Krabbedalen

Happy Birthday Roddy!

2008-09-03T21:26:00.000+02:00

Happy fourty fourth birthday Uncle Roddy! I hope you stay feeiling young - just remember, you're still younger than any of your sisters!

Some other foumous September 4th birthdays:

Luigi Federico Menabrea, French-born soldier, engineer (elasticity theory), prime-minister of Italy; 1809
Mike Piazza, american baseball player; 1968
Dick York, American actor (Bewitched, Inherit the Wind, Bus Stop); 1928
Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer; 1824

Trip to D.C.

2008-08-05T04:08:00.002+02:00

I'm going to D.C. tomorrow, and Michael and my parents are going on Saturday. We'll all be back on the Vineyard on Sunday.

For details, see here: http://fipher.blogspot.com/2008/08/gpf-usa-2008-washington-dc-august-9th.html

Chris, in Vineyard haven, MA

Gratulærer med dagen!

2008-07-15T05:04:00.005+02:00

Shoot, I know I'm late, but happy 21st birthday Whitney! Here's a picture of you I took last year, not at your birthday, but your daughter's. Hope you enjoy!

Some other famous December 13th birthdays:

Richard Anothony "Cheech" Marin, an American actor and comedian, was born in 1946.
Harrison Ford, an American actor, was born in 1942.
Erno Rubik, a Hungarian inventor, was born in 1944.
Lynn Loring, an American Actress, was also born in 1944.

From Chris in Vineyard Haven, MA, U.S.A.

Strike causes travel changes.

2008-05-19T22:40:00.001+02:00

Wow, what a story. Well, because of a strike at the airport, my travel plans posted here have been changed to the below.

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Traveling to Boston
Wed 21-May-08
Flight LH 3137 Operated by: Lufthansa
Oslo (OSL) to Frankfurt (FRA Terminal 1)
Depart 6:45 AM Arrive 8:45 AM

Flight LH 3137 Operated by: Lufthansa
Frankfurt (FRA Terminal 1) to Boston (BOS Terminal E)
Depart 12:25 AM Arrive 2:30 PM

Traveling to Bergen
Thu 11-Sep-08 to Fri 12-Sep-08
Flight LH 423 Operated by: Lufthansa
Boston (BOS) to Frankfurt (FRA) 3,660 mi Lufthansa
Depart 4:15 PM Arrive 5:20 AM

Fri 12-Sep-08
Flight LH 423 Operated by: Lufthansa
Frankfurt (FRA) to Bergen (BGO)
Depart 10:20 AM Arrive 12:30 PM
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Happy Birthday Lisa, & news about Jan and Lee Ann.

2008-05-09T12:27:00.010+02:00

Hey, my Lisa, along with Apple's Lisa computer, are 25 years old this year! How awesome is that? Though the Apple Lisa was introduced the 18th of January while Lisa was born on the 9th of May, they were both born the year 1983.

Other people born on the 9th of May:

Glenda Jackson, a British actress and politician, was born in 1936.
William Joseph Martin "Billy" Joel, an American pianist and singer-songwriter, was born in 1949.
Alfred "Fred" Warngård, a Swedish athlete who competed mainly in the hammer throw, was born in 1907.

Happy 25th birthday min kjæreste!
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Also of exceptionally significant note is that Jan Widenhofer and Lee Ann Henkin will be attending the May 17th blessing in Washington D.C. to be officiated by Dr. Yang, Continental Leader of the North American Unification Church.

They've been matched for a little while now, and Father has decided to allow 2nd gen American couples matched by their parents to go to this blessing, so they're doing it. Hooray! I'm sure the whole family wishes them the happiest life together.

From Chris in Ski, Akershus, Norge.

Vineyard Summer, 2008 + more UDI shenanigans!

2008-05-02T13:58:00.008+02:00

Big news, I'm coming back to the Island for the summer. Well, let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Instead, let's tell things in the order they happened.

First, John Widenhofer (Lisa's father) has some things around the house that he could use some help with, plus it's always nice to go down to Ski to see the family, so we got tickets to go down there via train. I'm leaving Wednesday morning, that is, the 7th of May. Lisa has school and work, so she won't be coming until Saturday night. We come back together Tuesday the 13th.

Then we heard some good and bad news in the immigration department of the Politi station in Bergen. They lady we spoke with was very nice and optimistic about our appeal. She especially thought that it was good to hear Lisa will have a guaranteed paid internship in physiotherapy in the fall of 2009 as long as she passes all her exams, and said she would definitely consider it if she was the one making the decision. Unfortunately, she's not. In fact, she told us that the people who will be making the decision will probably take "many many months" to do so.

In the mean time we are to gather evidence for our appeal and send it to them to apply for a permit to stay in Norway as long as it takes for them to process our appeal. My stomach churns at the idea of staying here for "many many" more months, being legally allowed to do hardly anything with my life. Add to that our financial situation, we have a case for deciding that I should go back to the states for a while. That way I can remain sane and make some money while I'm at it.

Lisa and I will miss each other grievously, but I don't think we have much a choice, and I don't think it will be as bad as when she was in Tanzania. This time we will both be in our home country with family and friends nearby, and free vocal communication via Skype (rather than me having to pay for Skype minutes to call her cell phone like we did with her in Tanzania).

So, without further adieu, here's my itinerary for getting from Bergen to Vineyard Haven.

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Traveling to Boston
Sun 18-May-08
Bergen (BGO) to Copenhagen (CPH) 423 mi Lufthansa
Depart 6:00 AM Arrive 7:25 AM (681 km) Flight 6015
Terminal 3 Duration: 1hr 25mn Operated by: SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES

Copenhagen (CPH) to Frankfurt (FRA) 422 mi Lufthansa
Depart 9:25 AM Arrive 11:00 AM (679 km) Flight 6221
Terminal 1 Duration: 1hr 35mn Operated by: SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES

Frankfurt (FRA) to Boston (BOS) 3,660 mi Lufthansa
Depart 12:25 PM Arrive 2:30 PM (5,890 km) Flight 422
Terminal E Duration: 8hr 5mn

Boston, Logan Airport (BOS) to Woods Whole Ferry Terminal Peter Pan Bus Lines
Depart 3:30 PM Arrive 5:35 PM Bonanza Schd. 0535
Woods Whole Ferry Terminal to Vineyard Haven Ferry Terminal The Steam Ship Authority
Depart 6:15 PM Arrive 7:00 PM The Island Home (IHM)

If I don't manage to catch the 3:30 PM buss, the next one is at 5:15 PM and arrive in Woods Whole at 7:45 PM, so I'd end up taking the 8:30 PM boat, arriving in Vineyard Haven at 9:15. Either way, I'll be docking on The Island Home.
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My return date for flying back to Bergen is Thursday, the 11th of September, arriving back in Bergen on the 12th around lunch time. I'll write up a full itinerary for that trip when the time comes much more near to us. I look forward to seeing you folks on the Vineyard and in Connecticut.

So, what will I be doing while on the Vineyard? Well, last time I worked two jobs, but this time I think I'll probably stick to the one, because this time Lisa's workign too, and being in Norway she'll have a higher salary than myself.

This time will be different indeed, because while I'll most probably be working at the Martha's Vineyard Savings Bank, it seems they're in need of a summer teller, so there's a good chance I'll be doing that instead. It'll be a less lax job than the filing work, plus they'll be taking taxes out of my paycheck rather than entrusting me to report it next year, but it's always good to learn something new. Also, while they haven't given me the specifics yet it seems my hourly rate may be higher that what I was getting for the filing.

Another thing I'll be doing on the Vineyard, which in fact Lisa insisted to me that I do, is go to the beach. One thing she finds appalling about the Vineyard is that working islander don't get time off in the summer so much, and so often enough some of us don't even make it to the beach. So i plan to go to the beach at least once in each of the true summer months; June, July, and August.

Another think I'd like to do is try to make it to the Revolution March in D.C. on the 12th of July (which I mention at the very bottom of my personal blog, Min Sannhet), but we'll see. Perhaps if I don't work that Saturday and I really try to save I'll be able to make it. As with my last visit, my priorities will be making money and spending time with family and friends, especially my brothers.

Back in Norway

2008-04-03T19:40:00.000+02:00

It was a week of almost pure bliss from arriving at Oslo International on the 31st to leaving for Bergen on the 5th.

Other than the one evening where I had a severe headache accompanied by gas pain and John wasn't feeling too good ether (Lisa took good care of us both I think.) and the fact that the Widenhofers have been having problems with their water pump, I found last week to be just incredibly pleasant.

Here's a picture that pretty much displays that bliss in a nutshell.

Honestly, I forget which day, but my favorite day was Lisa & I going out to see The Spiderwick Chronicles (Spiderwick-krønikene på Norsk) and then to our favorite sushi place in the world, a place called Sushi Asia run by a wonderful Vietnamese man who has come to like our family quite a bit, and whom we like to. It's the first place Lisa and I ever went out, back in February 2005. I must admit that I don't like their hot food so much (accept their Miso Soup), their sushi and service is wonderful.

Another good day was when Lisa, Jan, and I went out with a 2nd gen French/Norsk-Korean blessed couple who are friends of ours, Irene Mønnesland & Song Bong Hong. Unfortunately Song Bong will soon enough be off on a two year stint in the South Korean military, drafted against his will and unable to get a definite excuse out of it. He told me between the two years he has about 1 month off on leave. I pray for their strength in enduring such a long time apart.

Lisa was able to bring back a bunch of souvenirs from Tanzania. I'd put up some pictures, but I believe we forgot to repack the camera to bring back to bergen, my MacBook (which has a camera built in) doesn't have the capability to connect to the internet here, and the PC won't read my iPod so I can't transfer photos from the Mac to the PC that way.

Also, she had problems with the camera I sent with her so she didn't get to take many pictures while she was there, but her friends did so either Lisa or myself will pit some pictures from the adventure up here some how or another.

Anyway, now we're back in Bergen, and while it's nice to be where we have a little more privacy and fully functional water, reality is starting to set in. Expenses in Tanzania were, while still ridiculously low(examples: 100 USD a month for rent, 50 cents to get your nails painted), it still ended up more expensive than we had thought, so basically if I'm not allowed to get a job by next month, we're going to be in deep financial trouble, more so than we have ever been before.

I have confidence, though, that we'll be alright. We have taken some measures to further ensure that I'll get my family immigration permit, thanks very much to the Widenhofers, again. It is unbelievable how helpful John, Berit, and even Jan have been over the past year and a half. I look forward to somehow repaying them some day - other than be a good husband to Lisa, for that is much too pleasant a task to be called payment.

Seeing that none state-side have seen where we live, I'll end this with a picture of where we are now. Hopefully some day we'll get some better ones up, and in fact, hopefully at least some of you will get to see it for yourselves some day. We'll most probably be here until Summer 2009.

Hilse fra Chris i Bergen, Hordaland, Norge.

Back From the Vineyard

2008-03-28T02:39:00.003+01:00

Every time we visit the island Whitney and I try to figure out how we might be able to stay there permanently. It's so quiet and beautiful out there. And we had so much fun visiting with family and playing outside with Bella. And Bella loved it too, and she liked playing with Teyha.

At least we'll always have a place to stay whenever we want to visit. That's more than most could hope for. And it'll be a nice place to retire.

New Backus Girl has arrived!

2008-03-12T06:27:00.004+01:00

Roddy's thrid child, and the second of Jeanie's, she was born on the morning of Tuesday, the 11th of March, 2008. Last I heard everything was good, but they weren't 100% sure on a name. She may end up as Matilda, but we'll see for sure in the future.

Happy birthday new little one!

I'll update as I get more information. I last posted about this child on January 22nd, 2008.

Posting this from Vineyard Haven, MA, USA
Chris

Happy Birthday Cheryl!

2008-02-23T08:32:00.002+01:00

Happy fifty-fir, I mean, sixteenth birthday Cheryl, from Grandma Backus and I both! This is the Osborn-Widenhofer family blog (dispite the fact that I seems to be the only one to contributes anything), and you'll always be family to me.

Hope you enjoyed your cake!

Some famous February 22nd births:

Charles VII, the king of France from 1422 to 1461, was born in 1403.
Ellen Greene, an American Singer and Actor, was born in 1951.
Meridel Le Suer, an American Author, was born in 1900.

From Chris in Vineyard Haven, MA

Protozoan Parasites

2008-01-26T13:46:00.000+01:00

I'm going to get right to the point with this one.

Lisa, though she's been taking her pills like the good girl she is, has managed to catch malaria. Me not being very familiar with the disease, it was quite devastating to hear. When I think "malaria" I think horrible African disease spread by mosquitoes which kills people in a slow, painful way on a regular basis, so when i got her message I felt like my wife had gotten a death sentence.

Fortunately I was able to pull myself together, first with thinking of a friend of hours who has gotten it many times and is still alive and flourishing. Then I was able to actually talk with her about it, and apparently it's not a very ferocious strain. She actually feels quite fine now, so fine that as I write this she's on a weekend safari in one of Tanzania's many wondrous national parks.

In other news, I'm leaving for Boston today for a party with other collage-age folks at our regional church on beacon hill. The boat leaves at 3:45, then I take a bus to Bourne where I'll get a ride with a friend the rest of the way. I may stay overnight at the church to attend service the next day if they have room in the brothers room.

Be happy, live life, and love others, now.

From Chris in Vineyard Haven, MA.

New Backus on the way, and work for me.

2008-01-22T00:52:00.000+01:00

Well, yesterday (Jan. 21st) was a nice busy day. We had a surprise baby shower for Jeanie and Rod Backus (the younger one, my uncle) at their place today. It was lots of fun to e with all that family, and though I can't speak personally for the sweets, the rest of the food was good, and Jeanie seemed to have a good time.

I'll post a few pictures once they get developed. Normally I'd just use a digital, but Lisa took ours to Tanzania so I was shooting with my mother's film camera which she's had as long as I can remember. Fortunately Clark gives her a CD along with her developed film so it won't be hard to get the pictures on here.

Jeanie is due some time early March.

The other news is that I've finally procured a place of wage earning work. No, I don't mean another $10 to push an old lady's grocery cart up the street like lat week, but a real part time job at the Stop & Shop grocery store in Edgartown. My starting wage will be $9 or 49 NOk an hour. The one drawback to working for Stop & Shop is that it is unionized so $6 or $7 will be taken out of my paycheck every week. I addition, at around the fourth week they start taking a one time $75 union initiation fee, divided into five weeks (so five $15 payments). It's too bad I can't choose not to be a member of the union considering I'll be with them for so long, but oh well. It's way better than nothing.

I've very exited, about both the baby and the job. I start work Wednesday the 23rd of January at 11 AM.

Posting from Vineyard Haven, MA, USA

Chris

Edit: The other thing is that all new employees must work Saturdays and Sundays, so I won't be able to go to church in Boston any. Oh well. I think right now having work is more important, especially considering that I do Hoon-Dok-Hae much more often here than I ever did in Bergen.

Happy Birthday!

2007-12-12T23:39:00.000+01:00

Hey, it's December, and we have two birthdays in the family! Here's a shout-out to Jeremy Ryan Osborn who turns 24 today, and Michael Nicholas Osborn who turns 15 on Saturday, the 15th.

Some famous December 12th birthdays:

Edvard Munch, a Norwegian painter, was born in 1863.
Edward G. Robinson, an American actor, was born in 1893.
Frank Sinatra, an American singer and actor, was born in 1915.

Some famous December 15th birthdays:

George Romney, an English portrait painter, was born in 1734.
Alexandre Gustave Eifell, a French engineer, was born in 1932.
Jean Paul Getty, an American multi-millionaire and oil tycoon, was born in 1892.
Edna O'Brien, and Irish novelist, was born in 1930.

I hope the two of you are able to have grand birthday parties.

Puzzles & Travels

2007-11-16T22:09:00.000+01:00

Hey all, just wanted to spread the word. Some of you may have heard that I(Chris) might be coming to the States for a visit in February. Well, plans have changed a bit, my visit extended. We've got tickets for me to go from Oslo to Boston on January 8th (arriving at Logan at 5:50 PM) and from Boston to Oslo on March 30th (Leaving Logan at 9:30 PM and arriving in Oslo at 12:20 PM). That means I'll be in Massachusetts for about 12 weeks.

We will be looking for a job for while I'm there. I know it's going to be hard to find a job for such a short time, so if anyone has any suggestions, please don't hesitate to let them spill out. My conditions are pretty low. I'm willing to work 6 days a week starting on the 10th of January ending on the 28th of March, with some possibility of wanting an extra day off or two at some point to see Jan, Lisa's brother, who recently moved to Maryland.
As you know I still can't work in Norge. Also, we have a few extra expenses with Lisa going to Tanzania for practice in Physiotherapy from December 31th to March 30th. As such, though I miss my family and friends, as well as simply being in my home country, the main purpose of this visit (in my mind) is for me to make money.

As for the puzzles, I thought I'd continue the MV Puzzle Series.

Day 2: October 25th, 2007

Here we've got the inner advertisement border done, some of the actual adds, and bits and pieces of each town put together(not necessarily in their proper place.), plus we connected the MV text to the rest of the puzzle.

Snow on Children's Day 2007

2007-11-13T16:00:00.000+01:00

Hey, it's been a few days since, but I thought I'd share our Children's day in Bergen anyway. Basically we just did a basic Hoon-Dok-Hwae and Pledge service with fruits, vegitables, and chips w/dip on the offering table.

For reading we read Section 2.5 of the Exposition of the Divine Principle (2004 3 Colors addition, English): The Multiplication of Life. We read the whole thing (all of two paragraphs) but here's a yellow highlighted part for those in the world who wouldn't have any clue or any way to find out.

It may be said that the universe is formed by the multiplication of myriad substantial manifestations of God's original internal nature and original external form through their give and take action in the pursuit of the purpose of creation.

Here's the snow. Amazingly, it seems we got snow in Bergen before Oslo this year. Supposedly every year bergen hardly every gets any snow (just rain and hail) because of the gulf stream and the fjord, and I beleive it because that's just what we got last season. I recently came accross this cool website called Bergen Rain with a Google search on the subject.

Well, I hope you all had a great Children's Day (Barn Dag?), and again I encourage all those I've invited to also contribute to the blog with you own blog posts. It's not too complicated, and entirely free (even the image and video hosting!).

Ha det bra!

Halloween and All Saints Day 2007

2007-11-03T20:55:00.000+01:00

Happy Halloween!

Hey, finally getting around to putting this up. Happy Halloween! This year didn't look too good for Lisa and I to celebrate. We didn't have much, plus I'm on this special fasting condition (Every Ahn-Shi-Il(every 8 days) nothing but water for 24 hours, and in between I don't have sweets or anything to drink but water and unsweetened tea) for the good turnout of my family immigration permit and the betterment of UDI in general.

So what did we do? We had a nice dinner, but first we made a Jack-O'-Lantern without a pumpkin. What did we use? An Apple!

Interested in seeing how we did it? I have a Picasa Web Album on it here.

Click here for information about Halloween på Norsk.

I invite all those who've been invited to join this blog to do so and share what you did on Halloween (and All Saints Day if anything. I'm not even sure what tradition there is for the holiday.).

Again, I would love it if some of the rest of the family would participate. Otherwise I almost might as well stick to fipher.net.

The Puzzleing Begins

2007-10-29T09:27:00.000+01:00

Day One: October 24th, 2007.

The Puzzle

The puzzle we have chosen is one depicting my home island of Martha's Vineyard. I purchased it at Brickman's Inc. in Vineyard Haven in the summer of 2006, just before moving to Norge. The map on the puzzle shows its slight age in at least one way... it still shows a Brickaman's store in Edgartown.

It Starts

Here's Lisa hard at work while I play with the camera. We started by collecting all the edges of course.

I'll edit this later to include what we accomplished that night. Right Now I'm getting error bX-i54acw while trying to upload another picture.

Nov. 2nd 2007: Error apparently been fixed, now just need to clear the cache and cookies.

Borders: Check, Martha's Vineyard Text: Check

And here we end it for that day's puzzling. Not only have we the MV Tex and the borders done, but you may notice that we have the MV Sticker logo almost done, as well as a few other peaces stuck on (such as the beginnings of the Katama Airfeild Ad.).

You may notice and wonder why that while I claim the borders to be complete, they are not connected. This is because the table we're using for the puzzle is every so slightly too small. it is with this in mind that we left it unnattatched. Don't worry, when more of the puzzle gets done and therefore it becomes more sturdy, we are able to fit it all together without getting a different table or anything.

The Beginning

2007-10-26T10:39:00.000+02:00

Hi, this is Mr. Osborn, and I'll be your host today. I actually haven't told Mrs. Osborn about my idea of having this blog, but I'm sure she won't mind... as long as it doesn't take up too much of our time.

Anyway, here's the beginning, which will in fact start, first with a quote, and then with the putting together of a puzzle.

Here's the quote: From page 92 of THE WAY OF TRADITION, volume 1, I give you #35 of Section 3: God's Love

If a woman loves her husband more than she would her own self, she has the qualification to have God, and participate in God's love. And if a man loves his wife more than he would his own self, he has the qualification to love God, and possess God, and participate in God's love. If you are the same with brothers and sisters, and with your parents, you have the qualification to belong to God and to possess God. This is why Jesus said , if you love your brothers and sisters more than you do your own self, there can be no greater love than this.

The True Pattern of Family Life 3-7-75
Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon

Without this sort of teaching, this blog would not exist, and the connection between the Widenhofer and Osborn Family would not exist. In fact, Neither the Widenhofer or Osborn family would exist, at least not in the same way they do now. Thank you Father, your words are truly a blessing.

- Mr. Christopher D. Osborn