Lucky.

It has been raining in K-grad for a few days...and by raining I mean literally some form of precipitation all day long.  Sometimes it's sprinkling.  Sometimes it's misting.  Sometimes it's actually raining.  Whatever form of precip is coming from the sky, it's making me not want to go outside because the roads are giant puddles.  I think today might be the 5th day of rain in a row...and as Phil pointed out to me last night, "If it were colder, do you realize how much snow we would have?"  The thought had crossed my mind too.  It is unseasonably warm here...some days it's even been in the 40's.  But, I just looked at the weather and tomorrow it may get cold enough to snow.  We'll see what happens...but rest assured I'll have my camera ready to capture my first real Ukrainian snow :)

This past weekend was Ukrainian Christmas.  I was invited to go partake in Christmas festivities with my counterpart and her fam, but having been sick for a week and finally having a voice back made me want to stay home.  Since it was a holiday weekend, there is no work today.  That also means my gym was closed today.  I'm actually really excited to go back after having missed it for a week...and no, I'm not only excited for a real shower (although that does sound lovely too...).  

I made homemade pizza today for lunch...with green olives and corn.  I'm laughing out loud right now as I type that because it sounds like the weirdest combination ever...and it kind of is.  However, I really love it.  Ukrainians put corn on their pizza like Americans put pepperoni.  I didn't understand this at first, but I've grown to love it.  And, since it's raining, I didn't want to go to the store just to get a tomato or some other topping.  So, I improvised with what I had at home.  Scrumptious.  

As I was standing in the kitchen cooking, I looked out my window and saw my fave dog crossing through my courtyard.  I quickly opened the window and called for it to come over so that I could feed it. This is the tricky part though.  I now keep hot dogs in my fridge to feed to the dogs that I like that come through my apartment complex.  But, if I see them through my kitchen window, I have to run through the hall, to my living room/bedroom, open the sliding door (which isn't always easy), run through the living room/bedroom, open the balcony door, open the refrigerator door (yes, it's outside on my balcony), grab the hot dogs, run all the way back through the apartment hoping that the dog is still sitting there.  I can't tell you how many times I've done this when the dog doesn't understand what "hold on a sec!" means, and I come back to my kitchen window, only to find the dog halfway across the yard again, not coming back.  But, the doggie today stayed around.  I've named him/her Lucky.  She's black with a little white fur on her chest and a little white on her paws.  The first time I saw this dog was when Mitchell was here and we were taking a train to Kiev.  She was in the train station (yes, in the station) and was so sweet looking that I ended up giving her a granola bar (that she didn't eat).  Her fur is kinda longish but looks super clean and feels freshly brushed.  Maybe she belongs to someone.  I see her around town about every week.  When Maria was in town a few months ago, we saw her downtown one night, so we ran into the supermarket a bought some hot dogs to give to her.  Today, her fur was completely soaked and she looked pitiful as I fed her from my window.  Oh, how I wanted to bring her into my apartment.  Don't worry mom and pops, I didn't.  

Probably going to venture across the street to get a few staples for the week.  I think I might make split pea burgers again this week...toodles :)

PS--the best part of feeding Lucky hot dogs?  Ukraine sells hot dogs individually wrapped in a slick package...aka, they are very hard to open.  This vegetarian girl gets hot dog juice and guts under my fingernails every time I open one of the packages.  The things I do for a dog...