Thing That Drives Me Crazy #732

Companies that use cute phrases instead of numbers for their phone number in marketing materials:

Like...
1-800-EAT-CAKE
1-866-BUY-GUNK
1-888-HOO-TERS

This strategy used to be helpful. If I forgot my favorite bakery's phone number, I could remember "EAT CAKE", convert the letters to numbers and bingo! I'm ordering my brownies.

However, recently two problems have popped up that put a big wrench in this marketing strategy:
1) multiple toll-free prefixes
2) mobile phones

Item 1) simply confuses the issue. Even if I remember "EAT CAKE", I have to remember whether the prefix is "800" or "866" or "888". Or maybe just try them all. Kinda defeats the purpose of the cute name. And starts the crazy-driving process.

Item 2) has two sub-problems:
a) Why would I need to remember a phone number? If this is indeed my favorite bakery, I'm damn-well going to have the number on speed-dial, or in my Contacts (if I have a cool PDA phone). Who actually memorizes a phone number anymore?
b) All the mobile phones I've owned do not have the corresponding letters on the phone-dialing number keys! Can you tell this is the problem I've had recently? You saw it coming, didn't you? When this happens, I am dead in the water. I cannot dial the number until I look on a land-line phone or surf the Internet for "phone keypad letters" (Thank the gods for Wikipedia, yet again!)

Give me numbers, not cute phrases!

The Goofy Vegetable Garden: An Epic Adventure

It started out as a simple plan....teach Goofy Junior how seeds grow into plants.

The mission: Grow some easy vegetables in our backyard.

The victims: Broccoli, Spinach, Bush Beans, Peppers, Carrots

(I found out later that these aren't the usual "beginner" vegetables - oops!)

NOTE: We took a tip from Jerry Baker's "Fast, Easy Vegetable Garden" and soaked our seeds overnight in a mixture of weak tea, liquid dish soap, Listerine (non-mint).

Next, we very carefully planted the seeds into small peat pots. We quickly filled the two 72-pot trays that we had purchased and had to run out and buy two more 72-pot trays.

This should have been my first clue that the project had already gotten out of control. But Goofy Junior was digging it, so we continued...

Already, the squirrels were gathering and chuckling their evil laughs, "Ha-ha! Soon the vegetables will be ours! Bah-ha-ha! I call dibs on the spinach!"

Soon the seeds in the little peat pots were sprouting. The question arose, "Where in the hell are we going to plant these things?!"

So a site was quickly identified:

(Child included for scale only. He looks like he would be helpful, but he just wanted to play with the "cute" grubs. Ew!)

NOTE: Man, sod is hard to get up when it's attached to the ground! Much Advil was required for aching back after this stage was complete.



Raised beds were requested by Mr. Goofy. This required a trip to the Big Box Hardware Store for the purchase of large quantities of wood. But wait!!!! Lowe's did not carry the suggested cedar in 2' x 16' planks. Of course not. So we had to buy fir. Fir?!?! BTW, fir must be water-proofed if used outside. Of course.

Also, because of the length we had to buy, this increased our beds from 5' x 5' to 6' x 6'. ARG! More digging. More Advil.

Then ensued much cutting and staining/waterproofing of the wood....

Are we done yet???

Whee....that smell makes me feel all goofy inside...

...meanwhile, the seeds (now plants!) were waiting patiently indoors:

"Boy, it sure looks nice outside. Why are we still stuck inside this freaking basement?"

"I don't know, but quit pushing me!"

"Step off! You pushed me first!! Have some manners!"

Then I did my best impression of Ty Pennington and constructed the boxes that would be sunk into the ground to surround the raised vegetable beds.

I love power tools!

Four cubic yards of soil/compost mix and a half-bottle of Advil later, we were ready to plant our little darlings....

But hold that spade!!!! We then had 3 days of crazy-freaky storms, with 70 mph winds. I didn't want to plant our precious veggies and have them end up down the block. So we waited....

...and waited....

Finally, we were able to plant our veggies.

Done.

What?!?!? You have to water these things!?!? Groan.

The Lemon Pie Incident

Mr. Goofy & I know another couple that is as crazy about food as we are. If we hear about a new restaurant, we grab them and go. Recently, all of us have been a little tired of eating out. I think the strain on our pocketbooks was showing. Also, with Goofy Junior, there would have to be a sitter involved and that requires planning ahead. Something we are not great at.

So...we started a dinner club of sorts. Mr. Goofy cooked first. The other couple (let's call them Mr. C & Ms.C) brought wine & dessert. It went smashingly! We all had a great time, Goofy Junior went to bed, and we continued to have a great time. There was talk of doing it again and even talk about playing bridge at some point (Mr. C knows bridge, and Mr. Goofy & I are card fanatics).

This past Saturday was Ms. C's turn to cook. She made a yummy walnut-fig-kalamata olive spread with pita for appetizer. Then a delish shrimp with creamy sauce over pasta dish for dinner. I was in charge of wine & dessert. I chose two Chardonnays (one $16 and one $6, just to be goofy - we all liked the $16 and not so much the $6).

The dessert was to be Average Jane's Lemon Chiffon Pie. I've made it before and it's super easy and super delicious. Plus, a perfect, lighter dessert would go well with the creamy shrimp.

I started making it during Spectacular Spider-Man on Saturday morning. I got to the filling part, which is eggs, various lemon parts, sugar and cornstarch. The cornstarch thickens the filling, eventually to the consistency of gravy. That's how you know you are ready to put it into the pie shell.

Well, two Spider-Men (Mans?) later, plus a Mrs. Spider's Sunnypatch something-or-other later, still no gravy! I remembered this part taking about 10 minutes the previous time. I was looking at 30 minutes already! I added some more cornstarch. No dice. I removed the filling from the heat, thinking maybe it would thicken upon cooling. No love.

I finally gave up looking for gravy after about 40 minutes and just put the filling in the shell and cooked the pie. I blame the whole thing on old cornstarch, although the true cause will remain a mystery.

Well, when it came out of the oven, it was jiggly. Very jiggly. Pamela Anderson-jiggly.

I figured it would settled once it cooled. Nope.

I put it in the fridge for an hour. Did it thicken? Nope.

So what did I do? I FROZE it.

And guess what? It was delicious! Ms. C & I had two slices each. And it made for an interesting dinner story, to boot.

Who says I can't be creative?

Multi-Level Madness

If you ever have a friend or co-worker invite you to lunch because they want to talk to you about "a new exciting project that they are working on that they want to tell you about" or "that you might be interested in", just run. Run. Fast.

Jeez. You would think I would see the signs. But no, this happened again last night.

Another MLM (multi-level marketing) pitch.

I got a free dinner, yes. But I also got an hour-and-a-half long pitch about becoming a representive for a company that would 'build my financial independence'. *

Of course it all sounds good. They learn scripts for these sorts of things.

Then I got home an did the obligatory Internet search for the company name + 'scam'. Oh, lookey there, 8 links! All from previous "representatives". And all scathing.

At least I got a free dinner.

* I won't mention the company here, because I really don't want to attract THAT sort of linky love. No thanks.

OMG...the weirdest dream EVER.

Okay, so I had this dream last night. It was bizarre and weird to the extreme.

I was going to a new doctor for some reason. A physical, maybe? I mentioned the weird back/hip pain that I've been having for like the past four years or so.

The doctor looked at my right knee and found...screws behind my right knee. (why did I never see these before!?) He unscrewed the two screws behind my each side of right knee (and two more he found by my right ankle) and took off the outside of my right leg. There was room for storage in there. What was there? Well, electronics. Obviously, I'm bionic. LOL. But on top of the bionic stuff was....a tray of Mrs. Fields cookies. WTF?

Of course, they were stale, but the doctor ate one anyway.

Like I said, this was one weird dream.

Then, of course, he found the same screws on my left leg, and removed a similar panel from this side, revealing a similar storage area. What was there? Well, to start with, a "Who Sunk My Battleship?" game, already in progress, with all the accompanying pieces, and about a dozen small ball-peen hammers (???).

I can't remember all the stuff that was stored in my legs, but I remember thinking, "This stuff is all from the late 80's. I can't remember putting it there, but I must have. I've been walking around with all this baggage from way back THEN???!!!"

I remember thinking, "Wow! I've been walking around with all this BAGGAGE all this time. It will be so nice to get rid of all this stuff and be lighter". Significance? I dunno. Am I ditching some emotional baggage now that I've been carrying for some time? Dream interpreters, please let me know!

On a related note: I realized when I woke up from this bizarro dream that the right side of my head was facing upwards. (I was laying with my left side on the pillow) Usually, when I dream really creative/bizarre dreams, the right side of my head is upwards, like this. When I have more practical, day-to-day dreams, the left side of my head (brain?) is facing upwards.

Does anyone ever have this same thing occur? Pay attention next time you have a weird (or not weird) dream and let me know. Maybe I'm just imagining this...

p.s. I should mention that right before I went to bed, I watched "Battlestar Galactica", you know...the show where Cylons (robots) look just like humans? And also that I'm reading Stephanie Meyer's newest book "The Host", which is about alien life-forms inhabiting human bodies, while the souls within them are still present. Might explain some of the weirdness.

Goofy + 31,000 Other People...

went to visit Warren Buffet and his Merry Berkshire Hathaway Festival of Capialism. Yes, I scored the tickets on eBay and they actually let me in to the Shareholder Meeting. Me and 31,000 of my closest friends. Buffet's fan(atics) filled the Qwest Center, and then some.

Having gotten some last minute intel from GA, I showed up at 7:10am for the 8:30am meeting. Being just me, myself and I, I scored a pretty good seat about 5 rows from the floor, on the aisle. Again, on intel from GA (thanks buddy!), I had my binoculars, so I did some intensive people watching until the show started.

I had a great conversation with very smartly dressed lady who has been coming to Warren's annual party for the past FIFTEEN YEARS. Dude! We discussed how this was probably the only event in the Qwest Center where you could "save" your seat by simply draping a newspaper over the seat and leaving. People did this! They showed up, draped the newspaper, then went and got breakfast or visited the exhibition hall. Then about 8:00am, they came back...and their seats were still there!! She also mentioned that people bring their purchases from the exhibition hall back to their seats and leave those too, when they take a potty break.

This kinda restored my faith in the human race. A tiny bit.

All in all, the BRK shareholders are pretty fine peeps. Generally older than me, there were a lot of grey-haired couples, in sweater vests and trousers, looking very dapper and buying lots of peanut brittle.

WTF? Yes, peanut brittle! See's Candies is one of BRK companies. At the exhibition hall, I circled their (giant!) booth like 3 times, looking for an opening to buy some candy. But I was DENIED. 8 rows deep was the line to check out! For candy!

I kinda like these folks....

As far as racial diversity, there was some, but not really representative of the general population, IMHO. I saw many Asians, lots of Germans, some Hispanics and Indians, but I was hard pressed to find any Black folks. ??? I pondered this way too long before deciding that, well, the companies that BRK owns maybe just don't really market towards that population. I guess. Once I noticed this lack of diversity, it was hard to overlook.

As far as male/female ratio, I was pleasantly surprised. There was pretty many women there. Probably because of the aforementioned 'couple' thing.

At the exhibition hall, I got my picture taken at the GEICO booth on a way-cool motorcycle, and flirted with the Fruit of the Loom fruit guys (the purple grape guy was especially cute).

And, the highlight of my day...I saw my personal hero, Tim Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek". He was sitting in my section! I did one of those, "is that HIM? Is it? Nah. Hmmm... Yes! It's him! Oh shit. Do I go say something? What?!?!" I was chicken and didn't approach him. Then read on his blog the next day how he was nervous about the possibility of meeting Warren Buffet and how he prepared his elevator speech, just in case.

Lesson learned. Next year I will prepare for the impossible.

Saturday night was the big Beach Party. Food, music and lots of Buffet fans, in the Nebraska Furniture Mart parking lot. As it turned out, this was the longest line of the day! These folks wanted a damn $5 taco, and were willing to wait in line for it. Quite a long line...

We passed and ended up in the hotel room with pizza and wine and "Chronicles of Narnia". All in all, and fine ending to the weekend.

So, did I learn anything that will make me piles of cash in the next year? Well, sadly no. Did I experience something that lots of people don't and that I may not again my in lifetime. Yes!

And that, my friends...is priceless.

In Which I Score Big on eBay

I love eBay. I have bought a LOT of stuff on eBay. I have sold a LOT of stuff on eBay. I love the 'thrill of the hunt' and sniping something away from another poor schmuck in the last 7 seconds of an auction. I've gotten quite good at it.

But I was denied today. DENIED. But it all turned out well. I love when that happens!

I was bidding on a set of Berkshire Hathaway 2008 Shareholder Meeting tickets this afternoon... What's that? You're wondering why in the world would I want these? Well, my friend... Mr. Buffet (as in Warren, not Jimmy) throws quite the party bash for his shareholders. We are talking a weekend of pure capitalist fun in Omaha, including a cocktail reception Friday, a Baja Beach Bash on Saturday night (2007's bash included the other Mr. Buffet - Jimmy!), and exclusive shareholder shopping day on Sunday and a DAY-LONG Q&A period with Mr. B and his crew. I heard from someone who's been there that it's better than an MBA.

...which sounds like a blast to me. I know, I'm a weirdo.

So, if you own at least one share of BRK stock, you get two tickets for free. The problem? The stock is currently trading at $4387 per share. No, I didn't forget a decimal point. Four GRAND and change = Too rich for me.

Luckily, Mr. B is generous and gives away some tickets each year at a nominal fee.

Which leads us back to this afternoon. I had found the tickets on eBay and was bidding. There was not too much action on the auction, so I wasn't worried (first bad sign). I waited until about 30 seconds were left in the auction and jumped in at $20 for two tickets. I was the high bidder for about 3 seconds, then I wasn't. ARG! I showed my hand too early! I tried to quickly re-bid at $26, was denied, and the auction ended. The tickets sold for $30.

Damn! I had really counted on winning the tickets. So I looked at my "Sorry you're a big fat loser" email auto-generated by eBay, and looked for 'similiar auctions'.

Lo and behold, there it was! A link to tickets offered directly from BH. No auction required, just "Buy it Now" for $3. SCORE!

So I lost, but then I won and saved $27 in the process. I love a happy ending! Squee!

The Name Game - Part Two

Before we traveled to meet New Kid, I wrote about potential issues with names. Since New Kid comes "complete with name" we needed to decide if that name would "work" in the US.

As it turns out, his given name is Sergei. Not a bad name. It would work in the US with no problems. However, here's the rub: the kid does NOT look like a "Sergei".

I imagine a "Sergei" as a dark, swarthy, handsome and mysterious dude. New Kid is not that, even accounting for the fact that it's hard to be dark and mysterious when you're only two years old.

He is blonde. He has blue eyes. I just can't channel "Sergei" from that.

So the Name Chase has begun. We have a few potentials, but not many. Most the names we like are now attached to one of Alex's schoolmates. And typically not in a good way, if you get my drift.

Before we knew his name, we discussed coming up with something that sounds similar, since he knows his name currently. This would confuse him less. Hopefully.

Two problems with this:
(1) What in the hell sounds like "Sergei"?
Fergie? Surrey? Suri?!

(2) Russians don't typically use their kids' given names in everyday conversations. They are very big on nicknames.
I didn't hear anyone in the baby home ever call him "Sergei". That's too formal for kids. Sergei's nickname is "Seregozha". Huh? It took us two days to get the proununciation right. I'm not even trying to match that with another name.

I'm thinking "Bob" sounds about right at this point...

Cookies Make the World Go 'Round

We met with New Kid three times last week: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

On Wednesday (our first meeting), New Kid did not want to have anything to do with Mr. G. Typically all the staff in the Russian baby homes are female, so this was to be expected. Mr. G belonged to a new and unusual species, of which New Kid had never seen before. He kept a close eye on Mr. G and wouldn't let him get too close. At one point he actually pushed Mr. G away!


On Thursday, we were determined to have New Kid do a little more interaction with Mr. G. New Kid was playing with some blocks, so Mr. G moved up slowly and sat behind him. You could tell that New Kid was still not digging this. We decided a little movement was in order.

I took one of New Kid's hands, Mr. G took the other and we started walking around the room. After a few steps, New Kid pulled his hand away from Mr. G....Darn!

Then New Kid walked over to the table in the room, that just so happened to have a tin of butter cookies in it, from lunch. He stopped in front and stared at the cookies. I smelled opportunity...

Mr. G got a cookie, showed it to New Kid, then sat down and pulled New Kid onto his lap. And started feeding him bits of cookie. There was no whining! And no crying! New Kid happily munched his cookie, possibly thinking, "Hmm....I kinda like this new species. Yum!"

A little while later, we saw New Kid's first smile (of many to come!). And after this, New Kid's fear of Mr. G simply disappeared.

Looks like we will be stocking some butter cookies in the Goofy pantry from now on...

We are Home!

Ahhhhh...it's so nice to be home. We were able to adjust our flights so that instead of getting home Sunday at 6:00pm, we actually flew to Chicago last night and got in this morning around 10:00am. This gives us an almost-whole day at home before the real week starts.

In the process of changing flights, we got bumped up to Business Class on Lufthansa. Let me tell this, this was kick-ass! More leg room than my living room and the seats have their own remote control that allows you to adjust almost everything. This includes a feature to make the seat lay all the way down into a bed. Flat! Which is pretty cool for a > 9 hour flight. Oh yeah, and there were about 20 movies to choose from. I had to keep my eyelids propped open to finish the two movies I wanted to watch ("National Secrets - Book Two" and "Golden Compass", if you're curious). And the food? Let's just say between us we had smoked trout, veal, lamb and tillapia. And tiramisu for dessert. On an airplane. Whoda thunk it? Oh, and the free wine (6 choices!) wasn't bad either.

I'll post more later - it's about midnight for me body-clock-wise, and we still have a dog to pick up and laundry to do.

Our Own Amazing Race!

Well, we finally made it to Russia. We have not had much spare time at all since we arrived.

Right out of the gates, things went wrong. Our flight from KC to Chicago was delayed FOUR HOURS because of thunderstorms in Chicago. And this is after getting to KCI TWO HOURS early (suggested for an international flight). Of course it took us only 15 minutes to check in.

I love sitting in airports waiting, don't you? GAH!!!!

Okay, so we finally got to Chicago. We thought MAYBE our flight to Munich would be delayed in leaving because of the weather. Nope. It left without us. RATS!

So another THREE HOURS waiting in Chicago for the next flight to Munich.

On the Munich flight they played two movies that you wouldn't want to watch before going to adopt: "Martian Child" (single guy adopts really weird child) and "August Rush" (mom thinks her son was born dead, but in reality he is alive and homeless). Both great movies, but I really wanted to get my mind OFF adoption. "Golden Compass" would have been about my speed.

So we get to Munich, wait only ONE HOUR this time, and jump onto our plane to Moscow.

Because of all the delays, when we reached Moscow, our poor driver had to drive really, really fast to get us to the train station for our overnight train to our region. No nap. No snack. No change of clothes in Moscow.

We finally got some down-time on the train. The train was cool. We had a sleeper cabin with two bunks (Ah....we got to actually lie down to sleep. Yeah!) and a small table. We had dinner in our cabin - yummy.

We slept well and in the morning we were in our region. Instead of going directly to a hotel to, I don't know...SHOWER, we headed straight for the Ministry of Education to get details about our referral child.

Only after this did we get to our hotel. For an hour. We showered, then jumped into our driver's car for a THREE HOUR trip to the baby home.

Yeah...and that was just the first two days.

More later....

Delayed!

Chicago has thunderstorms…we boarded the plane, then got back off. Probably an hour’s delay. Just enough to make us worried about connections. Our travel agent says "no worries" but who knows?

I already have a headache and there’s 15 hours to go. Ugh.

And We're Off...

The visas are here. The airplane tickets are in hand. The bags are packed. The grandparents have arrived. We are about as ready as we will ever be.

We don't know anything about potential new son. We don't know if our laptop will work in the region. We don't know if the train is heated or not. We don't know if we will have an extra day in Moscow or not. We don't know much.

I think ignorance is bliss in this situation.

Luckily, we love adventure. Whee!

The Name Game

I almost forgot about this fun bit...when you adopt, your child already comes with a name. If he is younger (< 1 year or so), you can probably change this name without too much trouble. However, in our case, we are adopting a two-year-old. He's going to know what his name is.

In Alex's case, he came with a pretty easy name - Alexander. It "works" over here in the states. Before we went to meet Alex and found out his name (they don't tell you in advance), we jokingly called him "Boris". When folks would ask about naming, we would say, "Well, if his name is something like Vladamir, we will probably consider changing it. However, if it's something like Alexander, we will keep it."

You can imagine our shock when his name was actually Alexander!

In hindsight, we spent a LOT of time worrying about naming, when we didn't need too.

But...we have to consider this again for New Kid. At two, we will probably know and identify with his name. If we change it, we will need to change it to something similar. This makes it darn near impossible to prepare ahead of time!

Do we look up most common Russian boy names and find alternatives that 'work' in America? (ouch...too much work)

Do we just keep his existing name, even if it's Vlad or Dmitry? (easiest solution, but he might get beat up in the future)

Do we just come up with a new name and figure he will learn the new one? (not very nice, IMHO)

ARG.

I dug out our old 'name list' hoping for some help there. Yuk. Names that we liked four years ago do NOT sound good now.

Oh yeah, and there's one more situation that could occur. He could be named "Alexander". What do we do then? We will have two kids with the same name. Hmmm...

The Talk

When you already have a child, and another is on the way, there comes a time when you have to sit down and talk to them about how things are going to change.

When one is pregnant, you have some sort of idea about the time frame (typically 9 months, from what I hear). You can also plan on spending some extra time with your child, so that when New Kid comes, they feel all lovey-dovey and not jealous of Parental-Time-Sucking New Kid.

However....

When you are adopting second child, things work a bit differently.

For example, we had The Talk with Alex about New Kid about a year and a half ago. We really thought it would happen quickly. Of course, he immediately went to school and started talking about his baby brother.

I had to slap the folks that started gazing at my belly. Sidenote: I don't know how you pregnant moms deal with people staring, fondling and commenting on your belly. How rude is this!

One time last fall, Alex & I were grocery shopping. He picked up a 4-pack of yogurt and said, "Look Mommy! One for me, one for Mommy, one for Daddy and one for my baby brother."

Better check that expiration date on the yogurt...I don't think Baby Brother will be here in time to eat it!

So now that we have gotten The Call, we have to have The Talk with Alex again. New Kid is not like Elmo - just a make-believe furry creature that never comes to your house for real - just through that box in the living room. New Kid is really coming...look out!

Another difference is that, instead of being able to spend quality time with Alex, we get to leave him for 7 days, then come back for a few months (without New Kid - how confusing will that be?), then leave him for about 20 days, then come back with New Kid and rock his world.

We have to do things like leave him notes, photos, etc. so he doesn't forget who we are when we are traveling.

And - are kids like dogs?....should we introduce them on 'neutral ground' so no one feels dominate/submissive on the 'home turf'?

We are treading new ground here. The Talk should be interesting. I'll let you know how it goes!

Holy Mackerel!

As some of you already know, Mr. Goofy and I have had paperwork in almost two years to adopt a little boy from Russia. Our current son, Goofy Junior, is also adopted from Russia. Typically, the second adoption is supposed to go faster (you've already done most the paperwork - it's mainly just renewing it all...and more money, of course). This didn't happen, since a few months before we got our paperwork done, Russia decided to revamp their adoption system and re-accredit all the adoption agencies they worked with.

Well, this took a while. They work with a lot of agencies. And we've been in a holding pattern for almost two years now. Our agency was re-accredited at the end of December, but we hadn't heard anything so far.

Until Monday.

Our agency rep called. They have a little boy they would like us to come and meet. And, oh, by the way, could we leave next Monday?

Huh? HUH?!?! That's like, not even 7 days to get visas, get international flights, pack (not a small matter!), get grandparent on the phone for sitting duty and prepare to meet our potential new son.

Yeah, that last one is pretty important. When we adopted Alex, we brought over TONS of Russian medical terminology printouts, growth charts, maps, language guides, etc. We knew we were traveling a month ahead of time, and I still remember getting frantic at the last moment.

So, this time we have 6 days to prepare for this very important trip. GAH!

Breathe...breathe...breathe... SCREAM!

We were able to get our visa paperwork going first thing Tuesday morning. Literally as I am typing, I just got an email that my visa was approved. Yeah! BUT...I still have to get it in the mail before we fly our Monday morning. And no word on Mr. Goofy's...yet.

We struggled with flight reservations. No 7 day advance purchase = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Luckily, Mr. Goofy remembered reading about an adoption-friendly* travel agency that was mentioned on one of our adoption e-groups. We found them, called and this Travel Agent Angel was able to secure two tickets on Lufthansa (we be stylin', no?) for the price of one ticket on Delta. It's still pricey, but acceptable.

NOTE: On our trips to meet Alex, we flew Aeroflot from the US to Russia. There's a whole other post about flying on a Russian airline, but let's just say I'm thinking we will be living la vida posh on Lufthansa.

Right now I'm struggling with SHOES! You really walk almost everywhere in Russia and my favorite walking shoes are TOAST. Yes, I know, this is like the lamest thing to be worried about, but if my feet hurt, I'm cranky. No time to be cranky on this trip.

Oh, and here's the schedule:
Leave KC
Arrive Moscow
Jump on overnight train to middle o' Russia
Arrive middle o' Russia
Nap (we hope!)
Go to orphanage for visit
After 3 days in region, reverse the process

We left ourselves an extra day in Moscow before our flight home, just in case something is delayed our they want us to stay longer. Your middle name has to be "Flexible" when doing international adoption. Nothing is for sure until it actually happens.

So, if everything works out, maybe we will have a day in Moscow to visit Red Square again, maybe see the Kremlin this time (it was closed our last trip, as Putin was "in the house") and (if I can stomach it) go see Lenin's tomb.

So, dear readers, please send some on-time-flights--on-time-trains--healthy-child--no-problems-while-overseas thoughts our way next week.

If I can find a Russian Internet Cafe, I will post next week with the gory details. Dasvidanya for now!

* meaning flights can be booked last-minute, as well as changed, refunded, spindeled and mutilated without extraordinary fees! A decidedly good thing for us!

Adventures in Camping - Part Three

Part 3 - The Accidental Great Hike

Saturday morning we set off to hike in the Charon's Garden Wilderness Area. We had our sights set on finding the rock climbing areas in the Refuge. Several folks had told us that these were beautiful areas and Mr. Goofy definitely wanted to scope them out for future climbing trips.

We had to drive to the trailhead. We packed up our climbing shoes and harness and looked for the marker for the trailhead. We found a picnic area with some parking and lots of activity. "This must be it!" we thought.

We estimated that we would be at the climbing areas in about 30 minutes. Easy peasy, right?

From the map, it looked like we could head down the Elk Mountain trail and at some point there would be a branch to the right that would take us to the other trail and the climbing areas.

Stupid map. If Dora had this map, she would never make it to Tallest Mountain, that's for sure.

We hiked and hiked, gradually gaining elevation. At some point, we forgot to keep looking for a rightward branching trail. In hindsight, the hike was pretty great - lots of interesting terrain and enough rocks to keep you on your toes.

About 45 minutes later, we realized that we were NOT on the right trail, we were NOT headed to climbing areas, but rather the top of Elk Mountain. Gah!

Since we were already committed, we went ahead and summited Elk Mountain (probably about an hour's hike total). It was beautiful!

You see, most mountain tops are small. You summit, look around, take the obligatory "I made it to the top...see?" photos, then you head down.

But this summit was HUGE...spatious and beautiful. Lots of gigantic, round rocks, that we joked looked like whales, hippos and giant eggs. We probably spent another hour on top of the mountain, just exploring, taking pictures and climbing on rocks.

And we accidentally snuck up on this bison. He must have taken the wrong trail too!

NOTE: For WAY better pictures, taken by someone who actually knows what he is doing, check out Mr. Goofy's pics at Adventure Bound.

Adventures in Camping - Number Two

Part 2 - Trail Runs

Trail running is a sport where you put on running shoes with beefy soles, usually in some "outdoor" color (green, brown, tan) and you run on hiking trails in the woods.

Trail runs are when you get to your campsite and right in the middle of setting up camp, your son announces that some poop has "sneaked out of his butt". EEK.

Daddy to the rescue...one pair of underwear down for the count (Thank heavens for Ziplocs!).

Ten minutes later, more Sneaky Poop. Gah!

Again Daddy to the rescue. Thank heavens for Daddy! Who, in a brilliant moment of foresight, washed the underwears (I was ready to pitch them...cause you know...EW!) and hung them between two trees to dry. Yeah, we looked pretty white trash, yes we did.

Sneaky Poop: 2 Underwear: 0

No, er, movement happened for about twenty minutes, so we decided it was safe to go for a hike. Yep, we were wrong. Ten minutes into the hike....more Sneaky Poop!

Back to the car. Much cleaning of the butt region. Installment of Underwear #3 (of only 4 packed!).

Smart Daddy came up with another brilliant idea - a big wad of Kleenex in the underwear. Alex was very put off by this, and actually walked like a duck for a while, but gradually forgot about it.

This was a brilliant idea, because it saved Underwear #3. You guessed it...Sneaky P. again.

We gave up on the plan of a longer hike and headed back to camp. Once at camp, Alex & Daddy headed to the rustic campsite outhouse. I can proudly say that my son pooped in the campground potty (they are pretty yukky and kinda creepy, especially if you watched that one X-Files episode about the monster that lives in the outhou....oh nevermind).

The point of this icky story? Camping really makes you appreciate the pleasures of indoor plumbing.

Adventures in Camping (a multi-part series)

Part 1 - Forgotten Things

This past weekend, the Goofy Family packed up the Family Roadster and headed south for some camping in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Located in southern Oklahoma, the WMWR is home to Bison, Elk, Longhorn Cattle and (much to Goofy Junior's delight) cute little Prairie Dogs.

Since my camera is currently located in the Family Roadster, which is currently located at Mr. Goofy's work garage, you'll have to wait for photos.

This trip was packed with fun, melodrama (present anytime a 4-year-old is involved) and danger. (insert Mutual of Omaha "Wild Kingdom" theme music here - if anyone remembers it)

We didn't decide to make this trip until the last minute. Actually the wrench-in-the-works was trying to sweet-talk the kennel into making room for our beloved dog, Murphy. It's spring break, you know. Thanks to a last minute cancellation, Murphy got a spot at the kennel (or the "spa" as we like to call it). So we were off...

At this point, I must confess that I am an anal-retentive planner/organizer when it comes to traveling. Whether it's a weekend camping trip or a week-long trip via airplane, I get pretty focused on the packing process.

You see, I have this personality flaw: I HATE taking something on a trip that I DON'T use.

It drives me nuts. This includes, but is not limited to, clothes, food, toiletries, shoes, and books (although I always bring too much reading material....always.).

I'm constantly asking myself "Am I really going to need this?" when I pack. I also usually pack, then just for principle, take 2-3 things out and leave them at home. This usually leads to a lot of washing of undies in hotel sinks. But I digress...

My husband, dear Mr. Goofy, is the complete opposite. He would take the kitchen sink with us if he thought there might be a hookup near the campsite for it. I think it's that whole Boy Scout "Be Prepared" philosophy.

Okay, so now that I've established our respective freakishness when it comes to packing, here's what happened on this trip. Since we did not have a lot of time to plan/pack (about 24 hours total), we ended up bringing the wrong things and leaving some essential things.

Like...

I remembered my styling brush, but forgot a hair dryer and even more importantly towels. No towels = no showers for us until we got home! Pee-yew!

We remembered all the makings for S'mores (yum) for our campsite dessert, but forgot to bring jugs of water from home. We ended gagging down well water from the campsite. Even adding powdered Powerade to it didn't mask the metalic taste. Gag.

We remembered Uno cards for campsite entertainment (which we didn't end up doing - too windy), but didn't remember to get much traveling cash. We went through 4 toll stations on the way down (and on the way back too) and the campsite office and the local restaurant only took cash. We were borrowing money from Goofy Junior for the last toll!

We remembered our full-on medical kit (complete with splints, roll of bandages, stethoscope, first aid book, etc.) but forgot to replenish our kit with either alcohol wipes or antibiotic cream. We had to doctor our many scrapes with only water and a Band-aid until we got home. Ow.

But even with the forgotten things, and the extra things, we had a great time. We had so much fun that for the next week, I'll be posting more about our trip. There are so many stories to tell...

Goofy Cooks...Kinda

I hosted our neighborhood book club tonight. Our book was "Second Glance" by Jodi Picoult. We all enjoyed the book, although it was long (400+ pages) and had a plethora of characters. As usual, Picoult did a great job neatly tying all the characters and plotlines into a nice, hearty package at the end, as well as incorporating some controversial topics (ghosts, eugenics and American Indian land rights specifically). Great author!

Our menu was Quiche Lorraine and Tomato Bisque. This would have been the perfect cold winter night menu; however it was about 65 degrees outside. It was still good. And I'm not complaining.

If you need to entertain a small group and need something fast and easy, but want to look like you spent a lot of time preparing, try this...

Tomato Bisque
1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes w/ juice
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 cup water
2 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp. dried dill
1 tbsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. sugar

Put all ingredients in a pot and whisk together. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Serves 6.

Quiche Lorraine - buy a frozen Quelle Quiche from your local grocery store. Cheating? Hell, yes, but really, unless they see the box, only you will know!

I also provided a Mirassou Chardonnay.

My guests kept complaining that I went to too much trouble and I set the bar too high, blah, blah, blah. They don't know that this entire meal took me about 10 minutes total to prepare.

Shhhh....don't tell.