{"id":8168,"date":"2026-05-10T10:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=8168"},"modified":"2026-05-10T10:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:47:16","slug":"feeling-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=8168","title":{"rendered":"Feeling human"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"211\" src=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PHOTO-2026-05-09-12-26-13.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PHOTO-2026-05-09-12-26-13.jpeg 320w, https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PHOTO-2026-05-09-12-26-13-300x198.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption>With the EU Ambassador<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I finally managed to get over my cold in time to celebrate the Europe Day reception this week. The EU Ambassador is one of my favorite people and he put on a great party to celebrate the founding of the EU in 1950. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tuesday was a local holiday, so Mellisa and Joe, two of the officers who work with John, came over for breakfast. Mellisa and I did a quick walk around the neighborhood first to get in a little birding. We all sat at the table and yakked for over three hours &#8211; I really like both of them a lot and it was fun to have a leisurely, casual morning with them. Later in the day, a fellow from the vet\u2019s office stopped by to pick up all of Flavia\u2019s food we had left. He volunteers with a local rescue group and was happy to see cases and cases of food that can help cats in need here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Friday was my birthday! I had a nice, quiet day, and we celebrated by ordering pizza and watching \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d (my request). We were going to go out for lunch today at my favorite steak restaurant, but we ended up canceling the reservation after we saw their Mother\u2019s Day ads for \u201cLive Music!\u201d &amp; \u201cKids Eat Free!\u201d (My good friends will understand!). I was happy to get birthday wishes from friends and family near and far. I had a good call with cousin James, and I especially enjoyed a catch-up email from Lynn, a long-time friend from my Nuvell and golfing days.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"240\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5913.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5913.jpeg 240w, https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5913-225x300.jpeg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><figcaption>A bovine friend at the gate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I finally managed to get over my cold in time to celebrate the Europe Day reception this week. The EU Ambassador is one of my favorite people and he put on a great party to celebrate the founding of the EU in 1950. Tuesday was a local holiday, so Mellisa and Joe, two of the [&hellip;]<\/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\/8168"}],"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=8168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8172,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8168\/revisions\/8172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}