Another day (or 2) in paradise

The creeps clowns that broke into the apartment back in August busted the lock and a zipper on a brand new (grrrrrr) suitcase of mine. They also cut the luggage strap that was around it... they could have simply popped the lock since I'd snapped it shut simply to keep the zipper pulls from moving...hadn't bothered to reset it from the factory default 000. And the strap could have easily been unwound. It made me madder that they destroyed perfectly good stuff when they could have just gotten into it with less effort than it took to wreck the stuff. But- I guess you don't have time to actually think about piddly stuff like that when you're busy taking (or at least looking for) what isn't yours to begin with and you're probably nervous that S' going to walk in the door at any minute. Whatever. Sigh. 

Anyway- S looked at the strap last week and said- Why don't you just get the shoe repair guy to sew it back together?  So I did. Made a little stop at this kid's (no kidding- if he's 18, I'll eat my proverbial hat) shoe fixin' stand. Waited 5 min while he sewed on a really cool and interesting heavy duty sewing machine. 

And let my phone (and its camera) look around the inside... he's neat as a pin... unlike the eccentric shoe repair guy up in Kyiv...

Need a new heel? He's got your kind...And he did a good job on the strap, too! ;)

So- now I'm 'here' instead of 'there'... And 'here' is where we find this charmer! Irina (Ira- pronounced "EE-rah") 2 (or 3?) years old and a pistol if there ever was one.  We spent a bit of time with her...

and her big sis "Daryna" (she's not lacking in character, either, let me tell you! The whole family eggs her on and winds her up and she can really tell a story!) Her big sis Christina and Dad and Mom were there, too... but pix of them were not a success...so we'll just leave them off!

and then came home and did some more quince tonight... only this didn't turn pink and isn't quite as tasty as the stuff we did earlier. But it's still yummy! And smells delicious. Honestly- I walked into the grocery today needing granola ingredients... these were right inside the door... the first thing you saw and the first thing you smelled. And that whole part of the store did smell sweet and fruity and quince-y. There was no way on earth to just leave them there! ;)

 And then... got a major snack attack. This is left from my birthday... and was burning a hole in my consciousness... Someone donated Reese's PB cups to a (good?) cause; someone else sent Snickers Crunchers. Oh Groan. I eventually found my pumpkin seeds and consoled myself with them... although I'm not sure they're exactly low cal or low fat. Ah well. These little packages of chocolate goodness will come in handy some other time... I'm glad they survived the night! :)