Busy Sunday

We had a very busy Sunday. It was Lena's birthday. Her mom, sister, and Polina came from Zhytomir and went to church. After church, we had a birthday party and invited a few friends over. There were about 15 of us. I had cooked most of the day and on Saturday when we came back from Poland. My black forest cake turned out OK. The chicken cacciatore was OK. Nothing great, though. Lena spent all day today with her family and I was at home with a stomach problem. Not sure what caused that. Today is mostly a day off, so I was attempting to just have a day off. On the way to Poland, I started reading Anna Karenina, again. It's my third start. I first bought the book in 2000. Now, I think I am going to make it. Some say it is possibly the greatest novel ever written, and I can see why they make those claims. The horse-racing scene just killed me, I was writhing, I think.

Tomorrow is Victory Day, when the fascists were finally defeated. It's a big holiday in Ukraine, maybe one of the biggest public holidays. Fewer and fewer veterans around though. Ukraine's population keeps shrinking. We are now at 46,850,000. Channel 5 now has a lot of news in English about Ukraine if you are interested.