Dublin re-cap Part II

Wednesday I actually woke early enough to go for a run. Here's the park right by our hotel (OK fine, it wasn't open during my run so I ran around it but I walked through on a different day. It doesn't make it any less pretty.)



Wednesday was also our "official" group outing to the middle of nowhere to Johnnie Fox's to hear Irish music and see Irish dancing. Yes, those are chamber pots on the ceiling. I think.


If I find where my husband hid the poor quality videos of Irish dancing, I'll post them later! I am sad to say I think I know where he hid them ...

Dublin long-overdue recap part I

The last week of August I was in Dublin for training. It was serious stuff, and I learned a lot, made good connections, blah blah. One of the main responsibilities of my job is event planning, so when you put together 20+ of us, the odds are good that someone's going to come up with a plan.

Our first night after training we went to the Guinness Storehouse tour - the tour went until 7pm until the end of August so we had until Wednesday. I forgot my camera that night so I don't have much to show about it, but it was really well done for a self-guided tour. And the "learn to pour" schtick was fun as was the beer tasting.

Monday night the fire alarm went off in the hotel. The story at the time was it was "electrical" but the next morning's tale indicated it might have been more like "user error". All I know is when someone pounded on my door at 2am all I thought of was stupid drunks so when I opened my door to yell at them, and they turned out to be hotel staff in bright orange vests and I could smell smoke, I impressed myself with the coolness and speed with which I figured out the most important things to bring with me, changed into jeans, grabbed my coat and got outside. The fire alarms didn't work everywhere in the building (hence the personal wakeup calls). Aren't we glad it wasn't worse? One of the women in the training was right by the fire site and the hotel dry cleaned ALL her clothes and, obviously, changed her room. We got back to bed some time after 4am.

I skipped Tuesday night's Jameson's Whiskey tour and studied Russian like a good girl at a Malaysian restaurant. Mmmm.

Here are some pretty things near the hotel. I love the bright colored doors in the somber brick or stone homes.


Here's the canal that stood between us and the heart of the city.

Licking the beaters

With all the baking I do, today was a special "first" for the kids .... I made frosting and let them lick the beaters. Alex enjoyed hers as much as Z enjoyed his, but of course he looks the part a bit more :)

Amsterdam airport

If you have kids and haven't planned your transit through Amsterdam, here's why you should stop being so silly (yes yes it does require you fly KLM, but I swear it's worth it).

There's a whole big room of these little "pods".



Yes that is an actual CRIB you see.


The library. See the whole shelf of "children's books"? See that it's written in English? There's even more books for adults, as of course you didn't pack reading material because all your time is spent making sure the little people don't melt down.

The "treehouses". Climbing, sliding, running. Things that wear out little travelers and give you a shred of hope they will sleep on the next leg.

Our new fancy pants car alarm

We have a new remote starter/alarm system for our car.

We drive a 1994 Toyota Corolla in "that" blue color. See? (photo taken in its younger, shinier days in Malta)


Incongruity?

Absolutely. It is totally ridiculous. However, of course, there is a back story.

Last year we couldn't use our car for about 2-3 months because the locks froze. Can't get into the car, can't drive the car. Once the weather warmed a bit - to, you know, just above freezing - we were able to get in. The summer Terry tore apart the door and did various things to try to ensure the locks wouldn't freeze again, but you just never know. Also, the automatic door locks had been broken for a while and getting 2 kids into the car without anyone running into traffic is an unfortunate challenge - particularly when each door needs to be manually unlocked (meaning for the back seats, of course, that the front doors must be unlocked first, the one must awkwardly reach around to pull up the lock by hand). Now I push a button. Same for locking all the doors on the other side. Bliss.

Friday Hermitage with Zoltan

We bought a membership to the Hermitage last spring and have definitely not used it to its potential. I had an epiphany that Z is getting much better about being able to sit in the stroller or otherwise behave when he's out and about so I decided on a Friday - my day off work - I would take him to the Hermitage. If the weather's good it's a nice walk, and because of the membership if we only make it 1/2 hour it's still worth it.

Today was the inaugural visit. As I didn't know about getting up and down the stairs or where exactly those elevators were, I took the umbrella stroller. It was raining so we caught the bus, totally by accident got let off exactly where we needed to (Moika) and easily got ourselves there. It was an absolute madhouse inside though, and the woman at the entrance told me I'd need to check my jacket if I couldn't fit it in the stroller basket. I looked at the line of people checking things and decided if I couldn't make it fit we weren't going in. Somehow I got the jacket, Z's sweatshirt and the diaper bag all in the tiny little basket.

When we got inside, Z wanted to walk. So we start going up the main staircase baby pace. I was bumping the stroller up behind us with one hand - no way I could have done it with the Phil & Ted. At one point a Russian woman was energetically trying to say something to be about a "detskaya kortka" (child's jacket) and I figured she was yelling at me for not dressing Zoltan warmly enough. After pondering what she could have possibly been saying, I realized that Z's raincoat had fallen out in the bumping so I ran down and luckily it wasn't too far down the stairs.

Z was amazing. He wanted a walk a while but was happy to hold my hand. Then he wanted to sit and eat his snack. We were there an hour and only left because it was getting close to nap time. We got to get back to the Annie Liebowitz exhibit, which Terry and I had seen on its opening day with massive throngs of people. Today was a much more leisurely pace. Z especially loved the photos of Sarah Liebowitz (granddaughter?) and in each room we looked for the photos of "the baby" (his words).

I will absolutely be repeating the experience.

Detsky Sad Part II

Day 1: Alex doesn't nap during naptime. Instead she and the boy next to her talk the whole time while every other kid in class sleeps. I ask if he's the American in the school and she says no. I ask if he spoke English. She says no. Hm.

Day 2: Alex's teacher instructs me to bring a hat or scarf for her for the next day. Alex and I are in T-shirts. Hm.

Day 4: When I come to pick Alex up she's so excited. She has 2 friends! Yes, one is the boy she talked with during nap and the other is a girl ... which for Alex is a bit of a novelty.

Sightseeing off the beaten track

Happy Labor Day everyone! Two places I've been wanting to visit are finally crossed off the list:

- Alexander Nevsky Cemetery: the cemetery is comprised of two parts, one side holds famous artists and the other side, I believe, holds average citizens. We only got to the famous people side, and got to see Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Stradivarius, and other luminaries. As today was a mind-blowingly beautiful fall day, sunny and cool, it was a perfect day to be outside and contemplating mortality without getting totally depressed. We will definitely be back with a tour guide.



- Loft Project Etagi: this is a multi-level gallery and more, currently hosting the World Press Photo contest winners. We went to see the photo exhibit, although there are 3-4 other exhibits there according to the Loft Project's web site, as well as a restaurant that's gotten some good reviews. For another day, though. The photos were generally beautiful and powerful, but as the media's love of sensationalism requires, often shocking and horrifying. The photos chronicled many human and natural disasters that I don't remember heading about when they happened, which makes the photos all the more powerful as now the events are etched in my memory.

Detsky Sad

Today we brought Alex to Russian preschool for her first day - school began on September 1 but as I was away we decided to wait and bring her today. A few awesomenesses:

- The boy and his dad walking in behind us. The guard said dobri den (good morning) to us all, and I hear behind me "Can you say priviet ("hi")?" So I turned around and asked in Russian if he spoke English and it turns out they are American! I don't think he's in Alex's class but I am sure they mingle on the playground ... and I could be wrong, he looked about the right age to be in her class.

- The teacher. When I went to bring the paperwork to school 2 weeks ago I brought Alex and she met the teachers and saw the classroom. The lockers all have different animals on them and the teacher remembered that Alex had liked the elephant. Unfortunately, a kid who showed up on the first day had already claimed it, but Alex seems happy with the jaguar :)

When I report back on how it went, I'll try to get a few photos of at least the outside.

Early morning team building exercise

We now have fabulous fodder for our upcoming discussion on crisis management and personal preparedness! Around 2am those who heard the alarms from their rooms were awakened, the rest of us had hotel staff pounding on our doors (of course I assumed it was drunks and I opened my door to yell at them and noticed the smell of smoke).

I really hope we get to start late tomorrow. Oops. Today.

CCCP ice cream

We keep forgetting to put this up. This is our favorite of the plain vanilla non-gourmet ice cream and not just because of the cover!

40 by 40

In the last 4+ years I have spent exactly one night alone - the night before I took the FSOA. Now I'm about to accomplish two huge feats - (1) I am going away for a week of training for my job, and (2) I get to do it in Dublin. I have wanted to visit Ireland forever, seriously it has been on my wish list for more than 20 years and somehow it never happened.

AND, Ireland will be the 40th nation I have visited in my life. I'm hitting 40 by 40 a bit more than 2 years early. It's a tiny bit sad not to celebrate that with my family but then they weren't with me for most of the other places so I guess it isn't too awful.

The real question is whether I will end up being a little crybaby being away from the kids for a whole week. Wanna place bets?

Youth Hockey in SPB

Friday I was asked to go as a representative of the Consulate to a youth hockey tournament being held in St Petersburg. The tournament has three teams from the United States so the consulate shows support in going. My job was to go to the opening ceremony. It was a non speaking role and there was interpreters there so it seemed like it was in my realm.

The event was pretty fun with some interesting things worth sharing. The first big thing is I meet Vladislav Tretiak. For those not familiar he was the goalie for the Soviet Union on the national (Olympic) team.  He played in the Olympics from 1972 to1984.  The only year he did not win the gold was the year of the infamous miracle on ice.  He was the goalie pulled at the end of the first period.  He was one the guys we all grew up hating and dreaming of beating when we became famous hockey players. My oh my how the world has changed since then. He seemed like a nice guy.  Granted I didn't have any lengthy conversations with him.

The second in true Russian fashion. There was a small luncheon after the opening ceremonies. One gentlemen offered me wine. I used some of my limited Russian to say no thank you. Then he proceed to say something to the gentlemen sitting next to me. This second gentleman looks over at my place setting and starts pouring me a glass of vodka. Clearly between them they decided that if I didn't want wine then I must want vodka.

This would happen in Philly

A friend of mine was on his way to the airport and either his taxi cut someone off, or someone cut his taxi off. They drew up to a light and the drivers both jumped out of their cars. They proceeded to beat up on each other until they light turned green. Then they both returned to their cars and drove away. I only heard the story, didn't experience it, but it was like a taste of home.

Creative Awesome Nannies

I have raved about my fabulous nannies before, although possibly not on the blog. I figure let's put a little photographic evidence as to why they are so super awesome.

"Club house" window shades and a flower box... and detailing


Pipe cleaner animals and Silly Bandz

Fish balloon

Bagels

It's been almost a year since our friend's husband somehow met a Russian man who had lived in New York a long, long time. This prodigal son just happened to be a baker. And he learned, in New York, how to make bagels.

For me, bagels are the thing I forget that I miss until I have a real one (aka NOT Lender's). So last fall I ran a test order for the Consulate and our CG sponsored a "Bagel Day" morning so everyone could enjoy the treats. The bagels of that first batch were ginormous. Although I thought the taste was great, the slightly off texture distracted Terry too much to love them.

The next couple of orders I ran - every few months as even the bagel lovers need a bit of time to want them again - we held off. This last week we decided to try again and oh! what a good decision that was. They have clearly been tweaking their recipe and although still not quite chewy enough for a true New York aficionado, they are soooo close it isn't really even worth saying anything about it.

We had some issues with the delivery guy and in the end the partner of the guy I'd been working with brought the bagels on his way to another delivery. When he tried to explain where they had moved - way out by Peterhof - he told me they had gone "Upstate. Well, not exactly like upstate..."

I kinda seriously love these guys.

Foreign Service Worldwide

Because our home leave address is more than 14 transit-hours from our post, when we go to post for the first time (aka PCS or Permanent Change of Station) we are permitted to stay overnight at our plane-changing location - called a "rest stop". A long, long time ago we would have gone business class and straight to post. While I internally yearn for the business class seat, with our children at this particular stage in their lives, I actually really appreciate not having to get on the 3rd plane after 18 hours of sleepless transit.

So there we are in Amsterdam, with our mountain of luggage that's only a mountain because it has to include 2 car seats, the double stroller, and any luggage at all. We look like death as we haven't slept in a very long time and have had to spend every ounce of our being keeping an 18 month old and a 2.5 [editor: oops! 3.5. Thanks mom.] year old from completely melting down in their sleep-and-proper-nutrition-deprived states. And then .... a very friendly and enthusiastic woman who's clearly waiting for someone coming off the plane breaks away from her family comes over to us and asks in perfect American English if we're from the embassy. Our jet lagged haze made us first look very confused, because we're from a consulate and then we realized - this lovely woman was a sponsor to some new family coming to post in the Netherlands. How cool and small world is that?

More culinary experimentation

We have been making jam since the early-in-the-relationship strawberry picking date landed us with waayyy more berries than we could eat or pie. Turns out, though, only Americans use commercial pectin in our home-jam making. At least, we can't find pectin in stores anywhere else in the world. So we started looking into making our own pectin.

Supposedly, it's quite easy: chop up some underripe apples; simmer them forever in just enough water to cover them; strain through cheesecloth overnight; boil the resulting liquid until it has halved. We did this last night/this morning.

Today the weather was perfect - sunny and cool. We decided not to travel so far outside the city and instead set our sights on the recently-opened New Holland Island. Sadly, it's an "I can see it but I can't get there" place, so we aborted the attempt and decided to stop by Sennaya Ploschad instead and see what produce they had. Peaches were cheap enough and hard enough to find jam-wise here, so we decided that would be our test batch.

You can't find jam recipes that include homemade pectin because it all depends on the pectin content in the liquid you have on hand. So we muddled through and got ... peach syrup. It was our backup plan as maple syrup is ridiculously expensive and I love my pancakes, however it means we had too much sugar or not enough pectin. We'll try again someday and report back.

btw - today's culinary explorations included some old favorites - waffles, cobbler (blueberries at Sennaya!) - and a first try at plov (an Uzbek dish). Thank you to my friend who taught me how and my other friend who took much better notes than me :)

Mamy

Zoltan spends most of 4 days each week with a Russian nanny. It seems the Russian is starting to seep in. He definitely understands a lot ... and this week he's starting to say "Mamy" (pronounced Mamoo). It's accusative case, and in one words it means "I want mommy." Just in case I wasn't sure that was what he was really doing, today he alternated. "Mamy! Mamy! I want mommy!"

Next week he'll start negotiating at the rinok for us :)

We saw a movie! In the theater!

I read in the St. Petersburg Times (the city's twice weekly English language "newspaper") a review of the movie Melancholia. I noted that it claimed the movie was in English with Russian subtitles. As it was showing at the new movie theater in the Galleria mall, I thought it was certainly plausible.

Terry wanted wings so we were already planning to be in the area, and our babysitter had successfully put Z down to sleep the week before (a test run) so she came pretty early in the evening, and we decided to check out the theater. Turns out there were 3 movies in English and Melancholia looked like the best of the bunch. It was our very first foray into a Russian movie theater and in fact we can't remember a movie seen in the theater since 2007. I was pregnant with Alex at the time.

Terry didn't like the movie, I did, but we both agreed it was a good test run and totally worth paying attention to what movies come to that theater and finding out which will be in English.

Sighting of the rare & elusive Customer Service

Last night, as Terry craved Buffalo wings, we decided to go to the TGI Fridays that recently opened in the Galleria mall. We placed our order, our server repeated it back to us, and yet when the meal came out mine was something completely different. Grrrr.

The manager came over, and in lightening Russian apologized for the mistake and said the corrected dish would come out, if we had the time and could stay, in another 10 minutes. At least, I think that's what he said as I caught about 2 words in each sentence. He repeated himself in English and as we had plenty of time to kill and at that point I really wanted the dish I'd ordered, we decided to wait.

#1: The manager apologized for a problem in our dinner.

Terry and I then got to discussing the manager's possible background, as his English was both excellent and accented American - most Russians speak with a British English accent. When he came over later to ask if the meal was OK and if it came within the time he'd promised, we asked and learned he had studied in Ohio and was never able, later, to shake the Americanisms out of his accent and vocabulary. He and Terry bonded over Cleveland, where both had spent some time. And then ....

#2: He offered a complimentary dessert or cocktail for our inconvenience.

Is Customer Service beginning to migrate into Russia? Will such sightings become more frequent? One can only hope. Stay tuned!

The joys of dacha season.

It is really common for Russians to have dachas or summer homes. Dachas I am told will range from glorified gardening shed to palatial homes. Many Russians will head out of town in the summer and spend the weekends at their dacha. One of the many side benefits for us non-dacha people is there are fewer people in the city. Traffic is significantly lighter. This makes going to one of the many parks a bit further out from the center of the city so much easier to do.

Last Sunday after Alex and I make a quick grocery run (also in record time thanks to dacha season), the family piled in the car and went Yelagin Island. Yelagin Island is one of the many islands in the Neva delta. The island is a large park with boat rentals, a small zoo, cafes, and lots of greenery to stroll around in. There was a nice playground there that ended up consuming most of our morning. Zoltan was thrilled to sit in the little car and bounce, while Alex showed us her excellent climbing skills.

After the kids got out some energy we stopped at a cafe for lunch. During our lunch one of the friendly ducks of the park waddled its way over to our table to get its share of the lunch. Alex was quite excited to share her bread with the duck. Following lunch the weather started to turn toward the rainy side so we headed back home to beat the rain and get the kids down for naps.

Thanks to the wonderful traffic during the summer we were home in no time and both children got their naps.

* Edited to add: we returned this Saturday for a lengthier tour of the island, once again transiting in record time. Useful to know is that if you get there early enough on the weekend, the usual entrance fee is not collected.

Recycling!

Our GSO is sooo fabulous to get recycling, finally. Now I have to remember not to throw away the Mac N Cheese box, because I can bring it into the Consulate and drop it in the bin. Life just got a bit better :)

Potty!

Friday was one of those dragging days, when no amount of coffee can make up for the desperate urge for a nap. Zoltan went down for his nap surprisingly easily, given that for several months he refused to lay down and go to bed when I put him down. The time it took to get Alex ready and down for her nap, then wait 10 minutes for the movers to arrive to take away the boxes from UAB, and have a drink of water ... Z was up and nothing would convince him to go back down. Totally poopalicious nap, and totally grumpy mommy. Turns out, with the lack of sleep, totally grumpy baby.

Grumpy babies need a lot of stimulation to keep from crying and tired grumpy mommies don't have a lot in us to keep things fresh. I managed to play with him for about an hour before running low on steam. Alex was - thankfully - sound asleep, which is normally a good thing, but in this case it meant I couldn't just take him for a walk or to the park.

His nails needed to be cut so I put on an episode of Peppa Pig to keep him still so I wouldn't cut him. For anyone unfamiliar with this British porcine, it's fabulous. Each episode is 5 minutes and everyone falls down when they laugh. We all love them. After the show was over we got up and did something else. It didn't take too long though before I started thinking longingly of the stillness and peace I felt while he watched the show.

He's been all about the potty lately, most of the time telling me when something goes into the diaper and wanting to sit on the potty at seemingly random intervals (often right after putting something in the diaper), but of course the potty is still safe to drop food into. I even totally freaked him out one day as he started peeing on the carpet and I scooped him up and got him on the little potty. He stopped and wouldn't go again til I put his diaper back on.

I took his diaper off, put Peppa on, and picked up my book. About 4 Peppas in I did something in the kitchen, which caused Z to squawk and run in after me. Potty still pristine. One more show and he gets up and .... there's pee in the potty! Yipppeeeee!

The crying place

A long time ago, when we started using time outs as a way to separate Alex from whatever was causing the hysteria, when it was a place to go to calm down, she chose her own place. It's the corner under the Vonage telephone in the kitchen. If we open both doors to the hallway, it's a very "secret", cave-like hiding place.

Now of course time outs are used when she's aggressive, grossly disobedient, etc. Usually she's crying when she goes to her time out place. So, from a 20 month old perspective, that corner is where we go when we're crying. So now ... Zoltan puts himself in time out when he's upset/frustrated. Will it screw him up forever if he hears us giggling when we see him march off after having a knife taken from him, or when he's redirected into the kitchen from the living room when he's got food in his hand, or any number of things that just frazzle his little toddler mind?

Zoltan's selective language skills

Zoltan loves looking at pictures and naming all the family members. "Mommy! Daddy! Allie!" For some reason he would never include his name, which we usually use in its full form. This week I started using his nickname, which rhymes with everyone else "Mommy, daddy, Allie, Zoli" He repeats after me "Mommy! Daddy! Allie! Oolie!" I think kids named Oolie get beat up at school, let's hope he stays a big kid for a while.

Yesterday I was looking at a book with him and going over the colors. The conversation went like this...
Me: Yellow
Z: Yellow
Me: Purple
Z: Purple
Me: Blue
Z: YES
Me: Blue
Z: YES

Perfect summer evening

Tonight certainly didn't start off on the right foot. I came home to the news that Alex wasn't sleeping and hadn't wanted to sit on the potty. I granted her clemency and let her out of her room - still with dry panties on - gave the kids a snack and tried to eat a little something myself while constant interruptions from Zoltan who "wants shoes" and refused to believe every time he threw his shoes at me it actually brought the moment we finally left the house a bit farther away.

About 1/2 hour after I walked into the house, though, we were setting off again - to the park. The kids got about 20 minutes on the playground (the giggle highlight for me was the bunny rabbit sitting patiently in the stroller waiting while his girl played in the sandbox) and then we went for shashlik for dinner. Is there anything better in the summer than shashlik and beer outside? AND ... they now have English on their menus! Score!

On the way out we had about 5 minutes to let them play and I had brought bubbles so we found a shady grassy area and I blew bubbles for them to chase. Their smiles, laughter, shining eyes, running into each other and falling down and giggling throughout ... that was the best part. I should start carrying the camera everywhere.

Peas, please

We had the seeds in the house and the large pot just sitting there taking up space in the storage closet. So, Terry decided to give it another go, growing peas in Petersburg. Because although the short-growing, cool-ish weather veggie is perfect for this locale, it does not exist locally. These sprouts are only a couple of weeks old, so there is some definite hope. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

119 muffins

More details to follow ...

If I had a garden ...

... days like today would be more common, which is probably not a great thing. Went to the rinok today where one seller had blueberries so I got 1.5 kilos - which became a batch of jam and some in the fruit salad. Also kabachki (the light green zucchini that is shaped like yellow squash) was only 10 rubles/kilo (approx. 20 cents/lb) so I got 3 kilos.

All told, today we brought more than 20 kilos of produce into the house. We didn't touch the potatoes, onions, or carrots. Half the cabbage went into the soup - said soup also included the carrots and onions we already had in the house. I stemmed and washed 2 kilos of grapes, Terry made fruit salad out of nectarine, cherry, pomegranate, apple, grape, blueberry, and a few leftover apricots - super yummy. However, making the salad of course involved washing and peeling and/or chopping all of said fruit.

Friends had told us that raspberries were beginning to show up at the rinok so when I saw none I asked when they would be there. The lady replied "через один час", which I later double checked on Google translate, means in an hour. Because we had the blueberries so we were going to make jam no matter what, we decided Terry would run back during naptime to get the raspberries. He came home with plums and more pomegranate, but there was only one stall selling raspberries and it was expensive. Maybe next week ... or rather the one after that.

With all the extra plums Terry ended up making muffins from a recipe he found online. I won't comment on them other than to say nobody will eat them. With all the kabachki I got, I made zucchini bread muffins - more portable and flexible than making them in breads but more time consuming and more mess. We now wait to see how long it will take us and play groups, guests, etc to go through the 119 muffins that made it to the cooling rack (i.e. I made more but some have been eaten)

Brief interlude

For about 72 hours Alex and I were a team - we left the boyfolk home and went to England to celebrate Langley's 25th anniversary as well as the opening of the Pavilion extension to the restaurant and meet some of the knight finders - see photos on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Langley-Castle-Hotel/51143011126). We did have a tiny bit of extra time to hit the Roman Army Museum, which managed to captivate my 3 year old for more than an hour so I'd say it was a hit. We also got some quality time with my brother and his younger son, whom Alex idolizes. She was thrilled just to watch him play on his game boy!

Some photos of Alex and the peacocks, and Harrison in his knight outfit, and a few other things from the trip will be up shortly (I hope ... they will be up eventually, at least). The peacock story is too good not to share. So, apparently, some time in the past a peacock showed up and decided he liked it there. But then he got lonely, so they bought 2 more peacocks (one of which was a peahen, actually) to keep him company. Then mating season came, and now we have 6. It's mating season now and they start calling around 4am. I am shocked guests haven't complained. After a few days of feeding them leftover toast the housekeeping staff informed me they like "biscuits" (cookies) best but even with cookies they weren't letting a 3 year old feed them from her hand.

The major downside to the trip was when KLM lost the bag with Alex's car seat in it. Then didn't know when it would be in. Then finally tracked it down after a million phone calls and promised delivery "in the afternoon", although the conversation took place at 5pm so I can't tell when exactly he meant. It was apparently delivered after 11pm but nobody told me when I got to breakfast, so I made 3 more phone calls yelling "where is it" in the morning before I learned it was on site. Of course, by then the only car time left was the drive back to the airport. Grrrrr. KLM has lost our luggage approximately 15-20% of the time we have flown them. Doesn't seem like good stats, and it makes United start looking good again.

Summertime

It's been over 30C most of this week, today it's "cooled off" to 28. Alex and I head to the UK tomorrow, where temps will be around 15C!!! Craziness. I am so glad I looked at the weather report before filling the suitcase with shorts and T-shirts. It will be nice for us to have some "girl time" ... let's hope Zoltan survives 4 days without mommy. Given that he barely survives when I run into the bathroom, I can only imagine what kind of reception will await me at home Friday morning, which will be the first time he sees me unless traffic is ridiculously easy Thursday evening.

One of those days

Woke this morning with a raging headache and to the sound of Zoltan's hysterical scream. Go check it out and in the half light I see something dark in one hand and he's agitated. Yup, massive poopsplosion out the bottom of the jammies and in the crib. More poop all over the changing pad as I tried to get him cleaned up, even got some in the corner of the wooden frame of the changer. Get him and his stuff cleaned up, into the kitchen, turn on the coffeemaker. It appears to stop way before it should have so I check and yep, the filter folded over so there's a stuck mass of coffee grounds and water in the filter area. When trying to clear it out I spill hot coffee water all over my hand.

And it isn't even 7:30am yet!

Strawberries & cream

Sometimes it really is the simplest things. On my way home today I had to get fruit as all we had were 2 pears or so and a handful of cherries (apparently, 5 kilos of cherries in 2 weeks and my family is nearly sated). Among other things, I got strawberries. Either the lady did a switcheroo or they weren't as good as they looked or they just didn't like sitting on the counter for an hour after getting home rather than being put directly in the fridge. In any case, they were weak. So, what to do?

Fresh cream makes almost anything taste better, so after dinner Terry gave me a bye to go to the store and buy heavy whipping cream. We threw the ingredients into the KitchenAid and gave the kids some fruit to tide them over til the cream was ready. Zoltan actually didn't love his (which he ate with cherries as we're still not sure about strawberries) but Alex .... as she licked the cream off the edge of her bowl I was cursing the moving company that never picked up our UAB from PA and thus delayed our UAB arrival home by 2 weeks, thus depriving us tonight of the good camera. I promise, though, it was priceless.

The FSOA (prelude)

The morning I left to take the Foreign Service Oral Exams was well-planned. I needed to leave by 9am to be on the 11:something train, where I'd get out in Baltimore and spend a few hours with a friend before heading the rest of the way to D.C., where I'd check into my hotel early enough to do a dry run to the test site, get a decent dinner, and get to bed on time.

It was HOT. 90's hot. I hadn't brought a drink or snack in the car because it was only 1.5h til the train station. We have EZPass so I breezed through the toll booths. As I pulled into the parking garage at Cira Center, I went to look for my purse to put the ticket in my wallet. And I looked some more for my purse. And under the seat. Then a swore a bunch, and pulled my phone out of my pants pocket (thank you honey for drumming into me to always have my phone on my body!) A quick call back to Terry's mom's house confirmed that yes, my purse was still there.

If Terry hadn't filled the tank the night before I would have been completely breaking down at that point, because there wasn't enough gas for a return trip before the fillup. Back onto the Schuylkill Expressway. Back into traffic so bad the A/C can't keep up because I'm not moving enough. On the phone with my friend explaining why I wasn't going to be able to see her. Talking to myself, reminding myself that the kids were healthy, we weren't in danger of losing our house or Terry's job, the marriage was strong, essentially that this was not a tragedy. AND, that night would be the first night in 4 years I spent away from all 3 members of my immediate family - heaven! The good thing about leaving all day for a 2h train ride is that if things get stalled there's still plenty of time to fulfill the urgent parts of the plan.

By the time I got to the house, I was parched and desperately needed a restroom. And a snack. Back on the road a mere 15 minutes later, I managed to make the 1:something train. Unfortunately we got held up right outside the station but still got to Baltimore by 3:00 and we were able to get ice cream and chat before I caught the D.C. train I had originally planned to take. Hotel, check. Test site reconnaissance and transit time verification, check. Dinner, check. All good.

Begin Home Leave (yes this is out of order)

We left on May 1. As we ran to a cafe for a snack in the morning, we were reminded that it's May Day and there's parades on Nevsky and it will take forever to get to the airport. Luckily our ride came early.

The first leg seemed like it would be a terrifying taste of things to come as Zoltan didn't want to be happy (fair enough, it was time for 2nd nap and he hadn't even had nap #1 yet). Alex was a bit rough too, but not too bad. We didn't have much time in Frankfurt, just enough to get through security, immigration, and on to our gate with maybe 15 minutes to spare. Good thing we went the Snugli route rather than waiting for the stroller planeside!

We were on a 777, so it's a 2-5-2 configuration. Our seats were the bulkhead aisle and window, plus the two seats on the other side of the aisle. It was an empty plane, so the 2 seats next to us were empty. Score! Zoltan was so happy in his own seat he stayed calm and quiet during takeoff - I was surprised the flight crew let him sit alone but wasn't going to disturb the equilibrium.

We discovered that the armrest on the window seat didn't stay up so our plan of Alex sleeping there on the 2 seats was about to go out the window, until I remembered her lacing cards. I tied 2 of the laces together, used them to hold the armrest up and tied it off to the headrest. Photos to follow. The poor thing lay down and tried to sleep but just couldn't do it. Too much light. So I lay 2 blankets across the tops of the seats to create a little cave for her, and she did eventually, finally, go to sleep. We didn't hear from her again until we had to wake her for landing - it's lucky we had a reasonable flight crew because there were a few instances of turbulence and they allowed the slipshod way we draped the seatbelt around her - technically it was fastened around her but really it wasn't going to do much.

Zoltan was, as usual, the challenge. In the end Terry walked and rocked him until he fell asleep, probably a good 40-50 minutes' work. The boys sat down in the aisle seat and every 30 minutes without fail, Z stirred and T had to get up for a stroll around the plane. He did end up getting a good 4h of sleep though, and both Terry and I managed to doze a bit during the lulls. At least, the flight seemed to take less time than we thought, so we think we slept.

And, Alex did the whole thing in panties. Not an accident, even a teeny one.

Two culinary truths

Any restaurant in the USA can make a decent Caesar salad. Any restaurant in Petersburg can make a decent Greek salad. The converse is not true.

Home again (SPB)

We just got back to Petersburg after a couple of long travel days. I have to be honest, today I am a champion of the rest stop vs. business class travel. My kids have a tolerance level for 2 flight legs and then all hell breaks loose. Also, when transiting in Europe we invariably have a huge (4 hours or so) wait between flights whereas with a rest stop we just get outta there and on to the hotel.

Our first leg from Allentown to D.C. was a bit rough given it was during naptime. The overnight leg was surprisingly good - Alex of course didn't sleep until we created a 2 blanket cave for her and even then she wiggled a while but eventually she did crash and was out the rest of the flight. Zoltan as usual required Terry to rock him for about 40 minutes, but unlike last time he slept about 1.5 hours straight without wakeups (last long haul he woke every 30-40 minutes and had to be rocked back to sleep) and when he transitioned to sleeping in my arms he pretty much slept the rest of the flight. Another plus was that we transited in Amsterdam rather than Germany so the flight was shorter.

We had departed DC really late but made up some time in the air and all told we were in our hotel room hitting the various beds by 10:30am - awesome! When we woke 4h later we were ready to explore the huge park out our back door and get the kids some fresh air and playtime. Of course, we stupidly put them into clean clothes and they promptly got them filthy but such is life. The hotel gets lots of high marks but their lack of an evening dining room is a black mark in my eyes. Yes they are next door to a convention center with 5 restaurants (only 2 open on Mondays) but it meant the kids had to get a bit bundled up to eat as it was chilly outside.

As usual Alex was our superstar. She went to bed right around 8pm local time and we never heard from her again until we woke her around 8am. Zoltan, though, was a typical small human. Around 11pm he woke screaming, we soothed him and probably would have gotten him back to sleep except that he peed out his diaper. So we tried letting his sleep laying on me, laying next to me in the bed, putting him in the crib with stripped sheets, etc. Terry finally suggests that maybe Z's hungry so we feed him. He manages to eat almost half a bag of dried apricots (new fave!) so maybe that was it. We also let him play for about 1/2 hour after that and then, finally, at 1:30am and with a bit of coaxing, the boy goes back to sleep. Of course, he slept through our alarm and our getting up, showering, dressing, packing etc.

Today's flight was a bit under 3h and took off around noon so we got to wake at a reasonable hour. The flight was largely uneventful except ... After happily buckling himself into the window seat - he'd been playing with the window shades - Zoltan stared out the window a bit and then fell deeply asleep. With no coaxing, cajoling, rocking or whatnot. And slept until Terry woke him to depart the plane. Yippee! But also, couldn't you have done that yesterday?

We've been blindly loyal to United for more than decade but this trip is making us take another look at KLM (the minus is that Delta is its flight partner - Atlanta is on none of our itineraries, ever) The kids' package we got from them had board-type games as well as the usual coloring and puzzle-type games. The TV/movie selection was vast and we didn't have to pull out the Archos at all - even Zoltan watched Baby Einstein happily for a bit. They had jars of baby food, which was awesome as they didn't have our requested kids' meal on their list so at least Zoltan had a bit more good (vs. snack) food.

All in all the most successful trip with the 2 kids. If only my jet lag would go away ....

Wish me luck

I think I have spent more time working on my e-QIP security clearance stuff - that only matters if I pass but I have to have prepared just in case - than on preparing for the Foreign Service Oral Exam itself. So, I hope it's been worth my while. I take the exam on Friday, wish me luck!

Cabin

So the big cabin working weekend fell on what turned out to be mother's day weekend. The pile of people who were planning to be there fell away one by one, and in the end we had Terry and his dad throughout, stepbrother one day, and sister & brother in law one day. I had the kids so I stayed away until Monday. They got a ridiculous load of work done, though, framing, drywalling, painting, and caulking. The basement is now a real separate room, with a door and everything, and with all the "stuff" moved out it's got almost nothing that Zoltan could kill himself on, so it's now the rec-room-with-futon.

This weekend Terry went back up and lay the tile for the floor. It still needs one coat of paint everywhere and we need to install the baseboard heat and that should be about it. Little by little it's becoming a real cozy little place ... it will probably be finished in about 10 years, just in time for us to knock it down.

Do other 3 year olds talk like this?

Alex: Benjamin isn't my best friend anymore.
Me: What happened?
Alex: I asked him if I was the number one helper [at preschool] and he said no. So he's not my best friend. I still love him though.
Me: Do you still play with him?
Alex: Yes, I still love him and I still play with him, but he isn't my best friend.

Springtime in Piter

I think it got up to 15 or 16 today (Celsius), sunny ... absolutely lovely. And two children who think naps are for losers - at least Zoltan will grant us one, albeit too short. So what to do? Of course, go outside!

Terry and Zoltan left first, as it seemed at the time Alex might realize what a friend to her sleep really is. When Alex and I got to the playground, Terry looked at me and said "I had a great idea. How about one of us runs to the produkty across the street and we get a beer for me and a gin & tonic drink for you." (being Passover, I can't have beer) This is Russia, where a beautiful day outside must be enjoyed with alcohol in hand, so across the street Alex and I go. She was promised a juice box, as everyone else was getting a special treat.

The best part of the whole thing is when she and I were in the store looking at the non-beer options for me and after I make my selection I ask what I should get for daddy. "Get Daddy a beer." Good girl.

A day for the books

When Terry came home tonight I kissed him and told him I almost went for my passport today (as in, to leave him and the kids). Let's do a re-cap:

- Zoltan had my keys in the hole in the wall just below the 2 electrical outlets. How many seconds did we have before he bored of the hole and went for the outlet?
- Zoltan took the top rack off the silverware organizer. That one holds (among other things) the steak knives. When I got to him he had the cardboard cover off one knife and was putting the knife back inside.
- Zoltan refused to nap 3 times, and even refused to lay down in the stroller. He eventually took a pitiful 1h nap in the stroller almost entirely upright (there's zippered sides that let me recline him a bit)
- Due to said sleep deprivation he spent a lot of time screaming today, just in general.
- When getting ready to get Alex and I was setting up the stroller, he played in the fireplace in our foyer.
- Zoltan got hold of the metal 1 cup measuring cup and was banging it energetically on the kitchen table ... until he banged it on his fingers. Cue up the screaming.
- Zoltan managed to pull the completely full Brita pitcher off the countertop onto himself, drenching himself and the floor.
- Alex was her usual No-Nap self this afternoon, which also included a lot of screaming, tantruming, throwing things, pulling her brother, taking toys from him and other mischief.

Cafe Gerbeaud

How is it possible that I forgot to write about Cafe Gerbeaud? It was one of the very few things I was adamant we get to while on our vacation, because of course I'm not missing out on world-renown chocolate. It's in the middle of everything so we passed it many times, but always as we were on our way somewhere, or during a meltdown, etc. We did finally get there our last full day in town and I have to say ... it's OK. Alex and I got the Valhrona chocolate cake and the menfolk got coffee drinks (I think). It is definitely not worth its own trip but it was a nice pit stop before getting on the subway - think stairs, no elevator - while Zoltan slept.

Ripped off

The flight home was super rough - on the long leg we were delayed 3/4 hour due to a jacka** who never boarded the plane but his luggage was on so they had to find and remove the luggage. Then it was ridiculously hot and a bit turbulent so Terry was just hanging on. Zoltan and I did laps and laps up and down the plane, making friends all along the way. It's a good thing the kid is so personable.

We finally land, get our luggage, and Terry goes to the taxi stand for our ride home, as always. The traffic is nightmarish, the kids both fall asleep but Z wakes after 40 minutes and screams the entire 15-20 additional minutes til we get home. And then ....

the driver tries to charge us 2500 rubles for the ride. In a sedan. That usually costs 800 rubles. The minivan we ordered to get us to the airport because I didn't know "station wagon" in Russian cost 1150. We had been awake since 5:30am, we were exhausted from the travel and drained from listening helplessly to the screaming, and we were DONE. So, stupidly, we gave him 2000 and sent him on his way.

I console myself with the knowledge that the whole trip was way under budget even though we all know that wasn't the point. Ah, home sweet home.

Last photos of budapest

Here are links to the last photos not linked in previous posts. You can all as get to the Budapest page with all the albums here.

Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow ....

... and we can stay all day, we're going to the zoo, the zoo, the zoo, how about you?

The Budapest zoo is walkable from our friend's apartment and of course kids and zoos go together like kids and candy so we decided it would be a good plan for our Wednesday. With the kids rising early on vacation (kak obuichna) we were at the entrance at opening time sharp, 9:00am. We figured we'd stay 2 hours or so, catch lunch somewhere, maybe play in the park a bit and try to get Alex a nap. Hahahahahaha.

This zoo is amazing. It's segmented into regions, so there's an Australia area, a Madagascar area, etc, etc. We ran into the petting zoo relatively early on. You climb a ladder to get over the fence where the very tame and friendly goats live. The kids were thrilled to pet them, as you can see. There's a sectioned off area where the goats can get away from people when it gets to be too much. Next to the goat area, but not for petting, is the guinea pig area. I have no earthly idea why we didn't get photos. Their outdoor space is a little mini village, with houses, cars, shops etc for them to run around and play in.

Another part Alex particularly liked was the animal hospital area, where we could see the sick/injured animals in their separate quarters. We were there so early the only human back there was the cleaner, but it looks like people can watch the vets take care of the animals.

The hippos live in a mosiac'd building (of course with access to outside too) and, as they are next to the elephants, there is a huge Ganesh at the entrance of the building.

Budapest really has its act together when it comes to playgrounds. The zoo had several places for kids to play, from the carved wooden insects to the ocean themed huge play area complete with a pirate ship (well, it has a gangplank), dolphins and a whale. There's even a zipline for older kids or kids whose parents hang on.

We loved the zoo so much we got Tshirts. We never get touristy stuff like that. And in the end we spent 6 hours there, only heading home because it was about to start raining.

Buda

Being geographically challenged, I never knew from minute to minute our first days in Budapest whether we were in Buda or Pest. Turns out everything is in Pest, and Buda is the old city. Terry had to explain it a few times, because the first time he just said the "Castle" was more of a complex than one big building and his explanations continued to expand until he finally described it as being like Mdina. Well if he'd only said that first!

We'd been debating the funicular and in the end, standing in front of it, we realized we'd have to pack up the stroller or split up and it wasn't worth the bother. So we walked up the hill. Several times on the way up we questioned that decision too but at that point there was nothing for it but to forge on.

We wandered the streets and saw the sights, which Terry will input with their photos as I don't remember the names of the buildings anymore. We definitely got to Fisherman's Bastion and took all the requisite photos from the vantage point. The adorable photos of Terry and Alex come from there, where we hid out during one of the many brief rain showers that day.

One pretty hilarious tidbit - the guy who cleans the square in front of the Matthias Church wears courtly attire (well, a tunic and breeches. The photos of him were all out of focus so Terry deleted them.) There was another courtly dressed guy with an eagle, you can see part of him in one photo but the ones that included the eagle were also, apparently, out of focus so they got cut too.

Budapest parks and playgrounds

The best playground I have ever seen in my entire life is in the City Park in Budapest. We only went into the one, although we could see 2 others from where we were. Here's a link to some photos. Alex lovey loved the huge slides and both kids rocked the sandbox. She didn't love the dragon that greets you when you enter but Z was unfazed.

Our first days

We weren't sure how the kids would handle the time change, the disruption to their schedules and surroundings, and the general aftereffects of travel, so we planned Sunday to be a lazy day. Good thing, as Zoltan woke around 2am totally pissed off and only slept lying on top of one of us, like back in the old days (aka from 4 weeks to 3 months old). He eventually slid off and went into the ubiquitous H formation we keep hearing about - never sleeping with our kids means we haven't experienced this fun aspect of parenting, the "being pushed out of bed by a creature the size of one's arm."

In general, Terry and I slept like poop.

We got up for good around 7am, and made a big pot of coffee. I had to run out for sugar and to discover what the Sunday hours of the local grocery store were. Interestingly, the Swiss embassy is on one side of this apartment building, the Iranian and Italian are within 3 houses of the other side, and Libya is on the corner. Tells you something about the neighborhood.

Our first day we met our friend and went for lunch, having Hungarian food for my first time. Yummy! The extra special bonus at lunch was the table next to us, where a lady first entertained Z by playing peekaboo, and finally held out her arms for him so I could eat some of my food. I love her.

The second day was Market day. The big indoor produce market is closed on Sundays but we love markets and needed fruit for the kids anyway so off we went Monday morning. This one is more touristy than some other one Terry heard of, but we still managed to drool over reasonably priced beautiful produce. We got bread and cheese and strawberries for an immediate snack (eaten at the playground across the street as the kids played, running up to us for one more berry and then back to whatever they were doing) and replenished our exhausted stock of paprika. Turns out there's 5 kinds of paprika and smoked paprika is only used on steaks. In case anyone needs to know.

When we got home from the market I tried to get Alex to nap while Terry explored the park with Zoltan. More on that next.