After attending just one meeting, I've become the organizer for The København Expat American Meetup Group. (København, which is pronounced sort of like curb-en-HOWN, is the Danish word for Copenhagen.) I managed to attend a meeting of LINK without becoming organizer, but it was a lot of fun anyway. (Currently, that link takes you to a page saying they are redesigning their site, and I just want to say "hallelujah!" about that. Maybe I won't be forced to volunteer for that after all.)But wait! There's more!

Here's a fun little meme via Fredchikk. She gave me the letter S, and I have to list my ten favorite songs beginning with that letter. This was really, really hard because there are so many great songs beginning with S. In fact, I had originally planned to put them in preferential order, but I had to give up. So here they are in semi-random order. (If you wanna play, leave me a comment and I'll give you a letter.)

1. "Special" - Mew
2. "Strange Glue" - Catatonia
3. "Solar Sister" - Posies
4. "Scar" - Missy Higgins
5. "She Floated Away" - Hüsker Dü
6. "Shrine" - Dambuilders
7. "Så Gik Der Tid Med Det" - Tøsedrengene
8. "Setting Sun" - Chemical Brothers
9. "San Diego Zoo" - The 6ths
10. "South Central Rain" - R.E.M.

Many misguided cat servants spend money on things marketed as cat beds only to find their cat never uses it. Cats sleep wherever the hell they want. If you want them to sleep in a particular place, you need to put whatever the hell they want in a particular place. Lidja, like many cats, has a penchant for curling up into things she doesn't quite fit into, and has taken many a nap in my laptop bag or random boxes and baskets she happens upon. I noticed recently that, in lieu of my laptop bag (which I freecycled before moving) and random boxes (which we took to the basement storage), she was seeking out the quilt my grandmother made and gave as a wedding present. I also noticed that the box in which Thomas' new FiveFingers arrived was just about Lidja-sized. So I wrapped the box in the quilt, and waited about an hour.

Thomas and Peter got a 10* on their presentation yesterday, and their schoolwork is officially complete forever. (*If you're unfamiliar with the truly bizarre grading scale of Danish education, Århus University has a nice explanation.)

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. The postal service here is amazing! We ordered a pair of shoes online yesterday afternoon and they got here about an hour ago. High praises not just to the post office but to Alun for getting the order shipped out so promptly as well. When T gets home, he'll get to try out his new Vibram FiveFingers and I'll report on the experience. They certainly look neat.

I made another pair of barefoot sandals today. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the beads when I bought them, or actually until a few minutes after starting the first sandal. After I decided what to do, I wasn't sure it would work. Fortunately it did, and I know I'm biased but I think they're really great. I made them really long so I wrap them around my ankle an extra time.

I spent 104 kroner to get these beads, which is about $19. The first pair was about 90 kroner, including the elastic and needles, which I used again for these, and I have enough beads leftover to make a matching bracelet or necklace. This is including the 25% VAT. I've seen barefoot sandals in the US online starting at about $17 (94 kroner) before tax! Granted, I did get a steal on those red glass beads. They were originally 39 kroner for two square, and 49 for two rectangular. They were marked down to 11 and 14.

Tomorrow, Thomas and his project partner, Peter, give their presentation on their final project. Assuming a passing grade, this will be their final act before being conferred their degrees from DTU. Were I a Muslim, I'd be shouting alhamdulillah tomorrow afternoon. I'm not, so instead I think we'll imbibe alcoholic beverages to celebrate.

This project, which was originally intended to be completed last summer, and then last December, and then this April, has contributed to pushing back our wedding date, delaying my expatriation, and most recently, stealing my husband away for evenings and weekends. Today, once again, Thomas is meeting with Peter directly after work.

Don't get me wrong. I'm really excited about it for what it is. Thomas is getting a kandidat degree, which is the Danish equivalent to a master's, and that's a fantastic thing. But, this is my blog, and I'm allowed to be selfish and say I'm really thrilled to get my husband after work and on weekends. And when he and Peter want to hang out, it might not necessarily be where Peter's desktop computer with all the data for the project is.

With T not coming home for dinner, it's harder to motivate myself to do something interesting in the kitchen.

I made a pair of barefoot sandals today. Using this tutorial as a basic guide, it took about an hour to make the set. I really like how it turned out! My long beads are not as long as the ones on the tutorial, so I used some extra beads (basically small round - large round - small round in most of the places where she used just a pony bead). In the pic, you can kinda see how deformed my pinky toe is, as a result of traditionally-shaped girls' shoes I was forced to wear to church growing up.

P.S. Tycho didn't want to be left out of the pictures. He's doing great on raw too!

While Tycho has devoured any kind of meat I put in front of him, whether chicken, pork, beef, or even pork liver (man, that crap stinks!), Lidja has only been interested in chicken. This morning, she didn't even seen interested in the chicken, so I put it in her favorite spot: on the floor. She ate it up off the floor and looked up at me to request more. I threw down some ground beef instead. She sniffed it a bit, seemed to shrug it off, and then dig in. She ate just a couple grams of it before deciding she was full, but she clearly liked it. No gravy, no oil! We are well on our way.

Now, to those of you who are asking me, "what on earth are you doing feeding your cats raw meat," those of you who can't be bothered to look it up yourselves, I have a question for you. This is an honest question, and I'd really like to hear your answer. Comments are enabled, so please use them. Why is it that when I report that Lidja has partially eaten a mouse, or that Tycho has hunted and devoured a moth, or that David's neighbor's dog ate one of his pullets, that you don't bat an eye? What is so different? If I put a mouse or a moth down for them instead, would you feel better? Perhaps that's two questions, but you can answer either or both.

Hyldeblomst means elderflower. Now you know.

Lidja doesn't like eating out of the bowl anymore, so she drags her food to the floor. I tried putting it on a plate, but you can see how well that worked out. She's now breaking apart large chunks of meat on her own, ungravied and unoiled! I'm really excited.

Last night, I made this delicious couscous dish for me and Thomas.

I am limited in the number of vegetables I can convince Thomas to eat, but he really liked this dish, and I think the next time I make it I can make it even better. What I did is heat up the chicken in a skillet, spicing it with garlic, oregano, and black pepper. Then I added the peas, corn, tomatos, and broth. When the broth was boiling, I stirred in the couscous, removed from heat, and covered. Ten minutes later, plop on a couple plates, add peanuts and paprika to the top. It's really quick and easy. T said he's usually not a fan of peanuts, but he was surprised how well it worked with the meal. To drink, we had hyldeblomst juice. I don't know what hyldeblomst is in English, except it's a flower. Hylde means shelf, and I don't know of anything called a shelf flower. I'll have to look that up later. But the juice is yummy.

I'm trying to figure out the point of tags versus categories. I feel like this should probably end up being obvious, like "what's the difference between an object and a class?" It hasn't clicked yet. As far as I can tell, a tag cloud is like a category list that ends up being a lot longer. I'm adding tags to some entries to see what happens, but I disabled the tag cloud in the sidebar because that's just obnoxious.

Also, I'm still trying to figure out formatting in RapidWeaver. In some ways, I think managing my site using vi was easier. But there's a lot to like about RapidWeaver, and I'm determined to figure it out. Forgive me if some entries look weird for a while.

For some reason, I have a lot to say today. Beware: long post follows.
Since moving, I have increasingly gone barefoot, and now I'm barefoot almost 24/7. Going barefoot is love.
On Sunday, T & I went to IKEA. They aren't usually open on Sunday, but for whatever reason, they were this week. We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to return some items and possibly get some more. This trip was significant in two ways.But wait! There's more!

After about 10 seconds of consideration, I decided to do this meme too, because I can. And unlike some other days, I've actually done a lot of housework today like a good little wife, so meming (sp?) it up is my reward.

INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:

1. Wondering As I Wander
2. As Suanie Sees It
3. Fireangelism
4. KYspeaks
5. Altered Sky

Select five people to tag:

1. Fred
2. Jason
3. Paul
4. Tony
5. osg

What were you doing 10 years ago?
trying to decide if I should major in French or astrophysics
What were you doing 1 year ago?
kicking genius-administrative ass, being sad about Thomas leaving for Denmark again, and, according to iCal, paying my bills online
Five snacks you enjoy:

1. pineapple bolcher
2. Samsøgaard potato chips
3. cheese
4. lemon moon
5. garlic

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to:


1. "Give Me Back My Dreams" - The 6ths
2. "Hey" - Pixies
3. "Ain't No Good" - Cake
4. "Golly Sandra" - Eisley
5. "Special" - Mew

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

1. buy new self-cleaning windows
2. pay someone else to install the Marmoleum
3. put a pocket door on the bedroom
4. pay a Danish tutor
5. put the rest in savings

Five bad habits:


1. biting my nails
2. getting angry at nonograms
3. forgetting to do housework
4. telling Warren jokes
5. not playing enough nethack

Five things you like doing:


1. IRCing
2. reading
3. cooking
4. coding
5. understanding Danish

Five things you would never wear again:

1. high heels (or any shoes, if I can get away with it)
2. stretch pants
3. thongs
4. plastic charms
5. swan-shaped sunglasses

Five favourite toys:

1. iBook
2. iMac
3. Lidja's fetch toy + Lidja
4. iPhone (ok, it would be if I had one)
5. stovetop

My patience with Bank of America finally disappeared completely. I understand it is probably unusual for a Bank of America credit card holder to reside outside the U.S. I expected a less than perfect experience. But I can only be inconvenienced so much before it's not worth it. I really only wanted an American credit card to have access to the American iTunes Store, anyway.

I called a month or two before I moved, to tell them I changed my name. The woman on the phone congratulated me on my marriage, and updated her records. I asked if there was anything else I needed to do, because all the other places I talked to wanted a marriage license, and she said no, that was all, and I could expect a replacement card in the mail in 7-10 business days. I received my replacement card, bearing the name Lorry L Sach-Pedersen. I called again to correct the spelling. The woman on the phone, who was likely a different woman, although I guess I don't remember that well, after much confusion, eventually figured out I was saying "F as in foxtrot" and that "foxtrot" was not a part of my name. She corrected the spelling and sent out a new card, and everything was fine. This is not something I'm mad about. Mistakes happen.But wait! There's more!

Today I served chopped raw chicken without Whiskas sauce and it was still gobbled up. A bit leftover, unlike last night, but still being eaten.

One thing I like about Denmark is that you can buy a monthly public transport pass that's good on all the trains, busses, and metro in the zones of your choice. Another thing I like is that you can have them automatically bill you every month, and they'll mail you the updated pass. Another thing I like is that we bought our passes last night around 5pm, and had a confirmation come in the mail by about 10am this morning.

We put out some chopped raw chicken, and to entice little finicky Lidja to try it, drizzled some sauce from a packet of Whiskas over it. When I went in the kitchen a few minutes later to see if she ate any, both bowls were so empty, I asked Thomas if he'd already cleaned up. He witnessed her eat a few bites, so I know it wasn't all Tycho.

It's really fascinating how useful immersion is for learning a language. I wondered how it would go for me, not being a particularly social person, but I really can tell a big difference in my comprehension. Production is still difficult, but I didn't expect to learn Danish overnight. Here's an example. When configuring my iBook and router for our new broadband connection at home, I was using the CD that CyberCity sent to us. It was in Danish, but I could figure out enough, especially paired with pretty pictures, to get through the set up. It was a "wizard" type program, and between each screen, I had to click a button labelled fortsæt. I didn't think too hard about what that word must mean, because a single usage of it isn't that clear. It could be "ok" or "next" or "understood" or any number of things. The next day, Thomas and I are taking the S-train into Copenhagen, and the familiar S-train voice comes on. I've heard her tell me the same message dozens of times in my short span here, but it didn't really click until then. Toget fortsætter til Farum. "The train continues to Farum." Continue. Fortsæt means "continue." And to top it off, I now know how to pronounce it. I feel like there's no way I'll forget this word now, whereas staring at a vocab list in a classroom before a test, it could very easily fly out the window just when I need it.

By the way, I love the S-train. We're about 15 minutes from the central station, 17 minutes from Palads movie theater, or 25 minutes from Fisketorvet without ever having to transfer. A short walk from a station will get us to Tivoli, the Imperial, Strøet, and any number of other worthwhile things in the city. A slightly longer walk to an Apple Center. One transfer and less than half an hour to get to the Zoo. The S-train will transfer us easily to Kystbanen to get us to the in-laws in Nivå, or to Sweden if we wanted to.

I decided to switch the cats to raw. I bought some boneless, skinless chicken breasts to get them started. T chopped them up, and we put some chunks out yesterday night for the first time.

Tycho got all over it like gravy on a biscuit. Lidja remains unimpressed. I put some out this morning and tonight as well, and Lidja still isn't sold. Tycho is happy as a clam, though he'd probably just as happily gobble plastic wrap and cocktail umbrellas marinated in turpentine. He pretty much attempts to eat everything.

I'm thinking of getting some canned food to smear on the chicken chunks to try to get Lidja to eat them. Unfortunately the only canned food around here is Friskies-grade mess. Blech. But it's temporary and for a good cause. It's exciting to see Tycho eat meat. I can't wait until Lidja will.

I'm revamping the photos section, and I've added a bunch of pics of the condo. Yes, it is nice to own a place and fix it up.