Elina party of one

How could one not love this?

2010-11-05T16:53:00.015+02:00

Sweet home DQ

2010-10-18T18:11:00.002+03:00

This is where I walk/work/jog/get lost/drive daily. (Well, technically speaking I'm driven daily.) :) I don't speak spanish though. Sólo finlandés o inglés, por favor.

Nothing to add to that.

2010-10-12T23:13:00.000+03:00

snapshots

2010-10-10T22:02:00.008+03:00

2010-10-07T17:13:00.005+03:00

Patriotism, money and questionable taste combined.

Whereas here it's paper bags, nail scissors, glue and equally bad taste.

Hmm, I wonder which news anchor it is this time...

National day.

Riyadh, baby!!

2010-09-22T23:23:00.008+03:00

2009-12-03T17:16:00.000+02:00

Go Palin, grrrreat!

2009-11-25T18:08:00.002+02:00

There's nothing in the world that I agree with more than the very last comment on this clip.

Itty-bitty, teeny-weeny!

2009-06-05T16:10:00.002+03:00

About a month ago, I saw the cutest thing at a bookstore. (Now most people my age would think of this as something absolutely stupid and childish, but hey, that's just me.)

That tiny green thing inside of the see-through plastic is a real cactus! And as you probably can read yourelf, the whole thing is a pen. You must unscrew the cactus off about every 60 days and soak it in water for about one minute. I've had it about a month now, and it has already grown a lot and looks a lot better. The package said that in about 6-12 months I can finally plant it in a flowerpot.

I'm sort of dreaming of my own, miniature Sonoran desert on my desk. How nice!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoran_Desert

Lesson learned

2009-04-14T18:00:00.002+03:00

I know most of you have probably already seen this, but I just have to post this anyway. Watch & see!

Susan Boyle on Britain Got Talent
Uploaded by dwarthy

Easter, take two

2009-04-10T16:31:00.003+03:00

Oh, I forgot to post this one more picture. It's from Sagrada Familia, Barcelona. I think the way the figure has its hands to cover all of the city is just beautiful. It also goes with the whole Easter theme that's going on today.

Easter episode

2009-04-10T15:25:00.009+03:00

I guess I'm really starting to repeat myself even more than I used to.

I still haven't got the heart to destroy (=eat!) the gingerbread house I made for Christmas. (I have to dust it before even thinking about tasting it.) Anyways, now that it's Easter, the little chickens took over the saloon and are having their own Easter partay in it.

Chick it out!!

Well this might be the final evidence of my craziness. I'm slowly developing to become the strange and scary lady who tends her chickens inside her house all day. I wonder why I haven't seen my neighbors for a long time and why kids don't wave their hand at me anymore.

And the most alarming part is the total silence here in blogland. I'm guessing my readers (if there are any!) are just polite and don't say anything. Trust me, I'm a big girl, I can take it.

Last bits of winter

2009-03-17T14:24:00.019+02:00

Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way!

Look, bigfoot tracks! No wait, those are my tracks with snowshoes on.

Sometimes you might sink a little... (talk about calorie burn!)

While other times you manage to stay on top.

Don't give up no matter how steep your hill gets... (but do not cause an avalanche!)

Sometimes you might stumble and fall...

but be sure to get right up. Because once you get on top...

it's worth all the trouble.

Have you ever wondered do trees sleep? I think these ones definitely do.

Take a mooment to look where you came from.

I wonder what kind of a creature lives down there... I didn't stick around to find out. My imagination is quite enough.

pioneer-style, westerny christmas

2009-01-03T21:23:00.008+02:00

I really hope all of your christmas was wonderful.

Mine certainly was...a lot of things, too short to begin with. I had a luxurious 3-day christmas break from work. Thank goodness I didn't have to work on christmas eve though. This year christmas didn't really come to me emotionally. I was ill for a long time before christmas and didn't get to do a lot to make it feel like christmas. I'm quite mad to myself for not making it to church this christmas, but I tried to make it up by reading The Bible a little bit.

For those of us who don't really have a family, christmas traditions are all different from those who have family and kids around. For me, the yearly making of a gingerbread house has been the project in which I pour all the energy I have left to bring about the pictures and ideals for a perfect family with a perfect, happy christmas. Earlier I have made several cottages, a church and a castle, but this year I wanted to stretch it a little and take the whole idea to the next level. And so became a christmas saloon! (I'll admit that I've read far too many western cartoons this year.) :) Now I think a saloon can be very christmasy: after all Jesus was born in a stall, and later he went especially to those needing help. Sure he would have handled one lousy saloon!?

I already have a bunch of ideas for the next house. At least I'll make a car and a travel trailer for my dad, since he's a traveller at heart. I already made him a house which he ate after christmas all by himself. That's what I'm gonna do with this one, too! :)

recent splurges of mine

2008-11-30T23:40:00.004+02:00

Oh gosh. I know I'm supposed to be saving tons of money (literally!) for renovating my house next summer, but I've been having a couple of these big splurges during the last weeks. With a cashier's stupendous salary, I really can't make a lot of these mad moves, on the contrary I should tightening up even more, especially now that I know that the repairmen ask about triple the euros I make per hour. (Which is, of course understandable, but it still scares me.)

First of all, I bought the new iPod touch 16GB for a couple of hunderd euros. It was really a necessary purchase, especially when you think about the price in relation to my monthly salary. (Please note the sarcasm in my posts!)I basically bought it since I wanted something new (why not buy like a pair of socks or something??). Plus I knew I was going to speng some major time in an airport and needed something to do. I'm well aware how this sounds, trust me.

The second big thing was new glasses for about 350 euros. I can see perfectly well with my old ones that I've had for almost 2 years. I've always wore the same pair for at least 3 years, but now I just had to get new ones. Why? I have no idea. Sure these old ones are a pain since they won't stay on place and I have to fix them all the time, but what the heck, I can still see with them, and I don't think they're outdated or anything. It just happened so quick: I was buying contact lense solution, and 2 minutes later I had decided that I wanted glasses as well.

There's other, smaller purchases as well, like a new coat for over a 100 euros that I wouldn't necessarily have needed. The other ones are, thank god, more need-based and never more than like 15 euros. I guess I've felt that I've been waiting for this renovation for so long and said no to so many things in fear of losing money that I'm tired of it and wanted to see some of the fruits of the hard work that I've done over the years. It just feels like I'm always working my ass off and never actually get to see the results or enjoying any of the assets that I know I have. Oh well, just a couple of months left till the spring, when I'm planning the first stage of it all. I'm still freaked out that something will go wrong and we'll end up broke with a messed up house. I guess I'm just a (pretty self-centered!) pessimist. Next time I promise I'll write something that's not all about me or material things. Ouch, that's a hard one. ;)

Elina's quiltworks proudly presents

2008-11-18T20:49:00.003+02:00

This is my first quilt ever. I ordered the outer border from Big Horn Quilts (fast delivery, I recommend it!), since I could not find one that I really liked from Finland. I'm not completely satisfied with my choises of prints on the blocks, they are too much alike if you ask me. (What do you think? Be honest!)

As you can see it is still not finished since I ran into a problem. My sewing machine is older than me (my great aunt's Husqvarna from the 1970s?), and it doesn't have the kind of special foot I would need for machine quilting. It's called a walking foot, and it prevents the layers of fabric moving too much and causing tucks esp. on the backside of the quilt. I doubt there is walking feet available for such old machines as mine. So basically I have to either buy a new machine or quilt by hand, which is really not an option (me & sewing needles always disagree on the course of action, and I always lose).

So if anyone who actually knows about quilting happens to read this, please give me some advice. I don't want to try quilting without the foot only to realize I've ruined my quilt for good. Do everybody who quilt use the walking foot or can you get by without it? Jeez I want to finish this so bad.

beauty and the beast

2008-11-04T18:33:00.005+02:00

Warning: this is totally random.

I recently visited my friend in Barcelona and she took this picture of me with a mighty mammoth. Note: the mammoth is the one NOT wearing black leggings. We had a blast despite me being some kind of a rain man bringing storms and rain wherever I go. (Which is funny since there's nothing I love more than sunshine.)

Tomorrow morning I'm going to school at 6 o'clock in the morning. Our North American Studies professor has been kind enough to arrange our own election watch party, and the time difference between the US and Europe being what it is, we have to start early. The bad thing is that I don't have winter tires on my car yet, so I'm gonna have to take the bus which takes forever (like 40 minutes). So that means I have to wake up somewhere around 4:30am tomorrow. On the other hand, what wouldn't I do for the exciting election today. Dang I can't vote! :D

politics, again

2008-10-15T20:14:00.002+03:00

This made me laugh big time.

And here we have one sexy Matt Damon talking about Palin & dinosaurs.

the chair

2008-10-14T17:55:00.004+03:00

Here's a pic of my new chair from Ikea. It was about time to get one, my old chair was awful (if you can even call it a chair. It was more like a shapeless blue mass of fabric and plastic.) It served it's purpose when I was a kid, but this looks so much more sophisticated.

misty night

2008-10-12T20:51:00.004+03:00

When I came from work the other day there was a creepy cloud of mist on the field next to my house. It was a lot more impressive in nature, actually: I'm not that great of a photographer! The building in the picture is a chapel.

elections, yeehaw!!

2008-10-01T12:45:00.005+03:00

As a political science student I've been following the US presidential elections with great interest (as have been half the world). These clips I found from youtube, and they are my personal favorites. They both are from the 2004 elections, though, but they're extremely funny, see for yourself!

The second one is Howard Dean, a democratic presidential candidate from 2004. This clip shows him screaming his lungs out in a rally for his volunteers in Iowa. The media picked it up immediately and played it hundreds of times over the next days. Cnn publicly apologised later for overplaying the incident. It has to be remembered that he had a bad flu and his throat was hoarse, he had trouble of getting his voice heard earlier in the rally speech. He explained how the infamous scream was due to his voice cracking. (+ This clip is taken out of its context and we don't hear the crowd cheering loudly in the background as they actually did), so I kinda feel sorry for the guy. And the whole meaning of a rally is to raise support and excitement, right? Well decide for yourself, what do you think:

my friend's going away for awhile.

2008-09-13T23:42:00.003+03:00

Tonight I said goodbye to my friend who's leaving next week to go studying in Spain for three months.

We've known each other forever, and she's always been the one who's been here and I'm the one who has left several times to other cities or places. I never realized how it feels to be left behind. There'se no excitement and buzz about new things for the one who's not leaving, just an empty feeling and concern for your friend. Since I have always been the one who has gone away, I've had different feelings about leaving. I've always treated traveling and living someplace different as a welcome and exciting thing that opens new doors for me. See, leaving has always been about me. I guess it has been a way for me to distinguish myself from the others, make me feel more qonsequential about myself. I'm really glad, though that she gets to experience living abroad and the personal growt that comes with it -the great sense of empowerment that you get when you survive out of strange situations by yourself. I told her that I'm plannig on visiting her sometimes during the fall, hopefully that works out!

being active

2008-09-11T22:07:00.005+03:00

I went for a run in the nearby forest the other day and I found a plastic bag full of mushrooms! This fall we've had plenty of mushrooms growing thanks to the heavy rains. The next day I got my mom with me and we picked this much, and these are already cleaned and chopped! I'm going to expext quite a few tasty mushroom pies during the winter. :) Searching, finding and picking mushrooms is so nice: you get to forget everything else, and enjoy the lovely nature. All of a sudden you notice you've been in the forest wondering around for hours. At least you can pretend you've done something rational.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of these mushrooms before they are cleaned, but here's a link where you can find a pic. They're really cute if you ask me!

http://sienet.luontonetti.com/fi/sivut/lactarius_torminosus.htm

What's in Dayton, Ohio anyway?

2008-09-01T21:20:00.008+03:00

The strangest thing happened today. I'm not superstitious, but this freaked me out and got me thinking.

As you all probably know, The Republicans had their convention In Dayton, Ohio. I read about it from a newspaper yesterday morning and I remember wondering about the exact location of the town. Then today morning, out of the blue, the same question popped into my mind: where is Dayton, Ohio? It didn't feel strange yet, it was just a passing thougt.

Then later today I was watching an X-Files episode that took place in Dayton, Ohio. I sorta laughed since this place name just keeps reappearing during my day. Then I went to cnn.com, and spotted a headline that read "Teen daughter of GOV VP pick is pregnant". I didn't quite catch all the abbreviations in it, so I clicked the page open. Of course it was about the republican vice president's daughter who apparently is expecting. The pictures of the article were from Dayton, Ohio.

After that I logged on Facebook and decided to see whether there is a fan group created for one of my favorite country music artists, Dallas Wayne. Well there was three pages of results, but no Dallas Wayne amongs them. I quicly browsed through the search results, and randomly clicked one of them.

It was a group dedicated to Dr. David Jeremiah, who I found out is a well-known minister. Guess where he and his family had lived back in the day? Yes: Dayton, Ohio! So here's the question: why does this place thet I've never heard before keep popping up today?! Or am I just over sensitive and anxious to find meaning for everything, create cosmos into the world of chaos? If this means something, how the heck I should know what? Since I'm sure that if I keep thinking about this I'll find a dozen stupid and wrong reasons and surely get lost. And if someone really is trying to tell me something, could you be a little more specific, please!! I'm incapable of such abstract thougt!

My head is spinning and I can't sleep.

2008-08-02T01:13:00.003+03:00

It's 1:15 am and I just got home from the movies. This was the big night I'd been waiting for a long time: it was the premier of the new X-Files movie, I want to believe. I guess I haven't told you about my obsession with this cult tv series, and how it has shaped my thoughts and believes over the years. These are just some memories I have regarding this extraordinary show.

I began watching when I was about 13 years old, that must have been in 1998. I saw the first episode (from season 4-5?) with my mom, scared as hell. When the episode ended, I told my mom how it would continue next week, that the questions left unanswered would be cleared then. How little did I know. She laughed at me so hard when there was a complete new story next week and I was thrilled but so out of it.

The X-Files PC game came out in 1998 and by then I was a hardcore fan. I tried imitating Scully's haircut, style and way of speaking and facial expressions. On 8th grade class photograph I tried my best looking like her. I rewinded the tapes of the show so many times that I heard and understood what the characters were saying. I often watched the show with a dictionary at hand, even though the show had subtitles in Finnish. I wanted to understand.

The game took me I believe hundreds of hours to get through, it was on seven(!) discs. I still remember the thrill and excitement that I felt when the familiar characters showed on my PC, they, and the world they lived in, seemed to be so close. My friend was also a fan and had the game, and it was so great to compare our views of the game and the show itself. I remember looking closely at the background scenery, trying to guess in which part of the US the game was filmed. Needless to say, I looked up every single word I didn't know from a dicionary and learned it all.

After I saw the first X-Files movie Fight the Future in 1998, I was so impressed that I was almost petrified. Not just the great acting, humor and the chemistry between the characters and their intellectual romance, but I was also greatly affected by the conspiracies the movie and the show presented. The fusion of power and might of governments and agencies juxtaposed with the sense of being outside and having the will but not the power of the characters was and is something I cannot resist to this day.

Although I understand perfecty clear that the show had to end, I miss it so much sometimes. I remember that girl who wrote "I want to believe", "Trust no one" and "The truth is out there" to all her notebooks, sent a letter to the female actress of the show and cried when she finally got an answer. I've grown up with this series and I wouldn't change it for anything.

High School Class Reunion. It happened last night.

2008-07-13T11:23:00.006+03:00

It was a night which I had been waiting for with mixed feelings of anxiety, curiosity and slight symptoms of panic.

There was only about ten people present, since our class was not so big to start with. Amongst the people I once knew was a girl who had married an Egyptian man after we left school and had a sweet little daughter with her. Then there was a boy who had gone into the military and had found his backbone and about 20 pounds of muscle since I last saw him. He carried on the conversation and was so relaxed compared with his rather nervous and shy former self.

I think all of us had changed someway, but it was funny to see how everyone fell right back to those old social roles we had in high school. The same groups were formed, and the topics of the conversations went along familiar lines.

The moment of horror came up once us girls grouped together and started talking about studies, work and money. There's this one girl who just can't help but brag about everything in her life, and I mean literally. We heard all about her montly salary, beautifully decorated parents' penthouse apartment, and not to forget her "platonic sleeping partners", whatever the hell that means. (And trust me, I don't want to know!)

I mean really, if you're seeing someone for the first time in many years, would you openly ask how much money she makes? In addition, she managed to belittle my major in the university and declared how hard it will be for me to find a decent, well-paying job ever, even after I graduate. She practically downplayed my whole forthcoming career while raising herself on a platform. It almost would have been funny if I wasn't insulted and humiliated at the same time. (And yes, it turned out I'm making the least amount of money amongst us girls. What a great class reunion indeed.)

I still wonder about those who didn't show up. Were they unwilling or unable to come? I heard one girl had said that this is too soon for a reunion; she would have waited a few years longer. Was she actually afraid to find out that everyone else are doing great, have accomplished something except her? This is the perfect class reunion syndrome: one feels like she has to show everyone just how successful she is and how perfect her life has become since high school days. I admit, I fall right into the same trap myself. Well, whatever their reasons for ditching the reunion were, I'm looking forward to meeting them at some point.

I'm happy the reunion is over and done with, and I'm grateful for all the things I have in my life even though someone always has more.

How do you carry yourself?

2008-06-16T22:58:00.005+03:00

You know what really annoys me?

People with no class whatsoever. And now this has nothing to do with how one dresses or decorates their houses; no this time I mean simple rules of behavior, manners, courtesy that should be learnt from an early age. It is kinda easy to be nice to your friends, but real class is being able to act civilized in different, unpredictable situations and with strangers that you'll probably never meet again. I don't really know why it is so hard for some people to grasp the idea of giving a good presentation of themselves to others.

Examples:

When standing in a line, why do some people have to push the person in front of them or cut in the line? Does it really feel good to upset someone? What if that was you?
When meeting someone, why shouldn't you say something positive about the other person's looks. Getting compliments does not make one cocky, it's just refreshing to hear something positive for a change. Especially Finnish people have a hard time with this. (Please make me understand why!)
When visiting, it might not be okay for the host if the guests stay for the whole day, come unannounced, open up the cabinets without asking, or reads through all the mail you have on a table. It's great to be close with your friends, but you should both know just how close you are before crossing the lines.

There's many other cases that come to my mind, but I'm really too upset and tired to write about them right now. These might seem like little things, but once they are personal and hurtful, it's not fun to remember all of them at once. Let's just say there's many ways to hurt someone with subtle, barely noticeable ways. It might take conscious effort to be civil and carry onerself with class, but it's a sacrifice worth making.

"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." Luke 6:31, King James Version.

A few tips for shopping right

2008-06-04T22:45:00.007+03:00

Dear customers in a grocery store.

I have a few tips that might come handy in making your weekly visit to the store a more pleasurable one. Some of these apply only to Finland since here the customer packs the items by himself, plastic bags have to be bought and there is a different kind of a cashier's table in use here.

1) Why come at the rush hour when the whole town is shopping, when you could as well come earlier or later. After 8 o'clock at night there's practically no one there.

2) Do not, I repeat: do not pile your items on the cashier's counter on big o'piles. It's sooo much faster and easier for everybody if the items are loosely on the counter. Hint: the latter belt on the counter stops moving if the front one stops for a long time. There are no pedals or magic buttons to start rolling the latter belt to get the customer's precious items at the end of the counter faster. So the bigger the piles, the more time it takes to get the items to the person who's packing them.

3) When the cashier greets the customer, it IS a bit strange to answer: "One bag". If you insist not saying hi and think the freaking bags are more important, then, please, say please.

4) If you have a combined credit & debit card, please say "credit" in advance so that it doesn't have to be asked every single time. You have to tell how you're gonna pay anyways, so why not make it easier.

5) I know we've all had a rough day, but would it be so hard to smile back at the person behind the counter? Or at least not stare like she'd just insulted you by saying the f, b, or any other letter obscene word. Note: fake smile works as well.

6) If the item does not have an EAN code (bar code) on it for some reason, there's usually nothing the cashier can do to scan the item. Even if there's a price on the item, the cashier has to verify that from the right department, and ask permission to put the item into the computer system another way. "Maybe it's for free, then" is a brilliant comment invented by someone probably back in the 70s.

7) If you don't want to take your receipt with you after taking it from the cashier, please don't leave it at the end of the cashier's table. There's a trash can right next to you. It's often impossible to reach and take the receipt and throw it away from the cashier's side of the table. Would you like the cashier to have to walk all around the table and clean other customer's mess right before it's your turn to pay?

8) It would be great if the cashier could give special discounts to nice customers, or give away free items to those who had to wait for their turn to pay for a long time, wouldn't it? But come on, seriously. Do I have to say that's not how the system works. If you want personal discounts and think that you are great at negotiating lower prices, you might want to shop at a market place or a bazaar instead.

Thank you for shopping at our store and have a great day!

Me? A blogger? Really?

2008-05-28T19:27:00.001+03:00

So here I am, spreading my life and thoughts all over the place. :) I was inspired by a few fellow bloggers who I think have done a great job in the art of blogging and have given me insight in understanding different lifestyles, beliefs and activities so far from my own life. I'm not a big technical nerd, so bare with me if the pictures come out all wrong and the layout is boring at first. In addition, English is not my mother tongue, so that explains all the (probably numerous!) grammatical and vocabulary deficiencies and mistakes. But I tell ya, I just love English language and I'm very fond of getting all the practice I can get. (And I don't mind if someone marks an error from my text, that only means that this blog is read.)

I don't know if there's a whole lot in my mundane life that is worth reporting, really. This will definitely not be one of those fancy and chic fashion blogs that people check for newest trends and must buys, it's just not me. To be honest, I don't know the category under which this blog would fit. Well I guess only time will tell.

The very first test picture that I'm publishing is a pic of a cute coke can that my mom just brought me. :) (Pathetic, I know!) Explanation: In Finland we don't have cherry coke in stores, so she specifically went to a restaurant called American diner to get it for me. Isn't she just great?

Elina *party of one*