Humor
June 24, 2010 | Family,Norway,Traveling,Vacation
Want to reduce a 7-year-old to a mass of hysterical giggles? Show him this sign.
Then show him again.
*giggle*
(It’s a sign for speed bumps.)
Living in a Noggin-Google world
July 3, 2008 | Family,Stuff,Traveling,Vacation
Conversation overheard between two cousins during our family vacation.
5-year-old: “Do you have Noggin?”
6-year-old:“Umm, no. [pause] Do you have Google?”
Runnin’ with the devil
July 2, 2008 | Stuff,Traveling,Vacation
This one’s for Sarah.
Forgive me, Blogland, it’s been 13 days since my last post
June 23, 2008 | Stuff,Traveling,Vacation
No, we’re not here, but we passed through St. Louis on our trip up.
More pictures and details to come. Gotta post this before I lose Internet connection agai…
Answer: Floods, tornadoes and natural disasters
June 10, 2008 | Stuff,Traveling,Vacation
Question: What is, what’s happening where we plan to go on vacation, Alex? Because we are cursed. Cursed, Alex, when it comes to vacations.
Call Guinness*! I think we’re about to set a record
February 12, 2008 | Family,Getting sick,Health,Norway,Traveling,Vacation
See that? That’s how much the Kristiansund Hospital in Norway wants for one overnight stay for my daughter in December. That’s NOK 9750,00 (Norwegian kroner) or about $1,780. That brings our running tab for this vacation to almost $14,000. For three weeks — and one day (thanks, Haris) — in Norway. Next time a Norwegian says they have “free” health care? Don’t believe it. I never have. Paying a 50-percent income tax rate when we lived in Norway was enough to make me believe that nothing is free.
So, dear Norwegian Consulate in Houston, can you help a mother out? (Or anyone? Please?) It apparently doesn’t matter that our daughter has dual citizenship, a Norwegian passport and a Norwegian identification number. I know she doesn’t live in Norway, but this was an emergency.
I suppose it wasn’t great timing for the hospital stay, considering all the news about Gro Harlem Brundtland at the time. Norwegians were all up in arms about her use of the Norwegian health-care system. She’s a former Norwegian prime minister. She’s also a physician and former head of the World Health Organization. (Sorta ironic, no?) She’s retired now and lives in France, and Norwegians weren’t about to let her get “free” health care that included a hip operation. Never mind that she probably paid up to half of her lifetime salary in taxes to pay for Norway’s “free” health care. And never mind that she’s one of those people Norway’s system is supposed to care for in its cradle-to-grave “safety net.”
…
*I meant this Guinness.
But a few of these wouldn’t hurt. (Although, who has money for beer? Sigh.)
P.S. The bill arrived today. I’m afraid to check my mail anymore.