Day 12 - Measures love for one's job

It was blisteringly hot today. In time, the locals would realize that this place is subject to the global warming just like any other place and would start investing into A/C in the apartments and restaurants. Irina took the kids in the morning to a bunch of hyper-stores close to where she lives - they have proper temperature controls and a huge pet store.

They joined us for lunch at a pitstoppizza on Vilnius gatve. Pizza implies fast food. Pit stop implies very fast food. Dan decided not to risk it and ordered saltibarsciai, I got the same thing for me, and ordered 2 mini pizzas for Irina and Georgia. We waited for 40 minutes and they brought out Dan's soup. Turns out the cashier thought I want some other kind of pizza. I argued with her and she said OK about the soup, and moments later came out and they are out of soup. By that point and at that temperature it really did not matter what it was. Dan finished his soup and went back to work.

I tried to figire out what makes them take so long and noticed a chubby guy resposible for making pizzas behind one of the counters. He was in love with his job. He spent minutes rolling the dough to some precise thickness and had some kind of device to cut them perfectly round. As I looked, he started to cut of a bit of an imperfection off the side of one pie. Isabella was pretty unhappy with this turn of events.

Finally our pizzas were done. Irina and Georgia stayed to eat theirs. I grabbed mine that was in the box and ran home with wailing Isabella. She fell asleep and I was climbing the stairs to the apartment.

In the afternoon the guy from autobest.lt came over to replace our car (they could only give it to us for a weekend). The new car is smaller but newer. They moved it into our spot. If I did not mention it before, residents of this and a few neighboring buildings carved out permanent parking spots for themselves in the backyard by placing heavy metal cones on the group and looping metal chains across. We got such a spot too from the owner. It was a prime spot next to the building. The only thing, it was pretty gross fishing out the end of the rusty chain from the puddle underneath the car where it unvariably went. But, as possibly the only benefit of the scorching weather, the puddle has dried up.

We all stayed at home in the afternoon. Then Georgia, Dan and I went back to the Ukrainian to finish off where we started yesterday. Alicia, Andrei, and Natasha joined us there. They arrived by cab using the company #2777 that all of us have on our cell phone and had been using for years. This year they've gone evil. Andrei and Natasha complained that the driver ranted about the dog the entire time even though they warned the taxi controller when ordering, had a smelly car, and drove like he wanted everyone to get sick in the back and further contribute to the smell. Still it was better than last night when the taxi driver just left upon seeing the horrible scary Kerry Blue Terrier.

As we sat outside the restaurant drinking kvas and eating pork fat pate, Dan was in a good mood and offered to clear things up with the taxi company. It was not a good idea. The lady on the other end decided that it was a customer dis-service day and worked very hard to get this message across. As the phone call went on we all urged him to hang up and then proceeded to clear out the taxi number from our phones and chase out the rest of the bad karma with a shot of horilka (Ukrainian vodka) with more fat pate (kid and dog excluded).

The staff of Ukrainian restaurant was amazing - the food appeared and empty plates disappeared. They even brought out a round of horilka with more pork fat. They were really good last night too. I think it was the best example of service we have ever seen in LT. It did not have to, but it seems to have made the food taste better too. Everyone was very pleased. In good spirits we descended down to our apartment and finished the evening off with some ice-cream.

Here are 3 things that we will make when we some back:
1. Kvas with mint
2. Pork fat pate: grind some pork fat with salt and garlic, decorate with dill (simple and beautiful)
3. Roasted peas with fried onions and bacon (I hope there would be some extra wide seats for us on the way back).

Speaking of the soccer game last night. Yeah, it was pretty exciting and everyone was excited. Lots of drinking, screaming, and singing. The Brit in the bathing suit burst out of it by the end of the night, at least some of his body parts did. Many people were cheering for Holland so there was some disapponitment and crying in the end. By 2am everyone was gone like nothing ever happened.