Beautiful weather

Saturday morning, 3-1-86

Dear ones,

We have had beautiful clear weather, or mostly so, for quite a spell. We even had 2 or 3 days this week when it got up to freezing – so imagine we have had a little melting. It doesn’t show much except we see a few bare spots on sidewalks. And it is sloppy downtown. Do you suppose when it melts it runs down all these hills thru town to the fjord?

With the dollar value dropping, we keep losing buying power. Our January rent was the same as $533 and our March rent will be the same as $578. It is taking more of our dollars to equal the kroners – We’ve been trying to figure out these past couple of days if we will have enough for our traveling in May and June. I may have to write home for more money. When we talked last fall about this apartment, I think it was in Oct., it would have cost us $480. Supposedly, it is good for the country’s trade, but if tourists are like us, it means they buy less, so the foreign countries don’t gain. However, maybe foreign trade between countries is not comparable to tourist spending. Oh well, we have our tickets, we can always come back.

It’s good to hear that Ryan has grown! Will that rate, well that’s a dumb question – he obviously won’t grow that much every month, right?

Hey, Mom, suppose I’ve read that verse before but didn’t remember it. I take it to mean foolish genealogies, and I don’t think mine is. We are talking about Titus 3:9 (for the rest of your information).

I’m not sure what we are doing today. Vince said something about getting the car washed. It is quite dirty. They told us at the factory in Sweden that Norway doesn’t use salt – but they do – at least here in Oslo. Yesterday, we took it to a Volvo garage for its first service. We have almost 1200 miles on it. We paid for only the oil, the filter, grease or whatever. It still cost us 280 NKr (or $40.00). The bus route for getting home again or go someplace else (for most of the day) was so complicated, we took a taxi home, and then back again when it was done.

Vince had such a good day at the University on Wednesday – getting the experiment ready to go, etc. that he announced when he came home that he wasn’t going back till next Tuesday. This experiment and research has to do with denture adhesives. He has read all the papers and research and information (well, if not all, a great deal), so he has gained another area of expertise. It’s a bit out of his field as a fixed (Crown & Bridge) prosthodontist since it is in Removable (Partials and Full Dentures) Prosthetics; but there is talk at Iowa of making the 2 just 1 department, anyway. Have I written that before? He was told again on Wednesday how good his presentation on acid-etch bridges the previous Friday had been – the Prosthodontists here had poor results with the technique so had given it up. But now since Vince’s talk, they are going to look at it again! It made him feel really good.

Thursday Vince and I decided to see a couple of things downtown – we rode in on the trikk with Jene when she went to her class. We went to the Defense (Forvarsmuseet) Museum and looked at the weapons of Norway from the 900’s on. It was interesting, but very little in English. Even with a map, we had to ask directions on just exactly where the building was. We must have spent 2 hours walking through 2 floors of exhibits – then we had a sandwich in the cafeteria, and then walked to the National Gallery. It was 3 (15:00) p.m. when we got there and it closed at 4; but an hours was long enough for us to walk through 3 floors of paintings and sculptures. We almost skipped the first floor because it was ‘modern art’ and that’s usually pretty abstract. But in that section was the only painting that really struck Vince’s fancy. We didn’t see any that we particularly liked done by well-known artists or Norwegian artists. Now we don’t know if we will go to the Munch (Norway’s most famous artist) Museum. He willed all his paintings to Oslo – well, not all – but I suppose all that hadn’t been sold to or done for others. We just aren’t “arty” people, I guess, though I was able to explain some of the paintings to Vince because of the lecture I went to on Norwegian artists.

By the time we got to the trikk I told Vince that the hardest part of the day would be to walk from the trikk to the apt. after sitting down for awhile. My feel were killing me – if I’d seen a T-shirt that waid “I walked my feet off in Oslo” I would have bought it, I think. But it was rush hour and the trikk had standing room only, so I didn’t have to worry. Vince stayed home on Tuesday, and read/studied here. I ironed the shirts. In the afternoon, we went to the grocery store. He can’t figure out why I let him go long here, when I don’t want him along at home. He decided a cake would taste good so bought a mix, also a box of frosting mix (I thought). I baked the cake maybe on Wednesday evening (I had gone down to the Library on Wednesday – the walk wasn’t so bad – most of the sidewalk was clear of ice). I didn’t find a cake pan but used a bread pan. It wasn’t a 9 x 6 – more like a 3 x 12. So I got a long narrow load cake. What I though was frosting was filling (pudding) so I sliced the cake in half, put filling between the layers, more on top. We ate it!

We are invited out tonight – to the home of the head of the Prosthetic Dept. Jene is invited for pizza to the couple downstairs. She has ‘baby’ sat for them a couple of times. All for now –

Love, Verla and Vince