Mother

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Risto

I have about 400 friends on Facebook. One of them is my mother. Right now, her status is, “another CrossFit torture awaits tomorrow.”

If you don’t know what CrossFit is, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. I don’t know what it is, either. I mean, I can guess that it’s some kind of a workout method, and based on what Mom told me, it’s really good. Weights, and balance, and stretching, and more balance. Agility, too. All great things for anyone, but as Mom told me, “important stuff as you get older.”

It’s no surprise that I didn’t know what CrossFit was, or is. I’m the guy who still has the exact same workout regime he had 15 years ago. It’s actually true. When I do go to the gym, Friday is still my leg day, and I do the same exercises I’ve always done.

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Tears are not enough*

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Risto

“I’ve never seen you cry”
– Son, a few months ago

Well, he’s just not been there because I do cry. Ask Wife. I cry when the world treats me unfairly or when my kids do yet another wonderful thing and the emotions are just too much for me to keep under control.

I cry out of pride and I cry out of pain.

Different kinds of tears, I know. They even taste different.

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A few simple rules of men’s room etiquette

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Risto

Part I: Urinals

1. As soon as you have located the urinals – a task that may be difficult when entering a rest room for the first time – you should position yourself at the first available one. Note: available. If the closest one already has an individual occupying it, the first available one is not the one next to him, but the one next to that one. Only when there are only two urinals in the restroom, should you place yourself right next to another person urinating.

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Guest entry

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Risto

By Son.

One unique idea

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Risto

The CEO stood in front of the entire staff, all of them dressed in casual summer clothes, and recapped the assignment that was about to cap off the official part of the conference. One more push and then they all would get back on a boat, get back to the mainland, and go have dinner at a nice restaurant.

But first, the assignment, the creative challenge that would also – hopefully – generate some solid ideas that the CEO could then use in sales. With about 40 great minds gathered in one place, she went for the kill.

“So, your assignment is to create a magazine concept for Marimekko,” she announced.

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Summer town

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Risto

In another time, some time ago, even before I used sugar water to comb my fair like Fonzie, and before I had a crush on Julie on Love Boat, back when I used to play cowboy, this town was my summer town where things were done a little differently than at home.

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Secret admirer

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Risto

I didn’t even notice the first note myself. My buddy did. We were running late to our next class so I just shoved my jacket into my locker and grabbed my biology book, then locked my locker, when he picked it up from the floor.

“Hey, you dropped this,” he said, and handed me a piece of paper that had been carefully folded over a couple of times, just enough to conceal its message, but keeping it thin enough to fit through the small opening under the locker door.

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Tweet this (no, really, tweet this)

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Risto

If you’re not already on Twitter, and are thinking about joining, don’t. If you, poor bastard, are on Twitter, why aren’t you following me?

Oh yes, I’m there, one of millions and millions of people thinking that there are people out there who’d like to hear what I have to say. All those funny observations that usually only Wife gets to hear – as well as links to my stories that I usually make Wife read – I can now broadcast to the world! To the world, I say!

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Get shorty

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Risto

If you’ve read my hockey blogs before, you know that my favorite players include, among others, Valeri Kharlamov, Marcel Dionne, Theo Fleury, Wayne Gretzky, Sergei Makarov, Vladimir Krutov, Martin St. Louis, Håkan Loob, and Mats Näslund.

With the exception of Fleury and St. Louis, they’re all older than me, and they’re all forwards. So, yes, I was born in the late 1960s and, like my idols, I was a speedy forward in my more active playing days.

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In pursuit of the right answer

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Risto

It’s been such a long time since I went to school – any school – that I don’t even get the urge to go back to school anymore. I always liked school, almost as much as Son who burst into tears the other day when Grandma tried to high-five him, saying, “no school tomorrow!”

I liked school, I liked most of my teachers, and I’d like to think that I learned something during all those years. Well, I know I learned a lot but I also know that I’ve probably forgot most of it. It’s like going back to the gym after a break. I always put the same weights as always, “because I could benchpress that much last time.”

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