criplomats

Patty, Jimmy, Mary (with baby Will), Billy, John and Dave

Yesterday John and I drove to Jerusalem to visit with some of our friends. Dave and Mary, from our A-100 class, are both there, along with another friend from DC, Bill. We went to Mary’s apartment first to see her family – she and husband Jimmy had a baby in November and I hadn’t met him yet. What a cutie! Then we all met Dave and Bill downtown at a Middle Eastern restaurant for a leisurely lunch.

It was great to sit and talk with old friends – I guess “old” is relative, since we all just met in 2007! At any rate, it was a very pleasant and comfortable afternoon.

Last Sunday, Petite and I made a pilgrimage to the Hetzi Hinam grocery store – it’s the closest thing to an American-style grocery store here and I love it.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I fought a cold several days, so just took it easy.

Thursday, some folks from Jerusalem (including Dave and another A-100 classmate Liz) came over to our offices for meetings.

John and I went to a new place that we like called Whitehall. They played really good music (including Steely Dan, JT, etc.) and it was just a fun atmosphere.

We watched several movies this week: Suddenly Last Summer, Inception (I don’t get it), and I am Love with Tilda Swinton.

We’re off today for Martin Luther King Day – a good day to relax!

With Howard and Ale Petite

We got to visit with Howard and Petite again this week – they came downstairs for happy hour with us on Thursday. It was so great to see Petite again, and to get to know Howard. Happy hour turned into happy hours with them!

Last Sunday was a lot of fun. We went with our manager Wendy and her husband Colin to visit two nearby wineries, Flam and Clos de Gat. They are boutique wineries and produce some good wine (yes, we came home with quite a bit of it!). I especially liked the setting at Clos de Gat – we sat on a huge covered patio made of Jerusalem stone, and overlooked the vineyard and kibbutz. There was a flock of guinea hens wandering around, as well as a rooster and resident dogs. There are huge rosemary plants around the yard that smelled wonderful – it was cool, but sunny, and just really beautiful. Click here for more photos.

Afterwards, we picked up our friend Brian and went to a nice party at our DCM’s house. We followed that up with dinner on the beach at Lalaland. You can’t beat eating and listening to the waves.

My biggest excitement this week was getting a housekeeper. I think she’ll work out well, and it’s just so nice to come home to a clean house.

Last night, we met several co-workers at a great Russian restaurant in a nearby neighborhood. They had great food – I had an appetizer sampler and John had lamb stew. Paired with good conversation and good wine, it was a good night!

We had some bad news this week: John’s wonderful Uncle Perk passed away on New Year’s Day, and my cousin Annette’s husband, Jimmy Ray, passed away. I have such great memories of banding hummingbirds with Perk at his house at Lakeside – what a great guy and what an interesting life he had. He was in his 90s.

Jimmy Ray was much younger, but had had health problems in recent years; my favorite memories of him were presiding over the catfish fries we used to have.

And we go on.

At Flam Winery

At Clos de Gat Winery

Dogs, wine and rosemary

With Brian

Last day of 2010

2010 was our transitional year – we lived in Juarez, Arkansas, DC and Tel Aviv. We said goodbye to friends in Mexico, got to see old friends in Arkansas and DC, and made new friends in Israel. It was a good year!

We rang in the new year last night at Ben and Jen’s apartment (where we also celebrated Thanksgiving). Our very special treat of the evening was seeing Ale Petite, a good friend from Juarez who just moved to Tel Aviv. When we left Juarez, we didn’t think we would ever see her again, but she went to Baghdad to work for a few months and fell in love with a great guy who was on his way to work for the Embassy here in Tel Aviv…so here she is!

We also got to visit with Brian C., our friend and fellow FSO who is visiting Tel Aviv from Bulgaria. He’s here with his friend Camille, and they came by last night to visit – great to see them!

Last Sunday, we spent a nice, lazy afternoon on the patio at Dave and Emily’s apartment, eating and drinking champagne. Dave E., our friend from A-100 who is now posted in Jerusalem, was also there – he’s always a hoot to visit with.

Wednesday night we went to dinner at Doris with Ben, Jen, Steph and Abram and had a good meal and a jug of wine (really, a jug).

Thursday afternoon, we left work early and had a department brunch at a nice restaurant down the street. The food was good and champagne was flowing; it was a nice end to the work year!

We enjoyed New Year’s Eve day at home – it rained off and on throughout the day, and the clouds were pretty.

With Gobie

John and I thoroughly enjoyed a very lazy day on Christmas Day. We had great lattes and omelettes for breakfast and opened presents. We spent the morning and early afternoon reading, then popped the champagne and drank mimosas while we watched “Love Actually,” a great holiday movie. Later in the evening, we watched “Please Give,” with Catherine Keener, one of my favorite actresses.

I Skyped with cousin David in Diego Garcia, which I hadn’t done before, and, of course, we talked to our families.

The two nights leading up to the holiday were busy. On Thursday night, we went to a party at my boss’s house. The next night, we went upstairs in our building to a birthday party for Roya. Both were lots of fun, and we especially enjoyed the Mexican food at Roya’s. Click to see photos from the birthday party.

Tuesday at work, we had a “stairwell party.” Each floor set up tables on the stair landings and put out food and drink. It was very festive way to end the day.

Last Sunday, John and I, along with Melissa, Ann and Naz, trekked an hour or so north to the Carmel Winery for a nice wine tasting. It’s in a cute little town, and afterwards we went out for dinner there. The winery was the first one in Israel, and was started by Baron Rothschild in 1882. Interestingly, they had the first electricity and telephone there. It was very nice, and we brought home lots of wine. Click to see photos.

At Carmel Winery

John, Zvi and Charlie at Roya's party

The week went by in a blur of visa interviews. We both went in to the office today to try to get caught up – I don’t know where the days go.

Friday night was a treat – some friends of our manager in Juarez were in Tel Aviv, and we all went to dinner together. Bill and Jane were very interesting to meet and get to know. Bill was a neurologist in Oregon until he decided to devote more time to writing. He has written a financial book on asset allocation (that John read many years ago), among others. We went to The Old Man and the Sea – it’s south of Jaffo on the ocean and sort of a local institution, very colorful with large groups of families. The food is not spectacular, but it was a lot of fun, and our guests seemed to enjoy it.

Bill and Jane at The Old Man & the Sea

Appetizers

Flavie on her climbing tree