Day 52 of the 47th year of my personal chronology

I woke up at 6 a.m., but realized I needed more sleep, and dozed back off with a video playing. We finally got up at 9, when loud little Leah came in demanding food and a cartoon. We gave her the cartoon first and only then the food. Breakfast was fried dumplings, fried eggs, and buckwheat. Then I had to do some work because revisions to the technical specification came in and had to be handled urgently by Monday. Some employees continue to amaze me: the project manager on that project, whom I had hired, hung up on me when I called to clarify an urgent issue and didn’t even call back. That kind of attitude toward work is infuriating.

Then my crafty wife made me sort through my things and clean up—I hate doing that. We spent until two o’clock poking through the mess and hauled out a ton of trash. That part I actually enjoy: my lungs open up when I see how much useless junk had been sitting there, and how now there is room for new junk =)

Then we got ready to go to the dacha to celebrate Nastya’s birthday. We stopped by Adda Gems and bought gifts for the girls—beautiful little bracelets. For Nastya, a swallow on a chain and a bubbles bracelet; for Masha (I still hadn’t given her a gift), we bought a bracelet with a flower and a bubbles bracelet too, so the sets turned out really cute. For Sonya, for September 1, I bought a ring with a little Star of David. She was happy.

Then we sped off to the dacha on the toll road and got there quickly. In Solnechnogorsk we grabbed burgers at McDonald’s. At the dacha were my sister with her girls and her husband, and my mother. We had a good time together, though not for long. I didn’t drink alcohol, and neither did Masha. We’ve become teetotalers. At 7:30 we headed home. I got cheap and didn’t take the toll road, so we got stuck in traffic. We didn’t get back until close to 11 p.m. Kefir before bed, then sleep.