They did it! After much procrastination M&M had a baby! The beautiful Francesca was two weeks late, but already two weeks old yesterday, and she is a total stunner. Right now she enjoys eating, burping and sleeping. She won’t be carrying on with this slacker existence for long! Her dad is setting goals for her already - she has to learn two languages and speak in 5 months! A bit of an overachiever requirement, if you ask me, but no mountain is too high for the Guarinieri offspring!
I went to Azerbaijan for the second time this year and the country continues to completely mesmerize me. From beautiful Baku we traveled to the very southern region, where Azerbaijan borders with Iran. While women in Baku wear outfits that would make Britney Spears’s early show garb look like business attire, this region is more conservative and women here wear head scarves and pride themselves on their ability to carry heavy things on top of their heads. When we got out to photograph the “firewater” – 
the water that’s being pushed up to the surface by natural gas and can be set on fire – the little boys who were hanging out around the spring started snapping photos of me with their cell phones. A touching and zoo-like moment. Back in Baku, we took full advantage of Azerbaijani hospitality, which seemingly has no limits. The ancient part of the city, which is favored equally by locals and tourist is being invaded by western developers. But still, the Baku castle stands beautifully on the Caspian shore. More sweet photos on my flickr page!
The all over fabulous band Muse was here in Budapest this past Wednesday. They were supposed to play the Budapest Sports Arena but unfortunately (well fortunately for us) played only a blocked out by separator walls half of it, since, I guess, Muse is not big in Hungary. The show, aside from the wildly bad Hungarian opening band, was fantastic. This photo of the hot drummer was either taken by me or by my coworker with her Fuji digital camera.
I am in Baku yet again, but this time I came here through Tbilisi – the capital of Georgia. Tbilisi, where I have never been before, is absolutely stunning. As I was to find out, Georgia is one of the oldest nations and Georgians one of the oldest ethnic groups to ever stroll the Earth. To prove this, Georgia was the destination point for the travel of the famed Jason and the Argonauts – the Golden Fleece was stashed here somewhere. So the city of Tbilisi, also known as Tiflis, is magically old and parades the riches of all the kingdoms that have once ruled it – giant fortresses imbedded into mountainous landscape, ancient Albanian churches, Turkish baths – it’s all there. I wish I had more time in Tbilisi, but now I am in Baku, also a favorite. More Caucasus reports will follow…
I guess it’s that time of life when everyone either starts having babies or starts wanting to have babies. Scary! I have to admit that I go back and forth between wanting to have babies and wanting to have a pet hamster. Let’s see what I end up with… For now, I bring this world an update on my favorite babies. 
So, faithful beetrock readers will remember a lovely lady named Natalia. She is now 1 year and 5 months old and looking absolutely doll-like. My godson started school this year, here he is, rather grumpy near the famed educational facility where his mom and I learned how to do beer bongs. Very sweet and nostalgic. There is another little lady, soon to join the ranks of beetrock’s favorite babies, but I will have more on her in a couple of weeks. UPDATE: I am still the worst aunt in law, because in my original post I forgot about baby CARTER. He is 1 year old now, but no photos have been sent to me to prove his growth!
Well, today is the Jewish New Year and I stole this hilarious image from another blog, which I am not going to mention here because I think it belongs to a born again Christian. Waah, horror! Anyways, the image is funny in more ways than one and in Russian it says “Happy Jewish New Year.” Also yesterday I ran on the Danube and it turns out the damn river is all flooded - the entire river side highway is under water and the tourist cruise boats look like buoys at a lake beach. It’s been raining here rather heavily for weeks, and I guess that’s the result. I will try to take pictures tonight.
For weeks, I’ve been occupied with peaceful tracing of drug routes from Afghanistan further west while using a beautiful red pen stolen from the office supplies cabinet. Today however, I couldn’t prevent diverting my otherwise focused attention to two amazing news stories. First one, speaking of the resurgence of the Hungarian Guard – a neo-fascist organization – and the second one – telling a tale of a Russian woman who set fire to her ex-husband’s penis. Both stories put a large dent of worry and angst into my otherwise calm and boring Budapest life. I dove further into the sea of headlines and Read more…
Since it’s pretty much one of the most exciting things that has been happening in Budapest every summer since 1994, I must have heard about Sziget at least several dozen times. Finally, it happened and all the hype wasn’t for nothing – a week-long celebration filled with booze, music and half naked men, Sziget was very cool. I went for two days – first to see Gogol Bordello, Mau Mau and Madness, and then back for Leningrad and The Killers. Read more…