Visitors

Two friends I haven't seen in years have independently e-mailed to say they're in town! One from each overseas tour. I love it when people keep in touch and appear out of the blue.

Slacking Off

Some days even the weather is telling you to stay in bed. I did - as long as I could - but I had to come into work. Why? Pressing business? No - pretty much the fact that everyone else in my office is out sick, has scheduled doctor's appointments, or is just taking time off. Could it be the fact that our boss is training this week? I think I feel a nasty 24-hour cold coming on tomorrow. The key is maintaining credibility. Sick enough, but not avian flu. That's the key. Or - use the old honest -but-not-really version. i.e. you do have a Doctor's appointment, but that doesn't mean you need 6 hours off, or yes, you have a headache and are too tired to come in, but only because you watched 8 straight hours of "I Love the 80s" last night.....
Yep. Definitely feeling sickness in advance.

Foreign ASSistance

So, Condi is making some changes to foreign assistance and how the U.S. Government engages in Transformational Diplomacy. What does this mean for my office, which has Congressional authority to oversee assistance in Eastern Europe & the Former Soviet region? Unclear, although in the Q&A it was pointed out that we are a model, and will be referred to as assistance is given an overhaul. I expect a call from Condi anyday now.
And what does it mean for USAID, which wasn't quite subsumed, but isn't quite as independent. All very confusing, and I feel badly for my AID colleagues - uncertainty abounds. At least with me, I do my job and bid an another at the end of the year. Uncertainty is the status quo.

Hiatus & Near-Death Experience

The thing about blogging versus my e-mail updates is the scope of the life event. A big thing inspires a mass e-mailing- something I think everyone would be interested in. Blogging seems quite mundane.

A 10-ton tree hit my parents' house on Saturday night, knocking a giant hole in the top of the house, and flipping downwards to damage the kitchen as well. Big windstorm blew it over, directly into the third floor of the house - in face, the bed that my son had slept in the night before took the brunt of the hit. He thinks it was quite cool that he was almost a pancake. Thankfully, we were in NYC, and so the "hit" only almost-killed my parents (3 feet and a windowsill saved their lives - yikes!) So. My parents are sanguine - they have for the first time read their homeowners policy, which apparently covers this type of accident. They're rather excited about the remodeling and mom keeps talking about putting solar panels in the roof.

Personally, I think they should do something to the tree company that just last year stated that the tree was healthy. Apparently, when it fell it was honeycombed throughout, and obviously rotten. My parents were concerned about the treefall and have, in fact, taken down 6 similar trees for this reason. I mean, I don't believe in suing for the sake of it, but the company should be told off for not doing its job properly.