all that's past is prologue...

Bethany's favorite ice cream flavor — Ben and Jerry's Imagine Whirled Peace.  Twice last week we went to friends' homes for dinner, and we brought it both times.  Yummy! Beatrix's favorite food ever in her short eating solids experience — Imagine Whirled Peas.  That is, we tried to cook and mash them up, but there were still a lot of skins (the baby food book said to pick them out.  Yeah, right).  However, she loved the peas, and her lurching for them was getting peas everywhere.  So clever mommy mixed them with some organic oat cereal using the immersion blender.  Equally yummy!  (though that's maybe because she doesn't know about ice cream...)

So, for a long time we've been wanting to go to the Mill City Farmer's Market.  So organic!  So creative!  So beautifully displayed!  So this morning we loaded up the baby and headed over. We really enjoyed ourselves, though we held strict control of our wallets.  The vegetables were all green and gorgeous and came from idyllic sounding all-organic farms, but $10 for a head of broccoli?  Honestly?!  There were incredible handcrafts:  gorgeous strung pearl necklaces at $250,  Peruvian women making softly colored wool rugs on hand-carried looms where a 1 foot by 3 foot runner at $98 seemed simultaneously like less than a living wage and more than I could pay, perfectly assembled bouquets of fragrant flowers for $12. The best things were free:  people watching, showing Beatrix the cage of chickens, appreciating the colors and textures, yummy samples of organic goat choose and cajun smoked trout. All very beautiful, but  think I'll stick to the St. Paul farmer's market for ...

An evening at Cafe Barbette with recently-past Jeune Lune staff tonight.  What a group of incredible people!  Nice to have a glass of wine as well.  If people like these stay in the arts we might just be ok.

I've been trying to put together my thoughts on the incredibly tense meeting about the Southern Theater last Monday night. But then my friend Leah did a far better job of it here.

Today I got through a ton of work things that were bugging me.  Went to baby yoga.  Got to have lunch with my dad.  Had beers with my friend Kelly.  It was a Good Day.

Ok, I realize this is of very little interest to anyone but me (especially this much later), but since I didn't keep a trip journal, I need to get this down somewhere! Sightseeing Highlights: -  Finding our way to — and from — Cafe Sara on the first night -  Wandering Vigeland Park with the boys and Beatrix, imitating the statues -  Exploring the shops of Aker Brygge, and the design store for clothing -  Grocery shopping! -  Interacting with the technology at the Nobel Center -  The lunch cruise around the Oslofjord, with prawns and sunshine -  The Parliament tour -  Looking out over the garden -  Driving around Grunerlokka -  Day trip to Drobak -  Bygdoy peninsula, and the museums -  Chatting with Pete and Kari on the phone Moments from the wedding: -  The beautiful evening of the rehearsal dinner in Eidsvoll -  Finding the coolness of the church -  Wrin playing the Hardanger fiddle -  "This is the sound of one voice" -  Beautiful Kari walking down the aisle, and proud P...

Here's me with my new haircut (inspired by Starbuck on BSG) and a great dress that I borrowed from my friend Kate for Pete's wedding.  I love the way the dress looks on me and we did not have a lot of pics from the wedding, so I made Patrick do a photoshoot. (I am also wearing my "Trixie" shows, but you can't see those.)

(more about Norway later, today I am rockin' the deals) So a girl goes to Walgreen's, where there store-brand diapers are pretty good.  Asks at the pharmacy for the coupon book you get when you sign up for their prescription plan, which they will give you even if you don't enroll.  Combines that with the $2.50 off per pack coupon in this month's little EasySavers catalog.  Buys 3 packs so gets a $5 off the next purchase coupon at the register.  yes, that's right — 3 packs for $18, minus $7.50, minus $6, minus the $5 coupon, means they are paying me to buy their diapers. It's the modern-day version of being a hunter-gatherer. Oh, and I also got teething tablets and gel on sale, and a prescription for my nasty ear infection which is already making it feel better.

(except, of course, you might not even know I went because I failed to post anything...) We went for my cousin Pete's wedding, which was incredible.  Full recap later.  I will say, though, that though Beatrix was a great traveller, jet lag with a baby is quite a situation to struggle with.  Board meeting tonight — wish me luck!