Spring fever

It has finally come to the point where we actually start to believe that spring might be happening again! Yesterday it was 20C outside, and being able to walk out the door without fearing that nature might actually succeed in killing you is a huge improvement. I am back on the bike and enjoys the time right now, where I get to leave as the sun is rising:

And as the birds are chirping.

And as the Huron high school students get off the public busses and flood the bike lane...... sigh 😖

Kurt is back from hibernating, and when he comes around as we are eating we leave a little treat for him. Here he is - gulping down crepes:

Spring also calls for ice cream. Something that Bailey loves too. Not only because he gets to lick the empty cups, but also because the ice cream store is right next to the pet store. Where 4-legged costumers are very much welcome, and where you can buy treats in bulk:

Spring also means that a new sports season has kicked in. We have spent hours with this view lately:

And more to come, as Teresa has signed up for synchronized swimming at the YMCA. This means that she will be home for dinner several days a week - yay. And that she has practice late Friday night now - not-so-yay. But she just loves it, so I guess we'll learn to pick her up without complaining too much.......

Random March stuff

The past week has been one of the slow good ones. I took some days off to hang with my sister, and we have been shopping, eating giant macaroons at "tea house", drinking coffee, and talking - a lot! Sometimes it feels like I am missing out on spending time with her because we live so far away, but in reality I would not give up visits like this for anything.
And while strolling in Ann Arbor we found the little puppet exhibition made by Lucas class. Of course he made the Bailey look a like to the right......

We have been grocery shopping. Usually we go to Aldi, but because our cabinet were already full on the verge of bursting open, Kristian and I treated ourselves to a trip to Meier. And look what we found:

For those of you who do not get it, it is a meat blend that we use a LOT in Denmark and whenever we have tried to substitute it has not tasted right. But Saturday we got to eat the best meatloaf ever in the US! Kristian and I  have also been to REI to get my birthday present. Since I broke my arm last year I have been terrified of falling. But now I have super sturdy hiking boots and no excuse to go on rough trails. Even in icy slushice

And while we were out in the icy slushice testing my boots, we did find evidence that spring might eventually be here:

And despite work looking like this for quite some days:

I still got on my bike Friday morning to commute and was rewarded by this view at Huron river:

Birthday and llama spam

I have just started a new decade in life - the 40's.......... Which is actually not that bad. Especially not when my sister came to visit, and Kristian could go buy presents right after getting his yearly bonus and I got to throw a cocktail party.

Teresa and Kristian were busy in the kitchen all day Saturday to make Danish birthday cake and floedeboller:

Christine and Luca and I were busy at Meier where I have never purchased that many bottles of alcohol and helium balloons in one shopping trip before. As there was going to be quite a few kids at the party we mixed mocktails in pitchers and then had the booze on the side, so everybody could taste everything, which turned out to work very well. The best drink of the night was definitely the pineapple ginger sparkler (recipe here) with pineapple vodka added to it. Yum. And of course we also emptied Trader Joes for bitesize snacks to just stick in the oven.

It was a great party. My intention was to invite all my colleagues, but we could not get a room that was big enough, so it ended up being all the post docs + our friends. I even made a playlist, which kept Teresa busy all night as I had "pop it like its hot" with Snoop Dogg on it - in the unclean version!!!!! "Mom, when you are a white 40 year old you canNOT play a song at your party that contains the n-word". Unfortunately, I could not delete it on the playlist, and Teresa rushed to the phone to skip that song whenever it came on.

And here I am - with a distraction baby, to handle the birthday song attention just a bit less awkwardly.

Bailey was sent for a dog sleep over with his friend Buddy. We suspect that he spent all night wandering around this new place, as he almost went in a coma as soon as he stepped in the door at home:

Sunday we had invited ourselves were invited to Belville to visit one of the surgeons at work, who has several llamas (and goats and sheep and dogs and horses). Llamas are VERY observant:

and some of them like dogs and want to come over and say hi:

whereas others consider themselves the leader of the flock and does not allow anybody else to say hi to a dog:

Don't mess with me!

We even took them for a walk:

Luca was not interested in getting too close to these animals, so he spent time on the trampoline instead. Getting all static electric in the cold dry air:

Unfortunately this awesome weekend ended way too soon. But today I have the day off so I can enjoy having my sister over too. Ulrik is not feeling well today. He has some kind of stomach bug so as my sister is knitting and he is painting figures for a board game, I get to sit here with my feet up and write. Yay.

Too bad that I had so many cups of coffee already, that I had to switch to sparkling water.......

Working on a Saturday pros and cons

It's Saturday morning and I am at work. I admit that I try to avoid working on the weekends and that I am really good at feeling sorry for myself when I have to swap weekend morning coffee in bed for lab work. BUT there are some benefits though:

- I usually sleep in Luca's rock-hard excuse for a bed when I have to get up early as the only one. This gives me dog company most of the night as well, providing me with a wonderful deep sleep so I can excitedly jump out of bed when the first rays of the sun hit my face directly through the perfectly working blinds,  BUT sleeping somewhere else than  my own bedroom also means that I have to use the kids bathroom, where Teresa has her stash of amazing lotions and beauty products. And the trick is to forget to bring my own supply from my own bathroom so I kind of have to use hers.......

- working on the weekends means that there are not a lot of other people here which makes it kind of lonely (but on the other hand amplifies the feeling of being a true scientist making sacrifices) BUT I get to listen to Danish radio out loud without getting any sarcastic comments. Yay.

- the procedure I am doing today requires a lot of 10x5 minutes washing steps (which is an endless bore) BUT because it is technically weekend I don't have to pretend that I spend that time reading papers or do some other useful stuff. I can blog instead.

- and finally: working this weekend not only gives me a headstart on some experiments so I can take extra time off when my sister is here in a week from now (she is flying in for my birthday) BUT it gives Kristian and the kids an entire day to find some amazing gifts for me.

And finally finally - which is really completely unrelated - someone in the household finally finally finally got a smart phone. T mobile had an offer, where we could add an extra line for free, and we took full advantage from that. Here he is with his new BFF (I really don't know why he thinks that a phone should be carried everywhere all the time. He most definitely does not pick that up from his parents.......):