NO WAY...

No possible way I could eat this fruit...

From THIS tree.

More voices...

Voices from the past...

Speak to me in countless ways.

Today I had dinner with 4 of the women I worked with for those 2 years in our posh office on Byelorusskaya (how can any western company hope to establish itself without "A" class office space?). It was extaordinary--Anyuta with her everlasting good humor and pragmatism, retaining her deprecatory confidence in spite of what can only be called a STELLAR rise through the ranks of corporate "america (albeit inside MKAD)," Natasha, fierce, sweet and kind, Ksenia (Ksyusha, for you russian speakers) with her passion and intellect, and finally, ANNA, who if she weren't the big boss could honestly be a SUPERMODEL--the chronic, niggling ache of missed friends was immediately eclipsed by the happiness of reunion--hugs, half-russian, half-english babblings, and shared emotions. "Is Tatiana still....? NO WAY! You didn't marry after all? Oh not YET!! yes, i like it but its no NUSKIN! You are kidding--pajamas with the logo on stage? Ridiculous!" all accompanied by laughing, bemoaning, shrieking and every other kind of emotional display possible. I'm sure the servers thought we were insane. But we even laughed at that. I miss those girls.

Halloween decorations

All Day And All Of The Night

Last weekend was the official launch of the start-up company that I have been working with for the last 5 months. We had a long week of last minute preparations. I calculated the hours I worked between Monday the 13th of October and Monday the 20th and the grand total was: 72.5, not including the travel time for 3 round trips to the city (6 more hours). I have to say that we did acheive a TON with only the small staff and tiny budget we have. Check out our product guide--I'm really proud of it AND our products--you can click on it and see inside!!

Fine, rub it in....

Yes, we all know you won the Bling Cup by identifying more 80's sitcom theme songs than anyone else. And faster. You knew the theme songs for Alf and Mr. Belvedere 3 notes into the songs, and no one else even knew them when they were over. I concede your superior knowledge.

Middle Ages--Part II (Family Prayer)

I was running late getting ready for bed. They were all waiting for me, kneeling around Grandma's bed, as usual. Unusually, there was silence as I dashed from my room. This is what I found: perfectly content to wait, they picto-chatted happily away...PICTO WHAT?? I'm old.

I'm gonna miss this guy...

The only silver lining in the depressing cloud of this Presidential Election is that either one of the new guys may actually be this dumb, too. I may vote Republican just so I can spend the next four years laughing at Sarah Palin's gaffes.

Scout Outing

Yesterday a friend and I took the boys (YES, count them, 8 BEARS!!) over to the City Services Fair--all of the city empoyees were there--Fire and Rescue, Fire Dept, Police, Waste Mgt, City Water, City Electricity, the Historical Dept, the City Library--etc etc. It was fun and the boys each got a bag and collected candy and swag at every booth. They were REALLY good and polite and got to do some cool things. Everyone treated us well, they really go out of their way for the scouts around here.

The boys got to see all kinds of interesting displays and we got several achievements' worth of stuff done. Here they all are with McGruff, the Crime Dog.

I'm not sure why the police dept. had a table with stuffed wild animals on it, I don't THINK they were trying to scare the kids, but all the same the stuffed cougar face (it wasn't really a whole head) peeking up out of the candy was pretty creepy. Maybe one of the officers was a deranged Ute fan trying to make a statement...

Here's Nick trying out the fire hose. He said it almost "knocked me over!"