On this day in history...

Twenty-seven years ago today, at the Дворец бракосочетания № 1 (Palace of Marriages No. 1) in Moscow, Galina and I were hitched.

It's almost hard to believe it's been that long.

I seem to recall that the official who performed the ceremony that snowy day wore a red sash and after the appropriate words had been said - witnessed by our best man, maid of honor, a quintet of retired musicians, and a bust of V.I. Lenin - felt it incumbent to make a remark to the "Soviet" half of the couple standing before her. Apparently using appearance as her guide, she turned to me (Galina was much more elegantly dressed) and hissed, in Russian: "Don't ever forget your motherland!"

I recall smiling and nodding my head as the quintet began to bow something appropriate on their violins and we began moving toward the photographer.

In any event, here's hoping for another twenty-seven!

Cheers...

Man, is it cold!

I went for a walk a little while ago to clear my head of the fumes that escaped from our basement wood-burning stove as Galina and I tried to get it going, and it was a chilling experience. Our outdoor thermometer was reading about -8 degF and there was no wind, and I made it to the intersection of Carino and Meadows before turning back with my face half frozen and the cold seeping in through the denim of the jeans I was wearing.

I took the opportunity to listen to tracks 6-10 of the first Spanish CD as I walked, but the cold made it hard to concentrate.

In other news, I am within 500 words of finishing the translation due tomorrow morning. The flow has been steady for the past couple of hours, and I think I'll review the work either later tonight or tomorrow morning, as it would really be nice to do something outside the house today.

Then again, Galina just put a turkey into the oven, so that'll probably limit our mobility for a couple of hours at least.

Cheers...