Helsinki and Stockholm

Two other cities we will be visiting on our upcoming trip are Helsinki and Stockholm.  Unfortunately I have not been able to find as many fun facts so these short lists will have to do.  Hopefully after we actually visit there will be more good points to share about each city.

Helsinki, Finland

• Helsinki was founded in 1550 and has been the capital of Finland since 1812.
• The population of the city is only ~575,000 however the greater region has ~1.3 million people.
• The currency is the Euro.
• Finnish and Swedish are the national languages of Finland.
• Close to the winter solstace daylight only lasts about 6 hours, however close to the summer solstace daylight lasts about 19 hours.
• Helsinki hosted the 1952 Summer Olympic Games.

Stockholm, Sweden

• Stockholm was founded around 1250 and is now the capital and largest city in Sweden.
• The “Millennium series” (e.g., The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) by Stieg Larsson takes place in Stockholm.
• The city hosted the 1912 Summer Olympic Games.
• The currency is the Swedish Krona.

"The Help"

I just finished reading an amazing book titled "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.  My grandma passed this book on to me back in April and when I finally picked it up to read last week, it only took a few days to finish the entire 400+ pages.

The book really made me think...was it really like that in Mississippi in the 1960/1970s?  Having been born in 1980 and lived my entire life in the north, it is something we only heard about in history class.  And when you learn about something in history class...it seems so far removed both in time and location to you.  It is appalling to think that people really acted that ways towards others, but then I think about how we are not really that different today with how people act towards people that are different than them, whether it be race, gender, religion or sexuality.

I applaud the author for putting together such a great book.  I hope myself and others that read it, take away the challenge to ensure that we treat people who are different from us with the same respect that we deserve ourselves.  Maybe my grandkids will read about how life was in 2010s someday and say "was that really how they acted? I am glad times have changed."

Look at the image Rob put together to share with family members on our upcoming honeymoon.  I swear he should be a graphic designer.  I know this one probably looks simple, but he puts together some really fantastic stuff....this one included in my opinion!!

We have three excursions picked out so far.  Here are the descriptions from the NCL website:

Warnemuende/Rostock - Unesco Wismar - A Baltic Beauty Depart by coach for an approximate 1 1/2-hour journey to Wismar, a Medieval beauty founded in 1229. Upon arrival you'll enjoy a guided walk and explore this quaint Hanseatic city which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walk along cobbled streets with Gothic houses, Baroque buildings and Renaissance facades. The classic Town Hall, the water tower, the historic drainage system and merchants' houses from the Middle Ages are just some of the fascinating buildings this town has to offer. Stop for refreshments at a nostalgic brewery/pub (started in the Middle Ages) and taste some Medieval 'Mumme' beer, which the citizens of Wismar already drank during the Hanseatic period. Along with your beer tasting, you'll be served some traditional German snacks. You'll return to Warnemunde in the late afternoon.

St Petersburg (first day) Catherdral On Spilled Blood & Waterways This tour offers you an exciting opportunity to view St. Petersburg from a completely different angle. You'll see the city from the water surrounding its numerous squares, monuments and palaces. Your coach will bring you to the pier in the city center, where you'll start your fascinating journey through the rivers and canals of the 'Venice of the North.' The exact route of your trip will depend on the boat size and traffic conditions of the waterways. You'll then disembark near the Cathedral on Spilled Blood, where you'll continue with a tour of this remarkable building. The cathedral was built in 1907 on the spot where the Russian Tsar Alexander II had been assassinated in 1881. In a strikingly original way, the architect Parland incorporated all the features of old Russian churches, embellishing it in exuberant style with ornate decorations loosely modeled on St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow; the result was startling and beautiful. The area covered by mosaics is about 23,000 square feet, believed to be the largest indoor mosaic work in the world. The best painters, masters of mosaic stone carving, ceramic and enamel of the 19th-20th centuries, took part in the decoration of the church. An outstanding feature of the interior decor is a variety of Italian colored marbles and Russian semi-precious stones. When built, the temple belonged to the Ministry of the Court and was open only a few times a year to a narrow circle of high society. Even so, the mosaic floor was covered with thick carpets. After the revolution of 1917 the church was granted to believers and a parish church opened there. Then the parish was closed and since then, the church served as storage for theatrical sets and scenery props. Restoration of the church started in 1974. It was a very painstaking job; some windows were missing, the floor was covered with water, a shell had damaged the roof of the cathedral during the war, and six square meters of mosaic decoration were destroyed. The restorers employed only the same type of materials and technology used when the cathedral was built, including 30 kinds of rare marble and about 100 types of precious stones. In August of 1997 the Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood was opened to the public in all its original extraordinary appearance. Note: Boats are not wheelchair accessible.


Stockholm Ice Bar, Old Town & Vasa After your transfer in to town, you'll visit Stockholm's oldest and coziest quarters, the Old Town of Gamla Stan. Witness the historic elegance of the exterior of the dominating Royal Palace, and stroll along the narrow, twisting alleys and cobblestone streets. You'll experience the medieval intimacy of what is today a living historical monument of international renown. You'll also see Stortorget and the Great Square - the hub of the Old Town, dominated by the old Stock Exchange, today housing the Nobel Museum and the Swedish Academy, which meets each year to decide the laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Rejoin your coach and continue through the city centre and on to the Nordic Hotel in the heart of the city, where the world's first permanent ice bar is located. The interior is kept at -5 degress Centigrade all year round. The whole interior, including glasses, is made of pure, clear ice from the Torne River in Northern Sweden. A complimentary drink in an ice glass will be served and the staff will tell you more about the bar and the construction. After tasty drinks you'll drive to Djurgarden, a favorite getaway spot for Stockholm residents. In the Vasa Museum, you'll see the Swedish warship Vasa, once considered the pride of Sweden's navy. The present museum is built around the restored 17th century warship, which sank in Stockholm's inner harbor on her maiden voyage in 1628. Its salvage in 1961, with more than 12,000 objects on board, is one of the most important events in marine archaeology. After your visit to Stockholm you will say good-bye to your guide and return back to Nynashamn and your waiting ship. Note: You'll spend approximately 25 minutes in the ice bar. Depending on the licensing laws, non-alcoholic drinks will be served if the bar is unable to offer vodka. Tour sequence may vary in order to avoid congestion at the venues. The drive to Stockholm takes approximately one hour each way.


Hopefully we picked good ones!!

The End of a Chapter

I have known that this time was coming for a few months now, but it finally hit me when driving home tonight that I only have 1.5 weeks left in my current job. After working ~7.5 years in an analytical lab at Lilly, I will be moving to a job at a manufacturing site. Although my job has changed over the past 7.5 years, there have been many similarities, and I worked with or around the same people. It is very exciting to have a change like this, but also very sad to be leaving such great people.  I will miss having the occassional coffee with a colleague in the morning in the next building over.  I will miss the conversations with my cube-mate, hearing how his two sons are doing, how the trip to Kings Island went, or the Mini Marathon training is going.  I'll miss lunches in the cafeteria with colleagues, waving hello to others that I have met over the years and work in the buildings near by, or seeing people in the hallways that you don't know their name but they always smile when you pass on the way to the bathroom.

I will go from being a supervisor to an individual contributor. From working in the lab to working in the plant. From working on any of the Lilly products (including Animal health) to working on just 1.

So many questions are running in my head. The big one of course is…is the grass really greener on the other side? Will my new team be as fun to work with as my old team? Will my boss be as good as my old boss? What will the new frustrations be? What will the new excitements be? Will the hours be better or worse? Will I learn the new job quickly enough?

It will be an interesting adventure over the next few months.  I'm sure I will have some good stories to share. 

Frustrations

Most of you know that JoAnn Fabrics is one of my favorite stores.  Today however, I left the store extremely frustrated.  I decided to take a few hours off of work this afternoon to run some errands.  I was feeling pretty proud of myself after finally going to the post office to mail the packages and getting my car's oil changed.  I recently started doing more sewing again and had realized I needed to buy some backing fabric.  When I said this to Rob over the weekend he said..."you need to buy more fabric??? can't you use what you already have??" If you are a quilter you know the answer to that....if you don't have appropriate backing fabric, you wait until fabric goes on sale or you have a good coupon and you hit up the store.

So JoAnn Fabrics was having a sale and I figured it was the perfect time to get some backing fabric. I even put some of my unfinished projects in a bag to attempt to match colors.  When I get to my local store it has a "Store Closing" sign out front.  They are opening a new store across the street and down a block.  When I went inside they had signs up saying the fabric I was interested in was 25% current price.  Well me knowing that the flyer that came in the mail had the fabric at 30% off, I'm thinking I hit the jackpot.  I start filling up my cart, head up to get it cut and learn that the flyer prices do not apply to this store since it is in liquidation.  And then the lady said "Go ahead you can swear".  I didn't...but said some choice words in my head.  There were a few fabrics that I wasn't sure I would find at the other location, so I decided to buy minimal amounts.   But those backing fabrics that had originally brought me to the store remained on the store shelves. I don't know this for sure, but I do believe they also increased the price on some of their items.  One of the backing fabrics I saw was marked at $5.99 when the last time I bought it I think it was marked as $3.99.  Now pricing has been going up due to the gas prices, so maybe that really is the price, but be sure that the next time I am in another JoAnns I am going to check the price of that fabric. The sad thing is that there are probably a ton of people that don't realize they are actually not getting a good deal.  I overheard someone at the cutting counter that was all excited that the entire store was on sale.  Sad.

Speaking of gas prices...what is with the price these days?  Here in Indiana we currently have gas priced at $3.44 (well that was the Kroger price).  Just a few days ago it was above $4.  Now I am not complaining that it has drastically reduced, but the last time it dropped, a few days later it was back over $4.  How does it swing in price that fast?  Also I find it interesting the difference in gas station prices.  When I got off the highway on the way home tonight, the BP was listed as $3.46.  The Shell on the opposite corner was $3.69. One block down at the Admiral the price was $3.39.  Shell always seems to be much higher priced at this location, and you rarely see a car in the lot when the BP and Admiral are overflowing.  I wonder why they aren't dropping their price too.

And my last frustration of the day is solicitors.  So often we get people trying to sell stuff to us at our front door.  But today I had someone approach me in the parking lot after I walked out of JoAnn Fabrics.  It was, as always, a high school kid trying to pay for some activity. They always have a sketching looking piece of paper that explains what they are trying to accomplish but the font is so small it is hard to read.  This time the kid just wanted me to donate money, not buy candy or magazines or anything else.  I told him I was sorry but I didn't have any cash.  Didn't he see I had just walked out of JoAnn Fabrics???  :)

More on the Baltics....Estonia

For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of the Baltic region here is an image I found online:

Tallinn, Estonia is another stop on the cruise.  I honestly had heard very little of the country of Estonia.  One of the only things I knew about it before doing a little reading online was that it was part of the former Soviet Union and I have seen the blue, black and white stripped flag when watching the olympics the past few years.

Here are some interesting facts I have found while searching online and in travel books:

• Estonia has a population of about 1.3 million people.
• Estonia originally gained independence in 1918.  It was then occupied by the Soviet Union, Germany and then the Soviet Union again from 1940 to 1991.
• Tallinn is the capital and largest city.
• The official language is Estonian which employs the latin alphabet.  
• The currency is the Euro as of the beginning of 2011.  Prior the currency was the Estonian Kroon
• Skype originated in Tallinn
• Estonia uses internet voting for elections.  The first internet vote was in 2005 for local elections.  
• The Estonian government grants one parent the right to 18 month leave when a child is born with 100% pay.  That parent can go back to their former position after the leave.  The parent and child receive free healthcare.

Tallinn is supposed to be an absolutely beautiful city.  The reviews for the cruise list it as one of people's favorite spots since the medieval city has been well preserved.  I can't wait to share some pics!!

Yay...It is Friday!!

So if anyone is wondering...my mission to keep Tux awake so that he would not wake me up super early, sadly did not work.

Our honeymoon is coming up.  I mentioned Copenhagen which will be the first place we stop.  One of the other places we will visit is St. Petersburg, Russia.  The cruise ship will be docked in St. Petersburg for 2 full days!  I can't wait, Russia is a place that always seemed like an unobtainable place to visit.  The pictures of the Church of Spilled Blood are so enticing.  Here are some fun facts that I have gathered while reading travel books:

• Russia is the world’s largest country.  It is 6.7 million square miles  and has 13 different time zones!!
• St. Petersburg has a population of just under 5 million.
• St. Petersburg spreads over 40 islands
• St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 and was once the capital of the Russian Empire.
• The name of the city changed to Petrograd in 1914, then to Lenigrad in 1924, and then was restored to St. Petersburg in 1991.
• The Russian language is made of the cyrillic alphabet.   (Man are we in trouble reading signs....luckily we will be going with tour guides when we go into the city!!)
• A visa is required to enter Russia.
• St Petersburg is 8 hours ahead of EST.
• The currency is the rouble.  Roubles can not be obtained outside of Russia.  28 roubles is approximately $1.

Other randomness to share with you:

Rob and I plan to play golf tomorrow.  I play in a golf league weekly, but Rob hasn't played in almost a year.  You know how competitive I am...hopefully this is a good idea for newlyweds!!

I have mastered the googlechrome 'Angry Birds'.  Now I just need to hope they come out with more levels....or maybe not, as I will just be addicted with getting all the possible stars for those as well!

Our new alarm clock ----- Tux the Cat

So sorry it has been sometime since I lasted updated.  This time I am going to share other things....the cats.

This evening Rob and I have a mission to keep our cat, Tux, awake.  For sometime now he has decided to be our alarm clock, meowing loadly outside our bedroom door starting at around 6am.  My 'real' alarm clock is not set to go off until 6:40am and Rob's is after 7am, so you can imagine how annoying this is in the morning.  This week however, Tux has decided to have his meowing alarm start at 5am.  Tux currently is laying on the coffee table and I am going to make sure he is awake for the next two hours by saying his name every 5 minutes that he looks like he is sleeping.

Another new fun cat trick involves Tux and Dash entering our bedroom.  Since Rob is allergic, we keep the cats out of the room.  Several months ago, we learned that Tux can open the bedroom door.  The door knobs are the kind that you push down and he stretches up and hits the handle while ramming his body into the door.  He is successful at opening the door about 30% of the time.  The funny thing is that he will open the door and then run downstairs.  Dash is the winner in this situation as he just waltzes into the room. My favorite is when I am in the shower when they perform their door opening trick.  I open the curtain to get my towel and see Dash lying in the middle of the bathroom floor.  It surprises me every time!

The newer trick to this is that as it has been hot out, we have a boxed fan in our door opening.  For the first week or two, they were scared of the fan and so stayed away.   Yesterday morning we woke up to Tux walking above Rob's head.  He had jumped over the fan and was having himself a good time.  Luckily he typically makes a noise (similar to a paritial meow) when he jumps.  This morning I caught him jumping the fan twice and had to close and lock the door for the last hour of my sleep.

Here's a picture of Dash too, so he doesn't feel left out: