HB COLD

April is weird. The sun stays out past 9:30. The flies are out by the hundreds one day and gone the next. Sometimes it's really cold and other times its shorts and short sleeves. And through it all, the lake stays frozen, the mountains of snow still mark their spots, the grass is in shock , brown, covered in mud and not one of the trees have blossomed. It's just one long and drawn out in-between stage when Winter has stopped and Sping has yet to begin.

I like kids as much as the next person, except early in the morning. It has come to my attention that our downstairs neighbor - could be worse, could be upstairs - runs a day care out of her house. Sure, it's a noble thing to do and I'm sure she's a nice enough lady, but at 7:30 in the morning, it is a freaking zoo down below. I know, I'm already up at 7:30 in the morning, the sun cutting through the small opening in our window makes sure of that, but still those little devils can be very, very loud for being very, very small. And it's fun to see them playing in the puddles of melted snow with an assortment of shovels and boats and stuff, but I didn't sign off on this new business venture downstairs. I'm not really mad about this or anything, just sort of noticed the craziness that was taking place right below me this morning.

In other news, my second batch of matzah balls ever made turned out much better than the first batch of matzah balls - balls, being a huge exaggeration on the look and feel of the first batch. Sure they were a tad hard in the middle - I was afraid of over cooking - but they kept their shape and tasted pretty darn good. The chicken soup was good as well, but would have been a lot better if it wasn't made from broth. I had a real desire to change the soup up and make it more like a Thai soup - sweet and sour kind of thing - but that will be an experiment for a later day.

Tonight I am going to try my hand at some charoseth and maybe a kugel later this week. We'll see how it goes.

48 days. That is how many days of vacation I have from now until the end of the year. That's 48 business days. I have 28 days for this summer plus those that I would receive for next summer, should the project continue. Well, I am not holding my breath, so I will take those extra 20 days before the end of the year. I had no idea that I had this many days of vacation - paid vacation. 9 weeks and 3 days of vacation before the end of the year. Holy cow. Now if I can just get some really cheap plane tickets, we could be on to something.

The Spring and Winter seem to have a relationship that can only be described as Godfather III-like. Every time I think I'm out of the winter, it pulls me back in.

For the past 2 weeks it seemed as if Spring was in full swing. The weather was consistently warm - by Finnish standards - it was sunny and the mountains of snow were melting nicely. I even thought about reorganizing my closet: putting away the winter gear and dusting off the warm weather wardrobe. But guess what happened last night on the way home from a Monday with Markku - lots and lots of snow. We are back to below freezing, back to snow and ice all over the place, back to waiting or marinating while the Spring takes its leisurely time arriving.

"Just one more thing I gotta do now." This is a quote from Twin Peaks and it pretty much sums up what is happening in my life right now. In addition to work - trying to set up the State film commission - and writing - Karoliina and I hope to have a synopsis of our script ready to pitch in Cannes in May - and studying for the entrance examination to the University of Helsinki, Department of Communications, I have also been selected to the second round of admissions for the Arts Management program at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. I am quite excited about this new development. However, the exam and interview, which make up the other aspects of the selection process are in 2 weeks. They've narrowed down the pool of candidates to 25, of which they will accept 15 - so I really have to bust my ass. The book that the exam is based on has just arrived and it is 450 pages long. I am swamped, but in a good way, but swamped nevertheless. It's hard to compartmentalize all of these things, but I really have to do just that if I am to do anything at all. So I may be a little behind on this blog of mine, but I'll get back into the swing of things in due time.

hb really, really busy.

Karoliina and I have made a pact. We will try our hardest not to notice any news regarding the results of American Idol. This is a pact proving hard to keep. I really do try not to read anything about the results, but sometimes it is simply unavoidable. And this makes the results edition that comes on Sunday a little less tense.

I've got a ton of work to do right now and so I won't be posting too much info. But here is the latest edition to my J-town Journal column: I've embellished just about everything, so don't read too much into any of it.

The great melting is upon us. It’s time to get back to the gym, to clean the house, to plant some flowers. It is time to celebrate, to renew those New Year’s resolutions that proved just too damn difficult to resolve, what with the darkness and the bitter cold and all the good television on the tube. The great melting is upon us and it is time to put away the long underwear and the earmuffs and to take out the shorts and sleeping masks and mosquito repellent. It is time to bring in the case of beer from the balcony and to make room for it in the fruit and vegetable drawers of the refrigerator. Hot damn it’s getting hot outside and I for one couldn’t be happier. I think I’ll throw a party.

I haven’t had a good party in a while, but when I do have another one, I will be a little smarter about it all. For example, I will not tell people to arrive at 7 o’clock because, without fail, they will arrive at 7 o’clock. Sure, I told them 7:00, but who the hell arrives at 7:00? There are some places in the world where a 7:00 start time for a party means that the party will start at around 9:00, so it is safe to arrive anytime close to 9. In J-town, 7:00 means 7:00, maybe 7:03 for the image conscious.

It could very well have been a misunderstanding and it could very well have been my own fault. After all, I did say, “Come at seven or so.” It’s the “or so” that’s important here, because – at least in my head – “or so” means 8:00 or 8:30, even 9 o’clock. But in J-town, “or so” means absolutely nothing. How was I supposed to know that if you say something here, people think that you mean it? I had just come from New York City, where 7:00 means close to midnight the next day, and unless you were cooking a soufflé and told people you were cooking a soufflé, you could expect a couple of hours of free time before the party got started. So party at my house, but don’t nobody be arriving any earlier than 9:00.

The great melting is upon us and I think it’s time to get back into shape. I think I’ll start playing basketball again with the guys, but this time I will be a little smarter about it all. For example, I will never slap a Finnish man on the ass, no matter what. I don’t care if we just won the game, or had the best play ever seen on a basketball court, my hand will not come anywhere near the butt-cheek of a Finnish man, so help me God. Now, back home? Sure, I’m an ass-slapping son of a bitch. It just comes with the territory. You make a great play, or have a good game; you get your ass slapped. It’s an accepted celebratory custom. I’m not talking about grabbing another dudes butt or anything, just a quick slap to let them know that they’ve done well. Let’s just say that, similar to “or so” the ass slap just doesn’t translate here in J-town. And let’s just say that I got the message the first time out.

The great melting is upon us, and this time I am not going to pass out at 5pm on Vappu. This time I am going to be a little smarter about it. This time I am going to start slow and work my way up to the point where I can join the dozens of teenagers throwing up on the street corners, but at the appropriate time. This time I will not sit outside with one half of my face in the sun sipping on that drink of champions, Jaloviina. This time I will not get so drunk that riding my bicycle home through the trails and eating that tortilla wrap kebab thing that only is available when the great melting is upon us could end my life. This time I am going to do it right. This time I am ready for it.

It's quite possible this post will bring a lot of calm to a lot of you. Karoliina and I were finally able to strap on our snowshoes and hit the lake, only to find out that the season of the snowshoe has ended. It's been so warm here lately that there was almost no snow on the ground. Sure we went anyway, after all I had taken the morning off of work so we could get out there at the best time - before the snow melts and gets too soft to walk on, but we were at least 2 weeks late on this one. The lake is still frozen solid, but the little snow that sits on top of it is frozen soft. Even with our snowshoes we were sinking into the mess and the snow was sinking into our socks. We went out onto the island in the lake, but didn't dare to go any further out into the water. I really wanted to go again today at sunset, but it's simply too risky. But we can take away from this the fact that we both really enjoyed ourselves and could do this more regularly when the timing is right. I'll admit here and now that we are no skiing family - of course cross country is still a possibility - but we may have just become a snow shoe family. So that settles that, there will be no more talk of getting out onto the lake for the rest of the Spring.

Aha! I finally got back on track with what I was saying yesterday about the great melt of 2005 and that is this - it is darn near impossible to go for a walk anywhere near the lake without snowshoes. Karoliina and I did our regular walk the other day: through the neighborhood and out by the trails of the lake and then back. But when we got to the trails of the lake things got a little complicated. The snow is soft and wet that with each step we took along the trail, our feet would sink into the snow, sometimes past our knees and this was on every step. We finally realized that this was simply nuts, this was at the same time that we realized we were smack dab in the middle of the trail (Smack dab in the middle of the gum, it's the secret to Chewel's long lasting fun - I cannot believe I just remembered that song from that commerical. I don't even think that they make that gum anymore.)

So, that means it's snowshoe time. K and I have a date on the lake for tomorrow morning - as this is the best time to go and I am looking forward to it. I will post again tomorrow so that you will not think that I fell through 20 inches of ironlike ice.

I don't really have too much to write about right now. I can go on and on about the weather, but in looking back at my posts from last year at this time, I've already gone on and on about the weather. As a matter of fact, the only thing in Joensuu to go on and on about is the weather. Let's see if I can go off on a tangent from the weather, but not stray too far away.

First of all, as I mentioned in my last post, we have entered the great melt of April. Which means that the mountains of snow create puddles of mud everywhere. And wouldn't you know it, the tire guard on the front tire of my bike has come off. Talk about poor timing, I have been riding through huge puddles of muddy water for the past week and my clothes are a complete wreck. I really, really need to get this thing fixed, because it is only going to get worse.

I totally lost track of the second of all.