March 4, 2007.

Well, I wasn’t home for very long when I started making plans for my extended trip to Russia, Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to be exact. My first launch operations campaign for ILS. Fortunately, the company allows me a $500.00 foul weather gear financial allowance, so I was able to buy some warm clothes. Altho the hat, I already owned, as most of my family is well aware. Said goodbye to Cindy and left the states on Mar 4. Arrived in Moscow on 5 Mar midday, and made it to the hotel just in time for dinner. And can you believe, on the menu at the restaurant at the Courtyard Marriot in Moscow: Phlly Cheesesteak. No lie. And as you will see over the course of this blog, Philly will play a big part of my trip. It was a real steak served on a baguette with cheese and fried onions. I HAD to try it. And it really wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t like the real thing, but at least it wasn’t cabbage and cutlet from a beef. Ahhhh, snowy and cold Moscow in winter. Life is good? Picture is looking out my window at the Marriot. And the restaurant, its one of the few Russian words I know: "Pectopah"...and when you see "bap" before those words, you know you are in a "bar" and "restaurant". See...its like Piva. You have to learn the important words. :)

these are the pics I was trying to show you on the last post. Sheesh, its only taken 5 days for the pics to download. It takes so long to download things here, I think all the snow will be melted by the time I get caught up.

It sure is a different look at Moscow than last year. Everything is still gray, but now it is also white! Frozen rivers, everything covered in snow, the traffic even worse (and they really don't care that there is snow and ice on the ground...they still drive NUTS!!!!) One of the best things about that trip to Moscow was flying thru Germany and being able to see our boy Casey, and Caryn and Colon too (is that how his name is spelled??...*LOL*). Its just kinda nuts to think about it...being overseas and having breakfast with a nephew and his family in Frankfurt Germany. Who'd a thunk it. As you can probably tell by the new blog posts, I am trying my best to catch up on my trips of the last month or so. Had to get my January trip in before I filled you in on the launch op's.

well, I have been trying for three hours to post some pics but it won't let me. The internyet out here is sooo slow, by the time the pics download, it times me out. So I will post this note and try later to update the pics. Know that things are well, and going great. Will update you all later. With love to all from Russia...oops, I mean Kazakhstan.

As the saying goes...he's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!! Back to blogging cuz I am back in Russia, and getting ready for launch operations out in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. I came out here in January for meetings with our satellite customers and our Russian counterparts, who are responsible for the launching of a rocket called the Proton. I was here from Jan 29 thru Feb 2, 2007. Needless to say, it was COLD...and it was SNOWY...every minute of every day I was here. Just a little different than last years trip...no shorts, no lake trips, no BBQ's, altho I still did bring my E-A-G-L-E-S shirt. Went out to a restaurant on our last evening here, a nice quiet place. And boy was it boring. As you can probably see by the pictures. I had a terrible time, as usual. And go figure, toasting with wodka...haven't had any of THAT since last July...*L*

Before I left for home, Mark P and I had a chance to walk thru Red Square, and the Kremlin. Hard to imagine AGAIN, saying words like walk thru Red Square as an Americanski. But got some awesome pics of St. Basils Cathedral right in Red Square. I guess the colors are why it is called Red Square???.....*L* Had a great time while we were there tho.
Walked past Lenins tomb, the tomb of the unknown soldier. Need another trip thru the square to see (and take more pics) of other things i missed.

well, done for now, time for some more meatballs. From Russia with love...das vedanya

something wrong when ya leave your house on the 27th of June, but ya doan get to your destination until the 30th of June. Sheesh. Sleep deprivation here we come. Got to Yas about 3 in the morning. And was greeted by a salami and cheese sandwich...the Russian way. Glad I ate on the plane. Slept for about 3 hours and sure enough as I went to breakfast, somethings never change...stroganoff, noodles, cutlets from a beef, lunchmeat, cheese, salad with no lettuce...the standards. Altho they did hit a new Poppy-esque low (Poppy would be my father), they had breaded and deep fried cucumber slices. OMG they were absolutely horrible. Pop would have liked them I'm sure. Got re-acquainted with our spacecraft most of the day, doing checks and balances so to speak. Dinner and then...guess what??...Vodka!! They didn't run out while I was away. Some pics, the Americansky security at work, left to right, Dean G-Love Glover, Tony LT Ralph, Steve Stle-man Stolle and Kevin See ya in Thailand Lanham. The other pic is me with the head *kgb* of security *kgb* Dmitry, also known as Papa Dima. And the othe rpic from left to right, Yvgeni our interpreter, the gentleman in the blue shirt is the entire HEAD of the Russian Space Organization, Director General Andreev (he likes my Eagles shirt btw, and we get along very well...not a bad guy to know out here) Vladislav the program director from Kosmotras, and Mr. Bernstein, he heads up the hotel here. Not a bad group to have your picture with. Keep them on my good side, specially anyone with a title like Director General. Just a note: it is very hard to get people to smile out here. Note the only one in the pic smiling. Maybe they were NOT enjoying my company. Oh well.....As the song says...Back in the US...Back in the US...Back in the USSR!!!!

got to spend some much needed quality timed with a certain beautiful brunette, and we were fortunate enough to have Cindy's daughter Maria in for a long weekend as well. Was that same brunettes b-day June 25th (its kinda cool dating an older woman again...rowl-rowl), and we saw the Il Divo Concert at the Mandalay Bay for her birthday. Spent an awesome afternoon at Lake Mohave with Sammy and Laurie White and their fam. God it was gorgeous out. WAYYY hot but bright and sunny. Looks like a great place for a wedding...*nudge-nudge...wink-wink* Trust me, after those 18 days spent with family and friends, it was hard coming back to Yasnyi...but alas, that is where I am again.

Got to see my long un-seen and much missed Aunt Judy from Texas, my pops youngest sister, who was visiting my folks for a couple weeks. I have finally met someone who takes more pictures than I do. Don't they look great together...Aunt Judy and Cindy Lyn (great necklace hun)...a couple of incredible ladies. And Cindy with (from left to right) Michaels arm, Julia Rose, Eric the E-man, Janelle and Chelsea, at Grammys house. Notice the grammy is a goofy on the board on the fridge. Leave it to my kids...

Its July 7, but I want to take you all back a few days. Actually, many days. After the launch delay, I was able to come back to the states for a couple weeks. A couple of states actually, as Cindy and I were able to get home to Lansdale for a long Fathers day weekend. Got to see the kids, thanks for letting us use the pool favorite Uncle Nick, and Aunt Rick too. The kids as always had a ball. Eric the E-man learned to swim across the pool, went in the deep end and went off the diving board for the first time...way to go pal. Was a great day. Not sure if I could miss anyone more than I miss these five awesome kids. I love you guys............................

but you may have noticed on the previous post the fact that the police-sky's were wearing baseball gloves. Well, perhaps the coolest thing so far happened that same day of the lake picnic. My new good buddy and Bigelow corporate attorney Michael Gold, pictured, arranged with his family in Washington DC, to have 9 baseball gloves, 6 balls, bases and a bat, to be delivered to the base for us to use on the picnic. We spent most of the day teaching the russians how to play americansky baseball. It was sooooo neat. A few of the russians had their children at the picnic, and well, after about 5 minutes TOPS, the Russian children and adults were watching us tossing the ball. We all spent the next 8 hours teaching them, watching them, laughing, it was just incredible. We...had...a...BLAST!!! Noone really understood each other, but apparently we managed to show them how to do things...how to catch, how to bat, throw. The pictures do not do justice to their faces when they would catch their first toss, or hit the ball after 2 or 3 swings. The adults as well. So many of the adults had their viodeo cams out, taking movies, taking snapshots. Its kinda neat knowing that somewhere in this HOOGE country, some local families are watching movies, or looking at pics, and seeing their children playing baseball with me, and the rest of the Bigelow team out here...a moment to remember. These are just a few pics of our newest ball players. Great job on the equipment Gold-sansky!! He even let the younger ones keep their gloves. Their little faces lit up when they found out they could take the gloves and balls home. Was AWESOME!!

and as with everything else around here, if we leave the base we have ot have our security (KGB) escorts. So, you know me, I was sneaking our escorts pivas. They were my best friends by nights end. thats Nickolay on the right, Andreas on the left. Greta guys actually. They brought their kids to the lake with them. Best friends to the point where I was almost allowed to drive back to the base in the police jeep. And it would have been VOLUNTARY!!! Sheesh.,..who'da thunk it possible. We invited them back to the base later that evening and they were so happy to meet us that they brought along saled/smoked/dried fish for us to eat with our pivas. Oh my, the things I get myself into. They bring out these 3 fish, complete with heads, tails, fins, scales...was almost scary!! And they take out their sawsall *L* and start to cut these fish into pieces. Just HUNKS of this fish. Its a good thing they don't understand english. One of our boys would come up and ask me how the fish is, and I would just look at then, smilin and laughing and saying..."I think i am gunna puke any second!!" and our guests would smile as if I said...omg this is the best fish i have ever eaten. I did alot of that Seinfeld episode...saying to everyone looking..."thats some good mutton!!" and then I would spit it into the napkin. OMG it was terrible. But my new best friends just gnawing on fish scales and tails, and red meat stuff...sheesh. Making me want to skip dinner just thinking about it. But, they never knew I didn't like it. Chalk one MORE up to relations with our comradesky's. **Oh and btw, the other picture is an actual AK47 I am holding, unloaded of course, and my buddy Andreas is holding an unloaded 7mm Browning I think. Yes, they carry guns when the escort us around. They just take out the bullets for pictures.

but I do want to take this opportunity to finally catch up before I have to begin my journey home tomorrow morning. Our hosts threw another bbq for us this past weekend. Sunday we loaded up the bus and headed out to a lake. About 60 kilometers from here, no paved roads again...was bouncy as all get out. But it was nice. They had a motor boat, two jet skis, beer, food, (the food in the pic was only ONE of the thinsg they served. We did have grilled pork chops again. They were awesome. Real food...yummmmmmmmmmm). Minoga pivas again, but no wodka. They don't like to drink it warm, and they really don't ever use ice around here. Must be refrigerated. We brought a little ice with us, maybe half an igloo full. I taught Sveta our bartender how to spin a beer in ice to make it cold. She was impressed with americansky ingenuity. As for the jet skiing, yeppers, that is me. I did good all by myself. To quote my darlin Cindy Lyn, I was a "big boy and did it all by myself!!" There was a tragedy tho, I lost my hat. Sunk to the bottom of Lake Somethingsky.

okay, I'm back. Its Wednesday afternoon here, June 7, about 4:30, and I figure I would update and do my best to get caught up. This past weekend it was about 80 to 90 degrees most of the weekend, and it was snowing. Not literally, but apparently during the late May early June time frame, the cottonwood trees seem to lose there seeds, and then the wind picks up. Saturday was a blizzard of seeds, no lie, by days end about an inch of seeds had blow and fallen. This lasts for about a week according to the locals. It has been sort of snowing ever since. Have never seen anything like it.

And just to let you all know, apparently there has been a launch slip. A problem with the rocket avionics, so it looks like I will be coming home FRIDAY!! WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! No more ground meat til I get back. For my co-workers, I will see you Monday, and hopefully rested. For my fam...my cell phone will work soon. For my children...dang guys...I miss you, and hopefully I will see you sooner than later. As for Cindy Lyn, (in my best Pepe le Pew voice) Le Bow...le Wow...le Rowl Rowlllllllllllllllllllllllll...heheheheh

The days grow long as there is really not much to do. So blogging seems to be my form of entertainment. A couple more pics from the picnic, they seem to LOVE to sing out here. (I'm trying to get them to rent a karaoke machine...heheheh). They decided at the picnic, after about 13 wodkas, that they wanted to sing. From left to right, Vladislav, Mr. Vouron, Sergei Yushinkin, and Tanya. They sanf 2 local favorites, and then we all toasted...*AGAIN*...then they turned to me and said it was the Americansky's turn. I looked around and there were only three of us, so John LaValley and I stood up and sang God Bless America. We didn;'t know the words to any other songs!!!! I was going to give them Mac the Knife, but John didn't know the words. They must not have known the words cuz we didn;t get arrested!!...*LOL* Found out later that night that Mr. Vouron played the guitar. So I got Matts guitar and he started House of the Rising Sun, Let it Be, singing it in Russian. OMG was hilarious. He plays well, but hearing the words, was a riot. So I had to sing the English words with him. Too funny.....I changed his name from vilery to Elvis. Its all I call him now, he thinks this is the funniest thing. Elvis the King Vouron. well, its Tuesday afternoon right now, almost 3, and i am off to town again. Break the monotony of the camp. More to come later, just know how much I appreciate the comments from everyone, the emails, can not believe how much I miss all of you. Once again, to all......from Russia...with Love.

A couple more shots from the wednesday bbq. Thursday came and they are finally starting to realize that we are not risks to national security. They have started to set up daily trips to the town of Yazny. Hmmmmm...the town of Yasny. Built in 1961, about 30,000 people, they are celebrating their 45 years this year. No paved roads to speak of running in and out. Didn't see one stop light. The dirt roads are less bumpy than the semi-paved ones. The buildings are gray...not in color, but in appearance...old, no single family homes. Stalin and Lenin built huge Wissahickon apartment type buildings. Everyone got their own 800 sq. foot of living space, and liked it. The buildings are run down, but I am told the insides are immaculate. Never take for granted what we have in the states. The grocery store, the MAIN grocery store in town had 2 aisles of alcohol and 3 aisles of food products, and was about twice the size of a 7-11. Just different. Spent some rubles on some things. Lays potato chips, found a bag of bagel chips. No pretzels to speak of. Did find kraft singles tho. YUMMY!! People were very nice tho. They were not used top seeing Americansky's in town. Got lots of stares. We have a black guy with us, from DTSA, these people have never seen a black man. Some of them were staring in awe, hesitating, and then coming up to him to get a picture. Incredible. A couple more shots from the picnic. The gang, Elena in the dark hair, Tanya is the blonde, and Dr. Nikolayev, the other pic is later on that night, John LaValley from vegas, your truly and Vileri Vouron, the big wig from Yushnoy, our rocket supplier. There was really nothing to photo in town. Will go again and maybe see something.

By the timeI finally leave this minimum security prison, I just may be caught up on blog stuff. Wednesday, Nay 31, finally had our mem day picnic. And it is possible that there has been an eagles jersey in Russia, but I can guarantee you, there has never been a BIRDMAN shirt. Who would have thought, thats the Ukrainian flag, the American flag, the Russian flag, and a couple other ones behind me. For those of us that remember the cold war, who could have ever imagined this pic. Anyway, our hosts set up a military band, and a group of local kids all under 16 performed for us. A bit of russian culture. Was a nice thing they did. The kids were very into things. They sure are trying to make things not soooooo prison-ish for us. And they actually DID bbq for us. we did have the meat and cheese plates, the veggie plate, but they grilled up pork chops cooked over logs. Was an incredible dinner. We ate like pigs. You would have thought it was the proverbial last meal. Was a nice break from the usual meatballs and cabbage. Took WAYY too many pics to post here, but here are a few. Once again, minoga wodkas and minoga pivas. These people never stop. Don't worry grammy, I stopped trying to keep up with them, but they still chuckle whenever I try.

Keeping in the celebration mode of things out here, Tuesday was the last day for our friends from SpaceQuest, or as I like to call them, SpaceGhost. They laugh everytime I use that term. It doesn't really translate in Russian. I say Spaceghost at a meeting and all of us crazy americansky's laugh, then it is translated and well, needless to say, the just nod their heads. Ahhh, the language barrier when it comes to humor. Doesn't seem to be a language barrier when it comes to wodka tho. Tuesday night, LOTS of wodka flowing. These peeps out here toast EVERYTHING. "Its a day that ends in Y!!!...woohoooo...nastrovia!!!!!...drink drink drink!! I can honestly say that I believe I have had more wodka in the 2 plus weeks that I have been here, than I did in my entire LIFE!!! And somehow, I missed breakfast on Wednesday. Must have over slept. Thats Dino Lorenzini, the president of spaceghost on the right, and Glenn Richardson, the software geekhead who makes our spacecraft work. Dang he is good at what he does. As are the rest of spaceghost. Glad they are onboard. As for this evening...sheesh...first the champagne (note the abundance of filled glasses in the pic), then of course...WODKA for all!!!...the four in the pic, lower left is Uri Srgvhchanovskyvich (actually i doan know his last name), clockwise, Sergei Somethingovich, and then the dark hair guy is the one who calls me Big Mike (in a Russian accent it is kinda funny) is Alexandar Vouron, (he's naughty) but he is also the big cheese, the head guy at Yushnoy, the provider of the rocket. He is avery powerful man out here, and he is the main culprit for me missing breakfast Wednesday morning, and Thursday, but that is another story. And then the other is Yvgenyi Whatshisnamesky. He runs the communications side of things out here for Kosmotros. They are like our Nasa. Space operations for the country. The other pic is two of the chiefs out here, Mr. Bernstein to the left, who runs the operations here at the hotel and Vladislav Solovey, he is the head of Space op's for Kosmotros. Two big whigs that both seem to appreciate us americansky's. It took a few days, Mr. Bernstein in particular, but we get along great now. Maybe its the way I drink wodka, they just chuckle when I make faces. Had a great sendoff for the spaceghost guys. They sure like to party out here.

Well, Sunday night I suppose boredom set in. Or else it was the wodka's. Our hosts brought in a barber in case anyone needed a haircut. Well, as you can see, I figured if Mark and I were being singled out as naughty boys, well, the pics say it all. Mark and me after my haircut. Thats the barber, she didn't smile much (she must not have gotten my jokes). And the haircut cost a whopping 50 rubles. *CBB, that is even less than YOU charge...*LOL* I kinda think I look like my good buddy Bruce Fox. heheh...But as the saying goes, the diff between a good haircut and a bad one...about 3 weeks. Thinks I will need about 3 months. But, noone has complained about Mark and I since the head cleansing. Guess it drew the crew together. The three m's and sveta played pool til the wee hours of the night...was a lil chilly on my head most of the night tho. They really have set up a nice bar/game room. American pool, russian billiards, chess sets, ping pong, it helps pass the time. I did make breakfast Monday morning. Meat, cheese and some kind of ground something. YUM..........

Ahhh, and then there was the imfamous b-b-q they were going to have for us. Memeorial day came and went, and no bbq. Seems they couldn't get it together in time, so it was postponed until wednesday. Better late than never. Sorry I missed all the picnics around the globe. The grad party at Uncle Nicks, the kids are upset with me cuz uncle Nick is their fave starting right around memorial day. coincidence that is when the pool opens?? Nahhhh...they just love him. And then Cindy Lyn at nanny and pawpaw's. All the Stevens fam. Thanks for the pics Dixie (man is she gunna be mad I posted her on the blog...oh well..she is a hottie tho), altho it made me miss everyone even more, it sure looked like everyone was having a great time. Guess it was good that we were working. Have worked everyday since we got here, but that is definitely for the best. Time is going by slowly, but, more than half way done the campaign. Oh and just to let yu all know, they made the mistake of asking us about how the food was. After about 37 STRAIGHT meals of ground something, they heeded our cries. Starting to get more chicken, beef, and pork, and all of it is NOT ground up and made into shapes. We even had french fries the other night. We were in HEAVEN. Our plates looked like poppy ate out of them all. They didn't even have to be washed. *L* Not sure if I will ever eat meat loaf again.

couple of shots from the party friday night. Everyone is having as good a time as one can have when one is relegated to an army base with no means of leaving AT all...less you want to take the chance of trying to get out from the fence. Maybe later next week. They can't possibly have guards out there. The M&M's in the one pic, Mark Matt and Mikey, with Sveta, short for Svetlana. She's the bartender. We LOVE her!!!! My bar tab for the first 2 1/2 weeks was 9650 rubles. Won't tell you what that equals in americansky money. I want Cindy to still be in vegas when I get home. But just so she knows, I will stop buying rounds!! A note, I was out having a smoke, can't smoke in the building, and was real quiet, they have coo-koo birds out here. LOTS of them, and at all times during the day...coo-cooooooo....coo-cooooooooo...yeppers...just like the clock. The other pic, thats jerry in the front, showing how happy he was to be here. He left on thursday morning. more on that later. Think his happiness was attributed to the meatballs and cabbage. Every DAY!! He was NOT a happy Bigelownian. Also, Anya, Mike Gold, our corporate council, and at a whopping 5'6" and 165 pounds, he is commonly referred to as Big Mike out here, there is something to the fact that he has the power. Last guy is Pete, one of our DKSA...I mean, DTSA guys. *just kidding guys* All in all agreat time. I even made it to breakfast the next morning. Can't say that about every day this week.