On family history, parenting, education, social issues and more
Author: Hettie D.
My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996.
I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future.
I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life.
As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.
Since I have already reposted my post about the conference, I will continue mixing up two trips.
I arrived in Pasadena on Wednesday evening. I had never been to Pasadena before. I have been to SF multiple times, and I’ve been to LA once, but never to Pasadena. I never loved California like many people do, and I didn’t expect anything different this time, but Pasadena took me by surprise. I entered my hotel room at 7 PM on Wednesday, looked around, saw a balcony and a couch by it, crushed on it, stretched my legs, and all of a sudden felt relaxed like I had never been for a long time. I didn’t even want to think “why”, I just enjoyed this moment.
During the conference, I used all the opportunities to walk around and look around.
My next trip is already in progress, and I still haven’t shown everything we saw in DC, so I will be brief.
Sunday was not much better than Saturday weather-wise. It was not raining, but it was very cold, and the wind blew worse than in Chicago! We still saw a lot, but it was going like this; DYlon would drive us to a place, we would get out of the car, see around, and jump back in :).
I didn’t post this picture a year ago, after the previous PG Day Paris. That was a picture from an all-female (almost :)) track. This year, I am not there because the conference is on the same day as SCALE, but I just found this picture, which I didn’t post last year, so let it be here! And next year, hopefully, there will be no conflict!
I am not sure whether this article from the Sun-Times is related to my previous post. When we saw Vlad and Dylon in DC, we talked a lot about saving and spending. I mentioned “The Future Self” book, which I like and recommend to everybody whenever the conversation touches the spending/saving topic. It looks like their family savings and spending activities are balanced because Vlad is a spender, and Dylon is a saver. And I am both:). Anyway, here is an article. Surprisingly, I can relate!
That was the place we had the only dinner on this trip (Friday at Silver Lyan felt very much like dinner for me, but apparently not for Vlad :), and on Sunday, Boris and I had dinner at the American Airlines lounge). Vlad was going to keep our dinner destination a secret, but accidentally sent me an email which was meant to be for Dylon :).
The full pdf of the menu is here, and here is a picture I took in the restaurant:
As you can see, that’s another level of culinary art (I can assure you that everything tasted most unusual, like you never could imagine!). Since there were four of us, Vlad ordered the whole menu, and each dish was delivered with a story that was, unfortunately, not on the menu! Vlad also ordered a wine pairing for him and me to share. Not all pictures turned out well, but most of these dishes are below:
Only a spoon of ice cream with caviar in the middle is edible, the rest is decoration:)Surprisingly, I didn’t like desserts that much, this one it the only one I liked
The ethical question I have is whether it is acceptable to have a dinner for four for the price, which is equivalent to some people’s monthly income. Yes, that’s because Vlad gives more than 30% tips, and yes, that’s in DC where people’s income is higher than in Chicago, and yes, this was more of an art than food, but still…
To say the weather in DC was bad is not enough. It was the worst you could imagine! There was pouring rain all Saturday, so we had to change our plans and head to the museums. Unfortunately, we were not alone: everybody who came to DC for a weekend, did the same, so there were crowds everywhere.
Boris and I headed to the National Gallery of Arts. The first thing we saw there was an exhibit of German Expressionism.
“Sorrow” by Egon Schiele“In God’s Hands”Gramatte “Self-pportrait with wife”. It took me a while to see “a couple”
We stopped by Cauguin an Van Gogh, because you can’t pass them, and then we saw the Flemish collection.
“An Old WOman Dozing over a Book” seems very familiar 🙂
Unfortunately, the side effect of all museums in DC being free is the requirement to get passes in advance, and since we didn’t plan for it, we couldn’t get into many of them. Once again, something for the next time!
It is such a shame we do have this problem un the US! This article in TIME magazine addresses the embarrassing issue of the lack of public bathrooms, and I couldn’t agree more! I am still waiting for something to be done on the Lake Front Trial!
On Friday night, shortly after arrival, we went downstairs to Silver Lyan bar to see Vlad at work. Last time when we were in DC, he were in Silver Lyan for Hanami, and I wanted to see how it is during it’s “regular operations.” Most importantly, it was a chance to see Vlad doing “his thing,” which always tells about him more than anything else. So we went there, and it was pretty amazing. Now, that Vlad is not in Chicago, I do not have chances to try his cocktails that often and I almost forgot what an extraordinary experience it is! Each cocktail has it’s story (and Vlad told me that they write the stories first and then they figure out how to “make it happen.” He promest to give me the pdfs of all of these stories (I didn’t take the menu pictutures), so at this moment, images only.
Nimbus Spritz (Bacardí Carta Blanca, carrot mead, mushroom caramel, spruce, White Lyan water, clay “champagne”)Air Bee n Bee (Patrón blanco, almond blossom, hay-smoked bee larvae, mango vinegar, Mosel riesling)Salmon Cannon (alcohol-free version) Porter’s Tropical Old Tom, birchwood booch, douglas fir, ‘pink’ teaLychee Martini (Roku gin, lychee sherbet, elderflower shochu, black grape)Silver Service Martini (Fords gin, served 50:50 with Dolin vermouth with oyster, olive, house-pickled onion and lemon)
Actually, I just realised that I didn’t take a picture of the cocktail I liked most – the one which Vlad made when he was in Tokio – Lychee Martini with elderflower shochu. And to be clear – Vlad made a mini-version of each of the cocktails for me, so that I could taste several (and I still didn’t finish even mini-versions).
All the different foods we tried during these two days of stay ended were great, and unfortunately, the rest of our agenda was severely affected by the weather. it was pouring rain on Saturday, and bitterly cold and windy on Sunday, so things went not exactly as planned, although I we still did a lot and talked a lot 🙂
Hettie's Reflections 