I got my walking in while the walking was good. The weather was spectacular, another bright blue sky and lovely sun with temperatures about 12° and a light breeze. I was able to do about an hour before my face felt like it would fall off, so I walked over to the embassy and had a nice, affordable espresso. One of the boys was there and I asked if they had stocked the frozen peas and tuna yet. He said no but asked how many packages I wanted of each and told me to come to the warehouse in about fifteen minutes. He had my stuff all ready and priced and I added a few bottles of wine and some other little stuff and headed home. The day has now clouded over and we are expecting more snow for the next several days, which should also bring warmer weather.
It appears the water man came without calling and luckily our housekeeper was here, but she had to pay with her own money so now I’m waiting for her to come back so I can repay her. Quite a system they have for delivering water; random is the word that comes to mind.
Dinner last night was a simple roast chicken with lots of carrots, onions, potatoes and garlic nestled under the cut up chicken, which I had rubbed with herbs du Provence. It was a great meal for a very, very cold night. I had a bottle of rosé tucked away in the fridge so I broke that out and made believe I was in Provence while Cindy opted for a strong red; nice to have choices.
I noticed as I was walking home from the embassy at noon that my shadow was very, very long. The sun is still just swinging on a southern arc and never gets high enough in the sky to not cast long shadows all day long. Just for a giggle I compared daylight hours here vs. Charles Town. Today we have 7 hours and 46 minutes of daylight in Moscow and 9 hours, 47 minutes in Charles Town. The good news is that we are adding 3.6 minutes per day here and only 1.4 in Charles Town so I suspect we’ll catch up sometime in April.
I note with astonishment that Starbucks, ever on the front lines of customer health, has decided that Americans just don’t get enough calories, fat and caffeine from a 24 oz Venti drink so they are introducing a new super-sized cup, the Trenta, coming in at an astounding 31 oz. Now you’ll be able to have a triple shot, caramel latte with whipped cream served in a quart container for your personal consumption. The Trenta’s final capacity is a staggering 31 ounces or about 916 milliliters. The average stomach capacity is 900 milliliters. I guess the company is saying you’d better be prepared to pee if you pick one of these bad boys up. When the smallest size of drink is off the menu and a gut-busting cup becomes the new in thing, I suppose you can say moderation is out the window. Remember when we would buy a quart of milk or juice and the whole family would share!
As I was yet again reviewing my Russian Alphabet, I came across a type of Sesame Street version. Unlike the USA, where they go out of their way to have a child of every color, you will note that the only nod to diversity in this version is the Pink Muppet! Perhaps the folks in the survival pod will be able to stock Russian Muppet tapes to help them while away their forty days of enclosure as the world ends in 2012.
And to brighten your day with new advances in technology and online shopping, I think you’ll get a kick out of this news item.
Best wishes, Cindy and Wm
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