News and stuff

Well, our biggest news is that the day Vicky turned 18 she left and is now on her own somewhere. I hope she is doing well (I haven't heard from her in a week – I guess she is trying to prove something to me). Even though it was very hard dealing with her while she was living with us, we already miss her. Just for the sake of statistics, she was born when I was 18, so I had her around pretty much my entire adult life, with the exception of two or three weeks when I traveled without my kids.

Also, I must say that as the holiday season is coming, we miss out friends more and more. Christmas is so much more fun in the States; here it is just a religious holiday. There is no Thanksgiving and no Halloween. People in this part of the world celebrate mainly the New Year, and for that you gotta have a good company, otherwise that could be pretty boring, too – just sitting in front of the TV and watch others have fun.

The house renovation is done, per se... there are still a lot of odds and ends to be done and taken care of. I couldn't move in this weekend, either - the floors were polished (I have parquet in the living room and the hallway and it was soooo old and dirty!). Now the polish should dry and another coat be applied and dry... and then we can start cleaning up. There is concrete, dirt and wood shavings all over the place - it's a mess.

Roxy's school celebrated Halloween - probably the only school in the country that did. It was fun, with costumes and games and bake sale and stuff - just like any self-respecting American school. I took my coworker's kids with me to the party and they instantly decided they like this school better than theirs. One of these days I will post some pics of what a standard post-Soviet school in Armenia looks like... Anyway, Roxy's class, being the oldest in the school, had prepared a "haunted house" - all canvas and noises and stuffed people hanging. I think they had a lot of fun setting it all up, and some people did get scared, too :)

That's all for now. Here is a beautiful sunset I photographed out of my window yesterday.

Oh, and there is Roxy sitting at my work looking at Christian t-shirts online...