Catching Up: My Birthday

I turned 37 this past Thursday and had a fun time celebrating my birthday here in Denmark.

The morning of my birthday started with Lilja singing me her version of "Happy Birthday" which consists of her saying the phrase "Happy... To You" over and over again in her cute sing-song voice. After getting ready, we then stopped by our local bakery to order a Danish birthday cake for my birthday party. This was followed quickly (well, after dropping the kids off at school) by my Danish language class singing me the Danish birthday song, once Leysia revealed to the class that it was my birthday. Our teacher, Charlotte, wrote the words of the first verse on the board and then led the class in singing the song for me, which was quite nice!

That afternoon Leysia and I headed to the local shopping mall to buy me a birthday present and round out the shopping for my birthday party (we had bought most of the food for the party the day before). I ended up buying two books that I've been interested in: "Velocity" by Dean Koontz (Warning: previous link should not be traversed by those adverse to hyperbole) and "The Algebraist" by Iain M. Banks. Banks is an insanely great writer of science fiction and I highly recommend all of his books. Despite currently also reading "Olympos" by Dan Simmons, I've started Velocity because Koontz stories are easy to read fast; his stories are never all that deep, but he knows how to maintain suspense and he knows how to scare people, and I like him for that. Dan Simmons is a staggeringly good author; indeed, most authors would be satisfied to be as successful as Simmons has been in just ONE genre; Simmons has been successful writing horror, science fiction, AND fantasy stories and his latest two books, Ilium and Olympos, are simply put, masterpieces.

But, ANYWAY, later that evening, my Mom, Dad, and my nephew Anthony set up a video conference with me (via Apple's iChat and Apple's iSight) and sang Happy Birthday to me from across the Atlantic! It was nice to hear their voices and to let Max and Lilja say and wave "hi" to their Grandma and Grandpa! My parents even got to see me open the birthday card they sent me since I simply held it up to the camera as I opened it. My Dad says that buying the iSight to allow us to have video conferences while we are here in Aarhus has been the best purchase my Mom and he have ever made! :-)

On Friday, we had a birthday party at our apartment that was attended by the ever-present and always welcome, Niels Olof Bouvin, by Martin Brynskov and his family, and, of course, by Ilene (who is about to leave us after helping us settle in for the past month!!). Martin came to visit us in Boulder along with Niels Olof, a few months ago when they attended a conference held at CU Boulder. Martin has been unbelievably helpful with getting us settled here in Aarhus, from scouting out schools for the kids before we arrived, to providing advice on cell phones (which will be the subject of an upcoming blog), to loaning us a cell phone (and purchasing a SIM card for it) for Ilene to use on her big trip through Europe. Martin has a lovely family including his wife, Cecilia, his daughter Anna, and his son, David. Max and Lilja had a lot of fun playing with Anna and David!

In fact, a really funny thing happened just after our guests arrived. Anna was dressed very nicely for the party and one aspect of her outfit, her poncho, reminded Lilja that she also has a poncho. All on her own, Lilja went into our room, opened up the closet, found her poncho, and returned with it, asking for it to be put on over her dress. This led to the following picture...



...which I think can easily be used to define the word "cute".

Leysia and Ilene created a wonderful dinner that started with rolls and a pinon salad. This was followed by shrimp pasta accompanied by green beans and a grilled eggplant and tomato salad. Finally, the Danes sang the Danish birthday song for me and we then had the cake ordered from the bakery the previous day:



I had an excellent time and I really appreciate Niels Olof, Martin, and his family coming to celebrate with me!

I also wanted to say thank you to my family for all of the electronic birthday greetings and to my Mom and Dad, in particular, who sent a very nice care package that contained a "Happy Birthday" banner that we put up for the party.

Thanks to all for giving me a birthday to remember!