Three Things I Learned Today

One of Kevin's coworkers stopped by our house this afternoon. Everyone is always very interested in our house, and I have never quite understood the curiosity. I'm always happy to oblige, though, so we gave this guy the "grand tour" of our house. He told me that the house was designed by Arnstein Arneberg, a very famous Norwegian architect. Arneberg was one of two architects who designed Oslo's town hall (Rådhuset) which you can see here: http://oslo-norway.ca/attractions/radhus.html Kevin and I were really surprised to hear this--why in the world would a house designed by such a revered architect be allowed to slowly fall apart, rented out to riff-raff like us for a pittance? It kind of makes me sad, and I really hope that whoever ends up here next takes good care of the old house.

I didn't just learn that our house has illustrious beginnings, I also found out that the strange, straw wallpaper in our study (which reminds me of the "Trading Spaces" episode where Hildi glued hay all over a living room wall) is very special and in high demand. I guess it's handmade in this area of Norway and decorated a couple of the walls in part of the World Trade Center. It also covers the walls of a famous jeweller on 5th Avenue in New York City...I guess it makes sense that an art-hater like me wouldn't see the value and beauty of the straw wallpaper!

The third thing I learned was that when faced nose to nose with a daschund puppy, my dogs will not mistake it for a tasty hot dog and will not chomp it down in one bite. Kevin's coworker brought his adorable 7 month old puppy to visit, and while I was concerned about Kermit and Honey turning cannibal on the tiny dog, they actually behaved themselves. It was so cute to see all three dogs racing around our yard (although there were a couple of times when I thought the puppy was going to be crushed beneath Kermit's thundering paws). Anyway, now I'm sitting here all puffed up and proud of our special house, our special wallpaper and our special dogs who don't tear little weiner dogs limb from limb!