To market, to market, to buy...

I guess this photo is called behind a Lanos instead of on top of a Lada!

Since I got back, I have been making lists in my mind of things to do. Things to buy, things to clean out and rearrange to get ready for all our company that will be starting to come in about three weeks, and continuing through the first week of May. We are starting with Garry's father and older brother mid-March and then two building teams, first from Steinbach, Manitoba for two weeks and then one Salmon Arm BC for a week.

Garry gave away our microwave and one of my bigger cooking pots to the group homes while I was gone (either in December or February, I didn't ask). On Sunday he was teaching his English class for three hours so I looked at microwaves to replace it. Looks like they cost 1500- 2000 grivna now (one US dollar is around 27 grivna currently). We bought the last one for 800 I think, but that was six years ago, and the price of everything imported went way up two years ago.  I have another pot of the same size, so I won't miss the pot after I got the other one out and put it in the drawer. Garry said he knew it wasn't my favorite and he thought he'd buy me a new one.

Garry pointed out I could have gotten Sasha to carry a microwave back to the car, but I hadn't thought of it. We had parked downtown close to the school after leaving church. Sasha (one of the students) had decided to come with us to church, and he didn't have a watch or cellphone with him, so he followed... accompanied me everywhere. I  bought some MC Donalds cheeseburgers, Fanta and fries for him, tea for me at the mall- Most city centre, or the big store, as Sasha said. We sat at a table in the food court and I was reading my ebook and sipping tea, and Sasha talked me into buying him a latte after he finished eating. He thought it was nice and warm inside and he got all the goodies since he was cashless because the boys' house is trying to pay off big gas and electric bills. We solved part of the problem by removing the dryer we had bought them last year, no one else has one and the electric bill there is way bigger than anyone else's, the dryer's sitting in my house now, but for emergency use only I guess.

I went to the yarn shop to pick up a few balls I need to work on finishing the big afghan and Sasha did earn lunch by carrying two big grocery bags back to the car for me after he helped me shop. I carried the small bag and the new broom stick (my broom was half it's normal size when I got here, Garry's vet student had cleaned too vigorously, I was told. It did have a dent in the metal and we have never found a really sturdy one.) We had a good time grocery shopping, Sasha would ask me if I needed something in Russian and I'd answer in English. He pointed out the cart had English on the child seat part and he could read the word NO which was followed by a picture three times. He had trouble pronouncing yes, but he's not my best English student. He told Garry when he came out to the car after class that I had bought massa (meat) and chips.

Monday Garry started a project over at the girls' house insulating the attic to save on the heating bill. If he had known it would be so easy, he would have gotten it done in the fall after he checked on it, they had 1/3 of the insulation finished yesterday and he hopes to finish today. They had to move everything from one side to the other so they could lift the wooden floor and put the insulation down and replace the floor then move all the boxes and bedframes someone stored there back on the finished side. However it was much easier than when they did the attic last March for the new house.

Well now to get some of the things on the to do lists done...