To our family & friends.

We spent a part of our weekend trying to come up with a card for New Year to congratulate all of you with an incoming 2009. We want to wish you, first of all, great health as with good health we can achieve anything else we set our mind to. And after that we wish you to reach or get closer to reaching your dreams in the new year. Have a happy New Year!

P.S. We hope you like our photo card — we took the photo ourselves.

1

Boris says:
December 30, 2008 @ 12:33

Спасибо за поздравление. А как вам мое?

2

Daniel says:
December 30, 2008 @ 12:35

Мне понравилось очень.

3

Lina says:
December 30, 2008 @ 13:09

Thank you, Happy New Year to you too

4

Vicky says:
December 30, 2008 @ 13:19

Thank you, very cool picture.

Happy New Years to you guys as well.

Alena Merry Belated Christmas. I didnt know you were catholic. (will know for next year.)

5

Eldar says:
December 30, 2008 @ 13:29

Thank you for the car.

Happy New Year to you, too.

6

Maruks says:
December 30, 2008 @ 13:54

Thank you guys. Warmest wishes to you too.

PS. I can’t believe you guys Eldar a “car”.

7

ufly says:
December 30, 2008 @ 19:17

Спасибо за открытку и поздравление! Вас тоже с наступающим Новым Годом и всего самого наилучшего!
Картинка вышла очень милой. Я все пытался разобрать что же отражается в елочной игрушке

P.S. Да, повезло Эльдару с таким шикарным подарком в этом году от вас .

8

Daniel says:
December 30, 2008 @ 21:47

We spent quite a bit of time to make sure that there is nothing really eligible in the reflection. However what you see is the insides of a lightbox.

9

Daniel says:
December 30, 2008 @ 21:48

And yes people, if you behave better next year you might get a car from us as well. You just haven’t been good enough.

10

Artem & Darya says:
December 31, 2008 @ 07:19

Happy New Year everyone!

11

Yo says:
December 31, 2008 @ 07:22

Спасибо!
Желаю вам сказки в следующем году

12

Mike says:
December 31, 2008 @ 14:11

Thanks
Happy New Year!

13

Masha says:
December 31, 2008 @ 23:12

Поздравляем всех вас с Новым Годом!
Мила, Саша, Женя, Маша&Cо

14

maruk says:
January 1, 2009 @ 13:19

Yay, more cards next year. Thanks again, and wishing you all the best in the year of the Ox…

Ilya and Alina.

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Today I’ve done some more experimenting with the lightbox. Again — not perfect, but again — interesting.

The setup is pretty simple. Color paper on the background, black marble for the bottom and simple paper as a reflector inside.

And after some more experimenting I came up with this B&W photo. Better reflections on the dial, but I think I like the color on the first one.

1

Daniil says:
December 26, 2008 @ 20:35

Great results for the 2nd attempt and with only one flash! I also like the setup shot as its good to know how its done. Nice touch with a high-tech flash diffuser (napkin)

Expecting more?

2

Daniel says:
December 27, 2008 @ 01:14

Going to experiment more tomorrow. I think I need to tape up the insides of the box with some black tape because I’m getting yellow light even when I’m not using yellow light.

Looks like I’m getting some reflections from the box (cardboard) itself.

3

Daniel says:
December 27, 2008 @ 01:14

Oh, and I forgot to say:

Thank you for the comment!

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This year I used Inna Garten’s “Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics” cookbook to select the Christmas menu. Since it was only four of us, I’ve decided to go with simple, but new recipes. Also, since we’ve totally skipped turkey or even chicken this Thanksgiving, I’ve decided to correct the issue, and served it tonight.

“Roasted Turkey Roulade” turned out to be very good! If anybody’s interested I can send the recipe, but let me just mention that the stuffing includes dried figs and cranberries, Italian sausage, pine nuts, celery, onions and fresh rosemary which gave the stuffing a very nice hint of flavor.

I prepared the stuffing last night in order to reduce cooking time and to get less tired today. It was a smart move, since today it only took me and Danya, who helped to tie a rope around the meat, just 10 minutes to prepare a roulade for oven. I got a chance to use a meat thermometer — one of the last New Year’s presents from Danya. It turned out to be very useful, since I wouldn’t be able to measure the readiness of the dish so precisely without it.

I served the turkey with a “Confetti Corn” (an easy-to-make warm salad from corn, red onion and bell pepper) taken from the same book and oven-roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Yam!

But enough about food — let’s talk about Christmas. Read more…

1

Yo says:
December 25, 2008 @ 12:52

Хочу! Ну почему вы так далеко?

2

Vicky says:
December 30, 2008 @ 13:22

Please post or send me the recipe. This looks deliciouso.

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With all the watch excitement lately I needed to come up with a good way to share with the readers of the blog. For that you obviously need good pictures. And to take good pictures of watches you obviously need a lightbox of some kind.

I used a simple guide posted on Strobist to build one without spending a lot of money. Borrowed a cardboard box from work, Alena bought some tracing paper and that’s pretty much it.

I need to replace one of the lamps with a regular bulb with a lamp with a tungsten bulb to get rid of the yellow light. And I guess a 2nd flash would do wonders too. But overall not bad of a result at all for a first try with this cheap structure.

В Фениксе, столице штата Аризона, мы с Даней побывали второй раз, а его родители увидели город впервые. В нашу поездку в 2005 году мы практически пробежались по городу, и он оставил какое-то смазанное и тусклое впечатление. В этот раз Феникс мне показался намного приятнее, и кроме кактусов, поразивших нас раньше, я заметила опрятные домики построенные в каком-то южном испанском стиле, оливковые и апельсиновые деревья, современные небоскрёбы даунтауна, разномастные пальмы…

Останавливались мы не в самом Фениксе, а в Скотсдейле — городке, прилегающем к Фениксу, который считается более фешенебельным районом в этой местности.

Гостиница Homewood Suites оказалась очень уютной, и нам даже удалось снять 3-х комнатный номер впервые за всё путешествие (в остальных гостиницах мы просто брали отдельные номера). Мне однозначно больше нравится жить в таких номерах с двумя спальнями — веселее и как-то уютно-спокойнее.

Приехали мы в Феникс в среду вечером, а весь четверг посвятили изучению города. Мы прогулялись по площади возле местного капитолия — чистенькое, но очень безлюдное место. Мне запомнился памятник индейскому радисту из племени Навахо — во время второй мировой войны индейцы успешно использовали свой язык в качестве кода, который японцы так и не смогли расшифровать.

Когда мы гуляли по городу, солнце то выглядывало, то пропадало за тучами. Надо было видеть в какое уныние невозможность сделать красивые фотографии вгоняла Даньку, и как он радовался и бегал от одного красивого места к другому, когда солнышко являло нам свой улыбающийся лик.

Мы случайно забрели на выставку автомобилей и потратили там часа 1.5-2 нашего времени. Ну что можно сказать — выставка как выставка, ничего особенного.

Стоит заметить, что в тот день страна отмечала День Благодарения, и мы пораскатывали губы на специальный праздничный ужин в каком-нибудь из многочисленный ресторанов в районе нашей гостиницы. Каково же оказалось наше разочарование, когда мы поняли, что закрыто было буквально ВСЁ! Магазины, рестораны, даже room service в нашей гостинице не работали в связи с праздником. Мы уже смирились с мыслью, что придётся нам довольствоваться 4-мя маленькими кусочками пиццы, оставшимися с прошлого ужина, но на нашу удачу мы увидели одно место над которым висел большой банер с надписью “Открыто”. В этот-то итальянский ресторан мы и пошли вкушать наш праздничный ужин. Индюшки у них не оказалось, но всё что мы заказали было очень вкусным.

This year it was decided that I was going to get a certain Casio watch for New Year as a present from Alena. Since she claims she doesn’t really understand much about watches the choice was left to me. After days and days of research and deliberations I set my mind on one particular model.

We soon discovered that the model is nowhere to be found online except for one store. Alena placed an order, but to our disappointment got an email within an hour saying that there was a mistake on the site and they didn’t not have the watch in stock. I should mention that the list price for this item is $400, but a lot of online places have it for $299, when they do have it in stock that is. Read more…

1

Geoff Katz says:
December 22, 2008 @ 11:10

The first step in getting over an addiction is admitting that you have a problem

2

Daniel says:
December 22, 2008 @ 11:14

To what addiction you’re admitting to?

3

Artem says:
December 23, 2008 @ 05:36

Changes, interesting changes…
Sneakers, Oakley sunglasses, excitement about Casio G-Shock model. What’s gonna be next? Ferrari? Nah… Probably thai-boxing trainings

4

Artem says:
December 23, 2008 @ 05:37

Wait a minute, what happened to Movado watch?

5

Daniel says:
December 23, 2008 @ 12:05

Nothing happened to Movado. Why does everyone have a notion though that a person can own only a single watch?

6

Artem says:
December 23, 2008 @ 12:29

I also have two watches, one of them is Casio, well you know But I find myself wearing Tissot more often lately. G-Shock is great for activities, sport, etc.

7

Daniel says:
December 23, 2008 @ 13:12

Yeah, that’s my thinking too — Casio for hiking, camping and such, Movado for other stuff.

I found another watch that I really want — it’s nicknamed Seiko Orange Monster.

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This is what’s happening outside right now. Lots and lots of snow and it looks like it’s sticking. I’m not so sure it’s a good thing (who’s going to un-dig the car?), but it sure is pretty.

1

ufly says:
December 19, 2008 @ 12:15

It’s not a good thing when you look at it from office window and think how you will get home in the evening

2

Daniel says:
December 19, 2008 @ 13:23

Who said that it was a good thing? I said pretty much the same thing you did.

Alena is at work also and I hope they don’t cancel the trains or something.

3

ufly says:
December 19, 2008 @ 18:04

You wrote ‘I’m not so sure it’s a good thing’ and I confirmed that…
But trains seem to go more or less on schedule.

4

Yo says:
December 19, 2008 @ 18:37

А в Минске на тратуарах невероятный гололед, я такого не припоминаю Абсолютно все пешеходные дорожки покрыты тонким слоем льда.

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Хочу записать пока помню точно не новую, но для меня пока свежую комбинацию мяса с подливкой.

Мне понадобились:

• 4 свиные отбивные без косточек
• 1/2 крупной головки репчатого лука
• 1/2 фунта свежих грибов
• 15-20 маринованых оливок
• 1 стакан half-and-half или сливок
• 1/2 пачки макарон (я выбрала спиралевидные cavatappi)
• Соль и перец по вкусу

Friday, 11 p.m. Danya and I just finished watching “4400″, and I want to write a couple of words about the last few weeks.

After we got back from the vacation Danya caught a flu somewhere (had 39C fever one day), and was recovering for almost two weeks (he spent the first whole week at home). I was courageously holding up, but also had a mild fewer, running nose and other niceties of being sick for a couple of days. Both of us are much better now.

Last Saturday was the 6th anniversary of our fist date. I keep saying this, but — oh my — time just flies! I still remember how anxiously I was waiting for our 3 months anniversary — for some reason it was always a critical point in my previous dating experience. Now I can only laugh at my naivete. I got Danya a pajama pants (stole that idea from him) — or at least I thought that I did. He said that the design is not very attentive to male’s physiology… so now I have another pair at my disposal. He-he. But some other stuff that I got him fits — that made me happy.