Bech-Svalgaard Family Home Page

Updated April 11, 2006; by Mikael

Dear everybody!

Whew! Finally I find myself in front of the screen updating this old website. Since last time we've endured a cold Danish winter with tonnes of snow, worked like dogs and (lately) travelled quite a bit. All is chronicled below...

Although it now is more than a year since we moved out of central Copenhagen Ingrid still has contact with her old friends from Nyboder Skole. Below she is at Mollys Halloween party, in a week she's off to Michelles birthday party. Too bad Colorado is so far away or else I am sure we'd be going there every other week for similar occasions...

One morning my mom stopped by to take a blood sample from her son. Peter seems to be studying the art of needle insertion carefully while his dad is in a world of pain:

As the weather got colder we decided to go horseback riding one weekend (or rather handheld pony-back riding!) in 'Dyrehaven', north of Copenhagen. Not quite like galloping through the Rockies, but still nice.

As December 1st approached we dug out the lighted, animated snowman purchased in Boulder during our fall vacation. Good, clean American-style power consumption - yiee-haa! I burnt off one transformer before getting the amps right, but for the remaing part of December the snowman stood in our front yard, head turning and lights blazing, greeting baffled Danes in the darkness of the far North:

Life can be hard in the winter...

..but of course this is also the time of my birthday! Here I'm at the morning table opening presents:

Finally, Christmas arrives (and a good long vacation in the countryside). Below is a good old Danish xmas tree, with no electricity or moving parts:

While in Boulder on fall vacation we not only bought the snowman; but also a whole collection of christmas presents, including this trashcan Racoon for little Ida:

...and this funky Captain America outfit for Anton:

Just after christmas we got buried in snow, which covered Denmark for the remaining part of the winter:

Still on christmas holiday, we're taking a walk along the Ise-fjord:

We had nice newyear celebration in the countryside with Signes parents and some of their friends. Signe had made som amazing cakes for dessert:

For Peters 7-year birthday we went ice-scating in Copenhagen; here's Peter with an old friend - Carl Andreas - from our times there which we bumped into by chance:

The whole family of course came over for Peters celebration. Here Peter is working his way through the harvest of goodies:

A few weeks later I had to go to California for a conference. By sheer coincidence the rest of the family got a chance to go to Norway for a week of skiing with Signes parents and a bunch of their old-time hippie friends while I was gone:

A happy and tired 'after-ski' girl:

It really was a cold winter this year, and even more so in Norway. I'm told they had minus 23C (minus 10F); you can almost feel your whiskers freezing off when looking at the picture below:

While Signe/Ingrid/Peter were skiing around Norway I had finished my conference and went to visit Christina and John in Palo Alto. While there we went to an amazing birthday party (Bill Kern, 50yrs) with some amazing people. Here we are relaxing in the disco with Christinas good friend, Stuart, at right:

A few days after coming back from California/Norway I had to go to Italy for the Ph.d defence of my old friend and student Massimo Olivero. He did a great job, survived and took me on a mud-walk the day after. In return, I 'convinced' him to come skiing with us in Norway next year ('yes', that is a machete in my left hand!):

Just a fews days after returning from Italy I again had to depart, this time for Turkey as a guide for 80 tourists who paid to see the total solar eclipse on March 29. I brought a travel telescope and a solar filter. We were gone for a whole week (Alas! - I couldn't bring Signe and the kids; Signe had used up her vacation qouta on Norway and the kids had to go to school), had a great time and saw the eclipse in perfect weather. This was my first total solar eclipse, and it was totally amazing to behold.

That's all for now!

Love - Signe, Mikael, Ingrid and Peter

Mikael (mikael@leif.org)

Signe (sba@dmi.dk)