Nichole the Sloth

Michael is just a few short hours form landing back in Denmark. I think he is going to be quite the sleepy bear when he stumbles out from getting his luggage. This is the first time I will actually go to the airport to "pick him up". It sounds sweet, but I have a hidden agenda. STARBUCKS! The only Starbucks in Denmark is located in the airport right in the entrance hall and just opened right before our trip to Istanbul. We haven't taken advantage of it yet, because we would rather just go through security and get our free drinks in the lounge. Can you blame us? But today, I'm going to go get my steamy cup of coffee and sit and wait for "Hubsters" to come on out. He had asked me to get him something too so when he gets to me, he will have some coffee to waken his sleepy eyes.

The 3 days he was gone went fast. I honestly didn't do much, but it was great. I hit the gym in the morning rather then the evenings which was a nice change, then spent the rest of the days doing a little important stuff, but for the most part turned into a sloth.

Wednesday my friend Sarah came over for dinner. We ate, chatted, drank tea and had a nice time.

Yesterday, I marched myself over to IKEA to get some "Halloween Supplies". We are hosting a Halloween party for some TI'ers and their families, but I needed a few more things. Now, unfortunately, I have to wait a month-ish till its Halloween time. *sigh*

I think our weekend will consist of Michael recuperating from his whirlwind trip to Japan. Then Sunday we are having the two new students (Daniel and Jason) over for a pancake/waffle breakfast. I don't I have had a pancake OR waffle in over a year, so I think my waffle iron will be happy to get to cook again.

Delicious Food

Thank you everyone for your happy birthday's both on and off my blog! I had a great birthday! My wonderful fantastic hubby decided this year to wait on me hand and foot! I had no complaints about that. He made me a delightful birthday dinner of baked gold potato's, a very green salad and a juicy mouthwatering steak. It was, by far the best steak he had ever made. He had recently read an article about making a cheaper steak taste like a pricey steak. We were both pretty shocked as they turned out tasting like something you would get at a really good steak restaurant!

Michael Getting Dinner Ready

Our Yummy Food, Wine and Port

Then, there was the b-day cake!! OMG, the birthday cake. I mentioned yesterday that Michael asked me to pick any recipe and he would make me the cake. Might I add, this cake was to be from scratch.... I finally picked a chocolate almond torte. We unfortunately didn't have any circular trays as the recipe called for, so Michael had to improvise. He insists it is the ugliest cake ever made... I think its cute, but my goodness, it tasted better then my taste buds could have even imagined!!

YUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

Me at 28!
edited to add: I am putting a piece of goats cheese on a cracker!

Michael is in the air right now probably somewhere over my wonderful and beautiful Russia on his way to Japan. He was very much not looking forward to this quick trip as he senses he will be nothing but tired, tired and more tired for the 3 days he is on the ground before he heads back up here...to be jet lagged some more. Poor guy! :) Now, I am left with the task of finishing the rest of that cake.... and I am up for the challenge!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to Viggo!
Happy Birrrrtttthdaaaay deeeaar Viggo and Meeeee!!!
Happy Birthday to us!!!

Those who know me well, will probably be shocked to see that I am not only admitting that someone else was born on September 23rd, but that I am openly sharing my birthday with another person! haha. Last year, I was sooo excited to hear that my friend Marianne had given birth to her sweet son Viggo on September 23rd. So now, adorable little Danish Viggo and I are birthday buddy's and I can't think of a cuter little kiddo the share my day with!

My Birthday Buddy
Tillykke med fødselsdagen Viggo!!

Picture stolen from Marianne

Finally...the big 2-8!! This is very strange, and people have made fun of me for this, but for as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be 28. It seemed like the perfect age. Still quite young, yet old enough to be taken seriously and have a semi-defined life. I hope my 28th year goes nice and slow in a very fun and exciting kind of way.

Since my birthday falls on a Sunday this year, I got the very rare, but very fun "Birthday Weekend" This only works for us if our birthdays fall on a Sunday, because it usually feels funny to still be celebrating on the day after.

Yesterday we spent the day in Copenhagen. I've been craving a Guinness (from tap not a can) since we got back from Ireland, so we went to one of the many Irish pubs in the city and got a delicious pint of Guinness. From there we went to Tivoli for lunch. We have a year card so we get free entrance. It closes this weekend until Halloween so we thought we would use it one last time for the summer season. From there we walked around Copenhagen and went to a few places we hadn't been since we left in 2003.

Ørstads Parken

Copenhagen Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Today has been great so far. We got up, had some breakfast, went to the gym, ate some lunch with a half bottle of champagne and now Michael has locked himself away in the kitchen making me a cake! Every year he usually orders me a cheesecake from the cheesecake factory to be delivered to me on my birthday. Not so easy to do from here, so he told me to find a recipe for anything and he would make it.... I will be sure to post pictures of it tomorrow!

Also I need to say a happy one day late birthday to my wonderful and beautiful niece Alex! I still remember going to the hospital to meet her after she was born and now she is 14!!!!!!!! She is one of the very few people that continually make me feel REALLLLLY old, only because she is getting so grown up herself.

Alex and I on Thanksgiving 2006

Jeg Elsker Efteråret

(I Love Autumn)

For the past couple weeks the air outside feels and smells like fall. This makes me very happy. I love winter. I love spring. Sometimes I even love summer. But I am always so incredibly excited when fall rolls around. We have already turned on our heaters and are noticing that the sun is starting to set earlier and earlier with every passing day. This means the start of weekends with a pot of chili on the stove, soups stewing, days of baking and warm feet on our heated bathroom floor. Too bad the Llano wine festival, Tech football games and NASCAR (I still can't believe we had so much fun at NASCAR and I REALLY can't believe I had so much fun, that I'll admit it) aren't in Copenhagen. That would make me one very happy, very spoiled person!

Lazy Pate's

We have been nothing but lazy(besides the gym of course) the past couple weekends. Which is a nice change from our regularly scheduled busy weekends. Saturday after the gym there was "Health Day" in Lyngby,and I am sure no one shocked that we went and checked it out. We walked around for a bit to see what there was to see, nothing terribly exciting, but a cool concept. It was really windy so we didn't feel like staying outside longer then we had to (we have obviously been away from Lubbock far to long) Then came back home opened a bottle of wine and did absolutely nothing the rest of the day. it was great.

Sunday turned out to be quite a nice day. A little breezy but the sun was out and shining, so we went for a walk in the forest. This picture really isn't all that great, but it'll have to do. We walked around here. It was a nice pleasant 2 hour stroll. (in case you didn't get the hints from Mary, Jason and Myra, we like to walk!)


Then again, came home opened a bottle of wine and did nothing!

Perhaps soon, I'll have more to report from this end of the earth.

To År (Two Years)

It is official! We have spent two years of our lives in Denmark!! Two whole years....what a hell of an experience. I sometimes get sad (and I told this to Mary, Jason and Myra while they were here) when I watch our guests faces of excitement and interest of things we are showing them, because I miss that things here are no longer "new" to me. I miss falling in love with the differences that Denmark has shown us and given us. That all being said, I wouldn't trade where my heart is now for the world. How incredibly lucky are we both, that in a mere 2 years Denmark has become such a comfortable and familiar place. While I gripe that I am sad that I don't get that "new" feeling anymore, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that we have embedded ourselves in a culture as far as we have. And you know what the best part of it is? That Michael and I have gotten the opportunity do it together. Not only live abroad together, but learn the culture together, make new friends together, travel the country together, and even learn the language together. We certainly don't take any of it for granted. Though, I could do without the high taxes and the lack of sun in the winter!! ;o)

Things are getting back to normal here, well at least for a bit. Michael is heading back to Japan the day after my birthday. Only for a short 3 days. We had tossed around the idea of me meeting him there, but in the end decided to send him for a short trip, rather then stretch it out. After all, Tokyo is soooo 2006! Been there Done that. Kidding Kidding. One of these trips I'm sure I'll make it back with him.

Guests are Gone

Kevin left this morning to head up to Stockholm for a few days. He started to try to book a hostel while he was here but was having a problem finding a vacant place. Finally one person told him it was the weekend of the Denmark/Sweden Soccer Game in Stockholm. Yikes! He did finally find one place and I am sure he will have a great time up there. It's a huge game so I know the Danes and Swedes will be crazy. ;)

It was great to have both Myra and Kevin here for several days. Gave us a chance to hang out around Copenhagen and the surrounding areas before the weather starts getting super cold, though it is already pretty cold here. I had to turn on our heaters last week. Yesterday and today the sun is out and as long as its not behind a cloud it feels quite nice, but once it hides, it gets really cold.

Yesterday Kevin and I went to the Viking ship museum in Roskilde. It was just as good the second time as it was the first for me. Michael still has not been, but I need to drag him over there. He has been to the town before, just not the museum.

Wednesday at the Carlsberg Brewery

Kevin's First Windmill

Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen

Roskilde Cathedral

View towards Roskilde Fjord

Tau Beta Sigma/Kappa Kappa Psi Siblings :)

Soooooooo??? Who's next? :)

A Few More Myra Pictures

A few more pictures from Myras Visit. Day one we spent in Copenhagen. Myra LOVED the Danish furniture and design, but who wouldn't, It's so modern and chic. She must have taken 300 pictures of furniture alone! I kid I kid...maybe just 150 pictures.

Check out this talent. Testing the furniture, while taking pictures!

This thing is beautiful. It is in a chocolate shop in Copenhagen, a lovely mouthwatering chocolate fountain.

Chocolates at the chocolate shop

I know you've seen billions of pictures of Nyhavn, but I haven't really talked much about it. Hans Christian Anderson, the fairy tale writer lived at two different apartments in Nyhavn. This is one of the buildings he lived in (the red one).

Myra in a square in Copenhagen

On day two I took her to Hillerød to see Fredricksborg Slot. It was her first castle to lay eyes on and I think it was the perfect one. Again, I know I have posted lots of pictures from here, but never from the back side. Behind the castle is a lake and a beautiful garden. The weather was not so good the day we went but set a nice atmosphere.

And finally, and Action Shot of us reading a map.
Is it just me or do I look super duper short in the picture next to Michael?

Today, Kevin and I off to Copenhagen. It's a good thing I love the city so much!!! :)

The Coldest Drink Ever!

Our friend Myra has been visiting us here since Wednesday night and left this morning. She is an American living in Rome which makes a 5 day trip to Denmark quite easy. We hadn't seen her since we left Lubbock in August of 2005 so it was great to have so much time to catch up and laugh. We met at Texas Tech Library and in 2002 she went to Paris while we were living in Denmark so we flew down there to visit with her a few days in Paris. So now, the three of us have been in France, Denmark and Sweden together....and by next March we hopefully will be adding Italy to that list!

I'm going to start with Saturday because it was a extra special fun day and I'll get to the rest in the next couple days. Saturday we all went over to Sweden for the afternoon for some food, drink, and walking. Micahel and I hadn't been to Malmö since October of 2002, and we were excited to go back again.

Myra in front of Malmö Central Train Station

The Turning Torso (The tall building)
Us!

Myra and Me and the Beautiful Park

Cool Windmill

My View from Lunch

Myra at the Wine/Tapas Resturant

Tapas and Wine.
Good way to spend a Saturday!

We left Sweden and made a stopover in Central Copenhagen and went to the coolest (in every sense of the word) bar EVER. I had seen that at the beginning of the summer Copenhagen opened an Absolut Icebar in one of the hotels. We hadn't been yet, and had talked about going a few times, but never went out of our way to actually get there. Thanks to Myra showing great interest we finally made it and so glad we did. After paying to get in they threw our giant warm parkas over our head and took us to the bar where we all got our drinks in our "ice" glasses. It was a nice change as the longer your drink sat, the colder it got!

The bottom of that sign says:
"Entrance to the world of -5 C"
Thats freakin' cold!

Waiting at the Bar for our Drinks

The Bar. All that ice stacked is a bunch of glasses made of ice.
The bar was all made of ice as well.

Our beautiful, tasty and VERY cold drinks.

My Drink and Me

Myra and Michael Having a Good Time
Notice the ice table and ice walls.

Say "Cheese", I mean "Freeze"

After we warmed up in the funky courtyard we went for a nice relaxing dinner at another wine bar and enjoyed people watching.

Funky Cool Courtyard
It was probably only about 60 degrees out and it was a little chilly, but after we got out of the ice bar it felt like summer!

Surprisingly these were some of the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in.
Myra and Anders, one of the bartenders who was nice enough to take a picture with Myra. I think she would have packed him to take home if she could have.
Cute Restaurant for Dinner.
We sat outside.
My View from Dinner

Wow that was a lot of pictures! :o)
Tomorrow our friend Kevin is stopping through for a couple days. He is backpacking through Europe right now, and we are lucky enough to be on his stop. Kevin and I were in the marching band and band fraternity/sorority together. This last week has been a very fun way to end the summer!

Oh...and Happy Labor Day!