Now I Know Where Almaty Is

We drove down to the new Hill Country Galleria in Bee Cave after lunch today and I got my atlas at the Barnes & Noble. I decided to go ahead and use my $150 gift cards for this $165 purchase rather than order from amazon.com where I would have saved about $60, but couldn't use the gift cards.

It worked out OK because I was able to pay $20 to join the B&N club and immediately got 20% knocked off the atlas which more than covered the membership fee and I get discounts on future purchases. I splurged and got the 2008 World Almanac also.

Each day on the New York Times' weather page I see the temperatures for Almaty in the Asia column but never had a clue where this place was exactly. But I opened the atlas to take a picture and happened to open on the page with Almaty.

It's big. It's heavy. It's mine.