Kerttu and I held the housewarming party for friends last night in our new home. A very nice evening with over 20 guests. The dishes were well received, with caipirinhas and salmon rolls being the most popular offerings. Producing the caipirinhas from cachaça given by Tim was somewhat of a show, as we had to use a bokken sword for breaking the ice cubes.

We themed the evening around dishes from Russia and nearby countries. This meant lots of smetana, sour cucumbers, suhariki, churcheklas and pancakes topped with condensed milk. On the beverage side we served all kinds of improvised drinks based on Ukrainian pepper vodka, Georgian chacha and Polish zubrowka. To our surprise, several people actually confessed to liking chacha. Churcheklas, the Georgian sweets produced from nuts and grape juice were also consumed with great enthusiasm after initial confusion on whether they were sausages or peppers.

It was very nice to meet so many old acquaintances during the evening. Maud's avec Unto was an old live-roleplaying friend from mid-90s, Arwen had returned from her studies in Sweden, and the Midgard project founder Jukka is starting his own company. It was also pleasant to see my brother Ville and his wife before they depart to Brazil for the winter.

All in all, a very good evening and trial run for the apartment. Last guests left around 3am.

Today we woke up late in the afternoon, and lit the customary two candles to the windowsill to celebrate Finland's 87th indepencence day. On our way to dinner we saw the torch parade of student unions on the market square.