April showers may bring May flowers, but August showers are COLD!
OK, so I admit that I'm cheating a bit today. Our language teacher has gone on vacation, so we're supposed to be doing home study. However, I'm at the office, where we have an internet connection but don't normally get a chance to use it since we're in class. Of course, since there is no class today, officially, I snuck in to post a brief blog and check our email. Sue me.
However, it won't be long until we're in our new apartment (a few weeks!) and we'll have a regular internet connection, so maybe then we'll be able to post more regularly. For now, sneaking in to the office will have to suffice.
Aaanyway, I'd better get to this blog before I waste too much more time. Besides, you're probably wondering about the penguin cartoon above, and I should explain. It seems that one of the nicer things about Moscow is that all the apartments are heated by radiators, through which runs water that the city heats in big pumping stations and then pumps through the apartment blocks free of charge (or close). That way the poorer residents don't have to worry about not having heat in the winter. This also provides all the hot water for residences, so you don't have to have a hot water heater in each house, which would be inefficient. However, in case you're wondering why American cities don't jump on this idea, there is a disadvantage: the system has to be maintained at some point, which means turning it off. During the summer months, everyone's hot water is turned off at some point for about 2 and a half weeks. This means no hot showers, no hot water for dishes, etc. We don't exactly miss the heating power in the apartment, since it's pretty warm out, but I am ready for a non-icy shower. In theory, we get turned back on today or sometime soon, so we'll see.
In other news, Steven has started to stand on his own, and looks like he'll be walking very soon. Actually, he started standing about the time we posted last, and yesterday he almost managed a step (the lack of balance can be a little amusing). Here he practices the always-fun art of letting go of the basket, to wobble for a few seconds, only to grab it again.
Of course, we have to have at least one picture of him just looking cute. You'll have to ignore David's and my legs in the backgrounds, though - they tend to distract from the aesthetic appeal of the shot.
I just put this picture in since I find it funny how Steven can take a whole crib and just curl up into a little ball in the corner. I always like it when he wakes up and has mesh-marks on his face from sleeping against the walls.
... and here's the other two, Emma and Josiah. Quite a brother-sister bond, you'd have to say, except that upon a closer inspection of Josiah's expression I'm not quite sure he's as excited as she is.
And now, the answer to last week's What Is It™: see the above picture. The only person to correctly guess "Giraffes" was Anne, who shouldn't count since she lived here for a while and thus had a bit of an advantage (not that we don't want her to guess). Half a point for her, I guess!
As for this week, we have a slightly trickier one, since I'm not sure I even know the answer. You'll find this on every stairway to the Metro - maybe you can tell me What This Is For™?
