Instant coffee, send thought of the day, eat soupy eggs and off to work... Still no moose! They're hard to see heading to work since it's still dark, but none sighted on the way home either :( Hopefully we'll have a sighting before this trip is over. Nothing too special to report from work today. Other than I'd bought a travel mug earlier in the trip to help me survive the long morning drive. Well, the best deal I could find is one of the "picture mugs" that has a plastic liner where you can insert photos. Well, I don't have, or really need, any photos. So I decided to print out some useful Finnish phrases and put them in my mug. It's come in handy and I'm slowly learning to pronounce, "Ilmatyynyalukseni on taynna ankeriaita." ... read more

After last night let's just say I slept in and missed breakfast at the hotel. Finally getting up and rolling around noon I hit the streets looking for a barber. Remember I'd given up on the damned clippers. In my walking around Tampere I'd seen plenty of beauty shops, but nothing that looked like a truly straight male type of barber. I finally found one not far off the main drag in Tampere called "Paturi Only Male". It looked reasonable, but of course about everything is closed on Sundays and it's hours didn't fit with my work schedule so it'd have to be somewhere else or wait until next weekend. Who cares... It's time for food. I found a place called "Sevilla" close to the hotel. Seems like a chain, but it's not bad... Mostly Spanish ... read more

Easy and short day at work today. The company we're here with had an employee appreciation event and were going to the theater in Tampere at night so most people left early. Dave and I took advantage of leaving early to try and make it home in time to make a weekly status telecon with St Louis. We didn't make it in time, and guess who's fault it was? Yes, the Prius again! One of my biggest adventures so far is getting gas into the car. Leave it up to a hybrid to be tricky on taking gas. First the Prius has a hidden gas tank door opener button... And when you push it... There are lots of beeps, like you left the lights on or something? I don't F'n know... but it finally stopped beeping. ... read more

A good first night in Finland! My room was quiet, the bed was very comfy and they don't overdo it with pillows. I stuck with the pillows I had, even though they offer a "pillow menu" that I'll experiment with later. Well, first thing I got the coffee going... Like my trip to Australia the in-room coffee consists of instant coffee or tea and a hot pot. It's funny how European instant coffee is better than most American brewed coffee. The shower is definitely workable, not stereotypical European where you have to squat, sit, whatever while you wrestle around with your shower-on-a-hose. This is on a hose, but it has an adjustable holder to turn it into a normal shower. Now Dave has a tub/shower in his twin bed room, my king bed room only has ... read more

Well... I woke up just a wee bit hungover, but nothing I can't handle. Proceeded to clean up in my swanky Waldorf-Astoria bathroom, complete with marble, glass shampoo bottle, full bar of soap, plush robe, etc. One goofy thing... The shower head is on the opposite wall of the tub/shower as the tub spigot is... So you pull the nob to switch the water over to the shower and you have to wait and listen while it works it's way over, around n' up the other side of the tub. And... As one might imagine, any temperature adjustments have to work their way around there too... This delayed reaction, combined with moderate hangover, resulted in a rather frustrating shower experience. I did survive the shower though and called up the Bell Captain to put my luggage ... read more