What's this? A US city in my blog? Yup - Houston.

You know I work at a company in the oil business, so I guess you have to expect a trip to Houston at some point. It's been since the 70's that I visited Houston, and incidentally, my brother Eric and his thoroughly grown-up daughters whom I have never met. :) No, there isn't a dysfunctional family story here, it's just that no one in their right mind would go to Houston and Eric hardly ever left it!

Adrienne, Valerie, Becky, Renee and Eric, with their horde of dogs (cute ones)

Our family has one brother and four sisters. Now Eric's family has met two of us aunts. Batting 500! Except that Valerie, the oldest, met one when she was two. Doesn't really count.

We had a Tex-Mex lunch together before visiting their little farm southwest of Houston. They have goats and chickens and a garden plot, and their spot is surrounded by pasture for cows. It was really nice. The next weekend, Eric and I went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Surprise, they have a very good oil exhibit, and it even shows marine streamers, the product we make. We spent a lot of time admiring butterflies and watching the IMAX 3D movie about them.

A blue Morpho

A Glasswing

Eric is on duty, which is why the earpiece. I'm so proud of him! He got an IT degree at age 60 and just got an actual IT job! Pretty cool, huh?

While I was in Houston working on developing new training, they gave Pablo (another WesternGeco guy) and me awards. We are 2 out of the 3 Continuous Improvement Masters at Schlumberger. My shoulder is dislocated from patting myself on the back, and also, from carrying the award in my carry-on bag!

Me, Mark Zajac, and Pablo

Getting back to Bergen was no easy task. After 10 hours from Houston to London Heathrow, they had closed the airport because of St. Jude, that big storm the night of Oct 27th. It was huge - knocking down trees and killing people. It also meant that all flights to Bergen were cancelled, and that I couldn't get to the other airport, Gatwick, even after they did let us land. So I carried that award to Frankfurt and then back home to Bergen. A really long day. And of course, my suitcase didn't come until Tuesday. The Norwegian word for "adventure" is "eventyr", and I'm getting my share.

Speaking of eventyrs... if any of you readers have Norwegian ancestry and have never visited Norway, here's a wonderful opportunity for you. Alt for Norge (Everything for Norway, or the Great Norwegian Adventure) is my favorite show. They are now looking for contestants for 2014. I found this link. You can watch a little of it on YouTube. Here's one of my favorite eventyrs from this year.

I'm going to blather a little more. Have you heard of Slow TV? I stayed up all night Saturday watching live knitting! And the whole world joined me. I cannot believe how entertained I was.