Hockey Hockey Hockey

For the first time in over 15 years, I watched a hockey game from beginning to end. Not only that, but I watched a 2nd hockey game, in the same weekend, from beginning to nearly the end, and a 3rd game for about the last 20 minutes. Last weekend was all about hockey, hockey, hockey.

The last time before last weekend was the 1994 Stanley Cup finals where I watched the NY Rangers win the cup and end a 54-year drought in winning their first cup since 1940. It was a HUGE game if you lived anywhere in or around NYC and was something not to be missed.

On Friday evening, we headed out to a hockey game that wasn't quite so newsworthy! It was an event planned for a new international society. There was a fantastic turn-out with about 100 people, including both internationals living in Denmark, as well as Danes. It was really exciting and a great kick-off to what I hope becomes a regular part of our lives! We had a sandwich, a beer and a hockey game all for just 50 kr. per person, which is about $10 and let me tell you, entertainment does not come this cheap in DK! Incredible.

The game was the Herning hockey team against the Esbjerg team, in Herning. Now, as this new group is for those living in and around Herning, the general idea was that those who attended would be routing for the home team. Slight problem with that in this household. The 'home' team for my dane would be Esbjerg! But, given that our tickets were smack in the middle of the Herning fans, and the fact that despite all of our cheering and hopes for a good game there were no goals scored while we were there, in the end, it didn't matter that a traitor was in our midst! About that lack of goals thing... after 3 periods with no score, the game went into overtime. After the first overtime period, still with no score, we decided that beating the traffic out was more important than seeing the game to the end, and, after standing for over an hour (hey, 50 kr. remember - no seats!), it was time. Some pictures...

(Photo courtesy of Kelli!)
Ole, Monica and me

Kelli and Monica

Upon arriving home from the game, I discovered that the USA was in the middle of kicking some serious hockey butt at the Olympics against Finland. I was able to find a live stream of the game and watched the last 15 minutes or so of that one. Suddenly, I was totally sucked into the hockey madness!

And Sunday night, I joined the masses in watching the Gold medal game against Canada. It was a nail-biter and emotional roller-coaster from start to finish and while the end was a crushing blow, I'm glad I was able to watch it even from the other side of the world.

Maybe I won't wait another 15 years to see my next game!

Fancy Schmancy Pictures

Since I started taking Tamoxifen, my left knee has been bothering me with a nice nagging pain. I explained this to my Oncologist in January but he felt that since it was just one knee, and not all my joints, that the Tamoxifen wasn't to blame. He advised me to go to my regular doctor.

After a visit to my regular doctor, she wanted an X-ray of my knee, so I had to go to the Herning hospital for the X-ray. But, nothing was apparent from that little black and white picture and she decided to send me off to an Orthopedist.

So, earlier this week, I trotted off to Viborg Hospital to meet the Orthopedist. I had a 9:15 am appointment so I brought along my Kindle, and the paperwork they had sent me by mail, figuring I'd have to sit awhile. When I got there at about 9 am, the receptionist surprised me by greeting me in English - she must have read my file because I hadn't yet said a word! She told me to sit in section 4 and I prepared myself for a wait. Before I could even get a pen from my bag to fill out papers, they called me in - yeehaw! After a 15 minute consultation with the Orthopedist, he decided that I needed an MRI of my knee. He then explained that I would have to go to the private hospital in Viborg for the MRI and that it would be about a 2-week wait. That was on Tuesday.

Yesterday morning (Wednesday) I received a call from a private hospital in Herning asking me to come in for my MRI today! She explained that the wait time in Viborg would be too long and that my file had been sent over to them instead. I have to tell you it's quite handy to live smack in the middle of these two cities!

I have never had an MRI before and I wasn't quite sure of what to expect. I arrived at the hospital this morning and I have to say, the place was much smaller than I had anticipated. The MRI machine was actually a portable unit that was in a trailer in the parking lot. Once inside, it was just me and the technician. I had to lie down on the machine and then she put all kinds of braces and straps around my knee. She gave me some headphones to wear so I could listen to music to counteract the noise of the machine. She was telling me everything in Danish, which was okay as I was understanding the majority of what she was saying. There was, however, one thing I definitely misunderstood. When she explained it all, she said I had to be perfectly still and I was sure she had said it would take about 2 minutes. I'm thinking.. no problem!

Problem. 2 minutes and 20 minutes, in Danish, sound a bit similar. So, as the machine is cranking away, loudly, and I was listening to the 3rd song on the headset, it soon hit me that she didn't say 2, she said 20, and I was going to be stuck here for a bit. Oh well, there wasn't anything uncomfortable about any of it so I didn't care.

Next thing I knew, she was waking me up. Yes, despite the songs in my head and the very loud machine, I managed to doze off. I'm sure I'm not the first to have done that!

Any publicity is...

Let me begin by saying that I attempted to find the perfect image for this post... I failed. My image search yielded results that just weren't fitting. Sigh.

The local newspapers often have articles describing a new business that has opened in the area. It's a great thing for the local proprietor as it gives them a bit of free publicity. And, you know the saying, any publicity is good publicity. Or is it?

This week's paper features an article regarding a woman who has opened a new sexology and partner's therapy clinic. The article includes a photo. Some may choose to visit the new clinic based solely on the proprietor's looks, which would make sense, as she's an attractive woman.

But, if you go on to read the text that goes with the photo, well... I'll let you decide. Here is a bit of what was written (translated from danish):

[Owner's Name], 33, who is divorced, is the mother of 6 children.

This is definitely the person I'd turn to for relationship advice! Umm, not.

Translating the Olympic Games

Literal translations are always a bit scary and they tend to be less than accurate, but they're still fun to do if for no other reason than a good giggle. I've been surfing the Olympic television listings for Denmark attempting to figure out which events I will be able to see - everything is generally broadcast live and with Vancouver 9 hours behind us, that makes viewing some events a bit tricky.

For example, the opening ceremonies were broadcast here - they started at 3 AM this morning.

Today begins the first day of competition in the Vancouver games. I love the Olympics. I miss the US coverage, as I've previously explained, but hopefully, as most of the exciting live events will happen here in the middle of the night, they'll do some recapping during normal waking hours.

If you're checking TV listings in DK, today's scheduled event is/was styrtløb. For those of you who don't possess a danish to english dictionary in your head, the literal translation of that is...

Crash Run

Yep, that's what the 'downhill' is called in Danish. That sounds a wee bit more frightening than the word downhill!

As of now, I hear the event has been postponed due to rain... which is a bit odd, considering every other place on the planet seems to have freakish snow at the moment.

I'll just go back to checking the listings and see what other strange names I can find for the events!

Let's catch up, shall we?

Forgive me readers for I have failed... It has been one month since my last post. Each day that goes by I feel like I should get in here and write something, but then I think... where do I begin? What do I write about? What is worth mentioning and what isn't? So, rather than write, I procrastinate, which only compounds the problem. Anyway, you know the drill! So here I am.

This may end up to be a bit of a long post - or not - depending on how much I feel like typing. So there's your warning. If you'd prefer to just skip to the end, I'll understand, though I can't promise that the end of the post will be any better than this part right here as I haven't written it yet. It might suck. And then you'll be disappointed and upset that you missed all these tasty little tidbits here in the middle. Your choice!

Let's start with the elephant in the room... breast cancer/ brystkraft. For those who may be wondering; I am feeling good! My nails are coming back (slowly), my hair is coming back (grey) and Denmark has gotten over the hump of winter's darkest days, meaning that the light is coming back! I had my first post treatment check-up in early January and the doctor says "everything is as it should be". And... I have an appointment at the end of this month with the plastic surgeon to see about getting me a new fangled boobie to replace the one that tried to kill me.

It all seems a bit surreal at this point. I knew I wasn't one that was ever going to drape myself in pink and run around screaming "I'm a Survivor" but I did feel like, at some point, there might be some kind of epiphany or something about all of this. But nope, I just did what they told me to do, took the treatments they told me to take, and here I am on the other side. Weird, huh? So enough about that - let's get on to the fun stuff!

As previously noted, my parents were here for the holidays. My mother happens to have a great talent for sewing so we decided to make full use of that talent! She brought some fabric with her that I had purchased long, long ago and magically turned that fabric into duvet covers for our bed... in 1 day! Amazing. Then we put her to work on some drapes for my newly painted living room - okay, it's been a few months, but that's still 'new' relatively speaking. Anyway, after some extensive browsing, I found fabric I liked and she started on one 'test' drape. I decided immediately that i really liked the direction things were headed so we went back to the store to get enough fabric to do all the drapes, only to find out this particular fabric can't be re-ordered and they only have what they have. They checked the inventory of a few other stores and there was just enough in the country of Denmark for us to finish our project. Unfortunately, we didn't get it all while my parents were still here so we now have a big bolt of fabric that will be shipped to the states. (There's that procrastination thing again!) My mother will then work her magic and in August, when the family comes back, I may just be able to hang some drapes! How exciting is that?!

Speaking of August, everyone is coming. Yep, the whole clan. This means my parents, my oldest brother, his wife and my nephew, and my other brother, his wife, my other nephew and my two nieces. Holy travelers, that's a lot of Americans in Karup! What's the big deal? Well, this June my parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary and they have chosen to celebrate the happy event by having the entire family travel to Europe to visit us. My parents will come by plane but will travel back to the US by cruise ship. What a great cruise that will be for them!

Still here? Still reading? Whew, haven't lost you yet! Here's the good news for you... you've reached the end. My enthusiasm for this current post has waned so it's probably better to stop now then to babble on endlessly about things that aren't important or interesting. I'll try to come back more often; I've got a few ideas rattling around in my brain so I'll see what I can do to make that brain-to-finger connection.

Don't take this next part personally... it just means "the end" in Danish...

SLUT!

Dear Google...

I know you have big plans to take over the world and I know that slowly but surely, you seem to be achieving that plan. I also know I'm just one small cog in the big internet wheel but you've already touched my life in many ways. Oh how I love your search engine, my free Picasa, my free blog, my google docs, my calendar, my google reader, and of course, the lovely iGoogle to bring it all together so nicely. Seriously, you do make my internet life much easier.

But...
I had something on my Google toolbar before the last upgrade - a tiny little thing called "Translate". I didn't use it often but now and then, depending on my level of laziness on a particular day, I would hit the button and voila, you would translate the page... sort of. Oh sure, there were problems along the way like the day you told me "Æbleskiver bagt på pande = Apple slices baked on the forehead" but I let it slide. I can read Danish after all, and I do try to help you whenever I can with your little "contribute a better translation" link. Mostly I do that when I'm bored, or when your translation has just gone so horribly wrong. Those Danes and their crazy ending the subject with the "the" instead of putting the "the" in front of the subject - I get it, I know it's hard. But overall, the translate button was handy if/when I needed (read: lazy) it.

But now you've gone and updated the Google toolbar. I had no choice but to get the 'new' version when I got the new computer, and... now you've gone too far. No longer is Translate just an innocent little button just waiting to be pressed. Nooooo. Now you ask me each and every time I go to a page that (you decide) isn't in English, if I would like you to translate that page for me. I don't want to say "never do this" because then, when I need you most (surfing for spas in Poland), you won't be there for me. Why is it always all or nothing? I suppose, given time, I will learn to live with your interruptions, but I do have one tiny request...

Please, for all that is sacred, stop telling me that Bejeweled Blitz is in Danish/Ukranian/Bakmel or whatever the language of the day seems to be, and asking me if I want you to translate it. No, I don't want or need the page translated! It's Bejeweled Blitz - it's the universal language of gaming addiction - it requires no translation, so cut it out already, would you?!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some apple slices to bake on my forehead and a game to get back to. Thank you for listening.

Sincerely,

pingdk
google user and bejeweled blitz addict (not necessarily in that order)

Magnetic Force Field

When we bought our new rug, I don't seem to recall it being advertised as having any kind of magnetic properties, but apparently it does...