Eating Muffins

Halme Polvinen Family Collective. You will all be assillymated

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  • Birthday Musings

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    Posted by Sari

    There are pros and cons in having one of the big national holidays as your birthday. On the pro-side, my birthday is a national holiday. I remember being terribly shocked as a child when I realised that other kids had to go to school on their birthday, and the adults, they had to go to work!  Also First of May being a student carneval and spring carneval meant that there has always been lots of champagne, pick-nicking, balloons, streamers, male choir singing and general celebratory spirit on my birthday. Also marching and political speaches.

    On the minus side, as people have started celebrating the previous evening, people tend to be really hung-over and tired on my birthday. There are also the friends who like to do academic Wappu with herring and singing and white caps on Ullanlinnanmäki and the friends who were rather dead than seen anywhere near that bastion of traditional mayday celebration. All of which means a birthday party is an idea which is not really going to fly.

    So big, big THANK YOU to Jukka and Mekku who were industrious and clever and arranged a party for me on the previous evening. Company was excellent, food was great and I am head-over-heels in love with my present. So bucketfull of thanks also to all of you who contributed. I have totally forgotten to freak out aobout "OMG almost forty and not grown up" -thing 🙂

    And in other news, I got my mobile back! Actually I got it back already last week. Apparently it fell out of my pocket while I was travelling with My on a bus before easter. Some time back I got a mysterious letter from lost and found office saying they had my property, and when I got there they handed me the phone. The embarassing thing is I had not really noticed I had misplaced it..  So public apologies here for anyone who has tried to contact me in vain.

  • Library Thing Love

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    Posted by Sari

    This is just to say that I love Library Thing

    Its quick, its easy, its cheap, its cool and it is so, so addictive.

  • Kun valot jälleen syttyivät, viimeinenkin heistä oli syöty!

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    I had some movie tickets that would've been soon past their best date, so we needed to go and see a movie. Tossed a coin between Good Night, and Good Luck. and Pink Panther, and the latter won by default. Mainly because I've grown weary and frustrated ages ago with the so-called Movie experience™ due to motley crowd of whispering – and not so whispering – kids, teens speaking on their cell etc. If I want to hear some blisfully ignorant person's opinions during my motion picture or hear the endless rattleing of crips packets or hear the odd ringtone here and there, I can can provide that all by myself (especially the ignoramus-bit) at the privacy of my own home, thank you very much. Mindless fun, where the blasted background noise is not going to be a problem, was going to be the order du jour.

    This was exactly what the doctor would've ordered. Pink Panther was good fun ie. I laughed a fair deal (so did Sari), liked the cast and enjoyed my pop corn. The problem was that pretty much in the middle of everything, the movie was no longer Pink Panther. Äänspektö Klysöö evidently grew a brain somewhere after the wholly unnecessary New York portion (but it was good to see the Big Apple again)  and his own apartment. Until that dreadful moment, all was well – even if the script wasn't all that brill – and I was entertained. Afterward: still funny-hahaa, but not the real mccoy.

    But the pop corn, that I mentioned earlier! What about that pop corn? I haven't been to cinemas lately, so I don't know how new or old this thing is, but they have these cans of E from where you can add artificial chemicals to your popped corn! Five different flavours (I drizzled parmeggiano/garlic and nacho/cheese on top of my combo) to enhance the enjoyment! Flavours to your pop corn! Whatever next? Butter? Sugar?

    Oh, wait…

    Anyway, it was a nice, salty surprise. A bit like the movie, come to think of it.

  • Achy breaky wrists

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    Posted by jukkahoo       

    I killed our ergo keyboard last night. Spilled some juice over it and then (pumpkin brain as I am) tried to wipe it off rather vigorously. Not too roughly, but I did manage to make a fine mess, changing the whatchamancallit, so that pushing an "k" would type "uio_e/" or somesuch. A mess.

    Today I opened the thing up and cleaned it thru. Shiny, like a new thing. And while most of the buttons worked just fine, some didn’t. And there was still plenty of other muck-ups.

    So now we have a "normal" keyboard. And my wrists ache like Billy Ray Cyruses heart. Even typing little things like an email (and boyoboygoshwow have I been writing those recently!) or this post are just about what I’m able to get done, before my right wrist is more or less engulfed by the flames and pain from Hell. How was I ever able to write anything before my precious ergoboard?

    It took a while to get used to, but now I couldn’t imagine living without one. Except that at least for a while I have to. Sob.

    Don’t drink and type. Eikös teeveenkin setä sanonut näin?

  • Jäit kiinni, Meemi!

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    I was mindind my own sweet business, wandering around the blogosphere, when I was suddenly caught in a trap! Doggone Omenapuutarha!!!

    "Kiinni jäit!!!
    Koska luet tätä tekstiä, se tarkoittaa että sinun täytyy kommentoida. Kommentoi ihan mitä haluat, kunhan teet sen. Laita tämä teksti omaan blogiisi ja nappaa kaikki blogiasi lukevat."

    "You’ve been hadde!!! Since you’re reading this text, it means you have to comment. Do whatever you want, as long as you comment. Then put this text to your own blog and catch all of those that read your blog."

    Devious, even fiendish plot this is! By apples and oranges, you’ll pay for this Ms Applegarden!!!

  • Motor Sports

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      Taru
      Originally uploaded by ssssari.

    Posted by Sari

    My friend Taru’s hobby is Enduro. Personally, I think she is bonkers but in a totally admirable ‘OMG how on earth does she do it’ kind of way. I am dogsitting for her this week-end because she is taking part in "Päijänteen Ympäriajo", a three-day classic race which apparently is held at this time of the year because the weather conditions are the worst possible. The history of the competition is called "Wet and Cold. Sixty times around Lake Päijänne". The contestants are usualy so covered in mud you can’t really tell who is who at the finish.

    This time this is especially true. There is more snow, water, sleet, mud on top of frozen groud, just plain mud and did I mention sleet and mud than previously, the spring being late.

    We went to see her off and checked out a time-trial in Sipoo. When we piled back into the nice warm car on our way back to Helsinki it started to rain sleet. Taru continued to the next time-trial. In the dark. While it was raining. Over two hundred participants began the race, four of them Women. Did I tell you she is mad?

  • Does dragging someone kicking and screaming into the 21st century count as kidnapping?

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    ,

    Posted by jukkahoo

    Various things have happened recently. Finncon got some much needed money from Svenska Kulturfondet (nämligen Nylands svenska kulturfond) and it meant that I and Ylva went to the kalas in order to enjoy some Fenno-Swedish cultural entertainment. And boy-o-boy, did we ever!

    They had circus and music and servings. And two fairly uninteresting speeches. Rather homey-feeling, this utdelningsfest had. The first performer, Emil Holmström played two pieces of Mozart (the other one was Mozart-Busoni: Eine Kleine Gigue, which was a blast!), but everything after that was somewhat homespun-quality-wise. But they did serve skumpen and pastries and neekerinsuukkoja (what ever is the correct pc-term for those nowadays?). Scrumptuous!

    Interesting fact: Nylands svenska kulturfondet gave our €904 000, which was 32% of the total sum that was asked from them. However, they gave money to 525 applications out of 700, which is roughly 3/4 of applicants. 75% who asked for money, got some. They’re loaded.

    Finncon also released the hotel-deal. Go check that out and reserve soonest. Summer in Helsinki is jam-packed with various happenings and reasonably-priced hotel rooms aren’t necessarily that easy to come by. Another thing related to Finncon is that we re-checked the location and it’s looking good. Very enthusiastic about this one. Hope you are too.

    Risingshadow is a very active and youthful sf/f-forum. Some times, however, the youngsters are a bit uninformed about the ways of science fiction and fantasy, and in dire need of some guidance and information. Just today this 14-year old kid asked about Finnish sf/f. And when I helped out, what happened? The thread in question was locked! This is not just an isolated incident, it has happened before, you know. Very curious.

    I’m rather fond of the latter (why am I writing this in English, really?), the older of those two. I chose some of those inaccuracies very carefully, including the 2nd messade, where I "correct" my mistake, while still being very wrong and making additional typo.

    There was some talk about doing a similar "History of Finnish SF" and publishing it in some fanzine in English. Drat! Now I’ve foiled this thing…

     

  • I got meme’d

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    Pulpetti had this to say: "I was starving when I got home today […] So, I fried two eggs and bacon and heated up a carrot bun in the pan. I spread some French mustard on the bun and put the bacon and some liver pate on the mustard. Then I put the fried eggs on top and placed the other half of the bun on the eggs.
    It was the motherfuckingest sandwich I ever did eat! I’d do it anytime again! Instead of memes about the music you loath or the weirdest habits you have we could have one with the best sandwiches you ate.    "

    Now, as sandwiches go, I’m a Heikki-person (as opposed to a Helmi-person). This is a reference to the Blondie comic strip created by Chic Young, where the hubby Heikki (Dagwood) makes these rather towering sandwiches. I’ll admit, I can’t say for certain that Helmi (Blondie) actually makes and eats sandwiches which are substantially smaller ie. include only one item besides the actual bread and "butter", but I would hazard to guess so. Heikki just piles things on top of each other, thus constructing these massive sandwiches which are just utterly impossible to stuff into one’s mouth. Or are they…?

    But I digress. Best sandwich I’ve eaten. The simple tomato-cheddar-ham-mayonaise-lettuce-bacon one purchased from this little deli near the Central Park (either on the 6th or 7th Ave and btw 57th and 59th St; my guess on 6th and btw 57th &58th), eaten while watching people playing softball at the park. Then again, it might have something to do with the whole enchilada: new in town, nice springtime weather, hunger, Central Park, New York, NY… Certainly not the ingredients, as those are just about the mere basics to start from.

    I quite like this one too: Cut big loafs of Hassania’s (it’s a bakery in Pori, our S-Market gets a load once a week) fresh Moroccan bread. Spread with "butter" and some horseradish cream. Hack some leak and mix with shrimp, mayo and stinky cheese. Dash of lemon on top, cover with another loaf of delicious Hassania bread.

    Or something with eggs: Fry couple of eggs with some onion and mushroom. Spread your choice of bread with "butter" and top it with the said "omelette" and some ham (maybe spread with mustard) and some cheddar. Oh, and some chillisauce, too. Eggsies are also easily made-to-fit for buns when you use lettupannu. (I’m a bit uncertain here. In my book "räiskäle" is the large flapjack/pancake/whatever that covers the whole frying pan and "lettu" are the smaller ones that you have this handy pan with usually five small holes in it. Is this universally true or not?)

    I also like sardines, preferably in tomato sauce, which Sari for some reason just loathes. Apparently it stinks. Fresh or toasted bread, sardines, dash of chillisauce (preferably strong and carlicky) and some cheese (occasionally stinky cheese, but most often emmental). Maybe something oniony as well.

    I tend to stay clear of fresh veggies on my sandwich. Tomatoes tend to spread, cucumber is blaah and paprika (you can call it bell pepper or whatever, it’s paprika) is just not for me. Lettuce is good. I do like pickled cucumber (or what the heck is suolakurkku?).

    The biggest problem is the adding of little things like clams, shrimps, olives etc without some glue-element like mayo or somesuch spread. Things have a tendency to drop from the corner of the mouth

    Hot patootie! Fried eggs, mushroom and bacon, all thrown on top of toasted bread with some tomato and basil. I better make me a sandwich right about now. Too much saliva on the keyboard. 

    Now you. And especially Avaruusajan päiväunelmia, Markoilua joutoaikoina and Takaisin koulunpenkille.

  • Olympic Knitting roundup

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      olympiaprojektit 
      Originally uploaded by ssssari.

    Posted by Sari

    So, I did pretty good at my knitting projects during the olympics, even though I had to undo my knitting few times because I made mistakes in all the excitement.

    I managed two pairs of socks, mittens and about 15 cm of a sweater I am knitting for my dad. All in all, feeling rather pleased 🙂

    Now If I only had time to learn how to use the photo editing instead of just randomly clicking around…

  • The Bravery

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    I got cheap tickets to go and see this New York group The Bravery. Having only heard one of their song (An Honest Mistake) previously – but many a time – my expectations weren’t probably all that high, but in the end (or should I say: from the word "go") it was well worth the admission price.

    Before the act I said to Matti that if Killer is like Echo and the Bunnymen, The Bravery is Joy Division. After the first song, we decided that Killer is more like Sparkle in the Rain or New Gold Dream -era Simple Minds and The Bravery is lusher, less poppier and more rĂĄck Cure around The Head in the Door. Disintegration with shorter songs and less singing guitar.

    Me liked a Lot. A definite purchase this one, methinks. The venue wasn’t probably ideal, as they sounded a bit too raw for the Hartwall areena. I can imagine this would’ve been very much at home at Tavastia. Edgy, in your face and hard, with nice tunes and a slight newyorkish artinees to its sound.

    A short set of 25 minutes, but well worth both the time and money spent.

    There was this other band too, but I don’t have time to write an in-depth review of them. I think their latest album is by far their weakest one, but the new songs (all seven of them played) were better live.