mmmmm, Corina meatloaf

We went to a falconer center in Fredensborg, Denmark where we got to see some cool birds of prey. The show started inside where we learned about the birds and even got to pet one. As the host was talking the bird flew from the hand to this stand near the ceiling:



However the bird didn't always do as it was told, mainly because it found something it liked - juicy, plump baby fat. It landed near Corina and thought long and hard about taking a bite. Corina naturally thought this was a bad idea and tried to convince the bird that Sabrina was the more juicier of the two.



Outside they swooped over our heads, clearance was probably only about 5 inches. We got to see the birds hunt, while she walked around showing us the bird she kept it under control by feeding it.



What? You say you can't see what it's eating? Well, let's zoom in a bit:

Arg matie!

Sabrina was the star of her school play, a misguided pirate who kidnaps the kindergarten teacher so that she can excel at school "Arg, me am learning plenty-plenty".

Naturally she was brilliant, delivering her lines with skill and grace (hey, what do you expect a proud parent to say????)

Soldier's Using MS Software

Here's a fun email that went out on a distribution list within Microsoft. Posted with Eric's permission:

_____________________________________________
From: Eric Engstrom
Sent: 17. maj 2006 00:21
Subject: Soldier's Using MS Software...


I know this thread died last week, but I didn’t get a chance to write in. I’ve been planning to send this e-mail to the PPT and Visio teams, but just haven’t gotten around to it, so I thought I’d take this opportunity…

My brother is currently serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. On his first tour of duty he was in on the Saddam capture. He was even featured in a story that ran on the front page of the Wall Street Journal! (copy of the article can be seen here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1042711/posts).

One of the tools they used to catch Saddam, was this HUGE org-chart with hundreds of names on it. They called it Mongo Link. It had Saddam in the middle, and then everyone who had any contact to him was placed on the chart. The more contact, the closer to the center of the chart.

When he was telling the story to our family, he was joking that MS Software helped catch Saddam. My sister and I are both MS employees, and were of course very proud. He went on to say how great it was to have, what he called “Org-Chart” software. He talked about how easy it was to create squares and circles and put text in them and to connect them with lines and dotted lines, etc. Basically he was describing Visio.

My sister and I both said how great it was that Visio had helped him, and that MS was helping with the war on terror. He got this blank look on his face and said, “What’s Visio?” We said, “That’s the name of the program that you were using.” And he said, “No we were using PowerPoint!” The look on my face when he said that was a mix of humor, horror, amusement, and disbelief. Basically, he was raving about the “Draw” features that are pretty much standard in ANY MS Office application!

Needless to say for his birthday we got him a copy of Visio and showed him how EASY it is to create charts with all the ready made graphics, drag and drop connectors, etc. etc. He naturally loved it, and was amazed at all it could do. He said he was going to convince the unit to buy the software, and get trained on it.

3 weeks before Christmas 2005 his unit was redeployed. He’s now back in Iraq and his full-time job is finding Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Their unit has once again created a huge org chart and dubbed it Mongo Link II. I asked him by e-mail if it was easier now using Visio and if the unit liked it better. His reply:

“Well… (hem-haw) the unit didn’t switch to Visio, we’re still using PowerPoint.”

To be, or not to be: that is the question

We visited Kronborg Castle, made famous by Shakespeare's Hamlet. Before having a starring role in Shakespeare's play it was used as a tollbooth that collected from passing ships (failure to pay usually resulted in a trip underwater).



We were in the Queen's bedroom chambers, Sabrina spotted and was a bit disturbed by this picture. Wow, how would you like to go to bed at night staring at this lovely theme? Pleasant dreams are sure to come.




Now that spring is here I get the pleasure of yard work. Unfortunately our dear landlord hasn't been introduced to this really cool invention call the grass bag catcher, the result is that I become a human grass catcher.