back in the ex-ussr

Arrived safely in Ukraine last night. All my bags made it this time too! Good thing, since they were loaded with the things I need to get through a Ukrainian winter: five pounds of American magazines, various cooking sauces from Trader Joe's, the DVD box set of CSI, season one, two jars of peanut butter, and over 500 servings of vitamin C.

Had a nice trip home. I participated in a conference for the first time (and lived to tell the tale), took care of my failing vision, made several trips to Target, laughed my head off at Borat, and gained five pounds!

Katya's foster mother reports that she is doing well, and sent along the following picture:

I was suprised to find a warm front in Kiev: it's been in the 40s and 50s, with thick fog, for the last ten days. The length of the night and lack of sun during the day is maddening, though--among this week's projects is finding one of those sunlamps. I'm sure I can find one on the net and get it shipped from one of the Scandinavian countries.