John at the birthday party with friends
Last night we went to a surprise birthday dinner for a co-worker and ended up at an after-party…lots of fun, but I’m moving a little slowly this morning – although I did make it on the threadmill while watching the Sunday political shows. I was suprised when Newt Gingrich brought up the civil war in Mexico on George Stephanopoulos’s This Week, commenting that it was a civil war on our border, fueled by U.S. drug money, yet no one in the U.S. was paying attention to it. It may be the first time I’ve agreed with Newt!
We had a pretty social week, starting last Sunday afternoon when we went to our friend Pam’s house to meet her son’s godfathers – they were great, and it was pleasant to visit with someone not associated with the State Department.
Tuesday night we went to Whitney and Ali’s for tamales and King Cake to celebrate Epiphany. The person who gets the baby in the cake has to buy tamales for everyone on February 2nd, Día de la Candelaria.
We had two birthdays in our NIV section at work this week, so I was a regular at the local supermarket bakery picking up cakes. It’s fun to stop our visa work for a few minutes to celebrate – especially important since we are all away from friends and family.
Friday night we had an early dinner with Michael and Teresa at Los Bichis – fun to catch up with them at the end of a long week (we got pretty spoiled over the holidays with all of the short weeks!).
Work has been demanding. I stayed pretty late one night, and then John and I worked yesterday all day. We each had extra projects to work on (there’s never time during the week), and they needed Americans to supervise some local staff who needed to come in. So, we’ll get paid OT plus get our extra work done.
My Christmas present from John – lined Crocs – the best houseshoes ever!