Waiting for Spring

The first of April fell on a Friday this year.  That meant my last day at Responsive was a Thursday.

I had been working like mad for one client in particular right up to the bitter end: DFDS Seaways.

In fact, that last Thursday Responsive had scheduled a little “goodbye reception” for me at the end of the work day and it had to be postponed just so I could be sure everything had been wrapped up just right for DFDS Seaways.

The next day I arrived at  my new office at PensionDanmark and beheld this out one of our windows:

It was a nice segue.  But that’s the view from the back of the office.  My own desk looks out the front. (The shutters on the window at right are only there when the computer brain of the building decides it’s too bright for us — or when there’s something going on outside it doesn’t want us to see.)

PensionDanmark sits out on a long jetty called Langelinie Allé (about half a kilometer from the little mermaid), and it’s the second-to-last building from the end.  Here’s a shot of the building from one approach:

And here’s a view of the side. (I’m on the third floor Danish style, fourth floor American style, not far in from this corner; those clunky shutters are fully automated and slide in front of the windows and open and close based on the intensity of the sunlight; on the sunny but cold April 1 on which I took these pictures, most of the shutters had moved into the BLOCK THE FUCKING SUN position, which makes the building look a lot uglier than it actually is.  It is really all glass and light.)

Looking out our “back” across to the next jetty over:

That Friday was the concluding night of X-Factor in Denmark, and Maddie was so excited she just had to stay up to see who won.  Here’s a shot of her eagerly awaiting the winner:

We had some friends over for lunch that weekend; here’s their son Holger with Didi.  It’s hard to tell who was the bigger fan of the other!

One of my many “spring cleaning” projects this year was to sort through the thousands of dress-up outfits filling one of our main closets to find out what should be kept and what should be disposed of. As with the March Fashion Show, I asked Maddie to try all the outfits on to see what still fit her and what didn’t.

There are other pictures of her trying on various costumes below, but this picture is actually one of the best (read: most unbearably adorable) pictures of Maddie ever taken — and I think that’s saying something!

The other costume pictures are cute, too.

As for the costumes that didn’t fit. . .

Well, I haven’t had time to finish the job just yet — they’re all lying in the guest room waiting until I find the time to deal with them.

Meanwhile, Winter would not let us out of her frigid clutch.  Well into late April we were getting overnight frosts.  We were getting wild winds, sudden snow squalls, weird bursts of hail and sleet.  The world was trying to green itself into spring, and all of our biological calendars were telling us it was spring, however, so we persisted in trying to do our usual spring stuff.

I awoke one Saturday morning, for example, to find Trine washing the terrace picnic table in a snow flurry (unfortunately the little snow flakes are not visible):

Oh — I’m going to keep posting pictures of the house down the street being built without additional commentary, although it was interesting to me that having roofed it by the middle of the month, for some reason you’ll notice it being partially unroofed later.  Not a chron error: one morning while walking Didi I saw one of the builders standing on the roof and hurling previously set tiles down to shatter on the hard ground below.  Interesting.

The house on Søndergårdsvej had its flat roof ripped clean off and a new one is being installed.  No idea why.

I love when those Facebook flashbacks treat me to an old picture of one or both of the girls; this is still one of my faves of Maddie (from April 2014):

…and sometimes Facebook flashbacks come with a little human agency, like this one that Adam posted: that’s Adam, Rich Barnard, Mike, and myself (and our good friend Jack Daniels) in 1988 or 1989.

Didi and I keep encountering deer on our walks down by the lake.

A weekend romp:

This is the house being built on Søndersø Park.  Same company that’s building the house four doors down.  Wondering who’s going to be done first.

The interesting thing about the location of the PensionDanmark office is that once in a while a cruise ship “docks” alongside us.  It’s like having a 13-story building pop up across the street.

Maddie’s last handball training of the season!  She’s a little burnt out on the sport (as her interpretive dance here may suggest to discerning viewers), so will probably be taking dance, gymnastics, or voice this fall instead of handball.

Maddie’s enthusiasm for reading waxes and wanes like all her other enthusiasms, but I’m always warmed by the sight of her being cozy with a book and a cup of hot cocoa.

The views from Langelinie Allé often remind me of the views from Tidecrest.

The lunches at PensionDanmark are, hands down, the best food I’ve ever eaten for lunch on a regular basis since… well, no offense, Mom, but probably ever…

For the permanent record: apple tree trimming 2016:

Scenes from every day life: a snapshot from the 5- or 6-day roller blade enthusiasm.

High dudgeon:

I don’t know why I took these pictures, but it doesn’t really matter…

“Spring cleaning” meant it was time to take “Big Dog” down to the dump.  I told him we were just going for a romp in the woods.  Just like I do with Didi.

He wasn’t buying it.

Good thing his feet didn’t reach the pedals!

Meanwhile, another flashback photo courtesy of Aunt Deb, mostly for future Molli Malou and Maddie to see that young siblings can in fact resist the temptation to push….

And another Aunt Deb flashback…

Maddie picks out her own clothes every day, as I mentioned (I think) last month: I don’t always notice what she’s put on herself in the morning.  This one particular morning when she finally took off her jacket at school, she did this flourish and said, “Look, Daddy, I’m the most New York girl of them all at Søndersøskolen!”

Oh, deer…

This is, I think, the royal yacht sailing by.

…but cooler boats and ships go by all the time…

And sometimes the neighbors across the street have a more menacing appearance…

AS SEEN ON FACEBOOK: Makeup and makeover mania!

Fun and games with the MSQRD app…

Deer me!

(Do you get the feeling the chronology issue is still haunting me?  I do.)

But hey!  We did finally get the grill cranked up for the first time this year.

Lastly, this: I don’t believe that an article makes it into print on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal without its author knowing what it says, the editor knowing what it says, and, especially in the case of pieces from presidential candidates, dozens of people having looked it over to ensure it says what everybody wants it to say.

So have a close look at the last sentence of this WSJ opinion piece by one Donald J. Trump:

That’s right: “Let 2016 be remembered as the year the American people finally got theirs.”  The double entendre is too obvious to be missed, yet no one seemed to notice.

Frankly, it looks like we American people are “going to get ours” regardless which of the leading candidates ends up in the Oval Office.  And we’ll get it good and hard…

# # #

This blog was a bit of a mess, I notice now that it’s more or less done.  I’m sorry for that.  I’m going to renew my efforts to keep it more focused on its principle subjects from now on.  I also notice there are many more photos of Maddie than there are of Molli Malou, but that’s not on me: future Molli Malou, you were the one always screaming at me not to take pictures of you, while your little sister was constantly begging to be photographed.  So I absolve myself of all responsibility.

As usual.