mi vida loca

I've been running in Gina's neighborhood and I adore the house with murals painted on the fence all the way around. Yesterday, I was heartbroken–they'd been whitewashed over!

Embassy Moscow has officially put us on Authorized Departure status, so we have been evacuated. We were already having R&R at our evacuation point so that made that part easy. We aren't allowed to go back now for 30 days, at which point the US State Department will decide if the hazardous levels of air pollution and threat of fires hitting nuclear centers are at acceptable levels for American families and non-essential personnel to return. 

Peter, however, is essential personal, he's one of the people they want there deciding on the health risks of being there. He will be going back as soon as he gets things situated. I don't mind an extra couple weeks in the States beyond our R&R, the start date at the American school has been postponed and I'm glad we don't have to head back before school opens. But I don't like it AT ALL that Peter has to go back to the fires and bad air and who the heck even knows WHAT'S going on in that country?

A friend called Aeroflot to look into having her flight back to Moscow changed and the person on the phone said, "Problem in Moscow? There is no problem in Moscow." The Russians don't really do murals, but there's no shortage of whitewash.