Finding some photos

I went through my book shelf and found some older photos. These were the ones I had taken in 2003. They brought back some memories of that summer.

Like this:

Here's my relative Kristine from USA in front of the so called "poor man". Wooden statue is in front of the church (this case Ilmajoki church) and in older times you were meant to put your coins inside for helping the poor.

Kristine and his father Waino were visiting us June 2003.







Panu's brother Mikko and Minttu got married in Hollola June 2003. Life really goes fast. It seems to me like yesterday.

Bread crumbs revenge

I went to have lunch with my brother and father today. My father was visiting Helsinki, he had a meeting here yesterday. I can recommend the Empire Plaza in Kamppi Shopping Mall. Nice food. Not as good as I ate in Chinatown, NYC, but OK for Helsinki.
I hadn't seen my father for three or four months so we had a lot of catching up to do. I told about my trip to the USA.
After the lunch my father left for train and my brother and I, we went to do some Christmas shopping. It's always so hard to decide what to buy. I'm not a much of a shopper. It always amazes me that somebody can consider it to be a nice relaxing hobby. For me it's just a lot of stress.
Later I visited a friend of mine who has a small baby. It was nice, baby was a cutie and her other child, who is now almost 2 years old, had grown a lot.

When I got home, dog was nowhere to be seen. This is not unusual, oftentimes he sleeps downstairs and is too lazy to get up. But what I did see, was some pieces of plastic and some bread crumbs on the kitchen floor. The naughty thing had somehow managed to drop my bread from the table. And of course, eaten it all.

"You surely have some stomach ache now", I said to him when he finally came to see me. I think this might have been a somekind of revenge for me not being around. You know, he sometimes does things just out of boredom or to annoy us. Usually he gets the trash bin from the toilet and spreads the papers and such around.

Back home in Helsinki

I must admit that this blog has been severely neglected during the past three months. But now I'm back home from my trip to the US.

The dog was happy to see me and I was happy to see him. Now he is watching what I'm doing here.

The evenings are boring because my husband is still in Ithaca. It will take about 2 weeks until he is home as well. We talk together with this Skype program. It's quite marvelous and let's us talk for free with our computers.

The work seems to be pretty much the same, I have some new things to learn, but that's it. I though it might be more different because there have been some major changes in the organisation.

And what I have been doing since I came back to Finland. Well, I have been working, taking the dog out for walks, swimming, cleaning, reading some books (Nick Hornby), watching some TV (news, The Lord of the Ring and some episodes of Lost) and shopping. I went for example to IKEA. It was crowded.

It's the Independence Day of Finland today. 6.12. We have been independent for 89 years now. This day is also a national holiday.

Later I'm going to watch TV. They will show, as always, the annual Gala Reception at the President's Palace in Helsinki, hosted by President of Finland.

If you want to peek what it looks like, see it as direct show (or later as videos) in YLE pages. Kuvagalleria = picture gallery, Videot = videos.

Links:

• The president's press release about the Reception
• Independence Day of Finland in Wikipedia.

Visiting relatives in Utah, USA

The last week I have been visiting my relatives who live in Orem and Provo, Utah. I also visited a mining town called Scofield. During my visit we also went to see some of the beautiful canyons in Utah and northern Arizona.
This is from Red Canyon, Utah.

In Ithaca, NY, USA

I have spent the last week in Ithaca, NY. My husband is a visiting scholar in Cornell University this fall semester. I have had a really nice time. Next weekend we are going to travel to New York city.

Holiday in Lithuania

We spent our summer holiday this year in Lithuania. The photo is from Nida beach in Curonian spit. Waves were nice and the weather just perfect.

... And the living is easy.

I have been working the whole summer - it's amazing how fast the time is rushing by.
Currently my husband is in Spain, he has a work trip and I'm alone with the dog. This weekend I'm going to do some gym and maybe go swimming on Sunday.

I took this photo of Zinnia (flower in my mother's garden) with my dad's camera - it's much better than mine. I'm seriously considering of buying a new digital camera. But what would be the best for me. Any suggestions?

Le weekend

I'm so glad I got the charger for my camera back. This means I can once again take some photos.
Midsummer rose

We went to Minttu's graduation. She is now a Master of Sciences in Geography.
Minttu

Tomorrow we are going to barbeque, just me and Panu.

Lazy evening

It's one of those evenings - the air is filled with the birds singing. Somewhere an aeroplane going far. Still warm - it would be nice to drink something cool.

Went up to Vartiokylä fortress with the dog. The view is nice.

Naantali

This week I travelled to Naantali, I was there in business - in a seminar. I stayed the night in Naantali spa hotel. It was wonderful - I sat in the whirlpool with 37 degrees celsius and did some swimming in that big swimming pool.

This weekend we met some friends and today I've been doing some work in the garden. It seems to be an endless task. I also went to gym and swimming with a friend of mine earlier today.

The weather has been nice, I hope it continues. It's really a shame that I have to work when the summer is finally here.