70% Cocoa makes for awesome chocolate...

This is a lovely decadent treat, this is. My future mother-in-law is a sweetheart.

Today - slept in 'til noon, or later. (Which works, since I only went to sleep around 3 or 4am or so.) Today, arwen77 had to work, so Bente (said future mother-in-law) took me around the area. Trondelag it's called, I think. I have a map, for all the good it does me. We went to the local church, built in 1868, and very nice. It's apparently been built on the site of ancient heathen rituals involving blood sacrifice. There are some really odd head sculptures up at the roof, all along both side walls. The glass paintings are excellent, and the organ is amazing.

We looked around the graveyard there too, and I saw some old stones, as well as some newer ones. Some of the family history, I learned too, though I've lost the names of the people. Some about an 8 year old cousin of Arwen77 who died 2 days before his eighth birthday. That's just sad, that is. Poor little child.

We also went to an art gallery and saw some interesting impressionist art - the painter was very talented. There was work there by a sculptor, Nils Aas, that was pretty neat. We actually went through a small walk in a garden, where there were some sculptures by the same guy. The little housecat he did had quite obviously seen a dog. Literally, since a family was picnicking with a small black cocker spaniel. Friendly little thing, it was too. There was a cue little Norwegian boy too, he was imitating the sculpture of the Ekorn (squirrel!) quite well, though he was a little hesitent when he saw he had an audience. The sculptor and the painter (Weidermann, I think was his name, but I'm not sure) were very talented. In fact, it's the same painter who did the glass paintings (stained glass) in the church we went to.

We had lunch in an old old building. I forget when it was built, but in the 1600's sometime. It's all wood, with low ceilings. And the deck goes out over the water of the fjord, so Bente and I ate over the fjord, and watched the tide come in. The food was good, the water was drinkable, and the seagulls were obnoxious. I also saw a couple of pica-picas, a cute little sparrow sort of bird, and some crows. We walked around the village - it's an old village with quaint and beautiful houses.

I am bemused at the absolutely gorgeous gardens people have here.

We drove over a couple of bridges and around two fjords. I got to put my feet in the North Sea, just to add to the collection of bodies of water I have put at least my feet in. Hey, that water was numbingly cold. No way I was going in any further than that!

We had a good time, and saw a lot of nice scenery. Then it started to rain. We stopped at the grocery store, and got taco fixings for dinner. The gas machine wouldn't work though, so Bente's gas mower still won't mow the lawn. Gosh darn.

So, home we went, and since it was raining, we rescued the cushions for the patio furniture, so they could dry off. Then I pulled out *gasp* a cross stitch pattern. Yes, I did. I actually spent over 2 hours working on one of my unfinished cross stitch projects. And you know, the funniest thing is that Bente has a couple of those too, so she pulled one out and we kept each other company as we cross stitched together. I like cross stitching with company.

I really do need to start up a craft night, once a week at my house. Anyone interested?

And then we had dinner, and the boy came home from work, and joined us. And then it got mostly dark, and we came down here, and I'm writing this up. Hopefully I didn't miss anything.

Tomorrow - shopping.