Our Adventures, From A to Å

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-26T02:19:00.002+01:00

2011: A Space Odyssey

2011-11-26T14:20:00.001+01:00

My budding aerospace engineers.

Hello My Baby! Hello My Honey!

2011-11-26T14:17:00.002+01:00

Hello my ragtime gaaaaalllllll!

All Hallows' Eve

2011-11-17T15:18:00.004+01:00

We weren't sure what to expect for Halloween this year. We live on a street with few children; combined with a long driveway and no sidewalk on our side, we weren't sure how many trick-or-treaters would make the long trek to the front door. For a while, Joy sat out at the end of the driveway, but went inside after she started getting cold. Nevertheless, we had a steady stream of visitors, and there wasn't too much leftover candy.

Syd was a clarinet and Elie reused the Pippi costume from a couple of years ago. I took them up to a friend's house (stopping to get candy at the house of the driver who took out my mailbox along the way) and the group of five made the usual rounds. I was provided a nice homebrew by one of the fathers, so it was all worth it for me, too.

When we got back, several candy accountings were performed -- I think Snickers was the most popular -- and Syd traded with her sister the things that she can't eat because of her braces. Eventually enough sugar wore off that the two still managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour. They were even up early to repeat the counting process in the morning.

Luckily, I hadn't stolen anything. Yet.

You've Been Warned

2011-11-12T00:50:00.001+01:00

(You're welcome to come over for dinner. Bring workout clothes.)

Why Only Suckers Bag Their Leaves

2011-11-04T21:58:00.007+01:00

I'm lucky enough to live in an older neighborhood, where I only have to step out my door to enjoy the Fall colors, the smell of cool, crisp air, and the unending sound of leaf blowers as my neighbors clear their yards of leaves every other day or so.

Now, I'm not really that down on leaf blowers, they have their place even if the sound is a little annoying. My preference is the rake, though, and so I have been taking an hour or two here and there to rake my lawn, rotating through the most needy places. It currently looks like this.

Instead of bagging the leaves, I have commandeered a corner of the yard near the compost bin to build a giant leaf pile. Today, when I plunged a thermometer in, I giddily found this.

Yes, giddily.

Helping Rake

2011-10-31T18:43:00.001+01:00

Even the Cats Get Costumes!

2011-10-31T18:39:00.002+01:00

(This could be better than the Christmas hats for Calla & Sylvia.)

Jack-o-lanterns

2011-10-31T02:05:00.002+01:00

(plus a bonus ghost cat)

Awwww!

2011-10-30T14:10:00.001+01:00

1615 Yorktown

2011-10-24T01:05:00.008+02:00

The other night as I was lying in bed, a huge crash of thunder woke me from my semi-slumber. I briefly thought how odd it was, given that the weather had been beautiful that day and that the following day promised to be more of the same. But I didn't think much of it and soon went back to sleep -- only to be awoken ten minutes later by Joy:

"Half the police department is in front of our house; I'm going to go see what happened."

What happened was this: a woman with -- ahem -- less than full control of her motor skills hopped the curb across the street, took out the neighbor's brick pillar, knocked down a stone wall, grazed a tree, and eventually came to a stop in the yard two houses up. The story from the neighbors was that she came to their door to sheepishly admit to "grazing" their mailbox, and then wondered if it were possible to drive home after her airbags had deployed, not noticing that one of her wheels was lying in the middle of the street -- along with her mirror, windshield wipers, and the remains of not one, but three, mailboxes.

It took the police officer three minutes just to explain what was involved with walking a straight line.

This morning, after a couple hours of drilling, chiseling, and knuckle-scraping, I managed to extract the part of my post still embedded in the sidewalk. It turned out only the support was truly destroyed; the box proper was fine if I could only find a way to mount it.

Guess where I got the spring.

Horse Camp

2011-10-14T17:22:00.005+02:00

One of the highlights of the summer -- at least for the girls -- was finally getting to go to horse camp! Joy had asked around and found a reasonable day camp for only an arm (ie, we got to keep the leg). The girls learned about horse care (including mucking), played games, and got plenty of riding in, judging by how tired they were when they got home each day.

Pictures here.

Elie Cykler!

2011-10-09T03:16:00.001+02:00

På sin nye cykel. She hasn't gotten starting and stopping down on this one yet, but we're close.

And sorry about the video; I took it with my crappy phone camera.

They Really Do Get Along Sometimes

2011-10-03T15:23:00.002+02:00

There Was a Mighty Duel...

2011-10-02T22:59:00.003+02:00

Ronja og Birk got their rabies shots today. Hopefully, after all the shots, powders, salves, and tonics they've had lately, it will be the last for a while. Nevertheless, despite having ear mites, two intestinal parasites, fleas, and an upper respiratory ailment, they still manage to play like brother and sister, taking turns stalking one another and occasionally curling up together during a cease-fire.

The girls have made all manner of toys for them; today's installment was a labyrinth of boxes which -- believe it or not -- they actually played in. The girls are quite happy with our new family members.

Importeret fra Danmark

2011-09-20T01:44:00.007+02:00

Elie has outgrown her 16" bike, and I have been searching -- obnoxiously so -- for a 20" model for her. I looked at bike after bike both online and in local shops, only to end each evaluation with, "Why can't they just make a decent, usable bike like in Denmark?" She doesn't need front shocks; real, useful fenders would be nice; a quill stem is a lot easier to adjust as she grows than the modern threadless designs; 3-speed internal hubs rock.

Enter Will. Will is a co-worker of mine -- a pretty darn good one, if you ever need commissioning services -- who came into my office one day and asked if I had any suggestions for things to see in Copenhagen, as he was headed there on vacation with his wife. In addition to suffering through my usual prattling on about Europe, he agreed to bring back a bicycle! So I bestilt one at the Kvickly near his hotel, and told him that if at any point it got to be a hassle, he could abort the mission.

No problem, though, and he even managed to avoid any extra airline fees, so the bike was cheaper than several Plans B I had ready. Stor tak!

Now, about this particular furniture maker I really like...

Our Family, In a Venn Diagram

2011-09-18T02:02:00.003+02:00

Syd was having fun with Venn diagrams and asked me to fill out the following.

So now you know.

Troldhassel

2011-09-12T01:26:00.001+02:00

We used to have a branch of Troldhassel (Corylus avallena 'contorta' for those in the know) hanging in our stue in Denmark. The trees were mostly used for Easter eggs there, but our American friend used to have all kinds of mementos on hers, and we shamelessly copied the idea. I'm not sure if you can get one in the US, but a branch of cedar seems to do quite well.

Introducing...

2011-09-10T22:31:00.005+02:00

...Ronja og Birk! Ronja is the title character in Ronja Røverdatter, (Ronja, the Robber's Daughter), and Birk (pronounced "bee-hk" so as not to be confused with the late Berkeley). The two come from "different sides of the castle," but soon become inseparable and wise beyond their years.

Birk, the grey and white one, is naturally the smarter of the two and likes to pester his sister, just like a brother ought to. Ronja -- well -- never answers the phone...

Speaking of Cute...

2011-09-08T01:08:00.001+02:00

4th of July

2011-09-07T15:47:00.002+02:00

Sure, it's a little late, but look at how cute they are!

Peaches

2011-09-06T06:12:00.002+02:00

No, it's not peach season, but I'm catching up with many old photos. Here are some from Far Mor and Grandpa Bill's visit in June. They made a whirlwind tour of all of their East Coast destinations, timed particularly to go to Sophie's graduation party. They came to C'ville for a couple days, and we went peach picking (and peeling, and baking, and eating).

Pictures here.

Still Working on Names

2011-09-05T17:14:00.002+02:00

Look What Followed Us Home...

2011-09-03T21:57:00.001+02:00

Back to School

2011-09-01T15:33:00.001+02:00

Summer Vacation

2011-09-01T01:37:00.003+02:00

We didn't have too much time for vacation this summer, what with Joy taking a summer class and the kids starting school in late August. Nevertheless, we managed to spend a week in Minnesota visiting family and friends (less a whirlwind tour to Atlanta by mig selv for a presentation).

The kids got to play with Grandma and Grandpa, as well as their uncles, aunts and cousins. Several plays were put on. Putt-putt golf was played. Aside from all the usual fun.

We took a day trip to Itasca State Park and did the requisite walk across the Mississippi. We rented some bikes and saw a fair part of the park and lake. Came across a skunk (no worries), a snake, a sandpiper.

For more 'wildlife' we met a friend we met in Denmark who moved back to Minnesota not long before we came back. Their son, who is in a Chinese immersion school, impressed us by reading many of the signs in the Asia exhibit.

The travel went well -- we hung out with Auntie Deb on both ends -- and it was wonderful seeing so many people again.

Pictures here.

A Better Mousetrap

2011-07-19T13:15:00.005+02:00

As you know, we have had a mouse problem for a while. We first knew it when we heard the skitter-skatter of little feet above the ceiling in the living room. Honestly, it hasn't really been a problem, since we have yet to see any signs of mice in the kitchen or out and about. Well, we did catch a couple in the basement, so I guess I should qualify that.

We tried a couple of different traps and then had good luck with the kind of clever design in yesterday's video. As you can see, it's basically a see-saw with a trap door at one end and bait (peanut butter) at the other. The mouse goes to the bait, the trap tips, and the door slams shut. At least in theory.

I say in theory because after a while, we started finding tripped traps with no quarry. And some that were un-tripped with no bait. Curious to see what was going on, I remembered my camcorder has an infrared mode, so I set it up with the trap in the attic eave and went to bed. Unfortunately, the tapes are only 4 hours long, and the first night we missed the visitor by less than half an hour. The second night, however, I dutifully swapped in a new tape at 1:00 in the morning -- et voilà! We were practically on the floor laughing when we watched it re-open the trap and go back in for more.

Anyway, we went out and bought some better traps the next day. Be sure to turn up the sound.

This May Be Why We Still Have a Mouse Problem

2011-07-19T01:32:00.005+02:00

1:15 proves how smart this bugger is; at 1:45 we see how cute he is.

Not a Great Picture...

2011-06-25T22:57:00.002+02:00

...but all three seem to be doing well!

Another View

2011-06-22T13:21:00.002+02:00

Instead of loading a picture into picasa, I'll just make another post. It was a Red-shouldered Hawk. I was sitting at the computer when I saw something large fly by the window; it only sat around long enough for a couple of lousy photos but still: pretty cool. Ten minutes later, a doe and fawn wandered by. Saw a hummingbird later.

Look Out, Little Wrens!!

2011-06-21T21:40:00.002+02:00

Note til Selv

2011-06-17T22:43:00.005+02:00

Check the weather radar before heading home from work...

Hey You! Stay Away From My Basil!

2011-06-16T19:51:00.002+02:00

Hungry Mouths to Feed

2011-06-15T14:29:00.002+02:00

Hard to see, but the wrens have hatched!

They're Carolina wrens, by the way. Teakettle-teakettle-teakettle-tea!

Last Day of School

2011-06-13T01:21:00.001+02:00

Friday was the last day of school for the girls, and Sydney's last day at Greenbrier. Next year she will go to Walker Upper Elementary (5^th-6^th grade) and then on to middle school. It's never too early to start advancement ceremonies, though, and sure enough all the fourth graders and most of their proud parents gathered for one yesterday. Sydney got a bunch of awards and then we had some cake and walked home early. They both were excited to be done, but we're already hearing about them being bored.

More Wildlife Encounters

2011-06-06T15:43:00.008+02:00

A pair of wrens have built a nest in the planter on our balcony. We first noticed them one evening as they were flitting back and forth during the building process. For a couple of days, we figured they had abandoned it, but then we found an egg, and then another, and another (plus a fourth that is no longer in the nest -- not sure why).

The other day, I went out to check to see what was up, and even though it occurred to me the mother might be settled down for the evening, I "screamed like a school girl" when she charged out and flew right past my ear.

The next day it was Syd's turn to be startled (she was helping with the flags), but she managed to stifle any noise. Finally, Elie wanted to check on them the next day, with a similar result.

"Did you scream when it flew out?"

"No. I didn't 'scream like a Daddy.'"

We'll let you know when we have chicks.

Happy Birthday to Us!

2011-06-06T15:41:00.003+02:00

Fawning With Wildlife

2011-06-05T00:15:00.003+02:00

A doe dropped her fawn off in our creek for a day, presumably while shewent off in search of food. The fawn was remarkably docile, or obedientI suppose, as she didn't really respond to the activity (not too much) out on the patio.

We saw a doe with fawn the next day, so we're confident the fawn was reunited with her mother.

A Few More Pictures from Easter

2011-05-20T19:49:00.003+02:00

It's been a slow Spring so far; not a whole lot to post about. But I forgot to post pictures of our Easter picnic and hike in the woods, so you can go here to see more of the day.

Paaske

2011-05-06T02:54:00.000+02:00

We had a pretty ordinary Easter. Dyed eggs. Candy egg hunt (thanks to the Easter Bunny). Picnic. Walk in the woods. I went for a 100km bike ride.

You know. The usual.

More pictures here.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T14:16:00.002+02:00

!!!

2011-04-14T00:57:00.002+02:00

Thunderstorms

2011-04-13T13:18:00.002+02:00

A couple of girls who decided to wait out the thunderstorm on the futon.

Tulpenwoede

2011-04-12T14:49:00.008+02:00

Spring is here in full force now. The dogwoods are blooming, along with the redbuds, daffodils, and impatiens. The yard is teeming with birds, including thrushes, nuthatches and woodpeckers -- it's impossible to sleep in these days, what with all the noise from the cardinals. On Sunday, we headed up to an organic farm near Madison, where they were holding their annual tulip festival. I rode up and met the family, and we had a picnic on the grass and walked around the farm.

The festival wasn't all that big, unfortunately -- a couple of booths where you could taste local wines and buy some food, but no stroopwafels. Nobody was wearing wooden shoes, either, which is a shame, because the farm is co-owned by a Dutchman, and his cousin flew in from Amsterdam to help with the festival (alas, I couldn't respond when she broke into Dutch after seeing my oranje cycling cap). We had a lovely time, though. The girls each got some tulips, which they are desperately trying grow even though they were warned that the bulbs aren't mature enough to survive transplanting. They look nice out on the café, though.

More pictures here.

Also With Internet Access!

2011-04-10T23:31:00.001+02:00

Le Café Fenêtre

2011-04-09T15:43:00.001+02:00

Of course, it would help to have a door to the balcony.

Dancing for a Brand New Bay

2011-04-03T04:19:00.004+02:00

One of Syd's favorite classes this year has been Minds in Motion, a class at the intersection of art -- specifically dance -- and education. In association with the Richmond Ballet and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 4th graders from throughout the city performed a modern dance to highlight the both the wonders of and the threats to the Chesapeake. After the opening number, each school performed its own dance, followed by the grand finale. It was impressively well-done for a bunch of 4th graders -- even if the message was lost on some of the lawn fertilizer loving attendees (after a roaring reception for the dancers, the exhortation to do what we can for the Bay was met with polite golf clapping).

Anyway, Syd was the best submerged aquatic vegetation you've ever seen.

Stemming the Tide

2011-03-30T17:08:00.003+02:00

We caught a third mouse Sunday. I took it over to the high school again, which was a little comical because I had to shake the trap a little to get the mouse to drop out; when it did, it started running directly towards our house a good half-mile away.

So far, it has not made the incredible journey back -- for whatever reason -- because we have since added three more traps to our strategic defense system, but haven't had a capture in three days.

Let's hope we're done with this little diversion; the girls are starting to tease me about my muriphobia.

Better Danish Through Modern Dentistry

2011-03-29T13:47:00.002+02:00

It's commonly joked that Danes speak as if they have kartoffler i munden -- potatoes in their mouths -- for the way they tend to mumble, drop sounds, and in general make so many ridiculous grunt-like noises. When I was taught how to make a blød 'd' sound, my teacher told me that if I tucked my finger in my mouth and the sound didn't change, then I was doing it right.

Poor Sydney went to the orthodontist yesterday to get a 'rapid palatal expander' put in her mouth. This particular torture device goes between the back upper teeth and with a couple turns of a screw every day, spreads the teeth apart in preparation of the next torture device, a bizarre, reverse headgear thingy (technical name to follow, hopefully with pictures).

When she came home, before I could even ask how it went, she announced, "I tawk funny," but she was a good sport with her sister, who kept giving her words to say. She had particular trouble with the letter 'r': "The glass is glean" and "Led Loveh, Led Loveh, send Elie light oveh."

Now, followers of our time in Denmark will recall that the Danish 'r' is completely back-of-the-throat glutteral -- more so than good, phlegm-loosening French -- and in fact it's never even really pronounced; it just has a vowel-deepening effect on all the sounds in the rest of the word. Briller is pronounced bræller, driller becomes dræller. On a whim, I asked her to repeat, "the grass is green," but this time in Danish, to which she replied:

Græsset er grønt.

It was as if she had potatoes in her mouth.

What the Muck?

2011-03-27T20:17:00.002+02:00

Sometimes you stumble across such incompetence, such abject stupidity that you just have to shake your head in wonder.

Given all the hassle with mice of late, I decided to check the crawl space under the master bathroom to see if there was any sign of critters. When I looked in the hatch, I noticed that some of the insulation had fallen, which made me fear that not only did I have mice in there, but a snake had found its way to some easy meals. Upon closer inspection, it was even worse.

Observing a pool of water on top of the plastic sheet used to prevent water vapor from seeping into the crawl space, I asked Joy to run some bath water to see if I could find a leak.

And did I.

Now, generally I give people the benefit of the doubt the first time they do something suspicious. I could understand that the previous owner might not have known of the leak in the bathroom roof or the broken water supply -- even though at least the latter happened before closing. But I'd like to know exactly how the owner, who presumably used the master bathroom at least a few times in the 10+ years it's been there, didn't know that the drain in the master shower was not connected to anything whatsoever.

You read that right. For all intents and purposes, all of our shower water had been draining directly into the crawlspace insulation, which finally fell from degradation, but not before causing both a floor joist and some foam pipe insulation to rot.

So I spent the better part of today hooking up the drain, removing some insulation and putting some fresh back in. Next weekend, I'll cut out a chunk of the joist and splice in a new piece, and redo the rest of the insulation.

At least I've been down there long enough to stop worrying about snakes.

Pictures here.

Mig Selv: 2 -- Mus: 2

2011-03-27T04:18:00.007+02:00

Either our foxes aren't pulling their weight, or we have a slightly bigger problem than we thought.

After the kids went to bed, Joy and I were sitting on the couch discussing the Libyan crisis, or the half-life of Cesium-137, or some such heady topic, when we heard a muffled ka-thwup from up above. Joy went and checked and sure enough, there was a mouse in the trap. We have no idea if the first one came back, or if we have more, but this time I marched the prisoner over to the high school, about a half mile away (over a quarter mile as the mouse skitters).

Might be time to buy some more traps.

The Pitter-Patter of Little Feet

2011-03-26T02:47:00.004+01:00

I hate mice.

I scream like a school girl at them, particularly after a long, sleepless night in Italy where one ran over my legs while I was trying desperately to ignore the late-night skittering about my hotel room. Needless to say I was less than pleased to hear the distinct scritch, scritch of a mouse (or worse!) clawing away in the space between the living room ceiling and the playroom floor. Or maybe it was chewing on a critical, supporting joist. I dunno'. Just make it to go away.

My lovely wife, whose fear of spiders does not carry over to common vermin, bought a live trap at the Lowe's a few days ago. After the second day in the eave, the peanut butter and almond bait was gone, but the mouse (or mice!) didn't trip the trap, so we had no quarry.

Sadly, the second trap, mildly clever in theory but obviously untried in practice, also failed to nab the intruder.

So tonight we'll try a third contraption, hoping that at the very least a well-fed, plump mouse will get stuck like Winnie-the-Pooh in Rabbit's hole on the way in to yet another helping of all-natural and good-for-you peanut butter.

Les Artistes

2011-03-26T00:42:00.002+01:00

Svenskere!

2011-03-17T01:03:00.013+01:00

We had our first international visitors! (Aside from the English neighbors and the Kiwi across the street, that is.) A Swedish friend from Denmark, who had been attending a conference in Baltimore, brought his children for a mini-reunion for the day on Sunday.

Speaking of the conference, I knew a few of the other attendees, having met several through Danish classes, and I met them for dinner in DC and brunch in Baltimore the following day. I forgot to take pictures (again), but at one point we had assembled ein deutsches fraulein, un hombre español, en svenske herre, en danske herre, an American man, and however you say "a Jordanian man" in arabic. Thus was my life in Denmark. (OK, I hadn't actually met the Jordanian man before, but I could substitute a couple of Iranians, if needed, to complete the image.)

Chris and the kids came up from Glasgow (Virginia, that is, not the original), which is where he lived as an exchange student many years ago. We played kubb in the front yard while the girls all played in the stream. Elie became the first to crawl through the culvert under the driveway because she knew that her father wasn't afraid to do it if he had to (I was both sad to be scooped and pleased to be off the hook).

In fact, we spent most of the time playing in the front yard, which we have decided will only get better as it warms up. You're all welcome to come try it out for yourselves.

Billeder fra dagen her.

The Rainy Day Fund

2011-03-10T14:03:00.007+01:00

Well, it's not so much the fund, but the time.

There is a hole in the ceiling above the shower in the master bedroom. I've been wondering to myself how it got there and why I hadn't noticed it when we bought the house, but hadn't put in anymore thought than that. Until last night, that is, when Joy's early morning muttering in the bathroom alerted me to water dripping through a somewhat enlarged orifice. It seems that the heavy rains had leaked into space above the bathroom and saturated both the insulation and the wall board. I'm pretty sure that this has all happened since we bought the house, but that's irrelevant to fixing it of course.

A quick look at the roof this morning located (hopefully) the actual leak. The bushing around the vent pipe is torn, and I made a low-tech temporary repair with a dixie cup and duct tape this morning. I'll let it go until the weekend until I have time to fix it properly, and by then I will know if I have indeed found the problem.

It Didn't Work

2011-03-04T03:49:00.001+01:00

(and then we ran out of batteries)

Finally, Something Useful

2011-03-04T03:33:00.002+01:00

A little science experiment that Syd and I worked on. Full report here.

A Delightful Discovery

2011-02-25T01:08:00.009+01:00

At one end of my back yard there stood among a mess of ivy and cedars a mysterious statue. I had been wondering what to do with it and how to incorporate it into my Back Yard Master Plan (deer, foxes, lack of funds, lack of time, and sore back notwithstanding), but otherwise hadn't paid much attention to it. You can see it here in the background of a photo from October.

While visiting, my father noticed that the sun image at the bottom had a hole in it, and after a short investigation determined that it wasn't just a statue, but a fountain. I was a bit incredulous, but scrounging through the ivy revealed the outline of a basin, and I grabbed a shovel and started to dig down to see what exactly I had.

My excavation quickly turned into a family 'archaeological' dig, as we not only uncovered more parts of the fountain, but also discarded iron pieces and a toy dinosaur from millions of years ago when plastic dinosaurs roamed the Earth. All in all, we uncovered liner stones and cobbles surrounding a 3' by 4', triple-basin pool. Joy did some investigation and guesses that the image is Euterpe, the Muse of lyric poetry and the "giver of delight."

She'll make a lovely anchor to the north end of my back yard.

Our First (Overnight) Guests!

2011-02-24T13:26:00.009+01:00

Grandpa David and Grandma Kathy came to visit last weekend. They drove down from Maine and saw my Auntie Joan and Deb & Tim along the way. Now that my father is retired, D & K are thinking of moving to the area sometime in the future, and they spent a fair amount of time looking around Charlottesville, seeing a few houses, and even heading "over the mountain" to check out Staunton.

In between their jaunts, we took care of several minor house items, such as removing the old fridge (it made it all the way to the back porch), building a stand for my inaptly named portable planer, buying some poplar for shelves and desks in the kids' playroom, and doing some yardwork. Grandma Kathy enjoyed sitting in the rocker-glider with Elie, the two of them taking turns reading aloud to one another.

Somehow in all of that I failed to take any pictures -- a huge oversight on my part -- so we'll have to rely on the kids' abilities to capture the moments on paper, including Syd's rendition of the reading scene and Elie's of Grandpa David explaining tree rings to the girls during our hike at Walnut Creek. Usually it is my job to "instill my children with a sense of awe and understanding of Nature," but as I explained to Syd, Grandpa David can do it even better, because he doesn't have to make stuff up.

You Little Fox

2011-02-23T17:49:00.003+01:00

Soon after we moved into our house, we noticed some holes in the backyard that were clearly made by some animal or another. We figured they once led to a fox den, but we weren't even sure they were still occupied -- surely nothing would want to live so close to a house. About a month ago, Joy was woken in the middle of the night by the terrible sound of foxes calling (it really sounded like a dying baby), and then the other day I noticed that there had been fresh digging in a couple of the holes the night before.

Yesterday morning, our suspicions were confirmed when Joy watched a fox go down into one of the holes. I'm not sure what this all means for the prospect of cats, more or less my extensive garden (or deer park) but the idea that we might have fox pups in the Spring is pretty exciting!

Happy Valenstine Day!!!

2011-02-14T00:15:00.002+01:00

De Små Ting

2011-02-13T15:30:00.002+01:00

Our Danish friends will understand.

Fortuna

2011-02-09T14:47:00.002+01:00

I haven't written too much about cycling lately. The truth is that between work, the weather, and the new house, I haven't found much time for it. Every day, I commute to work about 3 miles each way, and I supplement with a group ride out in the countryside on the weekend.

I've fallen in with a decent group of riders from Fortuna Cycling. It's a fairly new club in C'ville with cyclists ranging from former racers to hacks like me. They are starting a racing wing -- no idea if I'll have time for it -- but mostly it's just a group of guys who like to go out and have fun.

Having "one of everything" from my old club, I haven't bought too much in terms of clothing: standard shorts and jersey, a new wind jacket, and this, a plain but functional cycling cap, which looks much better on Elie than myself.

Anatomy of a Cabinet Tuck

2011-01-25T01:47:00.005+01:00

Our kitchen has a ridiculous amount of cabinet space. Only two drawers, but plenty of cabinets. The problem was that whoever had the cabinets installed was so cabinet-crazy that the end result was cabinets hanging down way too low over the counter-top. I mean, I could barely even get my espresso machine up there.

The only solution, of course, was to do a cabinet tuck. Not a full cupboardectomy, mind you, but just shave a little off the bottom.

Pictures of the operation here.

New Year's

2011-01-22T03:14:00.005+01:00

Again, a little late. We spent a quiet New Year's in Charlottesville; nothing like last year's spectacle. We used our about-to-expire free swimming coupons at the new Smith Rec Center, where the four of us -- the only visitors -- were diligently watched-over by no fewer than eight lifeguards. Later, we lit a fire with the three leftover logs and all the wooden kitchen utensils that didn't survive four years of storage. Very hyggeligt.

On New Year's Day, we went for a walk in the Shenandoah National Park, this time starting at the bottom to make the return to the car slightly less whiny than before. We crossed a couple of streams, played on the ice-covered rocks, and the girls broke off every icicle they could.

Pictures here.

Our First Major Appliance

2011-01-20T15:19:00.003+01:00

Before:

After:

(The girls got to it pretty quickly.)

Upstairs

2011-01-17T02:51:00.004+01:00

The Basement

2011-01-15T03:26:00.002+01:00

Mere om Huset

2011-01-13T01:26:00.003+01:00

The Low Millions

2011-01-12T13:35:00.002+01:00

A Field Guide

2011-01-09T22:27:00.002+01:00

Af Sydney

The Things You Forgot You Had

2011-01-08T14:41:00.002+01:00

Elie Fylder 6!!!

2011-01-06T03:13:00.002+01:00

Elie turned six last week. Due to two snow days and Christmas Break, she didn't get to celebrate at school until after the New Year, but we had a little party here at home with the family. There were some presents and a cake and the usual singing.

Picture here.

Oh, Deer...

2011-01-04T04:18:00.002+01:00

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-04T02:41:00.005+01:00

OK, so I'm a little behind...

We had a lovely Christmas in our new house. Everyone got exactly what they wanted and we did our best to spread some cheer around to others. We had water. And heat. And electricity. And food. What more could one want?

The biggest problem was that we forgot to set some risengrød out for the nisser, who seem to have stowed away in our things from Denmark. They fired a warning shot with potatoes in our shoes and footprints in the rice they spilled, so we were sure to remember on Christmas Day.

I made a Swedish Tea Ring (with cardamom, of course), and we combined some American and Danish traditions.

Pictures from the day here. I'll have some up for Elie's birthday and New Year's within the next day or two.

Rundt Om Huset

2010-12-24T22:21:00.003+01:00

Don't worry, the video is in English, but I'm a little sick, so you'll have to pardon the cough.

The Honeymoon Is Over

2010-12-19T17:50:00.002+01:00

On our second day of living in our new home, we were welcomed to the world of homeownership by way of a broken water line. The water pressure in the house had become drastically low, and after some investigation we realized that the giant puddle of water in the driveway wasn't due to snow melt afterall.

No worries, though. We used up our three toilets-full of flushes and headed back to "the old house," where showers and mocha lattes (or eggnog lattes, in Joy's case) awaited us. The plumber has already said he'll come by tomorrow to repair the leak, and he'll apply half the cost of repair to a new water line, which will be installed at a more convenient time.

Unloading

2010-12-19T02:05:00.009+01:00

When we moved to Denmark 4 1/2 years ago, we had no idea we'd actually return to C'ville. While we had ideas of where we wanted to end up, even an Engineering Supergenius has to go where the work is.

To avoid having to pay for storage, we took D&K up on their offer to store our things in their garage, which, in all honesty, is as big as a small warehouse (all while amazingly not appearing out-of-proportion with their house -- this is how it is done in Maine).

I was trying very hard not to be pessimistic about our things after shipping them up, storing them for four Maine Winters, and shipping them back. My Dad did his best to assure me that the rocking back and forth while leaving his driveway was the worst the truck would see.

Having watched the truck leave his driveway, that didn't help much.

Nevertheless, our goods arrived in quite respectable condition. One broken plate and bowl are the only real casualties (if you discount my dropping the drawers to the armoire on the loading end). The clothes and such all need a good washing (we've done six loads already). Some of the wooden items have a little mildew, the worst being the unfinished kitchen utensils, which are now awaiting their fate in the fireplace. Leather and fake leather got it the worst, though I must point out that I have inadvertently discovered a substance that sticks to teflon.

After 4 1/2 years, it's been pretty fun sorting through all of our stuff.

Note Til Selv

2010-12-18T18:29:00.004+01:00

A little note to myself that I found while unpacking:

Closing!

2010-12-17T02:46:00.003+01:00

We've closed; the house is ours. There was a glitch with the furnace (as in, it wasn't working), but I think we've gotten it fixed. I hvert fald there's $2k in escrow to settle up.

Unfortunately, a snow storm held up our furniture for a day, so we won't really move in until tomorrow, though we took a few things over there already. I'll take some pictures then.

Sorry for the short post...been a little busy.

After

2010-12-13T02:33:00.000+01:00

Before

2010-12-13T02:29:00.002+01:00

They Haz Jazz

2010-12-11T01:44:00.004+01:00

Syd was in a musical, We Haz Jazz, the last night. Fairly standard fare with singing, a little dancing, and a large variety of abilities to recite lines. The most awkward part was that, because there were no real stage microphones, the kids took turns at two microphones up front, which lead to less than ideal flow of the production.

Oh, well, they're fourth graders, and they all seemed to have fun. Syd had no speaking parts, but sang in the chorus and was part of a dance number, Hobo Swing. I'm sure you'll be able to catch the travelling show soon.

Thanksgiving, American Style

2010-12-02T01:37:00.005+01:00

We went to Deb and Tim's for Thanksgiving. We're holding off on celebrating locally until we're in our new house for Christmas. We drove up on Wednesday. Well, I rode to Culpeper while Joy and the kids did some last minute shopping for Sophie's 18th birthday gift -- not quite as fun as the ride to the beach in Denmark, but it worked. Thursday was spent cooking and celebrating with Tim's brother and fambly and Mary and Pat.

The lady folk (the adult lady folk, that is) went shopping on Black Friday; like true Americans, they stood in line to get a "first 150 shoppers" gift certificate. Tim and I did the more manly thing and took a bike ride on Saturday, finishing up with a tour of the Heavy Seas (née Clipper City) Brewery. I would like to point out that 20 oz. bottles fit quite nicely in a standard water bottle holder.

Can't say there's too much more to add, except that a wonderful time was had by all.

Pictures from the day here.

Welcome to Winter!

2010-12-01T22:14:00.003+01:00

It was 20 (68F to you unenlightened) when I woke up this morning. It was 5 (about 40F) when I rode home from work.

Don't even try to tell me that the astronomical system is better than the calendar system; it's Winter.

New Rain Pants!

2010-11-23T00:35:00.003+01:00

(with Sydney on sound effects!)

First Day of School

2010-11-20T01:28:00.002+01:00

Being a neglectful father (I was touring Norway at the time), I wasn't around for the girls' first day of school. Until I was organizing photos today, I didn't even realize we had pictures from the day.

The first couple months of school have been fairly uneventful -- the girls for the most part enjoy it. Elie is learning to read; Syd is being challenged in math and English. They both enjoy music, art, and P.E. Syd is jealous that Elie is learning Español. They seem to get along with their classmates and their teachers. No issues.

Joy has been volunteering in Elie's class, helping children to read. I'm told Elie makes eyes at her sometimes. Joy has also become active in the PTO, volunteering for the Fun Fair and getting up this morning at 2:00 AM to start a turkey for Elie's Thanksgiving Harvest Feast.

Who would have thought we'd do the all-American family so well.

Montpelier

2010-11-16T02:47:00.009+01:00

We went to James Madison's Montpelier yesterday. Although not as famous as Monticello, it has recently gone through a stunning renovation to undo the work of the du Pont family, who had engaged in plenty of rearranging, knocking down, adding on, and painting garishly salmon. We were last there pre-Sydney, when they were just starting to renovate. A fair portion of the building is dedicated to the work itself, which makes for an interesting bit of 'forensic' architecture.

There are also exhibits on Madison's career, of course, including his central role in the development of the U.S. Constitution. We didn't drag the kids to a couple of exhibits, so we can return another day if anyone is interested when they visit.

Photography is not allowed inside the house proper, but here are pictures of the day.

Elie på Cykel!

2010-11-07T22:03:00.002+01:00

Jack-O-Lanterns

2010-11-05T01:23:00.002+01:00

The Espresso Machine is Dead.

2010-11-03T04:38:00.002+01:00

Long live the Espresso Machine!!!

Halloween, the Aftermath.

2010-11-01T01:10:00.006+01:00

Halloween!

2010-11-01T01:10:00.005+01:00

En hilse

2010-10-31T12:53:00.005+01:00

En lille film jeg lavede for at hilse min gamle cykelklub og invitere dem til at besøge mig og Charlottesville.

(A little film I made to say "Hi" to my old bike club and invite them to visit me in C'ville.)

In Danish. Laugh away.

Obamaville

2010-10-30T20:35:00.001+02:00

It's no secret that Charlottesville is a liberal bastion in a sea of conservativism, and this showed yesterday when the President himself came to fire up the supporters of first-term Democratic representative Tom Perriello. We went down to the Pavilion to see if we could catch a glimpse and give the girl a civics lesson, but after discovering that the line to get in stretched the entire length of the Downtown Mall, around the ice rink and all the way back to the Pavilion again, we decided just to have pizza instead -- a good choice considering had we stood in line, we would have been denied entry just like the several other thousands who couldn't fit in the space.

We came home before Obama even got there and watched some of the coverage on TV. Apparently, you can never have dead air on TV, because we were earnestly informed of such important facts like how it was interesting that Air force 1 landed from the South, that the President would indeed come through that door, and the big news of the evening: the motorcade opted not to turn onto Hydraulic, but went to the 250 interchange a quarter mile down.

Who would have thought?

Leaf Peeping

2010-10-29T02:14:00.003+02:00

We went up to Shenandoah National Park the other day. As usual, I rode up and met the family at Big Meadows, a large open area with mountain bogs and scrub. (Note, this was with no help from my cell phone -- what kind of country is this that doesn't have service at the Park's biggest visitor's center?). Anyway, we had gone up to hike to a waterfall and see how the leaves were doing.

We made the mistake of parking at the top of the hike, instead of the bottom, and there was ample complaining from half of our squad on the way back up. But with enough rests, everyone made it back to the car, after which we drove home, stopping at a lookout here and there to see the leaves.

The leaves were not quite peaking, but I suspect all the rain in the last few days has killed any chance of a spectacular display. In my experience, the bright leaves just fall off and you end up with brown. I may ride out that way this weekend to see.

Pictures from the day here.

A Rather Short Detour

2010-10-28T02:13:00.001+02:00

Jeg tog toget til...

2010-10-22T01:25:00.004+02:00

I took the train to DC yesterday; we have a (small) office near Du Pont Circle where our programmer hides out, and he and I had a lot of things to discuss about our latest, greatest software that we're developing. A year or two ago, some ambitious, local politicians convinced Amtrak to add train service from Lynchburg to Washington's Union Station, an extension of the Northeast Regional Line that now calls in Charlottesville twice daily (if you're from Virginia, you don't really want to know how much the state chipped in for this).

I can't say that it's as convenient as twice hourly service from Odense to Copenhagen, but it's a start. I can say that after a couple of calls to my wife to relate one anecdote or another, she laughed and called me a train snob.

Guilty as charged.

Carter's Mountain

2010-10-17T21:45:00.004+02:00

Deb and her kids came to visit this weekend. Sophie is up for a scholarship at UVa -- Jeffries, Jeffingston, Jefferson -- something like that. Anyway, they all came down Friday night and Deb and Sophie took a tour of the campus on Saturday. Afterwards, we met up on the Downtown Mall for ice cream and a little shopping before coming home for soup and sandwiches.

This morning we headed up to Carter's Mountain to pick apples, something we did most every year we lived here before and missed while we were away. It was kind of late in the season -- most of the apples were past -- but the winesaps were just starting. Having started off looking for fujis and staymens, it took a little while before we hit the mother lode, but 60 lbs. of apples later we were satisfied.

Deb and the kids headed off early in the afternoon, so the visit seemed all too short, but at least it's a little easier to see them now since no one has to fly over any oceans.

Pictures from the day here.

Kan du dansk?

2010-10-12T02:43:00.007+02:00

We have been trying to figure out how to keep Sydney working on her Danish here in the U.S. Needless to say, it is a lot easier to find English speakers there than Danish speakers here. Syd and Elie don't speak to each other too much in Danish anymore, and my Danish isn't good enough to work with her. I try to encourage her, but without much success. Probably the best thing for her has been to buy the international plan with our new (fairly incompetent but what can you do?) cell phone carrier so that Syd can call Veronika once every week or two to chat.

Otherwise, we knew of one Dane in Charlottesville, our former veterinarian who was coincidentally the woman who certified our cats for air travel four and a half years ago. Alas, we didn't have the cats to bring back, so our only connection has been broken.

This changed somewhat a couple of weeks ago when a web search hinted at a Danish woman in town with kids. A short cyber-stalk later and I was able to find her on Facebook, so Joy sent her a private message...in Danish...written by me...asking if she wanted to get together. After fessing up that we weren't so good at Danish (I write it reasonably well, but speak it at a much lower level), the woman had a laugh but wanted to meet us regardless, and so we had a play date at Greenleaf Park that turned out pretty well.

Her daughter understands Danish but doesn't want to speak it too much. Her younger son, with whom the mother has been more diligent at speaking Danish, speaks it well. The mother and Sydney were probably the only two who spoke Danish excellently (for their ages), but I held my own and tried really hard to speak Danish to the children to get them started. Despite my efforts, the kids mostly spoke English, but at least I got to practice and everyone seemed to have a genuinely good time -- det var faktisk hyggeligt. It was nice to hear the language again; I really kind of like it, especially the københavnsk that the mother spoke with lots of good stød -- glottal stops -- in it.

As a bonus, the mother knows our former vet -- C'ville is not that big of a city -- and said she has two children who speak Danish, so here's hoping we can all get together for the sake of helping the kids continue. Hopefully, I can øve mig selv a little on the off chance some of my friends in Denmark come to visit, or at least I can practice my stød.