Taxes, continued

In my politics lecture this morning my professor, Frank Aarebrot (the picture), told us what we should say if we ever met an American who couldn’t understand how we could pay the high amount of taxes we pay. Funny, I thought, my friend Shane asked this question last year on the blog I don’t think neither me nor Sofie had great answers. So I will rephrase his words:

Imagine that Norway and USA has the same currency, called “money”. Both the Norwegian and the American earns 100 money a month. The Norwegian pays 44 money to the state each month while the American pays only 20 money to the state. But the American also pays the health insurance company 15 money and puts away 5 money for his or her children’s college fund. So in the end about the same proportion of money is spent on the same things. The difference is that in USA you have the freedom to be irresponsible and the freedom not to send your kids to college. The so-called Free Society based on value choices made by the citizens.

Just a little anecdote before the weekend. Now I’m about to make a “Mediterranean pie” before we have a guest arriving this evening. Thank you both so much for the post cards, they filled my with great joy. 

A Fortuitously Delicious Dinner

Now, I don't fancy myself a food blogger or anything, but my dinner last night [note: I wrote this in my journal weeks ago!] was so good I just have to tell the whole internet about it. It was also incredibly accidental in its composition. This is what was in the fridge and why:

1) Half a hummus container of orzo with mushrooms, onions, and cilantro, left over from a breakfast quite similar to this.

2) One hummus container of orzo carbonara which was quite accidental in its own composition: I had bought on a whim some halal turkey bacon the week before, and we were slowly working our way through it -- or rather, Brett was. Desperate to do something with the last couple of pieces, I typed turkey bacon into tastespotting.com (best website EVER) and happened upon a recipe for carbonara sauce, which I thought I'd try my hand at. It worked out pretty well, though a little too meat-ish for me :).

3) Marinated feta with roasted red peppers, garlic, herbs, and balsalmic vinegar. I am pretty sure that last Friday was Seniors' Day at Trade Fair, my friendly neighborhood grocery store. Waiting in line at the deli counter, the woman in front of me gestured to her desired cheese with a swing of her cane, and teh woman behind me, walker in grocery cart, complained loudly in an old New York accent about the crowds, the deafness of the other Trade Fair patrons, and her leg. Just as I made it to the front to ask for my half-pound of feta, a babushka-wearing grandmother walked laboriously by in the opposite direction, a traffic jam of three impatient shoppers behind her. I guess my request got mixed up in the kerfuffle, and I ended up with a pound of feta instead of a half (isn't life hard?). Remembering the deliciousness of the rather expensive Apetina feta, I cut up some of the excess feta into cubes, roasted myself a red pepper, found some herbs and black peppercorns, and dropped them all into a jar with oil and a splash of balsalmic vinegar. Every day it gets yummier!

4) A bunch of spinach just days away from going bad.

5) Half a little jar of Newman's Own tomato sauce -- after reading this article, I decided to stop buying fresh tomatoes in winter to make my own sauce. Don't know if Newman's Own is much better, but I'm hopeful.

And this is what I did with it:

I put all of the mushroom/cilantro orzo and a couple of spounfuls of the carbonara orzo into a container with the washed and torn up spinach. Then, I fished many pieces of feta and roasted red pepper out of my jar of yumminess and threw them in as well. Finally, I added a couple of spoonfuls of tomato and mixed the whole thing up. Then I ate it and was very very happy :).

Musical Retreat pt 2

Hello dear friends, I just thought I'd show you what I have been working on recently - this is not the final drawings, not the final design, but it gives you an idea of what I'm up to. I'm drawing construction drawings at the moment, to hand over to my engineer tomorrow... Happy days!
Hope you guys are having a more interesting Sunday!

Tweets and Shelf

I feel like my engaging with virtual communication has reached new heights: I have joined twitter, on Shane's recommendation, and also put my twitter feed on the blog. I think we should all do the same, so we can tweet directly to the blog and it'll bring it more to life. Also, I wanted to show you a close up of the shelf Else mentioned, the one depicted behind the drawing board in the previous post - it was my birthday present from my lovely man, home made! And check this, a secret room with it's own little lamp and birthday card inscribed on the wall:



Lovely.

Anyone recognize the lighthouse? :)

VOILA!

The Result:

How To Be Happy

I woke up this morning, looked around my messy room and felt so depressed I decided to stay in bed. But I got bored, so I looked around for something that could entertain me whilst in bed. I saw my TV, my computer, my shoddy magazine and some architectural history books. I didn't really feel like in engaging in any of these activities, but (seeing as I was feeling pretty lethargic) I turned on the TV to get entertained. Daytime TV is no friend of mine, I soon realized, when I looked through the channels and the most decent thing I came across was one of those nanny shows where a big fat British woman goes to visit an American family to teach them a thing or two about child-minding. Well, I watched it for a while and it just got me more depressed, because the nanny was an absolute power-loving idiot. I did, however, start thinking about how that show is not so much about the nanny as it is about a family needing help. So I thought to myself, "I could need a little help". Not with raising children, maybe with raising myself, or with being the person I was raised to be (I.e. someone with a positive attitude, an active life, not to mention a tidy room. Someone happy.) So I thought, where do I find a nanny? On the internet of course!
So I ventured into the world of self-help websites (WHAT? ME?), and was actually very positively surprised. Of course, most of what was written were things you have heard a million times before: "the only one who can change things is YOU", "happiness is not the same as lack of sadness", "happiness isn't always getting what you want", but I was after concrete advice on how to change things around. I found one which I thought was quite good, and i thought i should share it with you:
"Three components are essential for hope to thrive, Feldman says. They are having goals, as well as a plan and the motivation to achieve them. ... Feldman advises setting personally meaningful goals and checking to see where your hope falters — is it with the plan or the motivation?"
So, keeping this in mind (and knowing it is the motivation that is my problem), I have now made a plan of action:

1) Tidy my room (This WILL make me a happier person)
2) Doing fun things while doing it, so I don't get bored and turn the TV on again (Loud music, singing, dancing etc)
3) Reading my book to reward myself.
4) Posting pictures of it on the blog!

Ok, so now I've got a goal, a plan, and motivation, you can help be the judges of my success by popping into the blog to see when I finish my tidying!

New Hobbies

My loves, it's been way too long. I wanted to share with you some new hobbies I have picked up/am picking up/will pick up:

1. Watching videos on the internet!!

Okay, this isn't actually a new hobby, but I wanted to share some cool videos I've seen recently:







2. Writing postcards on the subway!

This started two days ago and it is really fun. You should both expect a postcard from me soon! I got a book of Adrian Tomine cards and I have been using those :).



3. Crocheting using plastic bag yarn!

This one hasn't started yet, but it will soon. I saw this awesome tutorial on the internets, and I am ready to get rid of some of the million plastic bags Raia and I have amassed over the past months!