...and we're back.

December 2, 2008:
Our trip to the Arctic Circle near Rovaniemi, Finland. After going through the pictures on my camera, I realized that all the good ones were taken with Becky's camera. Hopefully one of us will post those soon too.






December 14, 2008:
The last night in our apartment in Oulu, Finland. At this point, the only thing we had left in our apartment was our luggage and mattresses. Everything else, including the light fixtures and curtains, was moved out. This is a picture of Becky using her computer on the floor of living room.

December 19, 2008:
These are some pictures from my Dad's house in Michigan. That's a pretty big snow drift at the back door.


That's my Dad clearing the driveway.


Here's my goofball friend Eric in front of his house.

These are his bunnies. If you look in their eyes, you can see the hellfire that spawned them.

December 25, 2008:
Some pictures of Stoney Creek Metropark. You can see that I learned to stay warm since living in Oulu.

Here's my Dad!

It's Snowing!

It's the first snow of winter in Oulu!

The Pics Are Over There.

Becky posted some pictures of our trip to Turku last weekend. Click here to be automagically transported to her blog.

Daylight Update.

The sun rose today at 8:01a and set at 4:02p for a total of 8h 1m of daylight and falling.

We set the clocks back an hour over the weekend. The days right before then were a little weird. I would wake up at 7a or 7:30a and think it was the middle of the night. I woke up one morning and struggled to see the time on our analog clock, only to have the morning alarm go off as soon as I picked it up.

Picture Overload!

(Click the pics for bigness)

August 29:
This is a solid spherical stone in the city center. It is supported by a jet of water from underneath. The water pressure is strong enough to slightly lift the stone from it's base so you can rotate it. The way you can tell that it is solid stone is by the incredible amount of effort needed to get it to spin. Once it's spinning, it's really hard to change its direction or stop it.



That is not a reflection in the center of the sphere, that's a dry spot. You are looking down the axis of rotation.


September 6:
Here are some berries on a huge bush in the park downtown.


These are pictures from the rose garden in the park downtown. It was even more beautiful earlier in the year.












This is near the rose garden, in the same park downtown. It's in a little area with benches where you can just sit and enjoy the day while looking a pretty flowers.


A bee working hard on the last few warm days.


Same flowers, sans the bee.



Becky waiting patiently while I take a million pictures.




This guy can't get enough.



"Hey round-boy! Give a skinny guy a chance!"




Everyone wants a piece of the action.



I like the bright red berries in the tree.


That's the coffee shop in the park.






I'm not entirely sure why this couple is dancing in the median, but behind them is a performing arts theater.



September 8:
As we were leaving work, we noticed this. I think this was in preparation for a faculty/new student party that night.


September 9:
This is a lake very near our apartment called Kuivasjärvi.



These are pictures taken along the path around the lake.




September 23:
The morning walk to work.