Can't they at least TRY??

At the end of last week I had to send a payment off to the IRS, in the IRS' own envelope. I dutifully put the payment voucher and the payment into the envelope, wrote my return address in the upper left hand corner on the 3 little lines the IRS' envelope provided for that purpose, put some Danish stamps on it and sent it off.

Saturday we opened our mailbox only to find that same envelope had arrived here. How nice of the Danish postal service!

Many complain about the US postal service but honestly, I believe, the USPS does it's job. The mail gets where it's supposed to go - they figure it out. The same cannot be said for the danish equivalent. The envelope was, or course, a little window envelope. If you've ever used them, and I'm sure you have, the little papers inside the envelope can tend to shift around and maybe the address isn't fully readable instantly. You do the shake down to the inside pieces of paper and the address magically reveals itself, etc. Apparently this is too difficult for the danish postal service.

Postal employee A.. "I cannot see the address"
Postal employee B.. "There's an address, there, in the upper left hand corner - send it there"
Postal employee A.. "Ahh yes, perfect!"

Morons - the upper left hand corner is called a "return address" - you don't just send the mail there thinking that's where it's supposed to go! Had they done that with something written on the original such as "Unable to deliver, return to sender" then I would have been slightly less annoyed. At least then I would KNOW why it showed up in my mailbox. But there was nothing - they sent it to the return address apparently because it's an address they found, and that somehow equaled where it was supposed to go.

I was going to take a picture of the envelope for this post, but Ole has now taken the envelope off with him this morning to resend the whole thing in a proper Danish envelope, or something.

p.s. It can't be easy to be married to me. I, of course, in my ranting, took out my frustration for the Danish postal service on my dear hubby - as a Dane, he inevitably gets the blame for any frustration I feel at anything that goes wrong in HIS country. Ooops.

My head hurts

This evening was the first day 'back to school' for me and after 2.5 hours of danish class, my head hurts.

I have school every Tuesday and Thursday evening for what feels like now to eternity. While I do get encourages every now and then and feel like maybe I'm actually getting somewhere with all of this, I still, for the life of me, cannot understand my own husband when he speaks Danish. One of my teachers says that it's probably Ole's accent that is the issue - I don't know, but I know I can't understand him :(

School isn't horrible, but it definitely takes a strain on my brain! It's the constant concentration that gets me. If I let my mind wander for even a moment, I have missed something that my teacher said and at that point, my brain sort of switches over to that 'huh???' setting.

I'm sure going to miss my free evenings!

Help Me!

I'm being overwhelmed by incredible cuteness!

 

 

 

 

Don't Get Up

Ahh the life of luxury...

 

Don't overwhelm yourself and waste energy standing up to eat!

Olympic Coverage

Last night was the opening ceremonies and I guess, for the most part, it doesn't really matter which language it is. Not really sure that I liked the early afternoon start time though! When you grow up in the US, the Olympic coverage you see isn't typically live coverage, depending, of course, on which time zone the games are being held. The US caters their coverage to the advertisers - the network has to cover all the costs of actually covering the games! What this means is that, although we like to pretend things are happening as we see them, more often than not, it happened hours ago and is being broadcast for the US market in primetime.

There are some that do believe everything should be shown live, but now that I am actually having to watch events live, I must say that I prefer the USA's nicely packaged version of the games. Had I been working yesterday, rather than enjoying a week off, I would have missed the opening ceremonies, because they began at 2:08 pm in Denmark.

I like gymnastics. But, of course, the US men's team was in the first rotation for the qualification round. What this meant for me was that if I wanted to see the US in the qualification round, I had to get my butt in front of the TV at 6 AM. Ewwww.

Getting up early isn't really a problem for me most of the time. The problem comes in getting up early and then plopping down in front of the TV. My normal routine means I plop in front of the internet, which is interactive, and therefore, assists me in waking up and starting my day as I suck down my coffee. The TV on the other hand, is passive. Had the commentary been in English, it would have been a bit easier for me, but in Danish, at 6 AM, wooowee that was tough.

It is events like these that make me miss American TV. I like getting the full explanations of why a particular gymnastics move was good or bad. I want to see the little computer animations of the 'perfect' double-twisting, triple-flip, Russian-dude named move. I want to see the interview and clips of the gymnastic phenom training back home. I want all that! It's quite difficult at 6 AM to attempt to comprehend 2 Danes talking about what's going on - thank goodness the scores themselves were posted on screen!

Well, the good news is that the American men did win their qualifying round. I think it's the top 8 teams that move on to the team event, so I guess we still have to see how the other teams do. If I were watching on NBC, I'm sure Bob Costas would've already explained how it all works, and how the new scoring system works, but since I'm not, I suppose I will spend the next hour doing internet research to figure it all out!

Fast Friends

Any worries that we had about bringing a new puppy into the house have now officially vanished. I am delighted to report that Zoe has accepted her little sister with open paws and they simply cannot get enough of each other. It's the sweetest darn thing!

This first picture is from day one with Lexi - it was pretty hot and Zoe's little pool was simply delightful!



Yesterday the two of them played together really well. Zoe definitely has moments where she is just so excited by her playmate that she gets a bit too crazy and carried away, but for the most part, they're just having tons of fun.

Last evening as we sat at our computers Zoe and Lexi were on the floor between us having a little tug over a small rawhide stick. Zoe has new found interest in many things she had grown bored with previously - if Lexi wants it, then Zoe suddenly must have it as well. LOVE the paw to the eye!




A little while later when they both became thoroughly exhausted by the action, Zoe curled up on the doggie bed. Lexi promptly decided to join her - this was not staged, Lexi did this totally on her own! Zoe, on the other hand, wasn't quite sure what to do about it...



But just a moment later, going for the 'cute pic of the week' award - Zoe simply placed one paw over Lexi and settled in for a bit of a snooze.

Lexi!

We officially became a 2 doggie household yesterday! We had a 10am appt to pick up Lexi. When we arrived, Lexi and her momma were waiting for us. The lady we got her from nicely packed a box with some of Lexi's puppy food, a piece of a blanket all the pups had been sleeping on, and one of the puppy toys they had all played with. It was about an hour drive from here so we were fully prepared to make stops along the way if necessary but, even after eating breakfast, Lexi had no trouble at all in the car and slept on my lap the whole way.

Ole dropped us off at a field around the corner and went to pick up Zoe from our house. We wanted to let the two see each other away from the house first. When they came over to the field, Zoe had her normal excessive enthusiasm about a new dog and ended up scaring little Lexi - she wasn't quite prepared for this crazy labrador jumping all around her. I am happy to report that she got over that fear quickly and started to run after Zoe and get a bit braver.

We brought both of them home and they had an exhausting day! Every time poor Lexi tried to take a nap, Zoe was right there, trying to wash her, kiss her, and just get to know her new little friend. Finally, both of them were so tired they each fell over and got some rest. We usually refer to these moments as 'flat dog'!

The first night didn't go too badly. Ole got up with Lexi at about 1:15 AM and Lexi had some water at that point and then back to her crate. At 2:10 AM, I got up with Lexi and now she had 'business' to do - and wouldn't you know it, the pouring rain showed up at this point, just my luck. I opened the door and both Lexi and Zoe looked at me as if to say.. "Are you nuts? We're not going outside in that!" Ultimately this situation meant that I, too, had to go out in the rain if I wanted the dogs to follow - so off we went into a downpour. Success - peeing and pooping done! We all dried off and went back to bed. And, we all slept until about 8 AM! Woohoo!

Here is a bit of playtime we had this morning. And before you comment, yes, we do have a large mattress in the middle of a floor, and no, that's not where we sleep! We got a new bed and haven't quite figured out what to do with our other mattress, so it's covered with a sheet and has become, for the time being, a giant dog bed in the living room. :)



This is a short video of Lexi and Zoe playing a bit earlier this morning.