Summary of 2008?

Tuomo writes: It’s New Year’s Eve – time for one more look back at some of the ups and down of our 2008. The events are in no particular order; any other form than flow of thought would be too much work otherwise :-

Teddy passed away in September ;-(

Lulu entered our life in October.

Our friends Sean, Nate, and Nicole came for a shoestring budget visit. Well Nicole was on a budget and a schedule; the rest of us weren’t. Lots of sitting in the car while the rain ruined all opportunities to view the Rockies. A faboo weekend in Seattle in the end though we ended up having dinner at probably the most overpriced and overrated restaurant in town.

Our friends Tytti, Pekka, and Timo, and came for a visit and brought summer weather with them. Tytti cooked us some fabulous meals and enlightened us of the finer nuances in oenology. I got to tour Seattle with Tytti and dance to our hearts' content to 80s classics at Neighbour’s. Pekka and Timo, who came over a week later but only for a very short time, got a whirlwind tour of what Tytti had explored in the past 10 days. Finally, when Tytti left back to Finland, Dave and I got to tour San Francisco with Pekka and Timo. The usual: the Wharf, the Castro, cable cars, Berkeley – but fun!

In August we got to see the Champagne Ladies for the first time since our move. A fabulous week at the beach awaited (after a red-eye flight to Philly on board a flight with no other than “Pam”!). Though the week began with a trial for our crimes against Champanity, the week was pretty much what we had been anticipating all year.

Dave’s dad got infected by multiple tick-borne diseases, which almost forced Dave’s parents to cancel their trip to see us. Fortunately, he managed to recover so that they were able to benefit from some of the best weather that BC has to offer; in fact, Dave’s dad managed to get a sunburn – though the medication he was on also contributed to this! High Point of the week: high tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria followed by a double-decker tour (high point: poopin’ harbour seal). Low Point of the week: Too bad that Teddy’s passing away coincided with their stay…

Later we learned that while Dave’s dad was in hospital for the infection he had a heart attack. Consequently, he had to go through a multiple by-pass in October, which caused changes in our Thanksgiving Day week travel plans. Balmy Florida became freezing Rhode Island, but a good time was had by all.

In late April and early May, I had a wonderful time in Finland, including the first Vappu (“First of May”) since 1996.

We made some friends with some new people on the US election night, which of itself was a truly historical event to witness.

The lower mainland got a white Christmas for the first time since 1971 (?), which meant that nobody knew what to do with the snow, in particular here in Langley where side roads remain to date in substandard condition.

Wonderful Christmas – our first one in our Canadian home – with a dinner party with our local family. Everybody was stuffed and needed to kick back a bit to loosen the belt. Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme…

All other events have been securely stored in our long-term memories; just remind us :-)

Finally, not a posting without a clip, just to remind us how time is an evanescent concept:



Onnellista uutta vuotta! Happy new year! Bonne année! Gott nytt år! Καλή χρoνιά! Head uut aastat! Gelukkig nieuw jaar! Boldog új év! Ein gutes neues Jahr! Farsælt komandi ár! Yeni yiliniz kutlu olsun!E gudd neit Joër! Akemashite omedetō! Szczęśliwego nowego roku! Feliz año nuevo! С Новым Годом! Blwyddyn newydd dda! Feliz ano novo! La mulţi ani! Šťastný nový rok! See you in 2009! MWAH!

Guess What I Got for Christmas :-)

Tuomo writes: This had to be the best Christmas - evah! Normally gift guidelines recommend us not to get fitness and/or health related presents because of the underlining message "You're fat!" and so on. Well, in my case, I know I'm fat, so I have to do something about it.

One of the numerous thoughtful prezzies from Dave this year was in fact Wii Fitness. I've been dying to get one for like months, but I was reminded that one never knows what Santa brings in his sack. And sure enough, I found a Wii Fitness amongst my prezzies. Yayyy!

I just finished installing and synching it, so I'm good to go tomorrow morning. The stats were far from flattering, as if I needed numerical evidence for why I should get back on the fitness bandwagon! I also found the following YouTube clip that I plan on using as a source of inspiration to reach my weight and BMI goals six months down the road. I also expect results nothing less impressive than on the dude in clip :-) Enjoy!

Now Where the Heck is Kyle?

Tuomo writes: Whenever Dave and I go on holidays and don’t have access to Breakfast Television, someone seems to get booted off the morning. First Dave and Simi and now, case in point: Kyle “Argyle” Donaldson.

When we returned from our Thanksgiving week, we were mighty disappointed when Kyle wasn’t there to wake us up on Monday morning. Or on Tuesday… Or for the rest of the week. We were like, "What the bleep!" In the meantime, someone called Riaz Meghji had taken over Kyle’s role on BT. Riaz is entertaining and all that in that puppy-eyed kinda way, but something’s missing. We definitely want Kyle back!

Hmm... maybe we should stop travelling... :-)

According to my source on things related to BT, Kyle had made this really off-colour statement live, and for this reason he allegedly got booted. On the other hand, the BT crew has the habit of making off-colour jokes all the time, which in the States would have had them all fired ages ago, so I don't quite get it. Nevertheless, I have seen Kyle on City TV news at noon, and his profile still appears on the BT website, but no pics of Riaz. So what the bleep?!

For info on Riaz, here's a blurb when he was still in Toronto and a YouTube clip. Tytti, are you watching? What do you think? :-)

On a more positive note, I learned while reading Laila Yuile's blog that Dave Gerry is not only back on TV (Monday thru Friday on CBC at 3 PM - yayyy!) but Laila has posted two guest blogs by Dave (Nov. 24 and Dec. 1).

My Dave’s car already has a Phoebe; thanks on Dave Gerry’s to-the-point observation, it now also has an Antonio :-)

Man, do I miss Dave Gerry in the mornings...!

Merry Christmas

Tuomo writes: So it's Boxing Day already... Best Christmas ever - until 2009! :-) Christmas dinner with a Scandinavian style ham, rosolli, carrot casserole, and Karelian pastries followed by an assortment of cookies and washed down with glögi... So how come am I feeling so stuffed?!

Here's a cute little clip that will hopefully inspire me to start using my new Wii Fitness:



We joined the new Gold's gym in town about a month ago, but due to all kinds of circumstances they won't be opening until Jan. 1. Talk about an excuse to procrastinate! We hope to get back on the bandwagon, and maybe even join (gasp) Weight Watchers again. As for me, I'm sick and tired of feeling depleted of energy and just plain ole fat. I saw some pictures of me taken weeks after I got off WW, and I do not what I see in the mirror these days.

I must, I must, I must increase my... energy levels! How's that for a dime a dozen new year's resolution?! :-)

Happy (American) Thanksgiving!

Tuomo writes: It's amazing how muhc you miss home during the holidays, isn't it? Regardless where your home is...

Due to circumstances around Dave's father's health, the original plans on spending Thanksgiving week in balmy Florida got transferred to... well... not so balmy Rhode Island. When the captain on our Southwest flight to Providence announced that the temperature in Providence was 25 F (-5 C) - without factoring in the wind chill factor - there was this collective gasp of disbelief. One almost expected the oxygen masks to drop down due to sudden cabin depressurisation :-)

This week has been first time back to RI since Christmas. In many ways not the ideal time of the year, and a lot of the business landscape has been affected by the recent economic turmoil. But still, it has been been fun to be at Dave's parents. Home" for my I guess if you want to use formalism, where Home is in Helsinki and Home' is in Hyattsville, meaning Langley must be Home"'. At any rate the week has been full of familiar sounds and sight - not to mention some culinary treats, keeping in mind that I'm no gastronome by any extent! For five-star and more exquisite gourmet experiences in RI, look elsewhere :-)

Here are some of my favourite places for a meal in RI (besides Mamma's of course!):

Athenian Deli & Restaurant (1242 Oaklawn Ave, Cranston): Greek comfort food in a blue collar diner environment. This is a MUST and a big disappointment when it has been closed for the holidays :-)
Wien-O-Rama (1009 Oaklawn Ave, Cranston): Hotdogs like I've never appreciated before, with or without celery salt.

So, today on Thanksgiving I'm reminded again how one just can't erase 11 years of memories just like that. Prior to moving to the States, Thanksgiving was just this cultural thing that I was aware of but it really didn't mean anything else. Now it has to be one of my Top 3 celebrations of the year: no presents, no religion, and everyone, regardless of their origins, is invited to have a good meal with their beloved ones. Something that in my mind spans all human kind.

In other words, for all our readers: Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for being "you" - and forreading this blog every once in a while too :-)

Go Obama!

Tuomo writes: OK so the US elections came and went, and four weeks later, I still haven't commented... I guess everything worthwhile saying has been said and analysed to the nth degree so that li'l ole linguistics me probably has not much to comment on the outcome.

On election night, we went over to our friends' Tim and Keith's place to watch the results roll in on NBC and CNN. On most occasions being three hours behind the east coast is a nuisance, i.e. by the time we want to call our friends and family in Maryland and Rhode Island, it's close to midnight their time! However, this time the results were in well before 9pm, and we were good to go home around 10.

IMHO McCain gave a very eloquent speech; too bad that his booing supporters continued to reveal the true colours of the Republican Party...

There was a collective gasp in the room when President Elect Obama mentioned gays [and lesbians] in his speech. There was nary a dry eye in the room as we witnessed the end to the eight years of nightmare under Dubya. It was such a wodnerful and uplifting speech... And the family is adorable too; let's hope the puppy issue gets resolved soon :-) So here's to a new dawning full of hope at a time of turmoil of various kinds, economic, social, you name it!

Ironically, on the same night that the future president of the United States explicitly made reference to gays and lesbians, more ominous news came from possibly the most progressive state in the country, California. Proposition 8, the evil-spirited move to bring down the recently passed law allowing gay marriage in California had passed. And the irony of ironies is that the people who helped boost Obama were primarily the same ones who helped this proposition pass. Not that Prop 8 would have changed Dave's and my lives in any way (at least, at this stage, thanks to Clinton's DOMA in the 90s), but it made us mad for like days.

As someone on one of the columns that I read regularly put it, this wasn't just telling us to get back to the back of the bus - we had been run over by the bus.

Thank goodness then that this has activated the LGBTQ community to stage protests across the country - or as CNN put worldwide, with a demonstration in London! Hopefully this fury encourages the community to be more forceful... I mean, if my memory doesn't fail me, just last week gay partnerships were made legal in Bhutan :-)

Election Day!!!

Tuomo writes: I was telling Dave last night that it feels like eight years of a nightmare are finally coming to an end. I excited, Dave's excited, and judging by Facebook, a lot of my friends in Finland are excited, too. I hope our friends in Baltimore are excited - and voting...

Now of course you all realise what this means. Yes, tomorrow the media speculation over the presidential elections in 2012 can begin :-)

In the meantime, enjoy this clip: