criplomats

I spent yesterday working on our taxes – it’s amazing how much time it takes just to organize everything to send to the accountant! But, it’s pretty much done and I feel a lot better having crossed that off my list of things to do.

I sent John off to El Paso to see “Watchmen” while I worked on taxes. He met our neighbors Michael and Teresa over there – he and Michael have been anticipating the opening for months now. It’s all lost on me.

We had a delegation of high-level visitors from Washington and the Embasssy in this week to talk about the security situation in Juarez. I guess there has been a lot of press coverage about it lately, so it has started to get more attention. We had a lot of meetings with them to talk about how our lives are affected by the violence.

Speaking of security, I thought our house was being broken into one night this week! I woke up around 3AM to hear this loud banging on wood – I thought someone had gotten through the metal bars and was trying to break the door down. I screamed, then realized it was Flavia. Poor girl, she fell down behind a chest of drawers in the office and couldn’t get out because of the angle.

Thursday night, we took David and Joe to dinner at Los Bichis – they’re the retired FSOs who are down here on TDY. They have a wealth of knowledge and stories, and they’re just really nice guys.

John and I celebrated the end of a hard work week by having a nice dinner out at Corralito’s on Friday. Last night, we went to our friends Beth and Tom’s for a fun dinner.

Our Lady of the Lawn dressed up for Mardi Gras, although it’s a bit of a non-starter here in Mexico – they do King Cake in January, so we didn’t have any Mardi Gras celebrations. John and I did celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary on Tuesday! We stayed in and grilled steaks and opened a bottle of wine. My mom asked me if I had had any regrets about marrying John – no! We’ve been so happy, and I can’t imagine my life without him.

This was another good, busy week. Last Sunday, we had our neighbors Mike and Teresa down for smoked shrimp – yum! John is doing excellent smoking! It was a bit hit.

I spent a lot of time getting ready for Friday’s Consular Leadership Day – it’s an annual event at embassies and consulates around the world, and I was part of a great committee that took on the planning and execution of it. We had a fun day of teambuilding classes and exercises, topped off by an excellent happy hour in the employee garden at the Consulate. The weather has been fantastic – hitting 80 pretty much every day.

Friday night, our friend Neal put together another fun wine tasting at Pomodoro’s. We had a Spanish-speaking Frenchman as the sommelier, plus a good dinner and good company.

Saturday I made an early run to El Paso, then went to work for a while. We stay so busy during the week interviewing, that it’s pretty impossible to get extra stuff done – like working on my first employee evaluation. I worked until 1PM or so, then had a pedicure. We had a wonderful dinner at my manager’s house. He’s Haitian and his wife is Turkish – he cooked a typical Haitian dish of rice and red beans with a beef stew – delish – they are excellent hosts, in addition to being wonderful cooks.

Today we did our weekly shopping in El Paso, then picked up two State Department retirees from the El Paso airport at noon and got them settled in their hotel here in Juarez. I went back this afternoon to take them grocery shopping.

All in all, it was a good week – busy as usual. Mom had a scare with her heart this week – rapid heartbeat – but her friends in the emergency room got it under control quickly. I talked to her again tonight, and she was feeling fine, thank goodness.

John and I continue to obsess over the bid list – the list of places where we could be posted in 2010. So far, nothing is really jumping out at us, but we continue to plug away at it…

Family at Mom’s house on Sunday

After a great visit in Hot Springs, it was nice to get home to John and Flavia. John’s friend Russ flew in to spend the weekend in Juarez while I was gone – they seemed to have had a great time roasting coffee, smoking meats, eating Crisostomo’s burritos and wandering around the local supermarket.

Last Monday my cousin Lacey took Julie and me around to look at some lake condos in Hot Springs – sure would be nice to have one down there. We’ll see! I also had a great dinner with cousins Dail and Nancy – John and  I sure miss them. And I was happy to get Mike to cut my hair – he does a great job with my mess of curls!

I flew out on Tuesday, so it was back to work on Wednesday. We had a professional development event on Wednesday night at the CG’s residence with a woman from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). She also joined us the next night for book club at our house. We had read a book written by the CIS director, and it was interesting to have her input on the book.

Saturday was busy with two border crossings. We took at TDYer back to the El Paso airport early in the morning, then I went back for a nice baby shower for our friend Ali. Luckily they didn’t make me play any kind of baby games. We had a fun dinner last night with our friends Mike and Rebecca at Los Bichis. Mike is one of the few people I know that makes me really belly-laugh – always fun.

We had a meeting this week at work to talk about the security situation here – there was a shoot-out near the Consulate on Tuesday that killed a top policeman and his three bodyguards, then only days later the police chief resigned under threats – obviously everyone is concerned. What a crazy world.

I flew into Little Rock on Saturday afternoon for Mom’s 83rd birthday weekend. On the way into Hot Springs, I stopped at Alison’s gallery and bought two really pretty pieces of jewelry made by her sister. Alison is doing some fun work these days, too – as always.

The cousins came out on Sunday afternoon, with a special guest appearance by my good friend Leslie. We had a great time just sitting around and yakking and eating cake.

Our big excitement this week was the bid list – the list of job opportunities available to John and me in 2010 when we leave Juarez. There are lots of interesting spots on the list – it’ll be a huge task to sort through everything and see what we want to bid on. China, Brazil, India, Africa, the Middle East, Europe – hard to tell where we’ll end up!

The week in Juarez was busy. We went to our neighbor’s house Wednesday night to watch the U.S. soccer team beat Mexico. Thursday we went to El Paso to meet some of the Mexican diplomats from the El Paso Consulate – they’re a lot of fun. We also took a TDY’er out to dinner on Tuesday at Corralito’s.

It’s been nice to be back in Hot Springs and be able to take my morning walks outside instead of on the treadmill – I’ve seen deer, woodpeckers and bunnies – fun!

I was livin’ the dream this weekend at a west Texas ranch – our friends Reid and Katherine invited us to their family’s ranch out near Marfa for the weekend. We drove out Friday night and came back on Sunday. Reid treated me to a horseback ride that I thoroughly enjoyed – he even rustled up boots and spurs for me. Katherine was a cooking machine, so when we weren’t riding or out for a walk, we were eating great food. They were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed every minute of it!

My favorite thing was being outside, of course. I got up this morning and went for a walk – I saw 14 wild turkeys and two deer. The sky and light out there is just gorgeous.

Reid and Katherine also had their cute two-year-old daughter Stella and their big ol’ cat, Max. Max is more like a dog than a cat. On the way out of town on Friday, we stopped at Sonic for a quick bite. We sat outside at a picnic table, and Max just sat in his cat carrier with his head poked out of the top to look around. He’s great.

We had a good week otherwise, too. Last Sunday, we went to Michael and Teresa’s for a SuperBowl party (I actually watched the game). Monday was a Mexican holiday, so we dropped off a load of TDYers over to the outlet mall, then sped back to Juarez to make two runs to the airport…then back to El Paso to pick up the shoppers and stop at Wal-Mart, too. Whew.

John’s great smoke-out continued this week with an incredible salmon. I am getting used to this!

Work was busy, as usual. Some of you may have heard about a Foreign Service Officer being found dead in his home in Ethiopia – we didn’t know him, but have mutual friends. We’re still waiting to hear what’s up with that. Very sad.

For photos from west Texas, including turkeys, deer, Max the Cat and Stella, click here.

Dinner on the porch with Reid, Stella and Katherine