criplomats

John and I went bowling together for the first time yesterday and had a blast. It was an organized Consulate event, and we had about 45 people – lots of fun, but we are sore today! The name of the bowling alley here is “Bol Bol,” appropriately enough. (I wished I had had my thrift store bowling shirt that I wore throughout college that had the slogan above on it.)

We did several things with the TDYers this week. Last Sunday, Cathy and I went to lunch in El Paso, then shopped at the outlet mall. Mid-week, we went to dinner at Frida’s (where we were happy to see more fellow diners than during our previous visit – maybe due to the fact that the parking lot guards are now armed?), and then wrapped up Friday afternoon with an early dinner with them at Los Bichis before the (yawn) presidential debate.

We also had an impromptu neighborhood happy hour at our house last Sunday night to welcome our newest addition, Meghan. She’s quite fun and interesting, and we look forward to having her in the ‘hood.

John and I watched several episodes of “The Wire” this week and liked it. We have the next set of episodes in our Netflix queue.

I spent an inordinate amount of time this weekend looking for our camera (including going through the dirty clothes hamper at 2AM this morning). It seemed to have disappeared into thin air, but I finally found it in a drawer with some blouses I had unpacked after my trip to Hot Springs. I was just glad it wasn’t in the refrigerator…where I found the ClingWrap a few weeks ago.

The weather here is fabulous right now – John and I had our coffee outside this morning and it was almost chilly. (Speaking of, he is roasting really incredible coffee, and I am totally dependent on his lattes every day!) The only sad thing about the change in the weather is that it looks like the hummingbirds have gone south – we haven’t seen any in a couple of days. We really enjoyed their near-constant company this summer.

Wow! Yesterday John and I joined about 35 other Consulate employees and their families and went to Carlsbad Caverns – it was so wonderful, and really exceeded my expectations. I loved walking around in the cool (literally) underground and seeing the beautiful formations.

We stayed until sunset and watched the hundreds of thousands of bats come out of their cave – supercool!

It was a long day – we left the house at 6:45 AM to go pick up the visiting TDYers, and didn’t get home until 11 PM or so, but it was definitely worth it.

I flew back from Hot Springs on Tuesday (after finally getting a haircut at Mike’s before I left). After the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through, the weather was wonderful – nice, dry and cool. I had a really good massage at Sun Bay Resort while I was there – I hadn’t had one in ages and my shoulder and neck are really stiff. She did a great job and I felt tons better afterwards.

I had a fun lunch with Mary last Sunday at Rolando’s for Equadorian food – I had goat cheese and chicken quesadillas – yummy. Mom and I got to visit with Alison over dinner that night, and ran into Julie and Jack while we were out. I also got to have lunch with Leslie in Little Rock before I caught my plane on Tuesday.

I picked up the Volvo from the mechanic’s on the way back to Juarez Tuesday night – he did a tune up, replaced the brakes, etc., so the car seems to be good to go!

It was back to work on Wednesday – I’m re-assigned to the non-immigrant visa section again, so that’s a change of pace.

Friday afternoon, we brought our friend Cathy, a TDYer, home with us for happy hour on the patio and dinner. Always good to catch up with friends.

This week I was off to Hot Springs to visit Mom – John and I aren’t planning to take any time off from work over the holidays, so I figured I should take advantage of a Mexican holiday and make it a four-day weekend. Last night I had a great visit and dinner with Dail and Nancy – we sure do miss them!

Hurricane Ike blew through Hot Springs last night – I saw three trees down during my morning walk today.

Last Sunday, several TDYers arrived in Juarez, including our A-100 classmate, Cathy. John and I picked her up in El Paso, then had everyone over for dinner that night. They are all from border towns, too, so it was fun to compare stories. Cathy and I also had dinner together later in the week at Corralito’s.

Work was fine this week – no big whoop. We had a couple of brown bag lunches, and lots of applicants, as usual.

We really had a great time visiting Huey and Suzanne (and the doggies!) in San Diego last weekend! They were such wonderful hosts. Last Monday I started the day with a nice walk, followed by a manicure/pedicure, then we drove to Encinitas for lunch and a walk through a gorgeous garden overlooking the ocean. We topped off our visit with a wonderful meal on the beach at sunset – perfect! Click here to see a couple more photos.

We returned to Ciudad Juarez on Tuesday. It was a busy week because we sponsored a newly arrived officer, so we spent some time getting him settled in his new house, taking him to work and making introductions, etc. It’s hard to believe that after only 6 months here, we’re considered old hands, more or less!

Thursday night we went to the Consul General’s house to meet some of our Mexican Foreign Service counterparts, who work at the Mexican Consulate in El Paso.

We had a yummy Mexican dinner on Friday night with our neighbors Lara and Ryan. Lara is originally from Chiapas, Mexico, and is a great cook.

Yesterday was a nice break for us – we spent the whole day relaxing and had a movie-fest. We watched one really good movie, “In Bruges,” plus “The Story of the Weeping Camel,” a National Geographic documentary-ish movie about a camel and a family in Mongolia. Sounds odd, but we enjoyed it. Then we watched “Border Town,” about the Juarez femicides. (You’ll be happy to know that Jennifer Lopez solved the mystery!)

Here’s a photo with Huey and Suzanne’s doggies.

John and I are enjoying a few days of vacation in sunny San Diego with our good friends from Little Rock, Huey and Suzanne. (The real reason we came out here was to see their fabulous dogs, two mini-Schnauzers – but don’t tell Huey and Suzanne!) We flew in Saturday morning – how wonderful to see the ocean, palm trees and lots of green! We took a drive to see some sights – including a seal! – and dipped our toes in the ocean. It’s really gorgeous here.

Today we had a picnic and walked around in Balboa Park, followed by a trip to a wonderful used book store. The best part of the trip is visiting with good friends over a bottle of wine, while enjoying Huey’s efforts at the grill!

Last Sunday, John returned from his trip to Dallas to see his friend Russ. We watched “Under the Same Moon,” a rather sympathetic look at immigration with some great characters.

Monday night, we hosted John’s book club. It was a small turnout but a good discussion of Jeffrey Sach’s “End of Poverty” – the first of the book club books I actually read. The basis of the book is how to end not poverty in general, but extreme poverty – and how the developed countries of the world have the resources but not the political will to do it.

The rest of the week was just work-oriented, but we did have a fun impromptu happy hour at our house with our FSO neighbors one night. Teresa and Michael are feeding Flavie for us while we’re gone.

We took Friday off, which was great. I had a check-up with a doctor in El Paso, then dropped off the Volvo at a mechanic’s shop to have some work done. I was thrilled this week because our new neighbor Lara helped me get set up with easy pass tickets to get the Volvo over the bridge without waiting in line for hours.

Friday night we met our co-worker Beth and her husband Tom for dinner at Los Bichis – it turned out to be a celebratory dinner because she just found out that she got Frankfurt, Germany, as her second tour assignment – one of her top choices. Lots of our peers are getting their next assignments now, and so far the news is all good. John and I won’t bid until this winter, so we have a while to go yet.

OK, enough work for now. Time to get back to relaxing on Huey and Suzanne’s patio with the doggies!