Full Moon Over Quito

The city lights at night and the full moon look great tonight. Again, it is crisp, clean, and cool tonight except at the traffic circle near my house. For some reason, quite a bit of fog always seems to accumulate there.

I went to a dinner at the Ambassador's residence tonight. It was an interesting mix of a few Embassy staff (senior staff), a few military personnel (colonels mostly), and me. Her residence is an older hacienda that has been nicely maintained and refurbished in a manner suitable for an ambassador. One of the Embassy staff pointed out to me that the wine glasses had the seal of the Secretary of State and mentioned that only THE Secretary of State or an ambassador can use the official seal. It made me want to make off with a glass, but I figured better not to. Now if there had been a shot glass to inconspicuously drop into my pocket, then maybe ;-)

Lots of writing and meetings at the office today. Time flew by and it was past 5PM before I even noticed. I have observed that the office staff is pretty carefree about time matters. That seems to be the custom here generally. They are always amazed at how fast I leave and then come back from lunch. When I go out on my own, I'm usually out and back within 30 minutes. The rest of the office staff goes out a one-hour lunch that usually stretches into 1.5 hours but, as I said, that seems to be the custom here.

Tomorrow is the end of the week again and this week seems to have flown by. This weekend my big project is to continue my search for the right gym. I did find a nice yoga studio around the corner from my house and the rumor is it is really nice. I may drop by there this weekend, too.

Jackson is looking longingly at me now, so I guess I'd better go play with him a bit before bed time. There will be more time for posts later.