Monday Musings

1.  To answer the obvious - no, I am not blogging at work.  I have taken the day off.

2.  My last day of work is May 31.  That means I have only something like 27 work days left because there are some Colombian and American holidays in May.  This makes me very, very happy and I am really, really done with my job.

3.  Our plan is to leave Bogota on July 2 and spend a couple weeks out West touring Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.  We are super excited about this.  Then we'll return to SC for a couple weeks before heading to Washington, DC on August 14 so Jimmy can start work on the 15th.  We'll be in temporary housing for 2 months while we search for an apartment to rent.

4.  We had to pay a small fortune to the IRS last Monday.  I'm still very, very bitter about this.

5.  Over Easter week, we hosted 8 members of Jimmy's family.  In case you thought you'd missed a trip to Bogota to visit our palace, we don't really live in a palace and so 8 extra people made things a little tight, but everybody was a great sport and we all had a wonderful time.

6.  Two of them had such a great time that they missed their flight and stayed an extra night.

7.  On the day after we got everybody finally off, we left for a week in Peru.  Jimmy worked in Peru 18 years ago for a summer and we had a great trip around the country then, but we were anxious to take Mac to see Machu Picchu and it did not disappoint.  Pictures coming soon.

8.  I'm letting my hair grow out now for a change.  About a month ago, I went in for a trim, and my hairdresser suggested I get a keratin treatment.  I don't "do" treatments on my hair and haven't since those catastrophic blond tips that I got in Australia as a 16 year-old.  I'm sporting my gray hairs loud and proud these days, but a keratin treatment sounded good, even though I really didn't know what it meant.  I did the base amount of research to make sure that my hair wouldn't fall out but still didn't really understand what was going to happen.  Well let me tell you what happened.  This stuff, presumably keratin, was applied to my hair, which was then flat-ironed straight teeny section by teeny section.  I was in the salon chair for 4 hours.  And when I say straight, I mean straight as a board.  Straight as an arrow.  Stick straight.  Zero body was left.  I'd read that you weren't supposed to wash your hair for 4 days after the treatment to ensure that it stuck.  Well I washed my hair 3 times in the following 12 hours.  It stuck anyway.  The saving grace on this treatment is that I could go to bed with wet hair and while before, I'd wake up with a ratty bird's nest of tangled hair, now I woke up with my straight hair.  Really not even a need to comb it.  It was great for Peru as it was no fuss/no muss.  The hairdresser originally said it would last 2 months, but some people have told me it might last up to 6 months.  After a month, I am happy to report that there is some slight presence of body.  Not much, but enough to make me feel happier about that whole thing and to decide that I like it now.  Remind me not to do this again anytime soon, though.

9.    Jimmy's office played a friendly soccer match against a police team on Saturday.  Jimmy's office lost 8-0   and Jimmy could barely move after it was over.

10.  The rainy season has descended on Bogota with a vengeance.  That means it's dreary and cold and rainy for about 18 of 24 hours a day.  I hate this season.

That's the news from the BOG.  I hope you're all well in your corners of the world.