June 20, 2012 water, stairs, house and a tow truck

More Random Pictures ..............

You have a choice of water.....still water  (like we normally drink) and water with gas (mineral water)........we do not think of it as a choice because we prefer not to drink the mineral bubbly gassy water.....ha ha!!

Piano stairs...............

House near us....................

Cool tow truck........

June 19, 2012 Three cool pictures

Three Cool Pictures for today.......

1 - A Cute sign showing that train crossing is ahead!!!

2 - Not so cute Russian bathroom!!!

3 - Phone booth..............remember these anyone????

June 18, 2012 friendly calf, something unknown, ice cream,and scary driver sign

Today was all day farm/dairy visits. 

The first set of pictures is of a very friendly 2 week old calf.  I was standing near an area where there were several calves and this one kept following me.  So I went to pet it and you see what happened.  I left for a bit and when I returned here it came back for more attention.

I know these babies are hungry and want more milk but it is kind of amusing to watch them try and knock their buckets out of the holders in order to get more milk......

 When we went outside I was watching this cow and thought, "I guess when you've got an itch you will do anything to scratch it"  I think the other cows got the idea and were waiting in line for their turn at the "scratching post"

We went to one of the farmsteads and saw some sort of plant that had overtaken everything.  We asked Konstantin and another worker who was in the car what it was, they said they didn't know what it was called but it was of no use.  At first Lewis told me it looked like Rhubarb and I got all excited, but it wasn't.  I think it is a bunch of weeds that will soon overtake the world.....you have been warned!!!

We tried another new ice cream from the gas station.  Very tasty, basically an ice cream roll with chocolate around it.

I have never noticed this sign on the back window of cars, but Lewis has and the

other day he asked Konstantin what it meant.  He said "It means they have had drivers license for less that 3 years.  When I see that sign I think DANGER!"

We pulled into a parking space and saw this car and Lewis asked what 2 signs means.......Konstantin says "Very very dangerous, stay away from this car!!"  So funny his explanations!!

June 17 2012 Happy Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Just like with Mother's Day............Father's Day is not a recognized day in Russia.  But it is recognized in our apartment and Lewis got to make his own Father's Day Meal........it is better that way, he is such a good cook!!!

 We are very thankful for technology and the ability to call our own father's to wish them Happy Father's Day today!!!

Here are some pictures to show how the children are usually transported around in public..........

June 16 2012 Yummy foods

From 10:15 am - 9:15 pm we had meetings so nothing exciting to take pictures of except for the food that we had for lunch and dinner. Nothing too unusual this time.  Seems like they had a lot of chicken to serve because chicken was in almost everything for both meals.
Lunch salad was chicken with potatoes and hard boiled eggs and the soup was mostly vegetables and broth, with of course the traditional addition of sour cream.  Nothing better than Russian soup.......I will repeat that many times!!! Pasta and chicken for the main dish.
Dinner was a cabbage salad, kind of like coleslaw but hardly any dressing added.  I didn't take a picture of the main dish because it was simply mashed potatoes and a piece of chicken.  Check out the placemats.....a napkin.....their napkins are so thin it takes about 3 to get the job done!!!

June 15, 2012 Hot Air Ballons outside of our apartment

About 6am Lewis told me that the hot air balloons were right outside our apartment building.  So cool to have them this close.  You can actually hear the noise of the flame going on and off.  Also you can hear the dog barking that we usually hear all night long and sometimes all day long.

The balloons went away because a storm was coming in........thunder and tons of rain!!!

This baby calf was born on my birthday

After the storm passed and the sky was clear again the balloons came back.  These pictures were taken from our apartment window between 9:15 and 9:45 in the evening......pretty good zoom on some of the pictures!!  This was the last day of the hot air balloons!!!

June 14, 2012 A lesson about sheets

Yesterday when we came back from the trip and put our new mattress on top of the one we have been using we discovered that it was about 8 inches bigger and hung over the edge.  This was not a horrible problem but we needed to get some additional sheets that would fit this new mattress.  Yesterday we got back to the apartment about 9am and had a meeting from noon until 7pm and then dinner until 9pm so there was no time to buy any sheets.  Today after work we went to our favorite "Orange" store and got sheets and some groceries.  Who would have known that buying sheets could be so complicated.  I think it took us over 30 minutes to get it all figured out. With assistance from the iPhone app translator and Konstantin and the lady who worked at the store we finally made a decision.

In the meantime we have learned a few things........

1) The beds are typically what we call twin or double, we have not seen anything bigger and     probably because there would be no space to put a bigger bed. 
2) These beds are defined as 1.5 person bed or 2 person bed.  Apparently we had been sleeping on a 1.5 person mattress and bought a 2 person mattress. 
3) Getting a "fitted sheet" and a "flat sheet" in a sheet set doesn't happen.  The sheet sets either come with a "fitted sheet" (which is typical in Euro) and a blanket cover and pillow cases  OR  they come with a "flat sheet" (which is typical in Russia) blanket cover and pillow cases. 

This explains why we only had a flat sheet on our bed when we first got here and had to buy a fitted one.  Honestly I do not see how people sleep with just the flat one, they must never move in their sleep.  So here are some pictures of our 30+ minutes learning lesson on buying sheets in Russia.

Of course we did not see this picture when we were trying to figure out if a fitted sheet or flat sheet was inside.
Translated "Fitted Sheet"

Translated - "Quilt or Duvet cover with zipper"

Translated - "Pillowslip zipper"

We need to always look for "EBPO" because that mean EURO which means there is a fitted sheet!!

Such a simple task turned so complicated!!  BUT in the end, we got some pretty blue sheets that fit perfectly on our new comfy mattress and we are sleeping much better now!!!