Thanksgiving and More

The more part of this blog is that the sun came out one day and it was my day off - of which i am thankful for both. Jens asked me if i want to go to Amagerfælled (an old military area). I said yes and that i would make some coffee and take it along in a thermos and we could stop and pick up some danish on the way. There is a large pond in the fields with a few picnic benches and here we stopped to enjoy the sun, the view, the cake and coffee. Bounty enjoys a bite too.


After cake and coffee we continued on with our walk. We went up the hill to find out what the heck Lady Liberty was doing here at Amagerfælled. I thought it was pretty neat. I figured it must have something to do with the climate meetings that are soon going to be taking place at the convention center that is near by and also in the military fields. Then we got close enough to see that in fact, inscribed on the tablet was: 'Freedom to Pollute'. Uhhh......okayyyyy?
Here is what i could find from the net. I guess it's pretty extensive but it seems to be a bit of a yawn. Of course i have only glanced at it so what do i know. But give it a click if you want to find out more. There will probably be more photos on the site once the meetings actually take place. There already seems to be some pix now on a second site. Or if you want you can go directly to the pix of Lady Liberty. You will probably be able to find a lot on the net yourself.


So my good ol' American friend, Dan, who moved just around the block from me, invited me to Thanksgiving dinner. He was having 17 guest in all. 5 of us are American and the other 12 are Danes and Swedes. But for some reason 2 of the US folks didn't show up. Jens came alone which i was really glad but just shortly after we got there he ended up going back home. I was so excited about this dinner party being so close to home that it would enable Jens to join in and if it got to be too much, he could just simply walk home. I had to work that day and when i came home i could see that Jens was not at his peak. But he gave it a really good try and that made me very happy.
Dan was the only one with the camera that evening and he took only 3 shots. Here are 2 of them. I was the last one to the table so Dan stuck the fork and knife into my hands and gave me the job of playing butcher.

I made the salads - 2 different kinds. Dan somehow squeezed 2 big turkeys in his tiny Danish oven and made a to-die-for stuffing and Grandma's Jell-o which every body was raving about. Considering it was just Jell-o, it really was good. Corn, bread, wine,way-delicious pears (the most delicious i have ever tasted and they were from Steffen's back yard in Sweden), mashed potatoes with garhhhhhhhlic and more. The other American, Brent, was supposed to make fresh cranberries but forgot and ended up making apple pie and sweet potato's instead. Dan had a can of Ocean Spray cranberries and we split it 15 ways - and there was still a spoonful or two left over.
Dan also made two pumpkin pies. Brent and i were dying to try it. The Danes and Swedes had no idea what it was. Brent kept telling everyone that it has been over 6 years since he has last had pumpkin pie. I can't remember when i last had it, but it's been a while and just writing about it now really makes me want to be there with you at your table for another slice. One of the guest asked if it really comes from pumpkins. I said, - "surrrrrre it does".



see for yourself.

Jens's 60th Birthday

On Friday, November 6th, we got into our new little hot potato on wheels and drove across the country to a very cute countryside inn. We checked-in and dropped off our bags and then continued on, following the sun. We stopped off at a small church in the country side. Here we placed a wreath on the grave site of Jens's father.

Then we drove back to the inn and did a quick change of clothes and got ready for a very nice birthday dinner for Jens. While Jens was getting ready, I drove to his mother's house to pick her up as well as Jens's aunt.

We arrive to the inn and we sit down for a nice dinner in the larger of the several restaurants.


So now we have ordered our food and we started with a shrimp cocktail. Jens's aunt ordered soup of the day. And so did I and then i asked what the soup was. I love soup but when i found out what the soup was, i quickly changed my order to shrimp cocktail.

For the main course everybody ordered meat, but I ordered fish. Hummmm - What kind of wine goes with both meat and fish? Amazingly the waitress had the perfect Chilean red wine that went as well with fish as it does with meat. It must have said "gullible" on our foreheads and happily we agreed that this must be the miracle wine.



This was the most wonderful fish! It's North Sea Plaice. It's a flat fish that swims at the bottom of the sea. Don't like fish? Give this a try and you'll be a fish lover. It's light and white and the bones stay together. As big as this fish dish was, i could easily have eaten another.

This is the waitress serving up the weinerschnitzel. That's veal from the inner side of the thigh. It taste's good but i don't order it as it is heavy duty battered and fried. One single serving was so huge, it really was enough food to feed 3 or an entire Ethiaopian family of 17 for a month. Take a look at the metal bowl - it's browned butter - about 4 sticks worth and it was just for me to pour all over my fish. I just used about half a spoonful. What a waste. I felt so bad for that hungry village in Somalia who have nothing but a bullet to bite.

Now comes the birthday boy's dish. 2 huge chunks of beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon served with a swimming pool of Bearnaise sauce.

Jens loves to give his meat swimming lessons.

This was the most interesting gadget on the table. It was on my fish dish. It's a lemon wedge press. You simply stick in the wedge of lemon in the press and gently squeeze while easily pouring the lemon juice over the fish. No icky sticky fingers to lick at the table.

I snapped one of the several lounge/eating areas in the inn.

After dinner we moved to the lobby/lounge. Here we had cake and coffee. Well..... I had. The others had too much meat to have desert so i ordered cake. We all had coffee and they served it with dark chocolate. Have you notice all the beautiful Royal Porcelain? It's not the fanciest of the fancy but it cost more than what you can afford. The cake was served with pomegranate seeds. I managed to lick the plate clean. No dessert for Robert Mugabe - he can lick my butter bowl.

Jens gets a b-day hug from his Mom.

What a wild party! I have my lampshade on.

The inn has a typical thatched roof. It's old now so it has moss growing all over it.

Beautiful autumn colors abound in the countryside this time of year.

Of course no birthday would be complete without Poochie and Mr. Potato.

The entrance is very welcoming.

This pix if from the Inn website. It was here where they serve breakfast. The early morning sunshine was doing it's best to break through the fog and mist and shine in through all the glass windows and doors. It was a very nice way to wake up with a hot pot of java. It's not a large website and i think only the menu card is in English but take a look here for more.


The next day, Jens and I and Smootchi drove back to Copenhagen. We are exhausted from the ride so we took a nap when we got home. Then i had to do a quick number in the yard because the following day i have to work and we have an open house at 3pm.

Then we get ready to go out and celebrate the official b-day today. Jens is now 60 and we are both in shock. How could something so horrible happen to such a nice guy?!
Tonight Andy wants to join us and we head out to our favorite Italian restaurant.

After dinner we watch a movie at home and then i have to get into bed as i have to be to work early in the morning.

Only one couple came by today to look at the house. They didn't like the way the house was decorated - was the message on the post card that the realtor left behind. We thought that was an odd message. Then we got an e-mail from the realtor saying that they didn't like the way the rooms were laid out and that some of the walls would have to be knocked down. Again - another strange message. So I said to Jens, "As far as i am concerned, if the buyers come up with the cash, they can knock down all the walls and redecorate to their heart's content.

Now it's the 9th and Jens checked into the hospital this morning. He is having lots of checks, tests and adjustments over the next few days. Tonight at 8pm he had to turn off his pace maker. I was there when he turned it off. Shortly thereafter, he got up out of bed and we went down for a smoke. 10 minutes later after the last puff, i walked him back to the elevator, kissed him good-bye and sent him up to the 7th floor.

We'll see what happens tomorrow.