Zoo Trip

Toddler photography is challenge greater than I ever would have realized. This was demonstrated for the umpteenth time yesterday, during last weekend's zoo outing.

Zoo photo: we ate lunch here.

First, there's the speed factor. I'm convinced that there is no shutter speed low enough to capture a two year old in constant motion. For every halfway decent photo, I have ten more of blurry blobs that I've deleted from the memory card. It's safe to say that the experience of seeing unusual animals at the zoo was completely lost on O. For him, it was all about having an unusual space to run through.

Combine the speed problem with the fact that a toddler's expression and mood varies from microsecond to microsecond, and add on a side of the same toddler is so distracted by the camera that he forgets that mere microseconds ago he was in full glee, and you have a series of photos that show O. in the expression just after he was completely adorable.

Evidence 1: O. loved the fish tank. Really, he did. He acted as tour guide for every new group of people that came to the fish tank, saying "LOOK! At the FISHIES!" and "LOOK! Fishies here, TOO!" But you'd never know it from the photo below, which is the best of the bunch.

"Nice fishies!"

Evidence 2: Here we are, waiting for our pizza at lunch. He was excited about the pizza, eating out, being in the presence of a hundred or so other kids, and the zoo banners hanging from the ceiling ("Zebra!!" "Lion!!" "Bird!!!"). But whatever you do, don't say "Hey, O., can you look at Mommy?" You get this:

Waiting for lunch

Evidence 3: Well, here he's just being a little punk.

Posing, but not liking it.

There were a few good photos. O. liked this giant beetle statue, because he thought the back of the shell was a slide.

O. loved this cobra snake sculpture. I thought we were never going to get him away from it.

"Nice snake!"

The highlight of the trip may have been the waterfall. This is a really great idea. On a hot day, this hit the spot.
One last photo. The zoo has a train that circles the whole park. We knew about the train beforehand, and talked it up for O. He was so excited, and talked about how he was going to ride the train, on and on, talk talk, jabber jabber. We waited in line for our turn and finally the train came. O. walked right up to the train and climbed aboard and sat down. And then nothing. Silence, stunned silence. No comment, nothing, for the whole train ride. This is how he looked the whole trip.

This is serious train riding, folks. He recovered promptly after the ride, fortunately.

Pretending that his father's head is a drum.

Passthrough

Let's chat about the passthrough, shall we? I'm thinking glass mosaic tile in rich colors and a fabulous design, new trim...wait, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain.

Passthrough, as seen from the kitchen.

Below is a photo of the passthrough from the kitchen to the erstwhile dining room. The erstwhile dining room is now our office. We use part of the erstwhile living room as the dining room, which has been renamed the pretentious great room.

Passthrough, as seen from the office.

The office, because it was intended to be a dining room circa 1970, is open to the great room. Which is great for a dining room, but not for an office. We'd like the office to be a space that could be private when needed, to be used as a guest room or just a place to get away. So, someday, we'd like to wall off the office, and install French doors. The French doors, in theory, would enable the space to be used as a dining room again if needed, and provide the privacy when we need while not closing it off completely.

The great room, as seen from the office. Imagine French doors in this space.

Now, back to the passthrough. In order to achieve the noise reduction that we'd like in the office, we need to wall off the passthrough. But as you can see, the passthrough is handy as paperback book storage. Plus, we don't want to do anything permanent, just in case the next person who buys this house thinks that a passthrough to a dining room is the cat's meow.

My idea: mount a board from the office side of the passthrough. This board will fill in the space, created a flat surface that is visible from the kitchen. It could be removed in the future without major renovation. On the office side, add a shelf to the board and paint, voila--built-in book shelf. Nothing like enabling the reading addiction, eh?

But what to do with the kitchen side of the board? Here's the current plan: We can remove existing trim and replace with new trim pieces on the sides plus trim pieces on the top and bottom of the shelf to match. I think that this will create the appearance of a frame space. Inside the frame space, I'd like to create something interesting out of glass mosiac tiles, but this is where I'm fresh out of ideas.

Passthrough as seen from the kitchen

What do I put here? The wallpaper is going to be removed in a few weeks, and we're going to paint it the color...still to be determined. So what do I want here? Something recognizable, like a pineapple? Or a butterfly? Or something geometric and symmetric? Or a random pattern in colors similar to the counter and cabinet? Or just a single color? And which color is that?

More fuel for the book addiction

J., O., and I are readers. Chronic readers, possibly even addicted readers. Evidence: who else but book addicts would think that their two-and-a-half year old needs a grown-up sized bookcase?

O. has outgrown his two-shelf bookcase. We have been using baskets and bins and stacks to keep track of the overflow, but they were always a mess. Recently, his baby bookshelf has developed a distinct slant to the right, reminiscent of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

A few weeks ago, J. and I hatched a plan to build O. a bookcase.We have had previous experience with this (Dad helped us build a similar bookcase nearly ten years ago). And, we decided that during my Finland trip would be an ideal time for J. to sand and stain the boards (because Dad and Mom would be visiting and could help with process).

J. and I finished the project last weekend, and it is installed, anchored to the wall, and bookified. Looks like we have room for a few more.
Not a bad result. We were a little hasty on the wood choice (CLEAR pine next time, says Dad), and the stain is uneven due to a last-minute gutcheck and change in the color. But it's sturdy and it's useful and it's done.

Bonus photo of O., helping his grandpa put together his bookshelf. Mom and Dad said that O. thought they were doors at first, and was heart-broken when Dad turned the bookshelf on its side to finish it. As you can see from the photo, he recovered.

Happy Anniversary

...from our mortgage company. One year ago yesterday, with quivering hands and bated breath, we asked a mortgage company to buy our house and then agreed slowly buy it back from them over the next thirty years. We received a card to mark the occasion from the mortgage company, which was, um, thoughtful.

J. and I calculated, that after a year of payments, we now own about 53 square feet of our house. And in my world, we get to choose which 53 square feet of our house we own. We've chosen the smaller of the two bathrooms (for obvious practical reasons) and, with what is left over, a cozy corner of living room.

The Finland Trip

I returned from Finland a few days ago. I attended a workshop for young scientists in my field, which was held at University of Helsinki's forestry field station. The field station, called Hyytiälä (pronounced hoo'-tee-ah-la) was about 2.5 hours by bus North of Helsinki.

Signpost to Hyytiälä.

The field station was build in the early 1910s for the university forestry students' summer courses. The oldest part of campus reminds me of an US Midwestern farm. The forestry students, in fact, have an agriculture component to their studies, and keep sheep during the summer and harvest them in the fall.

The barn and the old bell tower.

The field station is located next to Lake Kuivajärvi, which is one of 187,888 glacial lakes in Finland.

The forest is 90% pine and spruce, with a few birch and poplars thrown in. Since wood is abundant, the signs at the stations are wood relief carvings, really beautiful.

A map of the station as a wood carving.

Finland is the most North I've ever been (about 61 degrees latitude at Hyytiälä), and because the season was summer, the sun is visible for all but a few hours every day. The sun set around 11 PM and rose around 3 AM. Even the night wasn't very dark, only twilight. Most of these photos were taken mid-evening (9 PM-ish), so you can see for yourself.

In the 1990s, the forest field station was expanded and a SMEAR research station was build (SMEAR = Station for Measuring Forest Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations). It is a unique site in that it is comprehensive, and able to measure many of the inputs and outputs of the forest ecosystem and in as many measureable parameters as possible. It is located in a boreal forest a short hike from the forestry field station.

One of the central features is the main cabin, show below. It was made from two log cabin kits put together. There is little insulation in this design. In fact, the wood is thick enough and the instruments produce enough heat that electrical heating is used only on the coldest winter days. There are bars on the roof of the cabin, which prevent snow from falling sliding off the roof when it melts and damaging the inlet ports. Most houses that I saw in Finland also have a ladder attached to their roofs, so that homeowners can shovel the snow.

Main Cabin

Another main feature is the 72 meter tower, shown below. The tower is tall enough to rise high above the forest canopy, which enables measurements at the atmosphere/canopy interface. Each crossbar on the tower has at least one instrument on the end. Instrument maintenance has an added excitement--to maintain the instruments, someone scales the tower, pulls the crossbar back, and then has to decide whether to fix the instrument on the spot or bring it down.

72-m sampling tower

One of the goals of the station is to measure the energy fluxes (carbon, nutrient, water) in and out of the forest. For this reason, it is important to not disturb the ecosystem, and these walkways were built. Each sideboard leads to a sampling device, often the rainwater or leaf litter collectors. It was like a maze to me.

Forest Floor Walkway

Sauna. As far as I can tell, sauna is a daily activity for many Finns. I was told that most homes have a sauna, and there are four saunas at Hyytiälä. They are separated by gender, although families usually take sauna together. The Finnish researchers prefer saunas heated by woodburning stoved to electric or gas. I did try sauna, and it was nice, although I think I enjoyed it more for the swim in Lake Kuivajärvi afterwards.

The food. Since I ate at a cafeteria-style dining hall most of the time I was there, I don't really know if I had typical Finnish food. I presume it would be a version of what Finns would eat at home. If that's the case, I've learned that boiled potatoes are very important in a Finnish diet. Most meals (lunches and dinners) included some chicken or beef dish with a creamy sauce, and it was served with potatoes. Fish was not as common as a I'd hoped, although a couple of fish dishes were served. Lettuce salads were served at all lunches and dinners, too, although only one kind of salad dressing: thousand island. I don't know whether it's the national favorite, or if salad dressing is not eaten by Finns and it was a concession to the Americans. Puddings are common desserts, although they are flavored differently than I'm used to. They are less sweet (although sugar is offered with them). Usually, a fruit preserve was served with them, too, sometimes whipped cream. The flavor of the puddings were different, too. They tended to be flavored less and differently. I had one that sort of tasted like prunes, and another that I'm told was flavored with rose hips.

I did eat reindeer, in a wild mushroom and cream soup. The soup was very good, and although I didn't get a good sense of what the reindeer tasted like, it reminded me of prosciutto. I was told that eating reindeer is reserved for special occasion dinners.

I also ate Karjalanpiirakka for breakfast a couple of times. I didn't quite figure out what was in them, but I think Karjalanpiirakka must be Finnish for "tasty gooey buttery pastry pie."

The meal structure and timing was different, too. There are 4-5 meals per day. Breakfast at 7 AM, lunch at 11 AM, coffee and a pastry or dessert at 1 PM, and dinner at 5 PM. At the field station, a fifth meal, a late-night snack was served at 10 PM, although it was mainly for the hard-working forestry students.

At literally every meal, there was what looked like to me to be a sandwich spread: cheeses, cold cuts, bread, plus cucumbers and peppers and breads. Even at breakfast. At first I thought it was an option for people who didn't like the main dish being served, so that they could make a sandwich, but I saw the people from the Nordic countries taking a few slices of the "sandwich" platters at each meal, and eating them more like hors d'ouvres, and I was told it was common in Finland to do this. I came to rather like this, and by the end of the week, I'd have a slice of cheese wrapped in cucumbers for breakfast.

The flights. Oh my, the flights. I have a new least-favorite airport in the world. Before this trip, it was O'Hare; now it is Heathrow.

Heathrow is a beast. There is no short layover at Heathrow, especially if you have to change terminals. To change planes, it goes something like this: exit the plane (and this is the last point where it stopped being like any other airport I've seen before). Take a series of ramps and escalators, stairs and lifts to arrive at the gate. (Note this is just the gate; this is not the main part of the terminal where you'd go to transport the next terminal). Walk to the terminal, which can take 10-15 minutes. Finally, you're at the arrival terminal, and you hit a long line at a security checkpoint. Wait, wait, wait, and finally go through the security procedure (which was on par to a US security checkpoint for terminal entry). After security there is another walk and escalator to the terminal transfer point. At this point, you have at least a ten-minute wait and a ten-minute bus ride to transfer to your departure terminal, more if there's a long line. After exiting the bus, there are more ramps and escalators, reminiscent of the exit gate, and finally you're at your terminal. Heathrow does not set gate numbers for flights until 30-40 minutes before boarding, so it is here that you find your gate number. Once you have your gate number, you have a walk between a 5 and 15 minutes long to your gate to board your plane, and this is with moving walkways. At the gate, there is an additional security checkpoint (instituted only after recent events), which is the open your carry-on, turn on all electronics to prove they're not bombs, take of your shoes and pat-down type security checkpoint. After that, you're finally ready to board the plane. Whew.

In the future, I don't think I'll choose a flight through Heathrow if I have an option, and if I don't, I wouldn't choose one without at least a two-hour layover if I could afford to miss my flight, and no less than a three-hour layover if I couldn't afford to miss my flight. I had a 90 minute layover at Heathrow on my return, and I made it only because I ran the whole thing, because my departing flight was running late, and because I probably lucked out a couple a places. My checked luggage, however, was not so lucky, and of this writing (home for about 60 hours), I haven't received it yet. (Edited to add: luggage was returned after a short sidetrip through Memphis almost five days late.)

Other than Heathrow, my flights were fine. Everything ran a little late, but I think a little late is the new on-time for airline travel. A couple of other random notes about the flights:
-A two-hour layover in O'Hare is pushing your luck if you have to go through customs with checked baggage. I actually think I made it to my connecting flight on time because I lost my luggage. Without checked luggage, I had nothing to declare at customs and I didn't have to recheck my bag, which meant I was able to glide through passport control instead of waiting.
-Filed under coincidences in a small world, during the London flight, I sat next to a gentlemen who has the same career as me (though in a different sector) and lives in the same town as my undergrad university. We didn't know that many people in common though.
-Heathrow has a snippiest-sounding public announcement system: "Passenger So-in-so, please proceed immediately to your gate. You are delaying your flight departure and your fellow passengers." Imagine that with a prim British accent and simmering disapproval. It makes you feel guilty even if you're not the person who is misbehaving.
-My travel experience was bracketed by encounters with obnoxious drunk people. At Heathrow security queue, there was college-aged man a few people in front of me who had purchased duty-free vodka on his London fight, and did not know that you can't bring liquids of that size with you if you have a connecting flight. Rather than waste his vodka, he'd decided to drink it while waiting in line for the security check. He loudly let everyone know the injustice of the situation, and that he ought to be trusted since he was an American and from the Bronx and not to be messed with. I think he's lucky that made it through security without being subjected to a body cavity search.

And for my last flight home, I sat in front of drunk Shiners (which, I'm told, is an oxymoron), who provided entertainment by singing barbershop quartets while we waited for a ground hold to clear. I thought it was the most fitting ending to my trip. And this blog entry.