After living in San Diego for more than 4 years and getting accustomed to American ‘convenience foods’ (and Steve’s food preferences), Lena found it rather challenging to prepare meals ‘from scratch’ once again in her own Moscow kitchen!
At the same time, it was GREAT to once again have access to affordable FRESH CAVIAR! In this photo, Lena strokes Anya’s cat, Tisha, while looking the fruit and fish items she had just purchased at the store.
The day that Lena arrived in Moscow, she and Anya visited Lena’s mother to present her the gifts Lena had brought from San Diego for her parents. This image of Lena with her mother was scanned into the computer from a 35mm film negative while...
..this image of Anya with her grandmother was originally taken with a digital camera. As can be seen, the quality of the digital image...when viewed on a computer...is generally MUCH better than when scanned from a 35mm film negative or print.
Anya takes after her mother and enjoys cooking her own food in her (Lena’s) kitchen...and she has really become quite proficient in putting out much more complex meals than the pizza shown here.
Steve just cannot decide exactly WHAT to think about Anya’s new “hair style” exhibited here. [Except to wonder *IF* she often goes OUT of the apartment looking like THIS! <grin>]
Since Anya’s MOST FAVORITE meal in San Diego had been a 1/2 LB SteerBurger w/cheese at BOLL WEEVIL (along with their french-fried ONION RINGS), Lena had taken her a BOLL WEEVIL coffee mug to remind her of that experience!
Lena used her culinary skills to prepare a special treat for one of her close friends. “Bella” is one of Lena’s co-workers from Lena’s days of working as an upper-level engineer in the Russian Ministry of Energy.
This is a photo taken late in the evening outside Lena’s apartment building. During the months of May and June, Moscow has ‘daylight’ for between 16 hours per day and it really only gets ‘dark’ for about 5 hours between 11:00 PM and 4:00 AM each night.
Another close friend of Lena is also named “Lena.” [Actually, 3 of her friends are also named “Lena,” so Steve has to add an ‘adjective’ to their name to differentiate between them. Since this “Lena” is a senior enlisted person in the Russian Army, Steve...
...refers to her as “Military Lena.”] At any rate, this Lena (and her 2 daughters) had FINALLY...after being on a waiting list for more than 9 years...just been given their own apartment by the Russian army.
“Military” Lena certainly prepared some wonderful food...and pulled the cork on some champaign... so that she could properly welcome Lena (Snider) to her new apartment.
It was really nice that Lena (Snider) was able to see “Military” Lena’s new apartment and to be able to get together several times with her during this trip to Moscow.
This is “Cavair” Lena (so named because she and her husband served us freshly-harvested, UNPRESERVED cavair when we visited them in 2001) in her own apartment that is located near the Kremlin and Red Square.
And, this is “Cavair” Lena at Lena’s (Snider) apartment after they had enjoyed a good meal and several ‘refreshing beverages!’
Anya is very (more than a little!) attached to “Tisha,” her cat. While Tisha shares the same color and hair texture as our Ragdoll cat (“Kesha”), he is less than 1/2 of Kesha’s weight. But, then, at 20 LBS, Kesha *IS* bigger than most other cats! <grin>
In this photo, at first glance, Tisha almost looks just like another ‘stuffed animal’ sitting in Anya’s bookshelves!
And, this is “Heater” Lena (so named because she brought over an electric heater for Steve when he got sick during his Moscow trip in 2001) as she enjoys a home-cooked dinner in Lena’s (Snider) kitchen..
Lena checks out the theater and opera advertisements posted on the bulletin board near her condo. When she lived in Moscow, Lena enjoyed going to the theater or opera at least once a month. (But, so far, she has not been able to get Steve too excited about going to...
...the theater or opera in San Diego!) This photo of Lena and a friend of Anya was taken about MIDNIGHT as they were leaving the theater—and the sky is still quite bright. Moscow University can be seen in the background.
“Heater” Lena went shopping with Lena (Snider) and Anya. They visited a new SALAD restaurant that had recently opened in Moscow (that is similar to San Diego’s “Soup Plantation”) for a luncheon meal.
While Lena (Snider) LOVES salads, she had to admit that she would have ALSO liked to have some MEAT with her salad! <grin>
Lena shot this photo of their waiter at the salad restaurant because he is wearing the traditional Russian male waiter’s outfit. The female waiter’s outfit can be (partially) seen on the person to the left of the photo.
Another new store in Moscow is the “METRO” which is almost exactly like our COSTCO “warehouse” design style of operation. The METRO has a membership fee like COSTCO, but memberships can only be purchased...
...by BUSINESSES (as opposed to individual people). In this photo, “Military” Lena checks out the prices on socks...
...while Lena (Snider) finds it interesting that METRO carries PAUL MASSON (and other US brand-name) wines!
And, just like prices in San Diego’s COSTCO, Anya and “Military” Lena confirm that the prices charged by METRO are generally well below the prices charged for identical items in other Moscow stores.
This is a “KVASS” truck that was parked near Anya’s apartment. KVASS—very popular with Russian people—is a type of non-alcoholic beverage that (at least in this photo) is being dispensed in bulk form directly from the truck into any container the patron has with him.

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