criplomats

With Alfie!

We flew to Fayetteville Tuesday afternoon, spending the night at Phillip and Michele’s. We got to meet Alfie, their cute terrier. He’s such a cuddle and we just fell in love with him!

The next morning we picked up Pete and Ginger and drove to Mount Pleasant, Texas, in the rented Dodge Caravan (what a hoot). It was a pretty drive through eastern Oklahoma and the Ouachita National Forest – we saw some pretty color in the trees although it is waning. We spent the night in Mount Pleasant, then drove over to the Harwell’s house in nearby Pittsburg for the big Thanksgiving celebration – it was the first time in a long time that all of the family got together (although we missed Jeffrey, who’s training tigers in Arizona, and Melissa). Lots of food and fun! Bruce gave me a tour of his gun collection (wow) and I got to play with Bash the dog in the backyard.

With Joseph at Thanksgiving

We spent the night again in Mount Pleasant, and made our way back to Fayetteville on Friday in time for dinner at Butterfield’s dining room with Pete and Ginger.  Saturday morning, I found a great hair salon (Mayapple – love Juliana). We had lunch at Pete and Ginger’s, then we dognapped Alfie and drove out to Devil’s Den for a nice hike. I don’t know who had more fun – us or Alfie!

With Alfie at Devil’s Den

We got up early for our flight back to DC this morning, ready for another week!

Sunrise over the Mississippi on the flight home

Field Museum

John and I flew to Chicago last Saturday for what was probably the most fun wedding I’ve been to – one of “my guys” from Islamabad, Brett, got married, and we were delighted to be invited to the celebration.  We stayed at the lovely Palmer House, an old historic hotel not far from Michigan Avenue.  Saturday night was happy hour for wedding guests at the hotel lobby bar, so we got to catch up with some of our old Islamabad friends; I was also happy to finally meet Brett’s family.  The thing that made the wedding so fun (aside from the fact I really like the couple) was the venue – the Field Museum. We had the entire place to ourselves and were free to wander around all night – a little spooky! The ceremony, dinner, and dance were all in the main hall with a huge dinosaur skeleton looming over us – so fun!

With the groom

Field Museum

Wow – what a fun wedding!

Love the wedding theme

The bride making her entrance

We spent Saturday at the Shedd Aquarium and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We walked home along the lake – it was cold, but nice and sunny.  Click to see all of our Chicago pictures.

Shedd Aquarium

Shedd Aquarium

Love the detail of the lights…squid arms!

Chicago art

The Egg in Chicaco

We got home Monday night, and I left the next morning for Belize to work. I enjoy going down there – for one thing, I missed the DC snow (!), and I also really like the people in the consular section. The chief and I went to dinner the night I arrived, and I went to dinner the next night with an A100 colleague who’s working there. We ended the week with happy hour with several folks Friday night, and I flew home Saturday, an all-day ordeal (it’s so close on the map, yet it was a 14-hour travel day).

Belize

Belize

Belize

Belize

Happy birthday, John!

We celebrated John’s #55 by hosting a dozen friends for an evening of cooking at Culinaire last Sunday night, the cooking school John’s been attending. We really had a blast and made a delicious dinner! It was a really good evening with friends – Rick & Claire, Jimmi, Thomas, Sarah & Aaron, Nick & Wendy, Scott & Tammy, and Ben & Angela. We made a wonderful little gem and avocado salad, grilled steaks with bleu cheese sauce,  potatoes au gratin, and pavlova – yum!

Click to see all of our pictures. Happy birthday, John!

Tammy and Scott

With Aaron

Jimmi, Claire, Rick

Nick and Wendy

Ben and Angela

Sarah and the birthday boy

Thomas

Jimmi

Halloween

I left last Sunday afternoon for an overnight flight to Montevideo, Uruguay.  Lucky for me, it was Halloween at the embassy on Wednesday, so I got to see the festivities – they really go all out there – all the sections decorated and dressed up, then employees’ children came through for candy.  Lots of fun!

Consular section’s Day of the Dead altar

With Leslie

Consular section theme

I had a fast, but good, trip to the consular section – I was in the office for three days before coming back on the Thursday night overnight flight.  I didn’t get out a lot while I was there – just walked around the neighborhood some, but otherwise stayed in (one night was chilly and rainy).  It’s such a beautiful city.

Lovely Montevideo

My favorite boulevard along the golf course

Montevideo

Sunrise over the river

Yesterday I went to Georgetown to see a morning showing of “A Star is Born” (again), then replenished our oil and vinegar supply at my favorite store (we’ve been using a lot of garlic-infused olive oil for roasting veggies).  It was a crisp, beautiful fall day!