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.

Sooo excited...

It's 5:15 AM and I'm like a kid on Christmas morning! I think I must have woken up about 6 times during the night to see if it was morning yet. If you know the way I sleep, this does not normally happen!

So, once the clock said 5 AM, I decided that was officially morning, finally, so I got up and made some coffee. Why am I sooo excited??

IT'S PUPPY DAY!

(Might as well also get used to the fact that after today, I'm never getting a fully night's sleep again!)

AAARGH!

Okay, please allow me 5 minutes to post a very big whine!

Can someone please explain to me why a modern society cannot figure out that windows should come with screens on them! It makes me crazy. Every time that I mention this little "issue" to my Danish family they tell me that I can buy something at Sylvan or Bauhaus that I can attach to my windows with Velcro, etc. Obviously, this is coming from people who have never lived with built-in screens.

I did a bit of research after spotting an ad one day for "Insektnet - med pollenfilter". It looked like a dream come true - finally, someone gets it! Well, their product would be the dream come true, if they got the price down to a reasonable level. I can't even begin to calculate what it would cost to put screens on every window and door of this house.

So, for the time being, in this little heat wave we're having - I am instead taking time to whine about these DAMN flies that keep divebombing me!

My Birthday Gift

A couple of weeks ago, Ole asked me what I would like for my birthday. I replied, without hesitation.. "a puppy!"

So, we spent that evening surfing through dba.dk viewing all the pups. We have a black labrador already, so I decided to search for a golden retriever as it has always been one of my favorite breeds. While searching, we came across some very interesting puppies. Their mom is a purebred golden retriever and their father looks like a black labrador. But - apparently dad was hiding some german shepard genes and that led to some puppies with very interesting markings!

We visited the puppies two weeks ago and picked out a little girl. She won't be old enough to come home with us until August 2nd, but today we went to visit her again. Please allow me to introduce Lexi..

I have tons of pictures, of course, but the look on her face in this one is simply priceless. One more week and she gets to come to her new home! :)

Honey, I told you that way was faster!

How nice of the Danes to point this out!

These are a few of my favorite things...

No, this won't be about dogs biting or bees stinging, but rather about a few items that I greatly miss from the good ole US of A.

Yep, Hershey's Syrup! You know, the gigantic size bottle that lasts for a long, long time and is always right there when you need it. Oh sure, Denmark has chocolate toppings for your ice cream, but they sell them in these tiny little toothpaste tubes that are gone much too quickly - where is the industrial size Costco container of chocolate sauce? Don't these people have a love of chocolate on everything?



Ahh Lipton! My obsession with iced tea is well known to friends and family. But it can't be just any iced tea - it MUST be this particular type of Lipton Iced Tea - the one with that awful cancer causing substance (only in laboratory rats apparently). Yes, it's saccherine. When I packed my container in November of 2006 for the great move to Denmark, I first called my local grocery store and ordered caseloads of this stuff. I must have it. I purchased 48 bottles of powder (4 cases) and had them loaded up with all my belongings. Now a crisis is arising; I have just opened my last case. There are exactly 9 bottles remaining. What's a girl to do?? I have weighed a full case; it's approximately 14 lbs. so if I can last until my next trip to the states, I should be able to bring along an empty suitcase to fill it with more iced tea. It would weigh less if I took the tea mix out of the glass containers and put it instead in ziploc bags or something, but I fear they would then think I was smuggling drugs in my tea!
And, that brings me to my next item. Ziploc bags. Specifically, freezer bags. On the bright side, I have begun to see some ziploc style bags in the stores. On the downside, they are sold as "airline travel bags" - the quart size for carrying toiletries - not really what I had in mind! And most definitely, not at the price I had in mind. But things do eventually make their way here, so here is hoping for some 'zipper' style bags, for the freezer, and soon!



Ahh, A1 - it is, after all, 'how steak is done'! The danes LOVE their sauces. You haven't seen a display of Knorr sauce until you've been to Bilka. Therein lies a floor to ceiling tower of sauce mix - Bernaise, Bretagne, Hollandaise, Grøn Peber, etc. However, for the most part, these are butter based sauces, meant to be poured all over your meat and potatoes like a brown sauce. This, my friends, is not steak sauce. If you want a steak sauce, the closest you can come is either whiskey sauce, red wine sauce, or HP sauce. HP isn't cutting it for me. Tried the whiskey and red wine sauces too - again, not quite what I had in mind. So, one time while I was in the states, I brought back a small bottle of A1. All was well in my steak world.

However, one day Ole decided to try said sauce, and misunderstood the concept. He poured it all over everything as he would with his beloved Bernaise sauce - and there went my bottle. Therefore, on the most recent trip, it became necessary to buy two large bottles. One is now gone and I'm hoping that bottle #2 will indeed last until the next trip to the states. Perhaps, some Bilka buyer will be brave and suddenly decide to carry it for me - a girl can dream!

Lastly, Infusium 23 Leave-In Treatment. This product did have a starring spot in my missed items. However, that is past tense. As it goes in the cosmetic world, the true makers of this product were bought out by one of the large conglomerates, who, of course, changed the formula. Now, the formula still does wonders for the hair, don't get me wrong, but the problem lay elsewhere. The problem - and it's one that is highly annoying to me - is that Infusium now stains white clothing! It took me over a year to figure out that this was the product causing all these mysterious dots on my white clothes. The reason it took so long was that the change in formula coincided with my move to Denmark, and I had purchased a few bottles prior to moving. I blamed the laundry detergent, my washing machine, the new hair care products I had purchased here - everything except my treasured, much loved, hair-saving Infusium. I was wrong on all of it - sniff - it's the Infusium and so my search has begun for another leave-in treatment that works as well. WAAAAAH!

Birthday Traditions

There is something inherently wrong with the way the Danes celebrate birthdays. Here is the issue... As the person having the birthday, you are not pampered, but rather, you are expected to play hostess to those who want to come to your home and give you birthday wishes.

Last year Ole's mom had a big 'official' birthday party planned. The whole big dinner, dancing thing. Of course that wasn't planned for the actual day of the birthday, but was on a weekend a few days later. But, on the actual day of the birthday everyone went to her house. What amazed me was that here was this woman, on her own birthday, slaving away in the kitchen for all these guests! She made breads and cheeses, coffee, dessert, etc., while everyone else sat in the living room and chatted! I kept thinking - this is no way to celebrate your birthday! She enjoyed it immensely as this was tradition, but from an American viewpoint, a totally skewed tradition!

So yesterday I became a 40 year old. I don't know that it feels any different than 39, but I must admit that the number itself still bothers me. I'll spare you my whine about the various aging issues I've encountered with my body in the past year; except to say that an older friend of mine said simply.. "You're almost 40 right? That's when it all starts!" BAH

I spent the day working as usual, followed by quickly running the vacuum, cleaning up the kitchen, preparing dessert for later...

Ole's parents came by bearing 2 big hortensia plants (aka hydrangea), which was very nice of them as I always love to have something new to add to my garden.  We had coffee (Danes don't go anywhere without having coffee!) and I served dessert. No birthday cake with 40 candles to blow out; just ice cream and strawberries (very tasty, I might add). My sister-in-law and my parents both called to wish me a Happy Birthday later in the evening.

I'll save the details of the bday present I am getting from Ole for another post. All I will say is that I am extremely excited! :)

Here's to being 40-something!