I think you'll be hearing a lot from me on this topic. But here is today's load:

The Moscow trip went from being a sure thing in mid-September to being nebulously defined for October or November. This on account of the sponsors at RosAtom (sort of the Russian atomic energy agency) all being on vacation during the planned September meeting time.

The Kazakhstan trip, on the other hand, went from being nebulously defined to being "relatively certain" to occur during the last two weeks of October. I'm not sure how much I should believe this, as this is the same trip that was originally scheduled for March, then May, then August, then September. So we'll see.

But I got my new passport photos taken and paperwork submitted, as well as my multi-entry visa application filed for Russia. Got my initial bloodwork taken care of; you can't get a multi-entry visa to Russia without an AIDS test. Which is odd, considering you can get as many single-entry visas as you want without an AIDS test... Speaking of needles... I have to get a bunch of fancy vaccinations for these trips, and Occ. Med. won't do the clinic work until they have something from travel confirming that I am actually going. Which makes no sense, given that the Hep A/B/C vaccination is a several month series and I'm not likely to get my travel approved by the lab until the week before or so. Nice work, lab.

A fun fact: "Expect to spend about $100/day on food in Moscow." Luckily, the lab per diem for Moscow is ~$100.

There is some chance that I'll be going to Moscow alone, which would be quite an adventure. There is a reasonably high chance that Kazakhstan will be an adventure regardless of how many people they send with me.

Tomorrow I do the Kazakhstan visa app.