What happens at -20C?

Well here in Oulu the effects are not that big, the weather looks clear most of the time when it is cold, but when I get on my trusty bike to make my way to school the first thing I notice is that I cough.. I believe it is the dryness of the air that makes ones lungs tickle. Secondly my face hurts, and if you are as stylish as I am and have stainless steel glass rims.. they feel very cold against your face! The effect is the same as wearing a necklace to a sauna.. don't do it as it gets really hot when not touching your skin and then you change position and it feels like hot lava is touching your skin.. Anyhow, next thing I feel is the stickiness of the bike.. I suppose as we "approach" the absolute zero temperature all things including atoms move slower, so does my bike. It is like the cogs have toffee poured all over them..

It has been kind of cold recently and I have tried to take a photo of my face once I have completed my journey to school or back, usually the sun has either not come up yet or has already set so the light has been the issue.. but yesterday I managed to snap a photo when I arrived at school little later than usual..

The page edges have been curled to mask the fact that the camera was crooked.
Last night I babysat as Halle went to a concert, everything went really well until it was time to feed. The baby drank just about everything we had reserved in two gulps and then I was out of baby calming magic liquid to save the day... But carrying him around and singing and bouncing him on my knee and what not we made it till Halle came through the door and that baby broke into great big smile. I believe if he had mastered his arms he would have done the classic, take me in your lap move... Today an exam and a meat club, baby, Helsinki visitor edition. Should be interesting.
Good weekend to all!
P

Baby, School, Research, Marriage and Hobbies

Life seems to be a juggling act of many things, like baby, school... Right now I am in a hurry to complete applications for some money for our research summer in FL.. It is all going so slowly and all the other juggling balls seem to be falling as I concentrate on one. For this reason doing anything else than what I am trying to concentrate on doing seems too hard..... like cleaning and taking out the trash. This Friday I had an exam, it was on TMD.. Temoporo Mandibular disorder... named so because the research could not identify one part which is responsible for the symptoms and pains and what nots..
Days are getting longer, I don't know if i can tell the difference, but Halle seems to think so.. Then aging most of the days I am in a room with no windows and the brightest light I see is the dental light and it is shining on my patients mouth. In the weekend I feel like falling on the couch and doing nothing at all, but Halle is full of energy to do all the things that she was not able to do with the baby taking the other arm and sometimes the other too..
I got CorelDraw PhotoShop X3 and have been working on our photos.. here is a picture of our baby before and after I have edited it with the Photoshop..
Original... and yes the light was not perfect and yes it would require less work if I had adjusted the light during photo taking...

 Then I adjusted the lightness of the photo and removed noise...which is pixels "created" by the camera to fill in what "it" can't see... noise..

 I thought it turned out rather nice and now I feel guilty for "wasting" my time on this rather than doing one of the "more" important tasks I have for this weekend...
Relaxing and lovely weekend to all!

P

Peregrine and Mom on a holiday trip

Well I got to see my mom today and had a little chat. She agreed that the baby was beatiful and lovely and normal, but extraordinary at the same time. I heard on the phone that he even slept "like-a-baby", which apparently you are not allowed to say out loud as the next night will be full of crying and other activities except sleeping..
As I had lovely dinner with my mom in "Pannu" restaurant, (thanks mom) I gave her one of Peregrines passport photos.. 3 more to go and oh... we might need one back from someone.. oh well.. She said how much the baby looks like Halle. Halles parents say how much the baby looks like me.. I think it is a case of mom knows how I look and does not see the distinguishing details in the smooth baby face and Halles parents do the same with her and the baby. It is similar effect with people of different race. No offense to anyone intended political correctness and all... but still people of different race all look alike... They just do because their face does not have the same distinguishing details as the ones you are used to seeing in people around you, therefore they all look the same.. I think mom knows my face so well that she can concentrate on details which she is not able to see in Halle......or Peregrine.. hence "he looks like Halle so much" "Perhaps his head shape is little like you"..
First week of school.. what shambles.. Our lecturer was 1,5h late and my samples finally got disqualified as I cant risk taking something that is already ruined 2000miles away to be examined with TEM and laser confocal microscopy... So I am working on setting new samples as soon as possible.. should be done tomorrow.....late. and then Friday we have an exam and a trip to Helsinki on Pendolino train... Mom said it is 50/50 if you are going to make it with one of those fancy Italian "speed" trains.. I agree. But lets pray that the train works and goes fast and on time.
Other than that it is sad to be alone here where so much life, noise and action took place just few days ago. I miss you guys and see you very soon!

Here is Peregrine looking like he so often does, even though I tell him that keeping your mouth open like that makes you look little slow... but he does not listen to me yet...

P

How to konw holiday was long enough?

I have been feeling ready for school for some days now, it is not that I have not been enjoying the precious time I have had with my own little son, who is now 7weeks old. I just feel ready to move on with our life, continue my education towards the degree I need to work and move us out of this student trap. Last night our dear neighbors thought it was ok to party till 4am. I disagreed and complained to the housing offices.
My research is moving along slowly but surely, the samples for Florida are aging and soon a new batch will be prepared for some more aging.

There is our little joyful boy. He is having a little tummy problems, perhaps little jitters from his first airplane ride he is going to take on Monday. It is sad I don't get to enjoy the trip with him, but I am happy we get to introduce him to air travel soon.. As I have an inkling that he will be flying rather much in his lifetime.. With travel comes the first passports.. and photos for the passports... We took our munchkin to a photo store and the man looked at our baby fast a sleep in a car seat.. He wondered if he would open his eyes for the photo.. Everything went really well and we got a lovely photo of our little Peregrine. The very next day we applied for Finnish passport, the American passport is not quite so simple process... Halle had every possible official document thinkable ready.. and the man asked for her to produce some proof that she has lived in USA at least five years after she turned 14. Like highschool transcript or similar.. so that passport and citizenship application is still waiting.. not only because of this "missing" documentation, but because it appears that USA embassy is under construction till February.. I guess Mr. Oreck needs a better gym and has decided to close down the embassy in this remote corner of the world.. Well let us commoners wait..
Weather is turning warmer here and the days are getting longer, even though it is not possible to tell by looking outside at 5:30pm... moon shining outside in the dark sky.. Everyday more minutes of light are filling the days as Spring approaches..

Happy new year and Blessings to the Spring time to everybody!

H&P

Year 2011

 World of ash clouds, and euro trouble is behind and new year ahead. Our family has now 3rd member and this will be a challenge for us to manage with all our daily routines and taking good care of our baby. He is so very lovely and brings so much joy to us and people around us.
We took a road trip last days of last year, we drove to Rovaniemi, where the arctic circle cuts through Finland and we managed to cross it to the north of the "border" The sun was behind us as we drove further north and kept our eyes peeled for reindeer.. which we saw few times and stopped once to take some photos.

At the Arctic circle where the sun no longer shines through winter, but there is all the more action provided by the mighty euro/dollar circus where Santa Claus "lives" and gets post for all over the world.. we saw some of the letters that had been delivered there.. addressed to "north pole 1", which I pointed out is not the real address of the rovaniemi local attraction. But all the same the place was busy with people from all over the world looking at the neon colored snow slope for sledding and visiting santa.. 

After the "North Pole" we headed our way to Sweden to visit one of the world famous exported Swedishnism design stores "IKEA" which was right next to the border and filled with cheap and cheerful furniture and restaurant that served us Some swedish meat balls..

Baby slept almost the whole way to Rovaniemi and to Sweden and back!

We also took the ice road to Hailuoto island where everything was closed, but the road to the island went over the 25km on ice. This was quite exciting as none of us had driven on ice before..

Time has gone so very quickly, our baby is 5 weeks old.. soon he will be months, years, tens of years and then just middle aged and finally old.. Well that will take few more years to happen, but still.. I am very grateful for everything we got this year and how the year went. This year is going to be very exciting I am sure.

H&P