Concerts on porches and couches on the patio

We are counting the down the days right now till next Sunday where we will have Teresa’s confirmation. We are far from as ready as I would have liked to be but she has a dress, freshly cut hair, the song is in the writing (2 verses so far), Brazilian brigadeiroes are in the making by Fabee (our favorite Brazilian!), and Friday we had the carpet cleaned in our apartment. Sigh. Including getting the living room emptied out completely. Most things fit in the bedrooms but our dinosaur of a couch had to go somewhere else, so Kristian and Ulrik ended up placing it on the patio. It was brilliant! When we got home tired Friday afternoon to a wet carpet (and a super confused dog) we decided to heat up the barbecue and just chill on the couch outside (and no, i do not know why Kristian looks very unhappy on this picture, maybe because there was no space for him on the couch as the kids and I filled it out........):

 We encountered a baby squirrel that was even more confused than our confused dog. But based on the intelligence level of the poor squirrel’s mom it was not surprising. She left her pup, as a black cat sneaked in, and chose to climb into the nearest tree hissing and yelling but leaving the pup unattended. In the end I put on some gloves and carried the poor thing to the tree where it’s mom was having a fit. We have not seen them since, and I wonder if they made it.

 

Saturday has been pretty uneventful as we moved furniture back and hunted down Ann Arbor for something cheap to resemble a water resistant patio couch. Et voila: some free pallets picked up at the lumber store, an old futon mattress from that had been left by the trash container, a couple of outdoor tablecloths from Aldi, a few abandoned couch pillows, and a whole lot of plastic and duck tape to seal everything:

It works super well and only cost us 35$ (including getting a saw to deal with the pallets).

Teresa had been pretty bored being dragged around town to lumber stores and Home Depot, so she really wanted to test some of her new make up on me. After 30 minutes of several layers of primer, concealer, 3D illuminating powder, failed attempts at fake eyelashes etc etc I was very concerned to go look in the mirror. But actually it was not that bad:

And finally a little on “concerts on the porch”. Last Sunday was the annual Waterhill Music Fest which takes place in that area of Ann Arbor where only few people can afford to live but where it is so nice that you would want to stay anyways. Kristian has been asked to join Purple Gold Mountain (or maybe it is Gold Purple Mountain…..) for a porch concert. The band consists primarily of a couple of guys from the church band with a profound love for folk music and banjos. Frankly – it was the best band I heard that day:

 

From Lukas Graham in Detroit to Gangnam style on the patio

Things have been hectic since I returned from California starting as early as the next night, where I Lukas Graham was playing in Detroit (Danish singer song writer taking the US charts with rocket speed). I didn’t know for sure if I (or Kristian…..) was too tired to go, but I defied the exhaustion and went with a few other Danish women, and it turned out to be one of my best music experiences (not that I have a whole lot under my belt, but still). He was playing at The Shelter, a relatively small concert place and as Jette and I drove by 1 ½ prior to the concert, there was already a loooong line. Turned out the concert was sold out within a few days and that the entire crowd knew ALL his songs by heart (except the Danish crowd – oops). We got a little disappointed that he did not want to come over and have his picture taken with us, but apparently he was ID’ed to buy a beer for his own show, and had to go get his passport. Even I would have been grumpy. We did get a picture from behind him though: 

Otherwise it’s been some super busy days. We have Teresa’s confirmation coming up in a few weeks (aaaargh, aaaaaargh, aaaaargh) and as usual we are super well prepared……… or whatever. At least someone now has a dress, high heeled sandals, and a brand new hair cut plus we have decided what food to get. So far so good.

The haircut took place today on our patio. One of my Korean colleagues’ wife is a hair stylist and was hired in to work on the shooting of Gangnam Style. Teresa has been over the moon excited to have her come and cut her hair. It went really well and Teresa is now stuck in front of the mirror with a big goofy grin on her face. 

California with MIchigan eyes

Som en del af at vaere forsker vanker der ind i mellem en konference, og dette foraar stod valget mellem Banff i februar eller San Diego i april............ Det var IKKE et svaert valg! Derfor sidder jeg nu i palmernes skygge efter at have spist frokost paa Salk Institute:

As part of being in science there are sometimes conferences involved, and this spring the choice was between Banff in February and San Diego in April....... Well, that was NOT a hard choice! So here I am, writing away in the shadow of the palm trees after having had lunch at the Salk Institute:

Foer jeg kom herned var jeg endda saa heldig at kunne bruge weekenden i Bay Area, og noerj, hvor har jeg haft glaedet mig (mens andre medlemmer af familien har vaeret paent misundelige). Jeg har ogsaa vaeret noget spaendt paa hvordan det ville foeles at komme tilbage efter vores noget turbulente tilvaerelse, siden vi var der sidst. Ville det foeles fremmed? Som at komme hjem? Som noget helt 3.? Tjo, foerste tegn paa at jeg nok har aendret mig en helt del skete i toget paa vej fra lufthavnen. Jeg skulle bo hos venner i El Cerrito og endestationen paa den togtur er Richmond, der er kendt for at vaere super fattigt og kriminelt. Derfor er det ikke sjaeldent at der er skumle gangsteragtige typer med toget - denne tur var ingen undtagelse. Men i stedet for at blive intimideret kunne jeg ikke lade vaere med at taenke: "hey dude. I live outside Detroit. It takes more to intimidate me now". (Ja jeg taenker paa engelsk....). Og saa blev jeg helt overvaeldet af hvor velholdte veje og huse var. Asfalt uden huller, fine huse med haverne fulde af blomstrende, duftende buske, og en lang gaatur i den lune aftenluft uden at blive gennemaedt af myg.

Before I went down here I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in the Bay, and I have been super excited (while other family members were super jealous). I have also been a little nervous about how it would feel to be back after all the turbulence in our lifes. Would it feel strange? Like coming home? Or something unexpected? Well. First sign that I have changed happened in the train going from the airport. I was staying with friends in El Cerrito and the last stop on that train is Richmond, which is one of those poor and criminal areas, where you would want to stay out. Often there will be gangster like young black guys on the train - and this trip was no different. But instead of feeling intimidated all I could think was "Hey dude. I live outside Detroit now. I am not scared of you". And I was completely overwhelmed by how nice and well kept the houses and the roads were. Smooth black asphalt without potholes, lovely houses with the gardens full of flowery bushes, and a long walk uphill in the warm air without getting eaten by mosquitoes......

Loerdag fik jeg baade set en gammel kollega, vaeret i San Francisco (hvor jeg koerte med sporvogn og solede mine blege ben paa Union Square, mens jeg naesten ikke kunne haandtere hvor mange mennesker, der var allevegne):

Saturday I had breakfast with an old colleague, I went to San Francisco (where I got on the cable cars and exposed my pale legs to some sun on Union Square, while I had a surpisingly tough time adjusting to the crowds of people everywhere):

Og saa spiste jeg frokost med ham her (den mest velklaedte mand jeg kender i miles omkreds):

And I had lunch with this guy (the most well dressed man I know even by San Francisco standards):

Sidst men ikke mindst ventede der en middag hos Marit og Thai, hvor vi brugte en hel del tid paa at grine af Michigan roever historier (at vi laver road kill bingo naar vi koerer langt og beundrer vaaben i supermarkedet). Bl.a. fik jeg Hedda til at billedgoogle "meanwhile in Michigan" der fik hende HELT overbevist om at hun kun kan trives i Californien.

Last but not least I had dinner with Marit and Thai, where we spent most of the evening laughing at our crazy Michigan adventures (like playing road kill bingo when driving, and  admiring weapons in the grocery store). I got Hedda to picture google "meanwhile in Michigan" which REALLY convinced her, that she would never survive outside of California.

Soendag var jeg tidligt oppe og fik sneget mig ind i Wild Cat Canyon, selvom det vist ikke var helt lovligt........ Og jeg hoerte praerie ulve hyle til hinanden fra bakke toppene. En lille smule creepy


Sunday I was up early and sneaked into Wild Cat Canyon, even though it was not allowed...... And I heard the coyotes howl from the hill tops. A little creepy

Inden jeg floej videre soendag blev jeg fodret godt og grundigt af med baade laekker mad og fantastisk selskab hos Lucy og Josh. Og en lille smule sol i deres gaard (hvor jeg i oevrigt overhovedet ikke opdagede at jeg blev fotograferet - hrmpf)

Before I went further south I was treated to the most delicious brunch and wonderful company at Lucy and Josh. And a bit of sunshine in their backyard (where I did not realize I was a paparazzi victim until I found this picture on facebook. Hrmpf ;-)

Og nu sidder jeg her. I La Jolla paa konferencens sidste dag. Fuldstaendigt smadret oveni hovedet af videnskab, gensyn med gamle kolleger der faar mig til at huske paa hvor haardt alting var inden vi forlod DK, og et intenst oenske om at kunne se hvad fremtiden bringer af jobs og bopael.

And now here I am. In La Jolla on the last day of the conference. All busted in my head from science, meeting old colleagues which brings up the not so fun memories from before we left Denmark, and an intense wish to be able to foresee what the future holds of jobs and where to live.

Of recorder concerts and credit scores

Det er forår (altså ifølge kalenderen. Vejret lige pt er desværre ikke opdateret på den front) og igen i år har der været der koncert på Luca's skole. Blokfløjte koncert! Gys. Tanken om 80 friske 10 årige med hver deres blokfløjte er en smule skræmmende for at sige det mildt. Ikke desto mindre havde Luca glædet sig MEGA meget og han var vidst ikke den eneste. De fleste unger var mødt op i deres stiveste puds og så faktisk utroligt nuttede ud inden koncerten gik i gang. Og jeg fik fornyet min respekt for musiklærere. Rarere og mere tålmodige mennesker skal man vist lede længe efter. Ud af de 10 sange, der blev spillet, var der kun een der gav mig akut trang til at løbe grædende ud af salen mens jeg holdt mig for ørerne - resten var faktisk OK. Gisp. Skulle nogen vaere super interesserede i at høre andre folks børn spille blokfløjte kan een af de første nemme sange ses her: https://youtu.be/FDSYCy-jYEA

It is spring (according to the calendar that is. The weather itself is not updated properly)  and just as last year there has been a concert at Luca's school. Recorder concert! Argh. The thought of 80 excited 10 year olds with each their own recorder is pretty scary. Nevertheless Luca was super excited and he was not the only one. Most of the kids wore their nicest clothes and looked so cute before the concert. And I now have a renewed respect for music teachers. More patient and nice-to-the-core people are hard to find. Of the 10 songs they played only one gave me an incredible urge to cover my ears and run away crying - the rest was actually OK! Here is a link for one of the first songs should anyone feel tempted.....https://youtu.be/FDSYCy-jYEA 

 

Derudover er vi i den heldige situation at jeg åbenbart havde udfyldt vores amerikanske selvangivelse forkert og at IRS venligt gjorde os opmærksomme på at vi da slet ikke havde fået de fradrag vi var fortjente til. Ka-ching. 1000 uventede $ ind på kontoen. Som altid i den slags situationer er dilemmaet om man skal være voksen og fornuftig eller  bruge pengene på fest og farver...... Uuuuuuh det er svært. Men vi har valgt førstnævnte. Og eftersom der ser ud til at vi bliver hængende herovre er det værd at investere i fremtiden og ingen fremtid i USA  uden at opbygge kreditværdighed (det kan nemlig spare een mange mange penge ved evt fremtidigt ejendomskøb). Kredit værdighed opbygges IKKE ved sparsommelighed herovre. Tværtimod. Der skal oprettes lån og kreditkort før man kommer nogle vegne. Og de skal betales af. Ikke for hurtigt og ikke for langsomt men lige tilpas. Jeg fik kreditkort i vinters uden bøvl som vi har maxet ud hver eneste måned for at betale det hele af hver måned, men sådan fungerer det åbenbart ikke. Jeg er netop blevet belært om at man skal bruge ca 30% af sit kredit maximum hver måned og sørge for at det er betalt tilbage hver måned. Godt så. Kristian derimod kan ikke få lov til at få noget som helst. Pånær et "secure" kreditkort hvor man indbetaler sit kredit maximum selv og så kan man allernådigst konvertere til et rigtigt kreditkort efter eet år. Vi vælger nok en anden løsning - at tage et lån og bruge de 1000$ på udbetaling. Og det bliver nok til en ekstra bil. Det er ikke "need to have" men helt bestemt "very nice to have" både for kristian, der slipper for at køre 100 km hver dag i et kæmpe skrummel, og for mig, der ikke er kronisk  billøs, når Kristian er på arbejde. Men vi skal altså liiiiige gøre mentalt klar at bruge tid med de smarte sælger typer herovre.

In addition we have been so lucky as to fill out our tax refunds wrong and IRS notified us that they owed us 1000$ we did not expect to get back. Ka-ching. 1000$ unexpected. As always in these situations the dilemma is the choice of being all grown up and responsible or use the money for something fun......... Auch, it's hard. But we chose the former. And as it seems that our future is here in the US, investing in the future is not a bad thing to do. One thing in particular we need to deal with is credit scores as they can have a significant impact later if we choose to buy a place to live. Credit scores here are NOT improved by being responsible and only spending money you already have. On the contrary one needs to get loans or credit cards before the score is improved. And they should be paid back at just the right rate. Not too fast and not too slow. I got my first credit card in December and maxed it out every month to pay it back every month, but that's not good enough apparently. Only 10-30% of the credit maximum should be used and paid back monthly. You live you learn! Kristian on the other hand is not allowed to get one (I am the only one having had a bank account here for years, which is necessary). Well, he can get a secured version where he should pay the credit maximum as a loan to himself and then he might convert it to a real credit card in about a year. We have talked about doing something else - get a loan for a car with the 1000$ as down payment. We don't absolutely need an additional car but it would be more than nice to have for Kristian, who could then do his 35mile commute without having to navigate our current "dinosaur", and for me who is otherwise chronically car-less when Kristian is at work. But it takes a little mental preparation to get ready to deal with the sleazy car sales people........

Life with one arm

Nå, det bliver et kort indlæg. Min venstre arm heler stille og roligt, mens min højre derimod er ved at bukke under af overanstrengelse. Så jeg trækker stikket et par uger fremfor stædigt at forsøge at passe mit arbejde med een hånds tasting af et manuskript. Der bliver derfor også stille herinde et stykke tid :-(

Well - this will be a short post. My left arm is slowly healing whereas my right arm starts to show painful signs of being overworked. So I'll be laying low for some weeks rather than stubbornly continuing to do one hand typing of a manuscript. So the blog will also stay quiet for a while :-(

Prepping for summer

I går var det den første forårsdag og vejret fejrede det med en gang isslag krydret med en snestorm. Weeeee. Men vi begynder så småt at tro at vinteren ikke varer evigt. Jeg har set vintergækker stikke op af jorden og grenene, jeg tog ind for en måned siden er endeligt begyndt at vise grønne blade.

Yesterday was the first day of spring and the weather celebrated with icy rain and a snow storm. Weeeee. Buy we are starting to believe that winter is not lasting forever. I have seen snow drops appearing from the ground, and the branches/twigs/sticks (hm, what IS the word for small branches that are not too big the wigs sit in a vase????) I brought inside a month ago have finally started to show some green.

Det er også nu vi skal til at tænke på at få sommerferien til at hænge sammen. Der er 11 ugers skolesommerferie at gøre godt med, 3 børn og mellem 250-600$ pr uges summer camp! Det er ikke et regnestykke der sådan rigtigt passer til vores indtægter, så vi har været nødt til at gå lidt andre veje. Teresa bliver sendt til Danmark det meste af ferien. Hun får en billet fra Chicago så hun kan komme afsted uden transit (og mor her kan måske liiiiige score sig lidt chicago tid for sig selv). Ulrik vil gerne spare nogle penge op, så vi satser på at han kan finde sig et sommer job. Der er alligevel ikke rigtig nogle camps han gider på som ikke er absurd dyre. Vi har heller ikke lyst til at sende ham på de billigere versioner der stinker af "teenage opbevaring". Med luca er summer camp jagten derimod gået ind. Første tilmelding er sendt til Blue Turtle Camp, der er kraftigt anbefalet af bedste vennen George. Det ser ud til at være så hippie/natur/bålstinkende som sådan noget lejr overhovedet kan blive, og han glæder sig allerede stygt meget. Vi har fået katalog med hjem fra skolen og her er der omhyggeligt krydset af ved star wars, minion, pokemon og det antikke Grækenland camp. Man kan også komme på Constitution camp eller spelling bee camp! Heldigvis er vi ikke SÅ onde og i modsætning til visse amerikanske forældre, er vores succes kriterie at ungen har det sjovt - ikke at han partout SKAL lære noget. Vi har lige hostet op med flybilletten til Teresa, og så melder vi luca til lejr efterhånden som bankkontoen tillader det.

Now it is also the time to start thinking about the summer. School is out for 11 weeks, we have 3 kids and 5 days of day camp is anything from 250-600$. No need to do the math to figure out that our budget comes light years short of that, so we had to be creative. Teresa will be sent to Denmark over the summer. We got her a ticket flying out if Chicago so she does not have to do any transfers (and her mom does not mind maybe having just a little bit of time I Chicago......). Ulrik wants to save up some money so we will try and help find a summer job. The camp for his age are either extremely expensive or in the category of "teen storage". But with Luca we have started the hunt for camps. First one down is Blue Turtle Camp, that has awesome reviews from his best friend George. It seems to be as hippie,  outdorsy and fireplace stinky as camps can come, and Luca is of course super excited already. He got a catalogue at school and so far he has ticked off "Star wars", "pokemon", and "Greek mythology" camp. There is also Constitution camp or Spelling Bee camp, but we are NOT that mean. In contrast to some US parents our main priority is the kid having a good time rather than having to learn more school stuff. 

Schizophrenic weather

Man kan sige meget om vejret her i Michigan, men kedeligt er det ikke. Forrige weekend var helt vildt lækker og forårsagtig. Så blev det mega koldt et par dage og i torsdags blev vi begravet i sne. Fast forward til søndag med 16 grader, høj sol og fuglesang (hvor vi i øvrigt gik en dejlig tur på en natursti i Dexter og mødte både ca 50 andre hunde OG teresas idrætslærer). I dag fik jeg luftet cyklen på vej til arbejde og i morgen:

There is much to be said about the weather in Michigan buy boring is not among the descriptions. Two weekends ago it was wonderful spring weather for a few days and the following Thursday we were buried in snow. Fast forward to this past Sunday where it was in the high 50's with birds singing (and where we went for a nice walk on a nature path in Dexter joining about 50 other dog owners AND teresas PE teacher). Today I even biked to work, and tomorrow: