitched for me and the other an over 200 usd value order - the French Alphabet Sampler and Gloriana silks for it. Money is on the low side this year and time is running. I can't afford paying again for the supplies at this moment, even if I get the sampler chart sent to me again, I won't be able to complete it in time for H.'s birthday. And that was the whole point. I am soooooo upset. I don't even know if it's the store that's cheated on me or if that package is really lost, but since the bookmark from Christina hasn't arrived either after a whole month, I have reasons to think both envelopes have been stolen - somewhere. I got an order from Amy/DSL okay, and fabric from Silkweaver for the sampler as well. So what happened? :( :( :(
The good side of the story is that I got a lot done on the Spring Thaw afghan for H. I first hated every stitch I put in. I found it hard to handle the voluminous fabric, I found it heavy on my knees and uncomfortable in every way to stitch. I started working on it early this year and left it aside. There was even a moment when I thought it would become an UFO. Then I decided to bring it here for as The Summer Project and I am almost done with the 2nd row of five! I'll upload a photo tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be ready in time for Christmas!

Oh, and I have tons of photos to upload. We stayed 10 days in the wilderness, same place as every year, in the wonderful cottage we love so much. We extended the stay by two days in another small cabin and made wonderful walks. For me a 7-hour fast walk in this difficult region was not smthg I would expect I can do, but I did that and more, and I can't wait till next year to repeat that experience. Needless to say I was barely able to walk the next day LOL!
Unfortunately Happy had a hip problem because of that, he couldn't walk at all and woke us up in the night crying, I spent a sleepless night trying to comfort him but he was just soooo sad... H. had his heart broken just looking at him. We brought doggie to the vet as soon as it opened in the morning and he got a shot after being examined. Some muscle inflammation most probably, nothing more serious - but painful. Followed by 8 days of pills. Yeah, Norway is the most expensive country in the world, and I experienced that once more... Vets are unaffordable! The check and the injection cost us around 100 usd. Just that!!! Without the medecine. Norwegians are nuts. Then we thought - how much would we have to pay if the case was *serious*? Geee.

My Norwegian is improving. On Friday I met H.'s mother on my way to the food shop. She lives in the house next to us, we're just separated by a small road where cars are not allowed to drive. We managed to communicate for about half an hour, which was an exploit for me! Last year I only understood a small percentage of her talking, and this time I manage to understand most of it! And as she doesn't understand English at all (a very rare thing for people in Norway, but she's from an older generation), I was very proud of me. She questioned me about lost of private stuff related to H. and I, but she really wasn't nosy, I didn't feel it that way. And she said "You know I would love to have you as my daughter-in-law, don't you?" I was soooo shocked I made her repeat it because I wasn't sure I understood it right!! But yes, she said that and lots of lovely things too, and this was a very stressing talk for me because of the language barrier (I was almost reading her lips so much I was concentrating on trying to understand as much as possible) but also this was probably the most lovely things a girl can dream to hear from her partner's mother! I am so happy she likes me... Because she's not the easiest person on Earth and things could have been very different.

I need to get up in 5 hours to do a text I haven't even started during the week-end, stupid me, so stay tuned for more babbling tomorrow! LOL

Nite nite...