New Year's Eve

My last post of the year -- I'm actually surprised I posted as many as I did, even accounting for the long periods of nothingness.

The weather is cool/cold here, but clear, so I'm looking forward to a good view of the fireworks tonight. We were going to go downtown and watch them from a friend's apartment right off of Skanderbeg Square, but all of our Albanian friends kept pointing out how packed the square would be at midnight, to the point of not being able to move. So instead of going downtown at nine and not being able to leave until two a.m. or so, we're going down the street to a house which has an unobstructed view towards town, and we'll go up on the roof (three storeys) and watch from there. Sounds much better. All this presupposes that I'll still be awake, of course.

We have nothing much planned for our four-day weekend. We're off Monday too because Saturday is an Albanian holiday, so since it falls on Saturday we're off Monday.

Over the last few years I've made a pot of gumbo for my birthday, and I'm planning on doing the same this year, and maybe some red beans and rice. The problem is that there are no gumbo crabs here, nor is there any andouille. There is no substitute for gumbo crabs, and not a real substitute for andouille. But there is a very small German store here that sells kielbasa and other types of sausage, so I may have to try some for the base. I'll have a report in a couple of weeks.

A giant mall has opened in Tirana, called City Park. Not sure what all they have, but I think we're going one afternoon while we're off. They are supposed to have a very big and nice grocery store. The company is out of Slovenia. Each time a new store opens there are new products available. When we got here April of 2008 sour cream was not available, or buttermilk, or several other things. Since then I've seen sweet potatoes (only once, but I saw them), peanut butter, intermittently and not very good, Kraft mayonaise -- it says Kraft, but it's different. So a new grocery store brings hope -- vanilla extract? Cottage cheese? We'll see.

Ten years ago today I was in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, babysitting Jackson the dog while his owners were in Belize. The intervening 10 years have seen a lot of changes, not the least of which is that the Ocean Springs house washed completely away in Katrina. Cindy and I got married, completely remodeled a house, then sold it and moved to DC and now Albania. We're both enjoying our life here, and even enjoying being "homeless."

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Gezuar viten i ri!