Fiber Arts Exhibit at the Museum

Yesterday I went to the Fiber Arts Exhibition at the Museum of Natural and National History here in Kherson (it was translated to me as the Museum of Local Lore - I just gave it the title of what is actually in the museum). My tutor, Lyudmilla, and my team mate, Melinda, went with me.

I went to another exhibition there a couple years ago. Really enjoyed that one a lot, so wanted to see this one, too.

This one was very different. First, there was a size limit on the submissions. According to the website, they could be no bigger than (30x30x30cm). Actually, here is the add for it:

2011
THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION ON MINI TEXTILE

June 15 - 22, 2011, Kherson, Ukraine

International juried exhibition on mini textile (30x30x30cm). Artists from all over the world, who work in different techniques of textile are invited.
Deadline for slides, photos and CV - 1 February 2011.
Please contact to receive the Entry Form.
http://anschnei.public.kherson.ua
anschnei@public.kherson.ua

If you click on this, you will find information on another exhibition to be held later this year - FIBERMEN - for men only. I think that's a wonderful idea. I'm hoping to go to that exhibition, too, when it happens in October. If we are here then - we might be in a different part of the country at that time. We'll see.

Anyway, the exhibit was "interesting". The pieces were small and made of many kinds of "fiber" - paper, metal, cloth, string, wool, felt, etc. Some were painted, some were felted, some were woven, some were cut out. Some of them were nice to look at, one was obscene, and most were the kind where I stood there and said, to myself AND outloud - HUH?? There were 3 or 4 I would have hung on my wall in the livingroom if they'd been given to me. I would not have bought any of them. I'm very picky about things like this, I guess.

However, we enjoyed it. A lot. I want to go again. And I have several ideas running around in my head now about things I could make like that. (Such as - get out the sewing machine and just stitch random patterns in a contrasting color to the fabric, mount it and hang it on the wall - I don't know why, but I could do that - or give it to a friend for a birthday present....). No, actually, I do have some real ideas. Don't know if I'll ever get around to them because I have so many other things I want to do, need to do, as well as just live every day life. Laundry and vacuuming do exist in my world.

After we looked at all the exhibits, Lyudmilla, Melinda and I then looked at an exhibit on the Cossacks and Tatars in Ukraine many years ago. You know, those long baggy pants in red or blue cloth, can kind of look like a skirt when a man is just standing there getting his photo taken - but somehow there is NEVER any question as to his maleness, his masculinity. No, infact, I find them very attractive. Too bad guys don't wear those anymore, except in reinactments! (The photos were from the 1800's or early 1900's I'd guess.)

Quite often they are portrayed wearing red or blue pants. In fact, that is what traditional dancers wear.

After the museum, we walked up to the main walking street and stopped at a little shop that sells Italian Gelato. Yum yum! I had a scoop of lemon and a scoop of "forest berries" which turned out to be cranberry. Both were very tart, the berries being more tart than the lemon. It was exactly what was needed. Lyudmilla had never had this before and I enjoyed her delight in tasting the 3 different kinds I bought for her. :-) It was a simple pleasure on both our parts. The lemon, however, was too tart for her taste. She did, however, love the chocolate. :-)

Outside it was hot, and more than a bit humid for me. I do not like being covered in sweat all the time. In fact, I'd brought along a dry washcloth to wipe the sweat off my face while in the museum, but used it the whole time I was away from home. I noticed Melinda doing the same thing with a tissue and a younger woman on the marshrutka home using what looked like a hankie. It was miserably hot and humid for me, but then I was raised in very dry Colorado.

So, now I have ideas running around in my head about new things to create with my hands, with the loom, with floss and needle. However, at this exact moment what I need to do is create something with flour, sugar, eggs and butter! Tomorrow is one of our team mates birthdays and I'm bringing the dessert for our team dinner. So - off to the kitchen I go to at least get started.

Part 2 and Bit's n Pieces

Wow. I tried to post Part 1 about a dozen times, but nothing would work. Finally found a help page that actually worked for me - had to change 1 setting in blogger.

Got updates from Internet Explorer yesterday and do not like them at all. Everything at the top of the page has been switched around, changed and messed up. WHY do they do this? Why can't they leave things alone? sigh

Grumpy old lady feelings again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yes, it is colder in Ukraine this spring than is usual. It's in the 50's again today, same as yesterday. Breezy, but not too bad. We do have the door open and it's 71.2* in here beside the computer. Not bad. Not bad at all.

However, I'm a little disturbed over the news report I posted in Part 1. Everything seems a bit behind schedule here. Again, some people disagree with me, but I have photos from previous years that prove the trees and flowers are at least 2 weeks behind schedule for blooming. If they are that far behind, is the winter wheat behind, too? I don't know. I only know what I read in that report - Russia and Ukraine are behind in their planting of spring wheat and other crops.

It has been fairly dry, too. There was a big rain storm while we were in Kiev, but not much snow or rain at all before that, and none after (except a few sprinkles here and there - no real Rain). Only time will tell what summer is going to bring. God knows and God has a plan. That I must rest in.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I have had the strangest dreams the past two nights. Yesterday I woke up saying over and over again in my mind: "In the name of Jesus Christ - go away! Repent and be baptized!" Those words lingered in my mind, over and over, for at least an hour after I was up and busy reading and doing things.

The dream started with me at the home I grew up in, watering the lawn and forgetting that the water was running. Caused a huge muddy mess in the front yard. Then a milk truck showed up - tanker kind, with two guys on top of it playing like they were fighting. Then the one with a cow head looked at me, laughed and spit toward me, later I realized he had actually spit on me so he could follow me. Scene change to someone's house, a knock on the door, Stirling opening it before I could get there, me pushing him back out of the way and completely filling the doorway so he couldn't see or be seen (kind of a Ukrainian sized doorway!;) ), seeing the guys from the milk truck and then others - all with wide open glazed-over eyes trying to push their way into the house. I tried to protect Stirling, shouting at them and pushing back at them, "In the name of Jesus Christ - go away! Repent and be baptized!!" over and over and over again.

I told Mel later that I really think that whole dream was demonic.

Last night/early this morning the dream was much more complicated, but I awoke with a real feeling of unease. It was totally bizarre, like some science fiction book gone crazy. Captivity/being a slave, weird angle buildings, strangely colored sky and light, tunnels, laser beams cutting through dimensions, people living alternative lives in those different dimensions, and so on and so forth. The only part I liked about the whole dream was the collection of cobalt blue items I collected during one small part of it. They were all quite pretty and quite expensive. haha!

Whew. If I could only take these dreams and turn them into books - I'd make a million dollars! :-) :-)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I have a lot of things I want to write about. I have a lot of things I want to read. I have a scarf on the loom almost finished and I want to finish it.

I think I'll read for a bit - and then go finish the scarf. I'll get back to this blog later this evening, if all works out correctly. :-) :-)

It's Colder Than Usual in Ukraine - Part 1

Rain May Curb Grain, Oilseed Output Globally, Oil World Says, Bloomberg

By Tony C. Dreibus - May 3, 2011 4:30 PM GMT+0300

Rainfall and cold weather has delayed planting of grains and oilseeds in Canada, Russia, Ukraine and the U.S., threatening already-low global inventories, Oil World said in a report today.

In the U.S., the world's biggest exporter of corn, soybeans and wheat, heavy rains through Midwest and Plains states have made fields too wet for planting, the researcher said. Rain in Canada has delayed seeding of spring wheat and canola, and cold, wet weather has kept farmers in Russia and Ukraine from seeding spring grains, according to Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World.

"The major threat is to be seen in planting delays caused by very wet fields and local flooding" in Canada, Oil World said. "In recent weeks the low temperatures have slowed melting of a comparatively thick snow cover on already saturated fields. There is the risk of considerable additional flooding in parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba."

About 13 percent of planned corn was sown in the U.S. as of May 1 versus 68 percent a year earlier, Department of Agriculture data show. About 3 percent of Russian grains were seeded as of April 21, about half of what was in the ground at the same time last year, according to Oil World. In Canada, canola and wheat seeding are behind the normal schedule.

"Much will depend on weather conditions in the next four weeks and how quickly fields dry out to allow farm machinery to enter and bring the seed into the ground," Oil World said. "At the moment we are quite skeptical whether the planting intentions for canola and other crops can be accomplished."

Record Food Prices

Corn futures have surged 98 percent in the past year, wheat is up 56 percent and soybeans have risen 41 percent on increased demand for raw materials. Food prices rose to a record in February on tightening supplies of grains, oilseeds and sugar, as well as firm demand for dairy products, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

In Russia, where the country's worst drought in a half- century curbed wheat production last year, leading to an export ban that started in August, about 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) were planted with spring grains, Oil World said. That's down from 1.7 million hectares a year earlier. Rapeseed production is "better than last year" in Russia and Ukraine, according to the report.

Deterioration in the quality of the U.S. wheat crop also may curb usable supplies globally, the researcher said. Dry weather has hurt crops in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the largest producers of U.S. winter wheat.

About 41 percent of plants were rated poor or very poor compared with 7 percent a year earlier, USDA data show. In Oklahoma, 77 percent was rated poor or very poor, and in Texas, 74 percent earned the lowest ratings, the government said.

Food Prices

I was going to start keeping track of earthquakes again, like I did over a year ago, but today I found a link to this blog, Global Disaster Watch, and since she does such a good job, I'll just let her do it instead of me.

Ha ha!

It's kind of funny. I've forgotten what I wanted to write about.

My head is fuzzy again tonight. And for some reason my belly aches tonight, too. I'd love to just go in and go to sleep, but I don't want to be up at 4:00 a.m. again tomorrow. It's not even 7:30pm now.

Mel made a really good omlette with "oatruby" toast tonight. I know "oatruby" is not exactly the way it's said, but that's close enough for me. It means fiber has been added back to the flour. Maybe it's even whole wheat, although if it is, it's only partly whole wheat because it's not that dark. Which reminds me that everyone and everybody is saying you shouldn't eat wheat now cuz it's bad for your gut bacteria. Sigh. Andyway, that reminds me of what I wanted to write about tonight! Ah ha!

Food prices! I have photos that I'm posting on facebook - even started a couple little arguements or disagreements or "discussions" about what to buy here. :P I buy what we can eat and I can afford. It's for sale - I buy it if I want it. :P :P That's how I feel about that tonight.

Prices are going up at an astonishing rate. Now in the following photos the kind of cheese and sausage is the same, just different companies/cities produced it. Ditto the sausage. Different stores for the cabbage.
exchange rate: 1$=7.95 griven -- 51.50 / 2.2 = 23.45 griven per pound = $2.95 per pound on January 22 (total for this item: $3.34)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 70.79 / 2.2 = 32.18 per pound = $4.05 per pound on January 31 (total for this item: $1.76)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 30.99 / 2.2 = 14.09 per pound = $1.77 on January 3 (total for this item: $3.11)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 36.99 / 2.2 = 16.81 per pound = $2.11 on January 31 (total for this item: $1.86)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 49.29 / 2.2 = 22.41 griven per pound = $2.82 on January 15 (total for this item: $1.89)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 54.69 / 2.2 = 24.86 griven per pound = $3.13 on January 31 (total for this item: $2.00)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 4.99 / 2.2 = 2.29 griven per pound = $.29 per pound on January 6 (total for this item: $.86)
exchange rate : 1$=7.95 griven -- 8.49 / 2.2 = 3.86 griven per pound = $.49 on January 28 (total for this item: $1.06)(note that this cabbage was bought at a different store, Billa, we have been told it is more expensive than Oskar, but Mel was in the area so he shopped there. You do things like that when all of your shopping (or most of it) is done totally by foot to and from the store.)

I want to keep track of some of the essentials like these foods, just for my own info more than anything. We eat a lot of all of these items. Mel eats the sausage, I have a very thin slice or two at most off each stick. I like it, but in VERY small quantities. He eats a lot of it - maybe a stick a week. Sometime later I'll post prices on more meats. The "hamburger" has also gone up. For tonight, tho, I'm done in. Time to go do something else and finish getting well.

(I hope I did all that math correctly!!!)

The Black Horse

Revelation 6:5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages,[b] and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

Is it possible that genetically modified wheat may be coming back to 'bite us'??

Investigators baffled as wheat fields wither


Mysterious yellowing affects 40,000 acres of Eastern Oregon; new problem feared

By MATTHEW WEAVER

Capital Press

The Oregon Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University are investigating the yellowing of upward of 40,000 acres of wheat in Umatilla and Morrow counties.

So far, the cause is a mystery, and researchers do not know if the problems in the two counties are related.

In early November, Umatilla County growers noticed wheat fields turning yellow and dying, OSU Extension soil scientist Don Wysocki said.

Sixteen fields from three to 10 miles northwest of Pendleton were affected, Wysocki said. They are "more or less but not completely contiguous," he said. Not every field in the area was affected.

The area was predominately planted to soft white Clearfield variety ORCF-102, but other varieties were also affected, Wysocki said.

"There's probably more than one thing going on in these particular fields, like in any field," he said.

OSU Morrow County Extension associate professor Larry Lutcher said 30,000 to 40,000 acres of wheat in his county have plants with yellow or purple tips. The discoloration spreads inward and downward on the leaf. In some cases, plants are completely desiccated and will not recover.

The symptoms have been observed in many fields in the county, Lutcher said, but do not appear tied to any particular location.

"Most of the symptoms in Morrow County are unlike anything I have ever seen," Lutcher said.

Lutcher said he doesn't believe the problem will spread to other fields, but he can't be certain.

"This does appear to be a new problem -- a problem that no one seems to have experience with," he said.

Neither Lutcher nor Wysocki were sure if the circumstances in the two counties were connected.

"The big question on everyone's mind right now is, how will the crop look this spring and will replanting be necessary?" Lutcher said.

Oregon Department of Agriculture Special Assistant to the Director Brent Searle said the department was contacted by farmers in early November.

The department sampled and tested the fields, but final results are not yet in.

Preliminary samples showed some root pathogen issues, but Searle said the investigation is still in the information-gathering stage.

The department and university sent surveys to growers asking about field history, planting dates, chemical use and where seed was purchased. OSU also examined nearby fallow land to see if it was similarly impacted.

The information may help identify common factors or patterns, Searle and Wysocki said.

In Umatilla County, the patterns are oriented across the fields, with "shadow effects" suggesting protection in areas behind slopes or fence rows, Wysocki said.

But the patterns of the die-off aren't typical of anything anyone has seen before, Searle said.

"The weather's been really weird this year and there was a tight planting window, and then temperature swings and rains and the grain jumped real fast in growth," he said. "It could be a whole combination, perfect storm kind of thing. We're just trying to sort it all out right now."

Most growers in Umatilla County were replanting their fields, Searle and Wysocki said.

Replanted acres aren't expected to have a problem, Wysocki said, "but we can't rule that out."

Another article about wheat problems in the rest of the world can be found at: Science Daily, Virulent New Strains of Ug99 Stem Rust, a Deadly Wheat Pathogen

Friday

We went out to the "big Oskar" today and did some grocery shopping. We took a marshrutka. The route is fairly quick and direct from here and the marshrutka was not crowded at all.

So, tell me why I was still sick to my stomach and fighting a panic attack both on the way over and the way back?

Yes, the ride back was more crowded, but several people got off where we did, so it was not as bad as it could have been. I still had to push my way past a couple of people, but that's not as bad as being trapped in the back of the bus, so to speak.

I had to look out the side window and take deep breaths and all the time sweat was running down my face, dripping off my bangs and nose and getting in my eyes. The inside of my coat sleeves were soaked.

I am always too hot and just plain WET here in Ukraine, summer or winter, spring or fall. I (hear a loud GASP!) did not snap my coat shut nor even pull it around me as we walked home from the bus stop. People stared. People commented to each other. I will probably die from pneumonia or some sort of plague because I did that.

The funny-to-me thing is that I don't even wear a coat in the car in Colorado. If it is 25 F outside, I wear a coat TO the car and then take it off because I will be too hot once the car warms up. I'd rather be cold for a little while than dripping in sweat later.

I am frustrated and it makes me upset. 1) Why does my body do this to me? and 2) Why is this culture like this? Grrrr.

~(~(~)~)~
So we are at Oskar and I am happily putting things in my cart. Things like lentils!! and worchestershire sauce and BBQ sauce (both Heinz products) and balsamic vinegar and other things that I needed to buy to restock my kitchen and pantry. I have a long ways to go before it's back to where I like it to be, but it's a start.

(several hours later....)
There were leeks for sale again - yea! So I will be making leek soup sometime soon. The peppers were very expensive, but they are high in Vitamin C and Mel cannot eat very much fruit due to the high sugar content (dried fruit is even worse, maybe because it concentrates the sugar? I'm not sure why.) so I try to buy and use peppers as often as I can. Ditto tomatoes. I was hoping for pine nuts because I have a really good recipe I make with pine nuts, garlic and tomatoes but there were none (were none before we left for the States way back when, too) altho I could buy them for several years with no problem. I did find frozen cherries (for me) and some frozen green beans again. Mel can eat a lot of green beans at a meal, so that is good.

I realize how much my buying has changed over the years. Starches are not good for me - the ONLY time I loose weight is when I am on a low carb diet, cutting back on grains in all forms, potatoes and starchy veggies like beets. I know I would feel better if I ate like that - getting rid of sugar at the same time. It's just more time consuming to cook that way. I should - I really should, tho. And Mel does much better when he is not confronted with more carbs than he can eat. I realized the other night that instead of cooking ONE OUNCE of macaroni for him, I'd been cooking two - I weigh it out on a scale. I haven't done a lot of cooking for the last year, you see, and I need to get out my food program and relearn some of the amounts he can/should eat. His blood sugar levels were too high the next morning and he had to adjust his insulin. Not good. (Do you know how little 1 ounce of pasta is? Weigh it out sometime and look at it. It is not very much food - but that's all he can eat of pasta!) I need to get that chicken out of the freezer and cook it - that would give him a lot of lean protein to chow down on instead.

I think of this often. I love my husband dearly. I cannot imagine my life without him. And not only do I love him dearly, I love his legs. haha! But it's TRUE! He has wonderful, very long (6'5" tall guy), nicely shaped man legs. And diabetes is death on feet and legs when uncontrolled. He has beautiful gray eyes and altho his vision is changing with age, he has no damage to his eyes. And diabetes is death on vision when uncontrolled. And then there is the nerve damage all over the body that happens, and so forth and so on. Diabetes is a horrible disease!! I need to get my cooking back in line! One ounce of pasta at a meal - macaroni, noodles, spaghetti, whatever. And only 1/2 cup of potatoes mashed, and so forth and so on. More veggies - good veggies, not starchy ones (like pumpkin sadly, or carrots or beets or peas), but good fresh and frozen veggies.

I'm starting to feel a bit more charged up about it. That's good. That's very good!

~(~(~)~)~
Speaking of food, we had dinner with Melinda tonight. It was like old times again, sitting around the table, eating, drinking coffee or water, and talking about everything under the sun. I missed Melinda while we were at home in the States. A lot.

~(~(~)~)~
It was very gray today. I'm hanging on by my fingernails. I really need to use the sunshine lamp tomorrow morning. Gotta remember that! Light is as important for me as good food is for Mel. Gotta remember that, too. I'm no good to anyone if I'm a depressed mess curled up on the bed crying.

Our Food Supply in The Balance:

A simple little bee - yet our food supply depends on it doing what God intended it to do.
Plight of the Bumblebee, FoxNews
GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Conservation groups and scientists want federal agricultural authorities to start regulating shipments of commercially domesticated bumblebees -- used to pollinate crops -- to protect wild bumblebees from diseases threatening their survival.

The groups said Tuesday that four species of bumblebees once common in the United States have seen drastic declines -- and the evidence points to diseases spreading out of greenhouses that use domesticated bumblebees.

"This is the tip of the iceberg," said Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Xerces Society, an insect conservation group based in Portland. "Bumblebees need to be regulated or we may see other diseases spread to bumblebees and potentially other bees."

Besides pollinating wild plants, bumblebees are responsible for pollinating about 15 percent of all the crops grown in the U.S., worth $3 billion. Demand has been growing as supplies of honeybees decline, especially for hothouse crops such as tomatoes, peppers and strawberries, and field crops such as blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, squash and watermelon.

Federal regulation is needed because while some states, like Oregon, prohibit importation of bumblebees, others, such as Washington and California, allow it, Black said.

Two European companies produce commercial bumblebee hives sold in the US: Koppert Biological Systems Inc., of the Netherlands, and Biobest Biological Systems of Belgium. Telephone calls to Koppert's office in Canada and Biobest's office in Michigan were not immediately returned.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service did not immediately return telephone calls and e-mails for comment.

The Xerces Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife and University of California, Davis entomologist Robbin Thorp formally petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Animal and Plant Health Inspection service. They want to prohibit shipping commercially domesticated bumblebees and hives outside their native range, and to certify that domesticated bumblebees are disease free.

The petition cited steep declines in recent years of the Franklin's and Western bumblebee in the West, and the rusty-patched and yellow-banded bumblebee in the East.

Nine prominent entomologists signed a letter in support of the petition.

"A major threat to the survival of these wild bumblebee pollinators is the spread of disease from commercially produced bees that are transported throughout the country," said the letter, signed by University of Kansas entomologist Charles Michener and others.

Black said they wanted to work with federal authorities to control the spread of disease before taking the next step, seeking Endangered Species Act protection for the bumblebees.

While research has yet to conclusively blame a specific disease shared with domesticated species, the petition cited studies showing domesticated bumblebees regularly escape greenhouses and one bee can infect another when they come in contact gathering pollen.

Unlike honeybees, which came to North America with the European colonists of the 17th century, bumblebees are natives. They collect pollen and nectar to feed to their young but make very little honey.

A 2007 National Academy of Sciences report blamed the decline of pollinators around the world on a combination of habitat loss, pesticides, pollution and diseases spilling out of greenhouses using commercial bumblebee hives.

More Family

These are some of the cookies that Stirling and I made yesterday. These are my father's world famous popcorn balls. It's really not Christmas without these popcorn balls...last year they forgot to put some in the box they sent us in Ukraine and I cannot express how disappointed I felt. I almost cried. Really! Dad uses a recipe that my grandmother (his mom) always used. Grandma Lena always said that it is an Amish recipe (my grandmother's family were all Amish and we still have Amish relatives all over Ohio, Michigan and other areas). The recipe can be found in The Household Searchlight Recipe Book, by The Household Magazine, 1931, 1937 and 1939, copyright by Arthur Capper. :-) Here is the first paragraph from the foreward: The Household Searchlight is a service station conducted for the readers of The Household Magazine. In this seven-room house lives a family of specialists whose entire time is spent in working out the problems of homemaking common to every woman who finds herself responsible for the management of a home and the care of children." Grandma Lena was an excellent cook - I well remember her caramels, fudge, fried cornmeal mush, homemade butter and bread, fried chicken and a host of other really good holiday and farm foods. My sister, Julie has Grandma's original cookbook, but she found a copy in a used bookstore and gifted my mother with it. Mom Grammy (great-grandma, my mother) with Stirling Stirling and Mandy

Waffles Getting Scarce? :-)

A funny article from FoxNews today (below with link). Another reminder of how fragile out food production and distribution system really is, though.

Leggo My Eggo Shortage
ATLANTA — Dear Kellogg: Leggo my Eggo!

Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.

The company's Atlanta plant was shut down for an undisclosed period by a September storm that dumped historic amounts of rain in the area. Meanwhile, several production lines at its largest bakery in Rossville, Tenn. are closed indefinitely for repairs, company spokeswoman Kris Charles said in an e-mail.

It will take until the middle of 2010 before shelves around the country are stocked at pre-shutdown levels, Charles said.

Already customers are noticing near-empty Eggo shelves on the freezer aisle at many grocery stores.

Stay-at-home mom Joey Resciniti says she bought one of the last two boxes of Eggos at a Walmart in Cranberry Township, Pa., on Monday. The frozen waffles are a favorite of her 4-year-old daughter, Julia.

"We have eight of them, and if we ration those — maybe have half an Eggo in one sitting — then it'll last longer," said Resciniti, who blogs about being a mother. "I told my husband that maybe I need to put them on eBay."

Charles didn't know how long the Atlanta plant was shut down, but said that it's back at full production now.

The existing stock of Eggos will be distributed nationally based on stores' sales histories of the waffles, Charles said.

"We are working around the clock to restore Eggo store inventories to normal levels as quickly as possible," she wrote in the e-mail.

Eggo first hit the shelves in 1960, and its cult following grew in the following years. Kellogg started using the famed slogan "Leggo my Eggo" in 1972. For years, the waffles have been a staple for busy moms and college students looking for a quick breakfast.

This week, news of the shortage spread quickly on Twitter as shoppers reported not being able to find the breakfast food. Fans of Eggos lamented their scarcity on the waffle's Facebook page, which has more than 400 members.

Eggos are also made at plants in San Jose, Calif., and Blue Anchor, N.J.

Bits n Pieces - Living in the Land of Rumors

Yesterday the Ukrainian government declared an emergency and put the whole country under quarantine. All public meetings are cancelled (altho I hear that church does not count as a "public meeting"), all schools are cancelled, private or public (but the Kherson kindergartens are still working because the parents have to work and there would be no one home to watch the kids), and there are travel restrictions in place. For 3 weeks. I heard tonight that the border with Poland has been closed. There is a question now as to whether or not we will be able to fly out to London from Kiev in 2 weeks (we may not be able to travel to the airport from here). It's all up in the air.

Fortunately - God is sovereign and He is in control of this whole situation. If we are supposed to fly out of Ukraine on Nov. 17, then we will fly out. If we are not supposed to - then we won't. And if we get to London and we are stuck there - well, we are stuck there until we can leave. Such is life. Living in the knowledge that God is in control is wonderful. Sometimes it's a little breathless, but it's wonderful. :-)

~*~*~*~*~
Busy day cooking up a storm.

- Made cupcakes for church tomorrow. We are celebrating "Thanksgiving".
= Made a grape dessert for team meeting tomorrow afternoon.
- Roasted peanuts and made peanut butter again.
= Peeled half a tikva (squash with flesh the same color as pumpkin) and made Pumpkin Peanut Soup for dinner.

Which reminds me, I need to look for my Thanksgiving tablecloth to take to church to cover the boards we are currently using for a table. I think it's in that box under the bed. Which is good, because after last year's Thanksgiving I decided I would just take it home to the States and let my daughter use it since I can't use it here. Sad. Sigh. But now I'm going to use it! Yea! This makes me feel inordinately happy.

~*~*~*~*~
Talked to my mother earlier this evening. She chatted away like a house on fire. It's halloween in the States. They don't go out at night any more, so instead to help with the Fall Festival at the church, they are going this afternoon (their time) to string donuts for some kind of game the kids will play. I'm so thankful my parents are still as active as they are and as involved in the church as they are. I think they are much busier now than when they both worked full-time!

~*~*~*~*~
Thinking of working full time - my mother worked at the Young Life International Service Center for 33 years. I worked there for at least 6 full years, possibly a bit more (I worked there 3 different times). Recently I've dreamed about different Young Life things several times. I loved working at the Service Center - both the work I did and the mission of Young Life.

Mom told me a week or so ago that now when you go there as a visitor, there is a guard and that you can't just go and see different people. This is since the shootings at the church in Colorado Springs and the Denver area a couple years ago. So very sad. A Christian organization has to protect it's employees this way.

I know our home church also has guards and/or people trained to look for problems and deal with them quickly. These are needed due to an incident that happened several years ago when a group of gays and lesbians unknowingly stationed themselves in several different places in the congregation, then during the worship service they stood up, took off their coats/jackets and had obscene t-shirts on, and threw condoms all over the place. They were quickly escorted out, but it was the beginning (for our church) of having some kind of protective services in place during worship service.

This greatly saddens me. The world is very, very sick. And we are supposed to admire these people? We are supposed to think of them as normal? Gag.

~*~*~*~*~
I like playing FarmTown and FarmVille on facebook. I like it. I like to play games and I don't know anyone here who wants to play games with me. Adult. Not adult games! An adult who likes to play games. Whew! Anyway, I play FarmTown with several other people, Americans and Ukrainians both. Often we chat as we work on each other's farms. I like that.

~*~*~*~*~
I painted the little tiny hallway inbetween the livingroom and the bedroom. I forgot to take photos of it in the very beginning, but that's ok. First I stripped off the wallpaper and just let it be naked walls for probably 3 weeks because I was busy with other stuff.

Lucky me - I don't mind living in the middle of things partly finished. I think my stash of UFO's (unfinished objects) attests to that! I'm not sure Mel likes living in the middle of it, but he's been married to me for over 33 years....

I had a ladder in there and Mel moved it to get into the little pantry closet. In the process he broke the wall lamp glass shade. I cleaned it up. He moved the ladder again - and broke the bulb. I cleaned it up. Shattered glass everywhere. And if I get some strange mental deterioration everyone will know to blame AlGore and the environmentalists because I got mercury poisoned from the bulb. Lay that blame right where it belongs - at the feet of the head of the new world wide religion - Green!

A day or so later, I put the "primer" on that I bought a long time ago to do the hallway and then later the bedroom. Oh yes, the lovely clear liquid stuff that does absolutely nothing at all that I can see, but they tell me is needed before I paint the oil painted cement wall (actually, the paint under the wallpaper was flaking off, as it did in the bedroom, but not nearly as badly so I didn't scrape and scrape the wall - just brushed it down a couple times. Oh - lead poisoning, too - my brain has had it, I'm sure!)

So, the primer dried and I couldn't tell that there was anything on the wall - felt the same, looked the same, smelled different, tho, that is true.

We went to Nova Linea and bought a couple new rollers, a couple of the new handle things you put the rollers on, a bucket of colored paint, and a new lamp for the wall.

A day or two later, I put a coat of white latex on. Used a roller for the high stuff. A roller on a pole. That was very nice! I love Nova Linea - the new store that is like Home Depot! I can actually go in and TOUCH what I want to buy, hold it, look at it, decide with some kind of knowledge rather than looking at what is behind the counter and trying to guess what the teeny little tag says so I can ask for it. But I'm going off on a rant...

I was sad. The wall looked minty green after that first coat. So I knew I needed to put a second coat of the white on before I put a coat of the colored paint on. I let it dry overnight and painted that second coat of white.

After finishing, I almost came in here and started crying. The wall was still minty green in large sections. Primer and two coats of white latex later, it was still minty green.

Not one to give up in defeat - I said to myself - "oh what the heck - it's not our flat anyway! I'll just put the colored paint on and if it clashes with the minty green - so be it. We're leaving for 6 months anyway!!"

And I did. last night I put the pinkish tannish colored paint on. Well - it was supposed to be pinkish tannish but it's more like milked down pepto bismal. Again, not the color I wanted, but I like it none the less. In the morning light the reflection off the wooden floor makes it look a bit more tannish. :-)

If we are still in this flat when we come back next May/June - and if I don't like the color then, I'll repaint it. Maybe then ALL the minty green will be gone, gone, gone! (If you look really close, you can still kind of see it showing through the pink!)


I will also think of painting the door and door jambs when we come back. Right now it's too cold out to have the balcony door and windows open to get rid of oil paint paint fumes!

~*~*~*~*~
Bed time! All for now!

What The Doctor Recommended

While we were home both Mel and I went to our Primary Care Physician. Actually, I prefer to call him 'our doctor' because Primary Care Physician just sounds so ... so ... well, not the kind of person I would want to go see. I want to see 'my doctor'.

But that's beside the point.

The doctor basically gave us a clean bill of health, except for a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Both Mel and I have excellent cholesterol numbers, except both of us are a little low on the good cholesterol and need to get that number up so the ratio is better. It's kind of funny to me that they keep finding new things to be worried about. Used to be that you needed a cholesterol number lower than 200. Ours are both well below 200. Now you need to have specific numbers in your "good" cholesterol and your "bad" cholesterol. The ratio needs to be just right. Or you're going to die. Since I'm going to die some day anyway, I'm actually not too concerned about getting that ratio just right because it's very close anyway. However, I'm more concerned about Mel's because I don't want him to die. Is that weird thinking?

The doctor did tests on Mel's diabetes and the numbers came back. Mel is making adjustments to his overall treatment. We both have to kind of laugh, though, because his A1C came back too high and the doctor told him to increase his insulin such and such an amount. Worked great in the States - here in Ukraine he's had 3 sugar lows and had to go back to his old amounts instead. He exercises a lot more here by walking all over town trying to pay bills (see previous post). :)

The doctor also tested our c-reactive protein levels. Mel's came back wonderful. Mine came back too high. The doctor sent us a report with all the blood work stuff and recommendations, and beside my number there he wrote a big question mark, like he didn't think it was accurate. He also included a new prescription for me to go get my c-reactive protein tested again (our insurance won't cover it if it's done at his office, so we have to drive 40 miles away to have it done some place else, which is crazy in my opinion). I looked at the number and what the number was supposed to be to be healthy and thought to myself "Hmmm. I remember reading in the South Beach Diet that this number is very, very important for overall heart health. I'm going to look up what causes high c-reactive protein numbers and find out what I can do to make it better."

So I did.

And I found out that the number can be high after surgery or after an injury. It's normal to be high after surgery or after an injury, even. And a light bulb went on in my head - aha! I fell just a couple or three weeks ago and messed up my left arm! I bet that's what is causing the number to be too high! And I bet the doctor forgot that I'd fallen, even though he looked at the Spanish x-rays and agreed with me that it really wasn't broken.

The interesting thing to me is that the doctor also recommended right there in his own handwriting that I go on The South Beach Diet. :) :) My favorite diet. My favorite way of eating, actually.

So I did. As soon as we got back to Ukraine. It's almost impossible for me to eat that way when we are staying at my parents, but it's really easy here in Ukraine, at least in the summer. The only drawback - I don't like eggs and I'm not a huge meat eater and I really don't like taking all the time that's needed to prepare all the veggies. So, why is it my favorite way to eat? Hmmm - I don't know, but it is. Actually, if I'm not cooking for guests or a group, I really have to be in the mood to cook to want to cook at all. I'll just eat a peanut butter sandwich, or a cheese sandwich or something else that is made with lots of bread. Bread is my down fall. :( I love good bread. And potatoes made in any way, shape or form - I even like to crunch on them raw (altho some kid told me once when I was a kid that if you eat raw potatoes you'll get worms - I don't know if that's true or not, but I'd think it would have to do with how well you cleaned them. But I digress again.)

So, I didn't go get my c-reactive protein checked again. I should be back in his office in November and I'll do it then and hopefully I won't have had any recent injuries and definitely not any recent surgeries. But I have been eating South Beach. I've only lost a couple pounds, but I feel a lot better. I feel better because I'm not eating any sugar. When I eat sugar I hurt more from arthritis. There is a definite connection.

In fact, we'd been home ten days before I happened to notice that the only sugar we have in the house is about a cup worth in the sugar bowl. So, we bought a kilo weight plastic bag of sugar and I put it in it's big glass jar container with the blue plastic lid and stuck it back down on the bottom shelf where it belongs. I move it over now and again to get to something else, but I probably won't open the jar again until the next time I need to make cookies or a dessert for something - probably in September. Mel and I just don't normally eat any sugar at all.

I do, however, eat dark chocolate. I can't be left alone with a box of Roshen Assorti or I'll eat most of them. I do like those Roshen Assortis. So, Mel usually buys an 72% Nestle's Gold dark chocolate and we have a square or two every night. That's my sweet/dessert for the day. Chocolate is good for you, you know.

Why am I writing all this? Good question. I just ate my very late lunch of Egg Salad Burritos. I find that I like the eggs fixed this way. Two hard boiled eggs mashed and then whatever veggies you like to add, plus some mayo and pickle juice. I never fix them quite the same because I add different things depending on what I've got in the fridge. I use whatever kind of cabbage is available, too, because we don't get lettuce here (I don't like lettuce any more anyway - would rather use cabbage instead - wow! I've adapted to Ukraine in this instance :) :).)

This is what they look like:Just put the salad in a clean leaf, fold it in half, wrap the side down and around the salad and eat from the not-folded-down end so it doesn't spill out all over your shirt.

Good food!

I'll write more about the arm injury in another post - I promise!

Cooking

One of the things that is good and bad about living here is that we never know for sure what is going to be available at the store.

(I say "store" because I rarely ever go to the outdoor market any more. I did not like going there when there were no supermarkets. I do not like going there now that there are supermarkets. I really don't like to shop all that much, and shopping in the cold and rain and puddles and people shoving and pushing and arguing with the vendors - well, I prefer a shopping cart, aisles and I'll put up with the really loud obnoxious music they play here over the speakers so long as I'm not getting rained/snowed on and walking through mud puddles while I shop for groceries.)

The good thing is that there are often items for sale that I have never used before. Like leeks. I never in my life used a leek to make a dish before coming to Ukraine. Like fresh ginger. Only once before did I ever try cooking with fresh ginger and I just didn't "get it" so never bought it again. Like pine nuts. Who knew pine nuts made such tasty dishes? There are other items that I've seen that I haven't bought yet, but may one of these days.

Then there are the items that I really like and they are rarely ever found - like celery. But! We had celery available for several weeks before New Year - and I bought a lot of it and I ate a lot of it. I even have a little left - and there is none to be found in the stores now, so I am going to have to eat it, and not try to save it, because it will just go bad - and I don't want that!

This is what comes from living so close to Egypt, Turkey, Greece, the plethera of -stans (Uzbeke-, Kasakh-, Tazheka-, etc.) - foods that are expensive at home are not so expensive here - and vice versa, of course.

The bad thing is that I get used to buying something on a regular basis, adding different dishes that we like, and one day I go to the store and it's not there any more. :(

Imagine my surprise just before New Year when I found Sweet Potatoes at our local supermarket! I never use sweet potatoes in the States because I don't like them. All candied up and goey and covered in marshmallow cream - yuck. The texture is gross and the flavor gags me. But, because I had never seen sweet potatoes here in Kherson before, I bought two.

Sweet potatoes are an American food (ok, they are a western hemisphere food) and I figured they might be a taste from home. What was I thinking? That I wanted a bad taste from home??? I have no idea. Mel can't eat them candied, I don't like them candied. What to do, what to do.... The two sweet potatoes sat there on the counter for a couple weeks, all nicely wrapped in plastic wrap with a sticker on each of them saying "we cost a fortune, don't let us rot." I debated on what to do with them.

Until one day I found a recipe - actually it came in an email from the South Beach Diet people (I get their little newsletter) and it had a recipe for Sweet Potato and Ginger Soup. I looked at the ingredients and the first one was leeks. The second, carrots. I was intrigued.

Next time we were at the store I bought some fresh ginger. Ginger is one of those items, along with limes and avocados, that I never know for sure if it will be there or not. Actually, right now the item I can't find is pine nuts. I have no idea why pine nuts are not to be found at any of the supermarkets, but I've become accustomed to using them in a variety of dishes so of course, they cannot be found right now.

I made the soup. And both Mel and I really liked it a lot. We ate the whole batch in one meal. I only used one of the sweet potatoes, though, so the other one has sat on the counter for another couple or three weeks, mocking me.

Tonight I decided to make the soup again. I hope we like it just as well as the first time.

If we do - I wonder if I'll ever see sweet potatoes here again??

Macaroni Krill

So, there I was, standing at the stove tonight, stirring a pot of boiling macaroni, when it dawned on me that my macaronis looked a lot like krill. Yep - little pale yellowish white macaroni krill.

Ah - times like this I wish I still had kids at home. Specifically, I wish Andrew was still at home and about age 8 or 10. Then I could have called him into the kitchen and said, "Look at this, Andrew. This pot of boiling little macaronis (the kind that is used in rice-a-roni) that I am stirring here looks just like krill being rounded up by sardines before the sardines eat them." And he would have gone into a long explanation of how the sardines round them up and eat away at them and then the sharks come and do the same thing to the sardines and that sometimes a big whale comes along and the sardines go away and the whale eats all of the krill in the swirling mass in one huge gulp of seawater. Shwooosh - goodbye krill. And I would have smiled and we would have had a great time imagining that we were really either sardines or sharks, but not a whale because we couldn't eat them all at one time in one gigantic bite.

The macaroni finished cooking and I drained it, put it back in the pan, added tomato juice and started stirring again (oh, I added a bit of butter and some salt, too). They really looked like krill then because they turned almost pink - but alas, I could not see them very well, so the whole illustration fell apart. I just stood there, stirring macaroni in tomato juice, waiting for it to heat up so I could eat it like tomato soup - thinking and remembering my kids when they were little. And missing all three of them oh so very much.

I miss being able to have wild imaginations with my kids. Of taking a mundane item or thought and going other places with it. Of having fun with words and word pictures, of taking every day objects and turning them into something else for a few minutes. Of exploring plain old every day things and making them come alive.

Not every kid can do that. Most kids have it ruined out of them before they get very old. I hope my kids can still do that. I hope my grandchild can still do it. Last year, the night before we flew out the next day to Ukraine, Stirling used me as a highway for his cars, my arms as bridges from the highway to the couch.

I'm missing all 4 of them tonight. My 3 kids and my grandkid. :):)

Turkey, Turkey

Oh my. It is almost Thanksgiving Day! Time to get the pies baked, the rolls made, the dressing/stuffing prepared, the turkey thawed and in the oven...

Oops. Thawed. What a nice word. I like that word. For some reason when I put 'turkey' and 'thawed' together, I get a nice picture in my mind, a comforting picture, kind of like this one:Butterball, whole frozen turkey webpage

I thought Julia was going to pick up two turkeys at the market. One for me to bake and one for her to bake for our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. I probably came to this conclusion because I know I just cannot go to the market and buy one myself. Somewhere in our conversation, I made the assumption that she would go buy them like she did last year (Mel and I were in the States at this time last year).

I cannot do it. Well, if I was starving I would go to the market and buy a turkey by myself. Actually, that is not true. If I was that hungry I would go to the market and buy some cheese and bread and veggies....but I would stay away from the meat section of the market. If I had to buy meat at the market all the time, I would be a vegetarian. Anyone who knows me well knows this is very true. Mel has said on many occasions that the reason I did not marry a rancher in Montana is because that poor rancher would have a herd of cattle dying of old age.

I'm not sure when this happened to me. I have shot at, but never hit, a deer. I have helped hang, season, butcher, freeze and cook venison, which is deer, and elk and even part of a moose. I have helped butcher a cow. I have butchered a pig and eaten it's meat - although that was harder for me to do, the eating part, the butchering was fine. It's the eating it after I butcher it that has become harder and harder for me. It's like I know that piece of meat too well to actually want to ingest it. I'll cook it for you, just please don't make me eat it.

My grandparents had a small ranch when I was young. I remember butchering time. Cows, pigs, chickens. I helped kill, pluck, clean-out, butcher and freeze many chickens when I was a kid. I thought it was great fun then. Well, maybe not great fun, but I aways felt very grown up and proud that I was helping to provide food for the winter, etc. I haven't been involved in the process of chicken killing to chicken eating for a very long time.

Sigh.

So, when Julia and I talked on the phone the other day and I discovered that I had made a bad assumption, I was almost sick to my stomach. I have been to the meat section of the outdoor market just a few times in 10 years. I practically have to hold my nose when I go in that building in the summer, the smell gags me. The pig heads don't bother me. The piles of meat don't bother me. It's the smell.

And the dead birds of several species bother me. A lot.

They lie there on the tables, flies buzzing around, no cooling, the fat turning yellow due to the heat, and so forth and so on and all I can think of is
FOOD POISONING!!!!!!!

I was a professional cook for several years, at 4 different camps and lodges at different times. The Colorado Department of Health often did surprise inspections, checking to see that our water was hot enough for washing dishes, that the food was kept in correct containers, that appliances, counters, floors were clean, and that hot food was kept at the correct temperature before serving and cold or raw foods were kept at the correct temperatures as well. We always passed with flying colors.

So now I go into this market and I see these dead birds, out in the open air, heat, germs, flies.... Even thinking about it makes me sick. Why the beef and pork kept in these conditions doesn't quite have the same reaction in my head, I don't know. Maybe because I know bird can go bad so quickly?

I have no idea, really, how the birds sold at the supermarket are treated, except for the fact that when I buy a chicken there, the fat is still white, not 'heated up' yellow, so I can make an assumption that they have been kept frozen or at least colder. I would rather have a frozen bird than a 'heated up' bird any day.

Thats me.

So, I told Mel I was going to have to go buy a turkey. Maybe I looked a little green around the gills. Maybe he could see that I was starting to sweat. I'm not sure what it was. (The begging and pleading with my eyes, maybe??) He said to me, "I'll go buy your turkey."

However in the world am I ever going to be able to thank him enough? {Big smiles}

Mel arrived home with this:
I opened it up in the bathtub and found this:
I need reading glasses now and have a cataract in my right eye and lots of floaters in my good eye that cause me problems at times when I am looking at things. I still understood, looking at that bird in the tub, that something strange was wrong with it's innerds. Mel got the tongs and I pried it out:I just knew that was the head, they always sell the head with the chicken or turkey at the market, I just didn't expect it to be IN the bird...

What I did not take a photo of was the feet I pulled out after the head, the huge liver, the huge gizzard and gobs of fat.

I saved the head, the feet and all the innards and fat, froze them and will give them to my tutor to do with them whatever she pleases (she feeds street cats and dogs, but she might want them for herself.) I had to cut the turkey into pieces to make it fit in my crock pot. I'm cooking half of it now and will cook the other half when the first half is done. The oven is busy with other goodies - pies, rolls, cornbread for the dressing.

Yes, it is Thanksgiving. I am thankful for the turkey. I may not eat any of it myself, there is a good chance I won't - I know this bird too well now. But the other things are going to be great!!

ha ha!

The Cost of Food

Yesterday Mel and I walked down to the city center and had lunch at a favorite pub. I was shocked when I looked at the new menu prices. In the four months we were in the States, the prices for many of the dishes has doubled. One of the salads was over 60 UAH, which is roughly $11. As we did while overnighting near Heathrow, we chose the cheapest items on the menu and ended up spending around $22, 10% tip included. That amount of money would have bought us better meals a year ago, or would have even fed three of us a whole meal.

When shopping at the grocery store or market we noticed immediately that the foods we buy here the most - meat, cheese, veggies - are more expensive now to buy here in Kherson than they were to buy in Woodland Park at one of the more expensive supermarkets. To say the least, we were shocked. Prices on some items have doubled - eggs and hard sausage, as well as others.

On top of that, the dollar is worth less now than it was a year ago. Some people are asking to be paid in Euros now instead of dollars. As the dollar falls, we have less buying power here, and the prices continue to rise. At this point we are okay, but I wonder how much our rent is going to go up next time we pay?

I don't know how the average Ukrainian can afford these prices. The poorer Ukrainians could not afford to buy meat or cheese before, now many cannot afford to buy eggs as well. Dairy has also gone up at an alarming rate. We are going to see more and more hungry people, more people digging through the garbage looking for scraps to feed themselves or their pets.

We have been talking about this with different people since we got back. Today FoxNews has an article on this very issue, Food Prices Soaring Worldwide Thanks to Weather, Global Economy Changes, only they are reporting that this rise in food prices is world wide and Ukraine is only mentioned in passing. Some countries are already having food riots. People in the poorest countries are going hungry. At least here in Ukraine there have been no food riots that we know of.

I am reminded of the Book of Revelation and the four horses of the apocalypse. One of them includes death by Famine. I usually think of famine as a local issue - there is a famine in Bangladesh, or India, or some place that is not where I live. Now there is a real possibility of world wide famine.

Why does this knowledge stun me? I guess I have always thought something like that would always happen 'some place else,' not where I live, or 'sometime in the future,' not during my life time.

My eyes are more open now.

I Needed A Good Laugh Today

Following (in pink) is the beginning of an article I read this evening. I had a very good laugh inside while reading it. I am reminded of something a woman said to me once....

I am not a big meat eater. In fact, when I am eating meat I cannot think of the animal from which it came, or I get nauseated and can't eat any more of it. The first time this happened to me, that I remember, was when I was eating some really, really good "fried chicken" at my grandparents one day. My grandmother casually mentioned (or maybe it was my mother) that it was rabbit, not chicken. I almost vomited right there on my plate. All I could think of was those beautiful soft furry animals outside in their hutches - and I was EATING one of them!! Ei yi yi.

Many years later when we were in our first pastorate, one of the women in the church and I were talking about my dislike of eating a lot of meat and how much I really didn't like eggs at all (again - just the idea of what an egg IS turns my stomach...). She looked at me in disgust - she was in her 70's at the time - and said, "Next thing I know you'll be saying you can't eat carrots because every time you see one you are thinking that while it's being pulled up out of the ground it's crying out 'don't eat me, please don't eat me!'"

Okay, point taken. I still eat veggies OFTEN, every day, several kinds every day. But I also am aware that they have a kind of life and that life of any kind should not be wasted. Yes, food sometimes goes bad in my fridge or storage area. Every time it does, though, I am reminded of the starving children in some 3rd world country who are going hungry (hmmm - what about that old woman going through the trash outside? it's closer than I am comfortable with). AND I think - this plant was alive, God created it for me to eat and I have wasted God's gifts to me - the beauty of its life and it's nutrition for my body.

NO! I am NOT a New Age person! Seriously! But I do think of these things!

So, without further ado, here is the beginning of the article and the link to it. I confess - it did make me laugh.


National Geographic News
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Plants Can Recognize, Communicate With Relatives, Studies Find
James Owen
for National Geographic News

June 14, 2007

Plants have family values, too, it seems, with new research suggesting they can recognize close relatives in order to work together.

An ability to tell family from strangers is well known in animals, allowing them to cooperate and share resources, but plants may possess similar social skills, scientists believe.

Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, report they have demonstrated for the first time that plants can recognize their kin.

This suggests that plants, though lacking cognition and memory, are capable of complex social interactions.

"Plants have this kind of hidden but complicated social life," Dudley said. (click on "National Geographic News above for the link)

Sanitory Bethany

After everyone from Odessa had arrived at the train station, the guys stowed all of the luggage under the bus and we boarded for the trip to the sanitory. Now a sanitory is a little hard to explain. When said, the word sounds similar to ‘sanitary’ or a corruption of the word ‘sanitarium.’ Actually, a sanitory (long ‘o’ sound) is like a hotel where people all across the Soviet Union went on holiday, but could also receive medical treatments, massage, physical therapy and all sorts of alternative medicine treatments, if they wanted (plus have their hair and nails done). Now do not think modern hotel or modern hospital. No, every sanitory I have been to has been like something out of the 1930’s, but in poor condition. Sanitory Bethany, however, is a new building and very modern. I would put it on a par with a lot of nicer church camps in the States. It was built by the Seventh Day Adventists and is located right next to a nice hotel that they also own.

Because Mel needed a fridge for his insulin, we got a “lux” room. It was on the third floor and had a great view to the north. The only problem? Well, the ceiling was slanted and in most of the room it was just barely 6 feet tall, if that, and Mel could not stand up but had to walk around bent over at the waist. He forgot once, when a visitor came, stood up and smacked his head on the ceiling. Now I don’t know about anyone else, but I think it’s a little odd that a room would have a ceiling just barely 6 feet high (Mel is 6’5” tall). Although we had a nice big window, to look out it I had to either sit down on the edge of the bed or get down on my knees. Otherwise the view was of the ground three floors below, or the roof of the house next door. Only in Ukraine….. However, it was a wonderful room otherwise. There was one bed, instead of two, and it was quite comfy. As you can see in the photo, the bed had the typical European individual comforters. I find these sheet/blanket combination nice and cozy for a few nights, but prefer over the long run to be able to actually cuddle with Mel at night if I’m so inclined. The bathroom was nice – a regular toilet that worked well, a nice clean new shower stall – and the water pressure was unbelievable! Plenty of hot water – almost too hot, in fact. Yes – this is a very nice place to stay.

Our room from a different angle


The meeting room was also on the third floor so we had a very short commute. Don’t be deceived – yes, the meeting room was also on the third floor, the same as our room, but the ceiling of the meeting room was at least 15 feet high, maybe more. The third floor was the top floor of the building and I think the roof had been built at a steep angle due to the amount of snow this area receives every winter. The roof was bright yellow metal and the steep angle meant the snow would slide right off on the north side, rather than accumulate all winter. I understand the slant … I just wonder why the only two “lux” rooms were built for short people? The meeting room, which was the full length of the south side of the building, had several big windows that let in wonderful sunshine that filled the room with warmth – when it wasn’t raining.
View from room on clear day, to the north

I won’t bore anyone with details of the “business” meeting that first afternoon. It was a time to catch up on what is going on with each team in each city, time to listen to joys and concerns in ministry, time to pray with and for each other. Over the course of the weekend we had three sessions with our main speaker, as well as a regular worship service on Sunday morning. How wonderful it was to sing in English, to hear the Word of God preached in my mother tongue, to worship with my teammates! After the Sunday worship service, the men all went over to a meeting room at the hotel and we women all gathered in the sanitory to spend almost two hours praying for each other. What a wonderful, refreshing day that was!
Rain!

I never ate a breakfast that was served at the sanitory, but had crackers and cheese or a poppy seed roulette in our room. I am not a morning person at all and I had an idea of what the breakfasts downstairs on the first floor would be like (I was correct – one morning it was cooked spaghetti noodles and a hot dog), so just stayed in our room. There was instant coffee, electric tea pots and clean bottled water on the tables in the meeting room, so I made my own morning coffee. The rest of the meals were typical. Soups (sadly no borsch) for lunch, with either individual plates of potatoes or rice cooked with a few little pieces of meat at each place, a big plate of salad to share, made of grated cabbage and carrots with a vinegary/spicy dressing, plenty of bread and a cookie each for dessert. High in carbs – but they prepared extra meat for Mel each day. I doubt if he ever got the full 3 or 4 ounces of protein he usually has at each meal, but he did ok (we also had extra cheese upstairs in our room, just in case there was little he could eat). One day they fixed buckwheat for Mel, with lots of extra meat in it. D, who put the retreat together for us, had told them Mel was diabetic and please don’t fix buckwheat because no one likes it. Except Mel – and Mel is allergic to it and can’t eat it! He picked the meat out and did fine (when he eats buckwheat his throat and the tissues in his mouth swell). The buckwheat had been cooked in a savory broth and was actually quite tasty – I had a large portion of it, and shared the rest with a couple other people at our table who have developed a mild liking for it. (Please note – we had plenty of food, too much on each plate in fact, for everyone. I don’t think “family style” meals are common in places like this, so a lot of the food is wasted, which is a real pity. It would be different during ski season when many of the people staying might be strangers to each other and possibly greedy…) The only “bad” meal we happened to miss completely. Fish. But that’s for another post!
View from our room of house next door

The Changing of the Roll

May 3, 2006

When a person moves to a foreign culture, he or she has to get used to a lot of different things.

The first thought is: language. Yes, getting used to living in a foreign language is an adventure all by itself! Worthy of reams of paper, megabytes of computer space – just talking about the funny language goofs and mix-up and misunderstandings.

Probably the second most common thought is – food, people have to get used to new foods and familiar foods fixed in new ways. This is true. I recognize that this food is a carrot (it’s bright orange and a veggie, not a fruit!) – but what have you done to it? It tastes different, feels different on my tongue, why it even smells different! Hmmm. But soon a person realizes, hey, I like this food (except for the liver and fish) – it’s pretty tasty!

And there are many other things a person must get used to, living in a foreign culture.

However, I surprised myself this afternoon. I said something that I would never say in America. I was delighted over something that most people just kind of take for granted, only missing it when it’s not there.

I went to the pantry/linen closet where I keep all sorts of things, and got a roll of toilet paper off the shelf. It was wrapped in a white paper sleeve with pink printing. “Fantasia” I read aloud to Mel in Russian. Wow – my toilet paper is named “Fantasia!” I stopped half way to the toilet room to read the small print. One time I was amazed to read the small print on a roll and realize that it had come from the building next door. The building where they collect scraps of left-over paper, a paper recycling collection point. So THAT is what my toilet paper is made out of! This time I finally found the city – L’viv, in western Ukraine. Interesting, I thought to myself. L’viv is known as a truly Ukrainian city – we’ve heard that they have outlawed any speaking of Russian there, not even singing of hymns or reading aloud in church from the Russian Bible. I assume it’s true, but since I haven’t been back to L’viv for ten years, I can only go by hearsay on that.

I finished unwrapping the roll – a process which takes a little time. The wrapper is tightly glued to the roll of TP at the seam, where the two ends of the wrapper meet. I finally got hold of a piece of the wrapper and one layer of the TP and ripped it down the side. As the wrapper came off, I remarked to Mel:

“Yea! It’s the “crepe paper” kind! I am so thrilled!”

And then I thought to myself – who’d a thunk it? Who would ever have thought I would be so happy to unwrap a roll of TP that looks and feels like crepe paper? Ha ha!

But you see, we have a choice. Now we can buy the expensive white or colored TP’s that looks just like what we’d buy in the States. This toilet paper was unavailable 6 years ago. But as I said – it is expensive. Why flush money down the toilet? Or we can buy the “old kind.” And that is what we buy.

The old kind comes in several different “weights” and to me it’s like a game of Russian roulette. I pick up a roll of TP from off the bottom shelf at the supermarket and immediately run my finger across the top of it. The top and bottom are unwrapped (I think they make very long rolls of TP, wrap them in a long sheet of wrapping paper and then cut them into these short rolls, much like I used to do when I made refrigerator cookies, or a jelly roll). I have found that I can usually tell by running my finger/fingernail across the top, if the roll is “soft” or “sturdy.”

Now most people would think – soft! Buy soft! Oh, but that is because they have never USED soft TP. It always reminds me of the first half of an old commercial – twisted. “Melts in your hand ….”

So, I try to buy “sturdy.” But sturdy also comes in varieties. There is the “(gray)brown paper towel” weight, the “hey, this is nice stuff” weight, and the “crepe paper” weight. I am always thrilled when I open a roll and it is “hey, this is nice stuff.” But I am equally as happy when it’s “crepe paper” weight. That “brown paper towel” stuff is not too friendly.

Buying TP in the States is simple. I usually buy a cheaper brand that has lots of sheets to each roll (usually Scott). But here in Ukraine – buying toilet paper is an adventure, kind of a crap shot. You’re never quite sure what you’re going to get until you open the roll.

(Pun intended.)