Wow. I can't imagine it being to cold that you need to grease your face to go outside. And then to visit home and it be so hot

I feel indebted to you for whatever your doing there. Thanks for doing it for us.

Yeah, at times I feel like a dry potato from the cold storage bin---grease it up and then put it in a hot oven!!!!!! At times, I'm not sure what we're doing over here either. Kazakhstan is poised to be a major player in the oil industry

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so my husband's company is helping them develop their oil and gas resources----just hope that the oil revenues filter down to the Kazakh people who need it most and not the local government cronies who are wealthy beyond belief

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ah, the joys of graft and corruption!! Thanks for the wave of the flag!!!

How's the weather in Maryland as of today? Better I hope, and your friend, did he reach his goal of visiting every state in the US?

I looked into Kazakstan on wikipedia and it's a huge country.

We had nice weather here last weekend, but humidity came back today. I like warm weather. It seems it's cold in the winter, then spring comes with a little mild weather, and then it suddenly gets hot for a while, then as summer winds down the weather is delightful. That lasts from about the beginning of September until about November, and then it snows so the cycle starts all over. Some years it doesn't snow until Janurary and in others it's November 1.

Yeah, my friend worked in every state. Including Alaska in the winter and had coal delivered by parachute. He even did emergency surgery on a friend while in Alaska and had to use liquor for the antiseptic. He was quite a fellow, and never ceased to amaze my with all of the different jobs he had done. He moved back home to Pittsburgh about 4 years ago when the economy there had recovered from the steel industry troubles.

I don't know a lot about Kazakhstan, but I look forward to hearing your stories!

Thanks, TexasRose,

From your handle I'm assuming that you are from Texas and or lived or have lived there? You brought up a 5th grade memory (maaaaaaaaaaaaany moons ago) when I played the part of the Yellow Rose of Texas. I've tried to grow roses in Houston but black spot just defeats my best efforts. Anyway I have lots of stories about Kazakhstan that I will be happy to share. Also, Egypt as well, where we lived for 8 years

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is there a place on this site to do that?? I'm not too computer savvy. Thanks again for the welcome!(: