criplomats

We celebrated John’s birthday with a nice steak at 501 Prime Friday night – happy birthday, John!

We drove to Fayetteville to see John’s family on Monday. We had a good visit, including dinner at Pete and Ginger’s Monday night with Philip and Michelle. Ginger and I did some shopping on Tuesday, then we all worked a jigsaw puzzle. Wednesday’s drive back to Hot Springs was lovely – we were very lucky to see a herd of elk close to the road in Boxley. We stopped in Clarksville for a yummy Tex-Mex lunch, and drove up to the Queen Wilamena Lodge only to be greeted by pea-soup fog!

Mary and Lynna brought BBQ for lunch on Thursday and we enjoyed a nice visit with them. Stoker came yesterday, and I ran errands, walked, and had coffee with David while they yakked.

I finished Stephen Fry’s “Mythos” last Sunday, then read “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.”

David and Alison took us out for a sunset cruise last night, followed by a soup & cornbread dinner with Peewee in attendance – big fun. It was a perfect day – sunny and cool. We spent the afternoon on the balcony visiting with Deb and Doug and grilling burgers. Life’s good.

The week was filled with appointments and a good dose of relaxation: dentist, leg x-rays, dermatologist, shingles vax, COVID booster, hair cut. Had a great lunch visit after my haircut in Maumelle with my former co-worker Leslie. I spent several afternoons at David and Alison’s, and Friday afternoon was nice and lazy in Chuck’s living room drinking coffee and catching up.

We landed in Paris Thursday morning en route to Hot Springs for R&R and got some good news when John turned on his phone: a note from Buenos Aires saying he was their leading candidate for their coveted Management Counselor job — hurray! An offer from the WHA bureau came the following day, then good news for me that I’m the lead bidder for their visa chief position! So looks like we’ll be off to Argentina next summer!

We’re thrilled to be back in Hot Springs for a short visit and to celebrate a bit! An added bonus is getting to see James and MaryBeth who are up from San Antonio — more good times to come!

Sadly, our apartment flooded yesterday when a hose on the hot water heater came loose. I was at the salon, so poor John had to deal with it on his own. Neighbors ran up to help and the embassy sent over a cleaning crew – about half the apartment was completely covered in water, including our rugs. Everything is topsy-turvy as pretty much all furniture had to be moved around to get the water (and rugs) out.

Last Monday was a holiday and we hosted a game day. Later in the week, we had a mass casualty drill at work. Thursday we had a small dinner at a restaurant near work to bid Luke farewell, along with some others from John’s section. I had a great video chat with my former boss who’s now in Pakistan. Most of the week, John and I obsessed over bidding. We are still completely up in the air and keeping fingers crossed.

I finished a book by Alan Alda on communication – thanks to Ann for flagging his “Clear and Vivid” podcast, as well. I started a book called “Being Wrong” but didn’t get all the way through it before the library loan ended, so I’ve put it on hold again. We finished a good crime series called “The Chestnut Man.”

John and I continue to talk about possible bidding outcomes non-stop – we still have nothing to report yet, Gentle Reader. Everything’s still up in the air and we have to resign ourselves to not hearing anything over the weekend or possibly for weeks to come. We’ve also spent time this week interviewing people to take over our own jobs, which really drives home the fact that we are entering the homestretch of our time in Liberia, as next summer rapidly approaches!

John is totally enjoying the influx of gamers to Embassy Monrovia! We hosted game day last Sunday. I’m glad to see him have so much fun!

We went out for sushi last Monday night. Tuesday night I attended a dinner at the DCM’s house with three visiting Canadian diplomats from Abidjan – they were delightful to visit with. Yesterday I took two relative newcomers with me to the salon. On the way home, Nicole and I stopped at a little shop and drove through the busy street market where she was delighted to buy sweet potatoes.

On the TV front, John and I are up to date on “The Morning Show,” “Ted Lasso,” and “The Chair” – and getting caught up on the new season of “Sex Education.”

As our friend Jackie says, “It’s all good.”