Potpourri

Happy Anniversary, Honey!! It's the big 2-0 for us. We dated for 5 years before we got married, so we've been together for a quarter of a century. Oh dear, that sounds soooo lonnnnng when you say it like that.

We received a piece of paper from the US National Visa Center today. Our I-1600A petition is being forwarded to Russia where the adoption interview will take place--I'm guessing it is the American Embassy over there? It just makes it a bit surreal thinking that my "stuff" is in a foreign country waiting on me to join it. I hope I don't eventually have any questions about this because we're suppose to direct them to this consulate general. It is all written in Russian--my language courses aren't helping me to read this--I'm starting to think I'm gonna need to get that Russian-English dictionary off Amazon after all...

And today's Russian tidbit....White Nights. (No relation to the song Nights in White Satin) It is a phenomenon seen in the Northern Hemisphere during the summer months, but St. Petersburg, Russia is the most famous for it. Not because it is "better" there, but because it is the world's northern most city with a population of 1 million. (More people--more news.) For you geography buffs, it is the same latitude as Oslo, Norway and Seward, Alaska. The sun starts to set around 10:00pm at night, but it never fully dips into the hemisphere making it day light in the night time. It is bright enough that these cities do not need to turn on street lighting! Thumbs up for saving on the light bill! This spectacle can be seen most vividly in St. Petersburg from June 11-July 2. I hear they have quite the party up there during this time of year. Talk about messing up your cicada rhythms! This picture was taken at 11:00pm at night in St. Petersburg!