On our own

They took off down the street without me, Fortunately I was quick and got behind them with the camera. It was too cute I had to take the opportunity.

mundane

Not much going on today, well, nothing different anyway. Nothing interesting to tell you about. That picture of the bagels was annoying me.
Things are coming along at the apartment. It looks better with bare concrete walls then it did with that awful wallpaper that was up. Fabric softner works pretty well to get it off. I tried warm soapy water and fabric softner, and the fabric softner worked better. There was still quite a bit of scraping to do though, where there must have been more glue or something. In one of the bedrooms when we went to pull the wallpaper off, the wall tried to come with it. So we are going to have to do some sheetrocking or something. But life wouldn't be fun without a few surprises. The battery on the camera was low, so I couldn't take any pictures. I have a Russian lesson tonight so I have homework assignment I just can't wait to tackle so I will catch you all later.

Homemade bagels!

If you only could have smelled them!

Our chef

The critic

Bagels is one thing we haven't learned to do without. It is a good thing they can be made pretty easily and cream cheese is available. They are a very special treat for us though! So, You are all invited over for a cup of coffee and a fresh homemade Bagel!

the kitchen

here is our kitchen. this is the wall that we are supposed to fit a fridge and a table and chairs on.







Here are cabinets which will be removed promptly

spooky

Here are some pictures of our new apartment! Fully furnished, how nice. Unfortunately everything has the smell of cigarettes and burn holes and you can never be quite sure if something is going to fall if you dare to sit on it. I think the bed frames (there are actually two beds) can be used with some repairs and new mattresses and the vanity is very nice, if we put the cabinet doors back on. Hopefully all the wallpaper is coming off too, it is all brown from cigarette smoke.

Our new living room

The thing standing is a couch, it has already been dismembered and is laid to rest in peace. The landlord is planning to take all the furniture we don't want, however Russian people are terrible at keeping their word. There is a hutch along the wall on the left, and there is a door to the right of the window, leading to a balcony. The door to the left of the couch is potentially Adele's room. And you can't see it, but there is another bedroom to the left of the left chair. So we will have lots of room, for all of you to come and visit! Notice the wood floors, which I am very happy about. I didn't get pictures of the kitchen and the entryway and the bathroom, which are very spooky. Fortunately we can do anything with it we want, short of tearing out walls. And we have a long term guarantee, which is very hard to come by here so we can put money into it. (by money, I mean not more then $1000 should have it in very nice condition, because prices here are very reasonable.) But as you can see, we will be pretty busy, for the next month getting it ready to move in. I will try to get "after" pictures for you.

Just couldn't go on

A long day of feeding the dog