{"id":6572,"date":"2022-02-20T03:17:10","date_gmt":"2022-02-20T08:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=6572"},"modified":"2022-02-20T03:18:52","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T08:18:52","slug":"happy-valentines-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=6572","title":{"rendered":"Happy Valentine\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Valentine\u2019s Day was a little different this year as the embassy welcomed visitors from Washington on Monday. The crisis in Ukraine changed the names of the people who came to get briefings from embassy staff and to attend an event sponsored by the government of Liberia. Liberia has planned a lot of celebrations based on the 200th anniversary of the return of freed slaves from American to this land that would be eventually become the country of Liberia. The government keeps referring to it as their \u201cbicentennial\u201d but it\u2019s not the bicentennial of the country &#8211; but no one seems to want to parse that difference. My favorite visitor in the three-person delegation was the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunche. I had a few minutes to chat with his about the \u201dSidedoor\u201d Smithsonian podcast (we share a favorite episode about Apollo 13). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"264\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/68A062CB-CC79-43B8-B7BC-8E8582F46A79.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6573\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/68A062CB-CC79-43B8-B7BC-8E8582F46A79.jpeg 264w, http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/68A062CB-CC79-43B8-B7BC-8E8582F46A79-248x300.jpeg 248w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 264px) 100vw, 264px\" \/><figcaption>Fangirl with Secretary Bunche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that COVID rates are going down a bit, I ventured back to the salon this week, treating myself to leaving the office early (!) one afternoon. Last night, we were invited to a small dinner party (!!) at a co-worker\u2019s home. She is Moroccan and made my favorite lemon-olive-chicken dish. It was fun to socialize with the couple and another guest; they also have two cute kids who enjoyed a couple of magic tricks from John. The smaller girl helped John with a magic trick several months ago when we had a talent show. When her mom told her that John was coming to dinner, and that John is mom\u2019s boss, the little girl was amazed that her mother was so lucky to have a magician for a boss (!!!) &#8211; she\u2019s quite adorable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve been watching the wonderful Julia Garner in \u201cInventing Anna\u201d on Netflix this week &#8211; I\u2019m totally hooked on it. I finished reading \u201cAtonement\u201d \u2014 so good \u2014 and just started a book of essays by A.S. Byatt (not as fun a read for me).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also wished Pete a happy 86th birthday this week!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"319\" src=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/AF183FCE-1919-4DAB-B52F-CB6C7CB50BD5.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6574\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/AF183FCE-1919-4DAB-B52F-CB6C7CB50BD5.jpeg 320w, http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/AF183FCE-1919-4DAB-B52F-CB6C7CB50BD5-300x300.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/AF183FCE-1919-4DAB-B52F-CB6C7CB50BD5-150x150.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption>On the drive home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Valentine\u2019s Day was a little different this year as the embassy welcomed visitors from Washington on Monday. The crisis in Ukraine changed the names of the people who came to get briefings from embassy staff and to attend an event sponsored by the government of Liberia. Liberia has planned a lot of celebrations based on [&hellip;]<\/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\/6572"}],"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=6572"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6576,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6572\/revisions\/6576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}