Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Note to my followers

Hi all!

Sorry for the lack of updates the last few weeks and the lack of comments on all your wonderful blogs.

The lump on my tummy that I previously mentioned in another post turned out to be a metastasis of a rare type of bone cancer called a chondrosarcoma. It has nothing to do with my previous breast cancer, it's an entirely different disease alltogether. Sarcomas of different kinds only affect about a 150 people in Norway every year. I've spent the last few weeks going through various consultations and tests, and now I'm waiting for the results of them. This type of cancer is only curable by surgery, chemo and radiation don't work on it. If it has spread too much, there's nothing they can do. I'll get the final conclusion by the end of this week.

I've been so tired that I simply have lacked the energy to update my blog, but I'll try and get around to it shortly.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Ferrets on vacation


Hi! We're Manson (5), Lemmy (3) and Mia (4).

This past week we've had the pleasure of going to Sniffmom's flat on vacation while mum and dad have been away on business. It's the third time we've come to stay, and previous pictures of our antics around the flat can be found here. (For some reason only pictures found on page 2 and 3 in that thread will enlarge when clicked on.)

Semi Expat in Oz wants to know what we're like, having around as pets. Also, Cute dog Olive has dished out the Versatile Blogger award to our host.


On behalf of our host we thank you for the award. Since one of the requirements of accepting the award is to share seven things about oneself, we thought that would be a great way of accomodating the request for knowledge about us and our furry relatives.

1) We're something like a mix of a dog, a cat and a human baby. We can be potty trained like cats, taught to walk outside on a leash like dogs, and even if we sleep a lot (up to 20 hrs a day),
 

we're very social and playful when we're awake. We loooooooooove digging in soil. If you leave your 20 potted plants within our reach, we'll be extremely proud to show you how fast we can dig them up. ALL of them!

2) We greatly enjoy playing hide and seek in all kinds of bags. Your Chanel purse will do us nicely. However, we're not that picky, so a simple plastic bag will suffice, too:


and we also do carpets, so you should mind where you put you're feet if you're not certain where we are:


We often like stealing things and hiding them too. We might prefer the insoles of your shoes or your socks. But it can even be your towels, if only we can get to them:


3) Sometimes we're used by farmers to hunt down and kill rodents. We've also been used to stretch electrial cables in pipes underneat the ground or the water. That's because we're tunnel specialists. There's simply nothing more fun than to explore tunnels - of any kind:


4) We prefer living together with one or more furry friends, and even if there's only one of us alone around the home we need company, attention, games and activity not to become depressed.

Lemmy: Hmm..it's lonely out there on the floor on my own. Think I need some company.
Aahh..much better!

Sometimes, we do like to be left completely alone, though:
Mia: He was almost suffocating me!
Let me out of here! Please, please...
Now we're talking! Spare hiding places are just soooo great!

5) While we do like to have a couple of hiding places to move to when we're tired or want to sleep, we're not suited to live our lives locked up in a small cage, only being allowed to come out for half an hour or so every day. We need room to run around freely to stay happy, healty and fit. Wherever we're living though, the place has to be absolutely secure so that we can't hurt ourselves. We have bad eyesight, especially in daylight, and we lack the balance of cats. We have a great sense of smell and hearing, though. But our main feature is that we're curious, and we'll check out absolutely everything and every hole we can get into:


6) Most of us are very sweet and never bite, or only do so if someone really scares us. Just as we can be trained to use a sand litter box, we can be trained not to bite. However, some of us do occasionally test our teeth if you tempt us enough:

Manson really, really liked the taste of the foot cream combined with some skin.

7) If it's cold or rainy, you don't have to take us out. But we do enjoy fresh air every now and then:

Oooh..the smell of flowers and sound of birds...
Yawn....Isn't she done with the camera yet?

Now, that's it from us. Hope you enjoyed seeing our vacation pictures!
Greetings from

Lemmy,
Mia,
& Manson

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Happy birthday, sis!

Today's my sister's birthday! Congrats!

Here we are in our national costumes (in Norwegian it's called bunad) a couple of weeks back, at my nephew's confirmation.


Bunads are different in colors and design depending on what part of the country they are from. Ours are from northern Norway, where my mother's family comes from. Our late grandma made them for us when we were still teenagers. My green one is the inland version, while my sister has the coast version. These types of garments are used especially during our National Day on May 17th, and on big occasions like weddings, confirmations and other grand gala events.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

"Well, hello there lover!"

Meet Pablo:



From Jimmy Choo's Pre Fall 10 collection, which can be seen in all its awesomeness here. Swoooooon!

(Photos by Jimmy Choo).

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Hot pink comfort


Filled with anticipation I ventured out today to try the pedicure treatment at a new beauty salon located on the top floor of one of the most exclusive department stores in Oslo. I see a pedicurist regularly, but she wasn't available until the end of next week, and then I'm out of town. So when I got an appointment for today at that new salon, I jumped at the possibilitiy of getting my feet done while also trying someplace new.

Disappointment is too weak a word for what I experienced. I will not go into the rather gross details of what transpired. Let's just say that after the first 15 minutes of the 60 minute treatment I felt just as dirty as one would if applying only perfume without showering after running a marathon. A few minutes later, I just couldn't take it anymore. I got up and left. I offered to pay for parts of the treatment, but I guess since I was so utterly shocked and appalled I was shaking,  they let me leave without charging me anything.

Shopping is therapy, right? So to comfort myself I went and bought a new Chanel nail polish. It's called Splendeur (no. 217) and is a hot pink/dark fuchsia shade. They still had the bubblegum pink shade that is part of Chanel's much coveted summer collection, as pictured here:

(Photo by The Nailphile)

I think that color is pretty cool, and I was seriously considering getting that one. However, as my feet get so tan in the summer they almost look dirty, I felt I needed something with a little extra oomph:


I was lucky enough to get a new appointment with my regular pedicurist next Tuesday, so I will get my feet expertly done before going away that weekend. But as we speak, I'm doing the home version right now so I can put my new nail polish to good use.


One of the three little furry friends I'm babysitting this week inspecting the results of my efforts.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Straw for summer


It's June 1st. Summer has officially begun. With the beautiful weather that started yesterday and is supposed to last all week, I was inspired to go out and get something new for my summer wardrobe. I came home with two straw hats from the men's department at H&M and a new bag from Mexx. Straw = summer.