May 25, Part Jen (delayed due to cable modem snafu)

May 25

It’s starting to get really warm here in Astana. When we first arrived it was literally freezing with ice on the puddles, and now it’s sticky. We have been using the AC the past couple of afternoons, then open the windows at night. We’re on the 8th floor, so we get a nice breeze along with the hum of the generators. Oh, the sounds of the city.

We have exhausted the supply of American toilet paper…..at least the allotment for while Rob is here. We bought some Kazak TP the other day, and it was not too bad, just not my Quilted Northern. And when you get down to the last 30 or 40 sheets, they glue them all together, so you can only get off 1 sheet at a time. So I ended up shredding the last of the roll.

Today’s visit with junior started with an hour outside, checking out the new slide and play set. There are 2 much bigger slides, and about 3 levels to play on. The slides are quite a bit bigger than the others, and he freaked out when we slid him down. But he also had his “ride up my crotch” outfit on, so we think that might have contributed to his sour pussness. We moved into the shade to play destruction of the stacking cups, then light saber wars with the bubble blowers. Once we got inside, he gave us a sample of what the long plane ride home will be like. We think he’s just teething and when I get custody in 3 weeks I can slap some Baby Orajel on those chompers he’ll be much happier.

After lunch we stopped by a new food market. This place was more of a challenge than our normal store because instead of store where you can roam, there were about 15 or 20 little stores where you walk to the counter and they get stuff off shelves for you, like on Little House On The Prairie (yes, I did watch it). It limited the impulse purchases, and even the purchases we needed to make but didn’t want to fight the crowds to get stuff. I did brave the stand for deodorant. They don’t have my regular brand, Arrid XX roll on in case you are wondering, so I tried Secret Platinum. The only reason I picked Platinum was because there were about 15 kinds of Secret and she kept reading the ‘flavors’ in Russian and I had no idea what she was saying. The only ‘flavor’ I cold read from afar was Platinum which thankfully does not have a clear translation. So she pulled 3 bottles off the shelf, opened them and invited me to sniff them. Since me underarm does not see a lot of action, I picked the first one I sniffed. I’ll know in a couple days if it was a good choice or not. After my deodorant conquest, Rob and I successfully bought 3 bottles of non-carbonated non-mineral water from another lady behind the counter. I would have bought 4, but I forgot how to say 4 in Russian. Which is why I only get 1, 2 or 3 of stuff. I also bought some honey at the honey stand (yes, i know it’s a strange combo of purchases) and the Honey Lady tried to rip me off by not giving me 10 tenge in change (about 8 cents). But I stared her down, pointed to my palm, and she reluctantly opened up the coin drawer and forked over my massive money.

Our Kazak posse came over after that to review what we need for court and the US embassy and to review the rest of the timeline. I’ll be here closer to 9 weeks than the planned 7 weeks, so we need to revisit our cash flow and see if we need to start hitting the MAC machine here. We tried out the MAC machine last week at the big western foodstore and it worked like a champ.

For dinner we worked on cleaning out the fridge since Rob will hopefully be leaving next Monday night. We dined on French Fries (cooked in the oven in a pot lid for lack of a cookie sheet), Heinz Ketchup, Pear Juice (which is so thick it looks like milk), crackers and cheese.

Today’s name for Junior: Lieutenant Dan Taylor. Can you tell we just watched Forrest Gump?