Picking up on a theme that Harout brought up - all the construction going on in our parks... Yesterday while walking past another big stone cafe in Opera park (which is officially known as Freedom Square), I thought how funny it was that freedom square was being built up into solid cafes, and how ironic it would be if a Freedom Square Liberation Front was to blow them all up. I of course am not advocating that at all, just mentioning it would be ironic. That having been said, I am quite guilty of patronizing the cafes...

Now on to fun stuff. Despite my weird cold (which is getting much better) I went out looking at materials for my remodeling yesterday, and believe it or not there was even a "remodeling expo" at the Painters Union. It was quite small, but there was a booth for these local handmade tiles that one repatriate is having done, and I had seen at a friends house before... I just want to say they were stunningly beautiful, as good as the best from Italy or Spain or anywhere else. Plus they can do all kinds of custom stuff for you. We ended up visiting the factory and talking to the artist that designs many of the tiles and I will probably end up using some. I am thinking maybe the kitchen counter... Anyway, they will have a website at www.manettiles.com eventually and what with the huge number of Armenians in the tile importing business in California, this stuff should really take off!