Today, Tuesday, Megan went to physical therapy for a back/leg problem. I was our plan to crochet some things for the children for Valentine's Day, but we had errands to run...blah, blah. In short, we never did get the crochet projects. Instead, we went to a park called Bayside here in Sunnyvale and ran errands in order to fix traditional Russian foods for the man of the house. It was quite a bit cooler today with a bit of a breeze, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Still shirtsleeve weather here.
Bayside is mostly a park that has been made out of a slough created by levees that prevent floods from the San Francisco Bay area. The water is low now so there isn't much to see. There is a walkway that has been built over the brackish water areas so the public can view the wildlife, etc...but not much is going on now. Still, we walked through a planted garden to determine the names of some native plants. Interesting.
From there, we drove to a Russian store to pick up some things, then to Target to pick up even more. By the time we got home, Meg was astonished at how late it was, so she started on supper.
Supper was quite labor-intensive. Meg, (with only a little help from me) fixed three kinds of "dumplings". They are basically meat-filled raviolis, the only difference being how they are cooked. Manti is steamed; peroshki is baked; pelmeti is boiled. In any case, she was in quite a bit of back pain, so we did the best we could. When she picked Denis up from work, dinner was mostly done. OMG! I can't remember the last time I have seen a man eat with such relish! Denis loved it!! Of course, we had dirtied up just about every pan in the place...
Fixing the manti was a bit of a problem. Megan was working from Denis's mother's recipe in Russian. We had to ask him to translate the night before. His translation included "lemon acid that needs to be diluted" and "salt and paper". Bless his heart! "We" got it done and he enjoyed every bite. Whew!
Megan is trying to entertain me while I am here. What she doesn't understand is that the sunshine and warmth are all I need, considering the circumstances at home. In the meantime, I consider it my duty to indoctrinate my son-in-law in American ways. In short, he has been "forced" to watch movies that I consider classics. Over New Years in Indiana, he watched "Fiddler on the Roof". Sunday night in California, we watched "The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!" Last night, we watched "West Side Story." And tonight we watched "Little Shop of Horrors." Heck...I can't even get US citizens to watch some of those...but Denis has and never complained!
I have so much more to write about California "culture" and things that I've seen, but it is very late and I need to hit the sack. May God bless my Indiana friends who are enduring ice and snow and bitter cold while I am gone. Keep the faith. I'm thinking that first 45-degree day forecast for the weekend may spell the end of the winter misery. Please????
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