This Weekend in Vejle

The Riding of the Grooms

Yeah, I don't know what was going on either. But it looked like fun.

The Great Ikea Expedit(ion)

Here's a shocker: the thing about having no furniture is you have nowhere to put all your stuff. And we've got PLENTY o' stuff - mainly books (What can I say? We're addicts.) but there are mementos, too, from our travels that need a home. Unpacking has come to a standstill because there is simply nowhere to put anything. In a perfect world I would search adorable shops and antique markets for the perfect dresser or coffee table. We'd accumulate beautiful things over time and years from now look at our beautiful dresser and say "Remember when we found this dresser at that adorable little shop in Copenhagen? That was a good day." Unfortunately, we don't have that kind of time. I need storage NOW! Something a million in a million, something I won't feel bad about tossing when I do have the time (and the cash) to find that one in a million. You know what that means: Ikea.

Our nearest Ikea is an hour away in Aarhus and we spent 3 consecutive Saturdays making the pilgrimage. Week one saw us wandering around the labyrinth that is the first floor showroom before   purchasing a bed for The Boy and myself as well as a dining table and chairs. After living with our space for a week, we came up with a floor plan that mainly consisted of a lot of Expedit shelving. Another car trip. Another two hour amble in the show room only to discover at the very end that they were out of the main piece we wanted. ***RATS!*** So there had to be a week three.

It goes without saying that Ikea is a wonderland to an active, adventurous 17 month old. (So many things to climb on! So many handles to pull!) And while The Babe could have easily spent hours and hours 'playing', he was not allowed. No, he was relegated to either being carried or the cart for trips one and two. He was upset about it and let us know it. Add to this the insanity that is Ikea on a Saturday and, well, the experience was not pleasant for anyone. For the third trip, we had a plan.

Car car - the best part of the trip.

Step one: Play up the car trip. The Babe loves 'car cars' so it wasn't hard. He mostly naps or just watches the world go by. 

Ikea sighted!

Step two: Eat lunch FIRST. We're a grumpy bunch on an empty stomach. The Babe kept everyone smiling by practicing his waving skills and making new friends.

Step three: Skip the first floor all together. We'd seen it. And there was nothing we wanted to check out enough to entice us into the maze.

Step four: Instead we headed straight to home wares. I always want to spend the bulk of my Ikea time there anyway, but the previous two weeks saw us all dangerously close to a meltdown by the time we even got down there, so we just sped right through it. Week three was all about the home wares. And we made it a point to let The Babe play a little in the kids section both before and after getting our shopping groove on.

Did our plan work? Kinda. Meltdowns were delayed until checkout and less severe, so yeah team!

We're on an Ikea hiatus for a while, though. 

A Love Story

***spoiler alert: If you have not seen the movies UP and plan to, please ignore this post.***

We've been watching a lot of movies around here lately. Actually, we've been watching the same four movies over and over again. We are currently without a television, you see, and so we find ourselves watching the only four movies downloaded onto The Boy's shiny new computer before it was packed up in London. One of those movies is UP.

I'd heard from many friends that the movie had very emotional and adult themes about aging and loss. So when The Boy, who was watching it by himself while I was doing who knows what, said after the first ten minutes, "Wow! That was really sad." I knew it would be some time before I would see it. I'm a crier, you see. I cry at happy movies and sad movies and Hallmark commercials and pretty much anything to do with animals or babies. I hadn't meant to watch it just yet, but when The Babe grabbed my hand and guided me to the desk chair for a snuggle, I found myself clicking on UP.

Sad is not the word I would've used. The word I would've used is beautiful. In four beautiful minutes we watch the entire lives of two people who simply adore each other. Yes, there are heartbreaks. There are disappointments and accidents and setbacks. But through it all Carl and Ellie are committed to one another. They help and support each other. And they are happy.

{sob}

Isn't it just the loveliest, most inspirational love story? And maybe it's all the more so because they are so very ordinary. Just two people, madly in love, on this crazy adventure called life together. And isn't that what we all want? Someone to stand with us through the good and the bad? Some who keeps a promise no matter what? Someone to share the adventure with?

  Thanks for the adventure. Now go have a new one.

{sob again}

In the end Carl's childhood promise to Ellie is kept when, by fate, her dream is realized. Her house ends up exactly where she always imagined it: Right next to Paradise Falls.

Beautiful.

{sob}

Happy Year of the Golden Rabbit!

Or, if you're Mongolian and/or celebrating Tsaagan Sar, Happy Year of the Female Iron Rabbit!

 

 photo taken in 2008 in Singapore

In honor of these two holidays, The Boy, The Babe, and I will be dining and reminiscing at the Chinese Mongolian restaurant around the corner.

It's Chrome Baby!

We're knee deep in boxes here unpacking, but I thought I'd take a sec while The Babe is napping to tell you about this niffty browser brought to you by Google. I'm sure many of you have at least heard of it if you aren't already using it. It's been around since 2008, which is eons in tech terms, and is apparently the third most used browser in the world. Who knew? Not me. I'd never heard of it until a "Would you like to try Google Chrome? It's pretty fast." popped up on my iGoogle page about a month ago.

I downloaded it and haven't looked back. The number one feature for me is the ability to translate entire web sites using Google translator. Here, I'll show you what I mean.

This is Skona Hem, a Swedish design magazine.

If you look really closely, that's clearly not English. 

But then I just click on the this:

and voila!

Before Translate

 

and after.

This little feature has been a big huge help in helping me navigate websites and blogs here in Denmark. Now anyone familiar with Google Translate will know that it's not perfect. But it gets enough right to give you a pretty good idea of what's going on. So, if you like looking at foreign sites just for the pictures and find yourself wishing you could read them as well, then Google Chrome is something you should definitely test drive for yourself.

All this? Originally in Swedish. And isn't this house GORGEOUS!?!