Pet Truck

From Alison: When I read other blogs I am amazed at how many good writers there are in the world. This is likely because I teach mostly academic writing--something pretty much nearly impossible to enjoy--the writing, not the teaching, thank goodness.

One of Marlys' friends wanted more pictures of Azerbaijan and we will oblige as we get better ones. Mostly we have been concerned with living here--finding the good groceries, good places to cross the streets, negotiating directions with taxis. It's amazing how the mindset shifts when you live in a place--not in picture-taking frame of mind at all.

But this is one scene I finally remembered to get the camera for after hours of watching the neighbor boy down in the back courtyard/parking lot lead his little SUV around on a leash. I wish I had a video of him carefully taking it up the stairs to his apartment and then tying it--again very carefully--to the railing on the porch when his parents called him in for dinner. Ok. So it's sentimental. But it was very cute nevertheless.

We found the "Hong Kong store" where the DVDs arrive in giant boxes from China and movies and TV series cost about $3.50--or 4 for $12. Of course we bought some, since our Satellite TV choices that the landlord preselected include 4 channels of news-ish stuff (BBC World, France 24, AlJazeerah, Russia Today) and about a 100 porn advert channels (which offer such explicit teasers I'm not why sure anyone would bother paying for the full films/phone ladies). Needless to say I ran through all 250 or so stations and wrote down the ones I thought had any value for us so that we could avoid repeatedly setting off Marlys ' "eewwww" alarms. One nice thing from the DVD store--they warn you when the DVDs are the "filmed in the theater" variety. They say "it is not real DVD--it is dark but watchable." Very helpful and honest, eh?

Marlys will be on tomorrow with a kitty update and perhaps more pics...And thank you to Doug for proofing our blog for us--gives you all a reason to return and read the "new and improved" versions! No promises they will be more correct, but they may get longer...