Happy Moscow...

We left the Baikonur yesterday just as the dawn started to lighten the sky in the east. The flight was uneventful, and the food was copious (as usual). The idea of the early flight was to allow as many people as possible to go directly from the domestic side of Sheremetyevo to the international side and check in for the long ride home.

I joined folks who were going to overnight in town before leaving tomorrow, and then take the metro out to my sister-in-law's. I got to her apartment a little after noon and my mother-in-law came down to open the door.

This morning's peace was broken by an early phone call, after which I thought I heard crying on the other side of the wall. It turns out my mother-in-law's remaining sibling - a younger sister - had died. I felt pretty out of place under the circumstances, but Alla (my sisten-in-law) insisted my being around was actually the best thing, as it helped her mom take her mind off the immediacy of the loss.

Alla and I set off to do some window shopping, but had to stop off at a post office to wire some money to Siberia (where my wife's folks are from). It turned out that (a) the post office takes a lunch hour, which was ten minutes away, and (b) they have two Internet terminals. So we canned the idea of window shopping, had a snack at a Starbucks-looking kind of place called Shokoladnitsa, and came back to the post office, where I stood in line for 20 minutes until my turn came, whereupon I was told that payment is expected after you use the terminal. (Go figure!)

I don't know what we'll do with the rest of the day; I'm just happy to be not working.

Cheers...