Sunday, February 25, 2007

Damn cats

The kitchen has recently somehow smelled like a sandbox. I somehow guessed that it has something common with the fact that Sara lives behind the kitchen counter and the only place she uses as a sandbox is the bathroom rug. (The bathroom rug is in the bathroom, obviously. Just wanted to give you some idea about someone's hygienic habits.)
Today I was out with Juha and some other Finns and wen we came back,wemoved the kitchen counter (there was lots of whatever but no dung heap) and after I somehow cleaned the place behind and chased the poor Sara away with a broomstick, I went to inspect the cooker and discovered that the shelf for baking trays was entirely covered by cat piss and cat hair. So I cleaned it, made several disgusting remarks on the fact that the whole thing always smelled worse when i was baking and went to inspect Sara who was meantime locked in the bathroom by Juha.
By the way, Juha was making disgusted faces and things. He grew up in the countryside so he know what a real dirt is whereas I´m a city girl and I take mess as some sort of exotic entertainment.
Sara looked really pitiable. Hair sticking out, covered in dry piss... she was hiding at the bottom in the bathtub and I was just desperate. But... she let herself stroked without trying to bite my hand off and in a while she started even pressing her head against my head and then started to purr. I brought some food and then I was becoming desperate because she only wanted to cuddle. Only after some time she got the point and started feeding herself, having a hard time to purr and swallow at the same time. Meantime Tähti was yelling outside the bathroom, I was yelling at her and so was Juha, simply, Her Majesty was mistreated. I even managed to dip Sara in the washbasin (not that she liked it, she was only too weak to bite some of my extremities off) and some of the dirt went away. Then she was starting to resist and she looked so pitiably at me that I gave in and left her hygiene to herself.
We opened a bottle of muscatel ("Do you like muscatel?" "How am I supposed to know?"... he does like it....) and watched Tähti hunting. Then Sara got the point of using the sandbox (the bathroom was full of the sand thing which happens to be pure mud when wet. Mental note: buy the wooden one). Sara is now sleeping with full belly and Tähti is sulking.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Birthday party

I was raised in Central Europe where the attitude to women mixes the two approaches. In Italy women are to mess with the household and to be cute, well groomed and stuff. In exchange they're rulers of the family, their hands are kissed and stuff. Up in the North, they don't get their hands kissed and lunches paid but they can be happily independent and no-one says anything. In here we combined it. Women should be decorative and entertaining, take care of the household and have a career for which they aren't the queens of the family, they do not have their hands kissed or something and their professional abilities are commented along the lines of She must be neglecting her family.
I am aware of this, I hate this.. but I've grown up in this so it is in me although I'm fighting. So this morning I had a clash with Juha who started washing up. I told him to let me do it, after all it was my party - and his response was You think I'm not able to wash up?
Well, obviously. Somewhere out there guys can do things without asking them. Somewhere out there the girls are not taught that all the household mess is their business. I still have a lot to learn. Things like sitting and being relaxed when someone else does things, first of all.

Anyhow, I wanted to make myself a cake. I like cakes and the candles and all the stupid childish stuff and since I strongly dislike bought cakes, I just buy the readymade dough and add somce cream to my preferences and whatever might be the fancy of the day. I couldn't, however, find the damn thing in the Tesco, the lady who was sorting out something in the shelf was of no help (well, she was pretty impolite for that matter but I guess that all the personnel in the supermarkets has to go thru some special frustrations test and those who are calm and nice aren't employed there. You know, to keep the atmosphere). I met Juha-the-perfect-flatmate there so he helped me with the heaps of food I bought (not for the party, for me. I need to eat too and I was running out of anything), I decided to make tiramisu instead (did I tell you the story about tiramisu and doctor boy?), I needed to do some cleaning and I decided to use up all sorts of forgotten veggies from the bottom of the fridge so I made a nice heap of mushroom soup, the birthday tiramisu and cleaned the whole place and i even managed to dress up (including finding the right bra under my new top and doing my hair. The eyeliner refused to cooperate again. Maybe the smartasses at Dior's could invent something smarter than the stuff that always dries in the brush between two uses... or maybe I'm supposed to use it every day? sigh)
Anyhow, we dran two bottles of wine and I got three and a bottle of sambuca, the Swedes brought their own beer (I still haven't got used to the habit of drinking beer from the bottle. I know people do it but I've grown up in Central Europe where even in the suburb pub one uses a glass for it. Beer is drank from the bottle when digging your well on a hot summer day or when you're homeless.... in my kitchen it makes me nervous).
So this is Juha-the-perfect-flatmate and my good old friend Iva, guessing from her face, she's communicating with the cat. She loves cats and it's thus pretty odd how cat hair makes her nervous. It wasn't visible on her skirt anyway. Practical pattern:)
I am fat even on this pic. Note my famous triangular plates. One more reason people think me weird. They're probably right.


Blow it and make a wish... Hm, I'd like to get somewhere interesting for my Ph.D. Just the other day we had a discussion with one guy, that our shared art history nightmare is ending up in some municipal museum in Anytown, sorting out trilobites. I'll go work on it, I don't want to live a nightmare.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Some pics

I got the damn yarn and did some dyeing yesterday. Juha came home when the sink was full of something bright blue, the kitchen smelled of wet sheep and I was messing around with rubber gloves covered with strange stains.
The green stuff is for Elisabeth's sweater and it's a bit darker than it shows, the blue things are some wool for Hannu's sweater and the paler thing is angora - by the way, same dyeing bath, the angora was in it even longer.




And the sweater is a sweater. From the Norwegian yarn got on ebay. I finished it just on my birthday in the train from Brno and it is cool. I think I will sell the purple and green sweater... people like it and I don't feel comfortable in it, somehow. This one I will keep, however. It doesn't suit me, basically nothing suits me, but I like it. The cat is hiding behind it, if you miss her.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

I'm back

I somehow fucked up my exam schedule but I will skip this for now. You'll learn about it some time later on.
I promised a blog entry after February 15 but I and Juha somehow managed to fuck up the internet connection so that an engineer was needed to fix it and then I went to my parents' for a weekend and they do not have internet and then I went to a friend and arrived back home yesterday evening.
Who is Juha, you're wondering? I didn't tell you that I have this cool Finnish flatmate? Not probably. So, I have a cool Finnish flatmate. (Special note for those who like to have that sort of comments: No. He has a girlfriend and anyway and stop looking at me like that)
I ran out of yarn required for Elisabeth's and Hannu's sweater which would be perfectly no problem but meantime the mill ran out of it as well and next batch is due at the end of this year so I had to yell for help at the knitters' forum. The solidarity worked somehow so on Monday I went to Brno to pick it. And to meet an artist friend who will come in two weeks to my apartment and do something about my curtains.
I have another foster cat who is a little devil and I'm slowly deciding that I probably hate charity.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Recent developments

I wrote the two papers yesterday and today. Not long but I tried to make then nutritious.
I need to write a third one to submit on Monday and it will be a sequel to my previous successful work named like Iconography of St. Birgitta in Italy. The other one will be the same, just the things happening in Sweden. Which solves the problem of the second seminar. My medieval professor said that there should be no problem in going to two seminars of the same professor.
Now it's only some paperwork and two more exams I need now and two more exams I don't have to sit around now but it's easier to do it now.

However, I'm drained and busy because I have no time for failing exams. If you want something from me, make a nice note and tell me after February 16, otherwise I might be unpleasant and aggressive.