June 26 -> June 28- Back from the USSR

June 26
I had the embassy interview Monday June 26th, then stopped by the Lufthansa office. I wanted to see if I had made the flight on June 29th, and the lady said no, but I was confirmed for June 27th. That was the best outcome, and somehow we got it. Since I was flying out of another city I thought I would have to pay a fee but when you have either a screaming or sleeping baby with you when you vist an office they tend to want to get you out of there as soon as possible.

After out embassy interview Natalie and I celebrated by packing. Natalie was nice enough to give me her potty since Andrew did not take to the Throne I bought him, so I left one more item, along with most of my clothes in Kazkhstan.

June 27
The flights home something I don't care to remember. One the first leg from Almaty to Frankfurt I had a bassinet so he slept all but an hour or 2. And those hours he spent screaming. We had a six hour layover in Frankfurt so we went to McDonalds, rode the moving sidewalk for an hour or 2, went potty 2x in the port-a-potty, had 2 Andrew meals and then got our boarding passes. I thought it was odd that I did not get a seat assignment with the boarding passes. Turns out the flight to Newark was overbooked, but I did get on. Unfortunately the people in the bulkheads would not trade seats so I could not get a bassinet. The entire plane was punished with about 9 hours of a blood curding screaming child, Andrew. This obviously made eating any meals for me impossible so I asked the stewardess to give my meal to the peopl e in the bulkhead....I don't think she got it. I had about 400 angry eyes on me and my screaming child, then word got out that we was adopted from either Pakistan or Afghanistan, then everyone was stopping by and their looks of anger changed to smiles.

We finally made it to Newark, but Lufthansa decided my luggage, all 1 bag of it, would not be travelling with me. They knew this when I was in Frankfurt, but declined to tell me until I was waiting at bagge claim for about 45 minutes, with a child who was no longer screaming. So my luggage will spend another day or 2 in Eurpoe, or Asia, along with the 10% of my body weight that I left behind.

Since most of the rest of the baby food was in the checked luggage (other than the 2 days I had as carry-on) we stopped at the foodstore on the way home for Baby Food, and New Yorker White American Cheese sliced thin. We got the baby food, but they ripped me off on the cheese and gave me mongo thick slices of generic american cheese.

June 28
Andrew went to bed around 7 or 8pm our time and woke up around 5:30 am....with about 10 times waking up in the middle of the night. Once he realized we were still there he slept for more than 30 minutes. In the morning he had his first American breakfast, #1 and #2 business on the potty and took a nap while I got a long awaited shower.

It's nice to be back in America with one more US citizen in the house.

28 June - HOME AT LAST

Andrew and Jen are recovering from their adventure on the Lufthansa Airplanes.
Andrew was ok on the first flight half way but screamed half the first flight and the entire second flight. Sorry for Jen about that! I had to pay similar dues once on a flight from SFO-->PHL but that's a much shorter ride. When I saw Andrew in the airport he was smiling and laughing and he slept the entire car ride home. So I thought it went well. Then I asked Jen and looked at her and found out it was no picnic.

The time change and all the changes have impacted Andrew's sleep and eat schedule so we're working on that. Andrew was pretty scared of the cats at first (no crying just a scared face) but seems to have accepted them as part of his new home. The cats also seem to be ok and tig came to check Andrew out right away. No jealousy yet since Jen has been away so much they don't mind little attention from her.

So that's it for now gotta do some work.

- Rob

June 27 - FRA---->EWR---->ABE

Jen emailed me this morning to report that her and Andrew are in Frankfurt, Germany one continent closer to home.

I am excited.

Yeah this is sort of a surprise that she was able to complete her mission a bit early and with some co-operation with Lufthansa was able to be on her way.

If you want to be a geek and track Jen's flight it's LH402 and you can use this web site.
http://www.flightview.com/TravelTools/FlightTrackerQueryResults.asp

I am going to pick the family up at EWR.

When we're settled at home we'll be in touch...
It's "nesting" time (I am probably screwing this term up but forgive me!!!)

- Rob

June 25 (Kaz)

June 25

Today we moved to our new room, and it is awesome! There's a room a little bigger than a standard hotel room where we have the 2 beds and 2 cribs, and a little entry way room where we moved a sofa and a chair to to use as a play area safe for kids, and a big bathroom with a bidet, jacuzzi, shower stall and the other regular stuff like sinks and a toilet.









Here's our hotel from the outside. I think it's about 8 or 9 years old, but it has a dated look from the outside. The inside is very nice. And since we had to do a little laundry while we were here, here's a close up of our balcony, and if you look very closely you can see my bras hanging out to dry. Ahh, how classy we are.








When Pat and Alli said they spent their evenings in the bathroom eating dinner so they would not wake the kids I thought they were crazy....but know I understand. Here's a picture of our fine dinner on the toilet in the old hotel room. We have since given up on dinner....or breakfast or lunch.








The kids settled in pretty well and enjoyed having cribs next to each other. They were roommates in the orphanage for our first month here, and Andrew seems mesmerized by Alaina, and shows his affection by throwing all of his toys into her crib. Sometimes we put them in the crib together so they can play together, but then Andrew usually pulls her hair, or they swap pacifiers. Andrew will not use his pacifier, but he has no problem using Alaina's.




We needed to do a little laundry today to make sure we had enough for the plane ride home, so Natalie broke the barrier and cleaned and did laundry in the bidet. This must have looked like too much fun for Andrew and Alaina, because when laundry was done they wanted to play in the water....better the bidet than the toilet! At least they had an afternoon with the Fun Mommies...and no visible scars!





After a couple failed attempts at a bath, or even being washed in the sink, Andrew screamed for a couple minutes, when realized he liked the bath, or at least if I distracted him with the tub toys he liked it. But when it came time for the final hose down he screamed again. But after the bath, he was clean and happy, although he is looking like he is planning a submarine expedition for the next bath. I will avoid the details on the food he ate that stained his butt cheeks, which required the long bath.






On our walk to the Gros supermarket the other day we passed a sports stadium. Apparently they pay homage to large breasted Kazak women.









Here's the fountain in the lobby of the Hyatt. We had to stop here one day for a food emergency-- the kids needed yogurt.








And for those interested in potty training, Andrew does the big #2 after each meal. Now I just need to work on the fien art of 'how soon' aftr the meal. If I am too slow with feeding, and miss the 1-minute warning farts, I miss the opportunity for him to do his business in the bowl instead of his diaper.

June 24 - USA

Revenge of the SITH is on HBO in HD so it's tough to find time to clean the house.
I managed to get the master bath done and I must say with the gadgets Jen has it's not that bad a chore. And as long as you clean naked and then jump in the shower right afterwards you don't get many chemical burns at all!

So one chore done and 50 million more to go... for some reason tigger decided to barf 6 times after I swept the whole house.. He has some nasty hairballs but is now feeling fine.

So I am anxious to for my wife and kid to get home.
I miss them.

- Rob

June 23

June 23

Another day in Almaty, and another set of baby food is on my clothes.....and Andrew's.

I have also found out that much baby food is colored orange, and the color does not change much on it's processing trip through the human body. Andrew had another productive day on the potty-- with a jumbo #2. Unfortunately he also had 3 even bigger #2's before 10am. That will teach me to try to sleep in when his colon is on a schedule. I know, you really wanted to know all of that info.

We had a big day and made it out of the room by 10:30am. Andrew is not a fan of bathes, or bathes in a sink, so he screamed the whole time. I also learend that feeding a child, then trying to feed yourself in a restaurant only makes the child hungry again. So I tried some peach yogurt for him which gave me time for about 5 forks of food. We treked to the supermarket (Gros store) to stock up on the baby food fruits and vegatables. I am still trying to push the Carrots and Potatoes, and Squash and Potatoes without much luck. So Andrew is experiencing the fine art of mixing all left over baby food and getting leftovers at the next meal....yes I am too cheap to throw out uneaten food...especially when I need to walk a half hour to get more. I have also learned to feed him vegateables first, when he is hungry, then the good stuff later.

The evening we spent in the Regency Club.....a courtesy room where they have drinks and snacks during the day. There was no one there so we stayed for an hour or 2 and let the kids crawl around. The hostess for the room enjoyed the entertainment because people rarely come in, and seldom do kids. Andrew woo'ed her with his new found walking ability, farting and technique of laying on the floor to look up her dress.

June 22 and 23- Gate Crashing

June 22nd

Today on the way to the orphanage I realized that there was a problem with the adoption certificate, which meant one last trip to the notary in Astana, or so I thought. I was supposed to buy flowers on the way, but there was not enough time with the unplanned notary visit. Needless to say we were running extra late, so I flew through the orphange tossing gifts at people left and right, picked up Andrew and we crashed the gates of the orphange one last time. He's now under my care 24x7....and Rob's in a week or so.

We jumped on the plane to Almaty, and Andrew did pretty good. He played with the barf bag for a while before take off and kept throwing it in the aisle which made quite a few passengers worrisome. Then he assisted the Pre-Flight demonstration by waving the information card in the aisle for everyone to see. The guy seated next to me looked quite worried, but 5 minutes after take off Andrew fell asleep until about 2 minuts before landing.

Almaty is is much greener than Astana. We got to the hotel fed them and went to sleep by midnight. But not before Natalie realized they gave us too small of a room.....we were bored one night at the internet cafe last week and printed out the Deluxe King description, which was not what we got. The room is livable, but kinda small. The reponse from Hyatt was "oh , so sorry.....we will correct the internet because the description is wrong." After 2 months in Kazakhstan, you better believe their mistake will not be my loss. Unfortunately there is a summit in town, and all the big rooms are booked by politicians. So halfway through our stay we will be upgraded to a Club Deluxe which has 2 rooms and a fancy bathroom, and free breakfast (full instead of continental) and 2 hours a day of free internet access (a $100 value with the hotel prices). So we are happy now. If I knew negotiating would have been so easy I would have asked for more, but they met all my demands on the first attempt!

All in all, the day was quite unmomentous given the importance of it.

June 23
Toway we had our medical visit at te International SOS clinic. Andrew was well behaved until he saw someone from the medical profession. They he screamed bloody murder. There was no question as to is his lungs were healthy. But he did not bite or scratch any of the nice people. Oe of mympapers fro the embassy is missing but they said it shodl be here by Monday so I can still hae my Embassy interview on Monday, then travel as soon as I get a flight....or June 29th at teh latest is United has not boogered up my flights again.

Andrew was pretty well behaved today....He had 3 poops on the pottie.....and 2 in the diaper. I think the Rabbit (no kidding) I fed him for lunch might not have agreed with him, but he ate it up. The only food he didn't like was the Potatoes and Squash. I tried to give him a bath in about 1/8" of water tonight and he freaked out, so I hosed him down, wrapped him in a towel and dressed him for bed. Natalie is watching the sleeping beauties while I consume one of our 2 free hours of internet use. I know have a headache from an hour of screaming....whcih Rob got to experience when he called this morning at feeding time.

22 June - (USA)

Robby is grumpy again and today made clothing suggestions to a nice Allentown Pakastani Murano driving person who was "Driving Like a Woman!!***"
This was much to the great entertainment of Robbie's fellow passengers.

Grill Fetching is stressful!!!

I miss my kid and wife and there is only so much John and Heather I can take!!!! :P

But seriously, The number in the header of the blog is for Jen.. She is now with Andrew in Almaty. I spoke with her today as she was feeding andrew horsemeat and cat liver pudding.

Tomorrow she goes for the health check. She is still scheduled to come home on 6/29.

WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!

- Rob

***PG version!!! :P

June 21 (Kaz)

June 21

Today was an uber exciting visit at the baby house, Andrew fell asleep on me after about 15 minutes of crawling around. The care givers were not happy with that, becuase that means he does not nap at nap time. Oh well, our days in Astana are numbered and then we are off to Almaty for a week of more paperwork.

After the visit we went to the Gross supermarket to go food shopping. I'm not sure if Andrew has any allergies because he has only eaten mashed potatoes with a little meat, porridge and soup. So I played it safe and got the hypo-allergenic german food. Unfortunately the only meat they had was Rabbit With Fennel. Mmmmm, Mmmmm good. You can bet I won't dig into his food.

This little stuffed animal showed up on the sofa at the orphanage today. It looks oddly happy, yet a bit disturbing.








I was getting ready to pack and went through the clothes I bought here. Way back in the beginning it was cold outside and I had to buy sweat pants for Junior. Good Golly these are ugly. They are now a donation for the next generation of kids at the orphanage.






We went out to dinner tonight to an Italian place near us. The food is pretty good, and it's Air Conditioned. The menu is in English and Russian, but some of the translations are a bit odd, like #12 Lasagna and #26 Apices of Asparagus (I think.)








And here is the tasty Vitamin Salad I had. I think it was cabbage and carrots. It was surprisingly good.









These are the people we had dinner with. Maggie and Bryan are on the right....they are from Iowa and are naturally beautiful and really nice people. Ross and Karen are on the end....they are from Illinios and went into shock the first dinner we had when they found out how long they would be here. Natalie is on the left in the front....she is elated to be leaving soon.




We saw these kitties at the mall. They look like out kitties, but will not pee all over once Enrdu arrives home.










We cleaned out the fridge; we had this ketchup from our French Fry Feast. This little bottle of Heinz came a long way for our feast.

June 20 (Kaz)

June 20

At my visit with Andrew today he took his first steps (about 5 steps, then plooped on his diaper), at least the first ones that I saw....he seems to be holding back with showing us the stuff he can do...like when we thought he did not know how to crawl, then the next day he crawled and pulled himself up on the wall. He celebrated by scratching his head.







Here's some pictures of the outside play area....some areas are nicer than others. The stroller in the one picture is one of my Kazak purchases....Andrew was asleep in it and I forgot with the backpack hung on the back it has a tendency to tip. Good thing he did not shift or he would have been launched.







To celebrate the momentous occassion of Endru's first steps we had a nice liter....of apply juice. The little napkin was our spelling of it, unsure if it's Kazak or Russian, because for some reason the waitress could not understand our fluent Russian. We only know how to spell it because we buy a liter of apple juice at the market every couple days.









And in case you forget what I look like, or what 7 1/2 weeks in Kazakhstan does to you, here's a picture of me, about 4 weeks overdue for a haircut., and pondering a Russian menu. Yes, we have hit the bottom of the barrel for photos for the blog.

Keep those comments coming, and pray to the Paperwork and Travel Gods. Our translator suggested I pray to ALL the Gods, not just mine, that the paperwork has no problems. I don't see that as a good sign.

June 19 (Kaz)

June 19

Today was another day like walking on the sun. Now I know why they walk so slow and never say Excuse Me when running into you....the heat takes it out of them.

Yesterday when we were doing yard work at the orphange they brought the 3 or 4 year old kids out to play in the yard. I was digging weeds out of the dirt and had about 6 kids standing about 12 inches from me watching me like I was a freak. One little boy had a bucket and I thought we wanted to dig too, but when I made a move for his bucket to fill it, he got really concerned I was going to take his bucket. After about half an hour outside, they stripped the kids down to their underwwear to play on the new playset, then got out the hose and hosed them down for half an hour. Hmmm, maybe Andrew's life in America won't be too different!

We tried spending some time inside today and Andrew was having fun beating on everyting with the plastic bowling pins. After about 20 minutes of beating in the sweltering hot room, we headed outside for our visit today, which was like being in an outdoor sauna. Andrew lasted about an hour in the heat, then crashed in the stroller again.







This is one of the pictures of one of the 2 play rooms--- we were banished from the other playroom for unknown reasons. The big yellow thing on the right side is the jump-o-lene that Rob liked to shake like an Earthquake with Andrew in it.

For dinner last night Natalie decided to try the shrimp....in a landlocked country, except for the Caspian Sea, I do not suggest the shrimp. They looked dried up and had eye balls. Hmm, are Kazak Shrimps really tiny crawfishes? Where is Bubba Gump when you need him.





And Rob will love this one, if he does not like Andy, then he will love the birth certificate: Endru Taylor. What a phonetic country.

Adn another thing, Rob was gripeing that I was not putting KAZ on the posts anymore, but I don't see many USA posts.

June 18- Freda Gardening Day

June 18

Today is Sunday, and no visit for Andrew. Instead we spent the day at the orphange doing yard work. We have been trying to set it up for a couple weeks now, but they looked at us like we have 3 heads : "You want to travel around the world, pay lots of money and now do yardwork?". In the sprit of my mother, who would have dug in the dirt too, I called in Freda Gardening Day. I can now say I have gardened on 2 continents, but who's counting.

We started off the day by heading to the Tool Bazaar with our Russian speaking driver....we were experimenting life without a translator. We are able to buy 5 pairs of gloves, 2 pruners, 1 big pruner and one weed hacking tool for about $20. We tried to buy a wheel barrel and could only find 1 for about $90. Can you tell they did not really want to sell it to us?

Once we got to the orphanage the 'man' who we were told would be there was no where to be found. I pulled out my handy dandy Russian Translation book and pieced together a sentence that said "Cloakroom man vacant. Need Grass Machine" which meant "the man in the coat room is not there. We need the lawn mower". After an hour of trying my awesome Russian, we gave up and called the translator. After much negotiation we were not given the lawn mower, but instead 2 primitive dirt rakes. We made due with the rakes, shovels, a dirt mover (see picture) and the tools we bought at the bizarre bazaar.

We mainly weeded and moved a lot of dirt. Here's the before and after picture of the new playset they installed our first week here. When the director finally agreed for us to go some yardwork, which we thought meant some lawn mowing and weeding with some branch trimming, her eyes lit up and asked us to move the 'little' sand pile. It was the size of a volkswagon bug, and we did the best we could. Here are the before and after pictures of the main area we worked on. For some reason the director really likes the kids to play in the dirt, and how could I argue? The day after we moved the dirt I took Andrew out to my dirt mounds and let him play for half an hour. It took him a bit to warm up to the idea, and he ate more dirt than planned, but he is catching on. Next up is getting him to move mulch.







Look how energetic we look at the beginning of the day, and then the end of the day. We worked for about 4 hours, in the blazing sun and stopped for 2 breaks: the first for water, bread and the only suitable chocolate chip cookies we could find in the country, and the second time for water melon that we bought from the fruit stand man. Water melon never tasted so good. We only ate half and gave the rest to the orphange staff. Hopefully we scored some brownie points with everyone this day.

June 17 (Kaz)

June 17

Here ends week 7....2 weeks to go!

Andrew is adjusting to his new schedule and was actually awake the whole visit. He got a little fidgeting after playing on the grass for half an hour, so we got up and headed over to the strollers to take a walk around the driveway. When I was about 15 feet from my blanket of toys, I saw that they had let the 3 and 4 year olds out in the playground. About 5 little kids made a beeline for my blanket and were about to make much destruction of my toys. It was like slow motion, I lunged back towards the blanket saying 'n-o-o-o-o-o-o-o' while the Spanish man, Waldo, adopting a little girl, came to my rescue from the other angle , scooped up my toys and blanket in one scoop just milliseconds before the onslaught of 4 year olds. This was not their first attempt at toy scarfing of adoptive parents. They hade a devlish look on their face as the toys were safely stowed in my back pack. Andrew was entertained but unphased. We made it to the stroller and he started to figure ou the little steering wheel on the stroller.....next up is Rob's Lexus.

The other night while I was out to dinner with Baheet, our Russian speaking co-ordinator, she was gushing with comments about the type of parents that Rob and I would be. I think it was the obligatory comments that come with the 'thank you' dinner we had for them. In the middle of eating my Lagmon meal (pasta, soup, noodles and assorted other items of unknown origins) I dripped some down the front of my shirt....a common occurance. Baheet looks over at me, smiled and gestured to my now food stained front porch and says "And that is Erbol's (Andrew's) favorite part of his new mommy". Coming from anyone else I would be annoyed, but I think it was her attempt at humor. Here's a picture of Andrew making use of his new found mommy pillows/front porch.


On the ride home from the the orphanage we were following this car. That will be Rob and I in 40 years....driving around in our Lada with the kitty kat sleeping on the back dashboard. The other night at the restaurnat Baheet was telling us that in Kazakhstan many younger men look for older woman to support them. Then the men can do 3 things: 1) sleep, 2) eat and 3) watch TV. Maybe Rob will re-think his decision to return to the USA and come back to Kazakhstan to live.







We thought there was no nice grass in Kazakhstan. At the orphange they have the worst field of weeds that should be a test case for Scott's Fertilizer. Along the river walk one of the newer apartment buildings has a nice patch of grass. We say their 'lawn mowers' out cutting it the other day. Their lawn mowers are a bunch of 10 year olds that slowly and carefully break off the grass. Andrew will surely miss that activity as he gets older. When I told Andrew this, here was his response. Has anyone seen this look on Rob's face ?

June 16 (Kaz)

June 16

For thos asking for photos as prood that Rob is progressing on the TO DO list, we will have to take his word for it as the only digital camera he has at home is the one we stepped on which does not quite work as well. But if you are concerned about his progress, feel free to stop by and inspect and report back through the comments.

Today we were back to our normal visits of 2 hours. They just changed Andrew's schedule earlier this week and he is on a new nap schedule, but his body is on the old nap schedule. So after 5 minutes of playing, he got cranky and fell asleep on my shoulder. After 45 mintus of holding him I decided to lay down in the grass and take a nap with him. He woke up right on schedule for his OLD schedule and we had another 15 minutes of playing before our time was up. Before crashing he did use the teether a little, which someone said will help with popping ears on the plane. For the sake of the other passengers on the plane, let's home that's true.

On our daily 5 hour walk we passed this restaurant. Althought the food looks tasty I am sure that if we went inside that nothing they served would look like the sign on the outside. So we kept walking and I got porridge the goulash for lunch. I was going to have the beet salad too, but I thought that combo would just put it over the edge with weird combinations.




After all that oatmeal I had to stop along our walk to make a BM Energy deposit. We stopped in at an English pub which has very nice bathrooms, and was right next to the DHL office which had Natalie's plane tickets home. They have a very nice bathroom and a pretty floor. So for anyone out there looking to have the real Kazak Experience bathroom floor, here you go!




While Rob was here we were feeding the birds. There were some birds which we called Black Birds, which were really Black and White birds. Then today I noticed they were also black, white and blue birds. There were 2 birds feeling quite frisky and I was only able to get one picture that was not too blurry. Seems them like to rush the camera too in case I had food for them. Oddly enough, in Kazakhstan they do not call these Black Birds, and they wondered why we did since they are not only black. Crazy Americans.


Towards the end of our day or walking we were walking along the river and I got another shot of the river and the fancy building across the river. It was windy again, as it is most days, and I thought the river looked nice and wavy. The waves did not seem to deter teh dozen rowing people who row laps up and down the river most days. I guess there is not much of a current in the river.





Here is Andrew's "Daddy I miss you and want to slobber all over you" face. Rob may think the hat is kind of girlie, but it's the only one I could find the keep the sun off him. If I don't turn up the front, he thinks it's a game and keep ripping off the hat and tossing it like Mary Tyler Moore,

June 15 (Kaz rebuttal to the USA post)

I just read Rob's June 15 post and felt the need to post a reply.

It seems he is too busy to
a) Tend to the honey Do list
b) Work, since he is posting during the work day

So for anyone out there, feel free to call Rob (610.391.0378) to see if he has tended to the list, specifically

• fertilizing the lawn
• kid proofing the kitchen cabinets
• installing the kid gates
• getting a booster seat
• fixing the crib height
• buying a changing pad
• buying a car seat....and installing it
• relocating gitars to a kid friendly zone
• installing the bathroom door lock for the powder door
• scheduling the house cleaning (alternate item was to clean the hosue which will not happen)
• getting the cat pee out fo the sofa and chair

If you have offered him a free meal or a party invite, feel free to hold back until he provides proof of items on the list being completed.

Rob should know not to diss me from the other side of the World.... I have a network of naggers ready to pounce on him, and HRR to personally inspect.

June 15 (Kaz)

June 15

Today is day 47.....if I were on Survivor the final Four would have been a week ago, but we are still going for another 2 weeks.

Today was a super short visit with Andrew, only 30 minutes because they were preparing for a visit from the Health Dept and did not want me anywhere near the orphanage. We had enough time to cruise around the grounds in the stroller at break neck speeds...strolling at a walking pace is far too boring now. We zig zag, do wheelies and hit all of the bumps and puddles to make it more interesting. Today we also got clearence from the director and the Bun lady (lady who wears her hair in a bun and watches you come and go) to come and do yard work Sunday when we do not have any visits. I could spend a month in the yard here and still have work to do. So a bunch of the families will be cleaning up the yard a bit on Sunday. It wil be interesting to see what 'tools' they provide for us.

On the drive after the visit we drove by this new building. We think it is a restaurant or maybe a nightclub. It has quite ornate elephants in the front of the building so it really stands out from the soviet style building. As an added bonus there was a naked man in one of the windows. And someone thought they saw a naked lady behind him, but I did not zoom in on the picture enough to see that.

After the naked man we went to the Fed Ex office to pick up Andrew's plane ticket which was Fed Ex'ed to Kazakhstan. Fed Ex is not really popular here and the 'office' is in a tiny strip mall, down a hallway, up some rickety stairs, down the end of a dark hallway and behind a door whith a cheap photo copy of the Fed Ex logo. It looked like a shady deal.. Unfortunately they were out to lunch and our co-ordinator called them on her cell to rip them a new one. The package was delivered to her door witin an hour or 2. The co-ordinator, Baheet received the package and wanted to know why we tried to Fed Ex the package to the DHL office. in case you ever try to do this, it's a bad idea that the Russians or Kazaks just don't understand.

After the visit we went walking for a couple hours to a store where I bought a $4 polo shirt for Andrew. It is quite stylish, even for me who has no ability to match clothes.

I took out our co-ordinator and translator for dinner to Ali Baba. We were supposed to do it after court before Rob left, but we never got around to it, so Natalie 'stood' in for Rob. Here's the menus that we ordered from--- they were shiny silk fabric covered. I was tempted to add one to my souvenier pile, but Natalie stopped me before I did something really wrong.

On our walk after dinner we ran across a car that had this on the windshield. As taunting as it was, we chose not to KNOCK HERE for fear that we would be hauled off to a Kazak jail.

June 15 - (USA)

So like I noticed that Jen has stopped the (KAZ) sig..... like all the blogging will be her's again?

I THINK NOT!

I am trying to find free meals here in USA while the (get in the kitchen and make me some PIE!!!) wife is in KAZ enjoying her time with Junior. It's kind of a good thing that there are several picnics (that means LEFTOVERS) and parties (yeah baby pool parties.... ) and when I am not sidelined with a migrane (recovering from the time change and bad bed in KAZ (which Jen hogged all the time anyways)), I am able to attend and get free dinners.

In the USA I am also able to avoid all annoying people!!!
And it's great that I can speak the language and order my own dinner.
And no stupid Mineral and Gassy water here either.
Bottled water is 'still' in the USA...... And I like it.

So I still have some items on the Honey-do list to-do before Andrew comes home but it's hard working and also taking care of the lawn and weeds and such and being able to put in some quality time slaying dragons online (or tie fighters or whatever). So I might need to hire a gardner and a (french (with those cute fishnets and pompoms in their hair OH!) ) maid to take care of the tasks that I wish not to participate in. And no thank you in advance because Jen is yelling at the screen right now and I know what she's saying but I choooose to ignore her!

Besides .... I have hacked quicken and have found ALOT OF HIDDEN MONEY that I am going spend before Jen gets home. Batching it has it's priveledges.

Anyways I hope any blog readers enjoy this and I am off to figure out why a co-op friend of mine can figure out the XSLT transform where I cannot. I think some day I will be replaced by a co-op or maybe even a robot (same diff).

Subliminal Man Rob
(man the kazak weemun are hawter than amerikkan weemun! SEND PICTURES other adoption peepul PLEASE (Mowgie@yahoo.com))
OUT. (or ut for you Canadians and Duh for you Accenture Consultants.)

June 14

June 14

They changed Andrew's schedule and today I visited from 4pm to 6pm, right before his bedtime. The storm that blew through last night cooled things off about 30 degrees so today we spent most of the vist inside. This was the first visit inside in about 2 weeks so he redisovered all of the indoor toys like the jump-o-lene which he likes to rool around in. He misses Rob dragging him all over in it.


Sometime he looks like he is concentrating a bit too much in there so I am not sure if he's just squeezing out another bit of BM Energy.






He also likes to look at himself in the mirror. He gets a really confused look on his face when the kid in the mirror in the weird orange shirt is staring back at him and mimicing his moves. The only thing that concerns me is that he often tries to kiss the other boy in the mirror.....with an open mouth kiss. Is that normal for a one year old?

I bought a couple shirts for him tonight so hopefully he won't wear the orangetank top every day now.





This is a look that I have learned recently. It means "I just ate and you have been rough housing with me and I have a mouth full of half chewed food returning". When I see the look I now know not to toss him over my head so I back off for about 3 seconds and he swallows his lunch again. This also works for the massive quantities of drool that teething brings. I have learned these lessons the hard way....and do laundry most nights.





This is the bush next to the soccer stadium across from our apartment. I guess they are into spray painting the bushes here but it does look very cool. I am not sure if they did it for the World Cup or not. Around 8pm the bars here pack and men from all over come in to watch men in shorts on TV. There was another game tonight next to our apartment(obviously not World Cup league) but with our visit moving to later in the day i did not get to see the game. It's cheap entertainment for about $2.




Today was laundry day as just about every day is with the tiny washer we have. We washed one of the sheets and needed a place for it to dry so we laid it over a ring of chairs from the dining room table. Once we saw it I said "Hey that looks like a Kazak Yurt"and took a picture. Another sign that I have been here too long....or that the honey bread I had for breakfast just wasn't right.





In our continuing series of "What We Ate For Dinner", here's is tonight's edition. I could leave you guessing for hours as to what it is but I will not. It was eggs, onions, peppers, zuchinni I think, and breadcrumbs, topped with tomatoes and more onions, with a side dish of potatoe periogies and a bowl of sliced apples. MMMM, mmmm good. Natalie, my roommate cooks alot better than Rob. we also made an experimental dessert that's chocolate something like pudding that you pour over stale cookies. We'll see how that turns out after it chills over night.


Here are some pictures we ran across on the street. Looks like a car got a little out of control on this street and they took out a street sign or 2. I can understand how it happens. It is very dusty here and they water the streets a couple times a day (I have a 90 second video of it). That makes it quite slick and cars take intersections a big fast, and one slalom driver probably got a bit over excited. This is the same intersection that they closed just after Rob left. It's right in front of the soccer stadium. The day they closed it and started digging a ditch about 10 feet wide and 1o or 20 feet deep we lost our hot water, so I am guessing they knocked out a pipe. I never realized how cold a COLD shower was-- my scalp was numb. When they closed the street they put up 3 cement barracades, then about 5 metal fences that look like picket fences. Well, the cement things were evenly spaced and creative drivers just got out of their cars, moved the metal fence, ignored the big sign with the red circle with a white horizontal line (which I beleive is international for "Don't go here"), and sqeezed by. The police saw this after a day or 2 and decided to put in more cement things so a car would not fit through them.. Again the drivers showed their creativeness and just drove up on the sidewalk, around the barricades then down the road. The police finally resolved this by putting more cement barricades up. Drivers here are interesting, they move the fences as the cop watches, and honk and heckly the cops if they are standing in teh street.

This picture is of the Dept Of Transportation (probably called the Ministry of Transportation because they are all fancy here). I thought the truck was far too pretty to actually do real dirty work, but it looks like these guys are legit and doing work.






At dinner the other night we got these desserts. We went to dinner then it started to pour rain for about an hour so we had to stick it out in the restaurant. The dessert may look good, but they were horrible. I am not one to turn down dessert but coconut covering a rock hard ice cream ball with icy flakes was not my idea of yummy.

June 13 (Kaz)- Fountain Day

June 13

Durign our walks we see a lot of fountains so I thought I would lump them together in 1 post.

This is the fountain outside our apartment next to the soccer stadium. The ball is supposed to be rolling in water but it often gets stuck and the water just shoots out the side of the fountain--- which the birdies like, and small children too. The next soccer game is June 14th and we're going to try to go to that one if it's not over 100 degrees. The stadium is about as big as a medium sized high school stadium, but the Astana team does seem to have a marching band in the stands.

About a 5 or 10 minute walk from our apartment is Congress Hall. We did not know what was the offical name for a week or 2, we just called it to teh big building with the blank SUV op on risers out front. Across the street from ongress hall is this fountain. We have not figured out the schedule for when they trn the water on, but he got lucky the night I took the picture. For Robert (aka Rob), there is a Kazak chick posing for you.


A little closer to our apartment is the Money Building , or Ministry of Finance I think. They have the lamest fountain of all, you can barely see it in the foreground. The intersting thing about the building is that it's shaped kind of wavy like an S with a line down the middle. So when you look at it from the sky it looks like a dollar sign. Does someone have American Currency envy? Hmmm, what about that darn Euro ?





The last fountain for today is the globe fountain where Rob and

I would spend our retirement days feeding the birds. It's in back of the Ministry Of Education where we went or first day.

While sitting around the apartment the other day we realized we are begining to speak like the native Kazaks. Our favorite expressions are
"But of course!" or "Yehhhhhhz!" Both of which mean "No" or " I have no idea""
"I/He/She will come to you" which means "I will meet you at x o'clock"

At Dinner last night Ross, one of our fellow American stranded in Kazkhstan decided that with all of the cabbage and Beats here, we have founded a new country "IHaveGasAhkstan".

The internet cafe is packed tongiht so I can upload any other photos, so you will have to wait for tomorrow for "Road Work" pictures.

June 12 (Kaz)

June 12

Today was the hottest day yet but we toughed it out outside. I brought the stroller I bought last week and Andew fell asleep in 5 minutes....not the smartest this to do in the first part of the visit. So I woke him up he was grumpy and hot, and we played on the rug outside-- they have a couple oriental rugs outside in the playground. He got kind of hot and tried to break into my water bottle. After studying it for about 5 minutes he thought he could drink through the lid.....so maybe I am one step closer to a sippy cup. He still prefers to drink directly from a tea cup (they use fine china at meal times) or one of the stacking cups that I fill with water.

After it was clear that we was not getting into the water bottle he resorted to the teething ring. I have had it for about a week now and he has not taken an interst in it; hopefully he will figure out he likes it and chew on that instead of every other toy that is not intended to be put in the mouth. In case you are wondering why he wears the same clothes every day, they just put on whatever is in his locker. I had about 10 sets of clothes that have migrated to other lockers and I think he will be sporting these clothes stolen from the locker next door until I leave.


Last night I realized I need to buy shoes for him before I can break him out of the orphanage in a couple weeks. We found a couple cheap places by our apartment so I bought 2 pairs.One pair is kind of ugly whitish shoes. Yes they are ugly and do have a spider (not spider man) on them but they are very bendy which they seem to like. The other pair is dark blue sandals (no he will not wear them with black socks like the Kazaks all do). Those 2 shoes should get us through all of our shoe needs this summer since he will be wearing nothing on his feet most of the time at home.

In our continuing theme of 'bad Kazak meals' that we prepare, here is our latest: Mexican night. He had mexican beans with some kind of weird sauce, salsa, noodles with a soup that we added 1 liter of water instead of 5 liters so it was too strong, and left over pineapple. With the tablecloth it is a bit difficult to identify the food plates.....good luck with Where's Waldo's Food.




This afternoon we also tried to have our phone turned back on. We went to the phone company. I thought I had figured out how to act in public here be pushy and observe no sense of personal space. We were second in line at the window and I was standing so close to the lady in front of me that she cold feel the warm breath coming out of my nostrils on her neck. Well I guess that was not close enough because some other lady butt in front of me. I grumbled and huffed but she was oblivious. If you see the picture above with Mexican food from the night before you would think I would have been armed with BM Energy to clear the room but I did not want to take out innocent bystanders. So I waited, paid about $30 for unknown charges and we are still wating for the phone to be turned back on. Geez without phone or internet access from the apartment we feel at a loss, but with a sense of quiet calm. We hope for some utilities tomorrow, and pray tha the AC does not give out.

Stay tuned for tomorrow which will be Fountain Day---- Celbrating the fountains of Astana, at least the ones I can walk to in the heat.

June 11 (Kaz)

June 11

Today is Sunday, which means no visit, so I slept in, listened to my iPod for a while then took a shower and was out of the apaprtment by noon. No rush to leave the apartment since we have AC and it was supposed to be 80 or 100 degrees today- I am never sure how hot it will be, but when you wear pants all the time it's always hot. On my walk I took this picture of the really expensive apartment building. Note the cranes in the background in the 'new' or LEFT side of the city.They are quite proud of their new erections here. If you are snickering at what they call their new buildings, you are in good company. The postcards boasting the "New Erections"are sold out.

Half way along my walk is this statue of a horse. I am not sure who the guy on the horse is, but it has become a landmark for the American families here. Since we live at different places along the river, we all meet at the horse when we gout to dinner together, hopefully not to eat horse meat.






Also along my walk is the 'big' foodstore called the RamStore. It took me a while to realize that P's were pronounced like R's, C's like S's and H's are pronounced like N's. That would also explain the HOTAPNYC we would go to--- the Notary (Notarus).


















I took a leisurely hour walk to the President's museum. I was afraid to take pictures, but saw no signs that said I could not. But just to be safe I asked the lady at the doorway that collects the 90 tenge tickets (about 70 cents) and she said "but of course."So I headed back to the main exhibit and started taking pictures, without the flash. Then some lady from 4 stories up the atrium style museum starting hollaring. I figured if I did not turn around, then surely she was not speaking to me. Then 2 other Kazak ladies came rushing over just as I was about to snap a photo of the money exhibit. Busted. So I only got 1 picture of the jumbo key to the city. Once again I learned that "But of course" means "absolutely not".

We also learned another nuisance of Kazak culture. When they want you to pay the phone bill, which is by no means on a monthly schedule, they just turn off the phone service. We figured this out Saturday night when I went to call Robbie, so he will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday, whenever the Phone Gods choose to allow us to pay and call again. As long as they don't turn off the AC I am fine.

For those who think living in Kazakhstan for 2 months is party where we only sleep in,play with Andrew (Not Andy as per Robbie), and eat diner out each night. Check out this fine meal we prepared the other night: Grilled Cheese on sesame seed bread with aside of pineapple, and a bottle of water. And youhave to love the colorful plates and table cloth....and microwave in the middle of the kitchen table.





For the past 6 weeks they have been digging these holes along the riverwalk on the walk to our apartment. They dig them by hand and they are almost perfectly round and are around 3 feet deep. We are guessing they are for planting trees, but at night the kids hide in them and scare the pee out of you when you walk by. There are now about 100 holes.





Here's some pictures of the brochure from the place where we gout our massage/beating. I thought my Russian was a bit rough, but this brochure,which they printed thousands of has some interesting translations.

June 10 - (USA)

FINE!

I get up early and try to call Jen and she is out getting a massage.
Life is tough in Kazakhstan.

I am going fishing today with John so there.
Tomorrow I am going to sleep all day!!! ;)

Heather, John and I went to Starters Pub Riverport last night and it was great.
There was a sweet little girl there that we were playing with and it made me miss Andrew.

Well, maybe I will take Jen there sometime.
Afterwards we drove up to Lehigh and WOW.
Lehigh has changed ALOT.
There is a parking deck (I suppose it's BRAND new) in front of the UC.
That was never there before AND one of the crappy buildings (I forget the name) is totally brand new too. So I think Lehigh has enough $$$ so I will send my donations to IUP (That crappy state school where Jen went).

OK.

Blog you later.

June 10 (Kaz)

Megan pointed out that I posted June 7 and June 8 out of order (before Rob's June 6th) so if you are bored and want to catch up, read those.

June 10

Today is the end of Week 6, and I celebrated by getting a massage. I can only assume the lady's name was Olga and it was quite an intense massage. I am sure the bruises will surface tomorrow. The massage started off with 15 minutes in the sauna, which I did not know meant other naked womaninteh same sweltering wooden sauna room. I kept my towel and robe on, and I am glad I did because sauna's here are FAMILY saunas where parents bring their little boys and girls in for 10 minutes. You might be wondering why I would wear both a towel and a robe? Well, in the land of skinny people the robe does not quite fit all the way around me, and to get to the sauna you need to walk by the pool, weight room, cardio room and solarium. I did not want to show all of my American parts to the fine people of Kazakhstan.

Today's visit it was another scorcher and we spent the whole time outside under a tree in the breeze, which ended up being cooler than being inside the smaller play room with 5 other families. Score one for being anti-social. While we were outside we played "bang the stacking cups together" this is a progession from 'knock the stacking cups over", then we went for a walk in a stroller. It was Andy's first time in a stroller and things were going well, then I stopped to take a picture in his new cool stylin' Toyota hat and he started wailing, or whaling, until I started moving again. Me thinks we will be doing a lot of strolling in the Frankfurt airport for 6 hours.




It's Saturday here and the beaches, if you want to call the light dirt on the shore of the river a beach, were packed. The water is a bit funky, but the locals seem to like it.








On my walk today I ran across this kitty cat. I stopped and reached into my bag for the camera and he got up from his lazy nap under the tree and came over to me thinking I had food or water. Sorry kitty, I only wanted a picture. He continued to escort me about a block down the road in hopes I would buy him something like the littel gypsy beggars here.





Another 3 weeks to go and I'll be back at home sharing a bed with Robbie and the cats, and eating tasty American food again like New Yorker White America Cheese sliced thin (that was a subtle hint to Robbie.)

June 9 (Kaz)

June 9th

Today was a scorcher in Kazakhstan. It's 90 something degrees and we were outside for our 2 hour visit. We found a shady spot under the tree.

Later we went over to the swing and I got him to sit by himself....but he gets interested in watching the ground beneath us and nearly falls off. Once that excitement ends then I give him his teether, which must be Russian for 'object to throw and watch someone pick up'.






To finish out of exciting daily visit, I wrapped him in a blanket, which seems to calm him down, then we went for a walk. I had him strapped to me and was trying to take pictures, and did not realize he had fallen asleep on our walk. He had a Robbie Grumpy look when I woke him up (similar to the look he had when Eric and Erin called one morning and Robbie was still sleeping and did not want to talk until it sunk in that someone was actually calling from America). You can tell he looks a little hot and he guzzled down some water out of the water bottle (my water bottle, not a baby bottle).



Last night we came home from a walk that was about 7 hours long and found a nasty note in Russian on our door. Since we know about 10 words of Russian between us, mostly spoken, I gave it to the translator. Apparettnly the lady that lives below us in apt 146 (the only thing we could gather from the note) on the 1st floor does not like that we run our Air Conditioner 24 hours a day because it drips water 8 stories down onto a tin room all night long. She wants us to turn it off. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Another 2 or 3 weks and her problems will go away.

For dinner tonight we went to a sort of Italian place that has good potatoe stuff. Natalie also got this wicked looking Brussel Sprout cheese and egg pie thing.

6 weeks down and 3 more to go!

June 6 - (USA)

WoW... I read today that some weemun in the USA are trying to delay the birth of their kid so they aren't born on 6/6/6.

I hate to tell them that the oldest available copy of Revelations in coptic clearly says the number of the beast is 616. Since man created religion what the heck... it's mutable. UH OH......

YUP.

Anyways, I am busy doing yardwork and trying to figure out how to get Andrew's plane tickets to him. DHL wanted $150 to ship and FEDEX costs $56 BUT since I didn't fill out the proper import/export form they got returned to the house today. Jen is going to see if United will call Lufthansa and print the tickets at the Astana airport. Lesson here is that ALWAYS book with the Airline that is at your final destination. Because the Astana airport is new the people are that good with the ticketing system.

SO.

I was tied of Chef Wendy, Chef Ronald McDonald and Chef WaWa (get Murat to say WaWa) and I went food shopping. Got mostly frozen dinners. Hoping to snag as many dinner invites as possible with The RoseRoses, The Chiplets and The GreenGreenings. I DO have other friends but they are do busy fretting about their grass and new patio furniture to invite me over. Besides they don't want me to find out that they are re-dating their old boyfriend!!!!

OH.

I had a brain fart the other day. (Just one.)
It was 6pm here so I figured it was 8am in Astana and I called Jen.
OOOOPS.
It was only 4am and I woke Natalie up and felt bad.
Jen was complaining that I don't call but I can't call because when I do no-one answers.

So not much going on stateside.
I miss my little slobberpuss and oh yeah Andrew too!

- Rob

PS I am hoping Jen posts the slobberpuss picture.
NO MORE STUPID PIZZA PICS PLEASE.
K thanks.

June 8 (Kaz)

June 8

The other night we went shopping and I saw these lovely littel gnomes. I thought to myself "Hmmm, what would Robbie want from Kazakhstan as a lovely souvenier? GNOMES". Luckily there was no room iny any luggage to pack them, and it would cost like a bazzillion tenge to mail them home, so they will remain in the store in the Italian Mall in Astana along with the other ugly souveniers.

Rob wanted more pictures of Andrew, and here are a couple from the day. I got him a new hat for 200 tenge, but it was too small so it only lasted a day. One more contribution for the orhpanage. He was not a fan of the Tigger Woods hat, so we went back to the other Nike skull cap thing. He is also sporting some stolen clothes. The clothes we bought here either shrunk too much or have been mysteriously distributed amongst the other kids. So now we are wearing clothes other kids brought from home. Orange is not really his color, but it will do for another couple weeks.

For dinner we went out with another American family to share battle wounds fo our adoption process. We went to the Oasis, one of the places with an English menu, non-smoking floor and Air Conditioning: Triple Play! Part of the menu is Beer Foods, and I got these pringles arranged in the shape of a flower, well ok a flower blowing in the Astana wind.

I've been living here for a month and a half now and have not known my address, at least how to spell it. I've just been telling peopel Titanic and they find their way here. the other day, yes after a month here, I noticed the address on the side of the building where I meet the driver each day. The name of the strret is pronounded Ear-Chenk-Oh. I have no idea what k-CI is. If there was a Doinoes Delivery Man here I guess it would be important, but I do not have those worries.

While we were out on one of our walks we ran across this billboard for BM ENERGY. Given the amount of cabbage rolls that are consumed here, we found it huorous, but I did get my fair share of stares as I took a picture of a billboard which no one else found humorous.

And for when you eat too much, or maybe get a hold of some rancid honey from your roommate, these footsteps will led you in the right direction.

The other night we had the muchies, well ok we were just stocking up on

bottled water and Tide, I saw these little packets at the Kazak 7-eleven. I decided to treat myself to the 134 tenge (a little over a dollar) for a Kazak Facial of Face Food. Just as the package said, my face was "delicious and glistening". Not quite the same as a facial at Linda's House Of Wax, but it did provide entertainment for a night, and give me the urge to each Peaches.

Here are some pictures along the RiverWalk by our apartment. The cranes in the background are pretty much in every direction you look.

June 7 (Kaz)

June 7

This picture might explain Andrew's remarkable amount of Energy yesterday. Maybe he flagged down the Red Bull car while no one was looking. This may be a developing country but they seem to have progressed rather quickly with drinks that can be mixed with alcohol. Sorry Megan, I don't think you can drive this car around York, PA.




Today was Andrew's first day breaking through the gates. We went to get his photos for the Kaz passport, Visa and registration. He took after me and had on his 'I am an angry German' face and skowled at the camera. We could not get him to look at the camera so I told the people behind the camera to start clucking, which worked. If you have nevr seen a couple Americans and several Kazaks clucking like a chicken for a kid to get his photo taken as 30 Kazaks observe, you are missing something. While we waited for the pictures to be photo shopped and printed we went to the mall across the street and Andrew freaked when he saw this scary mannequin. As is that was not dramatic enough, we passed by the lingerie section with a multitude of bras, panties and assorted hosiery. He was getting rather grumpy, like Robbie, aftter walking around the mall for 20 minutes, then his eyes light up when we hit the fish net store.








We did not have any big plans for the afternoon so we went on a 5 hour walk to assorted bazaars and shopping centers. I spend about 4 dollars on a hip hat, which I bargained from 350 tenge to 200 tenge and Rob will say I spent 199 tenge too much, and a cool ball wih prickly things. On our walk across the city we walked down Allergy Street which had thiese trees with cotton wispy things that choke you. They build up and it look likes snow.




Robbie wanted pictures of Kazak chicks but I am sorry I don't take lewd photos. But there was one today who was wearing spiky heals, a skirt the size of a wet nap and a strappy tank top. She was obviously on her way to 'work'. Instead of takign a picture of her, I took a picture of this dalamation bird who probably has the same IQ.






The other night they hung up this sign. i am not sure what they are celebrating, but it underscores Kazakhstan's imfatuation with the 1980's or maybe this is the 1970's. The rest of the clothes and entertainment seems to be stuck in the past. I can't tell you how many kids I have seen wearing Iron Maiden shirts, and how many Hair Bands I have heard our driver playing.

June 6 (Kaz)

June 6

This is a picture from the soccer game last weekend. The 'end zone' has the name of the local team in Russian andoddly enough no one sits there. The game was about $2 to see. You can't get a...well anything for $2 at an American sporting event. The local team won, 1-0. There's another game this weekend and seeing how my social calendar is wide open, I'll see another game. Our apartment building is the one all the way on the left with the cupola thing and the bluish column of windows. It's called the Titanic. I thought it was becuase of the window things, but apparently the building, which is next to the river, is sinking. Let's hope it lasts another month.

The visit with Andrew was really good today. I think all of the fresh air yesterday tired him out because he was a bundle of energy today. I was quite surprised and so were the other families. He was crawling all over, giggling, jumping, chasing balls and chasing down all the females in the room. I think they changed his sleep schedule or food because he's never been this happy or energetic. He's at the point where he stand on his own for a while before tumbling over, so he might he walking in the next couple weeks. Tomorrow is passport photo day so I need to find a way to tame his wild man hair.

On our walk outside we saw these flowers sprout up. We saw them being planted when we first arrived. I leaned over so Andrew could smell them....he proceeded to rip them to shreds right after I took the pictures. The Roses better keep an eye on their garden.....or maybe I will blame the bunnies.

The other night we found this awesome pizza place. Here is an action shot us up putting jalepeno peppers on the pizza. Given that this is now one of the highlighted photos, you are correct to conclude that life in Kaz is being mundane.

June 5 (Kaz)

June 5
The weekend before Rob left we went for a picnic in the country with our translator, her 2 sisters and our driver and our coordinator Baheet, and this was the feast we had.

When Rob was here he forgot to post about "French Maid"Day that every other American man saw while he was here. OnMay 25th, the last day of school, all of the kids go down to the RiverWalk in the afternoon. The girls where the same STYLE outfit as they wore the 1st day of kindergarden: a short black shirt with an apron, pony tails with white pompoms, and fishnet stockings and high heels. It was a common topic of conversation for several days with the men and Rob regreeting napping through it. Sorry perverts, no one took pictures.

The visit with Andrew was good today, we stayed outside the whole time, played on the rug on the grass, rode the merry go round and walked around the building about 15 times. He wouldn't fall asleep until I put the blanket over his head and made it darker, then he crashed.

After lunch I went to the internet cafe to upload more pictures; I brought my camera dock but forgot the camera.

Here's the other side of our picnic in the country.

And one of the big rocks and trees we drove 3 hours to see
Since I was a member of the Bruce Willis fan club back inteh day when he still had hair, I feel compelled to fulfill my duty and post this picture. Even in Kazakhstan Bruce Willis is in the tabloids.

In case you saw Astana in the news last week for the burning "Cigarette" building, this was it. And yes that is a ferris wheel next to it.

June 4 (Kaz)

June 4

Today is Sunday and no visit with Junior, which meant no need to set the alarm clock. Ironically I woke up 2 hours earlier than normal. Unlike Rob I did not go fishing, but I did include a photo of Rob's fishing expedition here. You may need to zoom in to thehis CATCH which is not the BAIT. And his fishing buddies in Kaz were much more attractive and less hairy than Big John. Instead I went shopping for a stroller to get me through the 3 - 5 days in Alamty at the end of the month, and then through the plane trip lay overs on the way home. The stroller store, in the Pucha Mall, also had potties. And since junior has been on the pottie for months now, I thought I'd hit himon the little throne in Almaty, and maybe even the Frankfurt airport to pass the time. Pottie selection was limited and since I did not want a purple one, he has a nice green and yellow one with a lid, side handles and even a pull out pottie for easy empting.

The rest of the day I spent napping, watching Russian infomercials (Swivel Sweep looks awesome) and walking around.

I also have a new roommate, another Amerikan woman who's husband left yesterday. She gets the luxorious sofa here that I had while rob was here and snoring. Last night she was making tea and I said "Hey, you should try this Honey I got at the market, it's good". Well today she was sicker than a dog and I think I poisoned her. Opps.

June 3 - Fishing Report

I went fishing today on the delaware river with two professional shad fisherman.
It was kinda slow because (we think) the water temperature changed or it was not sunny.
Shad are finicky fish.

We got 2 shad (1 buck and 1 roe) each caught by the professionals and I missed a strike or two because I was too busy enjoying the tasty cigars that I was smoking. I did however get a 14 inch bass and a 7ish inch bass and they were fun. It got so slow that a Soduko tournament broke out in the boat and it's fun to hear the nuances of Soduko from the professional shad fishermen.

On the way home I listened to the Junior shad professional and we went the longest shortcut I have ever taken in my life. The senior shad professional agrees that the way we went was *(*($%ing stupid. The junior shad professional sat in the back seat laughing himself silly while the senior shad professional grumbled. It was fun.

I miss the kid but the cats are enjoying my company.
MUCH purrage.

Today I am taking Mr Brokeback for some fishing. Chiplet is busy with soccerr and cannot attend. Any resemblance to Mr Brokeback's nickname and the movie where the two guys go fishing and like each other a little too much is purely coincidental.

I don't know why I am blogging this other than I suppose Jen will enjoy it in Kazeeekahstahn.
(I guess I miss her too.)

- Rob

June 3

June 3, Saturday

My second night without Robbie and I had another migraine. Hmmm, do I miss Robbie? Nah, I think it was just the super smokey restaurant that has the good Goulash. As good as the Goulash is, I don't think I can take the smoke that rivals the smoke at Bingo.

Robbie is safely at home now, eating pizza, making fishing plans and cleaning up kitty pee. Hopefully they will have adjusted by the time I get home and won't try to show me who's boss.

The PC I am using at the internet cafe is mostly in Russian, so when I type I can change it to English letters, but all of the other words on the screen are usually in Russian. That makes it kind of hard to use some websites unless I can guess where certain button are that I usually use. I think there is a way to change it so everything in English but Rob's instructions weren't too clear (go to control panel and hit the globe). Fortunately I found the globe in control panel, and picked what I though was USA English, but all the other buttons are in Russian and I have not found the right combination to get me to have it take affect. There is another machine that is in English, but I can't hook the camera up to it or charge my iPod. I am able to load pictures, but it times out so often that I can get about 4 done in an hour. And I have a backlog with our trip to the country last weekend, so by the end of June I might be caught up.

Today visit with Junior we went outside because there were 6 families sharing 1 visitation room. It started to rain but he toughed it and out sat under the platform of the jungle gym and didn't get too wet. We had a little more progress with the pacifier, so hopefully by the time we fly home he knows how to suck. There was another little girl that we were sharing a rug with outside who was using the pacifier so I think some peer pressure helped too. She started drinking from the sippy cup, but that was not enough peer pressure to make him do it. He still prefers to drink, or chug, directly from the porcelin tea cup...we are not sure if that's good or bad. But bottles will not be in our future.

In the evening I went to a soccer game along with 2 other couples. None of us knew how may quarters, periods, or whatever the game was but we figured out when it was time to go. It was my first real soccer game I ever went to and unlike Pat who gave a detailed play by play in his blog last summer I will summarize it like this: The cute blond in the blue shorts ran around a lot being chased by the studly man with brown hair in white shorts. The cute man in blue scored and man-hugged the other cute blond guy. Then the game was over and the local team won. Who wouldn't love a game with many men in shorts?

June 2 - Part Rob

I arrived home last night at 8pm the last leg of my TSE-->FRA-->IAD-->EWR route being the issue. Traffic control in EWR delayed the flight which only takes 32 minutes.

Thank goodness for Chip who drove me home via traffic from HECK and a nice lightning storm.
CHIP is the man.

The Roses came down and after and chat they got me a pizza!!!
NICE!
I called CHIP to stop over but I think he loves his wine more than I do (or didn't want to share.)

I made it to work; so I could make my fishing plans (:) ) AND get the blah blah blah out of the way.

- Rob

June 2

June 2

This morning I found one of the advantages of having Rob around......when I forget to zip my pants zipper and walk around the streets of Astana people look at me really funny. If Rob was here we would have told me.

For all those still wondering, I do not have custody of Andrew yet. He will stay in the orphanage until the 15-day waiting period is over, or maybe even until the paperwork in Astana is done and I am ready to fly to Alamty for the paperwork there. So I will have a couple weeks more of sleeping in late and leisurely taking showers.

Today's visit with Andrew was busy. There are now 4 families visiting at the same time and we all share one visitation room. It was raining and they did not want me to take him outside....that'll change when we get home. 3 of the 4 kids are in the same room so they are busy feeding and dressing them and bring them to the visitation room one at a time. Andrew was the slacker and the last to arrive. As each of the other kids arrived they all had their faces clean, hair combed, matching outfits on and quietly smiling. Then comes Andrew, lunch left on his face, hair every which way, but it did look like it was trimmed, wearing someone else's shirt and grunting, fidgiting and kicking to get down. I guess he was expecting Rob to be there to toss him in the air right away. In Rob's absense he did get in the required amount of tossing, bouncing and HARRRRRing. From the batch of kids I think we know which one will be the one who disrupts the classroom in a couple years.

After 2 hours of one-on-one play I was ready for a nap. And without a laptop, or an iPod with any juice left, I napped.

After my afternoon nap of 2 hours, I headed out to the internet cafe and found another change in pace now that Rob has left. Before when we would walk the streets of Astana they would just look at us as the "Large breasted Amerikan woman with the Beer Belly Amerikan Man." Now apparently I am the "Large Breasted Amerikan Woman who knows all street names" because men in cars often pull up, slow down, say something, then drive off. And yes I did check if my zipper was down, it was not. I guess the men of Kazakhstan have never seen a woman with bra sizes bigger than an A cup.

Last night at dinner Rob missed another Kazak Experience. As dinner was finishing up 2 Swedish Bikini Model woman approached the table in white leather outfits selling Marlboro cigarettes. I think Paris and the other Hilton have side jobs now.

May 29 - June 1, Return of The Blog

June 1

We took a few days off of blogging after court to complete Project Robbie Deportation. At 2:00am Astana Time we delivered him to the airport, saw him through security and the little glass booths, and he was on his way back to the kittie cats, and neighbor John, and Zane, and Lauren.

Court on Monday, May 29th, went well. Rob did all of the talking and it was my job to sit like a quiet docile wife. It was a stretch for me, but I was able to do it. I only stood to hand the judge the pictures, and then promptly sat down when my translator barked SIT in my ear. Towards the end I did stand for 1 or 2 questions like "Do you promise to raise this natural resource of Kazakhstan thoughtfully?" and "Will you educate the child?". Rob was relieved they were YES/NO questions and that I would not ramble on and on like this blog. After 30 minutes of the judge reading and Rob answering questions the judge left the room to make her decision or more likely get a drink and take a potty break. During the break the prosecutor, a young nerdy man, chatting gallantly with our translator, a very young, attractive and bubbly young woman in a stylish outfit. It was like freshman year watching the computer nerd talk to the nice sorority girl who wasn't mean enough to dismiss him. After 15 minutes of good effort, the Ministry Of Education lady told the prosecutor our translator was married with a son. The wind must have really blown out of his sails because he blew out of there PDQ. I would have posted all that earlier, but Rob wanted the picture post to remain on top of the blog for a couple days. Since he was leaving I let him have his way.

The next visit to the orphanage on Tuesday May 30, Junior, now Andrew Ishim (AI for short in the blog), christened Rob with fatherhood with another load of carrot barf. You'd think we'd learn not to toss him in the air after a full lunch. Then we spent more time on the phone with United, thanks to Kath for getting us the toll number we can call with the calling card, to get my flights straightened out, or at least get a seat book for when I think my paperwork will be done. There were not a lot of options given the World Cup in Germany, where I transfer planes in Frankfurt, so I will be flying home with AI with an addition leg through Washington Dulles. What better way to enter America! Over the next couple weeks I'll keep trying United to find someone who pities me and allows me to flow home from Almaty, instead of Astana, where I'll have more choices of flights. When I booked the tickets they said I could change the city where I fly out of. But apparently the rules have changed in the last month and I can't do that anymore without paying $6000. So rather than spending all of the college education money we have saved, I may opt to stay a couple days longer.

The day after court one of the new buildings in Astana had a pretty big fire which was on CNN. In case you are wondering, we were no where near the building. Ironically, the building is called the "cigarette lighter" building because of its shape. Luckily no one was hurt. The building is the transportation and communications building….I'll leave the joke for you to fill in about the inability to communicate information about the fire.

That takes us up to Wednesday, May 31. The Voltage Gods, who earlier had added our laptop USB ports to their list of "Things Destroyed in Kazakhstan", have now claimed the entire laptop. Wednesday morning Rob tried to reboot the laptop and got some grub reboot error, meaning not only will Windows not be able to access the internet, but we can't even turn the thing on. I think we may have also angered Bill Gates by using Linux (blecht) instead of Windows. He cast this power all the way to Kazakhstan to blow out the Linux machine. Rob will be attempting to salvage the hard drive upon his return because that is where 99% of the photos and movies are stored. I had started uploading the AI photos to shutter fly but only got up to May 6th (not very far). So keep your fingers crossed.

When we packed Rob's bag, we threw in the laptop since it would not be of any use to me here…..one less thing to take home at the end of June. Without the laptop that means no pictures, until I bring all the camera USB stuff to the internet café and try upload from there. It also may mean no more iPod since the only charger I have is for a USB connection. Hopefully the machines at the internet café will not have issues with my USH stuff. At this point the internet café is my only home, because the only movies I have are on the iPod. If that doesn't work then I will have to resort to my last form of entertainment after naps and random walks through parks: my Project Management Professional Study Guide.

Today, June 1st, is Children's Day. It's kind of like Mother's or Father's Day, but it's for kids. Ironically, we could not visit the orphanage today. The rides at the amusement park across the river were free, so there was a river of kids along the river and over the bridge eating as much chocolate and sugar as they could. Earlier this week the orphanage was getting spruced up for the occasion with planting flowers, painting curbs, installing a new carpet up the stairs from the outside and they also got about 20 new tricycle and strollers. It looked really nice. They wrapped the tricycle seats and handles bars in tissue paper woth bows.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning the apartment and doing laundry….what a way to celebrate my own apartment. Since I was laptopless I went to the internet cafe, where the internet was down, then I went the the 2nd of 3 internat cafes and that was down too. Luckily the 3rd cafe was up and running, and packed, so I would catch up on the blog for those blog-addicts like Megan and Lauren. This internet cafe also has internet phones where they have earphones and a microphone head set. Apparently the users don't realize they are using the internet for voice communicaiotns instead of a tin can and string, and are screaming many foreign languages at the top of their lungs. And they said Amerikans are the load obnoxious ones.

I am off to do some shopping now that Robbie has left town!