sooooooooooooooo long time...

well...seems like I only post every 6 month now. Again, I will sing the same old song: I will try to make more frequent visits to this blog and keep it update. So here are the news:

Torsten is growing...and just started eating some "solid" food. He is rolling around as well. Soren is well on his way to his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do. I got my green card. The adoption process of Ally and Ryan is now under way. And finally, we are going into business with SAGA...just filled out the paperwork and it will be submitted this week. I am so excited about it.

Work is still amazing...working at NRL is great....great people and plenty of interesting science to be done. We enjoy living on this dead-end street with Sorens school at the end...the yard is a decent size and full of shade, so the summer is not too bad on the dogs. They seem to enjoy it. Having the capital so close is an experience with all the museums and pro-sports (have been to the capitals games). But traffic is horrid...the worse in the nation.

We are planning on a trip to Utah in June...driving...it is ~2000 miles each way. When we get there we will stay for a few days and leave the kids with Bonnie and Steve and then head to Alaska for a week or so. I need to get together with my incorporators, John and Bob. We need to fill out some tax forms and discuss future proposals.

Halloween

So it is Halloween night. We got back from the candy hunt and the kids have candy for another year. Yesterday we bought 5 pumpkins and carved them out...they look pretty cool sitting in our dark driveway. Here are some pics...

pics from the move

We did not take many pictures from our move. But here are a few showing the truck w/ trailer and dog box and another one showing the dogs being watered and fed. The remaining dogs are on the other side of the trailer.

Perspective

Here is a map of the total trip...almost, Google earth takes the most direct route, which was a little different than ours...not by much though.

our move...Morgantown, WV -> Stafford, VA...242 miles

We made it! Arrived in the early afternoon at our house...no electricity or heat turned on. Heat was not a problem since it was hot here...the drive was as to be expected for the capital area...sitting an hour (at least) in traffic jam on I-95 going south. I had expected a nice yard since our new landlord made a big deal out of our dogs possibly ruining his yard...what a bogus. The yard was the worse mess I have ever seen. Old leafs everywhere (turned out nobody had cleaned or done anything to the yard for at least 2 years). No real lawn...just some sporadic grass. A lot of broken glass and old auto parts in the first few inches of soil. Anyway, the house itself is nice and it is on a very quiet, dead-end street. The kids made friends the first day...even Soren...the neighbor have two boys 4 and 5 years old...perfect.

We drove about 4500 miles. We left Two Rivers on July 6 and arrived in Stafford the 22...not to shabby considering we had to spend extra time in Haines Jct and Whitehorse. The picture below shows our street and the house. The big building at the end is the Widewater school, where Soren is attending pre-school.

our move...Richmond, IN -> Morgantown, WV...312 miles

This stretch took us through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and into West Virginia where we stopped in Morgantown. We could probably have made it all the way. However, we could not get into the house in the late evening, so we decided to split the last stretch up in two days. West Virginia was a pleasant change from the corn fields of the mid-west...hilly and a lot of forest...very pretty.

our move...Latimer, IA -> Richmond, IN...608 miles

Nice driving through the states...flat and fast. The most memorable was the rest stops...they all had large, green areas for pets. So the dogs had a blast every time we stopped. Other than that, just cruising through at 75 miles per hour. This day took us through Illinois as well.

our move...Minot -> Latimer...659 miles

This day/s took us through North Dakota, through Minnesota, and into Iowa, where we stayed at the Norseman Inn near Latimer (between Mason City and Des Moines). I am sure we had an overnight stay between Minot and Latimer since 659 miles sounds a little too much for one day traveling with kids. The Norseman Inn was very cool. They had a large lawn in the back with trees and a corn field behind it. When I went out to feed the puppies in the late evening...it was dark and I could see a bunch of flashes...fire flies...so cool. The kids ran around catching them for a while.

our move...N. Battleford -> Minot...495 miles

We got back into the US...the border patrol officers had no clue what to do in my case, so they ended up giving me an I-94 that is only valid for a year...think they should educate their people better or at least give them a contact person so they can call and find out what to do. We stayed in Minot, North Dakota...not much to remember expect all hotels appeared to be full...not a clue to why.

our move...Grande Prairie -> N. Battleford...525 miles

Again...very vague...I kind of remembering crossing into Saskatchewan before finding a hotel. Only remember the traffic Edmonton where we were stucked for a bit.

our move...Fort Nelson -> Grande Prairie...~365 miles

The trip is a little vague in memory...nothing special happened. Truck was running good...the dogs are into their travel schedule and we left the Alaskan Hway. A lot more traffic was now present as we were getting closer to metropolitan areas such as Edmonton etc.

our move...Whitehorse to Fort Nelson...618 miles

We left Whitehorse on a high note...the truck was fixed and we were ready to make some serious run on the Canadians Hway to catch up for lost times. About 20 minutes out of Whitehorse we blew another tire on the trailer. Fortunately, we had a spare, plus I had fixed the first blown tire...and as a precaution, I bought an extra tire. No problem, we swapped and on our way again...a few hours later...boom...another trailer tire gone...well, glad I had bought an extra spare. Unfortunately the wheel did not fit! We were in the middle of nowhere in the Yukon. We left the trailer on the side of the road and hoped to find a place that had a tire press to swap the good tire onto one of the wheels that fit the trailer. We drove for about 30 min and came to Rancheria hotel-motel, a family owned palce. They had, not only a tire press, but also tires. I got my tire swapped over and drove back to the trailer. On the way back we decided to call it for the day at the Rancheria. After 3 blown tires on 1 day of total driving, we had to think a little. Either the tires that came with the trailer were bad or the trailer was overloaded quite a bit. It was probably a combination of both. But we were entering a long stretch on the Yukon without repair stations, so we decided to dump the ridin' mover. Fortunately, the family just needed one and gave us $300 plus three trailer tires plus two tires for our truck...pretty sweet. For anybody doing this trip. Stop at the Rancheria...great people! It is located at mile 710 approximately 75 miles east of Watson Lake. The next day went smooth with no problems and no flat tires :) We even got to see a black bear goofin' off by the side of the road. We made it all the way to Fort Nelson that night (mile 300 on the Alaskan Hway).

our move...Fairbanks -> Whitehorse...584 miles

We left in the afternoon (on July 7th, I believe) and shot for Tok. We made it without any problems, checked in at a hotel and got some food. The dogs were great, even though they were still trying to figure out what the h... was going on and getting used to their new 4-hr schedule (drive 4 hours...break...drive 4 hours...break etc). The next day we planned in driving to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon. We made it to approximately 20 miles north of Haines Jct when we blew a tire on the trailer...we made a quick swap and continued just to see a dense, white smoke coming out the exhaust...we cruised into Haines Jct. Unfortunately it was Saturday and the two mechanic shops were closed. We stayed a motel right next to a grossery store...so it was nice. Monday morning we took it to Kluane motors...very helpful, but unfortunately had no tools to fix our 2004 dielsel truck. He was afraid we had blown a head gasket, which would be bad since it is a very expensive fix. He managed to get a towing truck that would fit all of us and also tow the trailer to Whitehorse...98 miles. In Whitehorse, we stayed at a motor inn just on the northside of Whitehorse...very friendly and helpfull host. They let us park the trailer and dogs in the back just outside our hotel window. The truck was towed to a garage where the could look at it two days later. The called the next day and said it had a blown head gasket and possible bad header...bad news...that would be at least $6500 to fix. I couldn't believe it and asked to have it towed to the Ford dealership. Their diesel mechanic was also overloaded, but they gave us a loaner car to get around in. Two days later they called and informed us we had blown a egr-cooler...a $3500 fix...still expensive, but better than $6500 for something that wasn't wrong. We ended up 5 days in Whitehorse...a nice town and particular enjoyed new sports center with skating, soccer, and swimming. The people were very friendly and had a musher stop by everyday to check if we needed anything for our dogs. I would seriously considering living in Whitehorse if the opportunity were ever given.

...why we left Alaska...

Even though Alaska is our dream place, my job situation up there was less than perfect. HIPAS was funded on a three months basis, not exactly a stable situation. In addition, there were some major management issues . As an example, our 401K was canceled without notice and we later found out, that our insurance company had not been paid by IFSHE (the company owning HIPAS) and as a result, our insurance was terminated 2 months too early...quite important considering we are expecting a baby. So it was a no-brainer when the NRL opportunity was given. Since we were moving almost 5000 miles cross-country, we had some decisions to make. A moving company would cost us ~$13,000...an absurd number. Driving to vehicles to DC (as we did from Utah to Alaska) was out of the question with Melissa being pregnant, so we decided to buy a trailer and haul us, the dogs, and all our crap with us. We bought a 16 ft trailer, I put some plywood sides on it and we could fit most of our stuff on it. The kennels we donated to our friend Heather who runs a rescue kennel. I build a 8-hole dog box for the puppies (with the help of Poul and John S to finish it on timely manner)...and off we were...

wow...late posting again! 4 months have passed since the last post. The blogger have changed and I am now logging in through my gmail account...pretty neat. Many things have once again happened. I got a job offer from Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in the nations capital, Washington, DC. NRL is one of the absolute top places to go in my field regarding atmospheric and gravity wave modeling. Yes, I am not a modeler, but my job description is actually to look at the model output as if I was an observer...way cool. In addition, I am analyzing data from the AIM satelitte, a project we tried to get postdoc funding for while I was with Mike...so now I am doing it after all...quite exciting.

We found a nice house just north of Stafford, VA...in the woods with a fully fenced yard...the dogs are having a blast chasing each other when left loose in the backyard.

Enough for now...more to come.

Back on bloggin

ok...I am back on this. Many events/things has happened in the last 6 months...some I will try to describe in the upcoming days. But main points:

We moved to Alaska...great place.
We are expecting a baby in January 2008.
I received my ham radio license.
Freja passed away on June 11.

More to come...

Yeah...got work permit card

Received my work permit card yesterday. So now I can work in the US!

Now I am just waiting on my green card. Hopefully the name clearance will go through soon. Otherwise FBI has most certainly lost it and it will be years before anything can be done.

Work Permit

Yeah...my work permit has been issued. Now it needs to be printed and mailed to me...another month, but at least it is done. I should be able to get the number and start working soon.

Defense pics

Here are some pictures from my defense last Thursday.



Looks like I am trying to fly away from the questions...or maybe just trying to pump some life into the crowd.



Tough crowd...



In our group's meeting room...cake, sandwiches and aebleskiver...plus soda...yum.



Mike and I with the rest of the cake.

New truck

Here are some pics of my new truck...a 2004 F-350, diesel, and long-bed...sweet truck.

defense cake

Here is a picture of the cake Melissa made for me after my defense...eat airglow!

Dr. Nielsen

I had my defense today. I gave a 50-min presentation and answered all the questions from the audience (not many questions and most of them came from my committee members anyway :) Then the doors were closed and the committee asked me a few more questions....not bad at all...very few changes in my dissertation. Bela thought I should add a few paragraphs in the introduction about general waves in the atmosphere (Tides, planetary waves and gravity waves of other scale-sizes than short-period gravity waves). All-in-all...a very successful defense and my committe members thought it was a great presentation and dissertation.

Afterwards we had cake etc...Melissa had made a chocolate cake with an airglow image on top :)
So...I am done and Mike have produced his first Ph.D :) Hope he gets many more since he is a top-notch advisor with a lot of work available.

update after returning to US

Ok...so Soren and I had an easy trip back to the US. The time after getting back have been busy getting the dissertation ready...and we also wanted a new car. Well, as we were going down to look at the new truck the old one broke down in the canyon with a thrown rod...sucked...I hitch-hiked 6 times during that day. Anyway, we managed to get a good deal and got a 2004 F-350...YEAH!!!

way too long ago...

It has been way too long since I last posted something here.
We are back from Denmark. Soren and I didn't make it back with Melissa since I didn't get my travel parole from INS before we were suppose to leave. So we ended up with another 4 days with my mom and grandma. It gave us a few more days to relax after the funeral etc. My grandma's new boyfriend (have known him since I was a kid, though :) made creamy potatoes and eel...yum...love fish! Here are some pics from the trip...

Just 5 minutes walk from my moms house is an old burial site from the yougn stone-age...way cool...so thought Soren...and Melissa almost went nuts with the camera...and when I crawled in there :)


Outside town is a larger burial site from the viking-age...it is a small hill and it has never been opened...fascinating...great view of the area from there.



On the island where I grew up is a ship yard which are in the process of building the largests container ships in the world (Maersk MCKinney). One such ship was pulled put through the canal while we were in Denmark and we went out to see it...HUGE.



Soren working on the latop...



Just 10 minutes drive from Skamby is a nice forest with a lake...the area belongs to a castle, but it is a really nice place for a Fall walk in the danish forest.






Finally, a picture of my dad's grave the day of the funeral. We carried him out to the herse and it pulled out from the church as we walked behind it. At the gate we said the last good-bye. Then the nearest family gathered at my moms house and we all later went up to the site to see the flowers. We had asked people to make a donation to the Danish Cancer Society instead of flowers and it resulted in several thousand $. A better use of the money!



One advantage of being delayed on my return trip to the US...I could stay and help pick out plants for the grave and help plant them. My dad really enjoyed working in their yard/garden.

...more news

I am now in Denmark. The INS paper wrok went through and we went to Denmark. Unfortunately it was 3 days too late. We got here the 1st of October and my dad passed away the 29 of September...exactly 6 months after/before his birthday.

Seen the in the rearview mirror I think it was good we didn't get here before...my dad would not have had eenough energy to be around Soren (who is a energy-bomb) and that would have been even worse on him...and he also knew that. He loved Soren so much and not be able to do something with him would have been worse on him.

Yesterday I saw my dad for the first time after his death...in the old church in Skamby...in the chapel, and old stone room. The burial director had made it all ready...he was quite yellow due to the liver failure...but not as much as he had been at the hospital when he died (according to my mom). It was hard to regconize him at first since the facial structure was not the same anymore...and he had his eyes closed which I don't even remember seeing him have :) He was always up and going.

We found a burial spot at the church and Soren had a great time running around finding snail houses etc...he also had some bonding time with my grandmother...probably the first time...so that was great. He kept bringin her flowers and showing her where he found the snails. She certainly enjoyed spending time with him where he knew who she was..."oldemor"...I hope we can spend more time with her as well while we are here.

snow, birthday, and dad

Wow...we got snowed on yesterday. Not a surprise since it was Sorens birthday and probably what he wished for :) He likes the cold alot! The mountains are now white and with the sunny day today it makes a gorgeous setting.

So Soren turned three...blew his candles on his dinosaur cake out by him big boy self...got a wodden train set (Thomas the engine), clothes, books, and K-nex for smaller kids...way cool!

I called my parents today and my dad felt a whole lot better and I talked with him for a bit...he is still tired, but at least have more energy. He is very tired of being in the hospital. He is used to always doing something, so this is very hard on him. But I am glad he is feeling better and hopefully soon will get some threatment for his cancer.

long time...goods and bads...

well, it has been a long time since I have written in the blog. So many things have happened...both good and bad...unfortunately the bad overshadows the good by far.

I went to Alaska for the PARS summer school in the end of July. It was a great trip, learned alot about radars but no NLC observations. But, surprisingly, I was offered a job at HIPAS and we are now working out the details for an official job offer. So I have worked hard on getting done and ready to defend when the bad news arrived.

My dad was diagnosed with colon cancer and they later found out that the tumor had gotten there from the liver. The liver cancer is too big to remove and the doctors are currently trying to figure out what to do. In the meantime, his health has gone downhill and he is now hospitalized and trying to re-gain some strength.

I want to go home to be around him and my mom in these hard moments, but INS is not making it easy for us to go home. First, the travel parole I obtained for the Tasmania trip was only valid for 1 re-entry...talk about a waste of $170. So now I need another one...but they won't issue an emergency document at the local INS office. Instead I had to send it to Chicago and can now wait 2 weeks or more for the documents...I wonder how many emergencies can wait that period...or what INS consider emergencies.

Anyway, I hope my dad will re-gain some strength and we can go home and just spent some time together.

MaCWAVE paper published

cool...just saw that our MaCWAVE special issue (Ann. Geophys.) has been published. I liked that paper. It had a lot to it. In addition, it appear we can now do a momentum flux study, so there is another paper in the list :)

SkyMall

After spending neary 4 days in air/airports the last week, I got to look through the SkyMall magazine several times. I found this one and thought it is the most amazing things you can get there :)

Tasmania pics...

Here is a little photo tour from my Tasmania trip. I was busy with the SCAR meeting and didn't have the time to do much sightseeing...that must wait until some summer time. Here is Paddy, our welcoms penguin onboard the vessel "Aurora Australis".


And here is the vessel seen from a distance. It is a way cool shiop with quite some history.


The venue center, the Grand Chancellor, very nice hotel with a great conference room.


well, if Paddy made the blog, I cannot leave out Joey, guiding us in the right direction.


Great to go from our 100 F weather down to just above freezing. Here it is Mt. Wellington with morning snow.


Another shot at the vessel.


Tasmania'n fast-food...quite a lot better than most places...fresh fish and chips.


...and suddenly there was a small danish store with danish inventory, among other thing she imported replica viking jewelery...pretty cool!


...on the final strecth. UA 870 sitting in Sydney before boarding.