criplomats

John and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary on Friday! The years have flown by with lots of happiness and adventure!

I worked from home all week – it was exhausting! I worked a couple of almost-12-hour days, plus a full day on Tuesday, which was a local holiday. It’s an interesting project but quite tedious.

Tuesday night was a treat – Kyle and Jon, two acquaintances from Little Rock, were in town and stopped by for a visit. We enjoyed catching up and reminiscing about old friends; it’s always a treat to see a familiar face in a foreign country.

Last Monday was also a holiday, and I set out for a solo bike ride. It’s so fun here with all the bike lanes! John and I got out again this morning and it was lovely.

I met Lea for brunch yesterday at Gontran Cherrier by the cemetery. Good food and lots of laughs. Later in the day, John and I walked up to see the animals for adoption – it’s so hard not to bring them all home with us! Today we went out for lunch at a little parrilla not far from here; it was a nice walk. Afterward we ran an errand at the mall. John also got his 4Runner running and decked out with a new battery this weekend.

We watched an excellent movie this week, “God’s Crooked Lines” – really, really good. I finished reading “The Body Keeps the Score” and started re-reading a 1959 favorite of John’s, “The Magic of Thinking Big.”

I fooled around and didn’t buy a ticket in advance for the Argentine Open, but I got incredibly lucky and found someone selling a primo ticket outside the gate for yesterday’s final, #2 Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) vs #12 Cameron Norris (UK). It was a fun match – Alcaraz won 6-3, 7-5; Norrie made the second set tight at the end. Before the singles final, I watched the doubles team of Bolelli and Fognini (Italy) beat Barrientos and Behar (Colombia/Uruguay). It was beautiful weather and just a big time overall. The venue is relatively small, around 5,000, I think, so it felt very intimate. And to be able to watch two really top-ranked players in the world was phenomenal!

Saturday was also a lot of fun – Luis and Mercedes, who we met at the Ambassador’s wedding anniversary party, invited us to their home north of town for an asado lunch. We sat outside overlooking the gorgeous pool and yard – very peaceful and great food and conversation. Very nice folks!

I’ve been working mostly from home on a joint project with DC this week; it’s an interesting project that requires a lot of reading and analysis. I had dinner with Lea one day after work at Carneros. The walk up there was chilly! The temperature dropped into the 60s all of a sudden and stayed cool on Friday with a crazy low of 55 when we woke up. Luis and Mercedes said it was the coldest this time of year in 60 years – I’ll take it as a nice break from last weekend’s 99! John and I took a nice bike ride Sunday morning and the cooler temps made it so pleasant!

I finished Selma Blair’s “Mean Baby” and started “The Body Keeps the Score.” TV-wise, we watched season one of “The Recruit,” which was kind of mindless and goofy; we started season two of “Astrid” last night.

My phone is showing 99 degrees today, and it was 97 yesterday. It’s not so humid but it’s toasty, for sure! John and I didn’t get our bikes out, as it was already 85 and climbing by 8:30 each morning.

Last Sunday we ventured out to Corte Comedor for a parrilla lunch – the sides were my favorite: eggplant drizzled with yogurt and then grilled veggies. Today we went to Carneros – the food was delish and we liked the ambiance and service, too.

Yesterday I ran a couple of errands around noon (proud of myself for navigating new parts of town in the car), and walked up to see the animals for adoption later in afternoon. The Greyhound (probably really a Galgo) was still there, but I read a bit about them and they are not recommended for households with cats, as they like to chase small animals – alas!

I went to happy hour with Lea and Kat on Thursday after work, and Friday evening John and I went to a going-away party for a colleague. I was happy to visit with my A-100 friend Jamie quite a bit – always fun to catch up with him.

I read “Wild, Weird, and Wonderful,” another photo book by Mark Sloan, my friend Mara’s dad. The photos were from the early 1900s by F.W. Glasier, a Massachusetts photographer – fascinating. I also finished “What my Bones Know” by Stephanie Foo, a former “This American Life” producer.

I love summer here, despite the heat. The streets are quieter, you can get tables at restaurants, and Friday afternoons at the Embassy are very quiet, as most folks opt for “summer hours,” working longer days Monday through Thursday and leaving at noon or 1:00 PM on Fridays. It’s blissfully quiet and I’m also able to get to know some of the officers and local staff who stick around on Fridays with me. And sometimes we get a nice rain, like the one rolling across in the photo above.

Yesterday I biked down a few short blocks to the Bella Arts Museum to meet Lea. We were both blown away by it – such an extensive collection, including world famous painters from Renoir to Rothko, and spanning centuries. Afterward we went to a nearby cafe for lunch and enjoyed the lovely weather in the shade, as well as delicious salads (arugula, sautéed yellow peppers, burrata cheese, and avocado for me). Before coming home I walked through the street fair by Recoleta Cemetery. Later in the day I walked up to the park where a local group takes dogs and cats for adoption – I was tempted to bring home a beautiful old brindle Greyhound but didn’t think Flavia would appreciate it. I stopped to buy some cherries from a fruit stand run by Bolivian girls who were sweet and a bit chatty – the cherries are huge and delicious!

This morning John and I rode down to the EcoReserva again – it was a beautiful morning and we were back at home before it got too hot. We saw some huge birds that weren’t storks – I need to figure out what they were, and we saw some smaller parakeets.

I finished “A Gentleman from Moscow” this morning – it was wonderful. Thanks to John for flagging this interview with the author – it pointed out several things that I missed while reading it, including the “accordion” timeline (@Sarah, you might enjoy the interview….@Joan, I think you’d like the book!).

I finished “Self-Made Worlds” by Mark Sloan and Roger Manley – it’s mostly a ”picture book” about self-made artists who have constructed odd environments in which to live. It was fascinating, and spurred me to return to the local flea market to see if Tony Valiente was there – and he was! He’s quite the character, and I walked out with a small clock sculpture and felt a bit more enriched for our visit.

Before the flea market, I walked around a street fair (lots of them around the city each weekend) at Plaza Serrano that was nice. And I got a hair cut yesterday morning – there’s a salon that specializes in curly hair where I’ve had my hair cut before – hoorah!

The Embassy got an art refresh last week and now we have some fun limited edition prints (Jeff Koons, for one), original paintings, and photos of prior Presidents and First Ladies. (They used the term “refresh” but I’m not sure the 1970s-era Broadway posters that were hanging up (no kidding) counted as art in the first place!) The curator came to Buenos Aires to hang the collection, and John arranged for him to do a talk for Embassy employees about it – very interesting! Bonus: everything was donated through a special program, so no cost to U.S. taxpayers.

Last night we were invited to Bosch Palace to celebrate the wedding anniversary of the Ambassador and his wife – it was quite the epic party. Aside from the lovely jazz combo, they brought in an 18-year-old (whose name I didn’t catch) but who sang (partially) in falsetto – kind of amazing. Then we moved outside where they had set up a dance floor and we got to see a short performance by an Argentine dance/drum group called Malevo – I really enjoyed it – it was kind of like River Dance, South America style. Check out this short video. They were on “America’s Got Talent” a few years ago and are heading to the U.S. this week to start a tour.

This morning we got on our bikes and headed to the EcoReserva – another beautiful day and we really enjoyed being outside. Here are some photos:

And I’ll leave you with your weekly dose of cuteness from Flavia!