Høstferie begins eventually...

Today Maxwell successfully caught his first sea trout and fried it up for us all to eat. It was delicious, but did contain quite a few bones. Considering it was his first time fileting this species I'd still say not bad. And I guess it's actually just his first time catching a sea trout longer than the minimum of 35 cm. This one was 37, but he's caught quite a few shorter ones over the past few weeks.

But the real question is "Why are we still at home?" The answer is two pronged really. Cara is holding the kids passports so the planned Rome trip was totally out, but I thought that maybe we'd take a trip inside Norway instead. It would, after all, be nice to take the kids to see some sights and visit the old Wogsland family farm in Telemark. Then Cara declared that she'd no longer be paying the rent or contributing any amount to the rent. So I had to come up with an extra $3000 and decided to close our joint accounts since she has her own accounts here in Norway that I have no access to. Brilliant idea until my paycheck didn't go into the new account I'd designated for it which I still had a card for. So I had to setup a funds transfer to that account which won't clear until this morning in the US, which means tonight here in Norway. Based on prior transfers I'm expecting it before 18:00, so I'm sitting here at the airport waiting for that so I can pick up a car to drive to our campsite in Odda.

Next week (9 days from now) is the mekling meeting which is the first step in Cara's process to strip of parental rights to Maxwell and Zara. I have never before had to fight so hard for my children. I am cynically hoping our trip to Telemark will help in my argument that I am fit to be a parent. I really never thought I would have to be defending that, much less against the love of my life. The really stupid thing is that I haven't stopped loving her, even thought she treats me awfully every day including name calling, accusations, and a complete unwillingness to engage in dialogue about splitting up anything in the divorce. Her plan is to take the kids and all the assets and leave me with the liabilities. Financially at least that's been the story of the last few years of our marriage as she's racked up more and more debt that I've tried and failed to stay ahead of.