Skipping Town

After the dramatic weather of Monday, Tuesday began with sunny, cloudless skies and no wind. In the morning, Andrew, the girls, and I set out for the Solhestar stable in the Reykjadalu Valley for a horseback riding tour in the countryside. I have never ridden a horse before. But one of Greta's top things to do this trip was ride an Icelandic horse, and we found this stable near our Air BnB.  It was very cold in the morning, but we were given riding jumpsuits, and we'd brought fleece headwraps to wear under our helmets. The horses were adorable: Biggie (Lucia's), Ginger (Greta's), Vikrame (like macrame; Andrew's), and Thrau (mine). We were given instructions on how to steer the horse, and how to get onto the horse. I had a little bit of trouble, with no core strength at all, and though I did successfully get onto my horse, I was not graceful. Andrew did okay. The girls hopped onto the stirrup and slung their legs over their horses like they'd been doing it their ...

Monday was our Reykjavik exploration day, and after breakfast at home we set out for the city. We got an email from the rental car company warning of bad weather, with a reminder to hold onto the car doors with both hand when opening them, since high winds can push the doors wide open and break the hinges. We set out nonetheless, persevering even though there was snow blowing all over the roads.  In Reykjavik, we followed a Rick Steves self-guided walking tour for a while, learning some history of the city. We got hot dogs at Baejarins Beztu Pylsur. We then began walking up the rainbow street, Skolavordustigur, toward the church Hallgrimskirkja, stopping to browse in shops along the way. We went into a couple of secondhand shops and some souvenir shops on Laugavegur. Greta quickly selected the two souvenirs she'd planned on getting: a small plush puffin and a children's book in Icelandic. I found the jewelry store--Anna Maria--where I bought a silver ring back in 2005; we went ...

I missed a few days of blogging but it was only because my time was completely taken up by a big work event on 3/20 plus preparing for our big Spring Break trip to Iceland. And that's where I am right now--Iceland! We left Saturday morning (wrenchingly, as Farrah gave us heartbroken looks of betrayal) and drove to Molly's house, where we spent a few hours and had lunch before driving to BWI for our direct flight to Keflavik. The Icelandair flight was incredibly cramped and uncomfortable, but we got there more or less on time. Snow was falling when we landed. It took a little figuring out to pick up our rental car, but Andrew found it in the lot and picked the rest of us (and all our bags) up from the terminal. We were on our way. Our first stop--a big one: the Blue Lagoon. We'd booked our tickets for 8am, opening time, but didn't make it there until 9am; we were slightly worried but our late arrival was unremarked on. We all changed into our swimsuits, stored our coats ...

The Mystery of No Cold Water has been solved! I was working from home on Thursday, in the middle of a call, when a plumber called up to me from the attic stairs. "Let me ask you this," he said. "Do you have water in your garage?" This is the kind of unhinged question one gets regularly when renovating a hundred-year-old house. "Um, yes," I said. "But we've never used it." "I think I've fixed your water," he announced, pride in his voice. He took out his phone and showed me a picture: a selection of pipes with a knob in the middle, taken from the dark recesses of our basement pantry. He gave a detailed explanation of how the pipes connected, what the knob did, why one of the pipes had been closed off and diverted, etc etc, but the overall point was that he turned the knob and now the water is cold where it should be. HE TURNED THE KNOB. We've been living in this house for five and half years with no cold water and all we had ...

Lucia has been on Instagram for a few months now, and the algorithm has taken note, feeding her content fine-tuned to her interests and personality. It's evil/amazing. Anyway, she came to me last week and announced she'd seen something on Instagram and had a new craft she wanted to start doing: junk journaling. The pride in my heart! Junk journaling is something I, too, have had on my radar for a while now. We looped in Greta, who was also excited about it. And so it shall be. We never need to look very hard for an excuse to buy an ungodly amount of stickers and fun paper items, and to screech at Andrew in horror as he tries to put a piece of "garbage" in the recycling. "I need that for a craft!!!" is his favorite recurring instruction.  Monday night, Lucia had what I can only describe as a junk journaling-related manic episode at 11pm. I went in to say goodnight to her and found her in a highly excited state, sitting in the middle of her floor, surrounded b...

On Saturday, I went to Beth's to watch the Lilith Fair documentary with some college friends. It was exceptionally strange to watch what was essentially a historical documentary, complete with grainy video footage and photos of young people in outlandish outfits. It looked like something from the distant, distant past. And it was! It was the 90s which, to me, seems like twenty years ago, but which was actually thirty years ago. More than a quarter century. There were no digital cameras. Etc etc etc. The dark ages. Later, when I asked my kids if they'd ever heard of Lilith Fair, they shook their heads pityingly. I, however, do remember Lilith Fair. More accurately, I remember having tickets to Lilith Fair, driving to Pittsburgh with Molly and the Ainsley sisters, then sitting for hours in a long line of cars stuck outside of Starlake, until it began to pour and we heard on the radio (!) that anyone waiting to get into the venue should instead turn around and leave. We stopped at...