78 Steps

We moved into a new apartment two weeks ago. It's just down the street from our old place. It has the added convenience of an elevator which was the main motivation, especially with the new baby on the way (a little over three months - eek!). Needless to say there are plenty of boxes still to unpack and some more rearranging to do, but we'll get there. Despite the elevator, I'm sticking to my policy of using the stairs when I'm not carrying anything heavy. We'll see how long it lasts. We're on the fifth floor and there are 78 steps up the back stairs from the cycle parking area in the courtyard. I'm able to get to 62 (the fourth floor) before I really start feeling it. After two weeks I thought that would improve, but maybe not.

We all went back to the U.S. for 2½ weeks over the Easter holiday. It was good to see everyone there and Anya really had a great time playing with her cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other friends. It was fun to see how she adapted to the car culture. Toward the end of our visit and for a while after returning to Copenhagen she wanted to know about the cars people drove. It was very exciting for her to see someone she know get out of a car. We don't use the car much here, so she's been a bit deprived of that experience.

The volcano in Iceland was big news for a while, but did not affect us since we did not have any travel plans at that time. There was no ash fallout here contrary to the news coverage we picked up from the U.S. which made it sound as if the crust had split from Reykjavík to Romania and was spewing lava from Madrid to Moscow. Part of me is waiting for the "big one", but my rational side is trying to dampen that enthusiasm. The curse of being a geologist.

In lighter news, the queen had a "round birthday" a couple of weeks ago, turning 70. Here's a picture I snapped on my way out of work with the flag raised in her honor. She must have ordered a nice, sunny day for the festivities.