Well, last night a most amazing thing happened. A little background....As ya'll know, I am prepairing to go to the Ukraine to complete a gas well there, and get production on-line. Well, there were about 6 of the team at a little electronics shop, checking out a panel that they had built for our puropses. It took the better part of 2 days to do, and by the end of the second day, everyone was eating on everyone's nerves, and I had become the grease to keep everyone on task, and not fighting. There was especially a lot of tension between my partner in service, a Puerto Rican dude I'll call "Dude," and a Russian electrical/electronics engineer I'll call Vanya. Anyhow, my partner really isn't all that bright, and lemme tell ya, Dude is hard enough to get along with. Vanya is an older man, and set in his ways and is not about to let Dude tell him how it is.....and he REALLY has the brains to back it up. Anyhow, Dude gets tired and leaves, and I stick around working on this panel with Vanya. We get all done, and it's rush hour outside, and so we decide to go get a bottle of wine to enjoy at the house, when we finally get there. We both agree that when we get there, we will need it, and we only live about 5 miles apart. So we go to Specs, and look at wines, and he points out a strange looking bottle that is priced at $25 dollars. He explains that it comes from Georgia - the country - and is very good. So I grabbed a bottle, and he asked if I planned on just drinking one bottle. I smiled and said yeah, just one. He shrugged and grabbed 3 more and we made our purchases and left. We went back to his house, where I met his wife, and they becan to get busy in the kitchen, cooking. Now, I hadn't planned on a meal, but apperently they had other ideas. This is where it got strange. I was going to be served a nice, fancy, RUSSIAN meal. I got a bit concerned. We all sat down and toasted to new friends, and tasted the wine. It was AMAZING!! I was euphoric after tasting this stuff! So I started with the salad that his wife made....cause I hate salads. It was very simple, just lettace and tomatoes with some olive oil, and she took some juice that they kept olives in and poured it on top. This was the most delicious salad I've ever tasted! I was SO amazed! Served with the salad was cheese bread, but not like any cheese bread you've ever had.....I believe it was Isreali made.....he bought it at an ethnic store, and I think that was the writing on it. Then he took and sliced a slab of bacon into 1/4" slices and served them with a hot mustard - that was just luscious! Along side that was salmon that he had bought raw, and salted for 2-3 days, and stored in the fridge.....it was very fishy (of course - you sushi eaters understand!,) but still very good. We had Chilean olives, our Georgian wine, and to finish it all off a couple of hours later, his wife made hot tea served with sliced lemon, and chocolate fudge cookies. Oh my goodness!! That, friends and neighbors, was quite a meal!!! When I had to leave because it was getting late, his wife gave me a hug, and said that I am always welcome back, and that I reminded her of her son, and that she couldn't wait to see me again. Vanya was so very nice to invite me into his home....and I was honored to be a guest. Ya'll take care, and God bless. The Rat