Another one of Stina´s quizzes, the only thing I can manage on-line at the moment. I can´t even remember how to link to her page. Can´t remember anything.


You are Kermit the Frog.
You are reliable, responsible and caring. And you
have a habit of waving your arms about
maniacally.

FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS:
"Hi ho!" "Yaaay!" and
"Sheesh!"
FAVORITE MOVIE:
"How Green Was My Mother"

LAST BOOK READ:
"Surfin' the Webfoot: A Frog's Guide to the
Internet"

HOBBIES:
Sitting in the swamp playing banjo.

QUOTE:
"Hmm, my banjo is wet."


What Muppet are you?
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What Famous Leader Are You?

Graduation
Hey! I graduated the other day! I am now a fully certified veterinarian! Weeee... I shall have to change the name of my blog, but since I haven´t written anything in here for the longest time, noone will know the difference anyway.

In life and death
Was feeling philosophical on friday. We had an interesting case, a cat cecarian (that could incidentally have been avoyded had the owners not fed the pill to their pregnant cat, after 2 weeks of forgetting it!). There were 2 kittens, one dead, one lived. Shortly after reviving the baby kitten and putting it under the heat-lamp with it´s still unconcious mother, a client came in for euthanasia of her really old and sick cat. She had been dreading this day since this summer when her cat was diagnosed with kidney disease. It was very beautiful though, she brought her family for support, and a home-made coffin with the cat´s favorite blanket and a card to put in with her. I almost cried myself.

You're a Human! Inquisitive and mellow, you're an
explorer at heart.


What Star Trek Race Are You?
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You represent... hope.
You're quite a daydreamer and can be a hopeless
romantic. You enjoy being creative and don't
mind being alone at times. You have goals, and
know what you want in life... even if they are
a little far fetched.


What feeling do you represent?
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Slaughterhouse 5

Today was the first day in my new job. I hate it already. The job involves inspecting dead animal bodies at a slaughterhouse in the nearby town of Selfoss. Mostly it consists of standing on the line, inspecting the carcasses for any sign of infections, such as abcesses (yuk!). I also take samples to test for salmonella, the most feared bug. Only a few farms have ever tested positive for it, none of the ones sending to this slaugherhouse, fortunately...

Last night was the night of the eurovision song contest. In Iceland this is a big thing, everybody gathers to watch (and every year most of the songs are totally lame, this year was no exception). Iceland first participated in 1986, before that there was no such thing as a eurovision party. People just had parties. The cab driver told us last night that the eurovision night was the biggest night of the year on the town here in Reykjavík, boy have I been away for long. If I had remembered I wouldn´t have ventured out last night. After the traditional eurovision family party we went downtown to meet my cousin who was celebrating her graduation from acting school. Afterwards we had to wait for almost an hour before we got a taxi to drive us home. This morning my husband woved never to drink again. Now where have I heard that before?

Being vet
I have been seriously neglecting my blog lately, as I have been very busy writing the last pages of my report, and starting my new job at this veterinary clinic (my picture will be posted there later). The clinic is right in the centre of town, 101 Reykjavík where I grew up. I love the job, and get along fine with my boss (there´s only the two of us working there, so this is absolutely essential), at least so far. This weekend I was on call for the first time, and it seemed half the pet population was going bonkers. I was called out twice to put stiches in a cat, which managed to rip them out as soon as we looked the other way, off she took the collar and everything. Saturday we had general elections and I threw a dinner party, and then had to take of when the guests arrived to splint a cat´s broken leg (apparently he jumped out the window on the second floor). There was also a dog we suspected of having parvo and another cat with a minor injury to the leg. The whole thing was rather nerve-wrecking, but I got through it and feel more confident now.

Find your inner Smurf!

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

This information was found on the web page guide to women leaders, but the information can also be found on other sites (I added the boldface).

01.08.1980-01.08.1996 President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Iceland.
In 1972-80 Director of Iceland’s National Theater was the world’s first democratically elected female president. Since 1996 she has been involved in a wide range of international humanitarian and cultural organizations. She was a divorcee and mother of an adopted a daughter. (b.1930-).

For anyone wishing to learn more about Iceland´s history, factmonster.com has some info on Iceland.

The countryside
This afternoon we are leaving on a short, 2 day, trip to the countryside, where mum & her siblings have an old farm. My grandparents lived there in the 50´s and 60´s, and when my grandmother died it was handed down to her 11 children, who now own it together. Some have built summer houses on the grounds, one of my mum´s brothers restored the old house and lives there full time (he is not a farmer though, he has a job in a neighbouring town). These 11 siblings now have 36 children among them (ages 6-40something), the grandchildren are too many for me to keep track... We all enjoy coming there during the summer, and there is always room for anyone who wants to stay in one of the summer-houses. My mum has decided where she wants to put her summer house, but has only gotten as far as putting up a fence... My guess is that it will be me and my husband who will put up a house there for us and my sister (and her future family). We will be staying there until saturday, will return in time to invite mother in-law for a traditional easter sunday roast leg of lamb.

Icelandair, our voice to the world

Icelandair´s campaign in the UK these days has posters that read: "Dirty weekend... only in Iceland" (w. pictures of Icelandic women in bikinis in the blue lagoon), "One night stand in Reykjavík", and the latest "free dip in every trip" (picture of a stewardess up to her crotch in the blue lagoon serving champagne to a man in a swimsuit).

What do you people think when you read this? I think Icelandair is telling british men to come to Iceland and have a quick "dip" or "one night stand" with the "cheap" Icelandic women. Or am I just illiterate to the deeper meaning of the english language, as Icelandair´s spokesmen have told me?

A job!
It looks like I have finally landed a job at a small animal clinic here in Reykjavík. I couldn´t believe it at first, so I didn´t talk about it too much, I was afraid to jinx it if I did. I am supposed to start working on a trial basis in early may, after I turn in my thesis. To my surprise the practice owner called me yesterday to ask if they could put an ad in the TV guide´s easter edition with my picture and a "welcome to our new vet" message. I said yes, of course, and then proceded to frantically search my photo albums for a half decent picture of myself for the ad. No such luck. It seems I am the only one in the family who takes any pictures, so naturally I do not appear in many of them. I had a few passport pictures taken (at a photographer´s, not a booth, they´re usually not so good) and turned them in. I was told I would be printed in 70.000 copies, yaikes! We have a saying here in Iceland, when someone has their 15 minutes of fame, that they´re "world famous in Iceland". I am still sceptical though, the TV guide hasn´t arrived yet, the whole thing may burn in a freak fire at the warehouse, or something...

The writer in me

I have a novel growing inside my head. The main character is becoming almost like a friend of mine and is begging that her story be written down. So far I have not responded to her wishes. Maybe I´ll "come out of the closet" as a writer someday, who knows. At the moment I´m too practical to even consider writing. I think I may take it up as a hobby after I graduate from vet school.

I am doing some writing, however, my thesis is slowly growing. I was at a lecture last thursday where a lot of veterinarians were present (of course, since the lecture was on skin diseases in Icelandic horses!), and I managed to trick one of them into helping me do the statistics on my project, since unfortunately I have discovered that my knowlege of statistics has declined considerably.

I am a feminist
In my mind a feminist is someone who recognises that there are gender discriminations in our society, and is willing to do something about it. There is a need to educate a large part of our society about feminism and feminists.

No, we are not ugly women who envy beauty queens and porn stars.
No, we do not burn our bras when we have meetings.
No, we do not hate men, nor are we all lesbians.

Yes, we are women and men (yes, real men are feminists!) from all walks of life, and different ages.
Yes, we are pissed that women do not get paid as much as men for the same job, even if they have a college degree.
Yes, we get angry when we see women are portrayed as objects and others made to feel inferior because they do not fit an "ideal standard of beauty"

No more slaughterhouse
Today was my last day at the slaughterhouse, and I can´t say I was sad to leave... I was offered more work there, but turned it down. I´m looking forward to concentrating on getting my thesis finished, it is no. 1 priority now. After that who knows. I have applied for a job in practice here in Reykjavík, but I don´t know if I´ll get it. I have been offered a research job for 5-7 months, but the pay is lousy, so I will only take it if everything else failes.

How to be hot in Iceland (the country)

This link was on my friendStína´s blog. I always find it fascinating to hear what impression foreigners get of the country and it´s inhabitants. I guess we all like to think we´re special.

My favorite artist

At the moment is American painter Georgia O´Keefe. I saw an exhibition of her work in the Loisiana museum in Denmark a couple of years ago, and it made a big impression on me. I especially like the blown up/zoomed flower pictures and the desert findings.

The feminist association of Iceland
Was present last night, and became a founding member of the feminist association in Iceland. It is about time that we bring new life to the issues of gender discrimination in our society. Afterwards I went to a coffee shop with my friend Herdís, and her 16 year old sister who joined us at the meeting. It was inspirational and fun to talk to a teenage girl, Herdís and I reminisced of our years at MR, the oldest college in Iceland. This year it´ll be 10 years since my graduation... It should be fun to attend a reunion.

How to make bathroom slippers out of Maxi pads
This had me in fits. Just goes to show how much creativity people have!

rantings
I just realised that I haven´t posted anything for 10 days. I had an accident at the slaughterhouse last tuesday, a rack fell on my face (actually it was my own damned fault), I got a nice bruise on my cheek and a small cut as well. It wasn´t that bad really, so I continued working with a big band-aid on my cheek (of course they don´t have any small ones!). By the evening I had a terrible headache from the blow (the rack was filled with ox hearts, probably around 50kg), and the next morning the small cut was infected, so I went to see the doctor to get me some penicillin. When I got home I bumped my head, and later that day my lips broke out in cold sores, so this has definately not been my lucky week! Today I feel tired and drained, plus my face hurts. I need a relaxing weekend, but I also need to work on my thesis or it will never be finished, so I guess I will not be doing any kind of relaxing for at least a couple of weeks...

I´m so tired

Fortunately I´m only working this god awful job two days a week for a month. Today was the second day this week and I´m home, I desperately need a shower, but I´m too tired at the moment to move from this chair. I wish I had a bath so I could soak for an hour in lovely warm water & bubbles. The next place I live needs to have a bathtub!

I have to drag myself to the citchen to make today´s traditional pea soup w. salted lamb meat. Read about this tradition here. Everything in Iceland seems to revolve around food these days, gluttony is all consuming, mmm. Yesterday was "buns day" and we all had some delicious puffy buns filled with fruit jam and whipped cream, topped with chokolate.

The weather has been unusually mild this winter, and it´s looking more and more like springtime. Any other year the ground would be covered in snow and we would all be freezing our butts off. However, It´s not over yet, we often have a bout of bad weather around easter. It´s getting lighter, and lighter in the morning. The sun comes up around 8 now and sets around 6pm, soon the days will get longer and we will have to put up the thick curtains in our bedrooms to be able to sleep. Gísli and I stood for a while in the garden last night watching a fantastic display of northern lights filling the sky right above our house, it looked so beautiful, it´s moments like these when you cherich living on the edge of the civilised world!

Dog training

The puppy is fully toilet trained at last, it did take longer than we expected, but we can only blame ourselves for not being more alert. Especially during the weekends when the scedule is off, one tends to get lazy and not take her out as often as during the week. Dogs certainly are creatures of habit and they don´t understand the difference between monday and saturday! We kicked the cats out of the bedroom after they developed the nasty habit of wanting to be fed at 6am, scratching and meowing at the door to be let out to the kitchen...

Command training is just starting. Since she is only 3 months old we´re starting slowly, with only a few commands. "no" is fairly clear by now, she knows "sit" and we´re working on "stay", "come here" and "lie down". Sessions only last for a few minutes and must always end in big praise.

Have a laugh

Dracula dies and he went to the Pearly Gates to meet God. God refused to let Dracula in because of all the sins that he had done going around sucking blood & killing.
"I'll give you a chance to redeem your sins", said God

"I'll send you back to earth, but not in a human form.You can be reincarnated into any other living things of your choice. So, what would you like to be?"

Still unrepentant, Dracula said, "OK, I want to become a living thing with wings and sucks blood, heh,heh, heh."

"So be it", said God and He turned Dracula into a vampire bat.

So back to earth he went, flying around sucking the blood of animals until one day when he got killed by a farmer. So up he went again to meet God, feeling a little bit sheepish (and a little batty).

"I'll give you another chance", said God. "I'll send you back again. BUT not as a human or a bat. What will it be this time?"

Still adamant, Dracula said, "I still want to be a living thing with wings and sucks blood!"

God thought for a while and then said, "OK, if that's what you want", and turned Dracula into a mosquito.

So back to earth again he went, flying around and sucking blood until one day, splat, he was squashed by his victim. So up he went again to meet God, feeling stupid(and rather bugged)

"I'll give you one last chance to redeem yourself. but, this time you cannot become a living thing. You can only be turned into a non-living thing of your choice. So what will it be?" asked God.

Still stubborn, Dracula said, "Okayyyy...then turn me into a non-living thing with wings and sucks blood!! heh...heh..

"No problem," said God and He turned Dracula into a 'Sanitary Napkin'

Where is my muse?

Have not been feeling very inspired in the last few days, hence the lack of witty (? :-) posts in the past week. Had a wonderful time last night, when a couple of friends came over to watch the first episodes of "sex and the city", before the national Eurovision song contest (to determine which song should compete on Iceland´s behalf in Riga, Lettland in may. I´m pretty happy with the song this year, I must admit that in the past some of them have been rather boring... The furthest Iceland has gone is second place in 1999, I think.

Yellows are the most fun-loving, free-spirited,
energetic, and childlike personalities in the
aura spectrum. Yellows are wonderful,
sensitive, optimistic beings, whose life
purpose is to bring joy to people, to have fun,
and to help heal the planet.


What Is Your True Aura Colour?
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Polydactily

This is a funny word! It means "many digits", and refers to the phenomenon when animals (remember that humans are animals too!) have more than the usual 5 digits. My puppy, Snotra the cute one, has double dewclaws on her hind legs, making her legs look really funny, especially when viewed from behind! This trait is actually a breed standard for the icelandic sheepdog. Some breeds of cats commonly have polydactily too.

Party

Stína´s birthday party friday night was a success, we all had lotsa fun and she definately liked the present. I made her a denim handbag with a purple fake snakeskin border, and a small coin purse to match (from leftover fake snakeskin). I wish I could post a picture, I´m very happy with the way they turned out.

Saturday we slept ´till noon (this is usually not possible, so we enjoyed it to the fullest...), and then went to pick up our son and the puppy from my sister in-law were they had stayed the night. Then a shopping trip to get som coke & chips & candy & video films... Unfortunately I rented "Ash Wednesday" (starring Elija Wood), which looked interesting on the cover but turned out to be pretty boring. Not as bad though as "Scorpion King" that my husband got for us a few days ago, a heavy metal version of Xena, warrior princess. There were a lot of naked ladies, I guess for the guys to look at, but the main actor looked like the men on the cover of soft porno books for bored housewives, long hair, shaved chest and underarms, constantly oiled... and he never took off his loin cloth... Boring!

Sunday there was football practice for Baldur, and afterwards a birthday party, the daughter of a friend of mine turned 7. We had lots of lovely food and cakes. For dinner I made a lovely fish soup. I have never made one before, and I have to say it turned out pretty well, I will definately try it again another time.

Why do people euthanise their pets?

Yesterday I promised to caugh up the answer, so here it is. Jeff, was on the right track regarding the dogs. About half af the dog euthanasias are because of old age or disease. But a disturbing finding is that almost every fourth dog (23%) is euthanised because of behavioral problems! These are treatable in most cases, but need work. The cats are a different story, according to my research only a quarter is euthanised because of disease or old age. Convenience reasons (we are moving, taking a long vacation, someone developed allergies (I suspect this is often given as an "excuse" because people can´t deal with the responsibility of having a pet)) are 35% of the reasons given, another 17% is behavioral problems (this was a big surprise for me, I thought these were much less common in cats), and 15% is trauma (usually run over by car or fell down from window). These findings are consistant with the few studies that have been made on this issue, in Denmark, Scotland and Canada.

How am I feeling?


Balanced. You accept your emotions as normal and
are not overly happy nor depressed. You are
emotionally balanced and should find peace in
the way you deal with life situations. Your
emotions are normal and well understood. You
see the light in the dark.


How Emotional Are You?
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Let it snow

It´s snowing outside, beatiful, large, flaky chrystals of snow. And I feel drunk from the new caugh syrup the doctor gave me... In future I will not take it in the morning... I don´t feel so good today, after four weeks of caughing night and day, and this week I have a cold too. I have been feeling very warm for the last couple of days, but refuse to admit sickness, as I have a big party at Stína´s tonight (that is if she hasn´t postponed it again, I haven´t checked my e-mail today ;-) The present has been ready for a week, and I can´t wait to see if she likes it. Now I have to figure out what to give Herdís for her birthday that´s coming up on feb. 20th, if my memory serves me right? However, she is not turning 30 like the rest of us, no, she is so young, the hurricane.

My husband told me last night that he was disapointed that he can´t tell people "my wife is dirty and I´m dirty-two", since he´ll be thirty three before I turn thirty, ah well, it still is a good joke!

My friend, who will remain anonymous, told me the other day that her husband gave her a hands-free set for her mobile phone for her 30th birthday last year. I was shocked to hear this! I hate it when people expect you to read their minds (women do this a lot), so I decided to tell my husband right away that I was not getting any mobile phone accessories for my big 3 O! I´m not usually very sensitive about presents, I often choose them myself, and they tend to be sensible presents. Like last year I bought the present myself (they were new hiking boots, with shoes you have to try them on yourself anyway), and even haggled the price down 30%! This year, I told Gísli, I want something impractical and romantic, like jewels, and you have to buy them yourself. And there you have it, we will not be having an argument or anyone being hurt, because they wanted something and didn´t tell the other one, because "if you love me, you´ll know what I want" That´s crap. Noone I know can actually read minds. The people that tell you they can are fakes for sure!

Crafts

I haven´t done any crocheting for a while, however I have been sewing some, got the bug after making my sister that bag for christmas. I bought some fabric for a bag for myself, but haven´t started it yet. I want to make the design myself too, will have to think some more before cutting the fabric, it is some pretty expensive velvet... I have also taken up knitting again, after finding an old project in the garage. The weather has been really bad and I want to make myself a big, fluffy and warm scarf.

Now you are all going to think that I have stopped working on my paper, but I haven´t! Honest! Crafts are for nighttime and weekends only. The writing is coming along slowly, not having much luck getting results from the vets out of town though, so I guess the results will be from the city mainly. Do you want to know the main reasons people in Reykjavik have for euthanising their cats and dogs? I will tell you tomorrow, I have to do some calculations today...

Caugh, caugh

I have been caughing non-stop for almost 4 weeks now. Finally gave in and saw a doctor this morning to get me some prescription caugh syrup, the kind that makes you unable to operate heavy machinery... I have been having trouble sleeping because of the caughing, after drinking some of the codein/morfine solution I should sleep like a baby from now on...

Ain´t that the truth

From the movie "the Matchmaker": The relationship pie: Love, havin´a laugh, eating and sex.

My weekend

I went to see a play on saturday night, with my friend. It was a monologue about the stress of a modern, working mom´s day. It was hilarious, so many things reminding me of my own life. The actress and writer, Björk Jakobsdóttir, has sold the rights to several countries, including the USA, so more people will get to see it, the play´s called "Sellofon", after advice she read in a woman´s magazine on how to turn on your man; no. 8 wrap yourself in sellofon and wait for him to return from work...

Yesterday we lay around the house, not doing much of anything, just relaxing. Drove our son to football practice in the afternoon, and watched a video after he was gone to bed. As a result of this lazyness we didn´t watch the dog closely enough, and we had several accidents in the house. Today is starting out better. It´s true that dogs are creatures of habit, and they definately do not understand the concept of a weekend... She seemes to understand that it´s better to deposit outside, but still hasn´t figured out how to tell us she needs to go, she just needs a little time. I think it´s now time to gently start teaching "sit" and "down". She responds to her name by now, and comes running when you call her, well, at least most of the time... It´s important to imprint a positive experience with her name and calling her to come, never shout or tell her off if she runs away and then comes back. Only praise.

Our team wound up in seventh place in the handball world championship. I think that´s pretty good for a nation of 250 thousand souls. Most of the other countries have millions of athletes to choose from. We were the only scandinavian country to ensure ourselves a right to compete at next year´s olympic games in greece.

Diarrhea, ta ra ra, Diarrhea, ta ra ra

Puppy girl had the runs yesterday. Probably a result of the change in environment and diet. She didn´t eat a lot and was rather off last night. Even with the runny stool she only had one accident on the floor, everything else deposited in the back-yard. Things are looking good in that department, at least. This morning she was a lot perkier, and ate a full ration at lunch, and in the afternoon the poop was back to normal. Now I sound like someone who has just had a baby, all poop talk!

I love animals
This is rather unnerving.

Well, after reading this I will not be offering IAMS food to my pets or selling their products in my clinic. Proctor & gamble, the company that produces IAMS is also the world´s biggest manufactuor of cosmetics and household cleaning products (Max Factor, Pampers, Ariel and many more). They use animal testing for almost all their products, at an estimated rate of about 50 thousand animals per year. I will be boycotting their products for good now (actually I already preferred to use products that are safe for the environment as well as not tested on animals, for obvious reasons), and I challenge you to do the same.

It is my professional and personal oppinion as a biologist, veterinarian and human being that testing cosmetics on animals is cruel and unneccessary.

Football

My son started football practice today (that´s soccer to you americans). He´s rehersing with the local football club "Viking" (what else?).

Today was busy, there was no school, they had some kind of organizing to do. So there was a lot of him going outside to play and coming in every five minutes to ask when football practice starts (it started at a quarter to ten in the morning, practice started at 4pm...). Then we went shopping, by foot since we only have one car and Gísli drives it to work. Then out again to see him to practice and pick him up again an hour later.

He seemed very happy, I´m glad that he shows an interest in sports, my husband and I never did... However, we do now follow the world championship in handball, as us Icelanders have a world class team this year.

Am also busy making the birthday present for my friend Stína... no I will not tell you what it is!

Cats and dogs

The cats are beginning to lighten up, but poor Sómi is having a hard time with accepting our newests member of the family. The cats are barely out of kittenhood themselves, so they should adapt quickly.

It´s really hilarious to watch them with her. Fróði is very curious about her, and is coming closer every day, he steps up to inspect her when she falls asleep on the floor. When she is awake however there is total miscomunication going on, she wags her tail and they think she´s angry, she gets down on her front legs to inlicit play and they think she´s going to attack. She loves stealing their toys, they have such cool things as sponge balls and furry mice. Yesterday, Fróði lay down in her new bed, like he was trying it on for size...

Sómi is having a hard time with this, I was getting worried that he hadn´t eaten a lot since saturday when the "beast" arrived. So yesterday I cooked some fish for them, which he was too afraid to eat, and he used to be the gourmet of the two, getting a big belly before he was even fully grown! This was pretty serious, so tonight I left him alone in the bathroom with a bowl of food, topped with some delicious fish. This morning we were releaved to find that he had eaten almost everything, so I will try to stop worrying about feline fatty liver syndrome...

Where Did Your Soul Originate?
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Poop scoop...

I just cleaned up the second poop-accident. I was too slow to take her to the garden after brekfast, I was hoping she would last until my son had finished his. She couldn´t. I didn´t see her do it, so there was no point in telling her off.

However, I think that it´s pretty good that there have only been two such, in three days. Most of the time she goes in the garden. There have been no accidents during the night, she seems to understand by now that it´s better to do these things outside. Yesterday she didn´t pee inside either the whole day, until the afternoon when everyone got home, we started making dinner, watching telly and other stuff and did not pay as much attention. My guess is that by the end of the week we will have ourselves a toilet trained dog. This will be achieved without shouting, and I will never, I repeat, NEVER rub my dog´s nose in it´s droppings. That is so filthy and disgusting, and I can´t believe people were stupid enough to think of it. My way, the whole process is painless for everyone involved, no screaming and shouting, no filth, no heartbreak. Wanna know how to do it? If you´re good I might share the secret...

Toilet training
So far we have only had one poop accident in the house, otherwise it´s been deposited in the garden. For me this means that toilet training is coming along nicely. Last time we had a dog was our first time, and I definately think we learnt a lesson in doggy upbringing. Last time we made all the mistakes, this time it´s gonna be right!

We have only heard the dog bark a couple of times, she was probably too nervous the first day! But she seems to be a quiet dog by nature, which is releaving. Icelandic sheepdogs have had some bad rep about being barkers, but I think a lot of this is undeserved, as they have traditionally been kept in rural areas and not trained at all. At least Snotra´s parents did not bark at all when we came to visit on saturday, not when we knocked on the door, and not when we left with their baby... Very promising with regards to lacking barking-genes.

She is so adorable! I wish I had a digital camera, so I could post some pictures. You will just have to look at the pictures on Icelandic sheepdog sites. This one also has some information about Iceland. Here is an article on the features of the Icelandic Sheepdog.

Puppy

Big news today. We have been talking about getting a puppy again for a few weeks, and yesterday we did it! We saw an ad in the newspaper for some Icelandic sheepdog puppies for sale in a small town near Reykjavík. So we took a little trip in the afternoon and chose a redish colored little bitch from the remaining 3 puppies. We decided on the name Snotra, which means pretty in Icelandic, a typical name for an Icelandic dog. She is purebred, we saw both mom and dad, but not breed registered, but we don´t care about that, since we are not planning to show her or breed from her.

The price of purebread puppies here in Iceland is very high, due to the high cost of importing dogs (there is a six week quarantine on a remote island to the north of the country, so there is also a considerable cost of transport), as well as the fact that importing dogs was illegal until a few years ago. This was due to the fear of losing our relatively disease-free status in the animal population here. However, people still wanted to have dogs, so there was some smugling, about ten years ago parvo was introduced to the population and there was a huge death toll (mostly puppies and older dogs), since none of them was vaccinated. Today the import ban has been lifted, the dogs are vaccinated, but we keep the quarantine to try and prevent any further disease spread, and protect our rabies-free status. There is some talk though to abandon quarantine for passport and vaccinations like they did in the UK.

Anyway, we are enjoying the recent addition to our family, she is still a little apprehensive, especially whith the cats following her everywhere and hissing if she comes too close! Toilet training has commenced, we have managed to avoid poops inside so far, she has been good about going in the garden. The peeing is a little harder, less predictable, however she has shown definite progress already.

Snow
At last we have snow in Reykjavík, Iceland. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but this winter has not been like a winter at all here, at 66° north, until a few days ago. Today we had wet snow, the most perfect kind to make a snowman. My son made one in our garden, I helped putting him together, we didn´t have a carrot, so he has a cellery nose... I hope he will still be there in the morning, the weather forecast sais degrees above freezing tomorrow too.

Try this link: random blog redirect. Addictive

The wonderful world of...
I haven´t talked about vet med in my blog for a while now. I guess the paper is not so much fun to talk about... I have not done any veterinary work to speak of since I was at Höfn in november. Only this one time, a couple of weeks ago, when my sister in-law asked me to check on one of their horses that had conjuctivitis. This condition is very frustrating to treat, there are no infectious diseases in Icelandic horses, and this type of infection seems to ocur from dust from the hay getting into the horse´s eye. This can lead to chronic eye infection and for some reason is very difficult to treat successfully. I prescribed some antibiotic ointment to be put in the eye once a day for a week. I haven´t really heard back from her about the progress. Hope it went well...

And now for something completely different...

1. Two vultures board an aeroplane, each carrying two dead raccoons. The flight attendant looks at them and says, "I'm sorry, gentlemen, only one carrion allowedper passenger."

2. Two boll weevils grew up in South Carolina. One went to Hollywood and became a famous actor. The other stayed behind in the cotton fields and never amounted to much. The second one, naturally, became known as the lesser of two weevils.

3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it, too.

4. A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the Old West. He slides up to the bar and announces: "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."

5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal filling at the orthodontist? He wanted to transcend dental medication.

6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."

7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a pictureof Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

8. Some friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent floristfriars.

9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him ...what? (Oh, this is so bad, it's good!) A super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

10. And finally, there was the person who told ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

I found these on Ann´s blog

THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!

This is rather alarming...

Link courtesy of Hafdís

Humor
is very imortant in life. I think one of the reasons my husband and I have managed to stay together for so long (almost 12 years) is that we can always make each other laugh. The other day we were discussing hosehold chores.

I said "You know I don´t like housework, I think you should do everything, I´ll just do the things I like, like making bread and sewing"

"What do you mean, I only married you ´cause I thought you were housewife of the year"

"Nope, sorry, you got that all wrong. And I would never vote for you as housewife of the year"

"But I cook for you all the time!"

"That´s just because you want to make me fat so other men will stop looking at me"

"Well, that´s true"

I just finished reading a swedish feminist book my friend Erna lent to me the other day. I think the book´s name translates as "pussy willow" or something like that. All the authors are young women, and they talk openly about the injustices our sex must endure. For example, who hasn´t heard a girl or a woman referred to as "slut" if she has had more than one sexual partner (even if it´s not true!), but a man who has "had" a lot of women is considered cool? It only took me a couple of days to read, I couldn´t put it down.

quote from "Pussy willow":
Being a woman means that the shoe doesn´t fit. Being a feminist means realising and telling people that it´s not because the foot is too big, but because the shoe is too small.

Radio Gaga
I called a radio station the other day for the first time since I was a teenager. They had a quiz where they played the first 10 seconds from a song and listeners could call in the right answer and win a prize. I have no idea what the prize was, I just had to call ´cauze I knew exactly what song it was. Naturally there was no answer, and I got quite worked up when other listeners got thru with the wrong answer. I found myself hissing at the radio "no it´s not wham you moron", until someone finally got the right answer and I could stop waysting my time... The song was "tell her about it" by Billy Joel, my absolute favorite of all time. I think I have been a fan since I was 10.

Lyrics to "Video" by India Arie

Sometimes I shave my legs and sometimes I don't
Sometimes I comb my hair and sometimes I won't
Depend on how the wind blows I might even paint my toes
It really just depends on whatever feels good in my soul
I'm not the average girl from your video
and I ain't built like a supermodel
But, I Learned to love myself unconditionally
Because I am a queen
I'm not the average girl from your video
My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes
No matter what I'm wearing I will always be India Aria
When I look in the mirror the only one there is me
Every freckle on my face is where it's supposed to be
And I know our creator didn't make no mistakes on me
My feet, my thighs, my lips, my eyes I'm lovin' what I see
I'm not the average girl from your video
and I ain't built like a supermodel
But, I Learned to love myself unconditionally
Because I am a queen
I'm not the average girl from your video
My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes
No matter what I'm wearing I will always be India Aria
Am I less of a lady If I don't wear panty hoes?
My mama said a lady ain't what she wears but, what she knows
But, I've drawn a conclusion, it's all and illusion confusions the name of the game
A misconception, a vast deception
Something's gotta change
Don't be offended this is all my opinion
ain't nothing that I'm sayin law
This is a true confession of a life learned lesson I was sent here to share with ya'll
So get in where you fit in go on and shine
Free your mind, nows the time
Put your salt on the shelf
Go head and love yourself
Cuz everything's gonna be all right
I'm not the average girl from your video
and I ain't built like a supermodel
But, I Learned to love myself unconditionally
Because I am a queen
I'm not the average girl from your video
My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes
No matter what I'm wearing I will always be India Aria
Keep your fancy drinks and your expensive minks
I don't need that to have a good time
Keep your expensive car and your Caviar
All I need is my guitar
Keep your krystyle and your pistol
I'd rather have a pretty piece of Crystal
Don't need no silicone I prefer my own
What God gave me is just fine
I'm not the average girl from your video
and I ain't built like a supermodel
But, I Learned to love myself unconditionally
Because I am a queen
I'm not the average girl from your video
My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes
No matter what I'm wearing I will always be India Aria

This is one of my favorite lyrics of all time, she says so wonderfully what I´m thinking...
I found this text on yimpian, but had to edit a couple of lines and correct some spelling first... They got a couple of things wrong!

Eggs
Do you ever wonder where your eggs come from? Check out these sites from the Australian RSPCA, the british chicken rescue, as well as the canadian Vancouver humane society...

I just got a brand new diary from the Icelandic Veterinary Association with my name inscribed on the cover, how cool. I almost feel like a real vet... I have started serious work on my thesis. I have quit all other activities from 9-4 and started going to the library in the morning as if I were going to work, which I kinda am. So far so good, got some feedback from my teachers and feel more confident on the structure, feel like I am half way there, however all the epidemiologic calculations still lie ahead...

Frodo and Sam

I feel compelled to tell you about my kittens. Their names are Fróði and Sómi, Fróði is named after one of our earlier cats and Sómi after the cat that moved in with my parents in-law from across the street and lived to the ripe old age of 17, helped by a generous diet topped with raw meat, fish, shrimp and lobster, provided by my late father in-law, who was a great animal lover. Incidentally their names correspond with the Icelandic translation of the main hobbit characters of Lord of the Rings, Frodo and Sam. Coinicidence?

Fróði was chosen by my husband while I was away in California, to be our son´s first very own personal pet. The cat seemed to take to this role from the start, following his friend around and sleeping in his bed. He likes being stroked, but not held. That is, if we pick him up he will struggle to get free, but when little Baldur holds him he is very calm, even in the oddest postitions... He has always been very fond of water and now his favorite place to sleep is the bathroom sink. He will not move, even if you turn on the water to wash your hands, on the contrary he seems fascinated to watch the water trickle down his coat. The only thing that can get him out of the way is the smell of toothpaste, go Colgate! He also likes to lie in the shower and watch the drain (???), even if there is water in there, then he will stand and shake like a dog to splash the water on anyone standing by. He is turning into a beautiful cat, sleek and long, with a solid gray coat and the facial features of an oriental cat w. the high cheek bones.

Sómi is quite different. He came to us from a family that couldn´t keep him anymore because their youngest child has asthma (this is their story). He had a little hernia, that I closed at the same time as castrating them. He was supposed to be a month older than the other one, but this is definately bullshit, since he was a lot smaller and also lost his milk teeth a couple of weeks after the other one, my guess he is about a month younger and was taken too soon from his mom. He is the cutest little thing, reminds me of that cute cat Garfield hated so much. His fur is black and white, still soft like a kitten´s now that he is almost a year old. He seemed to have a great need for suckling and at first he would suckle on Fróði´s fur. After a while Fróði got sick of this and told him off. Since then he has taken to suckling the fur on his own tummy and consequently has a couple of spots where the hair is getting thinner from wear... I will have to do something about this, time to test my skill with behavior modification...

Anyway, anyone who has owned pets will understand me when I say how much they contribute to the family. To me there is no home without a pet (you would be surprised to know how many vets do not share this opininon!). It´s funny how you feel all fuzzy inside when you stroke them and they rub their cheeks against your hand or face, scentmarking you as "their" person.

to be continued...

, Ása Ólafsdóttir is one of the artists. In my opinion she is very talented and her work appeals to me, probably because I like doing it myself, she mostly does needlework (cross stitch), but also some picture weaving and painting. She dyes all the yarn herself and her work is like painting with thread on canvas. There was an aspect of the show that intrigued me, they had a video running in a little room, where you could see the artists at work in their studios. Often there is so much labour behind every piece of finished art work, and one rarely gets to see inside the artists studio, for me this was very interesting and gave a whole new outlook on the projects.

Art exhibition
Yesterday I went to an art exhibition, called Samspil, in Hafnarborg, Hafnarfjörður. My dad´s girlfriend, No comments:

Lord of the Rings
I saw LOTR II on saturday, I think director Peter Jackson has done a good job on this ambitious project. However, the movies are not quite as spectacular as the ones playing in my head when I read the books... I have been a fan of the books for many years, ever since they were published in icelandic. I was always going to read them in english, but never got around to it, then when they were published in icelandic (the first one in 1993) I got the first one for christmas and stayed up all night reading. Been hooked since...

I tried a few of the quizzes out there and I kept getting elfish results, either Legolas, Arwen or Galadriel, guess I´m kind of elfish!? Next to the elfs my favorite characteres are the hobbits, a hobbit´s hole sounds like a good place to live. Tolkien used to say that in all respects other than size he was a hobbit.

What LoTR Character Are You?

I'm Arwen! Who are you?
by eikocarolchan

If I lived in Middle-Earth, it would be in: The Shire The rolling green hills, the springtime weather, and especially being surrounded by the ones you love makes the Shire a comfortable area for you. You love being surrounded only by the ones you care about, and you only desire this in an environment that is vast and open to nature, unlike in the cities or the caves. Take the "Where in Middle-Earth Would I Live?" Quiz by skepticism

At last the holidays are over, the thirteenth and last day of Christmas (at least that´s the tradition here in Iceland, don´t ask me why) is tomorrow, back to school for my son and back to writing my d/&$# report for me. Hubby started working last thursday. He has decided to go back to school, to become a master of his trade, auto mechanics. Here in Iceland (probably it´s the same in most countries), auto mechanics and other craftsmen must complete this course to be able to hire apprentices, and also it is a good course on running your own business. I think this is an excellent idea, although this will mean a lot of work for him, as it is a night school and we will not see each other four days a week while he is in school. However the course is only two semesters so we will probably survive this as we have other things in the past.

New Years Eve was spent at home, just the three of us. We had a gorgeous meal as always and shot up lots of fireworks, I read somewhere that Icelanders blew up 3 tonns of fireworks this New Years Eve, so you can imagine the lights over our little city! We have an excellent view from our flat and enjoyed the show. However, tonight I am cursing the bastards that did not finish on New Years Eve and are blowing the blasted things at 11pm on a sunday night, although my son has always been able to sleep through anything, bless the little angel. Tomorrow on the last day of Christmas there is a tradition for shooting some fireworks too, so we will probably finish our little stash after dinner tomorrow. We don´t usually spend a lot of money on fireworks, but this year my husband got some as a christmas present from his company.

A lot of people fus over how much money is spent on the holidays buying presents and fireworks. To me it´s very simple. People can do whatever they want with their hard earned money, if they have lots they can buy expensive presents and light the rest up on New Years Eve, those that have less give less expensive presents and watch the others burn their money on New Years Eve. Those that buy presents they can´t afford and have to pay for until the end of september next year are not very wise and will probably never have any money, since they don´t have any sense in their little brains (I was going to say they were stupid twits, but was afraid of hurting someones feelings...).