![\"Painted](\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/bird.jpg\")
<\/a>Painted Redstart<\/p><\/div>Happy new year! We had a quiet evening at home – John was the duty officer so we couldn’t get too rowdy, in case any emergencies came up (none did). We were pleasantly surprised by a two-hour early release, so even though John had to close the building, we got off earlier than normal.<\/p>\n We stayed in for NY’s Day and just enjoyed ourselves. John organized the bookshelves – no small feat if you know how much John loves his books! The house is really coming together and looking nice. We are so glad we bought several rugs in Pakistan.<\/p>\n Friday evening, we had a very nice happy hour at our house. We have been wanting to meet our downstairs neighbors, a young couple with a toddler – both of them are Canadian diplomats. Last weekend at the gym, I met her father – turns out he was a Canadian ambassador to several countries, most recently Israel (he is good friends with the U.S. Ambassador, John’s former boss – small world). So we had all of them up, including the Ambassador’s wife – and our Consul General and her husband and college-age daughter. It was very nice; everyone had lots in common and they all seemed to enjoy themselves.<\/p>\n We have really been enjoying the hummingbirds. The other evening, I was talking to Mom and there were four all sitting at the same feeder! They are so territorial that I just couldn’t believe it! I have to fill up the feeders about every other day! And Saturday, John and I were delighted to see a Painted Redstart on the balcony (pictured above) – what a beauty!<\/p>\n Sunday afternoon, I flew to Monterrey to work in our Consulate here. I’m staying in an apartment – it’s pretty bare bones and sort of feel like I’m camping. Hopefully later this week I’ll get internet and a TV!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Happy new year! We had a quiet evening at home – John was the duty officer so we couldn’t get too rowdy, in case any emergencies came up (none did). We were pleasantly surprised by a two-hour early release, so even though John had to close the building, we got off earlier than normal. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3766"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3770,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766\/revisions\/3770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}