Adventures in cooking

We have all lost weight in Norway. I can't say its from more exercise, although we do bike and walk more than we did in Bellingham. I have to blame my cooking. Peter is and always has been a wonderful cook. Twenty three years ago when I tired to make bread, to impress Peter. The loaf turned out to be rock hard and inedible. (I called it my "home defense" loaf, as it could be used to defend against home invaders) I haven't progressed much in my cooking skills since. Peter cooked and I cleaned, a happy arrangement except now I'm not working and he is. So I have attempted to cook, here in Norway, with metric units. Several errors have led to unusual results. Purchasing what I thought was tomato sauce, I ended up with baked beans! There was a picture of tomatoes on the can and the word tomatsaus. I failed to note bønner on the label, but even if I had I didn't know this meant beans. I do now. Our spaghetti was saved by another trip to the store. But I have overcooked, undercooked, melted, burnt and otherwise offended palates with my food. My norwegian instructor told me I need to learn to bake before Christmas.. I will let you all know if that happens.
We drove to the outskirts of Oslo today in our "new" 16 year old Volvo, then hopped on a bus to the center of town. Parking is free in the suburbs, as city planners want people to bus into town. Peter and I wanted to see the Nasjonalgalleriet. The kids were bored before even entering the museum; I think they spent a sum total of 20 minutes inside. The Nasjonalgalleriet (free to the public) is a smaller museum, which is ideal for me, as I could enjoy the paintings and not feel overwhelmed. There are a number of landscape paintings, from realistic to impression to modern. There is of course a good number of paintings by Edvard Munch (1863-1944). His life was harsh- his mother and sister both died of tuberculosis, and his father had a nervous breakdown. He seems to have been a tortured soul, and depicted by his most famous painting: The Scream. I wouldn't want that painting in my house; I suppose that is a testament to the awful power of that painting. He made several of The Scream, one of which was stolen from the museum in 2004. All involved have been captured and are serving jail time, and the painting was back on display in 2006. I think the painting took its own revenge...