Checking Direction

The dawn broke with great color about an hour after we were up and functioning.  I got Cindy off to work with a good breakfast and then started to plan my walking route.  There is a command performance tomorrow afternoon at the Embassy Dacha.  The AAS Board will be having their fall meeting and the senior administrators are ‘invited’ to join them for a BBQ at four pm.  The detailed map that was provided to Cindy made no sense to either of us so I decided to walk about and find out what they really had in mind with directions.  Good thing I did, since no one would have been able to get there using the map provided. Perhaps they just wanted to extend the invitation but didn’t want anyone to show?

I used to think that people stopped me for directions because I looked Russian.  I now think that it is simply a question of folks going about their business with no sense of direction.  I was stopped no fewer than six times today. Twice I was able to help since they wanted Metro directions, the other times I couldn’t do a thing and they continued their pinball routine of bouncing off of anyone they could see in hopes of getting someplace.

The day has been perfect and the walking was as fun as ever, but I must admit that I did very little long distance walking during my brief stay in the States and my but it shows.  My poor feet are hurting and my muscles are yelling, and I only put in two hours. Let’s hope the weather holds for a while longer so I can get back into a rhythm. One of Cindy’s colleagues who has been here a while sent an email suggesting everyone go to a park this weekend since it might be the LAST decent weekend before the weather turns.  That would be very sad.

By the time I got home I was dripping and had to hop into the shower again, just to be presentable for marketing.  I’ll wait for Cindy to get home and we’ll do the farmers’ market before dinner, just scout it out and do the real purchasing tomorrow morning.  Last night I just about cleared everything out of the fridge.  I made a very lovely broccoli soup with tofu.  It was filled with onions and garlic and lots of herbs and spices and on a cold rainy night it was just what we needed.  I made a salad to start, using up all the arugula.  Earlier in the day I had diced up two fresh tomatoes and let them mingle with some balsamic and olive oil and a touch of prepared Caesar salad dressing.  Before mixing up the salad I added two chopped up hard-boiled eggs and some fresh Parmesan to the tomatoes and then threw in the greens and tossed like crazy. I served that with thick slices of warm brown bread and the soup followed.

So, that’s it for now, we need to get a jump on our weekend.  Hoping yours is delightful, Cindy and Wm