{"id":2899,"date":"2014-02-17T00:19:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T06:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=2899"},"modified":"2014-12-29T20:35:52","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T02:35:52","slug":"happy-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=2899","title":{"rendered":"Happy Valentine’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Valentine's Day Gladiolas<\/p><\/div>\n

I found these lovely red glads waiting for me when I got home Friday afternoon – what a great husband I have! They are really beautiful.<\/p>\n

This was a pretty good week, all in all. It’s been a little slower at work with less visa demand. It’s nice to have a bit of a break and not be at full tilt every day. We celebrated President’s Day at the Embassy on Thursday night with the big annual event. John was in charge of it last year; this year, other people took the reins, but John has been sort of a mentor to them throughout the process. By all accounts, it was a big success. John was in charge of one of the parking lots (parking and traffic are always the big logistical problem). I rode back and forth with guests on a shuttle bus all evening (a cleared American has to be an escort).<\/p>\n

Our longtime Consul General and good friend Dan departed post this week. We had a pizza lunch on Monday to say farewell to him and to welcome our new CG Kristin. Dan and I have worked very well together the last 18 months, so I was sorry to see him go – but I’m sure Kristin will do a great job as well. Change is part of the game in this job!<\/p>\n

LJ celebrated her 89th birthday this week! Happy birthday, mom! She sure doesn’t look or act her age!<\/p>\n

We had several social outings this week. Last Sunday was a nice brunch at Bridget’s house, although John wasn’t feeling well enough to go so I had to go solo. Saturday night, we went to a very nice dinner party at Adi and Cecelia’s house. They are lovely hosts, and Adi treated us to a mini-concert on his piano – wow, is he talented. It was really wonderful to hear him play. Then Sunday afternoon, we went to a rooftop BBQ at Howie and Petit’s – they have a lovely view of Margalla Hills. Good food and fun talking to Carolyn and Konstantin, among others.<\/p>\n

Saturday afternoon I went to my photography class. We went outside and took still life pictures, then came back inside to critique them. Our objects were mostly fun and colorful pieces, done “truck art” style.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fan, truck art style<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We watched a couple of movies this week. “Captain Phillips” was excellent, and last night we started “Wolf of Wall Street” – to be continued tonight.<\/p>\n

Today is a holiday for us – John went to Joseph and Sunera’s for board games, but I’m staying home to study Spanish. Not too much longer till I test again.<\/p>\n

Here’s a nice photo of John from last night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jackcito<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found these lovely red glads waiting for me when I got home Friday afternoon – what a great husband I have! They are really beautiful. This was a pretty good week, all in all. It’s been a little slower at work with less visa demand. It’s nice to have a bit of a break […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2899"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2907,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions\/2907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}