place2place

when do we start working on the half pipe?

Remember back in the fall and the mayor of Moscow said he was going to manipulate the weather so it wouldn't snow? I think he's about two feet of snow away from being fired. There is Peter walking Bea. I love the snow here, it's super dry and powdery. The snow is taller than Bea and the neighbors are making an igloo. 

Me and Bill Murry

Here I am, blogging from the dark side of the moon, the CLO lounge at the embassy.

Peter has to accompany a medivac, boo-hoo, to France. He will leave tonight and come back Friday. He said, I won't have time to shop. I say, there's more in the Paris airport shops than there is in the entire country of Niger. He says he has a lot to do before he goes tonight at midnight, I said, "Like what, making a list of everything you're going to buy me?"

Peter  is going somewhere cold and dark and wet and will have to wear a (borrowed) coat and a scarf. No fair! It simply doesn't feel like Christmas here, it's hot in the daytime, sunny every single day and gets dark at the same time as when we arrived in July. In Portland it's hailing! I love hail, I always open the big heavy front door at 6225 Reed College Place and watch the hail with the Cast. I'm like a displaced east-coaster in California. Here, it's the same day, everyday, over and over again, like the movie Ground Hog Day.

I did find our Christmas ornaments today though, in one of our last boxes to be unpacked. We went to the Grand Hotel for brochettes on Saturday and I told Peter I was surprised they didn't have a big tree up. Yeah, right. Me, who hates all that holiday overkill: complaining. I miss the Christmas graphics at Target. How's that for pathetic? And this year they had things designed by Tord Boontje, that fabulous Dutch artist! I should be talking about the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center or something, not Target.

If anyone can remember this far back, we were married 19 years ago today. Is that all?

Tell me about a Christmas detail in your town in the comments.

Happy Hot-oween

I think kids had a good time with a kid's party and being driven from house to house for trick-or-treating. We miss, miss, miss our friends at home, and we are also missing the chill in the air. The thermometer in the outside screened-in porch at the party read 90 something. I was looking at teas for sale online and saw one called Africa Autumn. Um, as far as I can see, Africa doesn't really have an autumn, but it is a good idea, and should be taken into serious consideration.