and it was a magnificent day

The weather was so perfect I worked outside when I could. I hope the mosquito lamp thing works this summer because my little table under the deck is such a wonderful place to be. I still don't have the large stone to put the little table and chairs on, but they were fine directly on the ground. 

Someone put up the agenda for the whole staff meeting two minutes before it started. I looked and saw I had to give a presentation. Two minutes!!! Two minutes and not only did I have two activities that bragged about all four teams but then I had funny things that made everybody laugh. "You can't hear it because we're on mute but everybody here was laughing, mic drop!" 

Russia is important to Finland in the area of energy supplies - 34%. Sanctions decreased trade between the two countries. Finnish companies are replacing Russian oil with Norwegian oil. 78% of Finnish residents said Finland should halt Russian energy imports even if it means higher bills. 

In early April, Finland and Estonia decided to joined lease an LNG terminal ship - it stores and regasifies LNG - to end their reliance on Russia for gas. 

Russian state-owned RAO Nordic halted electricity exports to Finland. Finland said they will just buy more from Sweden. 

Hungary, however, is not willing to take a hit to its economy and is blocking an EU embargo on Russian oil. A tariff on Russian oil could impact Russian immediately while reducing the stress on global energy markets. 

You remember some people have stopped buying Russian gems as conflict diamonds? Apparently there is also "conflict timber" and Finnish forestry groups have stopped buying Russian wood. 

Ukraine says it downed 200 aircraft. Not bad given Russia's expected air superiority. Russian pilots are reluctant to enter Ukrainian airspace. They shoot from Russia. The US has provided Stinger missiles which a Ukrainian can fire from his shoulder, but Ukraine also has S-300 surface-to-air missile systems. These are giant Soviet-era weapons that take down jet fighters. They only have a few, but Russian pilots don't know where they are. Ukrainians are determined to fight and they have something worth fighting for. The Russian pilots don't. It isn't worth the risk to the Russian pilots. Russia is still doing terrible damage with long-distance bombing, but it isn't as bad as if planes were directly overhead. 

With Russia being forced out of much of Ukraine, refugees are returning home in droves, with more people returning than leaving on Saturday. It is very hard to start a new life in a new country. They want to be with their husbands and/or elderly parents and help their country. 

Supposedly Putin has a girlfriend. I don't know how that works when he doesn't let anyone within 20 feet of him for fear of Covid. Can you have sex from 20 feet away? The UK is sanctioning her. They have also sanctioned her grandmother and Putin's ex-wife and Putin's acknowledged daughters. 

We've been hearing about soldiers shooting their tanks and surrendering or going home. We may be hearing about officers refusing to follow orders. It might not be true, it makes good propaganda,  but entire Russian units may be laying down their weapons. The war isn't going well. They don't know why they are there. There are drones overhead dropping missiles and grenades. They have old or defective equipment. 

Mikhail Khodaryonok, a military analyst on a Kremlin propaganda channel, said on TV that the entire world is against Russia and Ukrainian troops are highly motivated. They get western arms and the situation for Russian troops will get worse. The video clip has been viewed 3.8 million times on Russian social media. Why is he able to say these things on Russian TV? It might be to temper expectations of fast and easy victories.