Skipping Town

Throughout our time in Iceland, the girls and I were intent on collecting ephemera to use for junk journaling, a new craft we planned to begin after our trip. Maps, brochures, food wrappers, business cards, packaging, napkins, placemats, boarding passes, luggage tags--we saved it all, usually asking Andrew to carry it in his backpack as we went about our days. You probably don't have to work very hard to imagine how Andrew felt about this, or how he felt when we gathered everything up in a big, messy stack to take home at the end of our trip. One man's trash etc; except this time it really IS trash. Trash that would be transformed into artful, visually interesting pages of our junk journals. On Sunday, a fully free day, we set ourselves up at the table in the Long Room and began. We'd purchased journals at a Flying Tiger in Rekjavik, and we got out all of our collected garbage components as well as patterned papers, stickers, and other stationery items we already had. Lucia...

We are home, back with our precious pets.  After dropping off Mom and Dad in Connellsville, we got home around 12:30 and had just enough time to change our clothes before Greta, Andrew, and I headed down to Point Park, where the award ceremony for the Scholastic Writing Awards was being held. Greta was so excited the scheduling worked out so she could go and receive recognition for her Gold and Silver key-winning short stories. Later, the four of us went out for sushi, and then the girls and I watched two episodes of This Is Us (one final episode to go). It's nice to be home. The kitchen floors are complete and beautiful. The end of the renovation is in sight.

We bid our rented house goodbye this morning, loaded up the car, and headed into Reykjavik for a few final Iceland hours. Our primary destination was the Braud & Co bakery for cinnamon rolls, which Andrew had read about in Travel & Leisure. They did not disappoint. It was truly the best pastry I have ever had, anywhere.  We bought a few souvenirs (Lucia bought herself a ring; Greta got a necklace with a little puffin charm; I bought a book of poetry set in the Bonus supermarket, the highest-selling poetry collection ever in Iceland). A few of us had a final pylsur. We walked to the harbor and popped in to see the Harpa concert hall. Our final stop was, again, Braud & Co, where we got more cinnamon rolls and other items for the flight home. It was very windy and cold and we all agreed, pastries in hand, that it was time to head to the airport to return our rental car and catch our flight.  A pause here to praise Andrew, who drove us all around Iceland this week in a...

As predicted, Thursday brought a country-wide level-two weather warning, with many road closures and the requirement to stay home. So we did, and we were all happy to be forced to spend the day in our beautiful Air BnB as wind and snow raged outside. We put a fire on and read, played No Thanks, and watched both Frozen movies in honor of the literal frozen landscape. Lucia, Greta, Mom, and Dad, had a gin tournament. Andrew did some work. It was delightful. This is the best vacation rental we've ever had. The warning lifted in the late afternoon, so we ventured into Selfoss to go into a couple of shops, and then we had dinner at the Old Dairy Food Hall: pizza from Flatey's (Andrew, Dad, the girls); fish and chips for Mom and lamb soup for me from Samuelsson's. All delicious.  Then we went back home and enjoyed the hot tub and sauna one last time. Walking through snow in our bare feet is now old hat for us. Tomorrow is departure day. None of us want to leave, especially since ...

Every day here has been amazing but Wednesday was a particularly great one. With a blizzard and potential road closures predicted for Thursday--and having learned our lesson about ignoring country-wide weather warnings--we adjusted our itinerary for today to make sure we fit in everything we wanted to see  along the Golden Circle.  We started our day at Gullfoss, the giant waterfall. It was absolutely frigid outside, but we persevered along the icy walkway to see the falls from a few different angles. Every famous sight in Iceland inspires awe, and Gullfoss is humbling in its violence and power, especially on a stark winter day like this one was, the water rushing through ice. Frozen, we went into the cafe for a hot drink before moving on. Our next stop was the Geysir geothermal field. We watched Strokkur a couple of times and walked along the pathway, winding around boiling pools and lots of steam. It definitely feels like humans are not supposed to be here--this is nature's ...

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...

There's a lot going on, sports and kids' schoolwork and our work and our torn-up kitchen and travel planning for Spring Break. And Andrew left today for eight days, part weekend with college friends, the rest business trip to Peru. The girls and I remain here, basement dwellers, ready to shop for a week's worth of frozen prepared foods at Trader Joe's because cooking is just something I cannot do on top of everything else. Convenience foods will get us through. The kitchen is progressing. This week they put all the insulation in the walls. We selected our fireplace--more difficult than it may appear; there are a lot of options called "fyre features" (their spelling) with apps and automatic everything and glass beads instead of logs and I just cannot. I emailed Andrew a copy and pasted list of language from the brochure and typed, simply, "no" after each sentence. We did eventually find a suitable option (it does come with an app--inescapable--which w...

Saturday was a big day for Lucia: she got her driver's permit! She and Andrew went to the DMV first thing in the morning, and she passed her test. She has not yet had a chance to practice, but she has taken a big step forward.  While they did that, I took Greta to Steel City so she could participate in a fund-raising Erg-A-Thon. She erg'd the distance of a half marathon and was very pleased. (I spent the time reading at the Oakmont Bakery, then grocery shopping.) Lucia babysat on Saturday night, while Andrew watched sports and Greta and I watched Stranger Things.  Sunday, Greta and I went out early to check out the Carnegie Library book sale, which we'd never been to before. Though the long line out the door boded well, the sale turned out to be quite small. Andrew and I had brunch with the Clarks at Cafe Margaux. Later in the afternoon, Andrew, the kids, and I went thrifting at the Red, White, & Blue in Sewickley. We all got some fun things. It's a great thrift sto...