11/08/04-Pizza night...

We gave Gma a special treat tonight. She asked if we could have pizza tonight. As I think I have mentioned, there are many options for pizza in Kazakhstan, though the concept of delivery has not hit Karaganda. Because of the cold and late hour, I chose to get pizza from Johnnie Walker’s Scotch Pub. It is a 2 minute walk from our apartment. I have described Johnnie Walker’s in the past. The main draw for we Americans is that that menu has English subtitles. Of course, this didn’t help the night Mary Jo ordered ribs and got chicken wings, but most of time it works out. It doesn’t hurt that the Russian word for Pizza is, well, Pizza.

As described previously, Johnnie Walker’s is a Scottish themed restaurant. It is probably one of the best decorated restaurants I’ve been in while here in Kazakhstan. It has everything – wood booths, marble top fully stocked bar and waitpersons in kilts. It has everything, that is, except for customers. I really don’t know how the place survives, other than government subsidies or some unseen nefarious income. Anyway, it took two people and multiple attempts to get them to understand that I wanted something “to go.” After reaching this understanding, I ordered our pizza and sat at the bar and had a Smarye, a Kazakhstan beer. I sat at the bar and watched Four Weddings and a Funeral dubbed in Russian. On the other side of the bar, they had Gladiator. About 20 minutes later, our food arrived and I realized the activity of take-out, in particularly pizza take-out, was not a common occurrence at Johnnie Walker’s. They had sliced our pizzas and put them in long plastic containers. So, when I got home, Mom was treated to a nice 8-decker pizza sandwich. But, it was very tasty and we had no complaints. Tomorrow, we will have some for lunch.

I don’t know if any of you watch the weather in Karaganda or look at the little sign on our web, but last night Karaganda reached -8 degrees F. Luckily, when I want for my walk and for the pizza, the temperature had risen to somewhere just below freezing.

The kiddies are good. Gracie got a bump on her head last night when she hit it against the crib. This, combined with the scabs she already has from scratching the rash she had, gives her quite the marks on her forehead. I kept trying to tell her the boys don’t like scars, but just doesn’t seem to listen. She has started to grab the spoon to feed herself. She doesn’t have the concept of the spoon scoop yet, but once I put food on the spoon, she grabs it and feeds herself.
Jack is also fine. He is really such a little imp. He has a new game now where he throws his bottle, crawls over to it, drinks some more and then throws it again. This goes on until he finishes. He has also started to clap with open hands and we taught him to blow kisses. It is interesting how each of them is developing different things. I tried to get a picture of Jack in his bed to show you how this kid thrashes around. It didn’t come out well, but I include it anyway.



Here is a picture of Gracie with her Gma.