Rock To Wind A String Around

I’m at death’s door, and so is Elliott,  so posting remains pretty scanty.    I had a car accident more than 20 years ago, and now, when I’m sick, the illness is secondary to incredible back pain.  Luckily, I’m infrequently ill, but still…

Fun weekend before the illness set in.  We took a roadtrip to IKEA on Saturday.  We are the proud owners of a second potty and a second barstool.  We found a few dozen other items we couldn’t live without too–go figure.   We also made time for a game of bananagrams, delicious butternut squash soup and gluten free cornbread (a recipe so swoony, I surprised myself), an organ recital, and a trip to our favorite ice cream shop.  Albert ran a 20 mile race on Sunday AM, and we tried, but failed to find it in the pouring rain, so we drove home to make breakfast instead.

Once I’m feeling better, I’ll tell you all about ‘the beautiful family’ I have, but for now, a few snaps of our day trip to Sweden (it’s a lot like Denmark, only without the English subtitles):

the loveliest castle. we saw a terrific Nelson Mandela exhibit there.

the neatest tree--I think of it as

I so cleverly called the tree an umbrella tree, but I’d love to know it’s actual name–it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.

very cool swing at otherwise lackluster park outside the Sonic Youth art exhibit.

I found the exhibit at the last minute and knew Albert (who adores SY) would be thrilled.  I was thrilled by the cool swing in the park and even more thrilled when the age-appropriate park patrons decamped so I could take a turn.

Enkutatash is behind me.  Wildly successful, it was well-attended, much-enjoyed, and at the end of the day, there was money left over.  I’ll share pictures here and on EOR’s blog later on, but for now I’m glad that my Enkutatash commitment will be greatly reduced.

Here are some more pictures of Denmark.  2 weeks ago today we were in Roskilde, an amazing viking town that remained viable over the last 1200 years.  Unpredictably, we visited a number of museums, did a little shopping, and visited a church–this church was particularly groovy (and only a little creepy) because a thousand years of kings and queens are entombed within.   Behold the glory!

the 2000 yr old urn found on the floor of a museum.  easy to see, easy to kick, easy to break, but no one else seemed worried…

room built onto the fancy church for some dead royalty

a king, no longer with us

some modern day Vikings, out for a pleasure cruise

more pictures to follow, I can’t load more in this post

the attacking jellies in the harbor

Blowing my cover and delaying all mention of Denmark to remind you that you should attend this on Saturday:

A year of planning come to fruition.We’re expecting lots of  guests, and lots of fun.  Join us!

Another day in Denmark, another day of pictures, dear readers.

Sunday started in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek–an amazing museum, full of ancient sculpture.  It may be my most favorite museum ever for picture-taking.  The light was superb, the rooms, exquisite and the collection was vast.  Behold, two appreciated little beauties:

See how  stunning they are!

We followed this cultural excursion with another–a trip to Tivoli Gardens.  We didn’t really want to ride anything at Europe’s oldest amusement park, but we were eager to see the performances.  I hustled us in to the gardens in time for the Swineherd performance–and was pleased.  The dancers were the real deal and the ballet (choreographed by the Queen) was inspired.  We followed the ballet with an orchestra concert and….some skee ball. We felt it important to experience all that Danish culture had to offer, and apparently, danish culture includes this joy.  Behold:

Tivoli also has 7.00 cups of coffee (1.00 returned when you recycle the cup) and signs written only in Danish. This helps explain why we sat in an amphitheatre for theposted BIg Band concert but found no big band to play Duke Ellington delights.  Tivoli also has stunning gardens and some terrific rides, look:

Jealous that I didn’t get a ride in a little wagon, I found a playground on the way to dinner and rode my own little hen to victory:

Festive! and Fun!

Thought I’d post a few pictures from our trip to fabulous Copenhagen.  We had an amazing time–we traveled without a firm itinerary, made decisions based on weather, proximity and what was open, and by the end of the week, we saw most of what we hoped to, with a few extras thrown in for good measure.

We continue our foray into the life of the middle-aged–throughout the trip long moments were dedicated to studying the local fauna, birds in particular.  One sweet little bird caught our attention on Saturday, and I spent the next 4 imploring the concierge, the guy at the Viking  museum, the woman on the train, etc to tell me what it was,  but I came up empty-handed.  The internets were similarly unhelpful.  Lucky for me, there’s someone from that neck of the wood in my bloggyland.  Rest assured, she’ll receive an email peppered with blurry shots of the black & white ball so that she can dedicate her life to teaching me the name of the bird in Denmark.   I’ll take her to an early-bird special to thank her, and we can follow it up with bingo, or some other geriatric activity…

Lots of pictures to follow (more than you’ll ever want to see really, so save yourself–come back for a visit next week).

the rainy day seemed to enhance the beauty of the Kastellet

the birthday boy in front of pretty St Albans

the only Danish gal in that part of town (the number of Korean tourists was mind-boggling)

On my way home, so this is the flashiest of flash updates:

1.  Today is Ethiopian New Year–celebrate accordingly.  Some people pick flowers, and slaughter dinner.  I however, will arrive home to ready for:

2.  The world’s most enormous yardsale.  A joint venture between me (on behalf of Ethiopian Orphan Relief) and my friends, Amy & Joel, who are working to support their own adoption journey, the fun starts at my house at 10 am and goes until we sell it all.  Elliott will host a lemonade stand for EOR, the weather will be gorgeous, and joy will abound.  Drop me a comment if you need directions to my midwestern Shangri-La.

In a day or two, after I’ve suitably recovered from travel, and the yardsale, I’ll post trip highlights and lots-o-photos.

Just a quick update in the middle of our Denmark trip.

We are having a fabulous time!  We’ve walked approximately 50-11 miles per day, so our feet are tired, but we are happy.  We’ve seen a ton–Tivoli, the glyptotek, the resiistance museum, the Kastellet, churches galore, the Design Center (another house of worship, really), the Little Mermaid, and today–Roskilde, the Viking village.

Saturday was Albert’s birthday, so we planned dinner and an opera for the big day.  We ate this incredible locavore dinner at this very Danish restaurant–spare and incredibly beautiful.  Despite our 6:00 seating, we had to run the last 2 of the 5 blocks to the opera to make the 8 pm curtain.  High heeled boots never seemed like such a tragedy before.  The opera was very, um, different.  It was about Darwin, incorportated a lot of dance, and like many things Danish was sort of a puzzle, but in a good way.  We loved it.

Other things I love about Denmark:

groovy raincoats everywhere

bicycles

the nicest buses ever

minimal micro management–it is assumed that people know how to behavior properly, so there are few signs enforcing decorum–it is refreshing and a little confusing (pictures here?  flash?)

pretty birds

pretty people

pretty husband

Additional reports later–I’ll tell you tales of Portuguese soccer players, AND give the fashion report.