Babushka.

My Mother In Law, Maria is a sweet lady who has a Birthday coming up Feb 28th. She was born on the 29th of Feb 1936 in Berezniy Ukraine. She will be 70 years old and has lived all of her life in Ukraina. She has traveled to Georgia , Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Russia. Outside of these countries she has lived in Uzhgorod Ukraina for the past 69 years.
She lived life as a devochka in a small village when World War II broke out. Life got real bad real quick. Due to the lack of rations and medical care things got worse. Sickness hit the region and many people died and the suffering was very bad among the villages and towns. No food , no medical care and bad guys all around doing bad things to many good people.As a rule when bad things happen to good people they become better people. This was true with Babushka, she became very ill and there was no medical care of any kind to help her and the others who were ill and wounded.
This is the woman that welcomed me into her home . She cooked for me, she welcomed me with open arms and a smile on her face. She would not let me send my clothes out to be cleaned. She washed and ironed them herself.
I was setting in the living room one afternoon and heard something in the hall. I get up and see her cleaning my shoes. I thought Baby Girl was playing a trick on daddy, she likes to sneak up on me and say I love you daddy.
Babushka was cleaning away on my shoes with polish and a brush. Talk about feeling like a dirty, lazy man.Every visit and at all times she is doing something. Cooking, cleaning , looking after the kids and more. I have no idea where she gets the energy and the go to do it all. The woman does not slow down or ever quit. She has passed this along to Maryna as well. Maryna is busy all day and slows down to eat meals and that is about it. I think it is , one does as one sees.
Babushka has 3 sisters and 2 brothers still living . She is the 2nd of 5 children all raised together. One brother went in the Soviet Army when he was 18 years old, went to Siberia and still lives there. Ivan has been home one time. Maryna saw him about 15 years ago for the first time. All of the others are still in the same area. So as you can see this a very loving and caring family that has stayed close to home and each other.
The family is having a Birthday party for Babushka next week. She is being honored for her 70 years of life and love. We can't be there and it is breaking our hearts not to share it with her and the family. I will share the photos with all of our pals when we get them.
A good party will be had for a very good woman. There will be food, wine , song and story telling . There will be much to say and hear for everyone except our Babushka. She as a result of her illness is a deaf mute. She lost her hearing and ability to speak when she was ill with Typhus when she was 5 years old. God bless Babushka may she have many more Birthdays..

For the past 20 years..

I have taken a Holiday in Jan or Feb. This plus me watching the Winter Olympics. I have a desire to travel again. Problem I have is ,Maryna's AOS is not approved yet and she can not go with me. What does one do when this happens ? Now there is a lot of things I want to hear and taking a holiday here in the USA is not one of them. I have been in all of the states that I care to be in. Another problem we have is Gino is in school and will be until June.Taking him out of school for 10 days is not a option at this time of his education.
I am still going crazy and need to travel to far away places with strange sounding names. Maryna's mother has a Birthday next week. It seems to me that some family member from her US family should be there. What do you think? I think I should book a flight and go to Uzhgorod. This will help in many ways. I can check on her Mother, check on dying guy in hospital and get more information on the house and land. I also need to get things lined up to send a couple of cars and trucks over, oh and a Harley too. I want to ride in style during the summer. I also need to take some meds and things over , so I think this is a good idea and just needs a bit more planning and a few phone calls. How about it gang, let's hear your input.

ebay & ice cream cake..

Limey last week was telling us about bidding on items on ebay. This site can whip your ass if you let it. I am sure that the people that started ebay had no idea what they had started. This is a multi billion dollar business. I have been doing business with ebay for a few years now.
I had no idea how much Maryna would love it. When I shop ebay I search for the item or items and then bid. I do check many times during the bidding period and stay in touch with what I am bidding. Maryna stalks. She is a wild woman and wants to win every bid. She has her watch and the clock set to the exact time that is left and can't wait to outbid the other person. Now this is a good thing, she has got some real good deals. I do love to mess with her . Yesterday she won 7 items. Me , honey do they have computers in Ukriana ? Maryna, big eyed and smiling , Yes of course , you know that !! Well did you bid on ebay in Ukraina ? Honey Please !! These words have a very sharp tone to then and make me crazy. It is a blast watching her go crazy and sit at night stalking the prey so to speak. I try to sleep around 11.00 pm. I woke up Monday morning around 3.00am and she was stalking, Tuesday around 2.00am and guess what? Oh yea , bright eyed and still stalking. I ask her tonight what time she came to bed. Oh 1.00 or so. Now our pal Limey can and will tell you, these people just don't sleep at night. When we are at home in Ukraina, it is 2.00 or 3.00 am and then they start to get sleepy. I am glad that I don't have anything to do there because I would not be able to get up in time. I think that when we get our house and land things will have to change .A farm and ranch. The ice cream cake was and is great. I saw it in a store and had to have it. Nice white ice cream and a red filling with a cherry on top.
That along with roses and cards made for a nice night. Baby Girl liked making red mush out of it and well I just had a good time eating lot's of it. See for yourself what it looked like, or what was left of it. Oh, thank you Dawn the poem, that was a first for us and Maryna and I were very happy to hear it. Jenny,travel safe and God Bless you and your son. Bubba, you don't know what you are missing. Pea,I am glad that you like the cake cream also, Neeka,I am having a hard finding the book, I will though,I will not forget. Damn , I have got to learn how to type. This is taking forever and I have a lot to do tonight, yea believe that shit.Maryna is taking a break and talking to one of her pals, Baby Girl is playing with a flashlight and Gino is in his room angry at the world and I am here typing to my pals from all over the world. Limey is still cleaning his flat to get his deposit back. He may or may not have clothes on. Jenny is somewhere in Africa or lost in a airport. Pea is having dinner with Mr Pea. Neeka is typing and looking after Marta. Jen is studying law or starting a brawl in a club. King, is playing with his two timing cat.Oedipa is reading or writing a poem. Dawn has her hands full with the kids. Moizza is drawing lines and typing something on one of her blogs. e! who knows, I am afraid to say , he may beat me up and I am too old for that. Dykun is writing more information on his Baba and corruption in Ukraina with the gas problem. Scott is still planning my web site and how he is going to run it to sell my gold and silver. Indica is playing with their dog's. Last but not forgotten is my brother. He was released at 07.35 and is already telling the system what his rights are. It seems to me that he would have learned after 5 years and 2 months, that it is the system that tells him what his rights are. I wonder who his daddy really was ? Tim who knows , I bet he is in Kiev chasing Yula around and picking fights with her husband.Goddamn I love life !!

One Month Later ...

Well we still have a offer made on the house and land and the owner is still in the hospital. No news . I will say this is starting to get on my nerves and making me crazy. I have no idea why, I think it is just the fact that we don't know any more now that we did a month ago. That alone is enough to make me crazy. I will let all of my pals know the minute we have some news. I never thought that buying land in Ukraina would make me this crazy. All I want to do is live in peace with my family, grow my grapes , make my wine and raise my livestock. Speaking of livestock, tomorrow is release day for little brother, now I have to deal with that.
Now the VP has shot a fellow hunter.Things like that happen. Should they ? Hell no ! Now the press wants to know why it took so long to report it. Damn, can a brother not get a break? The man shot someone. He is still in a state if shock. Now the press wants to question him on the time it took to report it. The fact that it took 18 hours to make sure the man was going to live and get the information out to the press was not good enough. It seems that a man can't win at times.To me I am just glad that we have a country that provides us with the facts that someone was shot and that the victim is going to live and be ok.

What in the blue hell is going on in the news ? I hear that people are upset over some cartoons that were put out. Big deal. Get use to it. Cartoons have never hurt anyone as far as I know . I could care less who is hurt or upset about them. This is nothing new , they have been doing it for years.
Abuse and torture. What do you expect . That is just the way things go. You don't have to like it or agree with it. That is a fact. I think that most of my pals know my stand on it. If it helps and saves lives , go for it. Do what you have to do to get the information . Any country or conflict I have ever been in it was a known fact that it could and would happen. Bring it on, get it done and over with. This is a fact! Everyone knows it happens, they expect it. The problem seems to be some weak assed people with a do good attitude and love for mankind want to make a big deal out of it. Trust me weak assed people, they can and would do it to you . The thought of a normal weak assed person is they think that it only goes one way. Trust me on this, it goes both way's . The people who are handing out the abuse and torture are someone's son, husband ,brother ,uncle, cousin or some relation to some of the weak assed people making all the noise. This is a fact also. Open your eyes people, see the conflict or war for what it is. It is not nice, it is not pretty, it is not going to ever be anything but what it is, nasty and cruel. With killing, suffering , abuse and torture. The only thing that changes are the names and locations to protect those who did what had to be done..

It had to happen..

Snow, and a lot of it. We have bought some new furniture and today is the big day. We had heard that the snow coming and the only question was how much and when. Well the when is today and the how much is still up for grabs.
The furniture was here and so was the snow.Nothing like new stuff and new snow along with wet feet and in a hurry to finish helpers. Thanks to my pals Gus and Robert who did all of the heavy lifting, Maryna is now a very happy woman with her new stuff, Baby Girl is dancing in her new bedroom and Gino is hanging something on the wall, well he is using a hammer so I hope that he is. Me ? I am just glad that my house is back to normal and I can watch Lions kill nasty assed Water Buffalo.LMAO....

You had to be there..

This weekend we made a trip to North Carolina to see my family. We made a short trip of it because they were calling for snow and also the SuperBowl.
Part of the fun of the trips is eating as much local food as you can stand.When it comes to this, we are one of the best . The same is true when we are in Ukraina. We are pig's. I have no idea why, to be honest with you I have never thought of it, I am too busy eating.
The state of North Carolina is famous for a couple of things outside of me. NASCAR and what we call Carolina Barbecue. This comes in many forms. Pork, chicken and beef. Pork and chicken are the best sellers. Ribs are great and are always served with cole slaw and fries with ice tea to drink.
I bought Maryna some ribs a couple of months ago . I had no idea what I had started. She loved them and eats them with zeal. Friday night we went to one of the better joints and ordered ribs, chopped pork and all the other good things that come with it. This is a real mess as you will see and a grand time was had by all. The woman was wild. The kids went crazy and I just set there beaming like the proud husband and daddy I am. I was ask by one church lady, y'all sure talk funny;where y'all from? Vee are from Uzhgorod Ukraina; ver from you please ? Hu ? Whars that ? Vee are near Rossia. Whars that ? I am wanting laugh, Zhenya is just staring at church lady open mouthed with a hush puppy in one hand and his fork in the other. Baby Girl and Maryna come back to the table and we start eating again. Church Lady just looks, shakes her head ,mutters something and walks off. Damn I love a family outing....