:-)

From the walk home yest. Yep, it really is beautiful...even if we've had more than enough for this winter!

Still...........

Snowing. No kidding. This winter,
It. Just. Won't. Stop. Snowing.

Grape Nuts...and other yummies

How funny. I've had Shredded Wheat (the hay bale kind, not the mini's) and Grape Nuts as many mornings as I could manage while in the US and I wasn't at all ready to quit. It was a treat, in fact, to have those again. So this time, Agnes, we are poles apart. :)

And speaking of grape nuts. Did you know you can make them? You can. :) Here's how:


8 pounds whole wheat flour (28 cups)
4 pounds brown sugar (8 cups)
3 quarts buttermilk (10 cups)
1 pound butter (1 1/2 cups), melted
1 cup vinegar
3 tablespoons soda
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 teaspoons maple flavoring

-Mix ingredients

- Bake in cake pans @325F until well done

-Cool

-When cold, crumble and put back in pans

-Dry @170 F (all night/day)

(When the cake has cooled, I break it up into big chunks and then let it dry a bit before grating it- like you grate carrots, for instance.) 

And then there was this recipe recently... hmmm. oooo- or even better- THIS one! Or...this one!!! (Speaking of the above comic strip.)

And since we're drooling over sweet things we'll never make or eat (because I-don't-eat-sugar-except-when-I-do)- well, there's these...

'scuse me, I gotta go get a towel... got a little damp around here... 

I don't remember that we had a lot of junk food around the house when I was a kid but we did have Hostess Twinkies sometimes. And I LOVED them. I loved the cakey outside- mostly soft but with a little bit of brown in it. And then that creamy inside. All that yummy-ness. And then the 2 together. Oh Yum.
And whenever I'm back in the US, I have 1 or 2 or 3 for old times' sake. Only this time when I did...uh... they were just a tad sweet and hmmm.... not all that great.

Good-Bye Hostess

But that doesn't matter. I'm still going to miss them. I'm going to miss knowing that I can go eat one for old times' sake. 

ramble on

I have a bad habit of rolling through my day and thinking out mini blog posts (or emails or letters to friends, for that matter) and then never doing anything more than that.
So here's one from Dec.

- Do you know what a 'Фура' (Fura) is? It's a semi. Ever ridden in one? Probably some of you have. I hadn't- in spite of the fact that I know quite a few people who drive a big rig.
Hadn't. See, that's all in the past. Early Dec.
I was on my own, with a schedule. A regular round of visits and mtgs and buses and trains and such. And lots of bad weather. But that's a 'nother story. And I had a Fri night engagement in town 'L' and a train at midnight:40 in town 'Kh', an hour from town 'L'. No biggie, I think. L is on the main highway, lots and lots of traffic and lots of buses.
Can't buy a bus ticket, though, for anything after 7.30 pm. Odd.
No biggie. L is on the main highway, lots and lots of traffic and lots of buses.
Kids walk out to the road with me shortly after 8. We chat. We watch traffic (which is mostly 'фура's- huh). And we start to freeze. So I send the kids off home.
And wait.
And chat with a smattering of other people waiting. One woman informs me she's been there over an hour with nary a bus gone by.
huh
And we wait.
And freeze.
And wait.
And I'm wondering just how do I get down to Kh with no buses and nearly no cars.
One nice middle-aged man, the woman and I agree that if there's no bus by 10, we'll get a taxi from across the street at the bus station and split the cost.
And we do our best to flag down someone, anyone.
And Woman flags a trucker at (no kidding) 9.58.
And grabs me and hauls me up into the cab with her. And off we go.
Well- even in the dark, it's a great vantage point! I listen to Woman and Trucker talking. Woman is determined to share her entire life history. We make 'uh-huh' noises at appropriate times. And I begin to realize that she...uh...has no class at all. None. Zip.
But Trucker is a genuinely nice ordinary family-type of guy.
He doesn't, however, drop us off in town...as I'd oh-so-naively thought he would. Oh no. Trucks take by-passes. I didn't even know Kh HAD a by-pass. It does. It goes on forever and ever and ever.
2 km ON THE OTHER SIDE of Kh at 11PM, he dumps us off on a traffic circle. Sigh.
The ride cost a cough drop...he had a sore throat. :)
So now all we have to do is hitch a ride back INTO town...
It's foggy. And sure enough still cold.
We wait and wait and flag and wait.
(And find out later that it's illegal to stop on a traffic circle...no wonder the cops kept circling that one. For about 15 min. Creeps. No, they didn't stop to try to help us...just kept waiting for someone to stop and pick us up...which no one was dumb enough to do.)
The cops leave and about 2 min later a car stops. Woman tears off to talk to them and I grab the bags. And we nearly collide as I approach and she backs up fast. And says- I'm not sure we want to ride with them. And I think- If SHE doesn't want to, I sure don't want to.
And we wait another 5 min or so. A car stops- 2 guys and a woman. Going to the train station. Yay! We pile in and sail off into the foggy night.
They took about $2.50 for safe passage to the train station.

And that is the story of my ride in a фура. Which I enjoyed. But likely won't repeat.

Got snow? (yes)

I genuinely found this interesting. I'm going to see if I can remember to do this- the sidewalks are mostly ice around here. Thankfully, I don't fall much. But I'm going to make the penguin my new role model...for now. 

All this came Sun night. Really pretty. Sigh.

And a gorgeous hoar frost this morning. That lasted most of the day, actually. ;)

got snow? Uh-huh

Life can be crazy, of course. We all know it. And sometimes life is a mad rush. Mine is like that a lot...but an organized mad rush and I really quite like it.
I like the new. I like the change.
And sometimes I don't like the change. It would be nice to find a groove and stay in it. Sometimes I think that. But... I'm not sure I'd find my groove. Maybe the 'change' groove is my groove. :) The thing about change, though- it happens and you might as well like it. So, I'm looking forward to Mar. To the change that comes then. To some time spent on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, of all places, up where the Tsar used to have his winter palace. To the place they sometimes just call 'Peter'. I will love getting to know this city and I'm definitely looking forward to time spent there with someone I consider a friend whom I'm very much looking forward to getting to know better.
Speaking of change- one thing that hasn't changed in quite awhile is the fact that it snows here. For the fun of it. Every day. Lots. Still. For months. I'm sure.
Seriously...it snowed yesterday evening and all night. Yup, that's pretty. Nope, we no longer need it. I mean- I'm sure we've had enough here to share with the entire MidWest US...and still have all we need. I haven't seen a winter like this in... I-don't-know-how-long.

It is pretty though! :)
 And that's not the fresh stuff. That's last week's.
Here's some more of last weeks:

It was coming down thick and fast and wet...just as the kids were getting out of school. How cool is that?? 

Calvin and Hobbes revisited, beautifully
A taste of summer-to-come. Do this. It's delish!!!

'night you all! xo

ps- It's my baby sis' 37th birthday today!! 

That C Word

Cancer is a word you  have to practice saying. It doesn't fit nicely on your tongue or anywhere in your mouth.
A month ago today, Jan 11, in the middle of a conversation, my friend said- I have a lump.
A WHAT? I said.
A lump.
A lump?
A lump.
uh. You need to get that looked at like right away.
And one week later, I knew she was going in to get the results of her initial exams. The time for the appointment came and went and no word. After awhile, I texted her: So what'd you find out?
The answer: I have to tell my parents first.
I don't think I've come down to normal living since. There is just no way that can be good news in that context. That night, she texts: Can you come with me to the cancer hospital next Mon? I have a biopsy then and I'll need another set of ears (because medical terms in a non-native language can be daunting). (And that was the first time the C word made an actual appearance. But I didn't say it. Not then. Not for awhile. I did cry, though.)
We needn't have worried about the terminology. There was no way to misunderstand what the nice doctor was saying- Stage 1, yes, but definitely malignant.
I heard everything the first time he said it but only retained one phrase- Stage 1. Maybe because she's older, smarter, wiser; maybe because it's her- her stage 1, her lump, her body- she got it all the first time. The second time, I got it, too. I could repeat it. I retained it. I might have even said the C word once or twice. But mostly I said, to myself- Stage 1. Stage 1. Stage 1. (choke) stage 1 (whisper)
That was the sudden ray of sunshine to grasp for. The bright spot to stand in.
There was a flurry of communications. What to do? Where to go? Stay? Go back to the States?
There were definite points made for each option but in the end, my friend chose to have her surgery here. A nurse-friend told her- After surgery, you'll know more about the KIND of cells you have, what kind of tumor. You can always go back to the US then if it seems best.
Surgery was perfect. Surgeon was happy- The perfect Stage 1, perfectly contained, lymph nodes are fine, everything looks great!
So, up to and for 5 days after the surgery, we coasted along. We made jokes on facebook- jokes in which the C word was used a little more freely. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Cancer begone. And so on.
And then the pathology report.
Perfect Stage 1, ok...but a very vicious and aggressive little Stage 1. The kind that will quickly grow up, not into some funny little lab specimen but a roaring deadly lion. Aggressive. Aggressive. Aggressive.
And so treatment.
And so there's a plane ticket booked and some kind soul (or souls) back in the Golden State is doing some legwork to have things ready to roll. My friend goes back with a bit of her perfect Stage 1 in paraffin so the dr's there can pass judgement.
And I've been practicing saying that word. That C word. I hate it. It doesn't fit. But it pushed its way into our lives. Into all of our lives. When we least expected it. It was just a tiny little perfectly contained Stage 1...but it snarled and bit and left me breathless.
It's getting a bit easier. In one sense.
But I don't think that's one of those things that ever really gets easy. Not when it has meaning. Really has meaning. It's the kind of word that leaves you gasping for breath and hoping that the ride is soon over. And ends gently and stays on the tracks.

And to the very dear friend who shared her own experience with my friend (who let me read it, too): Thank you so much for taking out some of the 'scare' and readjusting the light to shine, not on a black hole but on a fresh day, somewhere in the future, when the wanna-be lion will be a thing of the past. 

If you go to Warsaw...

...make sure to go to Arkadia mall and find the E Wedel shop and have some super special hot chocolate. Mine was spicy pepper...and it was delicious! Wow! Some pepper syrup in the bottom and hot pepper sprinkled on top. Would never have tried it on my own but a friend let me have a taste of theirs and it was instant love. I'm Not Kidding. And you will love it, too! ;)

Forgot to take the before-I-drank-it pic. But use your imagination. ;)
need some Wedel links?
all the stores in Warsaw
main store-really nice but too far away for this trip
and how about just some good old all around hot chocolate recipes?

Smile!

This is Fenya. We see him nearly every Friday and he is a real sweetheart. 

25cents if you can tell me what's coming next...

And then I had to stop taking pix and go chase him off... ;)

all so appropriate

First it did this... and did it some more and some more.

Until it literally was a blanket. A swooshy looking one. 

And then I ended up with this. Although I'll have you know I didn't stay in bed. Didn't go out, though. 

ps- saw an article online- 10,000 cars stranded on roads and bridges in Kyiv, our capital. Whoa.
BBC had a bit to say
One article said Northern Ukr has had up to 50 cm (19.5 in) of snow in the last few days- more than twice the normal for December. I don't know how much we have but it's getting on toward that much, I'm guessing.

;)

my broken ankle

For sure. But aren't these cute?!
Oh My.

let's take a look out the window

A month or so ago. 

Yesterday afternoon. 

It's hard to do it justice. And I didn't go outside today to get better shots. It's just too miserable out there...

I had plans to visit A way out in Western Ukr near the Carpathian mountains. Last night a friend was here for about an hour and was worried she wouldn't be able to get back to her apartment (about a 30 min walk from here). Get off the narrow beaten path and you're in snow to your knees. And the buses? Having serious trouble staying in motion. Traffic accidents and jams and snarls. She wasn't hanging around, thanks very much. I got worried and called A to ask what was happening out by them. It's raining she says. RAIN?! I ask. Yikes. Uh, I think I'll likely not come tomorrow I say. Oh please do come she says. I'll uh see I say. But I'm thinking- this is December, it's in the 20's here (Fahrenheit) and we know good and well that rain won't stay rain. You'll have ice by morning. And I have to leave here at 6 am to catch my train. And they won't have these rapidly-jamming-with-cars-and-snow streets cleared then if they don't have them open now. I mean...this isn't New York City. We just aren't into keeping roads open like that here. Not when the day coming is Sunday and not a work day. 

I went to bed feeling troubled but also scared about getting on a train (the last time I saw the train station- at 1.50 AM Sat- the tracks in the station were blowing closed. And the wind hadn't stopped since then and neither had the snow. I didn't set my alarm knowing that I'd have a hard time not going once I woke up and knowing with my head that it was foolish to get out.

Well- 5 AM on the nose I'm wide awake. Completely. I never knew my body had its own alarm clock. It's never seemed to have that affliction before. Well- I got up and shuffled around, literally and mentally. Looked out the window. Snow. And blowing. And lots of both. What to do? I really need to go back to bed. It's crazy to even consider going. And I do. I go back to bed but I'm restless. 

A is looking forward to this. 

Be quiet and go back to sleep. 

But A....

NO! 

Well, I did go back to sleep but it was restless sleep. Woke up again at 6. Still not too late to peel out of bed and fly for the train. Like really fly. I looked out the window again and reluctantly went back to bed. 

When I came to again the train, thankfully (if it managed to get through at all) was long since gone. I'd missed it and I was here for the day. For good.

Called A later and she said- I was so worried about you. Our rain froze-there's soooo much ice- and now lots of snow on that. The roads are closed and they're telling people to stay home unless it's an emergency. I was afraid you were on the bus. Oh I'm so glad...

That made me feel better! 

So- now you know what it's like here. It's snowy. And wintery. And bad. 

And I've got chicken curry in the crock pot and it smells super! 

:)

You know how kids are all about being logical? And how it's so easy to explain the totally logical things to them? Yeah. Well- this brought back a lunch with my Sweet Sis and her Darling Kiddos. (And they are darling.) Must have been a stressful day for Kiddo #2. Who had a tall glass half full of milk. And who looked at Kiddo #3 or #4 who had a small glass full of milk. And dissolved into loud angry 'life's-not-fair' tears, sobs and wails. She has more milk than me! She does, She does! She has a full glass and I have only a half glass! Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, nothing ever goes right for me. And in the end, the only thing to do was pour her milk into a small glass (probably it didn't even all fit) and give it to her like that. Wow.

When did they start making bifocals for kids. I have a nephew (and a niece, I think) who have bifocals. One's 10 the other is 6. 

Once again, I love Peanuts!!

Snow!

The weather app on my phone is iffy, at best. It says it’s raining when it’s actually sunny. It says it will be sunny and there’s a thunderstorm. It says cold and colder and it warms up.

But yesterday it said snow all night and today.

And… we got snow!!!

We all have our moments

Someone sent this to me. I've been enjoying it ever since. (I think it came from facebook originally.)

I so get you, Sally

I have been where this kid is. I have.

And when something- anything- about math finally becomes do-able, no matter if it’s by accident, it’s totally worth celebrating.

Totally.

Daylight Savings Time

Here's an email 'Now I Know' (which I get 5 days a week- lots of little trivia stuff, fun stuff) about DST. I mostly found the map interesting. Apparently, not every place on the planet is (dumb? gullible?) enough to do it. The map is also wrong... heh. Ukraine is orange (so is Russia) and both should be blue. Believe me- we do DST here... and No, it makes no sense here, either. I'd be happy to just leave the clocks on summer time, period. I mean- who really wants it to be pitch black dark at 5 pm starting in late Oct? helloooo
And- FYI- we've been on slow time for a whole week already. Yup. We change at a different time in spring, too, I think...

Saving Daylight

Insects. Candles. Golf. Coal. Depending on who you ask, each of these three things have had a role in the "spring forward, fall back" mantra called Daylight Saving Time.

George Vernon Hudson of New Zealand, a postal worker by day, wanted more time for his hobby -- entomology, the study of insects. Hudson has taken a liking to insects early in life, having published his first paper on the subject at age 14. But there were never enough hours in the day -- literally. In 1895, then in his 20s, Hudson was a shift-worker for the post office, requiring that his hobby be relegated to after-hours. Noting that a two hour shift of daylight time would give him more time after work to study insects (while not impacting the number of daylight hours during which the post office was open), Hudson took his proposal to the powers that be in New Zealand, authoring two papers on the subject. He was unsuccessful in getting the plan adopted, but, for the first time in recorded history, someone had taken up the Daylight Saving Time mantle.

A few years later, a British man independently came up with the Daylight Saving Time concept. In 1907, William Willett, a builder, penned a paper called "The Waste of Daylight" (here) arguing that we spend too much of summer's daylight time asleep -- a terrible waste of leisure time. (While not in the paper itself, many believe that Willett originally took up the cause, in part, because he wanted more time to play golf.) He also estimated that the British economy lost over 2.5 million pound sterling due to the unnecessary use of artificial light. Then 51 years old, Willett devoted the rest of his life to the cause, proposing that clocks be turned forward 20 minutes each Sunday in April (for a total of 80 minutes) and returned to "normal" time slowly over four Sundays in September. While he managed to get the ear of a Member of Parliament and get a bill introduced, he was otherwise unsuccessful in getting anyone to adopt his plan. He died in 1915.

The early work of this duo was not for naught. The seed of their ideas -- probably more Willet's than Hudson's, due to simple geography -- were well-planted and yielded results soon after -- in Germany. On April 30, 1916, the Germans became the first nation to implement Daylight Saving Time, which they did for coal preservation. By turning the clocks forward, they burned less coal during wartime, and gained advantage of their adversaries. That advantage was short-lived, as most European nations quickly adopted Daylight Saving Time soon thereafter. Russia followed the next year, and the U.S. in 1918.

But Daylight Saving Times never has -- and never will be -- universal. The map above (larger version here) shows where DST is still employed (in blue), has never been used (red), and was once but is no longer (orange).

Bonus fact: Insects, golf, and coal are covered above. But candles? Credit Ben Franklin's sense of humor for that one. In 1784, over a century before Hudson penned his treatises, Franklin anonymously wrote a letter to the Journal of Paris, chastizing Parisians for what he believed to be lazy demeanors, demonstrated by the culutral habit of sleeping in late. Franklin, tongue firmly planted in cheek, argued in part that Parisians wake up with the Sun, in effect shifting their clocks forward, to minimize the amount of awake-time without sunlight. The goal: to reduce the need for candles. What was a joke in the 18th century became a good idea in the 20th.

Caught up on some Calvin and Hobbes today.
Seriously- how can you not love or want a kid like this, right???? ;)

I mean... he does 'have an imagination'

Slow Cooker Granola (and a few other things)- so many reasons to grin!

About a month ago, someone gave us a crock-pot. Really and truly. We were grinning so big we couldn't see to walk. No kidding.

It works great for baked beans.

It works great for soup.

And today, I'm finding out if it also works great for granola (click here for the recipe I modified) (I'm thinking it will). 

I can't stop grinning! :)

The heat's on. Yes. We have heat. As of last Wednesday...so- about 10 days already. 

The little hut in the courtyard of our cluster of apartment buildings has a wizard occupying it. I mean a shoe repair guy. But he is a wizard. Yes He Is. Thank you Mr Shoe Repair Man- my boots are fantastic!

After 1 month of visiting the torture chamber gym next door (Pilates and aggressively ferocious stretching yoga) I can actually do some of the things. Wheeee. 

We had pancakes for lunch. With cottage cheese. Oh Yum.

And we still have leftover baked beans in the fridge. Oh Yum Again. 

(And- we're supposed to have snow beginning tomorrow through Tues.)

And I hope you're smiling, too!! 

 

Guess what? It's someone's birthday! Happy happy birthday to my own dear sweet lovely mom! She's hopefully eating some kind of cake today. I wish I could bake her one.

did you know that lots of women everywhere just wish their family would bake them a for real cake for their birthday? Did you know that what some of them really really want is a homemade cake on their birthday? So if, by some odd chance, you're a guy reading this AND you have a dear sweet lovely wife...DON'T forget her birthday...and DO bake/commission a homemade cake for her.
;-)
Xo

WW I

It will soon be 100 years since the start of World War I. I've been reading some interesting (way more interesting than history class ever was) articles about the things that led up to WW I.
Time magazine recently had an interesting post on the first Balkan War.

Time's photoessay.

And Mental Floss magazine (blog posts) has been doing a series of articles.

Did you know that during the first Balkan War aircraft was used for the first time for offensive military action? And, I think I read it was also the first time to see trenches used during combat.

and did you ever think...

that I would post again
this sooooooon?
;)

No more worries! The water came on yest sometime after noon. Ahhhhhhh. I tell you- that (white ceramic 'thing') in the smallest-room-of-the-house was so happy when I wiggled its little handle. It gurgled with happiness. So did we.

And by this morning, we had hot water, too! What more could you want?!? (Mind you- in this building, hot water is only on part of the time ever. Like Tues and Thurs mornings, every evening and (all day, I think) Sat and Sun. I mean really- what would you need hot water for the rest of the time? Eh?)

I 

I made lunch the other day. It took something like 17 matches to get the oven lit. I. Could. Not. Believe. It.

This just cracked me up.

On a serious note- something I've thought of often the last 7 years, shared by an acquaintance: If there's one thing I've learned in my xx years of life it's that I never know WHAT (speaker's name) is going to do tomorrow. Best not to say stuff like- What was he/she thinking? I would NEVER do that!!! Pretty good advice, I think.

We've eaten more super yummy grapes right off the vine this fall than I ever have in my life. And that put me in the mood for grape jelly. A totally unheard of thing here. Seriously. They eat lots of fruit/berry preserves but no one ever has had grape jelly (until one of us makes it and shares it). Pectin is also hard to find here. I hunted around the market yesterday and found some locally made stuff and some Polish stuff. Got 2 pkgs of each. And 3 kgs of grapes. Which tasted good but were not exactly as juicy as I'd hoped. Did them up tonight. There are 8 sm to med jars of (hopefully) jelly cooling in the kitchen now. It didn't look too hopeful in the 'setting up' deptartment. I finally retreated to my room so as to quit looking at them. See the thing is- the pectin here just isn't SureJell. SureJell has it down pat how to do each fruit/jelly/jam. This pkg had 1 set of instructions for everything. (Tremble. I'm scared, Mommy. Ok, not really. Maybe.)

And then there was the email with this pic in it. Enjoy your upcoming sugar high, America!!!! ;)

:)

There's a torture chamber small gym across the street from us. We go when we can. This pic has nothing to do with that. But it is kind of cute... and, as K pointed out- Granny totally missed that ping-pong ball... but maybe she's good advertising anyway???? She sure is cute at any rate!

from the weekend

Nazar found these! With Grandma or Grandpa's help. He was sooooo proud of them!

Showing off. But who cares?! She's too cute. And completely FULL of vim and zip and vigor. 

K playing with the kids. I sat in the swing and watched! ;)

Trying to hatch the watermelon ball... (it didn't work)

So cute I should be a girl! 

Find of the weekend! An old (and genuine- as in- Nina's grandparents used it) wooden hollowed out log used for grinding/pounding cereal grains into submission. Now the hunt is on for the pole they used to pound the grains. (Note- it's now used as a catch-all inside the door!)

baby piggies! 13 of them! And they move fast and constantly. And they looked for all the world like rats.

Oh- and we have a crockpot! Yay!!!! :)

October

In Ukraine...there will be pumpkins and squash. Always. Lots of them. These from this weekend. The board in the foreground? That's where they chop them up for animal feed. The nicest ripe ones will be eaten by the family as porridge...often mixed with rice.

Soon to be November, I'm sure. And just where did the days go? Not long ago it was New Year's. Now it's nearly the end of the year. Old Year's. Or something.

It's that time of year when there's no heat but you wish there was. You do laundry and hang it on the lines and it's still damp 2 days later. You use your camel hair blanket (just in case you don't remember this subject which some people thought was seriously funny... harumph- you're just jealous...I'm sure!) plus wear all the pj's you have and are glad to stay under the covers as long as possible. You can use the balcony as a 2nd refrigerator. It's warmer outside than in and you're never quite sure how to dress because being inside won't give you any idea at all about what it feels like outside.

And...part of the fall routine here in this town, apparently, is shutting off the water to the whole city. Yup. You got it. The Whole City. No One Has Water Right Now. No ONE. (That means we don't, either.) That means the smallest-room-in-the-house ummmm (smellsLikeAnOuthouse). heh. That means I took a 'bath' with 2 cups of water tonight. (You want to know more? Oh.. ok. 'nuff said about that!) That means my hair needs a wash and will continue to need a wash. That means we're just Really Glad we actually did a load of laundry yesterday while we still had water. That means we ate at a pizza place for lunch today and closed our minds to the haunting monsters-under-the-bed question- Just how are they washing dishes back there with no water?

Ah yes. Never dull here, oh no it isn't!