Goings On

Jack is a big boy. 6.5 kilos (almost 15 pounds) so far. He's also much more alert and tuned in to his surroundings. He especially likes it when Katherine or I sing off tune. Katherine sings songs we all know and love, I just make stuff up.


It's badminton tourney season at the Embassy. I'm playing with Soukanh (the man in black) and also playing in the mixed doubles as well. Our first round we came up against two embassy guards. As I have said before, the guards seem to work and play badminton, and not necessarily in that order. Suffice it to say that we were outmatched, and lost 2 games to 1. I think the guards took it easy on us to give us that one game.

At least we looked good out there.

Today we had an event to open up a new Embassy field. It was previously used as a horse pasture, but has been turned into a lighted soccer/softball field with a walking track, a barbecue area and playground. The recent additions to the embassy community all got together for a photo. We were supposed to get all the new local employees' kids together too, but it didn't work out. Anyway, 5 new FSO babies in the past year at a post with only 21 direct US hires. Not bad. We blame the rolling blackouts.

The event was also in honor of two long-serving local employees. The guy on the left has been with the embassy since 1967, the guy on the right since 1966. Both stuck around as the war went bad for the existing government in 1975 and the Pathet Lao came into town, even as many employees fled across the river. Both are retiring this year. The field was named in honor of the guy on the right.

A bit of video of Jack and Katherine. Again, it takes me a second to realize which way I'm supposed to hold our digital camera.