So… me, John, Sanni, and Janne got together once more for a relaxed Sunday dinner at John’s place. We ended up making two pizzas, one with marinated beef and another one with marinated chicken (and onion and mushrooms for everyone except me, because I hate the taste of ‘em). Everything turned out great, except the apple pie that was slightly… soggy, again. Still tasted nice though.

Pics taken by Janne.

First and foremost, my BFF Andreas gave me two tickets as an early birthday present to The Umbilical Brothers‘ show Heaven by Storm, held in Helsinki (at the Alexander Theater) April 29th, 7 p.m. Who wants to go with me? The ticket wouldn’t cost you anything, basically you’d just have to put up with me possibly earlier during the day and then during the show. Doesn’t sound that bad… I hope?

With that being said, the Easter holiday finally kicked off. Yesterday was spent at Tropiclandia after school with Katriina. We swam around some, relaxed in a hot tub, then sat in the steam sauna for a while. Afterward we indulged in the buffet table, mostly of course om nom noming pizza. After I came home a small nap felt in order, after which I didn’t do anything spectacular.

Today I made my way to Arbis, a local course center, to participate in the first ‘session’ of the raku ceramics course I had signed up for last autumn. I had also managed to convince Katriina to join me, and actually the course seems like a pretty nice one so no regrets. I made a set of six hashioki (chopstick rests) and three hashioki with a different design. In two weeks we’ll have to chance to make some more objects out of clay, any ideas on what I could make? I’m not sure, maybe I should just stick with designing more hashioki as they seem to be the most useful object I can think of. Tea bowls and such can’t be made, since the glazes we’re going to use have lead in them. Talking about glazing it’s probably the part of the process I’m looking toward the most. With raku you never quite know how the glazing on your objects will turn out.

Tomorrow some more Sunday-cooking with a few friends, wonder what the boys have planned to make this week.

Mix all the dry ingredients (instant mashed potatoes, wheat flour, baking powder). Add the margarine and pinch the dough into an even mix. Lastly add the water and knead the dough until firm and even.

Spread the dough onto the bottom and edges of a pie dish (about 30 centimeters in diameter) and let the crust stay in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Slice the mozzarella, cut the cherry tomatoes in half, and chop the basil. Place onto the crust.

Mix the cream, milk, eggs, grated cheese, salt, and pepper in a bowl and pour the mix on top of the mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and basil.

Bake the pie at about 200° C for about 40 minutes. Let the pie cool slightly (for about 15 minutes) in room temperature before serving.

Yesterday was fun, I got up earlier than usual and made my way to the center of town, where I met Jenna, Jetro and Miikka. We did some grocery shopping together and then walked to my apartment to make dinner and dessert, and to watch André Wickströms DVD. As the main course we had cherry tomato and mozzarella pie with a bunch of basil (perhaps I should post the recipe for this one someday) and as dessert persimmon and passion fruit panna cotta. We also laughed our asses off to the DVD, no wonder Wickström is one of my favorite comedians. Miikka and Jenna had to eventually leave as both had work in the evening, but luckily Jetro stayed and kept me company the rest of the evening. We played cards, watched a movie (Astro Boy) and just talked.

Today I’m heading over to another friend’s place to apparently cook spring rolls, orange peel beef and key lime pie. Tomorrow there’s a ‘cooking night’ at school, where our speaking class teacher Tomoko is going to cook Japanese dishes with us students. Onigiri, butanikudango no shougayaki (Japanese-style gingered meatballs) and tofu to hourensou no torotoroni… whatever that is.

Less than two weeks until Andreas comes to Vaasa, woo!

Threadless.com is celebrating their 10th anniversary by having a sale, in other words all t-shirts cost $10 (7,30€) starting yesterday and ending tomorrow 10 a.m. CT. Personally I’m going for the “Shakespeare hates your emo poems” one.

There’s also some 10th anniversary competition going on, but the Threadless-staff seems to be sloth-like as far as updating the competition goes. I submitted a few guesses to it last night and as I got home from school today nothing had been updated yet. Sort of frustrating, not to mention the mess of the all the answers submitted by members (done as comments to a blog post, seven pages/320+ comments of mayhem and counting).

So what’s happening in Vaasa during the weekend? I haven’t got a clue myself, maybe I should just lay low and see what pops up.

I feel compelled to spread the news about things like this, call it my version of patriotism. Check out Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) grooving together with Eero Aarnios Ball Chair designed in 1963. A brand new and original chair will cost you 6000 euros ($8200) or more. With any luck you might find a used one for less, or – dare I say it – a much cheaper replica.

Give me a call someday, you might be the first to talk to me on my new smartphone! My friend Janne (who totally rocks) was kind enough to donate his “old” and retired phone to me, a Nokia E63, as he has been doodling with his iPhone for quite some time already. I think this might be the first phone’s manual I actually have to take a closer look on. I finally have a new ringtone as well, after listening to Coldplay’s Lost (from the album Viva La Vida) for, um, 1,5 years. Now I will instead listen to the tunes of Owl City’s Fireflies (for probably quite some time).

Aside from my totally awesome new phone I’ll probably go and watch a movie at a friend’s house together with some others tonight, hopefully it’ll be fun. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is totally awesome and while I’ve see it before it definitely deserves a second watch! Gummi bears!

After about a week’s worth of casual planning me and a few of my classmates had a get-together yesterday evening/night. At 6 p.m. I met up with Jenna, Janne, Timo, Jetro and Miikka and then Jenna guided us through the apartment maze of Olympia to her apartment. A short while later Katriina joined us as well. The boys had brought chips, lemonade, candy and such. I had baked a carrot cake and made kinako dango at Jennas apartment and Katriina brought some salty snacks.

We started with some SingStar, after which the boys went to the sauna while us three girls stayed in the apartment. When the boys came back we had a small quiz I had prepared. Questions ranged from naming the last emperor of Ethiopia to knowing in which city Sangrada Familia is. Hopefully people enjoyed the quiz as I would hope my efforts had no been in vain. The winners of the evening were Jenna and Katriina. Second place was awarded to Timo and Jetro, and while Janne and Miikka almost caught up at the end they came in third.

Shortly after Miikkas room mate Mika joined us, a really nice guy who brought HeroQuest with him and so we started playing. No one except Mika and Timo knew anything about the game, but everyone joined in and learned how to play as the game went on. I was the barbarian named Barack Obama, but I had little luck with my dice and ended up pretty much doing nothing most of the time. Well, at least I didn’t die. I also feel like I was a bit too tired to enjoy the game fully, but I can see how it could be fun when you really get into the storyline.

The night ended at about 2 a.m. as we all made our way back home. As I went to bed at 3.15 a.m. I had been up for 20 hours straight, but it felt like it had been 20 hours well spent! Hopefully we can do this again sometime soon.

I slept straight through the night… and morning, and woke up at noon. About five minutes after I got up my mom gave me a call and said she and Klara (the retarded dalmatian) were on their way to my apartment. Great timing! They didn’t stay for too long though, just long enough for Klara to pee on my floor (somebody was certainly happy to see me) and for mom to give me something she brought home from her trip to Norway, Anthon Bergs Strawberry in Champagne chocolate pralines. Funny story is I got some from Katriina too on Thursday, as she got me some when she was on a cruise a few weeks back. Oh well, can’t complain!

Last time it was Eero Aarnios “Puppy”, this time it was a Marimekko Kaiku (designed by Maija Louekari) shower curtain! Has it always been in Betty’s apartment, or is it a new addition? I’m not sure, maybe I’ve just missed it the past two (?) seasons Betty has been living in her Chelsea apartment. Here are some fab pics of the shower curtain in action, of course:

The retail price for the curtain is around $55.

The Flight of the Conchords are doing a small Nordic tour and those asshats don’t even have to courtesy to stop by in Finland? Sunnuva… And then, on top of everything else, they decided to hold their concert in Stockholm on May 24th, the same day the camping site opens (and my real work load kicks off). Hence I can’t even go there, so unfair! Bret and Jermaine, how can you do this to me?

School for a change tomorrow again. I’ve been in Maalahti at my parents’ house since Sunday taking care of Klara, the retarded dalmatian. Tonight I’m heading back to my apartment in Vaasa, no more walking the dog, yay! From a dialect point of view the walks have been interesting though. I realized how seldom I speak the Maalahti dialect nowadays, since I don’t exactly spend time with any of my childhood friends anymore. Maalahti is a very small place where you greet everyone you happen to meet when you’re out on a walk at least, and they’re bound to speak to you in the local dialect. Sample conversations:

[Klara is carrying a huge stick]
Random lady [to Klara]: Nämen va fiin du ji, å viken stor käpp du har!
Me: Får si om on orkar bär an ända häim.

or

Random old man [to Klara]: Nämen va har tu då?
Me: On a bäärd på an ända froån byyjin!

No, I can’t be assed to translate.

Also, hopefully the get-together with a few classmates can be held on Friday as planned. I think it’ll be a fun evening!