a worried bus driver......

Kristian gik i braedderne i gaar med en omgang feber, saa mor her var noedt til at...... vaere mor - gisp. Og rent faktisk faa alle 3 boern ud af doeren (til at naa busser hhv kl 07:14, 07:27 og 08:25). Og saa var jeg oveni noedt til at hente Luca ved skolebussen igen om eftermiddagen (dobbelt gisp). Det skal vaere op til laeseren selv at bedoemme om jeg eventuelt er blevet en smule forvaent med at have en ikke-arbejdende mand derhjemme, der tager sig af den slags dag efter dag........

Jeg var selvklart ifoert mit "jeg cykler paa arbejde sports outfit" tilsat vandmelon cykelhjelm. Og jeg var nok ogsaa en smule stresset over at komme sent paa arbejde. I hvert fald valgte jeg at overhale skolebussen udenom paa min cykel - FY! (det er strengt forbudt at overhale en skolebus, der holder stille. De har endda et "stop" skilt der sidder klar paa siden).  Men siden jeg var paa cykel gad jeg altsaa ikke vente. Jeg tillod mig endda den frihed at raese afsted i kanten af vejen, hvor der i fin plads til baade mig og bilerne (- jeg ved nemlig godt,i modsaetning til visse andre cyklister, at jeg ikke er udoedelig og plejer at holde mig langt fra situationer, der er deciderede farlige. Men med tilstandene paa nogen af cykelstierne her i omraadet, vil jeg faktisk vove at paastaa at det er mindre farligt at koere i kanten af vejen!). Selvom der var masser af plads turde skolebussen ikke overhale mig i laaaang tid, og da jeg hentede Luca i gaar eftermiddags vinkede chauffoeren meget insisterende og venligt til mig. Maaske var han bare glad for at Luca ikke var blevet foraeldreloes - LOL.

Kristian got knocked out with a fever yesterday so I had to step up to my mom duties - argh. I actually had to get all three kids out of the door in the morning and make sure that they all caught their busses at 7:14; 7:27; and 8:25 respectively. I even had to get Luca from the school bus in the afternoon as well - more argh. It will be up to the reader to decide if I am potentially "slightly" spoiled by having a non-working husband usually dealing with these things day after day.....

I was of course wearing my "I bike to work sports outfit" with my watermelon helmet added in to that mix. I was also a little stressed out about meeting in later than I planned to. Anyways, I chose to pass the school bus, while it was still stopped - shame on me! But since I was on a bike I figured I would get away with it. I even chose to ride on the road, where there is plenty of space for me AND the cars (- in contrast to certain other types of bike riders I a quite aware that I am not immortal, but with the condition of some of the bikelanes in this area, I consider it safer to be on the road!). Even though there was plenty of space the school bus did not dare to pass me. He just followed along after me for quite some time. When I picked up Luca yesterday afternoon, the busdriver insistingly greeted me by waving and smiling enthusiastically from his seat. He was probably happy to see that Luca still had a mom - LOL.

Finally!

Snowbird Utah

Her kommer der  lige et hurtigt indlæg fra Snowbird I Utah, hvor der er faldet ½ m sne I går. Hurraaa – eller noget (dem, der kender mig godt, ved at jeg hellere vil save min arm af med en sløv lommekniv end at spænde ski på fødderne……..). Jeg er på konference sammen en stor bunke andre nørder. Nærmere betegnet andre nørder der sidder og nørkler med hjerner fra fede mus og rotter. Jeg skal være den første til at indrømme at et par af foredragene er fløjet hen over hovedet på mig med stor fart – apropos at blogge midt I en foredrag – ahem). Men der har heldigvis også været oplæg, der understreger at der ikke er noget I hele verden jeg hellere vil lave end det jeg gør lige nu. Som fx den professor (der I øvrigt opdagede leptin red) der havde tænkt længe over at metal I mikrobølgeovne eksploderer = det kan man da bruge til at sætte jern fast på hjerneceller og så ellers udsætte musen for radiobølger (I et apparat leveret af en flok lokale rumænere fra svejse branchen) eller evt lade sine medarbejdere svinge magneter over et musebur 2 minutter hvert kvarter, for at aktivere neuronerne. Arj, men hvor cool er  DET lige? Det mest crazy er, at han faktisk fik brugbare resultater ud af det. Et andet højdepunkt var “min” professor der lagde salen ned med at brag af en præsentation om fedmeoperationer (jow jow, vi forstår at more os…..).

Here is a quick post from Snowbird in Utah, where we had 28inches of snow yesterday. Yay – or whatever (those who know me well also know that I would rather detach my arm with a blunt pocket knife than put skis under my feet……). I am at a conference with a bunch of other geeks who also spend a lot of time trying to figure out what goes on in the brains of fat mice and rats. I will be the first one to admit that a few of the session flew over my head in a very fast pace (regarding writing blog posts in the middle of some of them – ahem). But there has also been talks that underscores that there is really nothing in the whole world I would rather be working on right now, than exactly this. Such as the talk by the professor (the same one who discovered leptin red) who thought long and hard about the fact that one can’t put metal in the microwave as it explodes = that might be used to attach iron to bran cells and then expose the mice to radiowaves (in an apparatus delivered by some local Romanians from the welding business) or alternatively let your employees wave a magnet over a mouse cage for 2 minutes every 15 minutes to activate neurons. How cool is that? Seriously? The most crazy thing is that it actually worked and created results. Another highlight was “my” professor making the entire audience laugh out loud with an excellent talk on bariatric surgery (oh how we know to have fun in this field……). 

Jeg ankom søndag eftermiddag til høj sol, en bjergudsigt, der næsten tog pusten fra mig, og en udendørs opvarmet swimmingpool. Nice! Mandag var også fantastisk.  Jeg fik mig en god lang svømmetur og sluttede dagen af med en fest I “senior hytten” (deroppe hvor alle de cool professorer bor). Der manglede hverken mad eller whiskey eller “work bitch” af Britney Spears – suk.

I arrived Sunday afternoon to clear blue sky and sunshine, a mountain view that almost made me lose my breath, and a heated outdoor swimming pool. Nice! Monday was also really good. I had a good swim in the pool and ended the day at a party in the “senior cabin” (where all the hot shot professors stay). There was no lack of food, whiskey and “work bitch” with Britney Spears – sigh.

Tirsdag syntes at være oplagt til tur op ad bjerget i høj sol, og lidt blæst…… der blev værre og værre. Vi skulle også lige snige os forbi en låge med store “no trespassing” skilte…….. Vi så nogle MEGET store hjortelorte…… Og ca 50m længere fremme mødte vi så lorternes ejermand – en KÆMPE elg, der ikke have tænkt sig at flytte sig nogen steder hen udover at rejse sig op og stirre olmt på os. Vi blev relativt hurtigt enige om at lange ture var stærkt overvurderede, og at en kort tur også er en god tur.

Tuesday seemed to be perfect for a hike up the mountain in sunshine and slightly windy conditions…. that kept getting worse. We also had to sneak past a large “no trespassing” sign…. We saw some GIANT deer poops….. and about 150 ft further up the trail we encountered the owner of the poops – a giant moose, that was not gonna go anywhere except standing up and giving us the evil stare. We decided relatively fast that long hikes are indeed very overestimated activities and that short trips are just as good.

Selve hotellet er super lækkert, men jeg er ærlig talt ikke imponeret over maden. Her er heller ikke de store aktiviteter at foretage sig I lokalområdet, hvis man ikke står på ski. En arrangeret bustur til Salt Lake City, faldt derfor på et meget tørt sted onsdag eftermiddag. Der var rigtig meget sne. Bussen blev forsinket op ad bjerget pga en ulykke, og chaufføren bad alle spænde sig godt fast inden nedstigningen – gisp! Det var heldigvis ikke så slemt som frygtet, men han kørte nu også ret forsigtigt (bemærk snekæderne på bussen nedenfor). Sneen var ikke kun faldet I bjergene – inde I byen lå der en hel del. Det var ret surrealistisk at se forårs grønne træer og blomster begravet I sne.

The hotel in itself is really classy and nice, but I am not impressed with the food. Besides skiing there is not a lot to do in the local area either. A bus trip to Salt Lake City Wednesday afternoon was a highly needed activity. There as a lot of snow and as a consequence the bus was delayed due to an accident further down the road, and the driver asked everybody to buckle up before he started the decline – yikes! Luckily it was not as bad as expected (please notice the snowchains on the bus below). The snow had however not only appeared in the mountains, but also down in the city. It was quite surrealistic to see the spring green trees and flowers covered in snow.

Planen var sushi (apropos den ikke alt for tiltalende mad på hotellet). Een af de andre post docs kommenterede tørt I bussen “and then they went to Salt Lake City and got the best sushi of their life – said no-one EVER……….". Ironisk nok, fik vi intet mindre end fantastisk sushi og åd til vi dårligt kunne bevæge os til lige knap 20$. Og vi fik rigtig kaffe –ikke bare det der lunkne stads I 20 L portioner. 

Bussen var parkeret lige overfor Temple Square, hvilket gjorde det oplagt at slentre en tur rundt derinde. Selve templet er utrolig flot udefra, men hermetisk lukket for turister (ikke en gang alle mormoner får lov at gå derind). Der var kor-øvelse I tabernaklet = ingen adgang her heller. Vi havde ikke tid til at tage en guidet tur I deres conference center, men kunne gå over I mormonernes visitor center, der bestemt er et besøg værd I sig selv. Ovenpå sådan en tur, kan jeg lige klare at tage den sidste dag med, selvom jeg er ved at nå mit mætningspunkt for hvor meget information jeg kan blive ved at stoppe ind I hovedet.

The plan was to eat sushi (regarding the not too appetitive food on the hotel). One of the other post docs commented on the bus “and then they went to Salt Lake City and got the best sushi of their life – said no-one EVER………". Ironically we had nothing short of amazing sushi and stuffed ourselves until we were barely able to move for less than 20$ pr person. And we had real coffee – not the lukewarm brown stuff in 20L containers. 

The bus parked right acrossed from the temple square, which made it an obvious choice to wander around in there. The temple is incredibly beautiful from the outside, but is also hermetically closed for tourists (not even all mormones are allowed in there). There was a choir rehearsal in the tabernacle = no entrance there as well. We did not have time to take the tour of the conference center, but went to the visitor center instead, that turned out to be an interesting experience in itself. After such a trip I am capable of stuffing my head with one final day of information, even though my saturation point is getting pretty close.

Of hair salons, tornadoes and leverpostej

I dag er sidste dag I spring break og sørme om det ikke er ved at være rigtigt forår! Selvom sneen smeltede for en måned siden er her stadig brunt og trist. Der er intet I skovbunden udover visne blade fra sidste efterår og vi har kun set meget få forårsblomster. Men NU sker der endeligt noget. Knopperne er bristefærdige på træerne, græsset bliver grønnere for hver dag, der går, og vi har smidt vinterjakkerne.

Today is the last day of spring break and it finally looks like spring is actually just around the corner. Even though the snow melted a  month ago everything is still brown and dead-looking. There is nothing on the forest floor except dead leaves from last fall and we have only spotted very few spring flowers elsewhere. But NOW it seems to happen. The buds on the trees are close to bursting, the grass gets greener by the day, and the winter coats are not in use anymore.

I går fik vi også yderligere en påmindelse om at der er sommer på vej med en “tornado warning”. Himlen blev små giftig at se på, regnen piskede ned, og Luca gik I panik og gemte alle sine nerf guns på det sikreste sted I huset. Jeg var ude og spise med mine kolleger, der tog det I stiv arm, da de har prøvet den slags en hel del gange før I Cincinatti, og de ikke syntes det så særlig slemt ud udenfor. Vi slap dog denne gang, selvom Illinois blev hærget.

Yesterday we also got an additional reminder that summer is underway as there was a tornado warning. The sky started to look scary, the rain poured, and Luca panicked and hid all his nerf guns in the safest room in the apartment. I was out having dinner with my colleagues, who did not seem bothered at all, as they have tried tornadoes in Cincinatti, and they did not think it looked severe enough to start to make a fuss about it. We did not get a tornado this time, but Illinois got struck.

Og så er der sket noget af det allerbedste I dag: Jeg har fundet en frisør jeg kan holde ud at blive klippet hos. Faktisk er hun næsten lige så god som min stam-frisør I Danmark. Der ligger en frisør lige rundt om hjørnet fra hvor vi bor og jeg har egentlig været ganske tilfreds – lige indtil sidste gang. Jeg blev klippet af en meget ung pige og det var mildest talt en lorte klipning. Flere gange mente hun selv hun var færdig, og når jeg så bemærkede at jeg syntes det trængte til blive gjort ordentligt færdigt tilbød hun at style det, så man ikke kunne se de grimme kanter. Øhm tak, men nej tak! Jeg valgte at give dem een chance mere I dag og fortalte dem også at jeg ikke havde været tilfreds sidste gang. At give amerikanere kritik er en svær balance gang – de ved ofte overhovedet ikke hvordan de skal håndtere det, men I det mindste gav flere af dem mig ret I, at mit hår ikke så specielt vellykket ud, og at det var klippet decideret dårligt. Til gengæld fik jeg så glæde af en frisør på min egen alder, der ikke var bange for at tage fat og fik reddet det hele rigtig godt. Pyha.

Also something really great happened today. I have found a hair stylist that actually does a good job. She is almost as good as my favorite stylist in Denmark (that took years to find). There is a hair salon right around the corner, from where we live, and it has been OK so far – until last time where I got a really shitty haircut. It was done by a very young girl and several times she tried to proclaim she was done, even though I did not agree. Then she offered to style my hair so the ugly parts could not be seen. Well, thanks but no thanks! I chose to give them one more chance today and told them that I had not been happy with my haircut last time. To criticize Americans is an act of balance – they often do not know how to handle it, but they agreed that my haircut was indeed shitty. Luckily I got a really good hair stylist my own age who did an excellent job and saved my hairdo. Phew.

I morgen venter der påskefrokost på dansk maner med varm leverpostej (som Christine havde med I marts og som har været gemt I fryseren til en særlig anledning). Vi har også Anton Berg påskeæg og lakridser! Nammenam. I dag har der derfor været oprydning og indkøb på programmet - med en ovn, der I skrivende stund er gaæt I selvsving pga en selvrens cyklus :-( Vi har også været I midtvestens svar på Bilka, der hedder Meijer og har ALT hvad man skal bruge samt en hel masse man ikke skal bruge. Vi tog vores penny samling med og fik den tømt ud I en maskine, der spyttede en kvittering ud med 19,44$ på. Planen var at købe noget vi ellers aldrig ville købe (fx en bungee walker.....se nedenfor), som alle kunne have glæde af. Hmmmm. Det var ikke helt let, men det blev en gang Haagen Dazs is og en form til at bage hjemmelavede muslibarer. Sikken vi forstår at frådse! Her ses et lille stemnings billede fra på vejen ud. Manden I baggrunden er en såkaldt “greeter” der står og siger “welcome to Meijer” igen og igen og igen og……… 

Tomorrow we have invited the other Danes over for a Danish easter lunch with warm “leverpostej” (that Christine brought from Denmark and which has been stored in the freezer for a special occasion like this). We also have marzipan easter eggs and licorice . Yum. For this reason we have been cleaning and shopping today - and the oven is currently striking after a self-clean cycle :-( We have been to the super grocery store of the Midwest: Meijer, where you can get everything you need and quite a few things you don’t. We brought our penny collection and added them to the coin machine, which gave us back a 19.44$ receipt. The plan was to buy something we would not normally buy (maybe a bungee walker...... see below) and which everyone would like. Hmmmmm. That was not very easy, but we decided on some Haagen Dazs icecream and a mold for home made granola bars. We are such big spenders……. Below is a picture showing the greeter, who’s job is to stand by the entrance and say “welcome to Meijer” over and over and over and…..

Ellers går tiden med at tænke på Green Card og hvad vi gør hvis ikke får det (eller ikke når at få det). Det sluger desværre rigtig meget af vores overskud stadig ikke at vide om vi kan blive, mens vi spinker og sparer alt hvad vi kan, for at få vores opsparing til at slå til. Jeg tager jævnligt mig selv I at blive uhyggeligt jaloux på andre, der ikke skal kæmpe lige så hårdt som os for at få lov til at blive I USA. Jeg har ærlig talt ikke lyst til at bloggen bliver en brokkecentral, men uvisheden ligger som en stor sort skygge i baghovedet hele tiden, og gør det svært ikke at bekymre sig.

Otherwise we spend a lot of ressources worrying about the Green card and what to do if it is rejected (or we do not get it in time). It takes up so much of our thoughts not to know if we can stay, while we are trying to spend as little money as possible to make our savings last. I often have to stop myself from becoming deadly jealous of others, who do not have to fight as hard as us to get to live in the US. I don’t want this blog to become a complaint hub, but the uncertainty blocks our minds like a giant black cloud, making it hard not to worry.

Easter eggs and lakes

Påsken er kommet og gået og I modsætning til I Danmark ruttes der ikke med helligdage her. Alle påskedage har været helt almindelige arbejds- og skole dage pånær Good Friday, hvor ungerne havde fri. Men ingen påske herovre uden påskeægsjagt. Det er der nogen her I familien, der har glædet sig ret så heftigt til. “Kan du ikke lige hente din kurv, så jeg kan tage et billede af dig Luca?”:

Easter has come and gone again and in contrast to in Denmark, there hasn’t been any national days off. All days of Easter have been regular work and school days except Good Friday, where the kids were off. But no Easter without easter egg hunts. Someone in this family has REALLY looked forward to this. “Luca, why don’t you get your basket, so I can take a picture of you?”:

Første omgang jagt var I kirken, hvor der ikke var sparet på hverken æg eller ivrige børn. Jagten blev sat I gang med en megafon og så var der ellers fart over feltet:

First hunt was in our church on Saturday, and there were many many eggs and eager kids. Once the megafon count down was over, the kids sure got busy:

Bagefter var der pizza og “crafts” indenfor og jeg kunne ikke lade være med at snige mig til et billede af de allestedsnærværende hand sanitizers. Som dansker er man altså ikke helt vokset op med samme bakteriofobiske tilstande.

Afterwards there was pizza and crafts indoors, and I couldn’t help but snatch a picture of the abundant hand sanitizers. Being Danish we haven’t grown up with the same germophobic conditions:

Søndag gik det løs igen. Vi startede ud med et brag af en påskegudstjeneste I kirken, hvor alle (pånær os) var mødt op I deres stiveste puds. Teresa mangler åbenlyst at have at arsenal af tylkjoler, højhælede sko og blomster hårbånd, som stort set alle de andre tøser I hendes alder.

Bagefter satte vi kursen med West Bloomsfield, hvor vi var inviteret til åbent hus hos en anden dansker og hendes amerikanske familie. Vi skulle bare finde huset med en velociraptor ude foran…….!

Sunday we were at it again. We started out in our church with a big Easter Sunday service, where everyone else (except us) had put on their finest clothes. It is obvious that Teresa døs not have the same amount of big dresses, high heeled shoes, and hair accessories with flowers as everybody else her age apparently have……

Afterwards we went to West Bloomsfield, where we had been invited over for an open house event at another Dane and her American family. We were told to find the house with the velociraptor in front……!

Det var SÅ hyggelig en eftermiddag hos den slags mennesker, hvor man bare føler sig velkommen og hjemme med det samme. Der var hund og andre børn og en golf cart til teenagerne og masser af mad og bål på terassen og mere påskeægsjagt. OG en ældre dame, der syntes Luca var noget så nuttet, at han blev helt bange for hende og ikke turde gå ind og hente sin jakke.

It was SUCH a nice afternoon with that kind of people where you instantly feel at home and welcome. There was a dog and other kids and a golf cart for the teenagers and plenty of good food and a bonfire outside and more easter egg hunt. AND an elderly lady who thought Luca was so incredibly cute, that he got scared of her and would not go inside to pick up his coat.

I dag (mandag) har det været en feriedag, hvor vi skyndte os udenfor, da der skulle komme en del regn resten af ugen. Planen var at se på vand – den rigtig store slags, der ligner hav. Så vi kørte da lige 150km for at komme på stranden oppe I Port Huron! Første stop var et fyrtårn ved Blue Water Bridge til Canada.

 Today (Monday) has been a day off, where we hurried outside, as it is supposed to rain the rest of the week. The plan was to go see some water – the big kind of water, that looks like ocean. So we drove close to 100miles to get to the beach in Port Huron. First stop was the light house by the Blue Water Bridge to Canada.

Næste stop var frokost, hvor vi tog en tur på Dennys til den mest sørgelige betjening, jeg nogensinde har fået L Det var small town America, så det næsten gjorde ondt at være vidne til. En trøstesløs landevej med lige så trøstesløse halvtomme parkeringspladser foran småkedelige fast food restauranter. Vi blev ikke hængende så længe men fortsatte lidt længere op nord på, hvor vi heldigvis blev mødt af denne udsigt:

 Next stop was lunch at a Dennys with the most unprofessional service I have ever had. It was small town America so it almost hurt. A sad looking road with sad looking mainly empty parking lots outside boring restaurants. We did not stay long, but continued up north where we were met by this fabulous view:

Jeg vidste ikke at “the great lakes” var så blå! Jeg har sådan savnet at være tæt på havet, og det var skønt at komme op til bølger og strand. Vi fandt en hel del sten med fossiler I og der blev luftet ny indkøbte sværd.

I did not know that the great lakes would be that blue! I have really missed being close to the ocean and it felt beyond good to be somewhere with beach and waves. We also found quite a few fossil rocks and the newly bought swords were used quite a lot:

Vi krydser fingre for at vi ikke bliver spærret inde af regnvejr i morgen, for vi trænger virkeligt til at være mere udenfor.

We cross our fingers that we are not stuck inside due to rain tomorrow as we could really use some more outdoors

Work bitch!

For nu lige at forklare overskriften så mener min professor at det ville være en ganske udenmærket laboratorie slagsang. Som om!

Ikke desto mindre er det en ret så passende overskrift til min forgangne uge. Jeg har afsluttet mit første store forsøg og havde måske været lige tidsoptimistisk nok. Jeg har derfor kun været hjemme for at sove og tilbragt resten af tiden med aflivninger og fedtklumps processering. Tilsæt hertil et rystevandbad, der gik I stykker I går (heldigvis først et kvarter inden de allersidste prøver var færdige) hvor der ikke var andet for end at smøge ærmerne op og så ellers ryste prøver med god gammeldags håndkraft. I dag var det data tid og jeg har sidde ved en ordentlig basse af et apparat – en såkaldt FlowCanto-II – for at detektere fluorescerende immunceller een ad gangen. Heldigvis kan den tælle rundt regnet 12000 celler I sekundet, så det kom “kun” til at tage en dags tid – hvilket også er mere end rigeligt når der hverken er dagslys eller kaffe. Aaaaargh.

 

The explanation for the heading is that the professor thinks it would be a perfect song for our lab. As if! 

Yet it is still a very good description of my past crazy work week. I have ended my first big experiment and I have apparently been slightly optimistic with the planning. I have mainly only been home to sleep and spend the rest of the time in the lab dissecting mice and processing their fat pads. As a final touch the shaking water bath broke down yesterday (luckily not until there was only 15 minutes left for the final samples) so there was nothing else to do than roll up the sleeves and get shaking. Today was data collection time and I have had a date with a giant machine known as the FlowCanto-II to detect fluorescent immune cells one at a time. Luckily it counts up to 12000 cells pr second, so I only had to spend about a day in here – more than enough still as there was neither daylight nor coffee. Aaaargh.

I næste uge venter der fridage for både ungerne og undertegnede samt et enkelt visit eller to hos en immigrationsmyndighed udpeget læge der skal tage røntgen billeder, sprøjte os med tuberkulose test og tage syphilis bodprøver. Hurraaa. Og vi får endda selv lov at betale for hele herligheden. Endnu mere Hurra. Første hold blodprøver ER I hus og til både min og Kristians store overraskelse er vi ikke helt så immune overfor diverse smitsomme sygdomme som vi lige gik og troede.

Next week we have days off coming up for me as well as the kids. Some of this time will be spent visiting an immigration authority assigned physician for xrays, injections of tuberculosis test, and blood sampling for syphilis. Yay! And the best part is that we have to pay out of pocket. More yay….! First round of blood testing has been done and both Kristian and I are not quite as immune for certain diseases as we thought we were.

Vejret er kun blevet bedre dag for dag. Vi mangler stadig at se bladene og blomsterne komme frem, men vi satser kraftig på, at der snart sker mirakler udenfor. Ifølge statistikken for 9 forskellige grene taget indenfor, så vil 100% af træerne få blomster. Ikke nødvendigvis store blomster, men små blomster har også ret. Jeg vil også rigtig gerne køre en tur ud til een af de store søer her I ferien, da jeg snart trænger til at se rigtig vand. Hvis det ikke bliver for meget regnvejr så ville en tur til Detroit for at se The Heidelberg Project heller ikke være helt af vejen. Men først og fremmest skal der findes påskeæg I morgen henne I kirken – hvor Ulrik skal være med til at gemme æg, så gad vide om de stakkels unger finder nogen……

The weather has only improved day by day. We are still waiting for flowers and leaves to show up, but it seems to be getting close. According to the statistical evidence of 9 random branches brought inside there should be a 100% chance of a random tree having flowers. Not necessarily big flowers, but still. Small ones are good enough for me. I would really like to make a trip to one of the great lakes as well, as I miss seeing some real water. If it is not too rainy a trip to Detroit to see the Heidelberg project would not a bad thing either. But first thing planned for good is easter egg hunt at our church tomorrow. Ulrik will be helping out hiding the eggs – I wonder if the poor participating kids will find any……