Maia's and Gavin's party

Today we celebrated Maia and Gavin's birthdays with a pirate/princess party. Maia was a princess and everything else was pirate.





Maia in heels thanks to Chris and Reenie. I put her down for a nap and 10 minutes later walked into her room as she was sitting on her bed in her undies with her heels on.





Playing with her toy prince. Yikes.

Maia's Aquapark Birthday

She turned 3! And got her nails painted as a special treat.






Can you believe this place?



Emma and Gavin are pretty funny. It's Gavin's birthday too this week.

Grivna symbol

The grivna (national Ukrainian currency) has a symbol, much to my and Anya's surprise. Gotta love wikipedia...

Collision: A debate

Collision was finally released. It looks like a film worth purchasing to me.

Sour Cream Deep Dish Apple Pie

My wife rocks.

Flu Epidimic (what to do about it?)

Most people in Ukraine are freaking out right now.

With the country going into panic/shutdown/quarantine mode, I thought this post from a friend would prove to be helpful.

H1N1 (Swine Flu) - this is not a joke. I thought it interesting enough
to pass on...

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In
a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to avoid
coming
into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1
is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you're still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1
infection and in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms
and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not
fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced
(instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official
communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to
touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe, etc.).

3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if
you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in
the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic
symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling
with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu
has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive
and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every
day with warm salt water. (Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or
Sutra Neti - very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities – but blowing
the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds
dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral
population.)

5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in
Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement
with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost
absorption.

6. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can.
Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the
reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat
into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any
harm.

The Park

Family Photos