Ah.  Another Friday night in Moscow!  What could be finer?  Last Friday we were having dinner in a 1,600 year-old Roman cistern in Istanbul.  Tonight we had beans and rice for dinner (Marlene) are trying to recover from a week of being worked like rented mules.  (Just kidding, of course, but what a week it has been!)  We have worked like crazy, every minute has five too many things to do.  It is not really because we were gone last week, goofing off.  It is just that the pace of things is crazy.

Next Wednesday evening the Area Presidency will do an "Area Presentation" for the Quorum of the Twelve.  It will be 00:30 Thursday morning in Moscow and 1:30 in the afternoon in SLC.  I am at a loss to explain why we will be working at midnight and the brethren are working at noon.  It's a puzzle to me.

This Presentation is the Area Presidency's opportunity to educate the Twelve about the state of things in the Area, both political, Church-wise, economic, demographic, etc.

I'm sure the 15 Areas into which the Church has divided the world must do these presentations annually for the Twelve.  This Area has, I think, 1/6th of the earth's land mass, but only 5% of the world's people.  I guess they are not selling many condo projects in Siberia.  Anyway, my role in this event is just to make sure the slides work and that my Presidency can see the script they have so carefully constructed and will read verbatim on the evening of the event.  It should be fun.  I think I will sleep in the next morning.

Our children are going to do something interesting. About two months ago Rebecca and her family sent us a $14 USPS box with goodies in it.  We finally rec'd it yesterday.  It is only about as big as a VCR tape, but the sender can stuff into it whatever it will hold w/o bursting its seams.  Becky talked the other children into a contest to see who could get us the next package the soonest.  So, each family will mail us a box today, and we will see whose gets delivered first.  I am thinking that if the six packages come to us in relatively quick succession we are going to be the envy of Moscow.  This should be fun, plus I will undoubtedly inherit more candy.  Pretty soon I will not be able to complain about loosing all the weight I have lost.  What fun is it if you can't complain?

The last time I blogged I meant to tell you something about our flights back and forth to Istanbul.  On the way down we flew the Russian airline, Aeroflot.  On the way back we were on Turkish Airlines.  Some things of note:

• The stewardii are not old women.  They are a pretty foxy bunch.  No guys either.  It was like being transported back in time to about 1975.
• These nationalized airlines remember what flying used to be like for the passengers.  Very attentive staff, a pretty decent meal, and free entertainment on the seat-back unit.
• The Aeroflot aircraft had a front facing camera in the nose.  We could watch the taxiing, take-off, approach and landing.  That was fun.
• Just as we were about to land in Istanbul, at about 100 feet AGL I noticed a bunch of the Russians around me crossing themselves.  Then when we landed successfully they all applauded.  
• I chuckled to myself.  I remember back in the day when we had a bit of a rough B-52 landing we would rag the pilot by calling in damage reports.  At the same time if he did well we would compliment him.  I don't every remember crossing myself.
• The Turkish pilot really greased his landing in Moscow, but there was no crossing and no applause.  I guess the Russians expect more from the foreign pilots than they do their own.
• After both landings, when the aircraft stopped on the taxi-way, far from the gate, a bunch of the Russians got out of their seats and began to get their stuff out of the over-head bins.  The crews, both times, got on the mics and asked them to sit down, but it did not do any good.  They were tired of sitting and weren't going to comply with the man's rules about staying seated until the plane got to the gate.  On the one hand it is kind of dopey to get up because you can't really go anywhere.  On the other hand, it was nice to see them disobeying a rule.

I am less pressed for time than I was when I did the last posting, so I think I will look through the stack of pics from Istanbul and see if I can find more that might catch your eye.

Istanbul sits on a peninsula of course so is surrounded by water.  It seemed like ships were anchored everywhere.

These hi-rises are near the highway leading from the A/P into the city.

There are tons of old structures around and in the city.

All of these are neighborhoods in Istanbul.  Taksim square is where the folks like to assemble to have their protests.  Topkapi is the former royal palace.  Our hotel was in the Laleli District.

Ho, hum, another lovely mosque.

About 50 yards up the street from our hotel were these remains of a Roman arch way.  I forget which emperor it was built for, but it dates from about 400 a.d.

Men at the Blue Mosque washing station.  They do this ahead of going into the mosque.  Remember that it is about 40 degrees F.  One has to admire their willingness to clean up in such cold weather.

A cute little side street and a couple of cute shops.  It was near here that we got our marbled painting.

Part of the 'linger longer' after our church meeting.  Most of this stuff was pretty good--made by the 'Merican ex-pats.

Heading into the Grand Bazaar. It has 4,000 shops.  Marlene is in the front (naturally) walking beside President Schwitzer.  Nearest the camera are President and Sister Pratt of the Vladivostok mission, and Sister Schwitzer.

The ladies have this guy in the palms of their hands.

More ships anchored near the city.

Marlene in the warm McDonald's roof top seating area, absorbing her first vitamin D in two months.

Birds eating the French fries we tossed at them.  It was funny to see them fly away with loads that looked like they were bigger than the birds themselves.  They will probably all die of artery disease.