Good Evening.  Monday April 9, 2012.  Moscow, Russia.

We are still here.  Have not escaped yet.  We really love it here don't we Mrs. KGB?  (We're testing the Kremlin's sense of humor.)  Speaking of the Kremlin ... we got close last Friday.  More on that in a minute.

We did not blog last weekend because nothing of note happened.  I think we were trapped in the flat by marginal weather.

But, we are fine.  We messaged with Emily and Becky this evening (Moscow time) and Ben this morning.  Becky and family are headed for Disneyland.  (Ben and family are coming home from Arizona.)  We Skyped with Andy and children a few minutes ago.  Andy is home for the weekend and will return to Afghanistan/West Texas tomorrow.  There is a reason the Army trains in west Texas.

It rained today.  This is the first 'real' rain of the spring.  So far this year our signs of spring have been snow that melted within a few days, instead of being on the ground for months.  We are, in fact, able to see patches of mud surrounded by snow.  So spring cannot be more than a month, or two, away.

We learned over the weekend that President Schwitzer will return to the good ol' US o f A in July and begin an assignment with the Temple Department.  The current first counselor, Larry Lawrence, will become the Area president.  President Bennett will become the first counselor, and Per Malm will be the 2nd counselor.  These are all good men, so we should continue to have a wonderful experience here.

Some pictures.

Now I remember what we did last weekend, besides being held in by the weather.  We moved all of the furniture in the flat around so that we could 'mark' our space.  We inherited an odd configuration.   The master bed was in the room with the only couch in the joint.  (See below.)

The other room (see above) held a day bed and the office stuff.

Bed and couch.

Now the bed is in the bedroom and the couch and office stuff are in the living room.  The day bed is in here also, awaiting the arrival of unsuspecting tourists.

Marlene eating one of those ridiculous Cinnabun cinnamon rolls with caramel and chocolate sauce and nuts.  I begged her for some but she would not give me any.

This is a very high-end shopping center only two Metro stops from where we can get on.  I think it is called Megalopolis or Metropolis, or Mall of America.

We took this picture for Jacob.

As we were  walking out we heard some pretty loud rock 'n roll and made our way to the noise.  There was a fashion show going on.  We are looking down on four 'models' dancing/prancing on the runway.  The girls in the swim suits came out next but Marlene claimed that her camera was out of pixels so she could not get any shots.

This was hanging on the wall of one of the Metro stations.  I think it says, "This is Ben on his next bike."
Pretty striking ad I thought.  I wanted to rush out an buy one right away. 

Marlene is captivated by the pay-toilet attendants.  When it was really cold a few weeks ago there would be a tandem set of toilets and one would be occupied by the attendant (to keep from freezing to death) while the other was available for rent.

One can find them on the main streets, even near the 'malls.'  I guess this is entrepreneurialism at its height, or depth.

Flowers.  Flowers.

Cute boys in the elevator.  There was a third boy behind the adult to the left of the picture.  He did not appear until everyone got off the elevator.

The view from our new living room window.  (I guess the view was always there but the living room wasn't.)  This was a week ago.  Now the same scene shows patches of mud puddles.  Progress.

The main office babe on her way to the office last week.  We have just left the flat ... behind Marlene.

The missionary old couples meet each Thursday evening at the "Central Building."  I have shown you pictures of it previously.  We are on our way to a Subway store to get dinner ahead of going to the meeting.  We had not previously noticed this Adam and Eve statue in the little park adjacent to the Metro stop.  I think we had been walking head down to keep the snow out of our eyes.

Notice Adam sitting on the snake and the snake's head to the right of Eve.  It is really quite well done.

We are on the 14th floor of the Meridian Office Tower.  We had our windows washed last week, on the only day it did not snow.  This is Olga at work. She is the nice young lady who took our Turkish treasures to Becky.  (Those are the treasures that none of the rest of the family has seen.   Rod reported that they could be viewed on Ebay.)

Most of the office staff.  It was Maryann Walker's birthday on the 6th of April.  I was working while Marlene was taking the pictures.

The Walker's invited us to go with them while they went about celebrating Sister Walker's birthday in the afternoon/evening.  Friday was a cold, but sunny, day.  We took the Metro down to one of the stops near the center of the city and walked around a bit.  I have been waiting for over three months to get to see some of what we saw on Friday.  My spirits were lifted at the prospect that there is more to Moscow than the dreary apartment buildings we see stretching to the horizon, from our dreary apartment building (exterior only.)

This is the famous Bolshoi Ballet building.  It had been closed for years, undergoing a multi-billion dollar renovation.  It has opened for the season and the tickets are dear.  We are going to see Swan Lake here on Marlene's birthday, whenever that is.

Bolshoi means 'big.'

Here is a statue of Mr. Marx looking toward the ballet theater.    Behind him are some building that abut Red Square.  We are headed that direction.

An interesting structure--a restaurant.

We are about to enter Red Square. St. Basil's cathedral is seen through the archway.

A couple of tourists entering the square.  The square itself is an enormous open space, paved with foot-square paving stones.  The eastern Kremlin walls are seen over Marlene's head.  I don't know how much space the walls enclose but they looked to be to be about a half mile square.  We did not get in this day.  Mr. Putin was busy.

Some older folks admiring the scene.

Lenin's tomb.  It's a striking building.  One has to pay to see the great man.  We passed.

Another cute child, dressed for an evening out.

A little closer to St. Basil's.

Very striking.  I read somewhere that the best view is from the outside, in that the interior is disjointed and cramped.  We will see in the summer.

A really good photographer should be able to get some striking pictures of this building. 

Looking back, north, to where we entered the square.

Just off the SE corner of the Kremlin wall.  This is Friday afternoon traffic.

Marlene and Maryann just outside of Red Square.

The Walker's at the restaurant where we had her birthday dinner.  It was a kind of Chuck-o-rama, but with charm.

We are about to enter the Metro station by the Adam and Eve statue.  This gentleman was trying to get paid for playing Beatles music.  I contributed about 20 rubles, or sixty cents.

Waling home last night we saw this worker (he seems to be responsible for the walks around our building) throwing salt on the walk way, using a piece of cardboard and an old tin container.  I guess the whirly-bird spreader has yet to be invented.

Marlene learned the other day that the Russians have a cute way of expressing their feelings about an elongated winter. Today, for instance, is the April 9th for most of us.  For the Muscovites it is the 68th of February.  Pretty good, I'd say.