survivor =biggest loser

As a sports nut I need to address a situation. With the MLS and LA galaxy's signing of David Beckham few years ago to try to get soccer's profile in America bigger and the sport more popular, here's something that I don't understand...You sign him in a multi year-multi million dollar contract, bitch and moan about the lack of success, the spectator numbers not increasing and him going to AC Milan for the winter break and then when he does deliver and gets his team to the final, you have the final be on a SUNDAY NIGHT at 8:30pm??? What's wrong with Sunday night you ask? Well lemme tell ya. Football, American football is the number one sport in this country...baseball is also big, if not even bigger but the season is over so now it's all bout football...it is played predominantly on Sundays...there's a designated slot for Sunday NIGHT football when the whole country is watching the one and same game, which this week happens to be an Eagles game...there's a designated Monday night slot which has been the same for the past 40 years...those 2 are well known and well watched TV slots...so WHY would MLS have their most important and the final game of the season be on a Sunday night trying to compete against Sunday night football? Die hard football fans who might be otherwise open to watching soccer and maybe be curious about Beckham and the final will not turn channel to soccer while football is on. This is a BAD strategy to try to win more fans...

Speaking of soccer...what the hell is wrong with the ref who allowed France's OT goal??? This very much solidifies the impression that all refs are totally BLIND! or bribed...or both! WTF? Even Thierry Henry said it was a handball...not just ONCE but TWO TIMES?!?!?!?!?! Thankfully Finland was not playing in that game cuz I would have had a heart attack and after I recuperated I would have gone and bunched that ref! I'm sorry Ireland, you will be missed!

ok, moving on... As I was laying in bed last night and couldn't fall asleep I got to thinking...Biggest loser is just like Survivor. Why, you ask? Lemme explain again...They both start with players divided into teams, in survivor into 2, in BL into teams of 2. In the beginning you play as a team, you win as a team and you lose as a team. How well you are able to contribute to your team decided whether you are staying or going home. You have a challenge in which the winning team gets a price, in survivor it starts with food, matches and other important things, with BL it starts with food lessons and dinner from famous chefs...Later on it can be special fun on Survivor, in BL money or vacations. In both shows the teams are re-divided at some point and later on join as one. Then it's everyone for themselves. The game strategy comes into play...Who I don't like? Who is my biggest threat?

There's a second challenge where the prize is either immunity (on both) or weight advantage (on BL). And who ever loses has to send a player home. If you don't perform, you might be going home...if you don't have your alliances in place, you might be going home...And there is always, always backstabbing! Which is probably why these shows are so popular...there are obviously other reasons as well but it's one of the entertaining sides of these shows.

There are usually 2 types of contestants in these shows; the players who are there to win the game, win the prize money and are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it (both), and the ones who are there for the experience (Survivor)/the ones who want to change their lives (BL). With biggest loser you pretty much can see who's who early on...and the choices you make with your prizes. This season had a major player with Tracy who was there to play the game...she has since gotten the boot. But when you are willing to eat cupcakes during challenges to get the almighty power while you should be trying to change your eating and life habits...where's the big picture?

I got into the show last season when Tiffany was watching it. I didn't see it from the beginning but when I started to follow it I was immediately a Tara fan. She bitched and moaned occasionally about having a big bulls eye on her back (for winning so many challenges and being a big threat for others) but she never lost the sight of the big picture. She was there to change her life, lose the weight, get her life back and she was willing to work her ass off to achieve it. And it wasn't just to get the money, it was for good. In this game, if you don't want to go home, you need to stay above the yellow line and you need to be willing to put the work in. And she did. She didn't win the whole thing but she also looked great at the finale. The winner was underweight...

This season I have felt like I'm cheating on my faves from last season. I don't have a clear cut favorite but I have players I dislike. I guess at this point I will cheer for Amanda as she's from NJ so I'm keeping it local!

Anyway...to get back to why I'm even talking about survivor and BL...you start up with a bunch of players, they play the game, they go through the challenges, they eliminate players and in the end one player wins the prize...and everybody loses weight! Biggest loser changes lives and lifestyles and the players get to or close to their ideal weight...with survivor it's a crash course to losing weight...you don't get to eat much, you're in brutal conditions, you have couple of physical challenges and in the end you go home a skeleton.

As far as ideas go, they are the one and the same...as far as health goes, I'd choose Biggest loser. Even if I had the weight to lose, I would never be able to survive Jillian Michaels and her workouts!

I need to go move the car..alternate side parking here...and then go to the farmers market. Later!

Halloween, this and that and the most amazing dining experience!

So it's been awhile and a lot has happened since the last time I blogged. Our friend Erin had a Halloween party and costumes were mandatory so we decided to go as Vilma Flinstone and Betty Rubble. The Vilma costume wasn't really Tiffany so she wanted to try the Pebbles costume. She ROCKED it! I have never seen anything as funny and cute as her in her costume. You agree? Take a look at the leg warmers and the shorts! they were AWESOME!

The second picture has the Village people, Erin as a construction worker, Christy in her navy white, Tiffany as Pocahontas and Sue as a cowboy...Can't remember the names of the 2 others. We apparently met them last year at Erin's Halloween party as well but I was in so much pain that I can't even remember the people from that party!

The actual Halloween weekend we spent at Tiffany's moms. I got my hair done, we went out for lunch, ran some errands and then headed to Billy and Amanda's to see Carly. She was dressed up as a gold fish...the cutest little goldfish ever! I believe all of you will agree with me when you see the pictures. Carly is the happiest little girl, she calls Tiffany "TiTi" like all the kids do and me "Neni". When she was younger I figured I'll teach her to say my name correctly since no one else will but there is no other Neni's in her life so that name is all mine. She'll learn eventually. We've seen quite a lot of Carly since we go to their house almost every Sunday to watch the Eagles game and Carly hangs out with us. I have no idea what's going on in the game half the time because I am laughing at something she says or does. She more than makes up for the fact that I am not close to my nieces and nephew. It's sad but they are all in Finland and I was never close to my sister or my older brother anyway so I guess it's to be expected. I am friends with my 2 older nieces on facebook and check out the pictures of my brother's kids regularly. But anyway...back to Carly...here are some pictures of her from Halloween and recent weeks.

Aunt Olivia caught a fish!

I don't have patience to play with the settings so the pictures are all over the place.

We spent the evening trick or treating with Tiffany's sisters Olivia and Victoria and a bunch of their cousins and friends. This was my first trick or treat experience. It was little chilly and then towards the end it started to rain but the kids were able to get a lot of candy and they had fun so that's all that matters. It was Olivia's 8th birthday on Sunday so we ended the night with birthday cake.

There is nothing to report on the job hunt front. I am still frustrated with the whole deal but sending resumes and applications left and right. Trying to stay positive...

We did not have plans for this weekend so we stayed home. On Saturday Jaime and Jenn invited us to a local restaurant for pizza. Apparently it's very famous and turned out that it's not far from us at all. There were pictures of famous people on the walls. We had to wait for 20 minutes in the cold to get a table but boy was it worth it! It was an Italian restaurant with an emphasis on pasta. I order chicken parm (chicken breast filee topped with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce), Jaime ordered the same and Tiffany and Jenn ordered rigatoni ala vodka (pasta in a vodka sauce ) and bow tie carbonara (pasta in a cream sauce with bacon and mushroom pieces). As we are sitting there waiting for our food to arrive our waiter brings out this little appetizer plate which had clams in a tomato broth and shrimp. Then the owner of the place comes to our table and tells us that it was part of their special "Chef's table" which included a lot of different appetizers and 4 kinds of entrees for 35 bucks pr person. The couple that was sitting next to our table had it and we were drooling while watching them eat. The owner leaves and them little later on comes back and tells our waiter to bring on 2 plates of appetizers, a shrimp cocktail and baked clams. I heard the word shrimp cocktail and I was in 7th heaven! Our food arrived and I said to Tiffany that I hope they'll bring out the shrimp cocktail because it's now in my head. And they did! There is only one thing that's better than great food and that's great FREE food! OMG all of it was soo good...I had 2 pieces of chicken left to take home and we had little pasta to go with that. But wait, I'm not done yet. After we stuff our faces with all this awesome food the owner comes back and asks our waiter if we ordered dessert. Then he tells him to bring us the dessert plate from the chef's table! OMG. Take a look! (Picture taken with Tiffany's phone) It had tortufo (ball of vanilla ice cream in a dark chocolate cover) covered by some more ice cream, whipped cream, 2 chocolate mousses and 2 brownies! We were super stuffed after that! And then the bill came and it was less that 60 bucks for the 4 of us...15 bucks per person! And then Jenn goes and pays for it! Thanks Jenn!

Oh yeah, we did have some pizza too. Jenn ordered a slice for appetizer so that we could taste it.

Hope you are having a good day. Later

Blow me away, why dontcha?!?

I'm little ticked off right now but calming down. Since I now live in Brooklyn and only a metro ride (or 3) away from the services of the Finnish Church of NYC I figured I will try to make some contacts and see if some of the Finns could help me with my job search. Some of them are bound to be the wives of people working for Nokia and some are bound to be wives of people working for other Finnish companies or big US companies that maybe would be able to help me...Last week on Thursday I went to the office to see what it looks like and meet the people. There was nobody there but the downstairs neighbor let me in. I figured I would get some DD and then go back. Still noone there so I left and came home. Today they had a "Brooklyn Ladies and Gentlemen", an informal gathering at the priest's house. It was raining, it was cold, I used the last rides on my metro card only to get there and not have any indication as to which apartment it was. At the office there is this tiny finnish flag at least and so I was expecting something like that here as well. Nothing. So I called Tiffany and asked her to check out the website if there was a apartment number on the announcement. This was funny since she doesn't read/speak Finnish so I needed to guess what the links would be called but couldn't remember...but in the home page it said Brooklyn ladies and gentlemen is held on FRIDAY 15th of October. Awesome. Today is THURSDAY the 15th. In their event calendar this was put into the Thursday 15th spot so I think I was there the right time. Tiffany texted me the office phone number but all I got was the voicemail which was old. Recorded before the summer about their summer hours etc. So that didn't help. So I left and came home. That was a bust.

Tomorrow is another great day...it's grocery shopping day! Woo Hoo! I think I have a system for this one. Restricted carts won't stop me this time around!

Later!

I'm this close to going bananas!

Grocery shopping. What comes to mind? If you are in Forssa you're thinking city market or Euro probably. Lots of room, not a lot of people, good selection and AWESOME parking. If you are in Jersey (and me) you think Nutley Shoprite, little crazy, always busy and just up the street. Easy breezy....If you are in Brooklyn....TIME CONSUMING!

Let's back up a little. When we first moved in together, we did go to grocery shopping together. Due to T's aisle rage and me being home we decided it would be a good thing if I did the grocery shopping my myself while T was at work. It saved both of us from loosing our minds and kept our blood pressure in check. I had something to do during the day and T came home to full fridge and freezer.

Since we moved to Brooklyn a week ago we've done grocery shopping twice. Last Sunday together since T saw a Italian market she wanted to try and we REALLY needed food for this week. And me by myself today. Brooklyn and Nutley are 2 VERY different places, lemme just tell you. First up this morning was to move the car to Wednesday's side parking. We have street cleaning every Wed and Fri so the street needs to be cleared. Parking on those days is a nightmare! I drove around for few minutes until I saw a Wed side parking. I wasn't sure what time I was gonna go grocery shopping so it needed to be done. Then around 11 when I did decide to go grocery shopping I realize that the low tire pressure sign is on. I called T because it's her car to ask if I should go shopping or take care of it. The Getty's gas station right around the corner had a lot going on but I was able to take care of it. By that time it was almost noon. Now I wrote the directions to the grocery store down so that I knew where to go. Let me just say that there's a lot going on in the streets of Brooklyn. If it's not a stop sign on every corner it's lights...and cars are driving WAYYYYY faster than the limit says. And I'm not the owner of the car so I need to be EXTRA careful. Thankfully I at least now have a jersey driver's license which at some point (sooner rather than later) I should change to NY...for the longest time in Jersey I was driving with my Finnish license. but anyway, moving on... I was not happy with the Italian market so I wanted to go to a major chain. No A&P's close by so I ruled it out. There was either no Stop and shops or it was so far away that I wasn't comfortable driving there so that was out. BJ's was far away (for me) and I would have had to take the highway...no thank! Trader Joe's was close enough but I can't find everything we needed there so I went to Shoprite. That's where I went in Nutley as well. Getting there was OK, just took some time. The parking lot was a total nightmare with the crazy minivans (I now know what you mean babe) and delivery trucks and people who thought they are F1 drivers! I found a spot in the furthest possible corner which later I found out to be a major mistake!

Since this was the first time in this shoprite it took me awhile to find everything. I was also on the phone with T a lot because we had to discuss the selection. 2 hours and about 6 phone calls later I'm outta there. I felt I was deserving of a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and since there was DD right there before I headed out I got myself coffee. I get out of the store and WHAM! The cart stops moving. I unload my stuff to another cart, try to get down the ramp again and WHAM! it happens again. They had one of those carts that when you get far enough from the door it stops working. I guess to make sure that the homeless people don't steal them but damn was I pissed! I had about 7 grocery bags FULL of food and the DD iced coffee. So I felt like a mule carrying all those bags and the coffee. Was good times. Totally. Looking forward to doing it again in 2 weeks...or not.

I got home just before 3 and got a good parking space on the side of the building. It took me 2 trips to get the groceries inside and now I'm just chillin. Will meet T at the subway in about half an hour, make some dinner for us and then just chill for the rest of the night. Tomorrow's a new day and I will take on the farmer's market, or Jenny market around the corner. It's meant to be with that name!

I just saw Saku Koivu's interview on ESPN. Cool seeing Finns on TV here. And speaking of sports...I'm glad I can go back to hating Ferrari with a passion! It was really hard cheering for Kimi while he was driving Ferrari but next season I can just hate them again!

While we live in BK I am gonna try to connect with some Finns in the area. Next week I am gonna try to go to the Finnish Church in Manhattan and check out the happenings there. And for those of you who think I might have seen the light or whatever...dontcha worry, still as atheistic as can be! It's just for making connections, maybe getting some salmiakki or other Finnish candy and for reading Finnish newspapers etc. I also signed up for Finnish meet up. It's a bunch of Finns and friends of Finns/Finland getting together once in awhile to talk about stuff. I was already contacted by another Finn who just moved to NYC with her husband and a baby. She thought I had a kid because I put a picture of me with Carly in there. Oops! Will need to e-mail her and tell her that is not the case!

I will blog again one of these days...Later.

p.s. DC is a no go. they did not invite me for a personal interview. Sigh. Job hunt continues.

I can't believe I live in BROOKLYN!!!

How surreal is this? Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be living in Brooklyn!

For the past month I was packing every day and little by little the apartment was packed. On Wednesday night we were up until midnight doing the final packing, took apart some furniture, our bed being one of them and slept on the couches in the living room. Thursday was the moving day and we got up at 6am, got some Dunkin Donuts and waited for the guys to come and help us. Our new landlord Chris, Tiffany's brother Johnny and Tiffany's friend Calvin were our work horses. We took a load of stuff to our storage place...it is now packed from floor to the ceiling. Then we packed the van and headed to Brooklyn. I was driving Tiffany's car, Tiffany was driving Chris' car, Johnny his own, Chris Calvin's and Calvin drove the van. I have never been so nervous in my life as I was on the turnpike. Tractor trailers sandwiching you on both sides passing you 70 miles per hour, trying to follow Johnny's car so I didn't lose him as I didn't know where I was going and here if you miss your exit the next might be tens of miles away. I also had to go to the bathroom badly so that drive was not fun. And then we hit Staten Island and the traffic was barely moving. Can you say good times?

We were moving until about 6pm so the whole deal took almost around the clock. After the guys left we went to the deli across the street and got sandwiches. We were up until midnight again unpacking and made some progress. On Friday the cable guy came to hook up the TV, Internet and phone...Woo Hoo, we have TV! Some more unpacking and the place started to look like home. On Saturday we had Chris' birthday bbq, did some shopping for the new place and did 3 loads of laundry. On Sunday for Eagles game we went to a local pub that shows all the games, had a few ciders/beers and some chicken wings. For the rest of the day we finished up the apartment and watched some more football. We are done now. It was a bit a bit challenging putting our stuff in the closet space here as there's a LOT less available space but we managed. It looks really nice and cozy. We like it. Now we kinda hope that we will stay here for longer than a month. Or not. I can't decide. It's really nice place and the neighborhood is awesome and moving is a bitch but at the same time I want this job in DC. So lets hope they call me...later this week, early next week...

Since we moved here, on both days this week I've gotten phone calls about my resume. Yesterday someone called about a Environmental Engineering job in Morris County, NJ. She said she will give my resume to the hiring people to set up a phone interview...will see if that happens. My visa status might be an issue even though she said it might not. This morning someone called me about an Environmental Manager job placed at Merck in NJ. After I told him about my visa status he said they were not sponsoring visas right now so that did not work out...but it looks like I am getting noticed at least.Can't do anything about the visa status...

I gotta eat some lunch and take a little walk around the hood but I will post some pictures and blog more in the days to come...or later today...

Later!

September

This month has been great so far. Especially the 3 first days. Wanna have a job in Kazakhstan? No thank you but thanks for the interest! Wanna interview for us for a position is DC? YES, absolutely! And then Happy Birthday!

I spent my birthday with my 3 girls. Tiffany was home "sick" for my birthday and it was awesome. The cats had saved from their allowances again and Bailey got me 4 "Jaws" DVDs and Sox got me the Miss Congeniality DVDs. Tiffany took me to Red Lobster which might be an annual thing...LOVE Red Lobster and bought me a waffle maker. Before you say anything bad about my waffle maker you should know that it makes COW and duck shaped waffles! Isn't that awesome??? I saw it the day we took the cats to see a vet and now I have one! Woo Hoo! I'm so excited but I won't open it until we move to Brooklyn.

My birthday was very low key, just the way I like it. We walked to Dunkin Donuts, spent an hour by the pool, and watched 2 of the Jaws movies. Few weeks ago was Sharks week on Nat Geo channel and we got talking about the Jaws movies and how great the shark was for movies produces in the 70's...Sox picked up on that but didn't have enough money so B got them for me. that night was the last Eagles preseason game and Michael Vick was playing a lot so we stayed home and watched the game and ordered a pizza.

We went to Red Lobster on Friday and then on Saturday we went to T's mom's for dinner. We were playing around with Carly who can now say my name and is just talking mile a minute. She's like a little parrot, repeating after you. I asked her what her name was and she said "me". LOL! She is the cutest little girl ever! We might see her again on Sunday for the Football season opening...Make her an Eagles fan...

For the rest of the weekend (It was a long weekend, Monday was a Holiday) we laid by the pool, sat outside, packed a little and went to a street fair in Nutley. It was a nice little walk and an preview of things to come when we move to Brooklyn. Speaking of Brooklyn...we are moving in 2 weeks and still have a lot of packing to do. I better get to some of it today.

I had my interview 2 days ago...it was a phone interview with my future boss should I be hired!hehe...It's an Environmental Scientist position for a company in DC...they are doing the phone interviews this week and then will get back to the people who they wanna meet face to face at the beginning of October. Interviews in DC would would be at the end f October and I don't know if the job would then start in November...I am really excited about this opportunity and hope to get a call back. I thought the interview went well, obviously there is always improvements to be made but who knows...Unfortunately I am not making the decisions! But She sounded really nice and I just hope that I am what they are looking for. This was my first real big time interview so even if I wouldn't get the job at least I have some experience now...

What's next? More job hunting, more packing and a move in 2 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for a call back!

Today is the 8th anniversary of September 11 terrorist attacks. I am so grateful that Tiffany got out of the city that day alive. I love You baby.

Hope

I think I might not be a lost cause after all...After months and months of silence all of a sudden I have 2 interested parties asking about me! First yesterday I got an e-mail about job opportunity in Kazakhstan...Needless to say I am not interested in going there unless they offer like 10 million dollars per year! Then this morning I woke up to an e-mail from a possible employer from DC wanting to do a phone interview next week! YAY! I will try to stay calm and not get overly excited so that I don't jinx myself but...YAY!

I also made an appointment with my career counselor at MSU to do an mock interview next Tuesday. He told me when I saw him that as soon as I hear something, to contact him and he can help me prepare for it. So next week should be interesting.

Sox is feeling much better. After last Thursday's Doctor's visit when she got an injection of antibiotics she had trouble going to the bathroom and was having diarrhea. After the initial problems she did not poop for 3 days and then when she finally did, it was on a bathroom rug! Now she is ok but not too happy about the diet she's on. Sox is eating the same food she was on before but smaller portion. Bailey is on a diet food and is actually enjoying it. They are going back for a dental appointment on the 16th and for booster shots on the 19th.

Tomorrow's my Birthday! YAY! We are going to Red Lobster for dinner, which is my fave restaurant here...Seafood is SO YUMMY! Other than that I don't know if we have plans. It's a holiday weekend here, the end of the summer so hopefully there will be a party somewhere. We also have a lot of packing to do so that will take some of our time.

Now I must go back to job hunting. Later!