Dave woke up at 5 and I woke up at 6. In the morning we goofed off and I called

Eriko. She was doing well and Zack visits were very helpful. Dave was superbly

pissed as he ruined his shirts in the laundry - or thought so until washed them

again. We left the apartment 8:15.

We headed towards Aravaskaya which was close to a pedestrian only shopping

street that Alex had told us about. We got a little turned around and had no

I woke up at 4:30. Moscow is quite north, so there is a lot of daylight. It

reminds me of Anchorage as well as that movie ‘Insomnia.’ Dave and I spent some

time emailing from our blackberries and talking smack about our Seattle-based

co-workers. I ate cereal, yogurt, and a banana for breakfast. We walked to the

store to buy some more breakfast food. This was quite painful as my shoes and

The morning started about 4:30 AM with Dave wandering around in his underwear.

Desperate to return back to dreamland, I dozed off until about 7:30. I spent

the next 30 minutes or so surfing for free wireless and ran across ‘City-Net’

which offered free wireless in 30 minute increments. Dave was unable to receive

a signal on his laptop and my signal was very poor. Maybe our next apartment

will have better access to what could be a very nice service. We ate breakfast

Arrived at SeaTac at 5:30 AM. The international line had only 3 clerks, which

handled various needs (ticket purchase, changes, etc.) so movement was slow.

Security was quick and we arrived at the gate about 6. Dave and I rested,

boarding the flight at approximately 7:30. The flight, as Dave says, “was not

the best in the world” – there were reports of turbulence, so we were confined

to our seats for much of the flight and they didn’t serve any meals.

While uploading photos today, I noticed there was a new comment. Excited, I listed all the new comments and began to read… but much to my dismay, I found that 5 out of 6 of them were very lewd and written by people who both didn’t know nor respect my family. That’s a very bad feeling, to realize there are strangers who are thinking such inappropriate thoughts about things which have only beautiful meanings (pictures of Jerry and Eriko). I restricted comments to just family members. Hopefully I can continue to allow the album to be seen by all, but at this point, I’m not sure.

I am currently going through an exercise of building out a comprehensive todo list with items lasting through the end of the year (most are study related). Examples include reading three books, learning 500 kanji, making measured progress on my UW colloquia, exercising, etc. Assuming I am able to complete some items on schedule, the big questions I have are: how many things can I complete, which things do I focus on, and at what rate do I accomplish them? For example, I can read one chapter every two weeks from two books, or one chapter every week from one book. I don’t want to overload myself (as I tend to do) as I will then become dissapointed by failure.