No. I am not talking about the markets. I am talking about my new computer "loaner." I am reminded about how much your computer becomes customized to the way you work over time. A new computer takes a lot of time to get it to perform according to your will and pleasure! I am about 2/3's through the process. I have still have a few more pieces of software to install and a webcam that needs a driver.
The good news is that I am back on line. I have kept up the blog in a word document and have posted the last several days activity.
November 10, 2008
It has been quite a while since I played Scrabble with Chris and won. I used to win quite frequently, because I would always get the double and triple word scores. Then she learned the strategy and has whipped me quite handily ever since. But tonight was my night. She was beat so soundly that she didn’t want to play another game. So I suggested Rummicube, but she was not interested in that either (she has yet to beat me at that game). Then she came out with a brand new game that hadn’t been opened yet…Boggle. This was a word game that she was sure she would win…and she did. I was competitive until about half way through the game then she pulled away, never to be threatened again.
I am staying at the apartment this morning in hopes of getting someone over to set up the internet. I need the ip addresses, DNS numbers etc. Hopefully, since the internet company is in the building right next door, this shouldn’t be a problem. Until we get the internet, I can’t start the steps of recovery, from my failed computer. Also, a person is supposed to come by this morning and pick up my laptop. He has been instructed to take out my hard drive first (and leave it with me), because I have sensitive data that I don’t want people messing with, and you never know in Russia.
We have now been in Moscow for more than 400 days. We have just less than 5 months remaining on our mission. That is really hard to believe. I am afraid these last few months will go by really fast. We have a number of activities planned to keep us occupied. In November, we have Beauty and the Beast followed by another visa trip to Madrid. In December, we have the Nutcracker, the Moscow Choir, and a service project followed by our annual January 7-day holiday. In February we have the Interim Mission Presidents’ Seminar and our last visa trip, probably back to Tallin, though we will request Prague, since we haven’t been there yet. In mid-March, our replacements will be here. I suspect we will be winging our way home by the March 30, just 141 days. But who’s counting!!.
Nov 9, 2008
As it turned out we had enough for a bowl! Our party was a lot of fun. When you get a crowd together that is made up of seniors in their 60’s and 70’s there is a lot of history to cover. We shared stories continuously for about 4 hours!! There were poignant moments when Sam told the story of how he had been buried alive in wheat! Only his hand sticking up through the wheat saved him. Then there were less reverent stories like the one Clark shared about a friend of his, when talking to a girl about fast horses told her that one horse was faster than U. P. He had to do some fast talking to explain that U.P. was the name given to a horse that had once belonged to the Union Pacific Railroad. Sam also told us about the South Dakota blizzard of 1949. It blew for 4 days resulting in drifts 20 and 30 feet high. It was of such magnitude that he got to stay home from school for a month! I told him I didn’t realize that my arrival was heralded with such cataclysmic events!!
Today is my first Preach My Gospel class. I am curious to know how many people will sign up voluntarily. Most people like to go to Gospel Doctrine, where they can meet with all of their friends. Unfortunately, most meet expecting the instructor to do the heavy lifting. That will be quite different from the approach I will be taking in Preach My Gospel. To learn how to “preach my gospel” requires study and practice…We will see how the class responds to this more active approach.
We had about 14 people in my class today. I suspect that I will lose 4 or 5 so we should end up with a good number. Eight to 10 would be ideal. It looks like everybody is up for making it more like a workshop, than a class of lectures. So next week they have their assignment to make a 2-minute talk. Then we will tackle the next lesson which is on effective study. The following week we will begin the first discussion.
November 8, 2008
By this time last year, we had already experienced two big snows of about 6 inches each, and by November it was snowing just about everyday between ½ inch and 1 inch. It was mostly well below freezing each day, and that was considered a mild winter. So far this year, we have had no snow (it has snowed, but with no accumulation) and the weather has been between 32 and 35 degrees in the morning and in the 40’s by the time we leave the office. I still am not wearing gloves or a hat. Today is a beautiful clear day. The sun is rising in east as I write this post. It will be in the forties today. I can hear the familiar “scratching” sound from outside that is made by the wooden stick brooms they use to sweep up the leaves. Soon that sound will be replaced by an even louder “scraping” sound when they begin clearing the snow.
Today, we pay rent, go to a morning baptism and will probably rendezvous with the Irelands in the afternoon, for a bowl of soup. If I get lucky, I will get the computer configured for the internet.
We are down to a cup of soup now. We have the Nearon’s, Yorgesen’s, Ireland’s, Mason’s and Gregory’s coming. The Curbishley’s are on their way to Tula. We learned that it was Sam’s birthday, and that’s all the seniors need to know to have a party.
I talked to my landlord this morning about having another couple lease his apartment. He seemed to be receptive to the idea. I talked on the phone to his mother-in-law who is pretty conversant in English. She will take the message to her daughter and get back to me next week. They did indicate that they might want to raise the rent!
November 7, 2008
In two days, we mark the day that we moved into our apartment just one year ago. Then we were just getting settled. We were wide-eyed innocents then. Now we are battle proven veterans of the streets. Only one couple in Moscow is now senior to us, the Curbishleys. Now we are thinking about things we need to accomplish and to do to get ready to leave. Our replacements have already been identified. Training will take place in March and we will go home in April. So it looks like we will have one more visa trip right before we head for home.
Lidia went with me to the ticket office near Pushkin Square to help me purchase ballet tickets to see the Nutcracker Suite on December 31. All of the tickets were in order and we were able to make our purchase quickly. But it would have been a challenge without her language skills and having set up the purchase before hand. We ended up with 25 tickets!
This week tragedy struck when my computer failed to boot up. In the first three years every major component of the computer was replaced while under warranty (the big beautiful screen was replaced twice!!). Now it is 2 more years and a couple of months older. I will have it checked out; it may be something simple like a bad power pack. As of now, there is no juice getting to the computer. Well, it may be getting to the computer, but not farther than the receptacle. I have been using Linda Nearon’s Mac and it is wonderful. She has just about convinced me to go back to a Mac, after a 13 year absence. Much of it still looks familiar. It wouldn’t take long to get used to it again. Imagine going back to days when I didn’t know what a virus was and I never had to defrag a drive. I could really enjoy that!!
The good news is that I had purchased the back up drive just a couple of weeks ago on Oct 23, 2007 and backed up all of my data. Unfortunately, I haven’t backed up anything since then, so I have a few things to re-create. I just finished catching up on my expenses. The biggest thing is to download Quickbooks so that I can continue to keep up with my check registers. I wouldn’t want to miss the 98 cents each month I earn in my money market account with Chase!!!
Fortunately, President Gibbons had a laptop he was not using, so now I am trying to get it configured so that I can get the internet again, and I will need to update some software. If I can find a courier, I will try to get a Mac purchased in the states and have it brought over.
Tonight we had one of the biggest video conferences since the installation of our video conferencing equipment in each of the Missions. It was broadcast from Kyiv. President Powell presided and Sisters from the General Primary and Relief Society Presidency provided training for Rostov, Samara, Moscow and Moscow West Missions. Tomorrow they will conference with Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. In the morning YSA representatives from across all of Russia and the Baltics will meet by video conference to participate in a planning meeting for an Area Wide YSA Conference that will be held in St. Petersburg in 2009. I am sure that the cost of the video conferencing equipment will be paid for with travel expense savings alone, by the end of the year.
I have lots of Decisionpoint ahead of me, but no access to the internet, so unless I get lucky tomorrow, the minutes will have to wait until Monday. It is amazing how left out one can feel with no window to the world (the internet). I have grown accustomed to getting answers to all of life’s questions at the click of a mouse. I guess I am just an internet junkie!!
Al and Barbara Price
David and Sharon Yorgesen
My box. There are three main words that you can see in the painting. Magazine is a general store. Apteka is a pharmacy. Trackteer is restaurant (normally spelled pectopan and pronounced restoran). But the tracteer is a place where you can get food when you are on the go. You just pull up your troika and fill up and take off. Just like a drive-in!!
Chris and I at St. Basils.
Christ the Redeemer Church taken from the south side of the river. 
The Theatre on the right hand or south side of the river. That's the Kremlin in the background.
The girls happy as clams in Ismalofski.
The Iconostasis with ancient chandelier.
The Iconostasis showing the handcarved detail. Everything you see in gold is handcarved wood.
This is a close-up of the handcarved wood.
Exit from the Iconostasis showing the elaborate wall designs.
The iconostasis from just inside the main hall.
The main hall of worship. The iconostasis is at the end of this photo.
Outside with our guide.
LaDawn sporting a Russian woman's version of a Davy Crockett mink hat!!
Our little group with Chuck Johnson accompanying us during his visit to Moscow.
Fall colors in the courtyard of the Gorky's Home.
The famous stone staircase in the Gorky House, with a most unusual lamp!!
Chris taking a picture of Sam and Narene.
Two kids that happened to have become seniors, sitting illegally on the stone staircase. (We didn't know until after the picture was taken!)
Beautiful wooden door carvings and appliques.
Close up of applique.
Chuck, also having an unauthorized rest on the staircase!
On our way to the Pushkin House Museum, we spotted a number of interesting sights. This first one was an unexpected monument (of whom we never did find out); stuck on the corner of an apartment building.
The other night at FHE, we identified a number of memories that we would take back with us from Moscow. One was crumbling cement...everywhere!! We were also warned early on to be careful of falling objects when you walk next to buildings. You can see why! And this is one of their newer buildings.
Typical Russian glitz applied to a strip mall!
Babushka dancing for a coin with her husband playing the accordion. She was still dancing a couple of hours later when we came back down the same road! (very slowly!)
Pushkin statue.
Large room for social events.
One of many interesting lamps.
This man is using the same type broom as the babushkas are using today...600 years later (a painting hanging in the home).
Our little touring group, less the Masons. Where are the Masons!!?
Along the way we spotted this guy with a Russian size hat.
Then when we got to the fountains we saw these two flirting with one another. 
