Most of my readers know this, there are probably a few of you out there who don't, but I used to make frequent trips to Russia in my early twenties. I also lived there for a year and half about 7 years ago. Oft times I will be going about my day when a random memory of my time there pops into my head. Because I really wasn't all that consistent in keeping a journal of my experiences there I thought it might be a good idea to blog when I have a random Russian remembrance. Here is one that I had recently:
A friend of mine from India who was temporarily working in St. Petersburg had a really nice apartment in the center of the city. He also had a satellite dish which meant that he could get 4, yes 4, channels in English! That is very exciting to someone who liked to watch countless hours of television. The channels were BBC News, a sports channel (wasn't ESPN, I didn't spend anytime watching it), CNN World, Cartoon Network/TCM. Cartoon Network was on from 9am to 9pm and Turner Classic Movies was on from 9pm to 9am. I would find ways to just pop in and watch television. I even offered to cook him dinner just so I could watch his T.V. The channel I watched the most of, besides the news, was Cartoon Network. The shows that just happened to be on in the evenings was Samurai Jack and Teen Titans. If you haven't seen Samurai Jack you are soooo missing out on a clever cartoon. Watching Teen Titans prepared me to be able to carry on a conversation with my husband about, well, the Teen Titans. And for those of you who don't know my husband he is a major comic book nerd. (By the way in case you didn't know the Teen Titans are superheros, I won't tell anyone that you didn't know that, although I don't think most people do.) One day about a year after I had moved back to the States I was watching the Teen Titans and my husband, who was not my husband at that time, came over and noticed I was watching Teen Titans. He told me the other day that he feel even more in love with me that day.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Whew!
This past weekend was a very busy one. There was a baby shower, a birthday party, a meeting of new family, a bible study, church, new furniture, getting a dog run half set up, a movie, and wedding cake tasting. That last one (the cake) kind of was today, Monday, but it just seemed fitting to tack onto a busy weekend. Tomorrow evening we just have to finish up the dog run and I need to plant some flowers, other than that we don't plan on doing a whole lot. I am excited for this coming weekend, we don't have anything planned, not that I am complaining about how busy we were, just stating that we were busy. I enjoyed all the things we did this weekend, my favorites are a toss up between the new furniture and the wedding cake tasting, yummmmm.....Now I am off to bed and thus ending this very short post. But don't worry I'll be back tomorrow, or Wednesday with a post that I've been thinking about for a few days.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Weekly...er...Monthly(?) Granola
Sorry that I haven't been posting my "Weekly Granola" series. Once again I have all these posts in my head, but they never seem to make it onto the blog. So here is a little bit of granola for you.
Two years ago my husband thought that it would be a good idea that we got a lawn mower of our own. He had be borrowing his brother's lawn mower for the previous 5 years. The more frugal side of me came out and I thought that it would be a great idea to get a push mower with the blades that spin when you push it. We used to have one of these at the house I grew up in. It worked just fine while mowing until a stick got caught in it and then you ran into the thing and just about broke a rib. I did remember those painful experiences while mowing the lawn as a kid, but I figured since it was my husband that would be mowing the lawn we could get one. The idea was vetoed pretty quick. Instead I bought the cheapest motorized lawn mower I could find. When my husband went to put it together the screws that came with it wouldn't fit in the pre-drilled holes. We finally figured out that they sent American screws when the holes were drilled for metric screws. He finally got it put together with the help of some zip ties and a hammer. For two years my husband mowed the lawn with a mower that had a wobbly wheel and a loose handle. After every mow my husband came into the house smelling like he had just took a bath in gasoline. Yeah, this mower was pretty bad. Last week the cheap little red mower bit the dust, I was actually surprised it had made it this long. I told my husband that we could splurge a little bit and get a better mower, one that would start (hopefully) and wouldn't make my poor husband high from fumes. We went to the store and looked around. I picked one out that I thought would be decent. When I turned around my husband wasn't behind me. He got distracted by a mower that I totally thought he would not be interested in. My husband, who doesn't have a single granola bone in his body, picked out an electric mower. His comment to me was: "I don't want to smell like gas and I want the darn thing to start." I still secretly think that the push mower with the blades, I think it's called a reel mower, would've been the best option, but this one will do.
Two years ago my husband thought that it would be a good idea that we got a lawn mower of our own. He had be borrowing his brother's lawn mower for the previous 5 years. The more frugal side of me came out and I thought that it would be a great idea to get a push mower with the blades that spin when you push it. We used to have one of these at the house I grew up in. It worked just fine while mowing until a stick got caught in it and then you ran into the thing and just about broke a rib. I did remember those painful experiences while mowing the lawn as a kid, but I figured since it was my husband that would be mowing the lawn we could get one. The idea was vetoed pretty quick. Instead I bought the cheapest motorized lawn mower I could find. When my husband went to put it together the screws that came with it wouldn't fit in the pre-drilled holes. We finally figured out that they sent American screws when the holes were drilled for metric screws. He finally got it put together with the help of some zip ties and a hammer. For two years my husband mowed the lawn with a mower that had a wobbly wheel and a loose handle. After every mow my husband came into the house smelling like he had just took a bath in gasoline. Yeah, this mower was pretty bad. Last week the cheap little red mower bit the dust, I was actually surprised it had made it this long. I told my husband that we could splurge a little bit and get a better mower, one that would start (hopefully) and wouldn't make my poor husband high from fumes. We went to the store and looked around. I picked one out that I thought would be decent. When I turned around my husband wasn't behind me. He got distracted by a mower that I totally thought he would not be interested in. My husband, who doesn't have a single granola bone in his body, picked out an electric mower. His comment to me was: "I don't want to smell like gas and I want the darn thing to start." I still secretly think that the push mower with the blades, I think it's called a reel mower, would've been the best option, but this one will do.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Big Decisions
This past Tuesday a guy in my office brought in some foster pups that he was helping the local shelter with. Me being the animal lover that I am immediately fell in love with the puppies. I took a picture and sent it to my husband, whom mysteriously did not reply. I started asking my co-worker all kinds of questions about the puppies and found out that the mother was staying with him as well. I went home after work and told my husband about them. I also asked if we could go see them. For some odd reason he agreed. My husband really hasn't ever had a dog before although he said that he has always wanted one. The next evening we went and visited 4 Siberian husky puppies and 1 mother. The mother came right up to us and just kept coming back. The puppies could've cared less about us, they were content with wrestling with each other and stealing each other's toys. After about 30 minutes of debating and conversing we decided that we would get at least one of them. We really hadn't decided at that point whether or not we would get a puppy or the mom. We filled out an "application" and told my co-worker we would get back to him about which one we wanted. So without further adieu I introduce to you...Nissa the sweetest Siberian husky around.
We went with the mom.
Isn't she just beautiful?
Here she is being put in her place by Walker, the bully.
We are excited to have her apart of our family. (Please disregard our very overgrown backyard.)
Another decision that we made on Wednesday evening was that we plan on taking our house off the market. So if you are one of the many people praying that it sells you can stop now and thank you for praying for us while we went through the process of trying to sell it. It won't officially go off the market until Monday, but we don't anticipate any offers between now and then. One of the reasons we decided to take it off was that I feel that the Lord is teaching us to be content with the things we have. Also He has blessed us tremendously with this house. We have a good fixed rate on our mortgage, we have a decent amount of equity. We have a ton of space and because of our low mortgage payments we can afford to fix it up the way we want. I know you are thinking: "Why in the world did they want to sell it in the first place?" The answer is: YARD WORK! We abhor it. My husband more so than me. We have hired some people to trim our massive tree in the back yard and remove a 10 year old wood pile that seems to have grown. After that we are hiring someone to come and put in a new fence for our new dog. Then maybe we will like our yard a little bit better...maybe. Then again I could just hire someone to do all our yard workl...hmmm...that might be an option...
We went with the mom.
Isn't she just beautiful?
Here she is being put in her place by Walker, the bully.
We are excited to have her apart of our family. (Please disregard our very overgrown backyard.)
Another decision that we made on Wednesday evening was that we plan on taking our house off the market. So if you are one of the many people praying that it sells you can stop now and thank you for praying for us while we went through the process of trying to sell it. It won't officially go off the market until Monday, but we don't anticipate any offers between now and then. One of the reasons we decided to take it off was that I feel that the Lord is teaching us to be content with the things we have. Also He has blessed us tremendously with this house. We have a good fixed rate on our mortgage, we have a decent amount of equity. We have a ton of space and because of our low mortgage payments we can afford to fix it up the way we want. I know you are thinking: "Why in the world did they want to sell it in the first place?" The answer is: YARD WORK! We abhor it. My husband more so than me. We have hired some people to trim our massive tree in the back yard and remove a 10 year old wood pile that seems to have grown. After that we are hiring someone to come and put in a new fence for our new dog. Then maybe we will like our yard a little bit better...maybe. Then again I could just hire someone to do all our yard workl...hmmm...that might be an option...
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