It's a boy

Here is my still-unnamed nephew:

Update: His name is Samari Julian (unless my mom typed it incorrectly, which is possible; I'm in Stockholm and I don't have good phone access so I can't confirm anything). Until I hear otherwise, I'm assuming he is named after Samari Rolle, who plays for the Ravens.

Not bad, little guy!

On the upswing

The days are finally getting longer! It still gets dark around 3pm, but at least now we have a *little* more daylight than the day before.

Espoo at 4pm in October:

The Soundtrack of Our Lives

I saw The Soundtrack of Our Lives perform at Tavastia on Monday.

It was a great show! They were very enthusiastic. They are a Swedish band, and they claim to like performing in Helsinki. The lead singer was lively. His performance reminded me of the way I would expect a drunk uncle to perform when he grabs the mic at someone's wedding: attention-hungry but lovable. This was only enhanced by his appearance (my friend described it as an 'obese Jesus').

A Finnish band called Underwater Sleeping Society was the opener, and they were pretty fun too.

Rickrolled in Helsinki

As I walked past the Helsinki club Millenium last Friday with a Finnish friend, I heard 'Never Gonna Give You Up' playing. I launched into a poor explanation of what rickrolling is, but I think my friend is still mystified by my delight.

Silence

hi everyone -- i haven't been writing much, i know. i have been absolutely swamped with work, and also not that much new has happened!

let's see...last week was teradata's pikkujoulu, which is the fancy finnish way of saying 'office christmas party'. it was pretty fun. we went curling, then had dinner at a german restaurant. curling was interesting. there are special curling shoes (you pick from a selection of battered moist shoes, kind of like picking roller skates on skate day). you choose based on your dominant foot. since i am right-handed, i guessed that i am also right-footed. the dominant foot gets a 'sticky' shoe that doesn't slide on the ice, and the other foot gets a slippery shoe that slides very well on the ice. so basically you use your dominant foot to push yourself along the ice on the slippery shoe. this works pretty well right up until you are thinking about something else (like where to throw your stone) and try to move normally and then you fall on the ice. i fell hard about five times and i have some impressive bruises.

after dinner, a few of us went to a club. i had salmiakkikossu, which is a finnish licorice-flavored vodka drink.