Haven’t been on it, don’t know anything about it, but it’s in Copenhagen right now and it just nice lookin’.
The End is coming
Starting tomorrow, 100 heads of state from countries around the world will meet in Bella Center, the largest conference center in Scandinavia. There will be about 15,000 participants and the Copenhagen police are expecting as many as 50,000 protesters — and as a result, over half of Denmark’s police force is in Copenhagen for this event.
Apparently every hotel in the greater Copenhagen area has been booked for months, and many people are hosting participants in their homes. Obama will make an appearance at the conference. It’ll be brief, but this is the second time in three months that Obama has been to Copenhagen, so the Danes aren’t unhappy about that. (He was here for the Olympic committee meeting in early October, which also took place at Bella Center.)
We live across the street from Bella Center. We’ve watched over the last few months as the preprations have intensified. Every entrance is heavily guarded. We’re sure to see many a protester, many a cop, and — mostly likely — some trouble. Last week we got a note form the building management announcing that extra insurance has been taken out on the building, and advising residents to make sure their private policies are up-to-date. Read More →
Farewell to Fall
Officially it’s not over yet, but it feels that way. Fall can be glorious in Denmark, but is sometimes disappointing. There are so many colors, and they hit all at once. If you’re lucky it won’t rain for a while, but it usually does, and the crisp and vivid colors get wet and murky.
But fall is still a special time of year.  There’s something profound about fall. It makes summer seem like a silly, frivolous season. Fall is a return to reality. It’s both more sane and more sentimental than summer, and the transition surprises me every year.
Crawling is for losers
Ellen’s preferences continue to emerge, and one thing that’s clear is that she has no interest in crawling. She takes real offense when I put her into the crawling position. She drops down to her stomach, starts whining, and looks to Lisbeth for sympathy. Â ”Look mom! Look at what dad did to me!”
Walking, on the other hand — now that’s interesting. If you hold her hands and walk her around the room, she makes her happy noises and looks up at you as if to say, “Look! I’m walking!”
Apparently not all babies crawl before they walk. Lisbeth never did. Maybe Ellen won’t either, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop trying.
El Porvenir
When we were still in New Mexico last month we attended a church retreat in El Porvenir. I took these on the last night, as kids made smores (kids don’t just roast marshmallows anymore, apparently.)
Ride of the day
Summer is over and it’s cold (about 4 Celsius / 40 Fahrenheit today). The leaves are changing, and I’m wearing a hat and gloves on my commute. But it’s not cold enough to stop me from going for long rides after work. Not yet anyway.
Right now I’m doubly motivated. First, I still have  a lot of enchiladas, huevos rancheros, and stuffed sopaipillas from our vacation in New Mexico to burn off. Second, daylight savings time ends on the 25th, after which any riding I do after work will be entirely in the dark.
Ellen meets the family
The highlight of this vacation has definitely been introducing Ellen to all the family members that she hasn’t yet met, like her great grandparents. Connie organized a get-together this weekend so we’d have everyone in the same place, which is where many of these pictures are from.
It’s  a good thing that she’s pretty flexible about who holds her, because she’s been passed around a lot in the last three weeks, and it’s a good thing that she likes the spotlight, because she’s been the center of attention most of the time.
The downside, however, is that she’s gotten accustomed to the attention, and she thinks it’s incredibly dull to have only the stale affections of her parents. We’re expecting her to be pretty unhappy when we get back to Denmark later this week.
Before this trip, the only members of my family that had met Ellen were mom and dad because they visited us in Denmark in May. Before they left, mom lamented that Ellen wouldn’t remember her. Sure enough, Ellen had to warm up to her again, but it didn’t take long.
Capulin
Last week we went to Capulin, a volcano in Northern New Mexico. It’s about 90 minutes from Springer, the town where I was born and my grandparents still live. But, like the Sandia Tram, it’s something that I’d never seen.
The volcano doesn’t look like much when you’re approaching, and I thought it would turn out to be pretty lame, but when you start to climb, the view gets fantastic almost immediately. (There are hiking trails, but apparently none of them go from the bottom to the top, so you have only one choice — drive to the top.)
Plastic Fantastic
The vast majority of the riding I’ve done for the last three years has been on my Black Avenue (there’s a picture here.) It’s a great bike, but it’s a single speed, and although single-speeds are increasingly popular and surprisingly practical in a flat city like Copenhagen, they’re not ideal for serious riding. Plus they’re hard on the knees.
And so I’ve added a new bike to my small collection. It’s the fastest bike I’ve ever owned by far, and my first two rides confirm that I was indeed limited by my old bike. My average speed is up noticably and my knees hurt less. This bike just flies. Read More →
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