Month: August 2023

:)

On Tuesday, I was on a very crowded train on my way back home (who is still saying people are not back to the office?!). The conductor walked into our car, and walking all the way through the car, he was saying: Take out your phones, open your apps, let’s make it quick. When he reached the other end of the car, he turned back and said: And now, everybody, raise your phones!

Everybody laughed and raised their phones, and he waved: OK, everybody’s fine!

Girls’ Weekend – Sunday

Just a couple of days before the weekend, Vlad called me and said that he was going to be in Chicago on Sunday. He had a work event on Tuesday but decided to come earlier to catch up with friends and family. Because of that, our beach day was naturally divided into two parts: in the morning, we went to the big playground in Loyola Park, then we went to meet Vlad for lunch, (and stopped at the Glenwood Sunday Market for fruit popsicles) and in the afternoon, we went to the beach again.

The weather on Sunday was … interesting. Very strong winds with temperatures barely above 70F, but the lake was as warm as the Midetarranian Sea. And the waves! The lifeguards were not supposed to let anybody into the water, but how can you control the force of nature?! They were making sure, however, that everybody stays really close to the shore.

There was an outdoor class of rhythmical dances, and I sent Anna to have fun 🙂

I bought a new set of beach toys, so not only Nadia and Kira were having fun, but Anna was equally (if not more) enjoying building the sand Tallinn Castle.

Granted, Vlad’s surprise visit was a treat, and we all had a very good conversation. Too often, it happens that when we do not talk for a long time, we start to feel like strangers, not knowing what to talk about. It was not the case this time 🙂

Both Anna and I agreed that it was the perfect Chicago/Rogers Pak weekend, and without it, summer would be incomplete.

Girl’s Weekend – Saturday

We planned this last August weekend as a “summer in Chicago” thing because, last summer, things ended up so busy that we didn’t have a single beach day together. Also, we wanted to go together to Chalk Howard and create a picture on asphalt together.

We had that and much more, and it was overall a very happy weekend without which the summer would be incomplete.

Initially, we wanted to go to Chalk Howard twice: to draw our own thing in the beginning and then to see what other people had created in the evening, but we ended up doing just the afternoon because everybody was tired by that time.

Continue reading “Girl’s Weekend – Saturday” →

Mega March Unbreakable Nation

More From Greenfield Village

I still wanted to post more photos from our last weekend’s visit to Greenfield Village. We saw more houses than we had seen last year with Lena. Boris said he didn’t care that much about famous people’s houses, but as for me, 1) I do if I know something about this person, 2) there were a lot of houses which showed in great detail how people had lived two hundred years ago, and unlike many other museums of that kind, they had not just “some artifacts,” but a very detailed reconstruction of how people actually lived. For example, not just a washing pitch, but a complete set of teeth hygiene pieces, chamber pots under each bed, and so on.

Dugget Farmhouse

Henry Fords’ house, Wright’s house or boarding house – does not really matter 🙂

Ukraine Says Thank You

Can’t watch these videos without tears in my eyes
“Ukraine Says Thank You”

Amtrak Travels

The thing that I always forget when I take Amtrak to Ann Arbor is that there is one big reason for delays – a single track for a very long stretch. Because of that, if a train traveling in the opposite direction is delayed, your train will have to wait for a very long time. This time, on our onward journey, we waited for a record one hour and forty minutes and then were delayed a little bit more for the crew switch. In addition, the air conditioning was brutal, and Boris and I were completely frozen. The only thing that saved us was the dining car, which was open.

This announcement came as a pleasant surprise because it was the first time after the pandemic that I encountered an operating dining car. On the way back, I already planned on that and then had to listen to announcements about how they were quickly running out of things.

Stayin in the line in the dining car, I heard that they were out of burgers and then – out of breakfast sandwiches, and then they said they are “out of food,” although I overheard that they mentioned “veggie boxes.” When my turn came, I asked whether they still had veggie boxes with hummus. They said – yes, and they also had fruit cups, but “they were out of food.” 😀

Good News!

Yesterday, I spoke to an old colleague of mine with whom I do not speak so often. Even when we speak, that’s usually a quick exchange on our careers. Yesterday, I spoke to him for longer than three minutes, and I asked him whether he would attend my next meetup, which will feature Bruce Momjian. He replied: It would be great, but I will be in Ukraine! My jaw dropped. I know his wife, and I know she’s Ukrainian, but as I said, we do not talk much recently. Sensing my unspoken question, he continued: You probably don’t know that N. (his wife) quit her job as a lawyer and now runs a non-for-profit. They supply all sorts of equipment to Ukraine, and she was going there every two to three months. They are opening a new distribution center, and this time, I am going to accompany her.

I can’t even describe how good it made me feel (and how inadequate I feel myself, trying to be everywhere and not committed enough to anything; at least, that’s how I feel sometimes.

Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!

Twenty-Eight Years Ago, I Think

There is no specific reason to make this random photo a birthday photo. I just thought that I needed to post something different from my usual two tiny babies and me. At least, I think Anna can relate :).

Happy birthday, my extraordinary twins!

***

I used to think that Boris was not involved enough in Vlad’s and Anna’s early years, and it might be objectively so, but he often remembers things that I had forgotten.

Last week, he asked me whether I remember Vlad’s “very important question.” He said that Vlad was about eight or nine years old then, but I still can’t recall the episode. Maybe it was during the summer of 2000 when I started my consulting job, and Boris was without any job and didn’t move to Finland yet, and babysat Vlad and Anna.

According to Boris, Vlad walked into the room and announced that he had a very important question, and his whole future depended on the answer. He knew that “grown-ups don’t play with toys,” and he worried what would happen if he still loved playing with his toys when he grew up :).

***

Happy birthday 🙂

Forest Ranger Camp

The reconstruction of a forest ranger camp from the 1900s was one of the things Lena and I missed last year. The staff member (whom I didn’t photograph) was dressed as on of these very first forest rangers, and he talked about their jobs and how they had to be away from home on horseback for months. I immediately started to estimate how much they would have to carry with them. Even if we assume they didn’t take s change of clothes with them (which is possible!), he still had just this one saddle bag with two compartments. And he had to hack his tent, a blanket, some tools, his pan and a coffee pot, and a mug, and supplies like coffee, sugar and salt for several months!