lurkingplaces

The fart cafe

2011-05-28T20:41:00.001+03:00

I got this shot from the bus window today. I've seen this name for cafes and bars a few times. One of my linguist friends here says it's from the word 'fartuna'- fortune. Anyone out there know any more?

How to feed your Gall Bladder

2011-05-12T14:15:00.000+03:00

I never even knew that I had a gall bladder, I mean I know they exist in the human body, and so that like everybody else that I probably had one too, but I never wondered about where it is or tried to look for it and see how it was doing. Never, until last week when I was presented with excruciating evidence about the location of my gall bladder.
Now this is a self diagnosed problem which for the present is undergoing domestic treatment.

So here we have a salad so dietetic that I wish I could just go out and order a pizza... These ingredients are all from a gall bladder page on the web: grated beets, parsley, non-fat cottage cheese, radishes, lemons and linseed oil. On this diet I think my 6-pack will be difficult to conceal.

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Free clean toilets

2011-04-26T18:13:00.001+03:00

At the Odessa train station! Not at McDonalds either. Is a well kept secret that if you have a ticket you can use the toilet at the far end of platform 1 for free, saves you a few griven. But- there's no toilet paper. You should be carrying your own TP around with you anyway.

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Easter preparations

2011-04-23T21:48:00.001+03:00

I don't know how this fire is special, but every year before Easter we see people leaving church with burning candles. this is the first time I've been on the bus with them though!

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Location:Ukraine

Gn. 92. Helset

2011-04-21T09:11:00.000+03:00

1680. Daniel Pedersson Helset, g. m. Guri Larsdotter Ulvestadnakk. Daniel var ein stor og sterk mann, og det gar gjetord om styrken hans (Store-Daniel). Han var skrivekunnig og ved kjøp av gardparter åtte han heile Helset, n. som lagrettemann i 1700. Daniel d. 1708, skifte 28/4. — Born:

Peder f. 1680 br. garden.
Berte, f. ....., g.m. Morits Jakobsson S. Bjørkedal.
Lars, f. 1686, d. i felttog ved Fredriksstad i 1712.
Marte, f. ..., g.m. Jakob Rasmusson Bjørkedal.

Jakob Verniksson Hesteflot, f. 1632, d. 1716.

2011-04-20T16:26:00.000+03:00

Jakob the Bear Slayer

Jakob Verniksson Hesteflot, f. 1632, d. 1716, g. m. Malena Arnesdotter. Han er fyrste mannen med Jakobsnamnet i ætta. Han skaut 16 bjørnar. Han slutta det og tok til å byggje båtar då det lønte seg betre. Etter folketeljinga i 1701 var han lagrettesmann «Sidder udi alfarveien och skydser idelig reisende Persohne.»

Flies come in with warmer Weather

2011-04-16T20:36:00.001+03:00

A. tried to nail a big one in the kitchen

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Jakobsgarden i Bjørkedalen

2011-04-16T16:11:00.002+03:00

Arne Ivarsson tok over bruket då han vart vaksen. Han er førd i tiendlistene frå 1640 - 1666. I 1645 skatta han for kone og tenest-jente. Arne hadde eit godt mål og var flink songar. Frå ein haug, «Mastrehaugen», ropa han heimatt at dei skulle kome opp til honum med ein navar som han hadde gløymt (1 km.). Ein gong han skulle til sjøen med ein tømmer flote, gjekk floten sund. Då han skulle binde han saman, datt han i vatnet og dei såg honum ikkje meir. Dotter hans, Ingeborg, var med, og då ho gjekk med barn ho og vart berga. Arne var skrivekunnig. Han hadde fire døtre alle var arbeidssame. Kvar av dei lyfte ei skyrtynne opp på sleden og køyrde heim frå sætra. Kona heitte Gjertru og var frå Vatne i Ørsta. — Born:

Malene, f....., tvilling, budde på garden.
Ingeborg, f....., tvilling, g. m. Anders Torbjørnsson N. Bjørkedal.
Marte, f....., g. m. Rasmus Verniksson Hesteflot, budde på Bjørneset.
Inga, f....., g. m. Jon Mårstøyl

I wonder if the milk buckets should be metal?
this is Jakob's brand:

The truth behind the Legend of Walking to School in the Snow

2011-02-23T15:04:00.001+02:00

And if you want to keep snow out of your boots as you wade through it, just wear a pair of thick wool socks and fold them down over the top of your little short ankle boots.

And be thankful you have boots on your feet. We heard a story this weekend about a lady who would go to school every day barefooted through the snow. There weren't enough pairs of shoes to go around and the kids would share a pair of boots, walking from house to house, where they would trade off. Lots of kids would go every other day because there was only one pair of boots for kids in a household, but this lady went everyday, because she wanted to learn! She has 2 grandchildren in school now who are learning lots!

Just waiting for measurements

2011-02-07T21:33:00.001+02:00

Charlie gets hand-me-downs from her unborn sibling because this is getting too big! :0

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Or you can do this

2011-02-04T16:31:00.001+02:00

Trying to learn HTML coding while knitting can cause errors. I did the cuff on the wrong size needles and am starting all over again -

My dear mother has finished the last 3 baby sweaters I started. It's because babies grow so fast!
This time I'm going to try to get it done myself!

How to keep track of stitches

2011-02-04T12:40:00.001+02:00

I need to cast on 94 stitches, and I always loose count...My mom usually bails me out, but she's nowhere near to help me, so here is my solution.

Paper markers at each 10th stitch. I'm glad that I can count to 10! :)

Edible styrofoam from Amway in a house of 3 cats

2010-12-20T08:50:00.001+02:00

You can eat this packaging material, it's made out of popcorn they told me.

The cat-who-won't-let-me-look-at-him is very intrigued with the stuff.

Especially when I put my hand into the box and make mysterious rustling noises.

Last night we made the cat so crazy that it made a flying leap into the box and dumped the whole contents on the floor. So we'll be looking for some other breakfast cereal this morning!

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Location:Rebhuhngasse,Seyring,Austria

Mugs

2010-12-10T14:17:00.002+02:00

Capitalizing on Anita's idea.
The symbol on the cup commemorates our survival of CO poisoning last month.
I can't wait to drink my morning coffee from my new TinTin cup!

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Location:Uferstraße,Purkersdorf,Austria

Public transportation

2010-12-04T22:23:00.001+02:00

20 years ago when I first came to Austria I really longed for a pair of skates or a skateboard because of all the walking we did. Now the Viennese have caught up with my daydream.

This was taken on the U-Bahn, a lady who uses a scooter to get around on city streets, then for longer distances uses the subway. It's a great way to get around!

Location:Uferstraße,Purkersdorf,Austria

On my new coffee cup?

2010-12-01T14:46:00.000+02:00

From kyiv and Austria

Anita is the one who came up with this idea. I think the fact that I somewhat manipulated the graphic makes it ok for me to plagiarize it, any experts out there?

Seafood

2010-11-20T00:17:00.000+02:00

This is one of my friends who has recently come over to these parts from a place she calls "the Rock".

Several months ago she told me it was lobster season back home. We saw lobster for sale here and decided that we better live on borscht like everybody else here seems to get by on.

From Fish

But here this day in the big city right there on the sidewalk is a man selling these little craw-dads!

From Fish

I saw them and I said, "I know who'd enjoy them!"

Of course that made little A. twitch, but as I kept on harping on the same subject in a firm insistent way, it inspired little A. to relent and allow me a phone-call, wherein I could check the menu plan for the next few days.

From Fish

I could taste the future.

From Fish

Not quite lobster, but we enjoyed the flavor and color of something different!

Carbon-Monoxide

2010-11-19T23:47:00.000+02:00

From Carbon-Monoxide

I didn't know if I could post this, but time makes things better. Carbon-monoxide is an insidious danger that we are scarcely aware of. We spent part of the day in the hospital on I.V.'s one day last week getting detoxed from CO poisoning.

From Carbon-Monoxide

We had built a fire in the rooms we were sleeping in and gone to sleep before the fire was out. I was awakened in the early hours by my co. who was in the other room whimpering.
We woke up with terrible headaches, but we were lucky to wake up at all.

Sunday in the Village

2010-11-08T09:31:00.001+02:00

"Дивні Хвилини"

"Той Хомін Світу Силний"

My co worker was out cold, 3 kids and a hamster back in his cage after a week of darting around the house and a half naked little boy putting his jeans onto his Teddy bear...yes it was rich.

Laundry

2010-11-04T16:22:00.001+02:00

Guess who moved in...

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Home Alone

2010-11-02T09:45:00.001+02:00

Just waved Angela off. Now nothing to eat but old dried up tea bags...

Soon there won't be any clean cups and I'll have to wash dishes, or investigate the possibility of paper plates.

Anti-Luddite post

2010-10-30T21:38:00.001+03:00

What kind of computer is this? (Angela's idea)

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My glasses...

2010-09-15T18:12:00.000+03:00

Last post was about my favorite shoes, after that I closed my blog down because it had been infiltrated by angry Luddites, but now I'm tentatively back on line.

Today it's about my glasses, these are the ones I was wearing when I walked into a low hanging balcony on April 22, 2010; I turned 50 that day. You can't see it here but they are super glued together right at the bridge. I've glued them twice, and have needed to go get new frames, but what a hassle, how can I expect to find frames that will fit my trifocal lenses?


New frames!

Found new frames right here in Rivne!

My Favorite Shoes

2010-08-19T19:52:00.000+03:00

Size 10 and a half double or triple A is no fun. Ever. Never. Most of my childhood shoe shopping expeditions ended with no results except tears and something ugly for my feet. The good side of all that is that I don't care what I wear on my feet anymore, simply do not care. Oh, later I did discover Ferrigamo shoes, and bought myself a $300.00 pair, but decided not to take the matching $1000 purse. It was after that that I discovered Nordstrom's rack; I try to make it by there every 5 years or so. Now internet shopping makes the whole shoe shopping thing easier, if the shoes I ordered make it to me before the end of the season that is...

I always try to avoid second hand shoes, they are smelly and are already formed to some other possibly deceased person's foot, but these, my favorite shoes – came off the give-away rack in Casa Grande last summer. I would never have chosen these if they were not free, they are so cool and trendy, and pricey, that they wouldn't be for me, besides – they weren't really my size...but I tried them on and I knew they were mine! My magic size 8 Keens! Kayaking sandals, super grip soles, waterproof! How fun!

They are just the thing for summer in Ukraine, I can wade through flash floods, in less than an hour they are dry again, and they look really cool.

Well, here we are way up in the Carpathians for a few days to get away from the terrible heat down on the flatland. We have a cute little log house, Simona's upstairs in the loft, I'm downstairs on the couch, no internet, bad phone service, just perfect for us.

The first evening I left my Keens on the porch and got ready for bed; over on the hillside I saw a little, white rat-terrier like dog who was industriously chewing up a piece of rope. I tried to get his attention by mewing like a cat, growling like a dog and yipping like a puppy. He did glance in my direction but was very busy chewing up his rope, after which he scuttled off in the direction of the chicken coup as if to go and steal some eggs. Feeling rather foolish, I headed for bed. After a few chapters of Harry Potter in Ukrainian I turned out the light. In the dead of the night I had to get up and go out, on the way back in I took a prideful glace at my Keens, and there was only one shoe! That miserable rat-terrier was now chewing up my beloved second-hand kayaking sandals! I found my flashlight and searched the porch, all around the log house, nothing. Went back to bed, mourned my lost shoes, decided I have too many pairs of shoes to care...couldn't sleep, got up again to look some more, brought my one shoe that was left inside, still no sleep, read more Harry Potter and finally, feeling like I'd lost my wand drifted off to sleep.

The next morning was rainy but I got up with a purpose to hunt down that dog and find what was left of my shoe and give it a proper burial, perhaps throw the dog into the river. Over on the side of the hill where the egg sucker had been flossing his teeth I saw my poor shoe, ran to retrieve it and could not believe my eyes to see that it was all in one piece, perfectly undamaged!

My Magic size 8 Keens!

Kombucha tea

2010-08-10T22:19:00.001+03:00

I remember last year when I was in California it seemed like there were different things I'd never seen before. It's usually like that when I go home, I go to the store and lots of the products have changed their packaging, so at first they are almost unrecognizable. But some things are really brand new to me on the market, and I don't know what I'm ingesting.

Anya's Kambucha starter

One of these things I found out what it was, I was at Mt. Ranch and someone opened the fridge and showed me some bottles there and invited me to help myself. "Kambucha tea, it's healthy, have some." My baser desires would have steered me towards a Classic Coke, (THEY at least stick to the same basic shaped bottle and label and I can always recognize a Coke when I come home). But I tried the Kambucha, unfortunately I drank straight from the bottle, so was obliged to down the whole vinagary contents myself.

It's really slimy

The recipe that Anya gave me is like the ones you read on line:

boil 2 liters of water, add a small amount of tea leaves
add 3 tablespoons of sugar
after it's cooled off add tea mixture to the culture
in the summer the drink is ready after 3 days, in the winter it takes a week

a pot of tea to feed our starter

pour into a 3 liter jar

here's how the Medusa looks after a day in the dark hallway feeding on its sweet tea to keep it alive.

If you notice in the picture Anya is holding a pancake type of an object, that is "the mother", as it's called. It is a slimy, weird, slippery, jellyfish-like thing, a combination of yeasts and bacterias. We hope we survive to report what it tastes like and how healthy we are after drinking it.

To the Lavra

2010-08-07T09:06:00.004+03:00

Lavra

The last time I was here was with my parents in 1998, at that time it was being renovated after about 70 years of neglect. At that time it seems that the catacombs were closed. I wanted to see them because the remains of Nestor the Chronicler are intered there. Judging by the size of the shrouded figure he was about the size of a an average contemporary 12 year kid.

To get in to the catacombs you have to have a scarf on your head, so Lillian suggested our serviette from McDonalds... heh heh,

Lillian says that kerchief looks "quite jaunty"!

From Lavra

anyway we got in, but had to buy a candle, which we really needed to illuminate those dark dank tunnels full of mummies.

Something else if you're not interested in petrified monks is the Museum of Miniatures; I saw the chess set on a table made of a pin head with my own eyes, also a flea with golden shoes!

Kyivska Lavra

2010-08-05T23:20:00.001+03:00

I hope to coax my friends to come with me tomorrow

View Larger Map
The underground caves of the petrified monks should be nice and cool in this raging heat...

A Viking Grave in Kyiv

2010-08-05T17:10:00.002+03:00

I'm admittedly fascinated by the legends of Vikings in this part of the world. I say legend because I don't know of any real proof that they really were here. The one historian, Nestor, who wrote of those times seemed to record the stories as he heard them, but I don't know how accurate they were.
There is a story about two Vikings, Askold and Dir, or was it one man by the name of Askoldidir? It seems that nobody knows for sure. They were rulers of Kyiv in the late 800's
There are some traces of their possible existence:

Askold alley

When my brother and his wife were here we looked for the grave of Askold which has been marked by a church in later years; we searched fruitlessly along the right bank of the Dniepr, and all the time it was just up the hill from us, we'd have found it easily if they'd just stayed another week!

The Grave of Askold

the barefooted guardian of the temple

I tramped around plenty before I found my way, all the time glad not to be a tour guide, and afterwards got in line for a half liter of cold kvas.

How to get there:

View Larger Map
I actually took a short cut, 'A' is the Arsenalna Metro, I went around the east side of it and followed the road which leads to a trail through the woods then I crossed the street and walked through the park to find the church which marks the site.

Why to sand after spackling

2010-08-01T10:24:00.000+03:00

This is why you spackle first, sand second:

A simple power sander isn't really sufficient to do a good job.

But I had the best helpers!

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It's true!

2010-07-31T19:59:00.001+03:00

Believe it or not, it's really true; you may not have known this but: The Internet is made of CATS.
And here is my contribution to keep the internet alive.

Tiger kitty

Hungry kitty

This is what my mom does when she jumps out of here.

Easter Egg kitty

A clothesline in the big city

2010-07-29T21:55:00.001+03:00

There's nothing like the fresh smell of line dried laundry.

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Fun colors

2010-07-26T08:36:00.001+03:00

I love these colors.

Washing dishes outside is fun!

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Coffee included

2010-07-26T08:19:00.001+03:00

I'm on the way to Rivne

after camping out in the village. The price for a bus ticket has gone up a bit, but now it includes a cup of coffee! The driver carries this coffee kit

and unpacks it at the rest stop!

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Ice cream for zombies

2010-07-21T13:14:00.000+03:00

In Kyiv after a few days of traveling including all night sitting up on the bus, need lots more ice cream to get back to normal...

coffee candy

2010-06-11T19:08:00.002+03:00

Sugar as a vehicle for caffeine...Sometimes on a hot day when I'm sitting still listening to good things everything is just right, so much so that I relax and nod off. And there's no one to bring me a cup of coffee,

From coffee candy!

and going to get my own is out of the question. That's why coffee nips were invented. I tried buying coffee candy here, and did find some one year in a pharmacy!
The last few years I've been curious about making it myself. I found a recipe here, which makes a "coffee-ish" candy, I wanted more than that, so I added 4 times as much coffee as the recipe calls for, leaving the other ingredients the same.
It took quite a while for it to boil up to the right temperature, the stringy stage when you put a drop of candy into the water.
Tammy helped me with this project, she also took the pictures.

From coffee candy!

I almost forgot to mention that we got nearly 800 gm, I think that's nearly a pound!

Rose Petal Jam

2010-06-11T17:20:00.001+03:00

We were out visiting some of our favorite people yesterday and we were served Rose Petal Jam; that's jam made from rose petals. The flavor is like flowers!

Ira gave us about 500 grams of petals off her rose bush, we got the recipe and made some when we came home:

First we rinsed them in cold water and drained them. You can see the weight in grams here, including the weight of the colander.

Next we added 1.5 cups of sugar and mashed the petals into the sugar with a wooden spoon.

It got quite watery, then we boiled it on the stove...
Until the petals became translucent -
after which we sealed the beautiful jam into cute little jars.

Bookshelves!

2010-05-28T23:18:00.002+03:00

I have a long history of putting up bookshelves over my desk in baches where I've stayed various places in Europe.

The tradition lives on. And true to the spirit of repurposing household items, my shelves also have a history. They came from the upper regions of the bathroom.

They used to be mounted above this cabinet here. I removed the doors which was lots easier than drilling holes with the boys' jackhammer drill into these concrete walls.
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How to make Shashlik

2010-05-28T17:35:00.000+03:00

Shashlik is the Ukrainian version of what we know as Shish Kebab in the west. Traditionally it's made with lamb, but we aren't very picky that way. We salted and marinated the meat overnight in mayonnaise; makes it really delicious!

From Tarakaniv fort

Our team was busy skewering the meat onto the shampuri while the fire-builders were in action getting things going in their department.

From Tarakaniv fort

and in the meantime the rush is on because it still feels stormy

From Tarakaniv fort

Now the coals look ready.

From Tarakaniv fort

Doesn't take long and they're cooked!

From Tarakaniv fort

an amazing little Drummer Boy

2010-05-27T20:24:00.002+03:00

Dedicated to Anita who doesn't want a smart phone...

2010-05-27T19:39:00.003+03:00

So you have to click on this and then it will play the video. It's from the 1920's, so not much action...

EVE'S WIRELESS

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more spring rains!

2010-05-27T09:58:00.001+03:00

When you go on a picnic in the rain, you got to go with the right crowd...

From Tarakaniv fort

When you do it like that it's lots of fun!

How to make a flaming torch

2010-05-26T17:27:00.000+03:00

If you want to make a torch you need to ask a friend who has made one before, because you can't find out on google, unless you read this post.
My friend who knows how to make torches gave me all the necessary components:

a used pop bottle of gas mixed with oil.
old rags, like towels, raggedy old pants
wire

That's all he gave me, he said we need to find a good long branch to use for a pole.
Well, I had my bag of goodies with me and handed it all over to our fearless leader who set about to constructing 3 torches.

From Tarakaniv fort

Which were given to the three torch bearers

From Tarakaniv fort

As we explored the old, murky fortress in Tarakaniv.

From Tarakaniv fort

computer diagnosis of a plumbing problem

2010-05-25T10:49:00.000+03:00

Right after Sven and Laurie left the toilet starting acting up, so we had an online diagnosis using skype and a webcam!

From Rivne stuff

Second hand shop

2010-05-22T21:52:00.000+03:00

I always like it when I see a Norwegian kofte here in Ukraine, must be a treasure from the second hand shop.

paper houses and fun friends

2010-05-21T19:57:00.000+03:00

A couple of weeks ago Eleanor and I went to visit some old friends of hers...

From village life

Tolya met us at the bus with his bike so we could ride our bags and not carry or roll them through the mud.

From village life

We had great fun with the kids, we played inside for a while...

What did we ever used to call these things we'd make in elementary school?
From village life

From village life

Close up picture of our folded paper village.

From village life

We played some more outside.

From village life

And we got to hold the bunnies!

From village life

Their little home always reminds me of a jewelery box because of the precious things inside of it.

From village life

Unlike some of their fly-by-night neighbors

From village life

Clean Laundry!

2010-05-21T18:35:00.000+03:00

I have a thing about fresh laundry, especially if it's all fresh and clean smelling from being dried out on the line. I like these bright clean multicolored button-down shirts in contrast to the dirty blah-gray buildings here.

spring rains and showers of blossoms

2010-05-20T19:03:00.000+03:00

From Sunday shoes and allergies

Why do we have allergies?

From Sunday shoes and allergies

But spring sure is beautiful in spite of how it affects a persons sinuses.

From Sunday shoes and allergies

Walking to our friends' place.
A shortcut across the railroad tracks...

From Sunday shoes and allergies

Through the mud in my Sunday shoes.

From Sunday shoes and allergies

Beautiful Spring

2010-05-07T16:07:00.000+03:00

On my way from the university today I saw something that made me retrace my steps and take a picture:

It was grandma and the baby, she sat up and looked around though after I got the picture, so she was not peacefully asleep as I had assumed.

Where the Sidewalk ends

2010-05-04T17:18:00.001+03:00

Some things are just too painful to talk about until after the fact...
like the time when my brother and sister-in-law came to visit me in Ukraine and the second day they were here I sprained my ankle in a big way.

I never knew your toes could get bruised from a sprained ankle.

And I never knew you could sprain you ankle from bumping your head on a low hanging balcony.
As Angela pointed out the pavement ends right here at the edge of this balcony.
Anyway my foot's much better now, less sore and less blue.
Some times it's not enough to just watch you step, you also have to watch your head as you round the corner of apartment buildings.
Thanks mom for the title for this post!

pretty geeky

2010-05-03T15:50:00.003+03:00

I am curious about the iPad, but because of Apple's proprietary approach to their electronics, I probably don't really want one. But that doesn't mean I don't find the iPad very interesting; this 100 year old lady using the iPad as her first computer is pretty cute:

Surprise visit to Trude in Ukraine

2010-04-27T21:25:00.000+03:00

In case anybody's been living under a rock, I'll post this here...

Gearing up for 50!

2010-04-19T11:19:00.000+03:00

I find this too good not to share:

The B.W.'s or "the boys" as you sometimes call them presented me with my first birthday present last night...a huge empty breadbox...it's as big as the secondhand microwave oven we've been dreaming about. Now the trick will be to keep it full. Maybe the key to making this the year of Jubilee!

Volcano garbage disposal

2010-04-01T22:22:00.001+03:00

A few years ago I was in Hawaii for Thanksgiving. It was my first time to go there and I really enjoyed it all tremendously.However, I was left with one burning question: where do they dump their scrap cars? I rode on one that was despirately rusty and decrepit. Has anyone ever thought of dropping them into the volcanos? Islands by definition have small land mass. Why not throw old cars and other trash into an active volcano and increase the land mass that way when it erupts recycled as molten lava?
We need a volcano over here...

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Karmic Koala

2010-03-31T20:16:00.000+03:00

My windows set up is acting weird, I have to click on an "OK" empty dialogue before login, this is after I took it down to have it looked at, cuz it didn't want to shut off...

So, I removed that hard disk, and replaced it with my old one that I still have around, the same one I installed Leopard on a few months ago. Now I've installed Karmic Koala from Ubuntu. First thing I had to do was fix the wireless - found a hint here, which did the trick for me. But by then I'd already done this, and this, but "next time" I'll do 'here' first.
Now I'm busy installing xp under ubuntu using An open source application called VirtualBox OSE.

and here are some pictures...

From Rivne stuff

Second hand shop

2010-03-31T17:15:00.000+03:00

From Ukraine fall 07

We furnished this place we're in now mainly from the second hand shop. These shops are fairly new here, maybe sprouted up in the past 3-4 years. Before that second hand shopping was more like this. I didn't shop much like this back then, but I did have something to contribute from time to time. :)

After getting through the appendix...

2010-03-16T21:34:00.002+02:00

I have the best friends in the world. All winter I was wishing I could go skiing. I've mentioned before here that there's a pair of skis here on the balcony, trouble is they've never been used and can't be used until they have bindings installed. I always have my dad do those jobs for me, but here I am in Rivne and he's in Castro Valley. Well, that's where good friends come in.

We had a great time afterwards. Taras had a pair of downhill skis and boots, Angela had a pair of super short plastic kids skis and I had these. We had the time of our lives! Like Eleanor says, 'it's great to be among friends'!
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Kidz?

2010-03-16T10:59:00.002+02:00

Maggie and Mildred from Holly Klein on Vimeo.

Thanks Anita for sharing this!

Stuck in the "Appendix"

2010-03-15T16:19:00.003+02:00

A few weeks ago we went to visit our friends in the village; the trip takes us on a road which one of the kids has nicknamed 'the Appendix'. To get out of there the driver has to take a U-turn, which was unsuccessful this time.

We got stuck, no amount of pushing would help, passengers collected branches to put under the wheels, and we pushed and pushed...

But nothing seemed to help, although we pushed, but the snow was slimy as greasy soapsuds and the bus went sideways into the ditch instead of finishing its 'U-turn'.

Finally a genious asked the neighbor if we could borrow his shovels

And Everybody helped Angela push us out of the ditch!

spring is slowly on it's way

2010-03-11T11:35:00.000+02:00

These pictures are from our last trip to the village, we spent a long time at the busstop that day, so I amused myself by taking pictures and throwing rocks onto the frozen pond.
I like the blurry effect of the photos, reminds my of hazy, pleasant childhood memories.

A very cool Pizza Place

2010-03-09T21:44:00.001+02:00

We had lunch here today in between "hurry up and waits"

Yes, I'd go back there again the pizza was good too!
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Bubble tests

2010-03-08T15:36:00.002+02:00

This is what makes a person wish she was in Hawaii for special meetings...but we will find a way to automate this process.

Warm Kitty

2010-02-27T12:57:00.001+02:00

We were in the village again this week. Is a great place, as it seems to be a dementor-free zone, so far anyway.

we saw some sparrows moving into the storks' basement here. Sparrows and storks make good neighbors. They clean up the garbage that the storks throw out, kind of like the situation with us our neighbors when garbage gets thrown out the window. (note use of passive tense here, it is unclear who the subject is.)

Another sign of spring is a kitty looking for a hidey-hole for when the kittens come.

Svitlana was telling us that she had the fire all ready to go here and the wood had taken hold and started to burn and she heard a faint miaowing but the cat was no where to seen. Finally she had to pull the burning sticks out of the stove and then out jumped kitty. I wonder if the babies will suffer from 'smoking mommy syndrome'? But some cats never learn.

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ebook readers need a back light option

2010-02-23T00:12:00.000+02:00

I've always loved to read, I could read a couple of books a day plus a few comics books that were always stored in the bathroom. After bedtime I'd read under the covers with a flashlight. After I grew up and left home, and then later became homeless, I took to always carrying a library book around with me in my purse. If things got long and drawn out where we were visiting, I'd take a trip to the powder room with my purse and my latest read.

The first ebook reader I ever tried out was in 1996 on my Psion 3. I don't remember the name of the program just now, but I liked the idea of having lots of huge books with me right there in my 2 MG electronic organizer. I also enjoyed the Psion 3a which came out with an optional backlight for reading on the bus and train after nightfall.

About five years later I was working on a project where I needed lots of literature and I needed to be mobile, so I took a friend along to help me explain what I wanted in Ukrainian, and went to several copy shops in that city to ask if they could please scan my books and put them on a disk so that I could use them more easily. All we got for our trouble was a few blank stares and hard looks. But now...? Now - I have nearly 300 books on my hard drive!

I hope I don't have to read them all to get through my next project, organizing them and keeping track of them is a bit tricky, (I really do prefer paper and turning pages, cuz I'm not a tree-hugger). I found a pretty good program to help with that, Calibre.

With this program I can go online and find meta data on most of the books, and reviews. I'm also supposed to be able to search the content of the books through the program. That would be a great feature, but not all the scans are done with text recognition.

Yesterday we spent at least 6 hours on the road, but I was reading most of the time, lucky each trip was under 4 hours so I could charge up my netbook in between travels. I've heard the Kindle has good battery life, but no backlight option, a person would need a flashlight to read in the dark, just like when I was a kid. If I were designing a space alien their eyes would have rays of light coming out of them, if we had illuminating eyes the Kindle wouldn't need a backlight ever, but until it comes with that option I'm sticking with the netbook.

Ingenuity

2010-02-21T17:22:00.000+02:00

A brilliant solution to the lack of water during the spring thaw. At an anonomous bus station.

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Starbucks-esque

2010-02-20T12:08:00.000+02:00

I got an interesting request today, "find a Ukrainian coffee shop like Starbucks". We had just been to that cute place.

And were happy for a chance to go again!

They have delicious treats from Kyiv...

We also saw this place to check out

With WiFi which seems Starbucksy except for the fact that they were closed...

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continuation

2010-02-15T15:16:00.000+02:00

Picasa will only post 4 pics at a time to blogger it looks like.

Graffiti

2010-02-15T15:12:00.002+02:00

There didn't used to be much graffiti here, and when I saw it showing up it felt like freedom of speech. People complain about graffiti, but I actually like some of it, because I like the way it brightens up the cold gray concrete.
I did a second post with a few more pictures.

On our way to Lutsk

2010-01-29T12:09:00.000+02:00

It's slippery today.

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Christmas is over

2010-01-22T11:57:00.002+02:00

We saw these trees going into the trash yesterday as we were out walking. There was a big holiday on the 20th, something to do with holy water, people were coming home from church with little water pots. After that holy day the Chistmas trees finally go out.

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On the bus

2010-01-19T13:52:00.001+02:00

This is the most flattering picture I could get of our cranky bus driver this morning. I wasn't cranky, not me. I love getting up at 0500 for early buses. What I don't like is loud "music" on early morning buses. Sometimes I ask the driver to please turn it down and mostly they are quite congenial about it. This fellow however told me if I didn't like his music he'd give me my money back and I could get out and walk. I checked the blaring speaker over my head for exposed wiring, but there were no visible wires, good thing, or I would still be walking...
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Check the socks

2010-01-17T20:55:00.000+02:00

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Please pass the sugar

2010-01-17T20:40:00.001+02:00

This is the sugar bowl at Simon's place

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The Sugarbowl...

2010-01-17T20:10:00.000+02:00

And she only visited us once...

That girl I know who cleans out sugar bowls.
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Defrosting the fridge

2010-01-15T22:43:00.001+02:00

Not a good idea to be in a hurry when you do this...the 2 pots of boiling water are ok, but my own very words as I hacked away here with a hammer and putty knife at an igloo sized chunk of ice at the back of the fridge were "A... would never let me do this, she's so strict"... Next thing I hear is "PSSSSSS" and then I learned what freon smells like. Well, at the temperatures we've been having here I don't think a little global warming will hurt anyone.
The fridge is outside in the hallway ready to be hauled away be the lucky fellows who'll deliver our new fridge next week. We are leaving town with all our food on the balcony. We're glad it's cold out there.

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and we had Chrismas dinner

2010-01-08T22:35:00.000+02:00

The holidays are kind of hard to ignore around here, Christmas, New Years and Easter come twice a year, just one week after the other, so Christmas was yesterday, again...New Years will be next week, on the 14th, so it's called the Old New Year, it's because of the old calendar system they used to use, I can't explain it any better than that.

So a week or so ago I was walking down the sidewalk looking for someone to sell me an iPhone battery (almost impossible) and I nearly tripped over a little old lady who was selling a duck, right next to her was a young woman selling cranberries, so knowing I would need comfort food since there were no batteries to be had, I bought the duck and the berries. The duck did not come included with a shopping bag, all good shoppers here are supposed to leave home with a shopping bag...since I wasn't planning on buying anything bigger than a battery that day I had no shopping bag. I don't like to shop, so I don't ever have shopping bags on me...
I offered to pay good money for the ripped holey bag the duck came in, but now, that grandma told me to be off and buy my own bag, in tones which I recognized were not to be argued with, so anyway, I got home and we eventually baked this duck.

We made some very nice stuffing to stuff it with before baking it, but come to find out the duck was stuffed when we bought it! See all the nice stuffing?

We had delicious Danish Red Cabbage, a recipe from my Danish friend, Evelyn.

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-04T21:06:00.002+02:00

I took this on Saturday morning as I was out walking in Lutsk...

My brother's stories about his childhood

2009-12-10T21:51:00.000+02:00

He tells the most bloodcurdling tales, honestly you'd believe he thought we were trying to kill him...

From kidz

6th sense technology

2009-12-08T11:26:00.000+02:00

Very cool stuff...

Over a year since she was murdered

2009-12-03T21:46:00.001+02:00

Memorial March for Martine Magnussen
the suspect still has not faced trial.

Ratcatcher post

2009-12-03T21:31:00.001+02:00

I was thinking I was wearing my ratcatcher here, but doesn't look like it. A ratcatcher is a special shirt worn by equestrians for dress up I guess is the best way to describe it.
This picture was taken in Festus, Missouri in about 1974. It's me and my dad. The horse is Carrigan, I was told he was a descendant of Man of War a famous race horse.

Kalyway Hackintosh

2009-12-02T16:11:00.003+02:00

First let me tell you that we did buy an install disk, in fact my dad has three install disks, so the license is paid for. But since I don't know how to apply the patch myself I downloaded one of the Kalyway distributions. It was exciting to install it last night and see it work fairly well on the old hard drive of my Dell pc; that is I had no sound and no wireless, but otherwise it was a near Mac experience. Here's what it looked like:

I think that's the aurora borealis glow off of Dave's elbow, actually the standard Leopard desktop image. Since that effort put me back quite a bit on my REM time I tried hard to make up for that by cooking good food today. Here's what it looked like:

I got the recipe from the October issue of Prevention magazine. We keep it on the bathroom floor for lack of better inspiration in that room. Anyway, here's the recipe:

Prepare 8 oz whole wheat rotini according to package directions. (I simply boiled some noodles) In medium saucepan, simmer 1/2 12 oz package frozen butternut squash (I bought an unknown variety on the hoof out near the bus station) until combined. Remove from heat and mix with 1 c shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, ( no Cheddar here, just whatever) 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp dry mustard, and pepper to taste. (I added Lebanese zatar) Pour drained pasta in to baking dish stir in cheese mixture and top with 1 Tbsp each Parmesan and bread crumbs. Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes.

I also added 2 beaten eggs to the squash. It was kind of a fun way to hack mac and cheese.
As we were eating I dug the label for the noodles out of the trash can to wonder what they used to make them green..."spinach?", we wondered...here are the ingredients:

durum wheat semolina, wheat germ, red chili, black squid ink, dehydrated beet root. Contains fish...

Anyway it was vegetarian. I topped mine with chopped walnuts to give my plate a real gourmet effect, it tasted great and I was glad for the crunch as I wondered about the nutritional benefits of black squid ink.

missing my umbrella at the Warsaw parade

2009-11-12T13:45:00.003+02:00

Yesterday we were in Warsaw to see a historical parade commemorating the independence of Poland. In 1918, at the end of World War I, today's Poland was freed from the Austria-Hungarian, German and Russian Empires.
It was a great day, my only problem was that I couldn't find my itty bitty umbrella in my cool purse for which I made the fisherman's vest dividers. That, however is beside the point.

From from Angela's camera

Standing there in the rain with the Poles, watching the historical parade of the different regiments in the history of Poland from the rebel army before independence to today's troops made me feel very small.
Let me explain: Yesterday I remembered the 5th grade me. That was the first time I'd ever heard a "polack" joke - it could have been about how many of them it takes to screw in a light bulb, or something similarly enlightening. Being an immature grade schooler I thought it was funny of course. I didn't know what was meant by a "polack", just that it was someone dumber than me. Of course I went on to tell this little joke, and others like it to anyone with patience to listen, until my mom overheard me. It precipitated one of the few lectures that I can actually recollect. She told me that what I was calling a "polack" were real people from a real country, a country called Poland. The people who live there are properly known as Poles. They are Polish, not, "polacks", a derogatory, ignorant term. Poles are hardworking people who love their country. They have fought for their country. After their capitol was bombed to the ground in World War II they rebuilt it with their own hands. Before the Soviet occupation they were a proud and talented people. Poland has produced famous musicians, composers and writers. Don't ever tell "polack" jokes again. Poland, their country which they love has been taken away from them, but they still love their homeland and want to be free again.
I did not appreciate or care for that speech, my Norwegian mother obviously didn't understand sophisticated grade school humor.
But I never forgot it.
And I remembered it again as we stood in the rain near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in one of Warsaw's many beautiful parks. We stood watching the stirring sight of different military regiments parade past us,

From from Angela's camera

after having laid wreaths of flowers on the tomb.

From from Angela's camera

All the while we stood shoulder to shoulder with Poles in the rain who let me stand under their big umbrellas in the Warsaw rain, because I couldn't find my own.
By the time the opening ceremonies are over I'm so glad I'm not a soldier, glad I don't have to spend the night in a pup tent, because I'm wet and cold. My two fellow companions on this outing decide to deposit me at a cafe so they can go and enjoy the sites of chilly, wet Warsaw.
At the cafe I get a table near the radiator and drape my scarf and gloves over it to dry them off, then look through my purse for any errant zloty to pay for an Americano - and what do I find? The last gift my mom gave me before I left home last summer, my tiny black totes umbrella nestled within the vast recesses of my diplomats bag.
So now, who's the polack?

From My drawings

did I already post this here?

2009-11-07T12:23:00.001+02:00

When was riding horses I had a special shirt which was part of my riding habit, called a "ratcatcher". I never caught any rats in it, but if I ever needed it, it's NOW!
Our Drohobich bache is on the first floor this year there we've only caught 6 mice, last year we did real well at 11 live mice that we can either let go into the wild, or drown in a bucket of water. After temperatures go down to freezing at night it seems like the mouse are holed up for the winter, and we don't have any more problems with them.
I'd been hearing noises in my room though, enough to convince me that a mammal with a heavy tread is living under the floor of my room, and that he's working on some kind of a project. I told Karen who gave me kind of a glassy look, like "oh really", so I dropped it when I could see she wouldn't volunteer to trade rooms. Imagine my vindication when Karen in making before breakfast coffee agitatedly tells me that "at 4:30 this morning the RATS dragged a chain across the floor" under her room. "We should give him a name" she said, "Sebastian, he's building a torture chamber" I really enjoyed that remark and have shared it with some of my friends.
Then we are expecting company to our bache. Our Polish friends, who take care of our mail are bringing it in, so we scurry around our bache and try to make it seem clean and cozy. Cobwebs in doorways are a big problem, Tammy is taller that both of us, and we don't want her getting spider webs in her hair. They come, we have a great time, Karen cooks delicious Oriental food, and we eat with chopsticks. Our friend Sasha is all pleased that he managed to use his during the whole meal, he and Halya refused at first, but we gave them a lesson, and somehow took away their inhibitions. After the meal Sasha said he had a cramp in his hand from the chopsticks! Our steady listener came, (Anya!) D. S. came, all a great success.
Bedtime, Eleanor has the couch in my room. I use earplugs and am out for all night. In the morning she tells me she heard noises in the night, "Oh yeah, that's Karen's friend Sebastian, he's building a torture chamber" Well, Eleanor had heard things that had made her get out of bed, take her flashlight and investigate. "Do people walk by here swishing plastic bags?" she questioned musingly...I volunteered that there is a garbage dump down the street with lots of plastic bags that the wind might blow.
The next morning it’s back to just Karen and me, "Trude, come in here." A tone of voice which prepares me to expect the worst. The scene which greets my eyes is our dumped garbage pail, the plastic sack is chewed up, (rat tooth doily) and the garbage is perforated with rat's teeth...I fled the scene, leaving Karen to pick up the mess, after she finished making my (and hers!) coffee. I hadn't taken my first sip and again, "come here" in tones that got me out of bed again...this time it was the toilet...on the floor were banana peels and an empty milk carton from the kitchen trash...the wastepaper basket was also tipped over. I backed out of there as quickly as my squeamish bare feet would take me. Closed my bedroom door, got into bed with all my covers on. In this race the rats are winning!
Oh, Karen’s first words were, “let’s not tell the girls huh?” Let’s see how fast it takes for the news to get to Poland !
Update: When I emptied the trash the smell was rank, delicious to a rat of course. I learned that in 3^rd grade when we read about Templeton the Rat in Charlotte’s Web. The land lady came by today and we discussed plugging the rat hole. Her suggestion was to let him crawl out into our apartment and die here…I shot that idea down as tactlessly as possible. She’s coming tomorrow with some goop to plug the hole.

Murder in the Village

2009-11-06T20:55:00.003+02:00

My gentle readers will remember my post about all the indignities suffered by Bruce, a dog of the village Antonivka. He is named in honor of the martial arts master Bruce Lee. This dog of such a noble name disgraced himself today in the wee hours of the morning.
A young, maimed, chicken was discovered beside his supper dish. In my previous post about Bruce I praised him and his endurance of certain canine sufferings - chickens eating our of his dog dish for example. Well this morning we had no witnesses as to what allegedly did occur, but a dead chicken was found in the proximity of the dog house. This dead chicken's unmolested corpse was found within the reach of Bruce's short chain which attaches him to the said dog house.
This picture was taken as evidence, unfortunately the corpse had already been removed by passersby (who intended to cook it for lunch).
I think we can see guilt painted all of over the face of this dog, but there is evidence of remorse, he wouldn't touch his breakfast, the surviving chickens are eating it all right under his nose.

grafitti artist caught in action

2009-10-31T14:14:00.003+02:00

Just in time to wish us all a happy Halloween!

For Anne of Green Gables fans

2009-10-25T20:00:00.001+02:00

click here for an interesting video regarding the new L.M. Montgomery book.

Anita wants to make me a chair like this one

2009-10-25T18:29:00.003+02:00

this is making the rounds, so I don't want you to miss it

2009-10-20T18:18:00.002+03:00

village life

2009-10-17T17:35:00.002+03:00

We are really glad to get out of town once a week and go to visit our friend in the village. It's about an hour and a half on the bus from here to get out there. Once we are there it feels like a lifetime away from the world we know. There's no store out there, no public square, no internet, (unless we connect with our cell phones, which I don't bother to do!)
When we arrive the first one to greet us is usually Bruce barking up a storm.

From it takes a village

Here is Bruce trying to defend his supper dish from a Chinese pig. This poor dog suffers all kinds of indignities, even the chickens are bold enough to try to rob his supper dish!

From it takes a village

With young people moving to town to find work and better possibilities there are lots of Ukrainian villages that are quite uninhabited, but that's not the case with this place. However there are some homes left empty when the occupants go away for the winter. Maybe I should say empty nests.

From it takes a village

Svitlana, our friend, has a strip of land in front of her house where she can plant potatoes and beets and whatever else she wants to grow.

From it takes a village

This week we helped her mow the strip to the left in this picture. I'd never used a scythe before, never thought I'd ever master that skill, but she and I mowed 10/100 of a hectare together. (1000 meters squared, about the whole length of the field, almost to the trees) It took us about an hour. When we started I had no hope of finishing, glad we were doing it together! You can see the scythe in this picture:

From it takes a village

This picture from http://www.vtcommons.org/files/images/scythe.gif is easier to see. The trick is she told me is to swing it and aim the "heel" to the earth, when I started doing it that way I couldn't believe how it cleared a huge swath in front of me. In time it became quite normal to take a step and swing my arms, take another step and swing my arms and watch the greens tumble from their mowed down stalks. That was 2 days ago, and yes, my arms are still sore!
What I found very interesting is that the field was sown with something she calls "oil radishes", people sow their fields with radishes, mow the field then plow the crop under. This is done instead of fertilizing the ground. It seems that farmers at home are doing something similar as well. Click here for the story.
bye! thanks for listening!

Askold and Dir

2009-10-16T23:19:00.002+03:00

From it takes a village

Askold and Dir were 2 rulers of ancient Kiev according to myths with some hazy historical documentation by the Arab historian al Masudi. Anyway it seems a fun name for these 2 Chinese pigs of Svitlana's. They are cute little pigs, don't eat much because they're small, and they like to tear around the yard like puppies when they play!

From it takes a village

And this is a real living tomato from Svitlana. I had never eaten a sprouting tomato before.

Something else I miss from home...

2009-10-14T13:08:00.000+03:00

My mom's sewing basket.

Push ups again

2009-10-01T19:45:00.000+03:00

Exactly one year and one month ago I posted this. Back then I could do about 2 push ups at a time, so I could with great difficulty do 5 sets of 2 push ups. I was inspired by this webpage and followed the program for about a month or so before I got distracted with life. The other day I tried to see how many I could do, and now I can do 10 pushups! So - in about 10 years and 10 months I should be able to do 100 pushups?

alternative medicine

2009-09-28T21:45:00.002+03:00

While the health care debate rages at home I am pursuing health and well-being over here in Ukraine. All I want is to be pain free without taking lots of ibuprofin.
The search took me first to a massage therapist who recommends a hot sauna. It's effective and the cold pool is especially stimulating. Then I moved on to a neurologist who practicies accupuncture. He uses long sharp needles to make my muscles relax. Some people fall asleep during the 20 minutes they have pins poking out of them. My muscles may have relaxed, but it didn't really make me feel cosy enough to take a nap.
This neurologist works in a rather nice facility; it's called the Chernobyl hospital. It has some nice up to date machinery. After a few treatments of acupuncture he did an x-ray. The printer wasn't working, but I saw the x-ray on the computer screen, and I was properly impressed with the quality of the picture. His recommendation after the x-ray was leech therapy. I don't have any pictures of my own to post here, I may borrow some online if I need graphic aides.
"Why leeches?" I asked. Well, leeches bite a hole in your skin, (my back) and suck blood. They are also called blood suckers, or they are called horse leeches. The saliva from a leech works as a painkiller, it also has therapeutic anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant properties. (Because of this, the wounds continue to bleed all day!)
After the leech takes in 10 to 15 ml of blood it gets full and stops working. He used about 5 on me. When they are done working they are simply disposed of. But, he told me, leeches have become quite expensive compared to what they were before, so some people opt to take them home and keep them in a jar of water where they remain alive (water has to be changed every 3 days), in a few months the leeches can be used again.
Well, they still only cost 9 hriven a piece, so I don't think I'll start keeping leaches around as pets.

Things I miss from home...

2009-09-26T22:29:00.000+03:00

Breakfast

2009-09-22T14:19:00.002+03:00

This is a kitchen scale with chaff on it. The chaff doesn't weigh anything, but I spent several minutes picking it out of my homemade granola the other day...I do this every day, because I bought the cheapest oatmeal in the store. Angela told me not to collect a week's worth of it to weigh, is tempting though!

dealing with apples

2009-09-21T13:58:00.000+03:00

There are apples everywhere this time of year, and everybody likes to give us a bag of apples to carry home! In this case I was more interested in the basket than the apples!
So when you have apples you can't just let them sit around and get old, but I'm hard pressed to eat even one a day sometimes...I just don't have that much time to sit around and chew, so what to do? We did press 8 liters of apple juice here:

From Apples!! by Trude

Well, there's always applesauce, and pie... who has time to make apple pies all week long???

From Apples!! by Trude

So this is what we did with all our apples

From Apples!! by Trude

today...

From Apples!! by Trude

We want to dry them and make apple chips or apple flakes? This is just half that we have sliced, should take a few days to dry them on a low flame, then if we're lucky someone will give us some more, because this is fun! :)

Borscht recipe

2009-09-18T21:53:00.000+03:00

This is our friend Anya, we met her in a little shop where we'd go when we needed macaroni and stuff like that. She was always very helpful and gradually we became friends.

Here is Anya's recipe for canned Borscht:

4 kg boiled beets, grated
2 kg green peppers, blanched
2 kg onions, diced
2 kg tomato, diced
250 gr vinegar
100 gr sugar
150 gr salt
350 gr oil

simmer in a pan until all ingredients are cooked,

From from Angela's camera

then seal in glass jars.

From from Angela's camera

This is great to have on hand, half a jar is enough for 2 of us, a good quick meal with a slice of bread.
We made half a recipe, got 3.5 liters.

From from Angela's camera

I think these canning lids are interesting, nothing like what I was used to from home, and getting them off is not easy either!

From from Angela's camera

Stuff on the Balcony

2009-08-28T16:03:00.004+03:00

Our flat in Rivne has a balcony on the east side. It's great to have a balcony with your apartment because then you have a place to hang out your clothes, and a place to store food when it's cold out; it's kind of like a mini back porch (the size of a bath tub) if you have enough imagination.

Our balcony has great potential to be all these things, but unfortunately it has become the catch all for the owner and perhaps previous tenants of this 2 room plus kitchen domicile.
I've made lots of trips to the trash already, but when the junk isn't really yours it's harder to dump it, a person just doesn't feel so free somehow.
We have lots of wardrobes in our place, this is great too, except that the owner and perhaps previous tenants have left junk in the wardrobes too: a child's winter coat, a leather jacket, a fur coat, a busted radio, a locked briefcase, and so on ad infinitum. I asked the landlord about the coats, “just put it on the balcony” is his pat reply when ever I ask him about any of this junk. There is a plastic 60 liter drum with a screw on lid (for making pickles) also out on the balcony; that's where I put the moth eaten fur coat. And screwed the lid on tight. That has somewhat decreased the moth population in our place.

There was a washing machine out there too. We have reinstated it and are using it for our laundry. It's actually just a laundry agitator; it whirls the laundry around until it's all in knots, then we undo all the kinks and do a manual rinse in buckets in the bathtub, then we spin it out in our spin dryer, a gift from Holland (they had 6 to give away at the convention place there; Karen brought it in for us. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!)
There is also a windshield from a car out there. Oh, you don't see it? Well, look here...

I'm not sure if it's a Saab windshield or not, likely not...

A walk in the park in Ternopil

2009-08-26T21:31:00.003+03:00

Ternopil means "thorny field". That was certainly the case 10 years ago when I was there and lost my colleague who suddenly passed away one night. At the time we had been working in Ternopil and teaching English at the teachers college.
My next co-worker, DeAnn and I stayed on in Ternopil for a few more months before moving on to Lviv, where I taught at Ivan Franco University. I wasn't at all unhappy to leave Ternopil because of the sadness we had experienced during those months.
Several years passed and there was never a reason to return to Ternopil until we met Teresa, an English student on the train one day. We began meeting up with her a few times a month to sit on a bench in the park in Ternopil and read together in English. Usually the weather was nice, but sometimes it was cold; we would still read and chat on a bench in the park. If it rained or snowed Teresa knew of a cafe where we could sit and read together.
So we have happy memories from Ternopil now; here is a picture I took a few days ago as Pat and I walked through the same park where I walked with Avis and DeAnn.
These are giant bubbles and you can get inside and walk around on the surface of the pond. We didn't try it, but while Avis and I were there we did walk across the frozen surface of the lake one day!

Ange's lamp

2009-08-12T23:08:00.003+03:00

refining our technique with bath salts. Karen was helping me then Vasil and Sergie showed up. We had fun!
I think it was Joyce who reinforced the idea that I need to put something into the bottle. Also most of the websites say that there needs to be ballast in the bottle so that it doesn't tip over.