Where's the Owner's Manual?

A few months ago my hairdryer stopped working. I was getting ready for work one morning and it just stopped dead in it tracks. Dead. Ever since then I’ve been using my ‘backup’ hairdryer…one of those $9 no-frills ones from Bi-Mart that I kept around for those ‘just in case’ moments. Lately I’ve noticed that it’s been frying my hair, and since the only thing I like fried are French fries and chicken strips, I broke down this week and bought a new one.

Yesterday morning I took it out of the box, plugged it in, and flipped the switch…and got…nothing. I flipped the switch again, reset the power-surge button, and still nothing. I looked down at the hairdryer in frustration and realized that I was flipping the wrong button (duh). So I flipped the other switch and still…nothing! Why was this so hard you ask? Because my hairdryer has SIX different

options!

Ceramic

You can turn it on or off?? I thought ceramic just was…

as in a ceramic pot. Ceramic tile. Ceramic figurines. Never heard of turning those off??

Hot/Warm

Pretty standard option

Turbo Boost
wow, sounds powerful! (can't figure out how to flip the picture...sorry, but you get the the idea)

Cold Blast (pretty standard option here)

The elusive ‘on’ switch

(again, can't figure out how to flip the picture in blogger)

And last but not least…my favorite

The Ion Select (TM) Dial

The folks at Revlon clearly mean business. Not only do I have to somehow learn how many ions my hair needs, I also now have to figure out the color coded system. Does my hair need Red, Yellow, or Orange levels of ions?!

When did hairdryers evolve into finely tuned scientific devices that have to be calibrated every morning?? I just want something that will dry my hair!

Farmers Market

Good News: I bought these lovely flowers yesterday
Bad News: They're already wilting.
But At Least: that means it's finally warm here and that June-ary is finally over!

Good News: I bought some fresh, local strawberries
Bad News: There's no picture because I already ate them. All of them.
But At Least: that means they were as good as I was hoping they'd be!











Farmers Market, Flowers, and Strawberries.
Can't beat a Saturday with 3 of my favorite things!

Suomi
(That's apparently the correct name of the country I'm in)


I made it here without too many mishaps and was checked into my hotel by 2pm this afternoon. Despite only getting 3 hours sleep I took advantage of the beautiful sunshine, put on my flip-flops, and took off to explore the city. I get the impression that the weather's not usually this nice and so there were tons of people out having picnics on the Esplanade. The city is a little more modern than I expected, nothing really looks more than 100 years old (if that) and there aren't really any skyscrapers to speak of. The city reminds me of a smaller Copenhagen, which I guess isn't too far fetched, as I am in a Nordic country and Helsinki is smaller than Copenhagen. My hotel is in the same building as E&Y and I also saw the KPMG building-I don't know why I think that's so funny, but I do.





I really like how many parks there are--Kind of like the park blocks but nicer (the grass is actually growing and not just mud with patches of grass!) I think I'll bring my book along with me tomorrow so that I don't feel so weird just sitting on the park benches!

I also stumbled across the largest H&M store I have ever seen and I'm not gonna lie--I was pretty darn excited! I first became addicted to H&M when I was in Aarhus and I got giddy with excitement the other day when I realized I would probably be able to get some new, fun, relatively reasonably priced clothes on this trip! I probably spent more than I should have but really only looked at about half of the store...I guess I'll just have to go back. I also spotted a Zara that will have to wait until after work some day next week.

Does anyone have any idea what this is?! It's perched next to the sink in my bathroom and the only thing I can think of is that it's some sort of hand-held bidet...which is why I refuse to touch it!

Don't Say I'm Not Domestic

Lots of food + 3 borrowed tables + 8 borrowed chairs + 1 studio apartment + 10 friends =

1 incredible Easter

I thought the table looked pretty good

Yes, I was channeling my inner-Jan / mom-ness

Can you believe these were only $10

(I love Trader Joe's!)

The Easter group sans Emily

(Ben, Matt, Diana, Nathan, Megan,

Andrew, Eveling, Jon, Brittany)

I'll post a picture of her later...blogger won't let me upload anymore right now.

I love this shot of the open dishwasher and trashcan

And the most important lesson of the day:

Don't mess with me when I have a knife in my hand!

Making Papa Proud

All afternoon my nephew Gage kept telling me he wanted to play with the crocodile that his younger brother Cole got for Christmas. Unfortunately, the crocodile was already packed away for the trip home and we were not going to unpack everything just so he could play with it. Brilliant aunt that I am, I pretended that I had no idea about the Christmas present crocodile and instead got out the Crocodile Dentist game in my parent's game closet (are you following me with all the crocodiles roaming the Baumgartner house? I could mention the pet crocodile my dad had when he was a kid, but that might just confuse the issue...)

So I pull the Crocodile Dentist game out of the closet and put it on the carpet for Gage to play with. The gyst of the game is this: you put the plastic teeth in the plastic crocodile and pull its teeth out one-by-one with these little plastic pliers. If the crocodile closes its mouth while you're pulling (or should I say extracting) a tooth, you lose. (And yes, I think this game must have been invented at the North Pole by Hermey the "I always wanted to study dentistry" Elf).

Gage looks at me and says "I need gloves Aunt Diana" and I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about. The house was warm, so no need to wear them for warmth. The plastic teeth are pretty easy to pull out--it's not like the pliers are going to give a 3 year old callouses or require work gloves for protection. So being thoroughly confused I tell Gage that we don't have any gloves...and luckily he was easily distracted and moved onto playing with something else.

A few hours later Gage again asks for the crocodile and I again suggest that he play with Crocodile Dentist and he again informs me that he needs gloves and I am again thoroughly confused. Lucky for me my brother Lans (who I think wins the award for the best daddy ever) is in earshot this time, runs out to the car, and comes back in with a little plastic bag that my dad's assistant Karla gave Gage that morning when he visited my Dad's office.

And suddenly Gage's request for gloves made complete sense:

As a side-note I think my favorite quote of the day was: "I'm going to the dentist. Do you know the dentist's name? (long pause) PAPA!"

More Information About Me Than you Probably Ever Wanted to Know
My older and much wiser friend Deb tagged me, so here it goes:

Five Things I was Doing 10 Years Ago:
1. Living the good ole’ High School life
2. Learning how to drive
3. Listening to Mmm Bop by Hanson
4. 4th of July in NYC
5. that’s about it…I guess my life was kinda boring

Five Things on my To-do List Today:
1. Wrapping Christmas presents for my family
2. Go to the symphony with Mom, Dad, and JB
3. Coordinate delivering Christmas presents for the ‘adopted’ families
4. See Jessi’s new car!!
5. Vacuum (like that’s gonna get done)

Five Snacks I Enjoy:
1. Dried pineapple slices from Trader Joe’s.
2. ICE CREAM!
3. Wheat Thins and Cheese (Tillamook, of course)
4. Granola Bars
5. Gum—does that count as a snack?

Five Things I would do if I were a Billionaire:
1. Buy a house in the West Hills and on Maui
2. Retire (and volunteer more)
3. Travel more
4. Establish a scholarship fund
5. Buy the Acres’ compound, tear it down, bring back the horses, and restore the beautiful view at my parent’s house

Five Bad Habits:
1. Biting my nails--I don’t think the last 2 months of not biting cures me. Once an addict, always an addict
2. Doodling during church
3. Talking too much--everywhere
4. Eating too many desserts
5. Analyzing things too much

Five Places I have Lived:
1. Mom and Dad’s House ( Corvallis)
2. Lincoln Ladies Apartment (Corvallis, Oregon)
3. Børglum Kollegiet (Århus, Denmark)
4. Menlor Lane (Tigard, Oregon)
5. “the Dorms” (Portland, Oregon)

Five Jobs that I’ve had:
1. Owner of a berry ‘stand’ at the end of my driveway w/ Jess when we were kids. I think we made less than $20 the whole summer
2. Sterilization/clean up guru at Dad’s office
3. Teaching Assistant & Student athlete tutor. My most ‘famous’ (liberal use of the word) students were Derek Anderson and Bill Swancutt
4. Auditor
5. SEC Compliance Manager (don’t ask, I still don’t know how to explain what it means).

Five Things you may not know about me:
1. I am slightly obsessive about my pencils—0.5 lead is all I will use. If a 0.7 pencil shows up on my desk I will throw it away. I’m not kidding.
2. I LOVE wrapping presents; when I was little I asked my mom if they had professional gift wrappers, because I wanted to be one.
3. I took piano lessons for 11 years--but I can’t really play anything other than Christmas music (all of which was cut to fit into my 45 second allotment for Nancy Johnson’s Christmas concerts)
4. I was born with a tooth
5. I used to read Trivial Pursuit cards to make me fall asleep.

Is it Too Much to Ask...

...that if a guy asks me out he knows that my name is Diana and not Diane?
I guess it's just another one to add to the list.