criplomats

John and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary on Friday – hard to believe it’s been that long. When we first married, we moved to Costa Rica, which was fabulous. I don’t think either of us would have guessed back then that we would quit our jobs in Little Rock and continue moving around the world. We’ve had a great time, and I’m thankful everyday that I snagged such a wonderful husband!

To celebrate, John took me out to a nice dinner at a new restaurant, Polanco. He had octopus and I had delicious bacon-wrapped scallops – yummy!

Monday was a holiday, so we had a four-day work week, although it felt like a six-day work week! We are so busy. Usually our passport demands drops a bit after the first of the year, but this year it’s actually gone up.

Last Sunday, ours friends Tom and Max had us over for a nice home-cooked meal. They were both early adopters of John’s book club and we’ve enjoyed their company. Max’s tour is coming to an end, so they’ll be heading out soon for their next posting in Norway. We’ll miss them!

John has been busy this week writing a paper for Army War College. He’s doing really well in the class and learning a lot!

My very favorite bi-annual arts and crafts fair was this weekend, and my good friend Tammy and her husband flew in for it as well, so it was extra-special this year. It will be my last one, so I was really looking forward to it.

Tammy and Scott stayed with us Thursday night before moving to their favorite B&B in Tlaquepaque. We all went for dinner at Corazon de Alfachofa and had a lot of fun catching up.

Saturday we met for lunch at La Luna, along with my boss Pete and his wife Alicia – lots of fun, and it felt good to sit down after walking around the fair for several hours. I ended up not buying a lot, but did find a pretty set of hurricane lamps and a perchero, a little stand restaurants put by your table to hang your purse on. I’ve put mine by the front door to throw things on when I come home. That was about it, other than a couple of little trinkets.

John and I watched a couple of good movies this week, “Arrival” (aliens!) and “The Gift” (creepy!) – both very good.

We made a quick trip to Northwest Arkansas this weekend to visit with my in-laws Pete and Ginger – Pete has a birthday coming up this week and we wanted to see how they had settled in to their new apartment at Butterfield Trail Village.

We were very impressed with the place. John had seen it last year (before they moved in), but I had not. It’s lovely, with lots of amenities – gyms, bikes, nice dining room, community garden, wood shop, and lots of activities. We stayed on the compound in a guest apartment that was very nice as well.

It was a very quick trip – in on Friday and out early Sunday morning. I had asked John to buy travel insurance and rent an SUV in preparation for bad weather or snow, but the weather was sunny and warm – more like being in Mexico! We spent Saturday afternoon at Philip’s house and ate delicious smoked ribs – and had time for a game of Catan with the kids.

I was saddened to hear that my younger cousin Ryan passed away this week. His mother Louise just died a couple of weeks ago. He had been ill, but his passing came as a surprise. Donna and her sisters have had a rough couple of years and my heart goes out to them.

With Wayne in San Antonio

I spent the last two weeks on the border, working in the Consulate in Nuevo Laredo. It was my first time there, and like Juarez, you can see its U.S. sister city just on the other side of the Rio Bravo. I had a great two weeks. I was working mostly in an advisor capacity to help an entry level officer who’s running the American Citizen Services section, and to look at their operations to find inefficiencies or other improvements. The ELO I was working with is just a doll, so that made things even easier. It’s a small post and they seem to have very high morale – it made me want to go to a small place sometime in the future.

I was able to walk to work daily, even though cartel violence keeps most of the city off limits. They have a great coffee shop where I ate on some days, and got very good lattes on most afternoons. Evenings I stayed in the hotel and relaxed. They had a nice gym that I went to every morning.

The highlight of the stay was getting to drive to San Antonio over the weekend to see Mike and Wayne (regrettably Jim & Joan and James & MaryBeth were all out of town). I arrived Friday night. We had a yummy breakfast at their latest morning spot, Maria’s, then I shopped till I dropped. That evening we had a nice dinner at Rebelle, and I drove back on Sunday. Short trip, but sweet!

I was happy to get home Friday night, albeit late – good to see John and Flavia after two weeks! John took me out on Saturday for a nice lunch at a new-to-us restaurant, then we watched “Bridgett Jones’s Baby” which was actually good.

While I was in Nuevo Laredo, I was saddened to learn of the death of one of my favorite local staff members, Toni. She was a long-time employee and much loved. She died after a long battle with cancer. We’ll miss you, Toni.