International Day of the Disappeared

Please visit the ICRC's website to learn more about Day of the Disappeared: http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/themissing

Here is an excerpt from the International Committee of the Red Cross's report, Missing Persons: A Hidden Tragedy

"People have gone missing as long as men have been fighting wars. They might be victims of mass executions thrown into unmarked graves, as in the Balkans. They might be captured or abducted, like the current sweep of young men taken of the streets in Sri Lanka. They might be arrested at their homes and then die in custody or be held incommunicado in secret locations. Sometimes they are civilians fleeing combat, or children separated from their families, as happened often in the Congo. Soldiers might be killed during fighting and their remains improperly managed, such as in the Ethiopian/Eritrean war, where there were reports of bodies being left on the battlefield for years.

It is a tragedy for the person who disappears, but the other victims are the families suspended in limbo, suspecting their loved ones are dead, yet unable to mourn, and in the absence of proof constantly tormented by the possibility of a miracle – a secret prison, a new life in a foreign land. Many spend years, and their life savings, in a fruitless search. Stories are rife of racketeer posing as lawyers, taking money from desperate families in return for help they never deliver. "

More photos can be viewed here: http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/missing-photos-300807

Detective Grover

Today I played detective at work. I love the challenge of finding seemingly impossible information. For example, I received a tracing case to find someone in a prison in that -oh-so-familiar city of "Atlanta, Chicago". I'm pretty sure I found the guy.

I also had a case for someone in a detention center in the bahamas called "Kamalco". No such site. But a little super sleuthing led me to Carmichael Detention Center in Nassau, Bahamas. Who would have known?

Happy Birthday, Natalie Rose!

Our sweet niece, Natalie Rose turns four today. We can't believe how big she is, and how much she's grown over the last four years. We wish we could be in sunny Santa Barbara to help her celebrate today.

Today we called to wish her a happy birthday - Lane and I cheerfully sang the requisite happy b-day song. We finished, wished her a happy birthday and nothing... We asked if she was there, and finally she said something she said, "yeah. Wanna talk to Claire?" She must have been having some serious birthday fun!

We love you, Natalie! Come visit : )

Ahhh, Relaxing Weekends!

I just love having Katie as a girlfriend. Lane and I are mostly friends with couples, which is totally fun. And we do hang out with Katie and Marc together, but there’s something to be said for girl time. I mean, sometimes there are just girly, juicy things to talk about without the boys around. We’ve found our special happy hour place with cheap wine (because I am SO not a snob about wine) and heavenly spicy tuna tempura avocado rolls. YUM! On Friday we had a delightful evening together.

Later that night, Lane and I got together with some people from his work and hung out at this new Belgian bar. One of his co-workers started working at this bar and wanted us to check it out. We didn’t realize we’d have to take the metro, transfer lines, and then take a cab after that! It was quite a trek, but we arrived to a laid back atmosphere, a charming old building with good music, fancy muscle appetizers and lots of different beers to choose from.

One of the things I love about weekends are the fabulous breakfasts Lane and I make. He’s mostly in charge of the smoothies. Saturday we had eggs over easy with bacon and sourdough toasts with sautéed spinach, cherry tomatoes and garlic on top. On Sunday we had banana blueberry muffins and nectarines. Mmm. Of course, these breakfasts don’t happen until around 1:30. yay for relaxing weekends.

We also had dinner down at a Thai place in Dupont Circle and then went out to Adam’s Morgan with our friends Raquel, Ben and Joe. All of Saturday night was a fabulous lightning show. You don’t get lightning like that on the west coast.

We spent all of Sunday being lazy and read the whole afternoon and I loved every moment of it.

Lost Opportunity

I’ve been saying for months, that as soon as the summer winds down, I’m going to search for a show to audition for. Now that we don’t live in Reston anymore, we are much closer to the community theatre scene, and have a number of theatres to choose from in DC, Arlington, and Alexandria. And, I’m ready to be back on stage.

It’s a process – first you have to see what theatres are in the area, then find out of a show is upcoming, decide if you like the plot, not to mention, see if there’s even a character for your age range, and finally, when the auditions are.

So today I find a theatre in DC, a show is upcoming in November, the plot sounds farcical, which I totally love, and the characters? Three women in the 20s to 30s age range, who can do British accents. In my last play, I had the opportunity to work on my accent. I’m excited here…So what’s missing? Oh, yeah, the audition dates – LAST Monday & Tuesday. If I had just checked this out seven days ago, maybe I would have had a chance!!

So I did something totally weird that probably will seem a little over the top to the director. I sent him an email just saying that I saw that auditions were last week, and that he probably has cast everyone already, but if he still had any openings, I would be happy to have the opportunity to audition. I told him the shows I’d been in before. He might just read it and think I’m full of myself, in fact, I’d be surprised if he responds to my email.

However, I DEFINITELY wouldn’t have any chance if I didn’t email him. The moral of the store here is to check for fall shows at the beginning of August, not the end.

**sigh**

Kitchen Experiment

Last night I was looking on the food network for a good teriyaki marinade, and got really upset when practically every teriyaki search result was for teriyaki sauce, already made. So I decided to do something all together different.

I cut a few skinny tri tip steaks into cubes and doused them with Montreal Steak Seasoning and then cooked them with a little sesame oil.

When they were almost done, i removed them from the pan and covered them in foil, so they'd contine to cook up.

I put a huge onion in the pan, scraped the bottom of it to get all the seasonings up and poured some chicken stock in it until the onions absorbed it all and were really sweet and tasty.

Here's where I used help from Trader Joe's, I poured in 3/4 bottle of General Tso Stir Fry sauce, put the meat back, cooked it a few more minutes and served it with jasmine rice. We had edamame and fresh pineapple also.

the end.

Long Time, No Blog And Other Ramblings of the Week

I seem to have gone on a hiatus from regular blogging. The truth is (don’t tell anyone), I’ve been writing many of my blogs from work. I have actually been pretty busy recently, and haven’t had the time to update you on our wild shenanigans.

Since I do casework for the Americas, I got a lot of inquiries after the Peru earthquake from American Red Cross chapter caseworkers asking how people can reach their relatives who are living in Peru. Just so you all know, we can’t open cases for US citizens abroad, since those cases are handled by the US Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizens Services. I never knew before working here, but you can register your overseas travel with the Dept of State so they can contact you in an emergency. You give authorization to who can or can’t receive information about your whereabouts when you travel. Good to know.

I had a fabulous weekend – Lane and I went out to dinner on Friday. We rarely ever go out to dinner. Why go out and spend lots of money when you can make a delicious dinner at home? For example, on Monday night we had grilled T-bone steaks, and mashed potatoes with sautéed Portobello mushrooms and onions in a red wine sauce and a salad with fresh berries and Lane’s citrus berry salad dressing. Mmmm. But Friday we were tired, had no groceries and STARVING. We feasted on spicy thai curries and just laughed and caught up on our weeks and the craziness they had been. We couldn’t leave, of course without mango and sticky rice for dessert.

Lane, unfortunately, had to work on Saturday afternoon. Katie and I, on the other hand, lounged around at the pool, and just chit-chatted away until we realized we were starving so we cooked some pasta. (why does everything revolve around food for me?)

We went to a party on Saturday night for this guy I work with. He lives in this neighborhood in DC that’s a little shady. We felt like were in a totally different city on the half a block trip to his house from the metro stop. It’s always interesting to hang out with people from work. This guy’s house was awesome on the inside. He has all sorts of things from all over the world in every room of his house. One room had an entire wall full of African masks. It inspired me to travel more and pick up more stuff for the house when I go. Although, it sounds like I have a lot of catching up to do - he spent 11 years working abroad.

I have a nice girl-time after work evening planned with my dear Katie tomorrow after work.

And in other news, we have gone from deathly humid nasty 100 degree heat to mid 60s you-need-a-jacket weather in a matter of days. Can’t there be a happy medium????

And there you have it, faithful reader(s), a week’s worth of ramblings. Time to get back to work.