criplomats

Party at our house with one of the cutest kids ever

Lots of social activity this week…starting last Sunday with a party at our house to welcome our three newest officers in Juarez. Nice turnout, good food and conversation.

My birthday celebration continued with another cake in my new department on Monday. Then on Wednesday, several of the local staff took me out to lunch, which was the sweetest thing ever. We had a great time and laughed a lot. They are all just wonderful.

Monday night we met our friends Tom and Beth at a nice Argentinian restaurant here in Juarez to celebrate Tom’s birthday. Excellent food.

Tuesday night, we indulged in a much-needed massage…at home. It was the first time we had tried this. The woman is a friend of one of our local staff and a good masseuse. She was very professional and set up her massage table in the living room. We were both sore afterward, in a good kind of way. She’ll be back next Tuesday!

Wednesday was an admin day at work, so no applicants but plenty of meetings. Thursday night, I went across the street for a small birthday dinner for our neighbor Ryan while John went on a boys’ night out for a Diplimatic Security agent who is leaving Post soon.

Friday, we wrapped up the week with an outdoor happy hour and burgers at the Consulate. Our neighbor TFran came down later for a glass of wine before we turned in.

Saturday morning, we hosted a small gathering at our house for John to demo coffee roasting. He already had our friend Reid converted, and used Saturday to teach both Reid and Tom how to roast. We had a nice breakfast spread, including Galloway casserole with a chorizo twist (quite yummy).

Saturday night, Lara and Neal threw a luau birthday party for Ryan across the street – lots of good food and company.

This morning, we went to an early show of the new Star Trek movie, which we really enjoyed, then spent the rest of the day with John working in the yard. I bought a few vegetable plants and made a half-hearted attempt to plant them in the yard – I told John it would have been more humane just to throw them in the trash…but we’ll see!

I finished reading a fun book today called “Shut Up, I’m Talking – and Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government” by Gregory Levey. It had been recommended by one of the visiting retirees. It was really funny – the book jacket describes Levey as a cross between Thomas Friedman and David Sedaris.

At the luau with one of my favorite local employees, Alex

I had a great birthday on Friday. Sweet Martha and Ali Petit decorated my cubie with balloons, and my NIV manager baked me a surprise cake. I got lots of great emails and hugs, and to top it off, John took me out for a steak dinner. It was one of my favorite birthdays in a long time!

We were off work last Monday for swine flu and Tuesday was a holiday. I kept busy on Monday getting a new officer and his toddler across the border and settled in their new home. On Tuesday, he and I went back across the border to get him stocked up on supplies.

John and finished watching “The Wire” series – it was so good that I’m sad we finished it!

On Wednesday, I started my new rotation in American Citizen Services (ACS). I love it so far. For starters, I have a nice big cubie with a window. Right now, I’m just learning to adjudicate passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad for Americans who have children in Mexico. So far the workload is fairly light and it’s nice to have a bit of time to work on other projects, too. Lots to learn.

Yesterday we pretty much lazed about the house. The heat is coming back – already up in the high 90s – and John has re-started his efforts on the yard.

Mailbox, Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM

We spent a lovely weekend in Santa Fe, NM – Friday was a Mexican holiday and the office closed early on Thursday, so we drove up Friday morning. It’s about a 5-hour drive if you drive straight, but we stopped along the way for a famous Buckhorn burger. It lived up to its reputation.

We got to Santa Fe around 6 PM, early enough to stroll around the Plaza and have dinner. The next morning, we went to the Santa Fe farmers’ market. Funny story. Last Labor Day, we flew to San Diego. The plane stopped over in Albuquerque and this hippy chick got on and sat in front of me. The plane was jam-packed and she was really rude – immediately laid her seat all the way back and kept flipping her long curly gray hippy hair all over me. I asked her if she would mind not reclining her seat, to which she retorted, “Everyone has a right to lean their seat back!” I got up and moved to the one lone middle aisle seat left in the back of the plane. Well, who should we see strolling through the farmers’ market looking all BOBO’d out with her pull-along cart but rude hippy chick! What are the chances?

Anyway, we got a good laugh out of that and continued on to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, which was really nice. We had brunch at Cafe Pasqual’s, which I remembered from 20 years ago when I was there. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking and driving around town. It rained some, but didn’t interfere too much with the day – and we got a beautiful end-to-end rainbow after the showers. John found several good used book stores, then we finished the day with delicious Mexican food with New Mexican chile sauce at Tomasita’s.

We drove home this morning – and still have Monday and Tuesday off! Tuesday is another Mexican holiday, and the Consulate closed for business on Monday due to swine flu fears. Although we don’t think there have been any cases reported in Juarez, applicants come from all over Mexico, so we closed to try to limit travel. John calls it a snow day, since we don’t get any of those here.

We had book club at our house last Monday to discuss “The Closing of the American Border,” by Edward Alden – small group but a great discussion. Wednesday night we went to a dinner party at Matt and Daisy’s with some friends. Thursday we had a girls’ “swine flu vacation” happy hour at my friend Pam’s house.

We watched “Australia” tonight and thought it was really good. It got mediocre reviews, but we liked it.

Mom and Aunt Bonnie left this week for a 2-week Alaskan cruise – lucky them!

Indian food with friends

After a busy and fun week, it’s great to lie around on a nice Sunday afternoon. John is outside smoking a backstrap of deer that our friend Reid gave us. Flavia is curled up sound asleep in her favorite chair. I’ve been trying to conquer the more difficult Sudoku puzzles without a lot of success.

It was a good week at work. I spent two days at a passport fraud conference in El Paso that was interesting, plus I got to see a few old friends from DC. John met me over there Tuesday night for dinner at Geske’s with our friend Sarah from Tijuana and Nicole from Mexico City.

When I came back to the office, I found out that I have a six-month rotation assignment in American Citizen Services, something that I have been wanting for a long time. I’ll start May 4th, and can’t wait! I also got assigned to work on our web pages until then, updating them and doing some re-design – which I really enjoy doing – so much so that I worked most of Saturday.

Last Sunday John smoked a couple of chickens and we took one to Reid and Katherine – we got to see their cute new baby, Teddy. We went back to Los Bichis with the WAEers (the retirees) Friday after work. They are so funny and I really enjoy being around them. Then last night, we met some friends at an Indian restaurant in El Paso – really good food. It was a lot of fun and a good change of pace.

This week, our friend Ali at work had a birthday, so her friends made here a nearly life-size cutout of her favorite soccer player. These are some of our very favorite girls in the office.

We’re starting to see signs of spring here in Juarez – the hummingbirds came back this week! I was tickled to see a pair at our feeder. The nights are still down in the 40s, but days have been sunny in the 70s.

We took last Monday off from work, which was nice and relaxing. I spent most of the day in El Paso, shopping and getting highlights in my hair. Our neighbor Michael came down for happy hour.

The week was pretty slow at work, giving me some much-needed time to work on my employee evaluation. John and I both are very happy with our reviews from our bosses. Right now we are finishing up the personal statement section, then they’ll be ready to turn in.

Friday after work, we organized a group of WAEers (the retirees who are here to work with us) for dinner at Los Bichis. They are a lot of fun, and as I have mentioned before, have such a wealth of experience and stories. We went to El Paso yesterday to pick up another WAEer at the airport and got him settled in his hotel here in Juarez.

Last night, we had dinner with Michael and Teresa at Corralito’s – nice evening.

We’ve been watching the last season of “The Wire” this week – I’ll be sorry to finish it, it’s so good.