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.