How Do You Make an Empty Pool Look Pretty?

I'm looking for ideas.


It's not looking so good out there right now. The pool is still a gaping turquoise hole in the backyard and pool month in Denmark is fast approaching. I guess there are actually 2 pool months, July and August, but I'm going to be in Nova Scotia for the second one, so it doesn't count.

John was so confident that we would be able to start filling it this weekend, he was ready to send out invitations to this gigantic pool party he wants to have on July 3rd.....I gave him the hairy eyeball...the one that says "down boy". Big parties are stressful enough without having the main focus of the party out of commission and beyond your control.

We got some nice weather and the pool guy did show up on Tuesday and Wednesday. He was out there for about 5 minutes (tops) each time but I have no idea what he did since his English is about as good as my Danish. Nothing appears to have changed.

It became apparent this week that something hinky was going on with Lars. After not showing up on Friday, he texted Sunday night to say he would be there on Monday but he no showed again. Not a word from him until Wednesday when he magically appeared out of the blue. When I asked him where he had been he told he is very busy....okay....

He told me he lost his job. I handed him his stack of bills. He shrugged and said he was getting almost as much money from the government. But how much bad luck can one dude get? Would it be really the last straw if his tenants moved out? Does he remember that I told him the roof is leaking?

Anyway, he did have news on the pool when he came. The pool guy told him that it was going to cost 11,000 kroner (about 2k) to fix the light in the pool, and since he doesn't have that kind of money, he is just going to seal around the edges with silicone. Then when the silicone is nice and dry we can refill the pool. Sweet! Except, he doesn't want to bail out the rest of the water from the deep end. He said he's going to add chemicals to clean it up.

This isn't exactly how the plan goes. He's supposed to take out the rest of the water, clean out the sludge of leaves that's accumulated below it and then scrub the rest of the pool. I'll sacrifice my brand new to mop to the cause. There's also the matter of the chipping paint that needs to be removed along the sides. But, I tried 5 times to get this across with no luck. He just kept shaking his head and said he would treat it with the chemicals. Arrggggghhhh!!!!!!

Last summer the shocking process took a long time, and it took us a few weeks of skimming and dragging with the net to get all of the crap out of it. He didn't seem to get that taking out the last bit of water was going to be a whole lot faster. It makes me wonder if he cares anymore. He used to be interested in what was going on with his pool, and his yard, but now he is barely paying attention to it. Maybe it IS going back to the bank soon. In his shoes, I wouldn't be doing much either.

Sprucing Up The Joint

What's a girl gonna do when she wakes up at 7:00 on a Saturday morning? I'm all caught up on everything for the week. I've weeded through my email, and picked out the 5 real ones out of the 40 that came from concert halls and arenas all across America, the 50 that came from hotels and hotel reward plans, and the 20 I got with offers from plus size clothing shops. Ah.....the remnants of tours past.

Anyway, I had a look at this blog and decided it was desperately boring in appearance. Time for a redo, and redo I did. Voila! The brand new Sally's is up and running with some sidebar sprucing to come if I happen to wake up at 7 again tomorrow. If that doesn't happen my short attention span, may mean it stays as it is. So far, I'm liking it!

When Houseboys Go A.W.O.L.

Where is he?? The dirt is beginning to show on the light wood floors and I bought him a brand new broom last week! Man, there's even fresh Ajax and Bang waiting in the closet. Lars has disappeared. He didn't make it on Friday. Then Sunday night he called and said he was coming Monday at 16:00. No show again. It's now 19:00 on Tuesday and no Lars....no text message. The last time he was here to clean the house he didn't clean the house, he cleaned some of the pool and mowed the grass. Cleaning the pool cost me both of the scrubbing brooms that he uses on the floors. Hence, the new one.

My spidey senses are telling me foreclosure is imminent and he's done doing anything with this house. I wouldn't put another nickel in it if the bank was taking it from me, so why should he? No sign of the pool guy who was supposed to finish what he started two weeks ago. I'm guessing Lars is hanging back in typical non-confrontational Danish style. John's going to have to ask the legal guys to call him up to find out what gives pretty soon. I sure hope he's keeping up his payments on the flat screen TV.

While all of this house drama is going on, John is planning (or recruiting me to plan) a party for his department at work. Depending on how wide a sweep of it he makes, we're talking about 30 to 60 people who would expect a pool with water in it. I wonder if we could ask each of them to bring us 20 gallons of water with them. Probably not....I asked and was told that pot-luck isn't done over here.

I can't say I'm too comfortable inviting people to a barbecue with the backyard looking like an open pit mine. There is still a hole in the patio that I`m trying to hide with a big slab of cardboard and a lavender plant.

Just for Shits & Giggles

Ever wonder where I go when I disappear for long periods of unaccounted for time? I do, too....

I took 2 online classes this winter...neither of them Danish language. These ones we a lot of fun!! Danish language classes wouldn't be near as much fun as this. The assignment, in Flash, was to create an animated interpretation of a movie. I think I covered all the high points.

In another class, Adobe Illustrator, things were humming along pretty smoothly until the instructor slapped us with a last minute final exam. That resulted in this....which turned out much better than I expected. I guess I learned something.



Reason for choosing to illustrate a butterfly....you only have to draw half of it, then you can mirror image the other half....using your noodle counts too, you know.

Using Our Oyster Cards

A few months ago I decided it would be a good idea to drag John away from work for one of the many May long weekends we get, here, in Denmark. Two days after I booked and paid for a trip to London the $#*&(@@(&$^&$%^@*&##(&*%%$) volcano in Iceland started to spew ash and I became a little concerned that we might not get away after all. But the beast calmed and (knock on wood) seems to remain calm and we got there....and bonus! We got back!

The trip was great! But man, there were a lot of people. We used our Oyster cards to get around on the tube and the buses and despite John having a little trouble tapping his mollusk at first, it was a super way to get places.


The weather was hot and sunny....we burnt our foreheads on the bus tour, and I came home with a head cold since a person can only hold so many loops and rails on public transportation without becoming ridden with microbes. The London underground also throws in lots of escalator and staircase railings to sweeten the mix. I knew at first glance I was being offered a free souvenir.

Luckily, the full blown snorgies waited until I got home and a good time was had by all. The new camera performed superbly. John only drifted off to sleep at the beginning of 'Les Miserables' and I only had to poke him up until the 'Master of the House' number. He seemed to rouse after that. He stayed fully awake for all of 'Jersey Boys'.....maybe because I sold it to him as 'The Sopranos, the Musical'...dunno but he liked it better.


One of my favorite things, since I love architecture, was the Natural History Museum. What a beautiful building!

We missed the London Eye because we saved it for our last day and got lazy.

After touring the museum we decided to sit in the bar at the hotel until it was time to go to the airport. Since 3 days doesn't even scratch the surface in London, we have to go back. And I need to do some more shopping there...it was amazing!

Not sure where we're going on our next little jaunt. We've decided that we really HAVE to get out and see more while we are here. Our second year of a 2 year contract has begun and weekends are a wasting. So far on the table for consideration are Budapest, Vienna (which lost out to London by a hair this last time), Greece (friends have a house there), and Paris (since we can use the Marriott timeshare right outside of the city). The thing is though, you can drive to Germany in a short time from here...Berlin is only 7 hours away by car and that sounds awfully interesting, too.

I've got to figure out a way to pay for all this traveling and a week of touring in August...hmmm...details. A couple of weeks ago John said he was going to take the 'Business Closed' sign off the door since it had been a while since any customers had shown up here. I told him that as long as I was living in this house, that sign was staying on the door. I'm glad it's still there because the very next day, at 4 pm, a customer came up the drive, read the sign and left.

Those 2 ideas in the previous paragraph are totally unrelated. Here's a few shots from London.

Picadilly Circus

Lost in Leicester Square

Blackpool vs. Leeds

St.Paul's Cathedral

Buckingham Palace

Along the Thames

That's us flying home. No sign of nasty ash anywhere.....one of these days I have to write about living with Mt. Redoubt when it decided to mess up our nice pristine Alaskan winter.

The rest of the London pix are here...

Sally's London Smugmug Gallery

The Further Adventures of Lars & The Little Woman

When Lars came by to clean a few weeks ago, he sheepishly asked if he could have his mail sent here. He said he didn't have his apartment anymore, he had split with 'his girl' and is living at his parent's house. It seemed a little strange that his mail couldn't go to Mom & Dad's but he told me there wouldn't be much, and so feeling sorry for the guy, I agreed.

It's been about 20 days that his mail has been coming here and a conservative estimate would put the volume of mail at 30 pieces.....almost all of them from banks, card companies, the mortgage company, and collection agencies. I wonder if I need to be checking into the rights of tenants in a foreclosure in Denmark. Will I come home someday to find a bailiff's padlock on the door? The Danes put a great amount of importance on addresses. This is a country where your bank automatically sends your account information to the tax authorities every year at tax time. Funny that Oprah didn't point that out when she did her show from Copenhagen last fall. Did she mention the drinking age is 16? But I digress.....

It's been quite a few months since we've started to suspect that Lars was having financial problems. Every time that we mentioned some work that needed to be done around the house, he put us off....saying he had no money. A broke landlord is not the best thing to have when the big burner on the cooktop has only one setting left and thats 'high'. What's he going to say when I tell him the roof is leaking? I guess buckets are cheap enough.

Our biggest immediate concern is the pool, or as it is in its present state, the big cement hole in the back yard. The pool guy has been out to investigate. He claims the leak is fixed though he didn't actually DO anything. Lars dug up part of the patio so he could fix the light that doesn't work,but apparently that wasn't necessary. He wanted the rest of the water out of the pool so he could do the electrical work without toasting his underwear. The water is out...except for a small mosquito breeding pond in the deep end....and if it ever stops raining pool guy might come back to finish. There is some question about who is going to pay for last year's chemicals though. It seems we didn't pay a bill we didn't get. The pool guy couldn't remember how much was owed, just that he wasn't coming back here until he got his money.

Now, we have to refill the pool and how is 'Lars of No Money' going to pay for it, should it come out of the rent? The lease says (and we told him when we took the place) we weren't going to pay to maintain his pool) If only he'd fixed it when we first told him about it! But, we pay for the water so why bother....hmmmm....since his address is here now, I could probably call the kommune and switch it back over to his name. I suppse that means some day our water will be shut off for non-payment.

Yesterday, Lars sent me a text that said he was on his way over to clean the house. He comes once a week and does the floors, the kitchen, the bathroom, and the lawn mowing....um yeah...the light yard work. But, he didn't show up. He didn't answer when I texted him back a few hours later wondering if he was still coming. Something must have happened in the half hour it usually takes him to get here after he texts. I dunno. I don't get him just not showing up. He sent a message he was on his way and Lord knows he seems to need the money. It's hard not to feel sorry for the guy. He's still fairly young and he must feel like his life is in the crapper right now. My gut is telling me that his 'girl' got the 5 years in Denmark she needed to stay here without him, and said "See ya' later."

I'm also going to guess that she wasn't happy with her new digs, considering she had this nice house with a pool to look forward to when she moved here. And it's probably damn near impossible to run a business from a 2 room apartment with 3 people living there. Something had to give.

As Lars problems mount, those of Lena, my housekeeper in Baku, are over. I found out last week that she succumbed to her cancer a couple of months ago. She was 47 years old.

I'll stop whining about my house now and be grateful the Danish government sent me a note in January to tell me it was time to come in for a mammogram. With all this moving around I had been very very bad and missed quite a few years. I really thought about blowing off my summons to Bjipsberg Hospital on the morning of January 19th, but I went. They send you a letter with your results, in Danish of course....most nerve wracking Google translate ever....but all was okay. See you in 2 years (even better).

I was told that Lena remained feisty and fought her cancer hard right up until the end. The last time I saw her she was so angry and it was heartbreaking. I hope she eventually found some peace in her final months. R.I.P. Lena.....

Mystified

Around here, a person answers the door with some trepidation...for good reason. This morning while John was in the shower, there was a tap on the front door. I sort of wondered what the mailman had that he had to hand it to me in person. With my new found comfort in this house, I assumed that the shadow that had passed by the dining room window was him. It wasn't. It was Lars' brother (I'll call him Claus, which in Danish, rhymes with 'house') and his girl friend, also Thai (like Lars girl/wife?). I guess the brothers got a package deal.

He wanted to come in and look around because they were interested in renting it when we moved out. I curbed the "Huh???" at the back of my throat and formulated a "What???"

However, I dare say the look on my face was 100% "Huh???" So....we have 13 moths left on the lease. What the hell??

If only we had gotten out of the house on time....we were on our way out for groceries...we could have avoided this little encounter. I sent them away, telling them John was in the shower, and they couldn't come in until he was out....and we were back from groceries....if ever at all. Claus asked me to call him when we got home. I said "no" you can come by at 5 o'clock....BUT.....being as you're Lars' brother haven't you been in here before? Shouldn't you already know what the house is like? Don't you know we have until next year on the lease? He seemed to understand all of this but... who knows?

I guess he wants to show it to his girlfriend. I wonder if she'll think the furniture is staying....it isn't. I wonder if they're thinking of setting up business again. Lars has been crying poor mouth a lot lately and I don't think moving out of this house has really done much to alleviate the financial difficulties caused by the loss of a certain income. John's theory is that Lars would like to move back into the house, with his brother and his girlfriend, to restart the business, and this little expedition was to plant the seed of us thinking we've got a way out of the lease. I don't know about that but it sure seems odd that someone would come for a look see more than a year out, and that person happens to be the landlord's brother.

Very curious. Maybe Lars thinks he can't afford to fix the pool, and he was really worried that the company was going to after him for the excess on the water bill. I don't know, but this might all have to come up when I see him next week. I assume he didn't call to ask me in advance because he knew I'd tell him to get stuffed (in a nice Canadian kind of way).

This warrants some definite feelers, though. I could move out of here if I found the right place. Moving is a hassle but we don't have that much stuff.....errr....maybe we do. And getting everything hooked up again.....there are charges for all those new hook-ups. But, it would be nice to be withing walking distance of a market and a few shops. Something to mull over, just in case. Claus kept saying they wanted to move in when we moved out and even when I said "If we moved now, you want to move in?" he agreed.....but often the finer details get lost in translation (or lack thereof).

***A little bit later (6:55 to be exact)...***

I must have done a great job of scaring them off because they didn't come back at five. Maybe "Fuzzy" the dog frightened them half to death with his barking and hairy fierceness. I'm still going to Scandia Housing's website tonight to look at what's available. Maybe Claus is anxious and we CAN get a new place before next year.

I bet if the neighbors saw them coming up the drive, they were freaking out.