all things me

A chat with a co-worker today reminded me of this.

For our written exam in driving school we had to answer some questions based on photos of different traffic situations. There was one question I remember quite well: There was a photo of a two-lane gravel road in the middle of a summery forest. The road went straight ahead and turned left, and there was a traffic sign on the right telling that motor vehicles are allowed on the smaller road that followed.

The question was “can you drive straight ahead?”

I answered no — because there also was a bird on the right lane.

It was the wrong answer. Apparently I shouldn’t have paid attention to the bird.

Last Tuesday, quite appropriately, there was a newspaper article about famous 30-year-olds (and younger) and how much they’ve already achieved despite their young age.

Gee, thanks for cheering me up! I haven’t achieved squat.

I’m only joking; I’m not feeling particularly “age-crisis-y” (well, I’m writing this on Sunday, the day before, so let’s see how I’m thinking tomorrow) and I don’t even think I’m allowed to. 30 is nothing! I’m still a kid!

OK, checklist:
— Wrinkles? I can see two horizontal lines forming on the forehead but no prospective laugh lines (now, that’s weird) or anything like that.
— Greys? No genuine ones but I’ve had both white and black strands since I was a kid.
— Aches and pains? My legs are sore at the moment but that’s from cardio-boxing on Xbox Kinect…
— Skin on the back of my hand? Bounces right back.
— Grouchiness? No signs, I would say. (OK, I don’t seriously think old = grouchy )
— Cats? None.

Let’s see what that list looks like in 5-10 years, but for now, happy 30th birthday me!

Very often when I’m “on the road” by myself and not reading a book I listen to music on my cellphone. And at work if I’m having trouble concentrating I may listen to music quietly on the background.

I pretty much always listen to music on my way back from work because I’m too tired to read. Today when I was sitting on the bus and listening to music (Muse, Milow, and Maroon 5), I was shaking my foot to my tunes. Next I noticed a reflection in the window: the guy sitting in front of me, with earbuds on, was drumming his knee with his hand. I couldn’t help but smile.

I can easily imagine a future where most people walk around with headphones on. I’ve even seen groups of teen girls where everyone is listening to their own music (and trying to chat, ha). Or maybe they are listening to the same song. Social music playing could get popular so wouldn’t one-to-many Bluetooth pairings be great? Or cords with multiple pairs of headphones on the other end? Those would at least be much better than what these groups do now: listen to the songs from the loudspeaker. To the enjoyment of everyone around them.

This morning on the bus a woman sat next to me reading a newspaper. I started watching her from the corner of my eye once I noticed she was one of those people who lick their finger before turning the page (ick! It’s a public newspaper, other people will read it!). I find that habit so baffling.

But then I noticed something else which almost made me chuckle out loud: she licked her right index finger as soon as she started reading the second page of each spread — long before she needed it for page-turning — and half the time she used the other, dry hand!

I usually resort to finger licking when I’ve already struggled for some time trying to open a freezer bag (the ones I have are slippery). And then the saliva will only be transmitted to me after disinfection in the freezer.

What I started thinking is, how much ink will these people swallow in their lifetime? I almost would’ve guessed Mythbusters had done an urban legend test on this but maybe not… (and the hits I got on Google were frankly very weird)

I feel they were missing a few letters in the packaging so I fixed it.

11-11-11

With a cherry on top. And bottom. And middle.

Made this for my sister’s birthday (shh, don’t tell her, she doesn’t know about this yet). Very yummy and so easy (if you don’t count searching for the correct cherries)! But, I don’t understand why every time there has to be something I don’t realize on my own — until it’s too late: The cherry can warned that there could be some stones left. When I was adding the cherries I thought, “should I really mix these in whole like this?” and I figured yes because the recipe didn’t instruct to mash them with a fork or anything. Just my luck, there were some stones left. Next time — and there will definitely be a next time — I’ll mash the cherries a bit and try to remove any unpleasant surprises.

250 g butter, softened
2 decilitres sugar
3 eggs
3 decilitres flour
1 decilitres potato starch flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar*
100 g white chocolate
about 350 g canned sour cherries, drained (the jar I bought was 680 g, of which there were 350 g of cherries, rest was syrup); not the disgusting unnaturally red candied cherries (maraschino?)!

Whip butter and sugar until fluffy.
Mix in eggs one at a time (mix well after each egg).
Mix dry ingredients and then add them into the batter.

Put 1/3 of the batter in a separate bowl and stir in chocolate (either melted or chopped finely).
Stir cherries into the rest of the batter.

Grease and flour a cake tin (I used a spray for the first time and it worked wonderfully, I didn’t use flour). Put a layer of the cherry batter into the tin, add the white chocolate batter next, and then the rest of the cherry batter. (I actually used two small 1.2-litre tins.)
Bake in 150 degrees Celsius for about an hour.

* Apparently vanilla sugar is not so common outside of certain European countries. You can replace this with vanilla extract: ehow.com suggests 1/2-1 tsp of extract per 1 cup of sugar. There’s less than a cup of sugar used here so 1/2 tsp should do. If in doubt, leave it out.

(Found the recipe here [in Finnish].)

A detergent brand advertises that it works best in cleaning ground beef.

I’ve always thought cooking the meat suffices.

… when you’re eating porridge out of a coffee cup with a teaspoon.

So ammoosing

Actually, I noticed that a mug is much better than the bowls I usually use because the portion is so small. There’s a silver lining!

(The endearing cow mug by Pii-Pot, Finland.)

On a warm sunny day (that should strike as funny as you read on) last week I was faced with a problem I rarely — if ever, except with socks — face: I found two fitting pieces of clothing for the same purpose!

I was browsing the clothing department, not planning on finding anything (although always hopeful), when I came across a rack marked Season Sale. It had a few different types and colours of winter coats in the few remaining sizes.

I found a nice, practical grey coat — I actually had been looking to replace my old one. Then, there also was this lovely red coat. I knew I would get the grey one but I couldn’t possibly justify buying both, could I?

But the red was so nice!

After trying them on, I stood there, looking at the coats, thinking, looking at the price tags (not too expensive!). And then I asked Grandma for help (we were shopping together). She obviously opted for the red because she would do anything to get some colour on me.

So I did it. I got them both! Now I’m hoping they at least suit for different weathers (the red is shorter and slightly smaller, i.e. I can’t wear much extra under it, so it’s hopefully light enough for the milder degrees).

Once again, I’m looking forward to winter!

I feel pretty, oh so pretty...

Talking about needs… I’ve “needed” quite a lot of Xbox games lately: first Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Fable II, and, as the latest addition to my game library, Fallout 3 GOTY. The thumbs, y’know. Still working on the thumbs.

In 1996 I was a 14-year-old girl in love with a band. My world was crushed 15 years ago, almost to the day (Feb 13), when they announced break-up.

Now it’s 2011 and I’m a 29-year-old girl in love with a brand. And my world gets crushed again. I feel devastated and just as sad as I did back then, after today’s announcement (I was reminded of that day in ’96 and how horrible I felt). I’m even more sad, now, because I fear this affects my homeland (negatively, it goes without saying).

But, there’s still hope. Even Take That came back.

(I write this as a sort of diary entry for myself because I don’t keep a diary anymore. I just need to mourn for a while.)