I just got caught up

Whoa, that was all hysterical. I'm glad I tuned in. Things are in a whirl. Um, where to begin... mom, you do need a dvd player, that you can set on repeat. Glad you're aboard Katie, and the dog thing, a lot of lobbying going on. It's all about the hair.

I can't catch up so I'll just start fresh. Here I am, in the Budapest hotel bar in Moscow. How about that. Budapest in Moscow. We're watching a reality show, I think, and tomorrow is the debut of Master and Margarita on tv in 10 segments. It's the talk of the nation. I feel very Russian because I've been talking about it with everyone as it is one of my favorite books, if not favorite. I'm going to be traveling unfortunately. Someday I want to get a subtitled version... There was a preview on tv just now and it was a long preview... I loved it. A budget of only 5 million and it's a phantasmagoric novel with a walking cat and more.
The picture to the left is a better plane than the ones I have been flying. Talk about no leg room! I get wedge in the seat and go numb. And then the person in front tries to lean back. Nope. Doesn't work. Not with my knees already pushing through. And they're made of metal and my left knee is still getting over bumping the seat. My friend Alex, (more about him below), was in glee that I was flying domestically in Russia because the planes are old and have glass noses where the navigator sits. He went online and found a few photos of some that had crashed. Just what I needed. On one flight, out of the Urals, we did have a strange false start. And the runways in Russia are short and the engines go into convulsions trying to slow the planes down. All the seats are on hinges and fly forward where there is nobody sitting. Interesting design that I doubt anywhere else has adopted. Megan, I suggest you for start up!

We signed with these guys. All very nice. The one on tthe far left, speaks english pretty well and we spent the evening with him. He's Tartar and very smart and keeps up with boxing and international finance. The one just to the right of hm is the plant manager (manager of plant 17 that is, of 25 and 14,000 people total). Then Iriana, who is nice and fun to talk to with opiniuons, but no Tatyana. Then a production guy, and then there's Tartar's boss with whom we spent most of the day with as well. Then there's their machines... this job is going to be great. 10 tons a year (possible in a day) as a maintenance machine. It's replacing 3 of the most complicated machine I've ever seen.

WHAT A TOUR. I couldn't find a tour better than this with any travel agent. I got a full tour and explanation Q&A session with an engineer at their 500,000-1,000,000 ton/yr hot rolled steel pipe plant (they have 3 more with different processes). I think I got more specific than time had been alotted for. Then I met the chief engineer, of the whole damn facility (14,000 people, down from 20,000+). He was young guy and quiet, and probably didn't even know about the machine, but he was nice. At first I was nervous and then we got on and then we summed up our meeting and I got the hell out of his hair. He has a huge unprofitable plant.

I got over my jet lag in Brighton. I'm going back through Brighton too. I should be a little more energetic on the way back. And at Christmas I'll be fine and reek havoc and terrorize poodles and kids with electric shock therapy on their minds. I got to spend a day watching England's version of a disaster: the burning fuel depot. Alex loves disasters. The way he loves them is not entirely sinister. He loves to be apart of them. I remember when Diana died. I think he wishes he were American only for the fact that we "got" 911. The last shuttle disaster was on his birthday. Magda said he was the most concerned she's ever seen him... That's it, he gets concerned and he likes to be concerned. So I sat around all day, drinking tea (10 cups through the day) (Milk and Sugar, mmm) and watching the coverage and dozing. Like old times. We had a pretense of the disaster affecting my flight. The cloud was floating over everwhere in england. And some flights got cancelled. That would have thrown everything into turmoil... My whole trip was planned to the minute it seems and any falter would jeopordize it all. The visa problem just about did me in.

In fact, I didn't realize it until I posted this photo, we're standing in front of the Brighton disaster of the burning pier. It burnt last year. It was a ballroom.

Here is a shot inside a general store with costumes. I saw it and walked in and took the shot and noticed that the camera was fogging up. This is the only shot I got before I had to go back out in the cold to remit the camera to the chill of Siberia. Oh, did everyone know that Megan sold a machine in Siberia! Yeah, I didn't realize I was going to Siberia until on the plane. The city out there is rich. It's obvious.

Currently, on tv, me and the barkeep are watching the reenactment of Chechyns taking over the theater. It is reenactment but it's frightening. The politics going on over here is a bit chaotic. Putin is starting to put the squeeze on neighboring countries. The Ukrainians said that Russia is starting to sell oil and natural gas to them at European prices... I thought to myself, well that's normal, but I've learned now that it's in the neighborhood of $250 a barrel. I don't know if my source was reliable, A German who says Schroder is selling Germany to the Russians now that he's on the board of some pipeline that's being started. And Russia is basically trying to steal a Lithuanian Refinery that was formerly Yukos'. I read the Business Pages which was more of an Entertainment Tonight of Oil Companies. I can't believe the wild west going on. In Uzbekistan, a squad of 50 police took over the telecom and are handing it over to a Russian company even though some investment group actually owns it. The supreme court of Uzbekistan ruled that the Russian company should own it even though it was just bought out. Whoa.

I am so surprise at how many times you can watch a movie mom. Michelle and I watched The Life Aquatic again, just before I left. It was more incredible for the second time. It gives me good feeling. But it's not often I'll put up with a movie twice. In fact I felt a bit jipped when Willie Wonka was showing on the plane. I usually feel like the plane is a good time to watch a movie I wouldn't pay to see. But we'd seen Willie. And it wasn't much compared to the first.

AS for marriage, I wish my wife were here. It would be more fun with her.