FInal List

Our final list was submitted to The-Powers-That-Be in DC Monday morning. Now all we can do is wait and see where they will send us. When you receive the bid list, the Career Development Officer (CDO) reiterates that you can be sent to any post on the list, regardless of how you rank the posts. In practice however most people get one of their top ten picks. So here’s our top 10:

The Hague, Netherlands
Frankfurt, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Vienna, Austria
Geneva, Switzerland
Lima, Peru
Mexico City, Mexico
Santiago, Chile
Toronto, Canada
Managua, Nicaragua

The next step is to hurry up and wait. The CDO will submit his three choices from our list to medical and get a "yes" or "no" answer as to whether we can go there. This is because we have a class II medical clearance in our family. After speaking with medical at our current post we do not anticipate any problems with any of the top 10.

In selecting these 10 from the 35 posts on the list given to us, we had many factors that we had to take into consideration. They include but are not limited to: adequate schooling for the three oldest kids, outdoor activities, the actual job description for Dave, the ability for family and friends to come and visit (and for us to go home), availability of medical care, and most important NOT ASIA.

After we submitted the list to the CDO he told us that we should know our next post assignment in early December. But we will not get the official cable from SECSTATE until Dave has what they call paneled. That will not be until early January. Therefore we cannot make any plans for next summer until we get the cable and our next post has approved Dave’s summer schedule.

Please feel free to leave comments. Let us know of the top ten, which one is your favorite.

Rockin' and Rollin'

Once again a major Earthquake rocked Jakarta today. The last time was early morning August 8th. I slept right through it, although I had a friend who said she was awoken by the sound of her chandeliers rattling. I figured “No chandeliers! That's why I didn't wake up.” This time I felt nothing even though it happened in the middle of the afternoon while I was wide-awake. Hi-rise buildings here and in Singapore swayed and were evacuated. I think the height of the buildings must amplify the effects of the earthquake. Maybe if I was sitting at the table staring at a glass of water I would have seen the water move. I'm not complaining though, I am perfectly happy to have lived through a 7.9 magnitude earthquake and felt nothing.

There are tsunami warnings this time affecting the Indian Ocean, for those who are geography impaired that is the south side of the archipelago. Jakarta is located on the north side of the island. While we are discussing geography, the epicenter of the earthquake was located in Bengkulu Province, Southern Sumatra, several hundred miles away so it wasn’t really in Jakarta. More the distance of San Antonio to Lubbock.

UPDATE - Thursday morning



The earth is still restless. Aftershocks all evening and into the morning. Any one of the aftershocks would qualify as a pretty major earthquake. This morning the news is reporting yesterdays earthquake as stronger than originally thought, as high as 8.4 magnitude. The news is also reporting some pretty major damage, injuries and casualties, but how bad it is depends on which channel you are watching. I don't have enough Bahasa Indonesia to watch the local news so no help there. I am probably watching the same CNN broadcast here that you are in the states.

There has been another quake in excess of 7.0 this morning and another tsunami warning for the Indian Ocean. At what point is a quake a quake not just another aftershock? Is there a magic number? Things that make you go hmmm...Still haven't felt a thing here, thank goodness.

Everything Old Is New Again

Today Dave and I saw Rush Hour 3. We have a special fondness for the Rush Hour movies since it was after watching the original that David proposed. We were supposed to see something romantic that day, but romantic didn't work out. One of the best thing about our relationship has always been our ability to laugh together, so it is appropriate that Rush Hour became "our" movie. We enjoyed laughing at the antics of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker as much today as we did 9 years ago.

This evening Dakota came to me with an assignment for his English 2 class. He asked me to listen to the lyrics of a song and make sure he had them written down correctly. He explained that they were starting a unit on poetry and Mr. Hara had asked the students to bring in the lyrics to their favorite songs. I put the headphones on my head, turned on the ipod, and smiled. Coming through the head phones I heard the very familiar refrain "Sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree..." In a strange twist of fate Cody had chosen the lyrics to one of my favorite songs from my high school days, of course back then it was sung by the Eurythmics. I can't believe I am saying this but I like at least one song by Marilyn Manson, he did a good cover.