Liankacreations

  Inspired by a conversation with my son and his wife, I made a Chicken Omelet Salad. I would really like to make a video tutorial, but... my kitchen is dark and not equipped in a modern way. And, considering my husband's and my interests, it will take some time before we actually renovate our house completely. But back to the salad.  You will need the leftovers of the chicken (about a cup), 2 eggs (beaten slightly ),  fry 3-4 omelets on both sides and chop everything very finely. Add a little mayonnaise, mix and refrigerate. I'm not a big fan of mayonnaise. But in some (to be honest, in many) Russian salads people use it. You can also add a little bit of onion (finely chop it and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown).

  Beautiful rainy morning.      It started as a usual Sunday morning in our family. Despite the rain, we got up early, however, this is also as usual. We went grocery shopping. The rain started and stopped and started again.      By the time we arrived home, the rain seemed to have stopped. I decided to take the dog for a walk. Quickly. To make it before the rain. I stopped taking Crackle with me to Bj’s gas. Daniel taught me how to get gas at another gas station (Royal Gas), next to the store where we shop. The price for gasoline is cheaper here.      So, Crackle and I went for a walk. He was happy. We stopped near literally everything... dog owners know - to smell, to pee. The rain started again. The walk was shortened. But we saw a hare. The hare was calmly running across the road. He didn't care about the rain, or the dog with the owner on a leash. Well, seems like a typical urban hare. Daniel recently saw an urban wild turkey, acros...

  “Let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped”. -Carl Sagan   Those who know me know that I have been living in this country for almost ten years. And all these years I have a few feelings that I carry on.  One of them is the admiration of coziness.  It comes to me suddenly, at different times and occasions, but sharp and clear.  Sometimes my cute “uncomfortable” dog Crackle causes this feeling to appear.  At first I would like to explain why Crackle is “uncomfortable”: -He doesn’t know how to walk on a leash -When I put a collar on him, he gets very excited and barks loudly (well, at least he doesn’t pee)  -On a walk, when he sees other dogs  … you know … barks loudly -He doesn’t know he is a dog, yes, he thinks he is my boss Therefore, I can’t take him to the park, the beach, or anywhere else during daylight hours. That’s why quite often we go outside at dusk. Since the main purpose of ...

  Tomsk expects the opening/breaking of the ice on the Tom River from day to day. Once in my previous life, the ice drift was a whole event. The beginning of spring. The Tomichi (Tomsk citizens)  went to the riverbank just to watch the blocks of ice break on the pillars of the bridge over the Tom River. The sight is fascinating. I don't know if I miss it? But I love the force/power in nature, whether it's ice drift, wind, thunderstorm ... All this reminds me of the storm in Lermontov's work “Mtsyri". I already mentioned this once, in another post here . Here is a short video my son sent me last year. The other weird, or maybe not, news about a building collapsing. The building belonged to the Electric Lamp Factory.  My friend Marina, whose photos I often publish when I write about Tomsk, worked there for many years. At some point during the Soviet Union collapse she was getting her salary by bulbs. Crazy times! The building was closed by court order. It was reported ...

  and in photos There are three things you can look at forever: fire, water and women’s parking. If you see me parking, you can even laugh, and I don’t mind. People say that laughter prolongs life. Maps International designed by Lovell Johns Limited However, I have something to add to this list – a map, and preferably a large map. I’ve been honest with you, I’ve said a few times that I don’t know geography. I don’t know what it was: a way it was taught to us, or i didn’t see an opportunity to use the knowledge. I had a good grade, but didn’t know much. Now the world has changed. I’ve met people from different countries. We are getting news from different places. I became curious about geography. I mentioned to my husband a few times that I wanted to have a big, no, huge map and … Daniel bought it! I have to tell you, both  my husband  and the map are so cool! But you have to be careful, well, I have to be careful – viewing the map can be time consuming.  ...

  “Look!”, I point at the TV, “I want that red hair. It will match my green eyes”. “Your eyes aren’t green,” Daniel said quickly. And we started to laugh. The color of my eyes is our old disagreement. I think my eyes are green, but Dan says they’re gray. And both statements are true. My eyes change color depending on my clothes. “Look, I agreed with you that I’m an Asian woman. So, you have to admit that I have green eyes”, I didn’t want to give up. We laughed again. “You agreed? When?” “At the presentation about Russia, I publicly stated that my husband is right when he calls me an Asian (Eastern) woman”. The story is: Daniel knows the history of Europe and geography well. When asked where his wife is from, he raises his hand up for clarity and says “Tomsk is located just above China”. He believes that since the area next to China is Asia, the people are Asians, respectively. At first, I resisted this statement and proudly declared that I was  Russian . ...

  The Russian invasion of Ukraine took me aback.  I was not ready, who could?  My mood has drastically changed, I’m constantly worried, it's a good thing that I stopped crying. It slowed down my blog-posts  writing.  But life hasn’t stopped. I still have to go work, cook, take care of a dog, and dig over the ground for our annual gardens. April 14, 415th day of the war. It’s my day off. I decided to have breakfast outside. Well, I love to eat outdoors. The air smells like the ocean. The dog is hanging out with me. A fat sparrow sits on a wire fence.  While my dog Crackle is monitoring what is happening outside (behind the fence), a rabbit came right out into the middle of the backyard. I guess the rabbit has more common sense than the dog. He left just before Crackle came to check on me. LOL. Crackle likes to be around us, or he likes us being around him.  My sister sent me a voice message, it’s snowing in Tomsk (Russia). Well, it’s Siberia.  My f...

  At the age of 15 – 17 I was fascinated by the Baltic accent. And now I speak with an accent. By and large, there is nothing wrong with that. But why, as soon as I hear “where’s your accent from?”, words “I am sorry” fly out of my mouth. For some unknown reason I think that it is wrong to speak with an accent, and that it can irritate my interlocutors. Or maybe it’s not annoying people but me? Maybe not an accent but the fear of not justifying someone’s hopes and meeting everyone’s expectations.  Often, I can hear the disappointment in my Russian friend’s voices when I confess that I still speak with an accent. I am very happy for those who have the opportunity of deep and thorough study of a foreign language at the Institute. This is an important and useful skill in the modern world. I studied the language by myself. Thanks to the creators of the Internet and Skype!  I went to the US with the conviction that in two weeks I would be able to speak English fluently.  ...

  Who would have thought that a dog would be writing a blog. Yet, here I am. Crackle is my name and just to tell you that I have a great life. Although it wasn’t always that way. You see, I’m a rescue dog. I’m six now, but I was adopted 4 years ago. And since then I haven’t looked back. Okay, so let’s get one thing straight right off the bat. Writing isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. I have no fingers so I’m doing this with my mouth. You can imagine how tough it is to grab a pen with my teeth and write these damn letters. I’m much more accustomed to communication with my eyes, my gestures and postures, and making different sounds. To say the least, this blog poses as much of a challenge to me as keeping myself from sniffing someone’s crotch. But I’m a dog after all so we’ll see how it goes. So, let me tell you about my diet. For breakfast I have dry food mixed with canned food. I’m allergic to poultry and beef, so I’m strictly a lamb and salmon guy. And the more it stinks...

  All my life I dreamed of a cozy house (or apartment).  My parents lived by the principle of “we have everything we need; we need everything that we have”. And they did not even know about that. So, I wanted to get married very much and make my family’s life comfortable. I got married, but there was no comfort. My ex-husband lived by the principle “we have no money”.  I did put a lot of effort into making my family life cozy. I tried hard and for a long time. In the end, I realized that the efforts of one partner is not enough.  I didn’t want to go with the flow any more. The divorce was difficult but necessary.  Americans have the expression “one door closes, another opens”. As a result, a new family was formed. A family where comfort and mutual respect are important for both partners. My current husband is not only used to living in comfort, he creates comfort. Despite the fact that we need to continue to repair the house and the yard requires constant care, ...