20c (and friends)

I meet this guy and his pack all the time. He has a lot more dogs than what is shown on that picture published in Saturday's MK and, yes, they are surprisingly well-behaved.

As surprising as it might be, the former town of Val Belair, which is now part of Quebec city, is mentioned in the 2001 edition of the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. It's funny to see the name of a place that was the object of so many jokes and derision while I was a teenager printed in a serious dictionary. Meanwhile, I cannot help but wonder how many Pakistani or Chinese cities with a population 30 times bigger, Random House has failed to mention...

My boss is back from Czech Republic where he was on vacation with his family. He soaked during three weeks in the springs of the famous spa resort of Karlovy Vary, aka Carlsbad. It sounds like a very lazy way to spend vacation time and I would usually prefer something more active, but, hey, why not? Beer is good and the countryside looks beautiful. And it is also where they make an old favorite of mine, sweet Becherovka. So Carlsbad might definitively be on top of our list for September...

toadstool last week near Tarusa.
марусино лекарство от тоски!

Николай Заболоцкий

ГОРОДОК

Целый день стирает прачка,
Муж пошел  за водкой.
На крыльце сидит собачка
С маленькой бородкой.

Целый день она таращит
Умные глазенки,
Если дома кто заплачет —
Заскулит в сторонке.

А кому сегодня плакать
В городе Тарусе?
Есть кому в Тарусе плакать —
Девочке Марусе.

Опротивели Марусе
Петухи да гуси.
Сколько ходит их в Тарусе,
Господи Исусе!

«Вот бы мне такие перья
Да такие крылья!
Улетела б прямо в дверь я,
Бросилась в ковыль я!

Чтоб глаза мои на свете
Больше не глядели,
Петухи да гуси эти
Больше не галдели!»

Ой, как худо жить Марусе
В городе Тарусе!
Петухи одни да гуси.
Господи Исусе!

1958

I had the surprise to learn this morning from CNN that Dell is recalling millions of lithium batteries used in its notebooks because they can BURST INTO FLAMES... gulp, I'm writing this on my Dell Inspiron 2200 laptop, so you can imagine how concerned I feel. According to the computer maker, the Sony batteries were placed in notebooks that were shipped between April 2004 et July 18 2006. I bought my computer in July last year. Fortunately, it looks like I have been spared since Inspiron 2200 is not on the list ... (don't say you're spared until you've knocked on your wooden head, dixit Lina).

gizmodo.com writes that the Dell notebooks weren't the only ones using Sony batteries. Apple had a similar battery exchange program for MacBook Pros sold from February to May of this year.

delicious and nutricious: apples, bananas and ginger cookies for breakfast... a L. Rozovskaya innovation.











the famous cookies, and they cost only 35 rubles!!

des cris stridents ont capté mon attention ce soir alors que j'avançais en direction du passage pour piétons. J'allonge le cou pour voir et je vois: un chat effilé et agile s'envole avec une souris dans la gueule.

dans le métro dimanche soir j'ai croisé un gars portant une batte de baseball soigneusement enveloppée dans du papier. ca m'a frappé, particulièrement parce que pour une raison ou une autre je me sentais menacé par son bâton. mais ce que j'ai vraiment trouvé cocasse, ç'a été de croiser dix minutes plus tard à une autre station une fille très chic avec une flèche dans sa main droite.

c'était déjà intrigant de voir un gars avec une batte dans le métro, mais une fille avec une flèche deux stations plus loin, avouez que ça a toutes les qualités d'une énigme.

Est-ce qu'un autre passager du métropolitain m'attendait un peu plus loin avec une paire de patins? Je ne le saurai malheureusement jamais car j'ai du courir pour ne pas arriver en retard au travail...