No Questions

The previous entry heading is in Russian script, thus I'm discovering most computers will not display it except as "??? ?? ????". I'm still not telling what it says. I typed a nice, long birthday related entry while I was sitting at an internet terminal yesterday in St Petersburg.

My time ran out as I was "publishing" and apparently the entry didn't make it through.

To summarize:

1) The birthday party thrown for me last year on my 30th will likely never be topped, that's a simple fact.

2) Threw my own party this year, off the ship in this Italian restaurant I like in St Petersburg. They offered kids parties with entertainment very cheaply. They set up the party but wouldn't let me book the performers (clowns, trained animals, and a magician for 1300 rubles ($40-45)) once they knew it was for adults. Even when we tried to bribe them. Still, the party was a bunch of silly childish fun with good Russian beer and a Russian approximation of Italian food. "La Strada" the place is called. Remind me to write more about this.

3) The firework placed in the center of my cake was, we all agreed, probably illegal for ANY use in the Unitd States. There is a video of me trying not to get my face too close to the roman candle like, sparking, Class C explosive at the center of my tasty birthday treat...

4) My cake, at the behest of my friend Brad, was to read "Happy Birthday Brother Skillet"... don't ask. The Russian who decorated wrote "Happy Birthday Brother Skihet" so that's my name for the next week or so I think.

Anyway, I have to run, I'm using the infernally slow internet onboard right now.

BY THE WAY - John Dalton - I got your music in St. Petersburg!!! It was obviously looseleaf paper and was clearly labeled music, so I guess the very crooked mail system here decided there was nothing of value to resell within. Thus it only took over a month to arrive. THANK YOU SO MUCH and I have a little something for you in return. As to birthday gifts and stuff people have asked about, it hasn't arrived. If you sent it to Copenhagen, it will; in fact it takes very little time it seems. St. Petersburg, well, someone on the black market will enjoy themselves a great deal.

Adriana- I am waiting for the big screen for Charlie and the Choclate Factory. I bought it on DVD but the transfer is AWFUL, which is very, very rare for these "questionable" DVDs here. It's on the level of one of those DVDs of a new movie you buy on the street in NYC. When you buy them here, they're usually indistinguishable in many way from a commercial DVD.

Later all...