Monday, hot, packing, hot, messy, hot

we knew it would be this way...

In other uneventful hot (HOT) summer news

• we're moving- very soon- next Tues, in fact. Uffda. I'm sorting, pitching, packing, re-sorting, pitching more and re-packing. 
• it's hot- VERY VERY hot. Tomorrow and Wed come complete with warnings to limit outdoor activity. Some official somebody or other has made the recommendation that all lunch 'hours' be extended to last 3 or 4 hours to protect people from the extreme heat. Well I'm all for that. As of right now. Call back in 4 hours as I re-emerge from some glorious siesta. Oh wait- it's 10 pm. Yeah- don't call. Call tomorrow between 10 and 12 or from 4.30 pm to 7 pm. Got that down? Good. ;)
• I have not yet been killed from afar by my mild-mannered little brother or his lovely wife for that series of pix I posted yest. I'm waiting for the earth to tremble. Maybe it won't? Ken? Miss? You there? That was a hilarious bit of skyping yest... just like old times! xo
• part of the sorting took me through the file of medical papers from a year ago. Ok- I've been basically healthy all my life and my little blip last year was nothing compared to what a lot of people have been through BUT- wow- what a circus it was (for me). Was just starting a year ago next week. Makes me tired to remember it. Looking at the reports- there were heaps- dated every day, every other day then down to every 3rd day, once a week, every 2 weeks. Very few breaks. In the middle of it, I came across the path report- benign fibromyoma. I kept that one. Pitched most of the rest. I'm thankful for good health. Again. 
• Have I mentioned the heat? I have. Ok. Well it's still HOT. 
• Hard to picture icy sidewalks and slush and cold and wet feet just now.

So long and good night! ;)

B Skype

someone had poison ivy...

There's F! Long time no see Buddy! He's a 3rd grader now! Yikes.

Brothers! Little O goes to Kindergarten in 2 weeks- whoa! Since when do tiny babies go to kindergarten?! Oh- you say you're not a tiny baby O? Oh, 'scuse me. I must have blinked. sighhhhhhhhh

Sorry Aunt Nita- gotta scoot...

...there's a bike race outside... (I even lost Daudy to the bike race... he seemed to think he needed to help the grandsons watch the bike race.)

at the risk of getting slaughtered, I offer you this charming series. Yes, folks- he's my little brother... a clown and all around good guy. And he makes his wife (and me) laugh! 

Ahhh yes- I've missed chatting with you guys!
the phone connections tonight were rotten but we managed to have a great time anyway! ;)

Monkey skype

one thing about busy summers- I miss chatting with my babies, with my siblings. Well, in the past 24 hours, I've gotten most of them. Need to track down a brother yet. Here are some pix from tonight... as done by a doting auntie! ;)

Jboy- I think he's a panda...or a dog... not sure

Momma's little girl- wherever Momma is, that's where she is

enter JM

Ma had a story to tell- Aunt Nita- Last night I dreamed. Do know about what? I dreamed there were *Thomases all around the house and I was inside. I didn't have my silly putty then. We hadn't bought it yet. (*as in Thomas the Tank Engine) Only Momma says this only came to light after Twinnie had a genuine nightmare and everyone found out about it. (Oh- are we doubting the authenticity of the dream, Momma?) :)

Let's play crawl on Momma!

Then there's this Monkey. She's the quiet one (at least when it comes to talking to Aunt Nita). She hangs out behind the chair and watches. She does smile! Little Girl- you don't know how much you remind me of myself. Round face and head and hair and all. Yikes.

Spent a lot of time here the past 2 months. Will be there again this fall. The lady at this home loves flowers.

bases loaded

 This was yesterday's Peanuts re-run...
And just once- Just Once- I wish they'd win...
Poor Charlie Brown.

Neighbors to the North

In early June, I had a week in Moscow. My 2nd time there. First was Dec, 2001- it was -31F (-35C) when we saw Red Square that time... this time was a little warmer!
The week there was great. Wonderful. Fantastic. We had a free day- which we used to take a walking tour of part of the city. Following- some pix of that! ;)

Outside Red Square

 Sponge Bob and Spiderman were there too

The Kremlin. They were getting ready for Russia Day (I think) Festivities on Red Square, so most of it was roped off.

St Basil's Cathedral

Chocolate store inside GUM (Dept Store)- severely tempting place!

leaving. I love archways!

Tomb of the unknown soldier and the eternal flame. We saw the changing of the guard... weirdly fantastic. I think the soldiers each have a 1 hour stint. I'm glad I'm not a Rus'n soldier...

remnants of a wall built by the Romans

Monument to Mendeleev- the 'Daddy' of the Periodic Table of Elements- who gave me ulcers in college. 

Pavlov- he of the dog fame. Another old 'buddy'.

the most bizarre building we saw. I wanted to go explore it but it wasn't on the bill! Not sure it's open to the public, either...

Ah yes... now that, across the way there is really and truly a Starbucks! No, we did not get any closer than that...

look up! beautiful sky!

and what have we here? Pickup trucks are rare over here... I like to take pix of the American ones when I see them! ;)

checking out the map of the Moscow Metro- exceedingly vast, complex and useful.

another church. Just like Ukr'ns, Rus'ns love their huge cathedrals. This one has a controversial history, though, as it was built after the fall of Communism when the economy was terrible. People were barely getting by but thousands of dollars were spent on this building. Apparently, it is still an issue of conflict today.

The Moscva River. 

construction workers busy cutting cement...there was a guy with a shopvac sucking up all the concrete dust as the other guy cut the cement. No dust blowing around. Lovely! 

this last one was taken as we were leaving Moscow... one of the metro stations is a beautiful series of statues/memorials to soldiers. This one of the soldier with his dog is supposed to bring you luck if you rub the dog's nose. Dog's nose is shiny yellow while the rest is dark. All's gone well for me lately... but I doubt it had much to do with me rubbing Poochie's nose! ;)

flying mice and plastic wrap

Back in time to late June. We'd just arrived to the north of Ukr from the south. First day there, first breakfast. I'd rescued a bunch of peaches (but they weren't for b'fast, mind you), cut out the bad spots, sugared them, etc... but it was time to eat and, knowing that a table full of people doesn't really like to sit around and wait for one straggler to show up so's they can all dig into their grub, I grab the bowl of peaches (there are HEAPS of flies, after all, and 1 minute unsupervised would surely have resulted in the humiliation of those peaches by those nasty beasties), yank open the plastic wrap drawer and grab the wrap and a pair of scissors and head for the table in the other room. A quick glance assures me that they are not really ready yet, so I spin around, head back to the kitchen table, park the bowl, flip that roll of plastic wrap around (I should say that the plastic wrap is just a cardboard tube of plastic without a box- sort of naked or something)... just as a mouse dizzily crawls out of the middle of the tube. Without a minute's thought or hesitation, I let out a bloodcurdling scream- it's pure instinct- and fling the mouse as hard and far as I can. The wrap goes sailing, too, and I drop into a chair. The mouse disappeared (but was found later, dead- it had also been eating poison, it seems).
A fairly large audience gathered right away and we all had a good laugh.

I don't scream a lot but when I do, it's for real and hard to ignore. Like the time in Odessa, fall, 2006, climbing the stairs to Anya's. Linda's following an old man and I'm following her. And a rat (RAT!) scampers down the stairs right at us. I let out a scream of pure terror and the old man in front sags into the stairwell and gasps weakly Oh Lord. I thought he'd died. And I thought Linda would die laughing.
We don't see rats very often but for some reason, all that winter we saw them in Anya's stairwell (she lives in a 9 story apt building). The worst was 3 on the way up and 1 on the way down all in one day. I managed never to scream again... but it took all my courage and willpower to make myself enter that building, knowing what I'd encounter. They were there all winter every single time we went but I've not seen one since. It's still hard entering that building, though.

shudder

hot hot hot!

It’s been hot. Really hot. So hot that any movement at all prompts a waterfall from every pore.

We finished up down south and I came north with some of our visitors, who were leaving. Arrived about 7.30 am Tues. It was hot (possibly hotter) in the south but a whole lot less brick and concrete. All that brick and concrete just soaks up the heat. And the 13^th floor Kyiv apt? Wow. Not much air moving up there. You couldn’t dry off. So I trotted out to find a fan. Electronics store about 10 min away. All the customers were clustered in one corner so I headed that way. A mound of boxed fans and a line of people waiting for fans. I queued up. And then found out there were 2 fans per box and the lineup was for people who were buying one- an employee was breaking open the boxes and assembling fans right there. So- I grabbed a box and headed off to the cash register. Long line. No one had anything except fans. The cashier was asking every customer the same question: One or two? I got the giggles watching all of us clutch our fans and inch ahead in the line.

Back home, someone assembled them while I got lunch. Turns out one was defective and wouldn’t run. Went back right after lunch- fans were all sold out so I got a refund. So, we all just shared the one fan. And were jolly glad to have it!

Today, coming back from the airport after seeing Kim off, saw an electronic board with surface and air temps: Air temp- 95. Ground temp (I’m assuming the highway temp)- 151 (!) No wonder walking on pavement made you feel like you were cooking. Had a huge thunderstorm complete with flash flooding of streets (whee) and hail on our way to the train station. Trude and I are headed east on the train tonight…arriving at 4.20 am. Oh yay! ;) I’ll bet it’s not 100 F at 4.20 am.

Haha

What I Miss

This is the most special time of year, hands down. I wouldn't want to miss it for anything... which is a good thing because I do miss being in the US for the 4th of July. But I'm glad to be here! We have visitors, we have 80% preparedness (as far as blankets, pillows, sheets and towels go)... we are nearly there!

But in the meantime- Happy July 4th! Happy Independence Day! Have a picnic and watch some fireworks for me! We sang the National Anthem and sent each other sms'es. The rest is up to you! xo ;)

down a hole?

Nope- just busy. Really busy. Summer, after all, is the busiest time of all.

• Finished off with lots of rain and lovely days in Poland.
• Flight from Warsaw to Moscow via Riga- some airlines now charge at the check-in desk if you don't check in online. Good thing. Only as I was printing off my boarding pass the night before the flight did I realize I'd been mistaking the time of arrival to Riga for my departure time from Warsaw. Whoops. I'm not an airhead. No really, I'm NOT. I'm not not not... (not always)...
• There's something special about seeing Moscow when it's -35 C... it's even better in the summer! ;)
• We have preps kids. Many. They're great. This year's crew gets so much done in 20 min that we'll all be lounging around drinking Coke and painting our toenails by the end of the week. I can't wait. ;)
• Ukr is the home of Roshen Chocolate. And is it ever good. Like really good. Like Eat-your-heart-out-Hershey's good. And does it ever taste good with pretzels. Oh yum. (I'm just going by what I hear of course...)
• People always ask: What are some traditional American foods? (Because there are many traditional Ukr'n dishes.) And I never know what to say- they seem to vary from family to family. Today I made baked beans- beans, onions, mustard, brown sugar, molasses, ketchup (tomato stuff of all sorts, in fact) and ham/bacon (please- we don't have just what you're used to here!) on top- a huge hit. And if that isn't traditional American (along with hamburgers, of course), What is?
• My room for once is a mess. Trude was in here with me until Sat... then she pulled up stakes for parts West... so for 1 blissful week I am the sole denizen of this nest room. It's great lonesome... and messy... and about to get cleaned up! ;)

 sandals from a Ukr'n village. Take cord of some sort and weave back and forth across the top of your foot and through the loops on each side. I so want to try some! But these are sort of for display...

 It rained. A lot. An awful lot. On and on. We walked sloshed off to Mika's house. Through the muck. Lillian fell. I did, too. Wow. Thanks for the Crocs, Mom! (Ok- let's just be honest here- I fell way more 'fallier' than Lillian- I went Whap. And missed a cow pie by mere centimeters. Everyone laughed. Even me. But I sure got up in a hurry.)

 Moscow has Dew! ;) (So does Warsaw, come to think of it. Ukraine, get your act together!) ;)

Sleeping in somebody's slippers is great if you're small with a tail and 4 legs... and if the slippers are in the sun and your belly's full.

Zoo! Zoo! How about You, You, You???

The kiddos were dropped off by Dad at 9 last Saturday. They came in happily singing something about "...going to the zoo, zoo, zoo; what about you, you, you?" Ok- so we've got willing participants for the day's adventures. at least at the beginning! up the escalator at the metro station. Make careful note of that purse on Little B's shoulder. She loved it; came in proudly carrying it- Dad takes T aside ASAP and says- you might want to dig around in B's purse- their passports and money are in there. We took custody of the passports and money. Little B kept the candy and juices. At the end of the day, when we were getting off the tram at Amy's stop, Little B suddenly says Where's my little bag? And no one had a clue. I honestly had no idea if it had been minutes or hours since I'd last seen that darling bag. :(  At least the drinks and candy had long been consumed by then. And it was some good candy- Mambas- enough for all of us to have a package! Thanks, S! :)This shot was irresistible. He stood there. I shot. What can I say?

Tuna salad for lunch. Amy picked out the ingredients- a real plus to have the kids' former nanny make that decision. When we said what was for lunch, A immediately did a happy dance. With corn? he asked. Yes, I said. Another round of Happy Dance. It was  big hit!

Don't worry Mom and Dad- no children were harmed in the making of this shot, everyone wore helmets (we just ummmm ummm photo-shopped them out, looks more natural, Ya know? Oh- they didn't have helmets? Oh... well... they didn't climb too many fences... not by too many dangerous animals. They're not missing limbs are they? whew)

H's shirt: I can't help you... I'm stuck to the couch. heh.

H is a born daredevil. He's standing on a disc that rotates when it's pushed- sort of like a merry-go-round, if you remember what that is/was. Most of the kids were content to sit, hang on or walk beside it. Not H- he immediately found a way to make it interesting.Not to be outdone, Big Bro A comes over. But it's scarier than it looks when Mr DareDevil is doing it. Come ON, A- Get going...and a graceful dismountLittle B wants in on the game. (I thought this was where the purse was lost... but it shows up in later pix... It was either the powdered sugar-topped waffle stop or the cotton candy stop. Must have gotten left at one of the tables. )

All in all, it was a great day. The kids were troopers- they walked and walked and walked. They were fun. They were cute, entertaining, happy, overjoyed by unexpected things (the brownies, small suckers (lollipops), tuna salad).

The next day, asked Dad if they were tired that night. Yes, he said. And cranky as caught cats. 

heh heh Well, it was a good day! :)

And F, S, A, H and B? I'm going to miss you! A lot!! xo