Happy Father's Day!

To Mike and all the other daddies out there. Thank
you for all the work you do and the love and kindness
you show to your children. May this be a special day
for you. Tucker, Mia and I love you very much

linda

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Short Mia Movie

Hiya. I just posted a very short movie, made up of a few still shots that Linda took this morning. Just kinda fun.

BTW, we never did hook up with the Loucas at the Ferris wheel today -- their daughter is sick and they couldn't leave. :-(

Playtime

Playtime
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

I've mentioned before that there's a set of play-things in the main park nearby that the kids like to romp around in (and on). Here's a shot of Tucker playing "Spiderman". He's literally singing the Spiderman theme song, and shooting webs before he swings. Tuckerman, Tuckerman, does whatever a Tucker can...

Small things

2:21 PM -- Mike here

All is quiet in the other room, except for an occasional "quiet!" command coming from the floor where Linda is lying, and a chorus of "somewhere over the rainbow" interrupted by her coughs. Naptime may just not be happenin' today, as we have to leave at 3:30 to meet up with the Louca family at the Ferris wheel today.

Bacha and Tucker seem to have a pretty competitive relationship these days, for the most part. Oh sure, Tucker spontaneously says "I love Bacha," and has been seen to protect her from everyone including Linda and me, but overall they both spend a lot of energy keeping an eye on the other to make sure that they get their fair share of whatever the other is getting. And God forbid somebody tries to take something of the other's -- however a 3-year-old defines ownership, that is. I can now officially add "referee" to my list of qualifications.

Today, Tucker had a long time-out when he broke the "never hurt Mama" rule. Something she said upset him, and he purposely scratched her. I came to Linda's rescue on my shining white horse and sat Tucker down in the time-our chair, giving him one simple key to regain his freedom -- to answer the question: "what's the rule about hitting Mama?"

His answer was "no" for what must have gone on for 30 minutes, as I patiently and quietly sat in the chair across from him and read "Life of Pi." I happened to be reading a passage where the main character's father was teaching him a difficult lesson, so it gave me strength. Besides, we happened to have lots of time, and I was enjoying my book. After a while, I made it easier and easier for him -- telling him what the rule was, for instance (the rule is "don't hurt Mama"), and asking him what it was. I wanted to hear him say it. It finally got to the point where he clearly got the message, but just wouldn't knuckle under and say the words to me. So I let him get up on the condition that he apologized to Linda and told HER the rule. That worked.

Then we went shopping, and the first thing Tucker said to me as we left the building was "Papa, I love you."

Anyway, I fear that having what are essentially twins is going to be a long power struggle between them -- not to mention us. Balancing their individuality and their identity as a pair is going to be interesting. They each need things of their own, and they're just necessarily going to have to learn to share. They're going to have to learn when to "work it out" on their own -- without killing each other -- and when to ask for mediation/arbitration (without being a tattle-tale). If it comes to a knock-down, drag-out fight between them, I'm not sure who'd come out the winner, or at what cost to the loser. Tucker is sweeter, but as brutal as any 4-year-old can be (he turns 4 on the 28th). Bacha is tough and headstrong, but just plain smaller. One of these days there will be a no-holds-barred fight before we get a chance to jump in, and Linda and I will be left to pick up the pieces.

They had a verbal argument at the dinner table today about who-knows-what. Bacha shouted a stream of gibberish at Tucker, and he shouted his version of the same gibberish back at her. This went on for a while, 'till it ended up with a classic ping-pong of "nyet! no! nyet! no!...", finally being resolved by Bacha's emphatic "DA!" as she resumed eating. I guess she told him! Linda and I just watched.

We had planned to go to a children's performance today, but apparently the actors left. <shrug> Happens, I guess.

I crave small, mundane, "normal" things... A large tumbler with half a dozen large ice cube, full to the top with 24 ounces of diet Pepsi... Light switches that are largely out of the reach of a 3-year-old, and INSIDE the bathroom (!)... A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, made the way I like it... NPR... Crickets...

For father's day tomorrow, we're going to meet friends at a nearby "childrens' restaurant." They have such things here, and I'm interested to see what it means.

2000 tenge and toilet paper

Linda Here...

I took Bacha out yesterday afternoon to buy toilet
paper etc. Rebecca wrote and had suggested that maybe
some time splitting up the kids would feel good and it
did. Thank you.

Bacha and I ventured over to the honey store as we
call it. It was the first place Mike found honey.
When you eat the honey here, all local, you get quite
a rush. It reminds us of the shots of grass we used
to get at Jamba Juice in San Francisco. Yes, for all
of you from other parts of the country, in California
besides drinking coffee you can get shots of wheat
grass for a quick buzz.

It was a quiet uneventful walk to the store. It took
about 10 minutes. There were taxis and mud puddles to
maneuver around. Bacha held my hand the whole walk
without incident. She wanted to be let loose when we
got inside the store but I wouldn't let her. I think
she and I have come to an understanding. I have taken
the Baby House suggestion to heart and I am being
really strict with Bacha, at least on two counts. She
knows when she has to hold my hand and she also knows
that the interior of her nose is mine.

I bought shampoo and Q-tips at the first booth. The
lady saw me coming and responded immediately to my
pointing. She said the amount but I could tell she
didn't expect me to know what she was saying. As she
said the numbers she punched them into the calculator
and turned it towards me. Of course, this was the
smart thing to do. I pull out a 2000 tenge note and
got my 1640 change back.

I asked Mike for 2000 tenge before we left. Mike
carries all the money and I track it. We negotiated
this system and it seems to work. Although this might
be one reason why I haven't ventured out much on my
own. Mike has been the primary hunter and I the
primary caregiver.

I wanted to bring back a little something for Tucker
on this trip so I found him some socks with soccer
balls on it at the next booth. Bacha and I walked
once around after that. The building houses booths in
a U shape with aisles made of one booth in the middle
as we found most of the buildings do. There were
about 15 booths in this building, 3 in the middle and
the rest around the perimeter. Each booth has one or
two salesclerks in it.

This seemed like a good day to buy Bacha something
girly. I found a booth that had toiletries and
detergents. I saw that the nail polish was only 80
tenge (about 65 cents) so I had Bacha choose a color.
You can't touch anything. You see everything through
plexiglass. This booth was larger than the others and
had two salesladies. I would say it was about 20' x
6' deep. I gave the woman a 100 tenge coin and got
back my change.

When I go to a store I seem to be compelled to spend
whatever money I am carrying with me. A good reason
for Mike to hold all the money on this trip. As we
were circling the store again I thought it might be
nice to buy Bacha an outfit. I love little girl
clothes but didn't want to buy much before we left as
I was unsure of Mia/Bacha's size. I noticed a booth I
had shopped at the week before for underwear. All the
underwear I had brought from home for Mia was too big.
The woman behind the counter was quite nice and
acknowledged me as I had walked by the first time.

Not all the ladies in the booths are friendly or even
acknowledge a shopper. Some will sit and do cross
word puzzles or keep their backs turned for awhile
while you look at the merchandise. I have noticed
when shopping with Sveta that she would not
necessarily wait for an acknowledgment from the sales
clerk or even wait her or our turn. Sveta would just
shove her way in and speak up leaving everyone else to
wait. The only time I am comfortable doing this is
when we are getting on the planes in-country where we
were told if you are travelling with children to move
ahead. As you board the plane you just make your way
to the front of the line and sit where you want. There
are no assigned seats.

The woman at the underwear/clothing booth was engaging
me so I went to her booth to find Bacha's outfit. I
didn't see anything I liked through the plexiglass so
she looked down at the base of the display and pulled
out a plastic bag with a stack of bellbottom pants in
it. They all had a little bit of glitter and so cute.
I am not really up on the latest fashions, but if two
years ago is any indication these clothes will be in
style in the states next season. They seem to be
ahead here. Must be the European influence. After
several tries with my tape measure we didn't find
anything that was the right size. The saleslady
pushed the display out - it was a wheely thing about
3'x 3'x 3' and we stepped into the booth.

As the saleslady was undressing Bacha to try on the
pants Bacha grabbed the ladies cheeks and starting
squeezing. It startled the woman but she took it in
stride and they both started speaking Russian. It all
sounded very sing/song. Bacha was laughing and the
saleslady seemed delighted. We found pants and a top
that we were happy with. The prices were handwritten
on the tags. Which I just pulled out as I am writing
this. The washing instructions on the pants are in a
strange sort of English. Oh, this is interesting, the
instructions read:

Whshed Derection
1. Do Wash by hand
2. Don't Blench
3. Mid Iron(150 degrees C)
4. Only Dry
5. Don't Reach
6. Only Chlorine

The total came to 1400 tenge, about 12 dollars.
Unfortunately there are no sizes on the garments which
makes it tough to buy for Bacha or anyone else. I
paid the lady and we moved on to another booth.

Next we went back to the toiletries booth and bought a
bar of soap - Camay for 60 tenge. This was to replace
the bar of what I thought might be olive oil soap
bought at the Green Market. The Green Market soap was
only 25 tenge (20 cents). It is plentiful at the
market and unfortunately must be made of leftover
animal parts - we couldn't stomach the smell although
it made some nice lather.

I still had a few tenge left so I stopped off at one
more booth. I thought I would have a little fun as
the sales clerk was young and looked friendly. I
asked her for "large men's black socks please" she
smiled good heartedly, I laughed and I walked over the
the spot where I saw the socks I wanted and pointed.
I said "bolshoy spaciba" meaning large please. She
wrote out 45 whereas the socks she showed me read 39 -
42. I nodded and she pulled out a pair for me. I put
down 120 tenge and we were done. Oh, but I still had
toilet paper to buy - the original impetus for the
trip. The lady at this booth was not very engaging
and ignored me as long as she could. Unfortunately
this was the only booth with toilet paper. The
toiletries booth didn't have any - it is all very
strange. I paid the 190 tenge in my small change that
was left and we were out the door. Bacha was
delighted to carry her bag of goodies and we set off
for home.

bye for now.

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Morning peace, evening fun

11:55 PM - Mike here

The kids went to bed less than an hour ago, as we had a late night "out on the town." A few days ago, Chris (of another adopting couple) met a man name So Jun (not sure I'm spelling that right). Chris was out and about, and suddenly heard this Kazakh man speaking flawless English to Ena, his interpreter. Turns out that So Jun is an American of Korean descent who came to Kazakhstan two years ago on a peace corps mission. So they arranged to meet for dinner, and invited the rest of us out. So there we were tonight on a street-corner seat, eating awesome Shashlyk and drinking good beer, talking about everything. There were nine of us altogether, including three children.

Tucker and Nastya (Chris' daughter) had a lot of fun running around in circles (Nastya is ten), and Mia ate salad and flirted with anyone who would engage. All in all, we had a great time. We really needed a night out.

OK, so we weren't keeping a "low profile" tonight. But there's only so much "low profiling" one can do before going postal. We'll probably meet So Jun again at his favorite restaurant in a few days. A friend of his owns the place.

This morning, we enlisted the help of Sveta and Alexander to take us for a drive. The best part of the drive was when we visited a little town made up of hundreds... no, probably thousands of dachas. These are little summer houses. Shacks, really -- most of them. But this little village was out in the country a bit -- maybe 20 minutes outside city limits -- and I can still feel the involuntary deep breaths I took just walking around in the peace and quiet.

We were hoping to accompany Chris, Nastya, and Ena to a lake nearby for an overnight getaway, but we're probably going to decline after being advised against it by Sveta. I guess there's a slim chance that someone could ask us for papers, and since the paperwork on Bacha hasn't been finalized yet, we could get the Director of the baby house in trouble. I don't understand it, but we're unlikely to take the chance at this point.

Linda is sounding worse. She's had a nagging shallow cough for several days now, and tonight's little excursion to the cafe didn't do her any good, as it was a bit chilly. Even the blankets provided by the restaurant didn't completely help. She's also wrestling with a nagging hip problem which she's had before. I keep thinking that we should try and enlist Onisis Louca's help -- he's a chiropractor. At the least, Linda's going to try and get a thorough massage soon.

The Road Less Traveled

The Road Less Traveled
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

We visited a small village outside of Kokshetau, comprised exclusively of "Dachas" -- small summer homes. We saw almost nobody there, but clearly people visit frequently because the gardens are well-kept. It was a much-needed respite from the chaos of the city.

Visit to a Mosque

Visit to a Mosque
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

One of the things we visited today on our drive around Kokshetau was a small Mosque. Even at the most crowded times, maybe twenty or thirty people come here. Usually only two or three.

You know you're a long way from home when...

You know you're a long way from home when...
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

...you see this on your television screen.

Windows

Windows
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

Kokshetau seems to be made up of huge apartment complexes and small houses. The apartments complexes have a very Soviet-Era feel to them: stark, simple, large. The little houses are on the outskirts of the city, and there are often gardens and pens for animals. During this morning's walk, I heard a rooster crowing just behind this house, and I could smell cattle. This little house was one of the nicer ones.

Sweeping

Sweeping
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

A very common sight around here is to see people sweeping the sidewalk -- especially in the morning. Even the sound is telltale. And they all use the kind of broom that Americans only usually see witches riding (or Harry Potter). They're made out of tree branches tied together onto a handle.

Tucker at Breakfast

Tucker at Breakfast
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

Tucker was the first to join me at breakfast this morning -- very rare, indeed. He usually sleeps like a teenager.

Mia Blows Bubbles

Mia Blows Bubbles
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

Mia was fascinated by the bubbles. It seems that most 3-year-olds are.

Running in the square

Running in the square
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

One of our regular stops along our walks is one particular square, with a fountain, the statue of Avla Khan, and a little stage. It's funny. We look for things to entertain the kids, and we find that the highlight of their day can be a walk on a wall, or running up and down a ramp. Doesn't take much sometimes.

The Rest Of The Story...

7:50 PM -- Mike here.

Our morning excursion was, well, difficult (read Linda's last post). But more on that later. We just got back from our afternoon excursion, which was a quite long stroller trip to the lake from our apartment. Sveta told us at one point that it was straight down the main road we're on (I think it's called Gorky). Sure enough, it was there, although quite a "stroll". There ended up being several groups of kids swimming in the lake when we got there. Even a little beach -- actually quite pretty. On the way, we passed some sort of rockpile of a monument, which we let the kids climb on on the way back. There were lots of big apartment buildings -- the old Soviet-looking kind similar tot he one we're in now. There was one very interesting compound that looks like a school of some sort. Very new construction made to resemble a castle, with a gate all the way around. We called the place the Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry, and I told Tucker that we'd found the long way to get there (most people have to run headlong into the wall between the Shashlyk man and the egg ladies at the green market). Also, there was one building/house that either had some sort of official purpose, or it was the house of somebody very important. It was right on the lake, and had a big (like 10-feet-tall) fence made of steel, and security guards outside.

We stopped by the market on the way home (actually well out of the way of home) to get dinner, and just finished. Now, I'm struggling with pretty bad allergy symptoms -- the worst so far on the trip. Didn't take my Claritin this morning, though I often don't need it. Oh, well.

Oh, and the water is out again, so no bath for the kids tonight.

This morning, by the way, I actually did get up early (even after staying up very late to post movies). OK, so it was Bacha's crying that woke me up. It happens a lot. I guess she had a bad dream or something, or maybe she just wakes up disoriented. Anyway, I got up early enough to take a really long walk, all by myself. And I do mean alone -- the whole town is deserted at 6 AM. I even went to where the green market is, and I really had to convince myself I was in the right place, it looked so different. Spooky. I ended up all the way on the other side of town, past the Zhekebatyr Hotel that we stayed at two years ago. I was actually hoping for some good video footage of somebody walking their cow along city streets, which is one thing I remember from our last trip. No luck. Anyway, I came back to the house in a really great mood. The rest of the family was still sleeping, and I still had time to stretch and then prepare breakfast.

OK, OK, so now regarding this morning's excursion... I believe Linda said I was "almost miserable" or something. Well, OK, I deserved that. In fact, she was being kind. By the time we actually left for our morning walk (90 minutes after we said "OK, time to go"), some of my morning mood had worn off and I was indeed quite testy. Then, BOTH kids were being uncooperative and I did, as Linda said, start to "lose it."

However... <ahem> I just want to say that there is another side to the "bubble bottle" story (and my "ill-timed" lesson). Not worth dwelling on it here, of course. In the end, we went to the park, and both kids had fun climbing and blowing bubbles. For the record, Tucker ultimately did learn a lesson about sharing when his bottle ran out of soap solution and Mia's was still going strong. "She's not sharing!" he said. Awwwww...

Also, Linda mentioned that she has her moments. Don't we all. It is, for instance, not I that has been walking a fine line between composure and insanity over Bacha's disgusting snot-eating habit. Also, I wasn't the one who, at the end of this morning's excursion (the very same), made a pleading, sniveling Bacha find her own way out of an ankle-deep mud puddle after she insisted on walking into it. <insert evil snicker here>

OK, OK, enough already. I should say that over the years it has been part of Linda's job to keep me from taking life too seriously, as is my tendency. Usually she does this by getting me to laugh at myself, and today was no exception.

Breathe. Eight more days 'till we leave for Almaty. That's about 16 more little excursions. :-) Of course, then my day actually gets tougher in a lot of ways because Linda might be working full time, leaving me to play Mr. Mom for the two beasties until school starts.

Pitiful crying coming from the bathroom now, as Bacha is beside herself over the lack of water. Both she and Tucker love bathtime, but Bacha lives for it. Ha ha hahhahah. Laughter now, as Linda fills the tub with COLD water (not sure why there's cold water when there's not water at all). Apparently it was not OK to just have a sponge bath. It's freezing cold, and Bacha is screaming with delight every time Tucker dumps a little thimbleful of cold water on her back...

...some time later, there are tears again as Bacha is pulled, literally kicking and screaming, from the tub. She cheers up when she gets a chance to say hello to Omi and Opi (grandma and grandpa on my side), who happen to be on the telephone. Preevyet! Kak dyela? Kak dyela? She says over and over again... (Hi! How are you?)

9:43 PM... The kids are finally going to sleep. Late night. They're wired, and we're fried. It's still very much light outside, by the way.

Notes and today so far...

Karen, the name of the book is "Mama Loves You" by
Caroline Stutson it is also nicely illustrated by John
Segal. It is published by Scholastic. It was sent
to us by Mike's cousin Bob and his wife who live in
NJ. They have two daughters and were happy to share
some things their girls outgrew. It is really a very
cute book and a good travel size.

RoseMary, no I am afraid that not many Kazak families
adopt the children here. For some reason it is just
not done. I gathered that it is either not well
publicized about the baby houses or the people here
just really don't want to believe that people would
abandon their children. The children are not being
adopted by locals, but there are people here that know
that foreigners are adopting these children and don't
want them to.

Today so far...

My husband is bordering on miserable. It was hard to
get out of the apartment today lots of potty time and
pushing, more of "she's touching me" etc., but we
finally left for a short walk as we wanted to get back
early. It was like herding cats. Tucker wanted to go
one way, Bacha wasn't moving, Mike was ready to head
back to the apartment after 5 minutes. I kept us
going and spied little plastic bottles in a booth. I
read the bottles and saw the word "bubbles". Mike was
so pissy he just kept naysaying everything and was
sure these weren't really bubbles. I was ready to
swat him one. Sure enough he opened the container and
it was bubbles. Cost 25 tenge. I thought great this
is it, but Mike opened the container up and asked them
to share, yes he was really pushing it today. All
Hell broke loose in front of the booth. The three
ladies inside were giggling. I started laughing as
Mike was instructing Tucker on this very important but
I dare say, ill timed lesson of sharing. Mike was
sure this was a good time. Mike finally broke down
and bought one more bubbles container. The ladies had
it ready for him. Ahhh... how are we going to last
one more+ week. As it turns out we are leaving
Kokshetau on the 24th instead of the 22nd.

Mike is taking a nap now, maybe he will be in a better
mood when he wakes up. Of course this is not to say
that I don't have my moments. It just happens to be
Mike's turn to lose it.

Oh well, no nap for Bacha today.

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Tickets Home

Hi. Mike here.

It's been brought to my attention (thanks, Susan) that I haven't been clear about the current status of our plane tickets home. Here's the straight scoop.

We are currently booked on the 29th of June -- all four of us. This is a new development, and required some coordination between Eldo (that's Eldo Miller -- our awesome travel agent with Golden Rule Travel in Kansas), and the KLM agents in Almaty. We have not yet paid for those tickets, however, as this requires that we appear in person, holding documentation about Mia. So we won't be able to actually pay for the tickets until the 22nd (at the earliest), or perhaps as late as the 27th. That's because we think we've always been scheduled to travel to Almaty on the 22nd, but there's some confusion about that, as our interpreter seems to think it's the 24th. We'll find that out today. If it's the 24th, then we might have to wait until as late as the following Monday (the 27th) to seal the deal. But we're told that the tickets are held until we pay for them, so there shouldn't be a problem.

Also, there's one little final detail that needs to happen once we pay for the tickets. This involves having Eldo enter the ticket number into his system in the States. Worst part of this is that there's at least a 12-hour turnaround time on this because of the time difference. Yeah -- Oi.

The back-up plan is that we also have tickets held on July 5th -- same situation.

There you have it. Clear as honey (Myud). Bottom line is that we should be leaving on the 29th, but it's not a done deal yet.

Green Market Movies

OK, so what do you do when you have a lot of time on your hands? Post Movies! I just uploaded three more movies (for a total of four today). This last batch is of the infamous green market (also called the bazaar). I made these movies by holding the camera at my side and shooting as we moved, without looking at the viewfinder or anything. So the footage is a little shaky. Also, I had Mia's hand in my other hand.

The "Hardware" movie shows a building where you can get anything having to do with hardware. Just don't aske where the vendors get theirs stuff...

The two "Outdoors" ones show a typical day in the rattier part of the outdoor section. There are other parts, too, and perhaps there will be more movies to come.

Enjoy.

Mama Loves You

Hey... new movie just in... very cute...

Bored

Hiya. Mike here. I don't have much to say today -- Linda pretty much said it all. I will mention that I found today difficult because I'm getting really tired of the routine. So much so that I'm planning on getting up really early tomorrow and taking a walk -- just to break up the routine. I might take some pictures, maybe some movies, or I might try and fulfill my fantasy of coming home with eggs, bacon, and the makings for pancakes. I won't even try to find maple syrup, so I'll get some jam and make the thin style pancakes (they call them bliny) here -- I like those anyway.

Everyone is asleep

Linda Here...

Perhaps this is a good time for me to write. The
household is asleep. Mike on the sofa and the kids in
the bedroom. It is 3:30pm. I sung the kids to sleep
about an hour and a half ago. They were wired after
our walk. Our routine is to wake about 7 or 8am
depending on when they get to bed, we eat and then
leave the house about 10. We return after a walk and
shopping of some sort - today it was for crayons.
Lunch was at about 12 and they went down for a nap
about 1pm.

We had leftovers from the party last night for lunch.
All the food was ordered from the military school.
The pea soup is really nice. Which reminds me, Mike
must have written about the soldier we met the other
day who told us he was studying to be a firemen. He
was thrilled to hear us speak English and told us of
his travels to Arizona, Texas and California. We
still laugh when hear that those men and women are
studying to be firemen. Just how many firemen can
there be in Kazakhstan. There doesn't seem to be that
much to catch fire.

The vegetation here consists of poplar trees (cotton
everywhere including my throat), lilacs (which were in
bloom when we arrived), peony, mustard and I know
there is lily of the valley because Sveta bought some
for us a couple of weeks ago to decorate the
apartment. There are more plants of course, but I
don't know that there is a lot of variety. There are
no large Noble trees as they are thought of in
Spartanburg or much if any ground cover like the kudzu
we all know and love in the south.

We are just a block away from the flower market which
might resemble the flower market in San Francisco -
well no, not really. This is a strip of about 10
stalls on either side of the street. You can buy
roses and carnations they all come wrapped to go in
that specialty plastic foil.

Tucker asked today when we might be coming back to
Kokshetau. He says he really likes it here. I'm
glad. Today at the Tsum a woman stopped me after
hearing me speak English. She pointed to Tucker and
Bacha and asked in very broken English if they were
kazak. I told her yes. We were able to tell that she
wanted to use the phone to call a journalist to talk
to us. I told her we were tourists but I could tell
she thought there was more to our story. Mike said
she wanted our phone number or our address here. She
started to follow us as we were leaving the building.
We were not interested in being interviewed as that
would really detract from our "low profile" status, so
we said goodbye. She understood and left. I would
love to let people in Kazakhstan know that the
children being adopted in the U.S. are doing well, but
as we understand it, not everyone in KZ believes that
having Americans adopt the children here is a good
idea. It is all a bit complicated and very political
- I will leave it at that.

Tucker is liking Bacha more today than yesterday. We
had such a nice break last night when we had our
adoption party. Tucker and Bacha got a break from us
and each other. We are all a bit more at ease.
Although I still heard, in a very whiny voice, "mama
she's touching me" during naptime today.

Bacha knows the words art box now. We bought each of
them a box for art supplies yesterday. Bacha loves to
use her scissors and Tucker is doing lots of coloring.
Bacha also knows garbage and will happily throw
anything away for me. She also likes to repeat the
word "no" as she hears it from us a lot. We try to do
lots of redirecting, but sometimes you just have to
say NO.

We are here in Kokshetau one more week, but really we
would be happy to leave tomorrow. Of course if I
carry all this yarn back we will have to pay extra
baggage on our flight from Kokshetau. Though we
probably will anyhow. I don't have the driving trip
back and forth to Tchuchinsk anymore to crochet so I
am not making so much progress.

My respiratory issue seems to be allergies as the
runny nose, coughing or sore throat is intermittent.
This dry cough is driving me crazy as it catches me
off guard in the middle of a sentence. I always have
to have water handy. I still can't believe I have
allergies as I grew up without them. It has been
about 7 years now and they seem to get worse every
year. I have to remember to carry and drink water.

I'd like to answer Sherry's question about the status
of women in Kazakhstan, but I don't feel like I have
been gathering much info. I asked one of the
interpreters and she said women have a lot of power
here. I asked another interpreter and she said women
have no power here - that this is a man's country. I
could use some help with more specific questions. I
have asked some questions but they can get lost in
translation. One question was "can women have any
career here". The answer was yes.

Women can hold political office. We had a female
judge. The prosecuter for Tucker's court was a woman.
One of the driver's wife is a dentist. All the staff
including the pediatricians at the Baby House are all
women. The booths at the bazaar are staffed with both
men and women. The men work the auto, plumbing and
building areas and the rest of the areas are mixed
mostly women though. We are seeing more women drivers
this trip. Women can drive here in Kokshetau but I
would think it might be more difficult for women to
jump in to the drivers seat given the speed, no lines
in the road, potholes etc. You really have to be
ready to change a tire, as or driver this and last
time had to, at any time. There are more women
driving in Almaty as there were two years ago. I
would say that the roads are better there and more
road services are probably available.

Women carry themselves well here - they would have to
have excellent posture to walk in the uneven muddy
roads in the pointy toed spiked heels that most seem
to wear. Older women don't wear spiked heels but they
still have on fashionable wedges. The women come
across as very intelligent and capable. It is funny
when I think back on the Pimsler Russian CDs I was
listening to. We were laughing the other night that
the men on the CD had these deep voices and the women
sounded quite meek. The CDs seemed to be made for
American businessmen wanting to meet Russian women
with translated phrases such as "would you like to
come to my place for a beer". Needless to say that
the CDs were not all that helpful for learning the
Russian that we use. Of course the tapes were made
for travel to Russia which is quite different than
Kazakhstan.

Another part of Sherry's question was about religion.
Our interpreter Sveta told us that all religions are
practiced here. I have not seen any opening garbed
women Muslims although the literature tells us that
the country is 40% Muslim. There is a Catholic church
here. The priest is from Poland. I visited the church
last time we were here. It is a new church and quite
nice. It is made in the log cabin style that we have
seen in a few places. There is a museum going up on
our street in this style it would remind you of a home
on Lake Tahoe in California.

Though the priest is Polish at the Catholic church
most of the faces we see here are Russian or Kazak.
Sveta told us that there are many Germans living in
Tchuchinsk. The Russians sent lots of people to
Kazakhstan during World War II. We really only saw
the farmers in Tchuchinsk and they looked Kazak or
maybe Russian.

I noticed last night on television some Kazak
programming. It was an MTV like format with a world
class Kazak wrestler singing a song about Kazak
champions. The video showed the athletes competing in
their sports - I have to admit I saw no women there.
It was nice to see the Kazak people on television as
the other programming I have seen has all been
Russian. We have about 8 channels I flip through.
There are lots of violent movies on including many
American movies. Hostage with Bruce Willis was on the
other day, also Total Recall, Terminator and some
really bad stuff, meaning the B movies that seem to
just go video in the U.S. All these movies have
Russian translations on top of the English soundtrack
every once in awhile you can hear bits of English. The
Russian border is about 3 hours north of here. It
would be so nice to take a side trip up there, but
Bacha doesn't have a passport till we leave Kokshetau
or maybe not even till we get to Almaty - I don't
remember. Our coordinator takes care of that for us.

Well, I have been writing for over an hour and Mike
just woke up and turned on the TV. he is probably
going to look for soccer. No, it is Xena. We don't
normally have the TV on at this time, so who knows
what is on. Oh, did Mike mention in his blogging that
there is quite a bit of Russian Reality TV. You can't
miss the format in any language.

Bye for now.
Linda

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Born to be Wild

Born to be Wild
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

One of the "rides" at the park consists of renting time (a few minutes for 50 Tenge) on your choice of motorized vehicle. Tucker chose this one.



BTW, I would LOVE to bring home one of the old Soviet-Era motorcycles with a sidecar. Man, would Tucker and Mia and I be the talk of the town riding to school in that puppy!

Sticker Pox

Sticker Pox
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

Bad news. Tucker and Mia have both come down with a bad case of sticker pox. Heh.



Really, Linda was playing with Mia and they got a little carried away with the stickers. Then Tucker wanted to be included. Then Tucker decided to give his little sister a big bear hug, which she wanted no part of.

Learning to Read Russian

Hi -- Mike here.

As I've mentioned before, I've been trying to learn to speak and read a little bit of Russian. My goal at the beginning of this trip was to be able to speak Russian as well as Bacha does. I don't think I'll achieve this, based on how well she understands the people who speak to her in Russian. Plan B was to learn Russian at least as well as Bacha knows English. This, I might be able to achieve. Though, again, I believe her comprehension of English already far surpasses my comprehension of Russian.

I would mention that I speak fairly good conversational German, and as it turns out many Russian words are very similar in Russian to what they are in German. So once I can sound them out by reading them, the meaning of what I'm reading often becomes clear to me, where it wouldn't have otherwise. I would suspect then, that knowing any other language can help in the same way.

But I'd like to write a little bit about my adventures in learning to read Russian (as opposed to speaking it). There's an entire alphabet to learn, of course -- the cyrillic alphabet. Fortunately, it's perfectly phonetic. That is, Russian is written exactly as it sounds, and sounds exactly as it's written.

There are a few hitches in learning to read Russian in Cyrillic, however. What follows is a (hopefully) humorous romp through some of the few pitfalls that the average English-speaker might encounter.

Many of the Cyrillic letters have English equivalents, but they don't make the same sound. This can be frustrating. For example, there are many confusing, seemingly purposely contrived switcheroos. The Russian letter that looks like an E is one, for instance. It doesn't really make an English "E" sound -- it makes a "ye" sound, as in the word "yes". I expect this is one of the common pronunciation slip-ups for English speakers, as you can probably get away with it and still be understood. You'll just sound like a foreigner. Our translator's name is a good example of this -- we write it "Sveta", but it's properly pronounced "Svyeta" (short for Svyetlanova). As an aside, if you stick two dots over the "E", it's a "yo", not a "ye".

What looks like an upper-case "B" in Russian actually makes an English "V" sound. Fine. Except if it looks something like a lower-case "b", it's more complicated. Then, it's actually either the "V" sound, or there are several options (depends on the type of script -- more on that later). The first option is that it's the now-missing "ee" sound (which we lost above, by making the "E" a "ye"). If it's not that sound, the other option is that it's not a sound at all, but either a "hard" or "soft" modifier on the previous sound. This depends whether there's little tail at the top of the letter or not. The good news about the modifiers is that your American accent is likely to be so thick that you can pretty much ignore these because the difference will get lost in the "noise" anyway. That said, I'm sure I'll soon be asking someone "how many ovaries have you?" instead of "how much are your eggs?"

There are several letters that look like an upper-case "A", and they're all very different sounds. One, surprisingly enough, sounds like an English "A", though it's the sound as in the name of the supergroup "ABBA" (which I heard at the green market recently). Another is like the A without the cross-bar -- or an upside-down V. This actually makes an "L" sound, which is easy to remember if you know your Greek letters -- it's a lambda. I love the Russian "L" sound, incidentally. It's very thick -- as if you're drunk. Finally, the last one looks more like a squared-off A with little feet -- when printed, that is. It's different if written, or printed in a script-like font. This letter makes a "D" sound, which, again, is easy to remember if you know your Greek letters because it really derives from the Greek letter delta. See? Not so hard, right?

So "is there an 'ee' sound in Russian?" you ask. Why, of course! That's the letter that looks like a backwards N! Actually, in print, it often looks a LOT like a captial H, which is confusing, because the "H" makes an "N" sound. Read that again -- I'm not making this up.

Let's get back to the upside-down V for a minute. This is an "L" sound, remember. In print, however, this often looks a lot like the Greek letter "pi", which I'm sure most of you have seen at some point. It's important to know the difference, because the other letter that looks like "pi" -- this time almost precisely so -- is the letter that makes a "P" sound. "P" for "pi" -- easy.

Oh -- there's another backward letter. It looks like a backwards English upper-case R. As you might suspect by now, this doesn't make an "R" sound of any kind. It makes a "ya" sound, as in "gotcha" (and it will getcha).

In case you're wondering, the "R" sound is made by a letter that looks like a "P" (remember, we use "pi" for "P"). Greek letters to the rescue again -- it's a "Rho". Also, of course, the Russian "R" sound is a rolled R, not the slurred one we use in American English.

There's a special letter that looks like a Greek "Phi". It makes an "F" sound. I like this because my last name starts with it. The letter looks like an "O" with a vertical line through it -- makes me feel exotic.

The thing that looks like a "3" makes a "Z" sound. No problem -- tuck that one away.

Upside-down lower-case "h" makes a "ch" sound. This happens a lot in Russian, especially when you're talking to a 3-year-old, because a lot of words take an ending that means "little one". An Englishified example of this would be turning the words "little snitch" into "snitchka".

Upside-down upper-case L forms the Greek letter "gamma", and it makes (you guessed it) a "G" sound. Always a "hard" G, as in, well, gamma -- never a soft G as in "age".

Speaking of the word "age"... A thing that looks like a big asterisk makes the "zh" sound that's so prominent in Russian. "Pazhalusta" means "please", for instance.

Here's a breath of fresh air: the letter K actually makes a "K" sound! Woo hoo! I mention this because it means that the letter C gets to always make an "S" sound, as it does only sometimes in English.

The letter "X" in Russian makes that heavily aspirated "H" sound that's so sexy in the movies when some bombshell with a thick Russian accent says something like "I Xave to Xave you".

OK. Now pay attention. There are what seem to me to be a series of letters that make successively more complicated sounds. In print, they (usually) look like a lower-case "u", then a "w", then a kind of "w with a tail". Respectively, they make a "ts" sound (as in "bits"), a "sh" sound (as in "shoot"), and a compound "shch" sound that has no real English equivalent (as in "fresh cheese" and "Shchuchinsk"!).

There is one other sound that I still deal with, especially because it's in the proper pronunciation of Bacha's original full name. It's not even possible to spell it in English, but the closest I could come is something like "Bachuet". First of all, there's the CH sound, which is that sexy "X" I just mentioned. But then there's the sound of the letter that looks like a capital I and O, joined at the hip like siamese twins. This has a sound that's somewhere inbetween an "ee" sound and an "oo" sound. Make an "oo sound, and then, without moving your lips, make the "ee" sound with the rest of your mouth, and you're in the ballpark -- except that when Sveta says it, she looks like she's grinning, not pursing her lips. It's a little like a German "U Umlaut". You may find it difficult to say with a straight face, and you'll get some smiles when you try.

OK, now something I just discovered yesterday after buying some books. It seems that in some fonts, the letter for the "P" sound (a "pi") looks like a lower case "n". Hmph. OK, I can see that. But worse yet, in those fonts, the letter that makes the "T" sound (err... actually usually looks like a "T") can look like a lower case "m". I can explain this to myself, too, but you'll think I've completely lost it.

That's about it. So you see, Russian spelling is really pretty simple. It's a lot like English, with a few exceptions.

:-)

And just when you think you're getting it, you'll find yourself wondering why the word that you know means "store" (and sounds/spells like "magazine") is suddenly coming out more like "doo-ken". That's because you're reading it in Kazakh. Most things here are spelled in both, and it's often difficult to tell the two apart because the alphabets are similar.

So don't be afraid to address the person behind the counter and ask "Greetings, small child. Please to show me your little buns to the left. I am good to heat them, yes?"

Or just point and smile. Personally, I'm finding it safer to just make friends trying to learn the numbers.

Response to questions

RoseMary thank you for your questions about the
children at the Baby House.

The children have a few things that are theirs while
they are at the Baby House but these are not things
that they leave with. For instance Mia had bed #7.
She also shared a locker with a duck on the door which
held the jacket, hat and shoes she would wear outside.
These items were shared with two or three other girls
in the group. Mia had no toys or special clothes that
she would call her own. When she left she did not
take any items with her. We brought the clothes that
she left the Baby House in. I know it is hard to
imagine.

The children have hope that at some point they will
have mamaandpapa. I write the words together because
it seems to be more of a single concept. Tucker has
often confused mama and papa perhaps this is why. I
am not sure how early on Bacha learned of our coming.
It may have been the day we arrived. There is not a
lot of time between paperwork being approved and would
be parents or parent (single woman can adopt from
kazakhstan) arrive. The children that are being
adopted get very excited and in Bacha's case she
showed us off to everyone in the baby house.

In talking to our interpreter and the director it was
said that children at the baby house do feel at some
point they will be adopted. Children live at the Baby
House from newborn through 4, at age 5 they move on to
another facility. It is then that there is not the
same hope for adoption.

Bacha has not attached herself to anything I have
brought along. I don't expect this to happen for
awhile. I bought a Kazak doll on our last trip here
but didn't bring it. I will look for others while we
are in Almaty - thank you for mentioning it.
Linda

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Observations

Hi y'all. (Mike here).

First, I'd like to re-emphasize that you can now click on any pictures you see, and get to a larger version of it. I won't bore you with all the details of this, but just let me know if you want larger versions or if you're curious about it.

Second, I'd like to pass the buck and let Linda respond to Rose Mary's comments and questions about children at the baby house, and how they are prepared for adoption. I will, however, point out the little bit of the latest movie I posted, where the lead caretaker is giving "final instructions." They really have a great relationship with the kids, and really do prepare thm very well, and finding a "mamapapa" is definitely a joyous event.

Today was a normal day, with our regular morning and evening excursions. The morning excursion included Sveta this time, though, because we needed her to buy some special items, including some fabric for something Linda's making for Bacha, and some books.

Sveta also ordered us a feast fit for kings at the military kitchen, and we ate it there: A soup called Salyanka, a rice/meat dish, bread, salad, and a national dish called "monte" (essentially meat-filled steamed raviolis). We ate everything except for two of the four bowls of soup, which we took home in little ceramic pots sealed with saran wrap, and we ate that for dinner. All this for less than 800 Tenge. Sveta went home after ordering -- she's fantastic, but not a social creature.

Also, we got caught in the rain on the way home. Tucker HATES this, and immediately began screaming/crying -- complete meltdown -- it's happened before. However, Bacha seemed to be enjoying it, and when Tucker realized she was having fun, he turned on a dime and started laughing, too. I hope this is a permanent change in him.

In general, Bacha seems to be the more adventurous of the two at the moment. Tucker has a careful, almost prissy side to him sometimes. He often hates getting dirty, for instance, and insists on cleaning himself off at the most awkward times. Bacha, on the other hand, seems to love anything dirty and disgusting (snot, cigarette butts, bugs). Neither of them seem to have a lot of fear of getting hurt.

Also, Tucker has mood swings. I think we've mentioned that he turns into what we call "No Man" sometimes, where no matter what we say, the answer is "no," and he'll kick and push and hit if we get near him. This happens when he's tired, including often when he's just waking up. Bacha, in contrast, while she definitely has a temper, has not shown anything in the way of moodiness. The closest she comes to this is that sometimes she can get ornery, where's she's testing things and people around her more than usual. The Madonna Dance can often be witnessed at these times. She's got a side that spells "trouble," for sure, and I think she might still earn the nickname that Linda and I once bestowed upon her early on: Bachzilla.

It's fascinating to watch Tucker and Bacha interact, too. As in any relationship, the combination of the two of them forms a virtual third person that has a personality all of its own. Tucker-Bacha is still gelling, but he/she can be outrageous, cute, playful, evil, or sweet. Seldom quiet, though, when awake. Today, we even had a moment at the dinner table when Linda and I were pretty sure they were ganging up on us. Yes, it has begun.

Bacha has been saying something that sounds like "bakkabye" recently, and we've been wondering what it means. Today we found out it's a silly version of her nickname, Bacha. Like "Tucker-wucker" or "Petey-weetey" or something. Bachabye, baby, on the treetop...

BTW, Linda is giving the kids a bath right now. She usually brings in her crochet work and sits there while they play. It's a nice way to get them calmed down before bed.

For those of you wondering about our ticket situation, it's still not resolved, but I hope to make progress again tonight, as Eldo comes in to work and gets my last email (right about now, actually -- it's 9:55 PM here). I need him to book a different class ticket, and then hopefully tomorrow we can resolve things with KLM in Almaty, and then on Tuesday we can finalize things in the States and we'll be home free. I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, our backup plan is still to leave on June 5th -- we're still holding those tickets.

Oh. I did want to say something about something that happened again today. It was when Bacha started talking to some ladies in the bookstore we visited. I have to say that I really feel left out of this part of her life. I SO wish I could speak to her the way they do, and understand her as well as they do (which isn't perfectly, it turns out). Ah, well.

Tomorrow, we have a celebration dinner planned at the Louca house. Really looking forward to that.

The kids are out of their bath now. I think I'm done for the night.

Bacha meets Madonna

Bacha meets Madonna
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

Here's picture of our sweet little daughter engaged in one of her more endearing passtimes -- doing a dance that I call the "Madonna Dance." The choreography for this popular number includes stomping around with a sneer on her face, shouting who-knows-what in Bacha-speak, all the while (here's the best part) grabbing her crotch. What makes it all so charming is that she seems to usually pick some elderly passer-by for her captive audience. So far, nobody has called the police.

Poplar Buds

Poplar Buds
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

Here's an attempt at getting a close-up of the poplar buds themselves. It's hard to explain what it's like to walk around in a blizzard of these little "snowflakes." Imagine yourself in a cloud of dandelion seeds. You find yourself wiping your face a lot, because they're constantly hitting you in the face. I've only actually inhaled one or two (I think), and it's not fun. But they get into everything.

Poplar Snow

Poplar Snow
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

I mentioned the poplar buds in a recent post -- and the "snow" it creates. Here's an attempt at capturing the moment. Incidentally, I'm uploating 640-by-480 pictures now, so if you click on the photo you can see a larger version.

That's my boy!

That's my boy!
Originally uploaded by mmfranke.

I just really like this picture of Tucker. I'm also using this as an excuse to post a slightly larger version of a picture than I usually do, just to see what happens.

News Flashes

BTW... Regarding "what's going on in the world today..." I just looked up a few CNN headlines:
- Bombs kill 3 in iranian oil town
- Four executed by palestinian authority
- Blair seeks approval go G8 plan
- Bolivian protestors declar truce
- Syria rejects hit list accusations

Hmmm... I've been gone a month, and nothing new there...

Ooh! Here's a news flash! -- "After 14 weeks of testimony by 141 witnesses, the eight-woman, four-man jury in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial blah blah blah..." Right. Whatever.

Finally, in stark contrast to my temporarily minimalist life here, I stumbled across this: "Video cameras go disposable." Oi. Great -- another American contribution to the world's landfills...

...so, all in all, I guess I'm not missing much news...

Stormy Day

Mike sdis. 3:50 PM.

I'm slightly under the influence of a little more than my usual daily ceremonial shot of vodka (which is also usually later in the evening). Linda and the kids are sleeping mercifully. It's thundering outside, and I can hear the rain washing the air clean of poplar seeds.

Have we mentioned the poplars? They are ubiquitous here, and they bloom this time of hear, turning white with spores that float in the air, filling the air, your nose, your eyes, your clothes, and the street full of what looks snow.

Oh, and by-the-way the power just went out with the last thunderclap -- which means I only have about 20 stinkin' minutes on this laptop.

It's been a tough day so far (and it's not over). it started off with Linda not feeling too well. She's dealing with a bit of an upper respiratory cold (I have a sneaking suspicion it's related to the darned poplar fluff).

My late morning, after letting Linda doze several times, we went for a walk to try and meet up with the Tall family, who are leaving today with their two new children, Nina and Nikola. We didn't catch them at the park as expected, but walked over to the hotel and met them in the process of checking out. We had them stow their luggage at the desk until it was time for them to catch their plane.

In the meantime, we decided to walk to the park anyway to let the kids play. Nina and Bacha are special friends -- so much so that Tucker complains about "being all alone" when they're together. We did that, and got hungry.

We tried in vain to find something to eat. The restaurant at the park was crowded, and the Shashlyk man hadn't fired up his grill yet. So we walked back to the hotel, but the restaurant at the hotel...

(woo hoo!... power just came back on... one less thing to worry about...)

... but the restaurant at the hotel wasn't set up to take customers. It's Sunday, you see, and the entire restaurant was busy with some sort of religious event. So Linda and I said our goodbyes and headed home, as it was almost time for them to catch their plane anyway.

Since we only had about 500 Tenge and a $100 bill on us (and I failed to find a place to change money while we were at the park), we were limited in our luncheon options. We were also exhausted, and it was already past nap time and the kids were cranky. Oh my god, it was ugly trying to get Tucker to climb the stairs (four flights, remember). You'd have thought that I turned off "Dora the Explorer" or something...

Wait!... this just in... I just got a call from the Louca family, who's stranded under a tent between the movie cinema and a bar, near the main park -- in the pouring down rain. OK, so they have beer, but this was still not an ideal situation with two kids. Nobody's cell phones are working (because of the storm, apparently), so they used the private phone at the cinema to call me, to see if I could call one of the interpreters to call a driver or cab to come rescue them. Of course, the numbers he gave me are cell phone numbers (which aren't working well...), and I don't know why he just didn't call them directly from the cinema instead of me (probably because the cell phones aren't local calls?) ... anyway, I got in touch with one of the interpreters and they're on the way to the rescue. And now, back our our regularly scheduled program...

... So anyway, for lunch we ate every bit of leftovers in the house: a little bit of tomato paste (meant to get tomato "sauce" but it got lost in the translation -- I think they refer to "tomato sauce" as "ketchup" here... still a mystery), some meat balls (smushed up and cooked with some olive oil and mixed with the tomato paste to make a meat sauce), several raviolis (large ones), one stuffed cabbage, and some spaghetti. Ah, that's Italian!

Tried to give the kids milk, from yesterday, incidentally, but it had turned to butter. It was in the 'fridge, and still turned. This was milk, though, that I bought by bringing my own plastic bottle and having the lady fill it by ladling it from a milk can (no really -- the metal kind you see on farms) through a funnel. So anyway, it was great, fresh milk -- yesterday. No preservatives, no shelf time.

After a testy lunch, during which Bacha had several meltdowns because she insisted that the snot in her nose and the coins on the floor were both tastier than my cooking, Linda and the kids retreated to the bedroom.

Update: just got a call from the Louca family. They're home safe. Sasha, one of the interpreters, came to the rescue. She's a very pretty young woman and apparently this little adventure interrupted some social event of hers because I'm told she and her driver came swooping up to the Loucas as they started to walk off, all huddled under one umbrella. The door of the car swung open before the car even came to a stop, and there was Sasha, all dressed to kill in a glittery dress, evening makeup, the works. Shey Louca said that she looked like something out of "The Avengers" (anybody else old enough to remember that show?).

So now I have to go shopping for something to eat tonight and tomorrow. It's raining, but not too hard. I think I'll try and do this while the rest of the gang sleeps, and before my vodka completely wears off. If figure it's better to let everyone sleep late, since we're probably all fighting off whatever bug Linda has.

6:13 PM

Everyone woke up about a half hour ago. Bacha was her usual cheery self. Linda says she's feeling better. Tucker was inconsolable for quite some time. He gets in these moods when he won't speak, but he's just miserable. Usually we set him aside and tell him that when he snaps out of it enough to talk to us, we'll help. But this time I got tired of that routine and finally just wouldn't put up with his being so miserable -- heh, the way Linda treats me sometimes. I dressed him and carried him into the kitchen to offer him whatever vittles we could scrounge up for tonight. Not much, until we can shop again tomorrow. He was OK again once he had a piece of bread and cheese in his hand. He'll be even better if we crank up a DVD once I get off this machine.

Only a couple hours left in this day. I can do this.

Oh -- Linda and I just realized we have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world today. We haven't eve bothered going on line to find out... That'll be tonight's treat.