Apologies, folks, I've got some catching up to do. Turns out, the Internet, wired or wireless, has not arrived in the great north woods. So several things that I had brought along on my laptop to post never made it off the hard drive. I guess somebody was trying to tell me that sometimes vacation should just be vacation.

First up is a story from The New York Times last week. It seems that Russia's national currency, the rouble, is having something of a heyday. Not only are Russians saving more of them in banks (as I told you two weeks ago), but they are spending a lot of them on luxury goods. And best yet--for Russians, though perhaps not for you planning an adoption trip to Russia--the rouble is gaining in value against both the common currency of western Europe, the euro, and the dollar.

It is quite the reversal of fortune. The Times story says that from January 1993 to December 2002, the the dollar appreciated 7,664% against the rouble, hitting a high of 31.96 roubles to the dollar. Much of that gain, I believe, happened in the years following Russia's economic collapse in 1998. The chart accompanying the story shows that the value of 100 roubles has risen from just over $3 in 2003 to almost $4 this year. XE.com, the Web site I use to check currency conversions, shows that, this morning, $1 will buy 25.49 roubles.

I've pointed to some of the reasons for the change in my weekly news roundups and other stories. Russia is sitting on a mountain of oil and gas, and is profiting handsomely from export sales at current high prices. The economy is on a largely sound, even and capitalist, keel. Foreign companies have been investing in the country. According to the Times story, Russia now has a currency reserve of $413 billion, which it says is the largest per capita foreign currency reserve of any major economy, including China. (A British newspaper set off a furor last week with a report that China was threatening to sell off U.S. Treasuries if the U.S. imposed trade sanctions, something Chinese authorities now deny.)

But the Times story has a lot of other interesting economic facts that I hadn't seen reported until now. Like the fact that, this year, Russia’s gross domestic product returned to the level that it had been at prior to perestroika, which caused Russia’s economy to contract by as much as 40%.

Why is all of this important to a discussion of adoption from Russia? First, because it is raising the cost of an adoption trip. I wrote, back in May, of how shocked I was to learn that a hotel room that I paid $33 a night for in Vladivostok in 1999 now goes for as much as $300. But I think it is also likely to be one of the reasons why Russians are adopting more domestically. And anything that gets more children out of orphanages and into the homes of loving families is good news in my book.