Happy Halloween!

Major events of the day: Waiting Period day 7 of 15 (only 8 more to go!), Happy Halloween!, a quick visit, and DVD formats

Morning weather report: 30, feels like 25. Projected high: a whopping 41 and “fair” (although the noon temperature is projected to be only 37)… Good thing they don’t trick-or-Treat here ‘cause they would have to buy extra large costumes to fit over their coats!
Meanwhile back in Memphis: Overnight low of 47, heading back to 71 (Great trick-or-Treat weather!)

Hello again from dreary Kazakhstan! The weather these past two days has been colder and a little foggy. There’s a definite feel of snow in the air. It won’t be long before I get to see how they handle snow removal around here…

Pretty quiet day overall. With Cathe back home and now 11 hours out of sync, we only have a short time to chat. It is nice to know that everyone back home is right here with us during the looooong process.

Many e-mails have been flying back and forth, keeping us informed on everything going on back home. You really have to love the modern marvel of instantaneous, world-wide communication, even at dial-up speed. Being able to stay in almost-real-time touch with friends and family has really helped the time go by quickly. Kate and David have also enjoyed receiving questions from the other students too. They’re just as excited about meeting all of you as you are to meet them.

It’s odd to think that Cathe’s getting ready to start her first official day back at school while I’m just returning from another daily visit with the kids. Despite the distance and the time difference, it’s nice to know that we can stay connected. For everyone who has been asking, AOL Instant Messenger works flawlessly. We have even been able to use the audio connect feature to actually talk back and forth ($3/hr internet versus the cost of a phone call). It’s not quite telephone quality and there is about a half second delay, but it sure nice to hear a voice on the other end of the wire.

In addition to missing out on the most excellent Shashlik prepared by Sasha the Kabob Guy, she’s also missing her favorite Russian Sitcom, “Счастливый Вмѐсте” (“Happy Together”) and Al Bumpkin’s version of the “He Man Woman Haters Club,” on TNT.

Happy Halloween to all of our friends back home! It’s not celebrated in Kazakhstan, so we had to resort to our own scary picture (Sorry George, those aren’t masks!). Be sure to save us a piece or two of candy when we come knocking a little late...

Cathe didn’t mention it before, but “pre-kids” we have been taking Bob around the neighborhood. All of his doggie friends give out nice puppy treats. Be sure to bring your pet if you’re in the neighborhood! Next year Cowboy Bob will be joined by Princess Kate and Pirate David. (Bob says that he can hardly wait for his kids to come home)

On to the days events: I began the afternoon by going to lunch with Elizabeth at the Slovenian Inn. It’s a really great place to eat and has an English menu to help us out a bit instead of taking the Wheel of Fortune approach and just picking something that looks good in Cyrillic. Elizabeth is adopting twin girls from the RBS and received word last night that her court date is next Wednesday. (Please keep her in your prayers too)

Today was an “off-day” for visitation, so the kids were surprised when I arrived (compliments to Elizabeth’s driver). David was REALLY disappointed that the computer was not in my bag and Kate cringed when she saw the flash cards coming out. They’re both doing very well with their English studies, but don’t want more school right after the school day (normal kids!). They searched my bag better than any TSA rep ever would, perhaps hoping I had hidden the big computer in a small pocket. Then the hidden treats were discovered (it is Halloween after all) and their attention quickly re-focused when I told them that treats would be delivered AFTER studies. Flashcard drills complete, the kids went into momentary bliss while quickly consuming their treasures.

Yesterday the kids wanted me to bring Ночь в Музее (Night at the Museum) so their whole Family Group could watch it. Tomorrow they want me to bring Гаппи Поттер (Harry Potter). They saw our bring-along stash as well as the ones we purchased while here. They must think we’re Blockbuster or Netflix! (Yet another franchise opportunity!)

Thanks to a question from Apryl who adopted from Petropavlovsk last summer, I discovered that DVDs here have a special “Region Coding” embedded on the disk (Copyright police in action!). I was already aware that the TV format here is PAL instead of NTSC (US TV format). However, I didn’t know that the region coding further restricts viewing. By making a quick change to the computer setting it’s no problem to watch the movies on the computer. However, there is a finite number of format changes allowed, four to be exact. Heads up for folks planning to take movies home in Russian format (World Region 5): if you want to switch back to watch US movies, that counts as another change. After your four total changes your system locks on the last selected format. We did buy two DVDs which play without having to change the code, but the rest of the multi-lingual DVDs won’t. There are some multi-format, no-code players available for those who really want them, but in the mean time, we’ll just change the computer in our family room but leave dad’s laptop on US format.

One exciting piece of news is that the kids have a semester Nov 4th – 12th, so they will get to move to the apartment as soon as our 15 day wait is over and not miss any school here. Saturday will be their last day of school in Kazakhstan. They’re ready for a break, but they are excited about coming to their new school and making new friends soon.

That was the day in a nutshell. Check back tomorrow for new updates!