lala

For lack of something better to call it.

Pic is of Uncle Bill with Julie and Sofika. Mom and Dad, if you're reading, that's the little kid (S) that fell out of her chair during mtg because she wiggled so much...the little ballerina. She's grown a bit...still wiggly, though! We had some time with them recently. Also, that's the area I was in just before specials.

So, we are done with the 'special' stuff. Ala and I came west last night on the train. We got off to a great start- 2 nice appearing women in our train compartment when we got there- BUT, they hadn't eaten supper yet...woe is me. We had the bottom bunks but they were spread out all over ours and their 2 upper bunks. They had a real spread- enough to feed a hungry army- which is typical Ukr'n hospitality. Only trouble was, we'd already 'suffered' from some rather amazing Canadian hospitality, it was 10 pm and we weren't in the mood for anymore hospitality. "No Thanks" we said "But eat up." A LONNNNNGGGGGGG time later, they were still going strong (no alcohol though- good news), chatting away. I was propped up against the wall nearly asleep, yawning (as pointedly as possible). Innocently, Ala says, "What time is it anyway?" and our 2 friendly chatters/sup-pers said, "Oh, did you want to go to bed?" We stumbled over each other saying, "YES!" They took their whole feast up to the top...but only after they'd methodically cleared off, then made up their own 2 beds up there... YAWNNNN...at least it was looking hopeful. I went to brush my teeth, wash my face- came back and Ala had made up both of our beds...I nearly cried for joy and could have hugged her- but she was already in bed. She told me tonight that it is very impolite to say "Yes, we do want to go to bed" in the above situation; these folks will suffer nearly anything in the name of 'good manners'- but then it seemed rather poor manners to me on the part of those 2 to carry on like that for so long. Especially considering that it was close to midnight and we all got in this am at 6.25- which means the conductor wakes you up at 5.30. Yawn some more. Well, neither of us was too worried about being polite after having politely suffered through their feast for an hour.

The best of it? No way we were going to comfortably make the bus this am. So, crash in bed in an empty apt- rest all day. Well, I ran some errands and putzed around a store- just for mental therapy, you know. Did some laundry. We each have our own room...ahhhhh....life's great!

Tata!

Ps- Duane: Your old friend V Yushchenko does make the news...however he's completely overshadowed these days (again) by Miss Yulia T... She's making splashes again. That, for the uninformed, is our Prime Minister; the first one is our (mostly silent- or am I missing something?) President.