Detroit Auto Show and breakfast bribing

Efter et aldeles hæsblæsende skole efterår, hvor vi nærmest gispede af udmattelse alle 5, er vi nu nået ind I det nye år med fridage her og der og allevegne. I mandags var der fri pga Martin Luther King Day. Ulrik havde fri I fredags, alle 3 har fri på mandag og det er kun Luca, der skal I skole tirsdag. Jeg forstår ikke hvorfor det skal være så skide travlt hele efteråret for så at køre på slap line I foråret. Nå ja, der er da også en vinterferie om hjørnet om 3 uger…….

After a very hectic school autumn where everyone got exhausted from the never-ending work load, we have now made it into a new year where school is closed over and over. Monday school was out due to Martin Luther King day. Ulrik was off Friday, all three kids are off Monday, and only Luca needs to go to school Tuesday. I do not get why it has to be SO busy in the fall to then get so easy going in the spring. Also the winter break is coming up in a few weeks on top of all of this……

Kristian tog ungerne med ud at lufte I mandags, hvor vi havde hørt at der ville være Detroit Auto Show I – tadaaaah – Detroit. Detroit er jo kendt som Motor City men det var nu ikke en kæmpe udstilling. Men man kunne prøve motor cykler, se en dragster motor, og en særdeles futuristisk Mercedes:

Kristian got the kids out of the apartment Monday, where we heard there would be the Detroit Auto Show in – tadaaaah – Detroit. Detroit is known as Motor City, but the exhibition was not gigantic. One could try our MCs, see a dragster motor and a very futuristic looking Mercedes:

Teresa var ikke særlig begejstret (mildest talt) over at skulle til bil show med sine brødre og sin far, så jeg besluttede mig for at bestikke hende med en gang kun-for-piger morgenmad lørdag morgen. Det virkede ganske fremragende og hun brokkede sig ikke een eneste gang. Der er heldgivis masser af gode madsteder her I Ann Arbor og turen gik til Bigalora, en italiensk/amerikansk fusions restaurant der lå lige I et eksklusivt butiks smørhul, hvor vi også fik tid til at kigge både I Sur La Table og Anthropologie (savle savle savle). På Bigalora har de bl.a. specialiseret sig I bagværk lavet på biga (en form for langstidshævet for-dej) og brugte det til at lave vafler. Teresa fik spist sig igennem denne portion flødeskumsdækkede super vaffel med jordbær og pinjekerner. Ifølge Teresa den BEDSTE vaffel, hun nogensinde har spist

Teresa was not exactly thrilled (mild understatement) to go to a car show with her brothers and her dad, so I decided to bribe her with a girls-only breakfast Saturday morning if she could promise NOT to complain. It worked very well, and she did not fuss at all. Luckily there are plenty of very nice restaurants in Ann Arbor and we went to an Italian/American fusion restaurant named Bigalora, which was situated in an awesome little shopping area where we also got to look inside Sur La Table and Anthropologie (if only I was that rich……). At Bigalora they specialize in biga (a kind of slow raising Italian pre-dough) and used it for waffle making among other dishes. Teresa made it through this mountain of whipped cream with strawberries and pine nuts with the best-tasting waffle she had ever had buried underneath.

Struck by reality

Sidder her i bussen på vej til arbejde, mens resten af familien snorker. Det er Martin Luther King Day = fridag for skolerne men knap så meget fridag for os andre. Sikken en weekend. Jeg var rimeligt cool med at vores ting var brændt det meste af lørdagen, men søndag blev jeg simpelthen så ked af det. Vi mangler jo ikke noget, men tanken om at vores eneste ejendele i DK udgøres af en creme brulee brænder og 2 børneslæder, når vi endnu ikke ved om vi formår at undgå at rejse hjem til sommer, fik mig ned med nakken i går. Jeg fik derfor på elegant vis formået at tude på et par stykker henne i kirken, der kom over for at sige hej. 

I am sitting in the bus while the rest of the family is happily snoring away. Today is Martin Luther King Day = kids are out of school while the rest of us still have to go to work. What a weekend. I remained pretty cool through Saturday about our things having burned down in a fire, but Sunday not so much. We don't need any of those things right now but the thought of having nothing left in DK (besides a crime brûlée torch an two kids sleighs) when we don't even know if we get to stay beyond the summer yet, made me devastated. In the most elegant of manners I managed to cry on several people in church, who came over to say hi. 

Resten af søndag blev brugt på arbejde. Jeg har fornøjelsen af at være ansvarlig for at vores første operations kohorte her på universitetet (mine kolleger er selv nye på U Of M) kører som den skal. Kirurgerne starter i dag og ALT skal være klar i form af papirarbejde, smertestillende, morfintilladelser, flydende kost etc (ja, det ER "bare" mus :-) 

The rest of the Sunday was spent at work. I am responsible for coordinating the first surgery cohort here at U of M (all my colleagues are new to this university as well). The surgeons start today and everything needed to be ready prior to that. Paperwork, analgesia, liquid diets, permission to use morphine etc (yes, this is still "just" mice :-)

Da jeg kom hjem søndag aften havde Kristian hentet Luca fra hans første legeaftale (der var gået supergodt i selskab med en anden lille Star Wars nørd) mens Ulrik og Teresa var kommet hjem fra "Spring Hill". De havde stået på ski, redet på heste, fræset ned ad en kæmpe bakke i store oppustelige baderinge (det kostede så lige et par ambulancer til nogen af de andre teens......), lært samtlige dance moves (ja, også Ulrik) til "crank it like a chainsaw", samt stiftet , they  med "country gravy" til morgenmaden (det ligner hvid klistret havregrød - mums..... eller noget). 

When I made it home Sunday evening Kristian had picked up Luca from his first play date (it went really well as he spent the afternoon in the company of another little Star Wars geek). Also Ulrik and Teresa were home from "spring hill". They have been skiing, horseback riding, gone sleighing in big inflate able tubes down a giant hill (apparently that made it necessary to have a few ambulances picking up some of the teens.....), they know all the right dance moves to "crank it like a chainsaw"  and have also familiarized themselves with "country gravy" for breakfast (think thick white sticky porridge consistency - yum..... or whatever).

Så livet går videre her. Heldigvis med knap så meget kulde, da der lige frem har været tøvejr!!!!!

Life goes on. Luckily with much less cold as the weather has been much milder the past few days, causing melting of the snow!!!

“Things we lost in the fire……”

Det er lørdag morgen – en meget stille een af slagsen da vi kun har Luca hjemme. Ulrik og Teresa er taget på lejr med kirken 2 ½ time længere nordpå, og vi regner med at se dem godt trætte søndag aften, da det vist ikke skorter på fritidsaktiviteter oppe på lejr centeret (pony ridning, svævebaner, bobslæde mm). Da vi kun har eet barn hjemme fejrede vi det med noget så ekstravagant som en tur på “applebee’s” for at spise aftensmad. Den ligger lige rundt om hjørnet, så vi kunne GÅ derhen….. Og der var faktisk rigtig hyggeligt. De gør det I diner mad og en meget velassorteret bar og jeg bestilte et glas vin, der så rigtig godt ud og som var et “season offer”. Men næh nej. De krævede skam ID fra to havlgamle tosser som os, og da jeg ikke har et amerikansk kørekort og heller ikke tager mit pas med for at spise ude, så var der nul vin til mig. Nørj hvor blev jeg sur! Men selvom jeg var sur “på dansk” så fangede tjeneren vist pointen og tog en snak med sin chef, der heldigvis sagde god for at jeg ikke lignede ind der var yngre end 21. Som om! 

It is Saturday morning – one of the quiet ones, as we only have Luca home this weekend. Teresa and Ulrik have gone to a camp with the church about 2 ½ hours north, and we expect to seem then again Sunday evening being very tired, as there will plenty for them to do up there (horseback riding, ziplines, tubing hill sleighing etc). As we only have one kid home we decided to celebrate with something as extravagant as eating dinner at the local Applebee’s right around the corner. We actually walked…. It was really nice there. They have diner style food and a well assorted bar, so I ordered a glass of wine, which was a seasonal offer and looked really good. But nope! They wanted to card two old fools like us, and as I do not have a US drivers license, nor brings my passport when going out for dinner, I could have zero wine. I got pretty pissed off! Yet even though I primarily was pissed in Danish the waitress caught the vibe and had a talk with her manager, who agreed that I did indeed look like someone older than 21. 

Da vi kom hjem igen så Kristian og Luca star wars film, mens jeg hyggede mig med green card advokaternes lovprisninger af min kunnen. Der var et par af anbefalings brevene der liiiiiiige skulle nedtones lidt, da jeg ikke tror jeg får  en VP fra Novo til at skrive under på, at jeg ene kvinder har opfundet en ny behandling mod diabetes……. Jeg ved godt at der skal skrues op for charmen I sådan nogle breve, men jeg vil simpelthen ikke lægge navn til noget, der ikke passer. 

When we got home Kristian and Luca watched star wars while I got busy looking through the recommendation letters for the green card application that were written by the attorneys. There were a few of them that needed juuuuuuust a little bit of editing. I don’t think I will get a Vice president from Novo signing that I singlehandedly invented a new cure for diabetes…… I know that these letters need to  be exaggerated, but I am not having my name on something that is directly untrue.

I dag er det også sidste dag I meget lang tid (frem til sommerferien ca), hvor jeg IKKE skal ud at runde arbejde lørdag og søndag – så det skal nydes! Det er jo en del af fornøjelsen ved at lave dyreforsøg indenfor metabolisme, så jeg kan ikke rigtig beklage mig. Heldigvis er det relativt fleksibelt hvornår jeg tager derud og fodrer mus, da de er nataktive, og derfor sover fremfor at spise om dagen. Apropos mus, så fik vi fanget vores lille gæst I forgårs, med en musefælde med godt med peanutbutter på. Ungerne havde gemt den til jeg kom hjem, så jeg kunne se den lille nuttede skovmus. Det var jeg selvfølgeligt utrolig taknemmelig for efter at være blevet bidt adskillige gange af dens små fætre på arbejde.

Today it is also the last day of quite a long period of time (until summer) where I don’t have to go to work on Saturdays and Sundays – so I am enjoying that as much as I can. It is part of the charm of doing metabolism animal studies, so I should not complain. Luckily it is quite flexible as mice sleep (and therefore do not eat) during the day. Apropos mice we finally caught our little house guest Thursday by the aid of a mouse trap with peanutbutter. The kids saved it for me till I got home, so I could personally see the tiny little cute mouse. I was of course very grateful as I had been bitten several times that day by its little cousins at work.

Og nu til overskriften. Vi har her til morgen fået besked om at ALT det vi havde opmagasineret I Danmark er brændt. Billeder, arvestykker, legetøj, kongeligt porcelæn etc. Vi har heldigivis alle vigtige papirer med herover, men det er godt nok underligt at tænke på at vi nu ikke ejer noget som helst overhovedet I Danmark. Igen ser det ud til at der kun er een vej frem – at blive herovre, men når fremtiden stadigt er usikker og vi ikke kan forvente at få svar på vores green card før tidligst til maj, så orker vi snart ikke mere. Men vi er taknemmelige for at alle er sunde og raske – det er vi blevet mindet om IKKE er en selvfølge flere gange den seneste måneds tid.

And now for the title. This morning we got notified that EVERYTHING we had in storage in Denmark is lost in a fire. Photos, heirlooms, toys, royal porcelain etc. Luckily we brought all of our important documents, but it is really weird that we now have absolutely nothing left in Denmark. Again it looks like there is only one way to move forward: staying in the US. But as everything is far from worked out yet its getting tough to handle. We cannot expect to hear back from the green card application until May. But we are indeed grateful that we are all healthy – we have been reminded a few times lately that this is NOT something to take for granted.

Der kom gæster på terassen mens jeg skrev, men den nåede næsten at smutte væk inden jeg fik kameraet klar. Det ER altså hyggeligt.

We had visitors on the patio as I was writing, but it almost got away before I could snap a picture. I DO like squirrels and love when they stop by.

Random stuff from yesterday

- tjekkede vejrudsigterne for Anchorage i Alaska, Irkutsk i Sibirien, Helsinki i Finland og Winnipeg i Canada (og Ann Arbor selvfølgeligt). Gæt selv hvor der var koldest! Suk.

- checked the weather forecasts for Anchorage in Alaska, Irkutsk in Siberia, Helsinki in Finland, and Winnipeg in Canada (and Ann Arbor of course). Guess which place was the coldest? Sigh!

- sagde godnat til en 9 årig i hans telt i vores soveværelse......

- tucked a 9 year old into bed - in his tent - in our bedroom.....

- blev med 3 minutters varsel lige inviteret med til et projektmøde med sådan nogle professorer der jævnligt publicerer i Nature og Science. Kom ikke til at sige noget dumt - håber jeg.....

- got invited to a project meeting with a 3 minutes notice with those kinds of professors that publish in nature and science on a regular basis. I didn't say anything too stupid - I hope......

- fik et lift I en spritny Mercedes 400C

- got a ride in a brand new Mercedes 400C

- I går arbejdede jeg 12 timer. I dag er jeg træt.

- yesterday I worked 12 hours. Today I am tired

Digital photography by Ulrik

Eet af Ulriks valgfag i High School er Digital Photography. Han gaar rigtig meget op i det, og jeg synes faktisk han goer det fremragende. Saa her er en stak billeder fra foerste semester. Enjoy:

One of Ulriks classes in High School is Digital Photography. He spends a lot of time with it and I honestly think he is very talented. Here are a few pics from the first semester. Enjoy:

A very difficult dessert

Her I weekenden lykkedes det at få den første sleepover arrangeret. Det var Teresa der fik æren (som altid vinder hun foran drengene med syvmileskridt, når det kommer til sociale færdigheder) og vi havde aftalt at bedste veninden Julia skulle tage med Teresa hjem fra skole. Det blev det så ikke helt til eftersom skolen var lukket, men Julia kom alligevel. Teresa tog op til Julia for at kælke I deres indkørsel (de bor op ad en bakke I en skov) mens Kristian og drengene lagde vejen forbi mit arbejde for at hente mig, med en tur I det lokale asiatiske supermarked inkluderet. Det er stort og der er godt nok mange mærkelige ting. Vi blev fristet af sort/hvide mochis med ananassmag. De smagte absurd dårligt, så de får ikke lov til at ryge I indkøbskurven en anden gang. Knap så fristet blev vi af slagterafdelingens udvalg af andetarme, grisetæer og hønsefødder. Men stor var Lucas fryd da han spottede en pakke marie kiks:

This weekend we managed to have the first kid sleep over. Teresa had the honor (which is no surprise as she is far beyond the boys when it comes to social skills) and we agreed to bring Julia home after school. That did not happen quite as expected as school was closed for the day. Instead Teresa went to Julias place for the afternoon where they could use the sleighs in the driveway (they live on a hill in the forest). Kristian and the boys then stopped by my workplace to pick me up and we also included a trip to the local Asian supermarket. It is quite big and there are a lot of weird foods there. We were tempted by black and white ice-cream mochis with pineapple. Yikes, they tasted bad, so they will not placed in the shopping again. We were NOT tempted in the butcher department where you could get duck intestines, pigs toes and hens feet. But Luca got very excited at the sight of “Marie biscuits”:

For at tøserne ikke skulle kede sig alt for meget tænkte jeg at de kunne få frit slag I køkkenet og kreere en dessert til Julias forældre, der ville komme forbi til middag lørdag aften. Der blev tænkt længe. Og grundigt. Teresa er ikke så glad for chokolade. Julia er ikke så glad for noget, der er med crème eller fløde. Derudover VILLE de lave en svær dessert. Hm……. Valget endte pa cannolis, der burde se sådan her ud: cannoli

To keep the girls busy I promised that they got to create a dessert for Saturday nights dinner with Julias parents. They thought long and hard. Teresa is not a big fan of chocolate. Julia does not fancy custard or anything with whipped cream. And the dessert HAD to be really difficult to make. Hm…..The choice ended up with cannolis, that should ultimately look like this: cannoli

Jeg troede at man bare bagte cannolis I små cirkler på en bageplade og så foldede dem over et tykt skaft, når de var færdige. Næh nej. De skal steges. Foldet over et cannoli rør! Det er ikke noget vi lige ligger inde med I køkkenskufferne, så vi tog en tur I whole foods for at finde noget cannoli pasta, der kan bruges som nødløsnings form. Her ses Teresa, der skovler sne på sine støvler, så det ville se ud som om hun var begravet op over støvlekanten. Busted!:

I thought you could just make cannolis in little circles in the oven and then fold them while over a shaft while they were still hot. Nope! They need to be fried while on a cannoli tube! We do not really have this kind of equipment in our humble kitchen drawers and ended up going to Whole Foods to see if they might have cannoli pasta, that could be used as an emergency tube replacement. Here is Teresa shoveling snow over her boots, to make it look like a lot more snow. Busted!

Og her er så resultatet efter alle køkken anstrengelserne:

And here is the result of all the hard work:

 

Det er vel ikke nødvendigt at fortælle at Whole Foods ikke lå inde med den rigtige pasta og at cannoli dej bliver helt ballonagtig,når det bliver stegt. Men de smagte heldigvis OK.

I guess it is not necessary to tell that Whole Foods did not carry the right pasta and that cannoli dough gets all puffy when deep fried. But the taste was OK, luckily.

Det blev også til et par ture udenfor I sneen:

We also went out in the snow:

Along came winter

Vinteren er over os. Vi fik ikke hvid jul. Ej heller et hvidt nytår. Men januar……. Hold. Nu. Op. hvor er det koldt altså. Jeg har brugt utrolig meget energi på at bekymre mig om vinteren, da jeg er en rigtig frossenpind og det var med gru jeg så vejrudsigtens løfte om vilde minusgrader rykke tættere og tættere på. De første dage var hårde, men nu hvor det har stået på en uges tid føles det væsentligt mindre koldt. Faktisk blev jeg I går ligefrem helt betaget af hvordan sneen lignede glimmer både når den var I luften og når den lå på Jorden. Det var rigtig svært at tage billeder af, men jeg tror godt man kan fornemme hvor koldt det er: 

Winter has arrived. We did not get a white Christmas. Nor a white New Years. But January……. It. Is. Absolutely. Crazy. I have spent a tremendous amount of mental energy worrying about this winter, as I do not tolerate cold very well, and I have tortured myself watching the weather forecast moving the freezing temperatures closer and closer. The first few days were tough, but now where it has been a week it feels a lot less cold. Actually I got quite fascinated by the way the snow looked like glitter in the air and on the ground. It was very hard to take a picture, but the coldness is quite obvious I would think: 

Vi har også haft fornøjelsen af endnu en omgang isslag. Denne gang uden forslåede haleben, og da jeg listed op I Whole Foods havde jeg endda overskud til at forsøge at forevige fænomenet:

We have also had the pleasure of an ice storm. This time without injured tail bones though, and when I tip toed up to Whole Foods I snapped a few pictures:

 Hverdagen er tilbage for fulde gardiner og ganske som I Danmark var det en sølle udseende flok frikker, der prøvede at komme I gang mandag morgen. Det gjorde det ikke lettere at vi havde vores første afsked søndag eftermiddag, hvor vores brasilienske venner kom forbi for en sidste gang. Det var godt nok underligt. De kom cirka samtidigt med os og de har været med os I Hell, vi har spist os igennem massive mængder Brasilian BBQ, været ude at skøjte osv. Dem kommer vi til at savne rigtig meget. Heldigvis – eller noget – har de skåret deres rejse hjem over I 2 og er pt på ferie I Cancun, hvor de er så flinke at de sender en masse strand og bikini billeder retur. Tak! Vi er meget taknemmelige.......

Everyday life is back at full speed and just as it was in Denmark it was a pretty lousy looking bunch of Frikkes who tried to get started Monday morning. It didn’t make it any easier that we said our first goodbye Sunday afternoon where our Brazilian friends stopped by for the last time. That was really weird. They came at about the same time as us, and we have been to Hell, we have gorged on Brazilian BBQs, we have been iceskating etc. We are going to miss them a lot. Luckily – or whatever – they have cut their return travels into two parts and are currently on vacation in Cancun. They are SO nice that they keep sending us pictures of beaches and bikinis. Thank you! We deeply appreciate it........

 

Ungerne nåede dog kun at være I skole I 3 dage denne uge. Der gik rygter om at “wind chill” ville være så koldt (-20 F svarende til -30 C) at skolen ville lukke, men det så ikke ud til at temperature og vinden ville samarbejde om at komme helt derned trods alt. Ulrik og Teresa håbede, mens Luca var sur. Hans lærer havde nemligt lovet en bamse og sutsko dag I skolen og han havde omhyggeligt pakket sin taske med Muddi, og Rexie og Buddi mm. Det har dog også sine bagsider sådan at være hjemme en hel lang dag. Teresa kedede sig SÅ meget at hun fik plaget sin far til at køre ud og hente undertegnede på arbejde. Fredag var skolen så lukket igen??? Tjo, det sneede torsdag aften og var koldt, men hvis der ikke skal mere til, så bliver der da ikke meget skolegang I januar og februar. Det lader dog til at skole bus chaufførerne har fået en ny overenskomst, som de er så trætte af at de nægter at køre under påskud om sygdom og for dårlig vejr. Jeg håber det går I orden snart, da lærerne ellers bliver mega stressede, over hvor forsinkede de er med pensum, og så bliver det ikke sjovt at gå I skole.

The kids only went to school for 3 days this week. There were some rumors that it would be SO cold (-20 F corresponding to -30C) that the schools would close down, but the weather forecast never really predicted those levels. Ulrik and Teresa were hoping with the best of their ability while Luca was really mad. His teacher promised a “teddy and slippers” day at school and he already meticulously  packed his backpack with Muddi, Rexie, Buddi etc. Having a day off out of the blue døs have some disadvantages though. Teresa was so extremely bored that she begged Kristian to come and pick me up at work. Friday Schools have been closed again??? Well, it did snow Thursday night and it has been cold, but if it døs not take more to cancel school, January and February are going to be some long months. It døs seem however that the school bus drivers are having some issued with their work agreements, making them cancel their routes under the excuse of diseases and weather. I do hope it will be resolved soon, especially as the teachers are otherwise getting very stressed out about the delay in their teaching plans, making it much less fun to go to school.