In late 2005 Kitty and Paul Antonik Wakfer invited Olafur Pall Olafsson, their co-moderator at MoreLife Yahoo who lives in Iceland (see introductory message about him), to visit them in Arizona the following spring. On the night of March 30, Olafur arrived at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix after a long flight from Reykjavik via Minneapolis. Kitty didn't start taking pictures until April 1, but still got plenty of them.
Late morning breakfast - Olafur's second with us and he's fit right into our pattern which isn't that different from his.
Jack and Lindsey arrived from Phoenix in the late afternoon and got promptly to work putting up a bird detracting device on our back walls (to keep the woodpeckers from making holes in the stucco). We all had dinner soon after the sun went down; Jack and Olafur cleaned up while chatting with Paul.
The conversation got around to fat percentage in regards to comparisons Olafur, Jack and Kitty had made about the two guys in writing when only photos of Olafur were available. Paul explains a bit about the electrical impedance method of the Tanita fat monitoring scale we have used for several years now. He then inputs Jack's data for "User 1", in place of his own settings. Olafur had tried out the scale that morning - one of the first things he wanted to do for comparing to the skin fold method he had been using periodically.
While bare feet are a necessity for this Tanita scale to operate the fat percentage algorithm, the added weight of clothes can be subtracted. Both Jack and Lindsey used the scale again in the morning before we headed out for Sedona.
Olafur got to be a real pro at using our blender, making his breakfast smoothie each morning.
Kitty started making her own version of Olafur's muesli after the first day, even adding some of Paul's chocolate to the mix.
Paul set Olafur up with computer access via our laptop on a makeshift desk in our office. After-dinner desert was sometimes enjoyed at the 3 computers where we exchanged information about emails received and interesting items read online. Paul at this time was in the early stages of Linux change-over from Windows and using a large flat LED display which he found a pleasure. After Olafur's departure another Linux computer and large flat LED display were purchased for Kitty.
Water was seen escaping from the ground in this area a couple nights before while the nearby trees were being drip irrigated. Upon digging down to the 1" tubing, Kitty (with Paul and Olafur's help) found a crack. After the faulty area was removed, Olafur's greater upper body strength was put to good use in splicing the two ends back together and then refilling the hole.
Olafur likes his friends to call him "Oli", something we never quite got used to during his visit since we had for so long referred to him as Olafur in writing about him and directly to him in emails. In putting together the photo pages that follow of our trips to a few places in Arizona and completing this page, Kitty really began to find the use of "Oli" in writing becoming easy. And so he's become Oli to the the two of us.
Oli's visit was filled with much discussion on a variety of subjects along with the side trips, but April 12 arrived and with it his departure. A future visit - maybe while Kitty and Paul are in residence in Ontario - would be enjoyed by all.
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