Streik!

That is not a typo.

It is Estonian for strike. As in a work strike. Which is what they are having today.

Roughly a third of the country's teachers are striking demanding a pay increase. They currently make less than the average Estonian salary and want a 20% pay hike to bring them to that average.

In support of the teachers, the public transits are also striking. At least they say they are. So we were warned of no buses or trams to get to work this morning and horrific traffic.

I didn't notice much traffic, but to be fair, I take side streets to work. And not ones that lead anywhere most people need to go.

I also noticed buses and trams running. They tell me that a few are running, but with no schedules. So people who want to use them just have to wait at the stops in the cold and hope one comes by. Which would kind of suck...

But in all, the strike has seemed pretty orderly to me.

Which isn't surprising. This is a pretty orderly place (one of the many things I love about it).

In other news, Happy Women's Day! I arrived to work to find three lovely tulips on my desk. It was a pleasant surprise. My staff is pretty awesome!

I also bought flowers for the women in my section (after I got to work and remembered it was Women's Day, because I kind of suck).

They Pay Me To Do This

One of the things we do as representatives of the United States overseas is to support American businesses and ways in which they can cooperate with the host government.

Yesterday, this meant helping organize an event where General Dynamics could show off its Piranha III, an armored personnel carrier it thinks could be of use to the Estonian military.

The idea behind the event, which was attended by high level Estonians as well as interested defense folks from other countries, as to let them get really hands on with the vehicle, including getting to take rides in it.

Which of course, also meant the rest of us got rides in it. In the snow.

It was very cool.

I was the one yelling, "Run over the snow bank! Run over the trees! Run over those people!"**


**No people, trees, nor snow banks were harmed during the making of this event nor the writing of this blog post.

Private Life? What Private Life?

Another thing you give up in the Foreign Service is any expectation of privacy.

We are on duty 24/7, especially when we are overseas. And you may even be being "observed" in the "privacy" of your own home.

Got a blog? Don't say anything that contradicts our official foreign policy. When you sign up, you do so giving up your right to object publically to our foreign policy. If you can't do that, there are better jobs for you. (Domestic policy is fair game, however. Thank god!)

Got a Facebook account? Make darned sure, no matter how strong you think your privacy settings are, not to post anything that might be embarrassing if say, your mother or your Ambassador or the Washington Post were to read it.

For that matter, if you wouldn't want people to know about it, just don't do it.

A recent article in the Washington Post's "The Loop" demonstrates this (and judging by the number of "shares" by my friends on Facebook, is generating a lot of buzz too). According to the article, the State Department can now discipline Foreign Service personnel for having affairs, even if they are conducted off duty.

And you know what, I don't really have a problem with that. For this reason: if it would embarrass you for your mother or your Ambassador or the Washington Post to know what you were doing, you might consider doing whatever you have to in order to cover it up. And there are people in a lot of places where we serve who would just LOVE to blackmail you.

The military has long since had a policy along these lines, and I imagine for the same reason. We don't need vunerabilities to blackmail and we don't need black eyes on the services.

I know there are a lot of folks who will disagree with me, and say that what we do offduty is our own business. And maybe that is true when we are stateside. And certainly they need to clarify the policy and take it on a case-by-case basis. But really for me it comes down to, if you wouldn't want people to know, just don't do it.

Why FS Life Is Hard

One of the reasons we in the Foreign Service get so little sympathy is because people think we have such a great life. Oh, who cares if you take a pay cut to live overseas. You get to live in these great houses in cool places rent free!

It is true that we live in our houses overseas rent-free, and that sometimes the houses are nice. Sometimes they are not. Unlike most Americans, we get no say in where we will live. We get assigned a place at post and usually that is where we will live for our entire tour. Like it or not.

But the real hardship of the Foreign Service is not what you get but what you give up.

And the hardest thing to give up is almost every important milestone in your family's life. You don't just miss birthdays but usually weddings, religious celebrations, births, and most poignantly, deaths.

This was driven home for me yet again yesterday when I learned that a friend from the Service lost his father in the tornadoes that hammered the Midwest and southeast over the past few days.

In a way, he was "lucky" in that he was posted to DC at the time. So he was able to get home to his family quickly. But I have had friends who lost one parent while overseas, flew home for the funeral, got back to post and lost the other parent within a week.

The Department is great about giving us the time to go home when things like this happen. But nothing replaces being able to be there with your family. Nothing replaces getting to spend the last precious weeks or moments with a loved one. You never get that back.

I think about this with every birthday and Christmas that I spend away from my nieces and nephews. They are changing so much and I am missing it all. I think about it with every family gathering I miss. I love my family and I miss them.

It is a sacrifice I make to serve my country, but it is one of the hardest things about being in the service.

We Interrupt Our Normal Topic...

Sorry for the interruption of the usual topics. But you all know I am an archaeologist as well as a diplomat, so...

You have probably read some of the uproar recently about a couple of new shows that essentially glamorize looting of archaeological sites. If you have not, I recommend you check out Archaeologists Protest 'Glamorization' of Looting on TV over at Science Insider on Science Mag.

The article states:

"On 20 March, Spike TV will premiere a new show called American Digger, while a show called Diggers on the National Geographic Channel made its debut 28 February. Both shows "promote and glorify the looting and destruction of archaeological sites," Society for American Archaeology (SAA) President William F. Limp wrote in a message posted earlier this week to the SAA listserv.

The premise of American Digger, which is being hosted by a former professional wrestler, was laid out in a recent announcement by Spike TV. A team of "diggers" will "scour target-rich areas, such as battlefields and historic sites, in hopes of striking it rich by unearthing and selling rare pieces of American history." Similar locales are featured in National Geographic's Diggers. In the second episode, set in South Carolina, Revolutionary War and War of 1812 buttons, bullets, and coins were recovered at a former plantation."

After you have checked out the article, I encourage you to consider signing the petitions circulating protesting these shows. You can find one of them here.

Jason Ullner: I work for Uncle Sam, and I’m proud of it

The Washington Post had a piece yesterday by Jason Ullner, a fellow Foreign Service Officer, entitled: "I work for Uncle Sam, and I’m proud of it".

In it, Jason echoes the frustrations many of us have felt (and blogged about) regarding the current climate in the states of using federal employees as the whipping boys over our budget problems.

He writes:

Like many federal workers, I have sacrificed: a high-paying job in the private sector; a year of my life (and the first six months of my daughter’s life) spent in Iraq; long hours; high stress; pay freezes. I’m not complaining; in fact, I quite enjoy my career and my life in the Foreign Service. Yet when I hear our politicians talking about “fixing” Washington, I often wonder to myself: whom would they like to “fix?” Is it the guy I see on the Metro every day, heading to work at the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that our food is safe? Is it the woman going into Commerce Department headquarters to support U.S. companies abroad? Or do they mean the thousands of people who support our troops overseas? How about my fellow Foreign Service officers, who put themselves in harm’s way in Baghdad, Kabul, Damascus and hundreds of other places around the world?

[...]

So to all our politicians, I implore you: Stop using the government workforce as a political football. Just stop. It demeans you, it demoralizes us, and it is counterproductive to drive away the best and brightest from working for the betterment of this country.

We don’t do our jobs for glory, or money or power. We do them — and do them well — because we take pride in our work and pride in representing the United States of America.

You can ready the entire piece here.

AFSA Guidance on the Personal Use of Social Media

AFSA released the following memo on the sue of social media, including blogs. Well worth a read, though it restates what we have seen before. Lots of it is common sense.

Digger

AFSA Guidance on the Personal Use of Social Media

We are fortunate to live in a world where innovative technology allows us to communicate in new and wondrous ways. Social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs now allow us to communicate instantaneously with potentially thousands of “fans” and “followers.” Just as the State Department and the other foreign affairs agencies have embraced these new communication tools, many of our members are using innovative ways to connect with audiences in their private and professional capacities.

AFSA supports the use of social media. But any form of communication – via social media, telephone, e-mail, or just old-fashioned conversations – is governed by social norms and etiquette, and requires good judgment and common sense. Anyone who has ever said something they wish they hadn’t, tried to recall an e-mail sent in haste, or deleted a comment on Facebook understands the impact that the spoken and written word can have in our personal and professional lives. Electronic media – particularly anything broadcast over the internet – presents its own unique perils and challenges. As the saying goes, “What happens on the internet, stays on the internet.”

AFSA is currently examining the evolving issue of the use of social media by Foreign Service employees. In the meantime, we offer these words of advice to any of our members who are currently or planning to use social media, particularly blogs:
Read the Existing Regulations. The current regulations regarding the use of social media can be found in 5 FAM 790 “Using Social Media (pdf).” Although we understand that some of these rules with their cross-references to other FAM cites are confusing, we strongly recommend that any AFSA member using social media – especially where the lines between professional, personal and private use may be blurred – read them and if you don’t understand something – ask.

Avoid Divulging Private and Confidential Information. Here is where many people run afoul of the regulations. Be sure not to divulge any information that includes confidential or personally identifiable information. Examples of these include but are not limited to visa cases, information about other individuals, or classified information (for example, linking to WikiLeaks.)
Remember that you are a Foreign Service USG employee. Even though you may have the required disclaimer on your blog, be aware that the public still may not differentiate between your official and private views. You should be mindful of the weight of your expressed views as a U.S. government official, particularly when your blog uses the “hook” of your Foreign Service connections to attract readers.

Review Your Privacy Settings. Make sure you are aware of the privacy settings of the social media platform you are using and how to adjust them. Platforms such as Facebook often change these settings without informing users. Periodic review of these settings is important, and we recommend having them set to the highest levels. For blogs, you may even want to consider restricting access so that only your family, friends and colleagues have access.

Use Good Judgment. We can’t emphasize this enough. As we noted above, all forms of human communication require good judgment, tact, etc. And what happens on the internet, stays on the internet. When in doubt, leave it out.

Contact Us If You Have Problems. If you are an AFSA member and are approached by management or Diplomatic Security regarding your use of social media, be sure to contact us so that we can assist you with any legal or other issues.

We hope the above information is useful. We do want to hear from our members regarding this evolving issue. If you have a concern or opinion regarding the use of social media, please let us know via www.afsa.org or call us at 202-338-4045. For assistance with issues related to social media, please contact our labor management office at 202-647-8160 or e-mail AFSA’s lead attorney on the issue, Raeka Safai, at SafaiR@state.gov.

I Never Saw A Protest

I can't tell you how many people, including my wife's parents, questioned our sanity for going to Greece while they were having lots of protests.

But we never saw them. Luckily for us, they announce their protests so that they can get the most people possible. So we just stayed away from the areas with planned protests. We did see some people carrying a large banner once, but we were in a cab headed away from that area.

What we did see, however, were things on my bucket list. Namely, the Acropolis and the Parthanon.







But I got to see more. Like the Temple of Hephaistos.





And the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion.


It was a very cool visit!

Something Else I Love About Post...

When you come back after a trip and people say "Welcome back!," it doesn't feel like a curse.

You might have noticed I didn't post much last week, and that when I did, it was in white (don't go look now, I already fixed it!). That is because it is really hard to blog with an ipad and I didn't take my laptop with me to Greece.

Yep, I was soaking up the sun in Greece (the folks there are convinced that it is FREEZING there, but the temperature was a good 30-40 degrees warmer than it is here, so it felt awesome to me!

We met up with a friend from Jerusalem (who is now serving in Athens) at the Athens airport and headed straight to Chania, Crete. OMG the water there is the most beautiful blue! We stayed at the Casa Defino, which I highly recommend! They kindly upgraded us to the penthouse suite, so we had a private balcony with a nice view of the water.


We spent the weekend there, eating at little restaurants around Chania and wandering around the Old City.





Our friend opted to get the fishies to eat her feet, a "spa treatment" that is apparently all the rage there. I opted to watch and take pictures.

How does post make me happy? Let me count the ways!

I am unbelievably lucky.

Jill over at The Perlman Update asked us each to talk about what we liked about our CURRENT post for this week's FS Blog Roundup.

There have been times when I would have been hard pressed to come up with ANYTHING I liked about my post.

And perhaps I am, six months in, still in the honeymoon phase in Tallinn. But I love pretty much everything about post.

* I love my job. I get to do interesting work every day. And I have a great Ambassador who seems to trust my judgement. And who is great with the media. And who is just genuinely nice. You can't underestimate the importance of a good boss.

* I love that I have a fantastic team. No exaggeration, they are all rock stars. And my other coworkers are a great group of folks. While I have my favorites, there is not a single person I dislike. Definitely not the case in the past!

* I love Tallinn...so much interesting to do, places to go, restaurants to eat in...now featuring life with my wife! I love how walkable the city is. I love that I get to use my language. I love that Estonians, who everyone said were cold and too reserved, are actually warm and friendly, especially if you have studied their language. And I love that they are E-stonia!

* And I love that I am finally getting to live in and travel Europe. I remembered as I travelled through Munich the other day that the leather jacket I was wearing was the one I wore when I visited Germany for the first time nearly 20 years ago (yes, I am cheap). And it was on that trip that I told myself that Europe was a place I could enjoy living. And enjoying it I am...this weekend I enjoyed it on the island of Crete!

Seriously?

The fire alarm went off again.

At 10:30 on Thursday night.

When I had to get up at 4:50.

Really?

False Alarm

My nightmares tend to follow one of three patterns. Two have no discernible cause, but the third definitely does.

Every since a fire alarm salesman came to our house when I was about five and showed a scare-tactic film about people without smoke alarms dying in fires, I have had nightmares about fire.

I had one Sunday night. A house two houses from me was smoldering and the one next to me started burning. By the time I grabbed a water hose, it was engulfed, and I told my wife we had to get home and get the pets because I knew ours would be next.

We got home and I called the fire department. They knew about the fires but were nonchalant. They would get there eventually, they said.

I woke up with my heart just pounding. I got up and checked the house and all the pets to make sure they were okay. Everything was fine, but the only thing that enabled me to go back to sleep was making a detailed evacuation plan in my head for how to get me, my wife and all the pets out in case of fire.

The dream didn't feel like a premonition. But when at about 11:10 pm two nights later, the building fire alarm went off, it sure felt like one!

My wife and I got up and put on our clothes. She went and got the at carriers and I got the bird carrier. We calmly loaded the pets into the carrier and went down seven flights of stairs and into the snow. It took us maybe five minutes. Luckily, we seem to share a brain in crisis...neither of us panicked. We just got it done.

On my way out of the house, I grabbed my external hard drive and the garage door opener.

Once outside, I used to garage door opener to enter the garage from the outside and I ran in and got our car. We then loaded all the pets into the car to protect them from the cold.

Lucky we did...we were outside for about an hour before the security folks cleared the alarm and let us back in. The fire department never showed. Also a no show...ANY Estonians. The only other folks to evacuate were someone from Finland and someone from Lithuania. Also a no-show...the neighbor who set off the alarm with a pot on the stove...she didn't bother to let those of us standing in the snow know that there was not really a fire.

At any rate, my take-away from this is that having a plan really helps. That if something bad happens, both of us will be calm and do what we need to do to get our family to safety.

I feel better knowing that.

I suppose an hour in the snow is not too great a price to pay for that.

Global Post: State Department makes sea change on LGBT rights

There is a nice piece in the in the Global Post about all that Secretary Clinton has done for the global LGBT community.

State Department makes sea change on LGBT rights

[...]

“The State Department has gone from the world’s principal advocate for anti-gay policy to one of the great leaders for LGBT rights,” said David K. Johnson, a professor at the University of South Florida and the author of “The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government.”

[...]

Amen. And as someone who directly benefits, thank you Secretary Clinton!

You can read the whole piece here.

Dealing With The Blogroll

I see my blog as doing three primary things: telling my dad what I am up to, covering LGBT issues in the Foreign Service, and helping recruit good people to join the Foreign Service.

A big part of that last one is my blogroll.

Which blogger has now decided to screw around with.

Sometime a few weeks back, they decided to have an arbitrary limit on their links gadget. I think that limit is 166. Who came up with THAT number?? Anyway, what that means is that while my blogroll of well over 300 blogs still works, I can't edit it. At all. Which means I can't remove double listings. Can't delete some blogs that have been completely deleted. And most importantly, I can't add new blogs.

So I made a new one, just below the old one, with the oh so creative title of "More FS Blogs." New FS blogs (or old ones that I suddenly find) will go there. As will the "graduates" from the Future FS Roll.

In other news, the weather here has warmed up a bit. Never in my life did I think 18F would seem warm, but after -25F, it seems positively balmly.

M and I took advantage of the "warm" weather to head out to the Tallinn suburb of Viimsi to take some pictures. I'm glad we did...the frost of the trees was magical and had melted by later in the day. Also cool are the ice and snow covered rocks in the frozen waters of the Baltic. And at the Viimsi Open Air Market, we got to see sled dogs...because it is that cold here!

Drawing From The Same Well

I know I sound like a broken record. But seriously, how long do federal employees have to be the country's whipping boy?

Yes, I know we have to solve the debt problem. I know we need to make cuts.

I also know that they already cut Foreign Service Officers' pay when we go overseas (by about 8%). I know that they are talking about cutting it further (by another 16%).

I know they have already frozen our pay for two years. I know they are also talking about freezing it for another one to three years. Meaning no cost of living increases for up to five years.
I know that is already cutting hard into my retirement.

And now, they want to freeze our annual step increases as well.

This isn't about the money now. I am by no means well off, but I can live on what I earn.

This is about several things.

First, this lowers the amount I will receive in retirement because retirement is based on my highest few years' salary. And they won't retroactively give me credit for what I would have earned.

Great you say, but at least you can expect a pension from your employer.

That is true. But one of the reasons I am working in this career, instead of making the approximately 25% more I could expect to earn in the private sector is because I like the security of a pension. This is a choice I made with my retirement in mind. If they are going to take that from me, I should work elsewhere.

And yes, you probably heard that federal employees are actually overpaid. This is only true among the very lowest paid federal employees. But among those federal employees who are doctors, lawyers, scientists, and yes, diplomats, we earn far less than we would in the private sector. And we do it because we want to serve the country. But we also make a conscious choice - lower pay now in exchange for job security and secure retirement.

If you take away the job security and the secure retirement, people will leave. Great you say, we need smaller government. Fine, but I bet you'd be surprised how much you need some parts of government. The Foreign Service, for example, is far from overstaffed. We are stretched thin. And we are the ones who help you out when you get robbed overseas or lose your passports. We are the ones who work with governments to forge agreements to keep our businesses competative and our military out of wars. I assure you, we are worth far more and save far more than we cost.

And when we leave, we will have to be replaced for that very reason. But it costs a lot more to recruit and train a new person, even at a lower salary if you are willing to forego experience, that we cost currently.

And here is the final point. Constantly whipping on those who are serving the country is not going to save you much. We are an easy target, but we are a miniscule part of the budget. The real areas for savings are also the untouchables. Just witness the recent wailing and gnashing of teeth over cutting the defense budget. A budget that is as large as it is because we have been at war. Wars that are now coming to a conclusion. It is a natural place to cut. But no one wants to. Because that might mean cutting jobs, and we'd rather cut federal jobs. Because we all know that an unemployed federal worker won't collect unemployment like an unemployed person elsewhere in the private sector...oh wait.

So let's make the hard choices. Let's deal with the debt. But let's recognize that punishing federal workers over and over again won't solve the problem. If you cut our salaries, we will spend less, which will hurt the economy. If you cut our jobs, we will join the unemployment lines and increase the overall unemployment numbers. If you cut our retirement, you make us one more person needed government assistance at the end of our careers.

These things you will do.

But balance the budget? That you won't do.

Because you are only cutting what is easy, what is politically expedient, what looks good to your constituents, but what does nothing substantial for fixing our budgetary problems.

Why Does Water Hate Me?

Yesterday, right as I was about to go into press brief, my phone rang.

It was my wife. I knew this because I set Foreigner's "Urgent" as her ringtone. :D

And it was. Urgent that is.

Our bedroom ceiling was leaking.

Those of you who have been reading a while know we had a ceiling "issue" back in our home in Virginia in July of 2010. And by issue, I mean it collapsed. On us. In bed at 3 am. Because of a leak.

And it took about 3 months before the condo association's insurance refused to cover it, and another 3 months or so before the work was finally done. And during that six months, we had a 10 ft by 6ft hole in our bedroom ceiling, plus another in the office, and the hall, and the downstairs living room.

So the sound of dripping, or a report of a leaky ceiling, now instantly spikes my blood pressure.

So I hung up and called GSO. He wasn't at his desk (he's a busy guy, and not only because of me!) so I told my APAO to handle press brief (because I am fortunate to have a really reliable APAO!) and ran upstairs.

We got folks to the apartment quickly. Turns out, the neighbor upstairs had a flood in her kitchen. Which is apparently above our bedroom.

The damage appears minimal. They will have to replace part of the ceiling, but luckily M was home and was able to clean up before it damaged her clothes (part of the leak was over the closet) or the floor. So at least there is that. Now it is a matter of the neighbor's insurance and the landlord and her insurance and the embassy all sorting it out. Thankfully, I can stay out of all that, but I will have to endure repairs.

This latest water incident comes on the heels of the boiler for our building, which is apparently not even in our building, dying, leaving us with NO hot water for a few days. And let me tell you, with the temps these days, you need a hot shower to thaw out!

You've seen those stories of eastern and central Europe being in a hard freeze? That's us. Today, the high is supposed to be -6. The HIGH. The low is supposed to be -24. Fahrenheit, not celsius.


And let me tell you, that is really frickin' cold.

Awesome Super Bowl Anti-Bullying Ad

LGBT issues and U.S. Policy” with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Rights, and Labor Daniel Baer

In case this doesn't work (I'm still trying to imbed the video), you can see the video here

Decorating With Stories

Perhaps more so than in other professions, people in the Foreign Service tend to visit their co-workers houses when they are overseas.

As an example, when I was in DC, I visited one person's house in a total of four years. I've been here six months, and have already visited four. Plus the Marine House. And I will visit another next week.

There are two reasons for this.

First, you want to see what kind of housing they got. We get very limited input into our housing. You generally tell the housing board kind of what your needs are and they try to assign you to one from the housing pool that meets those needs. Whether you like your house or not, chances are good you will live there for your entire tour.

So with my house, I told them I wanted to be in the city. I wanted to be able to walk to work. And it had to allow pets.

I got all that. And aside from the fact that I hate my (lack of a real) kitchen, I love this place. And since I don't really cook, I can deal with it. Because everything else is great...underground parking, walking distance to the Old City and the Embassy and tons of cool places to see, restaurants, etc. Seriously love it. Even the quirky artsy glass wall has grown on me.

But you still want to see everyone else's place, to make a mental assessment of whether they got a better deal. (I'm four for four...all my colleagues have aspects of their housing that I like better than mine, but none is a total package that I would chose over mine. Big score!)

The other reason is to see where they have been.

One of the cool things about the homes of those of us in the Foreign Service is that the decorations tell a story. We all have the same drexel heritage boring furniture. So we make our houses into homes with the stuff we bring. And what you generally see in other folks' homes is a little from where they are from and a lot from where they have been.

M and I went to a friend's last night for pizza and cards. And to see all the stuff she got from her last tour. She has just tons of interesting nicnacs plus this cool coffee table that rises up so you can use it like a tv tray. Her house, like all of ours, is a record of where she has been.

Ours, for example, has lots of carpets from Azerbaijan. Plus some paintings we got there, including the famous (to us and our friends) cow painting. M and I walked into a gallery in Baku and basically didn't agree on anything. Except this one painting. She thought it was loaves of bread...and upside down.

I said, no honey, its cows.

After some debate, she agreed with me that is was cows...we both liked it for its whimsy. And the PAO there, who was also an artist, proclaimed that it was meant for us to have that painting. so we took it home. In the states, it hangs over our fireplace. You can see it in the picture below. Here, it gets a prominent place in the living room.



Like that painting, each thing has a story. The carpets remind us of shopping in the Old City, drinking tea with the merchants who were willing to let you take the carpet home and see if you liked it in your room before you bought it. The butcher block table with the Armenian tile-work inlay that I had custom made by the Armenian artists in Jerusalem brings up stories of walking that table through the Old City of Jerusalem, and of working with the tile maker to make it just perfect. There is a Palestinian tile tray my local staff in Jerusalem gave me, or the carpet we picked up on a vacation in Turkey with friends from America. Like these things, most everything that decorates our home has a story. And like our home, most everyone in the Foreign Service decorates with stories.

I got a new story to decorate with this week.

Our local guards each come with interesting stories of their own. One studied at the Moscow Conservatory and is a gifted musician. And another is an artist and Reiki master.

To look at him, you might just think he is an old grandpa who has been a guard his whole life. But this week, our CLO organized a showing of his work. He described his work with Reiki and how he uses the energy he sees and feels in his artwork, drawn in beautiful pastels.

And one piece particularly appealed to me. It was a smaller piece called "Ullatus" or "Surprise." The bright yellow orb surrounded by flowing purples and radiating pinks and blues just drew me in. The picture doesn't do it justice.



It currently sits in my office, and no doubt at my next post, will be one of the stories I decorate with.

And You Thought Gas Was Expensive Where You Are...

I'll start with saying I love USAA.

A friend of mine here went to purchase gasoline the other day.

She doesn't drive an extraordinarily large car. She filled it up, and used her US debit card to pay for it.

Now when I fill up my car, it usually costs about 50 euros. Or about $63.

Hers cost $70...plus another four zeros.

Yes, SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS! For ONE TANK of gas!

And you were complaining about $3-4 a gallon?

The crazy part? Her bank let it go through. And didn't put a hold on her account.

That's just nuts!

USAA put a hold on my account for a weird looking charge of just under $3. And they were right, it was a "test charge" by someone who had stolen my number.

Which is why I love USAA!

Welcome to the 165th!

I think it is the 165th anyway!

I have only found one blogger in the new A-100, so welcome to:

The Alavis Abroad.

And in the meantime, blogger is fighting with me on updating my blogroll. Not sure why. But I have stumbled upon a couple new (to me at least) blogs, and I want to post them here (at least until I can get my darned blogroll to update!)

They are:

Foreign Service IMS

Foreign Service Thurows

How The Heck Did We Get Here?

Kaitlinfso's blog

and

Ongoing Adventures

Welcome all!

You Know You're an FSO When...

Matt over at Just Another Fool For Christ cracked me up with You Know You're a Foreign Service Officer When....

I particularly like "You can’t watch an election campaign debate on foreign policy without throwing a shoe and/or yelling at the television set" and "You have household effects stored in Hagerstown but can’t for the life of you remember what any of them are."

Be sure to read the comments too.

Fire and Ice

It is well known that the Estonians are not terribly religious people, unless you count maausk, or earth beliefs. They were among the last in Europe to adopt Christianity, and the presence of paganism after a fashion is still very real here.

This was pretty obvious at the Fire and Ice Festival tonight.

After Christmas, Estonians gather all the dead Christmas trees, and artists use them to construct huge sculptures. Then, they set the sculptures on fire in Toompea park against the backdrop of the frozen pond and snow covered park and the beating of drums.

The scuplture above is a dragon. Others were small buildings with rotating interiors or abstract pieces. You can see from the people near by that these were huge sculptures...they lit up the night sky.

Pretty awesome.

Second Verse, Same as the First

I found an interesting piece today thanks to Vermont Freedom to Marry. It had struck me how similar all of the arguments were against same-sex marriage to those made against interracial marriage in Loving v Virginia.

For those of you not familiar with the case, ultimately ruled on by the Supreme Court, Richard and Mildred Loving were an interracial couple married in D.C. and then arrested in Virginia in 1958 for being married and violating the "Racial Integrity Act." They were each sentenced to one year in prison, suspended if they moved out of the state. They did, but fought to get their criminal records cleared. There is a short piece in the UK's Daily Mail Online today showing some photos taken of the couple.

At any rate, 45 years ago, in my lifetime, interracial marriage was illegal in 16 states. But the Supreme Court overturned those laws in 1967 (some states, including South Carolina, kept them on the books until into the late 80s, early 90s...I actually got to vote to remove the ban from the SC constitution...shocking that it was still there, more shocking that nearly 30% voted AGAINST removing it).

Even when I got to vote on expunging this shame from my state's constitution, some of these same arguments were being trotted out. Which is why I find the arguments below so interesting...is there anyone out there who still thinks interracial marriage is going to bring about the apocolypse (don't answer that), or is this just second verse, same as the first?

Same-sex marriage runs counter to God's plan:“If God had intended for same-sex couples to marry, he would have made Adam and Steve, not Adam and
Eve.” (Source: Vermont House and Senate Judiciary Committee Public Hearings, 1/25/00, 2/1/00)

Interracial marriage runs counter to God's plan:
“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”(Source: Virginia trial judge upholding conviction of Mildred and Richard Loving for interracial marriage, quoted in Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 3(1967))

If we allow “gay marriage,” then the next thing you know we'll have brothers and sisters wanting to marry each other, or demands for legalization of polygamous marriages. (Source: Vermont House and Senate Judiciary Committee Public Hearings, 1/25/00, 2/1/00)

“[If interracial couples have a right to marry], all our marriage acts forbidding intermarriage between persons within certain degrees of consanguinity are void.” (Source: Perez v. Lippold, 198 P.2d at 40 (Shenk, J., dissenting, quoting from a prior court case))
“The underlying factors that constitute justification for laws against miscegenation closely parallel those which sustain the validity of prohibitions against incest and incestuous marriages.”(Source: Perez v. Lippold, 198 P.2d at 46 (Shenk, J., dissenting, quoting from a prior court case))
“[T]he State's prohibition of interracial marriage . . . stands on the same footing as the prohibition of polygamous marriage, or incestuous marriage, or the prescription of minimum ages at which people may marry, and the prevention of the marriage of people who are mentally incompetent.” (Source: Excerpted United States Supreme Court oral argument transcripts from Loving v. Virginia, from Peter Irons and Stephanie Guitton, eds., May it Please the Court (1993) at 282-283, quoting Virginia Assistant Attorney General R. D. McIlwaine, arguing for Virginia's ban on interracial marriage)

Gay people are free to marry just like anyone else, as long as they marry a member of the opposite sex. (Source: Vermont House and Senate Judiciary Committee Public Hearings, 1/25/00, 2/1/00)

“Each [party seeking to marry a member of a different race] has the right and the privilege of marrying within his or her own group.” (Source: Perez v. Lippold, 198 P.2d at 46 (Shenk, J., dissenting, quoting from a prior court case))

Same-sex marriage would precipitate the breakdown of society.(Source: Vermont House and Senate Judiciary Committee Public Hearings, 1/25/00, 2/1/00)

“Civilized society has the power of self-preservation, and, marriage being the foundation of such society, most of the states in which the Negro forms an element of any note have enacted laws inhibiting intermarriage between the white and black races.” (Source: Perez v. Lippold, 198 P.2d at 40 (Shenk, J., dissenting, quoting from a prior court case))

Allowing same-sex couples to marry would degrade “traditional” heterosexual marriages. (Source: Vermont House and Senate Judiciary Committee Public Hearings, 1/25/00, 2/1/00)

Allowing interracial marriages “necessarily involves the degradation” of conventional marriage, an institution that “deserves admiration rather than execration.” (Source: A U.S. representative from Georgia quoted in Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1996)

Same-sex marriages have adverse effects on the parties' children, and those children are apt to suffer stigma.(Source: Vermont House and Senate Judiciary Committee Public Hearings, 1/25/00, 2/1/00)

“It is contended that interracial marriage has adverse effects not only upon the parties thereto but upon their progeny . . . and that the progeny of a marriage between a Negro and a Caucasian suffer not only the stigma of such inferiority but the fear of rejection by members of both races.”(Source: Perez v. Lippold, 198 P.2d at 26 and n.5 (summarizing the State's argument in favor of ban).

And this is just a sample. You can read the rest of the arguments here.

And one final thing to keep in mind, one argument they didn't mention. Those against marriage equality say the majority of the country opposes marriage equality (not true anymore, actually, the lastest polls show a slight majority favor marriage equality). In 1967, when the Supreme Court ruled that marriage was a civil right, that denying it denied due process, and that the distaste of the majority was not reason enough for the state to prohibit a marriage, more than 75 PERCENT of the country opposed interracial marriage.

And the Supreme Court did the right thing anyway.

My Inner Duck

The thing that scares me most about Estonia is the weather.

Specifically, the ice.

Snow is a pain, but so far, we haven't had so much of it for it to be unmanagable.

But the ice!

It doesn't help that folks here dutifully clear away all the snow (and traction) from the ice, but seldom put down salt. Then it warms up, melts, and refreezes into sheets several inches thick. You could seriously ice skate to work (hey, there's a thought!).

There was an article in the press the other day that said something like 1 of 3 people will fall on the ice, and the bumps, bruises, and broken bones end up costing the country a onsiderable amount in lost productivity, to say nothing of the medical bills.

I am in fear of being one of the casualties.

I took a nasty fall when I came here in March for my language immersion, but luckily, I landed on my most padded part. So the worst of the pain I suffered was emotional (because it is pretty embarrassing to end up on your back side...). But one of the folks here at the embassy this winter has already been less lucky. The result is a broken bone. I feel really badly for this person.

And I worry about being next. In more than four decades of life, I have never had a broken bone. I hesistate even as I type that, worrying I may jinx myself. I have had some really nasty strains, the result of which is that my ankles are not as sturdy as I would like. So I wear boots to work every day and am always on the lookout for boots for work that are warm, waterproof and offer ankle support while still looking work appropriate. Oh, and that will fit on my weirdly short calves. Not an easy find. I did find a pair the other day at Stockmann's, but they rubbed my heel when I wore them last night...maybe with thicker socks...

And in the meantime, I am just channelling my inner duck, waddling slowly across the ice.

What Was That Sound??

I was having a meeting in my office this week, when I heard this weird sound outside.

It sort of sounded like someone trying to start a motorcycle or leaf blower.

Both would be pointless this time of year. The leafblower, obviously, because there are no leaves. And the motorcycle...well, unless you like sliding to the ground.

The ice here is just treacherous.

Folks make a good faith effort to clean the sidewalks. The trouble is, we are having a mild winter. Okay, not mild by my winter standards, but really mild by Estonian ones.

What this means is that there has not been enough snow. It keeps getting warm and melting the snow, making icky slush (I have learned two new words - lörts (sleet or slush) and libe (slippery) - of neccessity), and then getting cold and refreezing said slush into a solid sheet of ice.

You can't walk on ice. And I suspect you can't really drive a motorcycle on it either (as a side note, I really like the metal-studded snow tires they require here. Every bit of extra traction you can get is a good thing!).

Which brings me back to the sound.

Every March or April, as spring arrives, people get injured, sometimes critically, by falling icicles and mounds of snow coming off the roofs as the weather warms and the snow melts. Usually, at least one person gets killed per year.

And that sound? That is this phenomenon happening NOW. Because of this weird weather, the snow accumulates on the roofs, melts, and slides off. So instead of having this danger IN THE spring, we could have it ALL WINTER and THROUGH the spring.

So okay, the Estonians are right. It probably needs to be colder and snowier.

Gay Rights are Human Rights

I have the best boss on the planet. But you already knew that.

White Christmas

We are finally getting some snow in Tallinn, just in time for Orthodox Christmas today. So at least someone got a white Christmas!

Actually, I kind of like the snow so far. Not too much of it (maybe 3-5 inches) plus I don't have to drive anywhere at the moment. Of course, if it keeps snowing between now and say, April, like it did when I lived in Syracuse, I will be less jazzed about it. But for the moment, I'm enjoying how pretty it is.


My wife and I used the opportunity to walk over to the Old City and get some pictures of snow in the Old Town. I particularly wanted to get a picture of the Christmas market in the snow, since that ends this weekend.



Of course, all that snow is also kind of cold, so we stopped at a local place known for its hot chocolate. Specifically, its cup of hot chocolate that is basically a melted chocolate bar.


So tell me again why visiting me in the winter is so bad?

So It Wasn't Just Me

You know how I told you that I was having a different experience in Estonia that others said that were having?

How I was not finding it to be true that people all spoke English, or automatically switched to English, or refused to speak Estonia with you once you made a mistake?

I wondered and wondered why I was having a different experience.

Turns out, it isn't just me.

My wife makes a concerted effort to use her Estonian in public. She has only had four months of study, so not even as much as I had by my immersion trip.

And you know what happens?

People speak Estonian to her. And if she stuggles for a word, they give it to her.

In Estonian.

And then they keep talking to her.

In Estonian.

So it isn't just me.

It really is that people appreciate you making an effort. And that they will be nicer to you if you do.

I am still glad I learned the language. I am glad my wife is, that my APAO learned it and that my incoming APAO is learning it. I think it matters. Because we are diplomats. It isn't our job to make people to do things our way by force. Our job is to convince people to work with us, as partners. To explain the American message. To serve the best interests of America.

You can't do that if you come at people from a position of disrespect. Learning their language is a huge step in showing you appreciate and respect them. And it yields fruit, not just now, but in the long run.

Maybe this proves you can have to much stuff

Well really, of course you can.

Anyone in the Foreign Service can tell you that.

But it shouldn't be your UAB that teaches you that lesson.

Let me back up. My wife's UAB arrived yesterday. Because I had already gotten my UAB and HHE, we were pretty well covered in terms of "needs," so her UAB contained her clothes plus some "wants."

One of the wants was our PS3. In preparation for that, I had attempted to plug a surge protector into the transformer. Although there was nothing plugged into the surge protector, it blew it and a fuse.

I assumed that it was because the surge protector was old.

You know what they say about assumptions...

But no worries. I knew I had a newer one in good shape in the UAB.

The GSO here is my friend...we spent a year together in language and that kind of close contact either makes you good friends or makes you despise each other. I was really lucky, given how small this post is. I really like both him and his wife (our consul).

So I felt really bad about having to call him after work hours.

I felt worse when I told him what happened, and he sighed deeply and said, "How big is the fire?"

There was no fire, fortunately. What I had done was attempt to plug the new empty surge protector into the transformer. It too blew the transformer and the fuse (clearly the issue is the transformer...just saying). My wife, before I could tell her not to and before I could unplug the transformer, reset the fuse.

And blew out the whole house.

Let me tell you, Tallinn in the winter is dark. An apartment in Tallinn in the winter with no power any time after say 3 pm is REALLY DARK. And this was well after 3 p.m. Well after work hours.

Neither of the breaker boxes in the apartment worked. Nor could I find the mysterious third breaker box for which I was given a key and the tag on the key says "ceiling breaker box." Yes, I looked at all my ceilings.

Finally, after some guidance from my friend (who I clearly owe lunch), I discovered a FOURTH breaker box in the hall outside the apartment and a key in the mass of keys I got when i checked in. And inside there I found the tripped breaker.

So the story ends well...but probably wouldn't have happened if I had been happy with only using the wii.

Settling Into the New Old Normal

One of the most consistent aspects of Foreign Service life is change.

You are always either moving, just arriving, bidding, or preparing to leave. There used to be a blog called "Six Months of Settled," a moniker that aptly describes our lives. When they say that the Foreign Service isn't for everyone, this is part of what I mean. If you can't handle lots of change, lots of unsettled, this may not be the career for you.

Need an example? As some of my FS friends of facebook pointed out today, since it is now 2012, they can refer to next year being in post X. I can even think in terms of leaving Tallinn the year after next. Not a thought I want to dwell on.

Because I really like it here.

And I am settling in to what is my new (old) normal: life living with my wife again.

We are riding into work together, having lunch together, spending evenings together.

It is exactly how I prefer my life to be.

Of course, I also prefer my life to be settled, though given my proclivity for getting bored pretty easily, this is probably a pretty good compromise for me in terms of careers.

This is Why Making New year's Resolutions is a Bad Idea

I saw someone call New Year's Resolutions a "To Do List for the first week of the New Year."

No kidding.

I made a New Year's resolution years ago not to make any more New year's resolutions and I kept it, except for a little fudging last year. But I called them "goals" instead of resolutions.

Want to know the only thing dumber than me making New Year's Resolutions/Goals? Putting them in a place (like my blog) where I can easily find them a year later.

Dumb. Really dumb.

And those "goals?" EPIC FAIL.

Of the five goals, I only accomplished one. On really a half if you count that I said my secret goal was to get a 3+/3+ instead of a 3/3, which was my actual goal. but I'll take the one.

As for the others:

* Getting back into running: FAIL (unless thinking about it counts)

* Decluttering Before the Move: FAIL (I did take some stuff to Goodwill, but not enough. And mostly I procrastinated, figuring we can declutter all the stuff from storage when we retire!

* Finishing my dissertation: EPIC FAIL. At this point, it seems I am unlikely to finish, a realization that makes me sad but I think is for the best, at least for now. I have a good job, with good prospects, good pay and good security. A job most people would love to have. My degree won't change that for better or worse. But I still hope to finish it one day, maybe when I retire.

* And finally, settling my grandmother's estate: FAIL. Though really that was always mostly out of my hands. If I had the money to pay off her few debts, I could. But it would mean transferring into my name property that has a HUGE balloon payment coming due in July. And that is definitely something I can not afford, either in terms of the amount of the payment or the hit to my credit for not paying it were it in my name. So realistically, unless that sells, closing the estate is out of my hands.

So yeah, mostly a fail on the goals thing. Which is why making New Year's Resolutions is a bad idea.

My one and only goal for 2012? Enjoy life. Hopefully I can report back next year that I succeeded on that one.

Bidding Farewell to 2011

I know there are a lot of people for whom 2011 has been a really bad year.

But I am not one of them, and I feel extremely fortunate.

Yes, 2011 was a year in which my wife and I endured a four month separation, bringing to nearly three years we have spent apart for the needs of the service.

And yes, 2011 saw a freeze in our pay and so much animousity aimed at Federal employees that I sometimes wondered why I bothered to serve.

But the truth is, my life is pretty great, and 2011 was a pretty good year for me.

For while the American people may be in an anti-federal employee mood, I still feel lucky that I get to serve the country and all that it can stand for. and I am lucky to have a job, and one which is relatively secure. That isn't lost on me when I know that members of my own family are suffering. And this year, I got paid to learn a new language, something I love doing. And I passed my test with the necessary score to qualify for language incentive pay. Which helped me not take a substantial pay cut to serve overseas.

I started my new position as the Public Affairs Officer in Tallinn. And it is better than I could have ever imagined. I LOVE my job. And I love all parts of it. I like managing my excellent staff, doing cultural events, and working with the media. I have a great Ambassador who seems to trust me and value my experience and opinion. I look forward to going to work each day.

And I live in a great city. I find this place beautiful and interesting, and I like the people here as well.

And as of Christmas eve, my family has been reunited. They all made it safely to Tallinn, for which I am eternally grateful.

So yeah, 2011 has been pretty good to me. I am looking forward to the new year with hope and anticipation, but I am tremendously thankful to have had the 2011 that I did.

And because I can, here is a picture of Oscar, the newest addition to our family (as of the very end of 2010) celebrating the new year. Or planning to kill me for putting a bow on his head. I am really not sure.

The Civil Service Recognition Act

Here is a nice piece in the NY Times by Andrew Rosenthal about the Civil Service Recognition Act.

Flags for Civilians
By Andrew Rosenthal

[...]

I am not generally in favor of largely symbolic legislation, but the Civil Service Recognition Act doesn’t fall into the solution-in-search-of-a-problem category. Federal workers often end up in dicey and dangerous places, like embassies targeted by terrorist organizations. Thousands of federal civilian employees have died over the last 20 years while performing their official duties, and it’s worth recognizing their sacrifice.

I was also glad to see this official recognition since the right wing has not, of late, shown much respect for civilians in government. As my colleague David Firestone has written, Republicans have consistently countered Democratic plans to raise revenue by taxing the wealthiest Americans with proposals to cut government by reducing the size of the federal workforce — all while insisting that jobs are their Number 1 priority. (The logic is that government jobs are not really jobs.)

According to The Washington Post’s Joe Davidson, an earlier version of the bill attracted some grumbling from the American Legion and right-wing bloggers, because it seemed to equate civilian sacrifice with military sacrifice. The bill used to read: “A flag shall be furnished and presented…in the same manner as a flag is furnished and presented on behalf of a deceased member of the Armed Services who dies while on active duty.” The amended version strikes the comparison.

This editing process is the only thing that makes the Act a little bittersweet for me. The men and women who choose to join the military deserve our respect and gratitude, but so do people who choose to become diplomats. If a diplomat dies in an embassy bombing, I’m not sure why it’s wrong to suggest that he should be honored in the same way as a soldier who died on the battlefield.

You can read the whole piece here.

The Tree Is Down But Things Are Looking Up

Normally, I prefer to leave the Christmas tree up until after New Year's. I tell people it is for the Feast of the Epiphany, but really it is just because I really like have the tree up.

But not enough to leave a fire hazard in the house.

When we got home from the states, the tree was seriously dry. There was water in the stand, but none of that seemed to have made it to the branches. Touch the tree, and a shower of needles fell. Touch a single branch and it was instantly bare.

So we took the tree down last night.

But everything else is looking up. We are all safe and sound under one roof. Cayenne is back to happily calling out to the cats, and Noostie is back to herding them around the house. Oscar is asserting his dominion over his new digs by resisting all attempts to keep him off of the table (and the buffet, and the bookshelves, and the radiators, and the counters...), and Pishik has discovered a nice nook in the shelves in my closet that makes for cozy sleeping (on my clothes...sigh...I should have color coordinated my pets better so that I could match clothing to fur color).

And my wife and I are back to dinner together at the table, evenings on the sofa chatting and watching tv (or surfing the web, but at least it is together) and reading in bed at night before going to sleep.

Life is good.

Americans Will Still Be Serving in Iraq

I am glad someone has noticed that not all Americans serving in Iraq will leave with the soldiers.

As soldiers leave, U.S. diplomats face huge Iraq challenge

By Andrew Quinn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the last American soldiers leave Iraq, the U.S. State Department assumes the reins of a complex and risky operation, the success or failure of which could determine whether the costly nine-year U.S. engagement with the country finally bears fruit.

U.S. diplomats, shielded by thousands of security contractors, will seek to monitor Iraq's fragile political evolution and push ahead with civilian aid programs designed to demonstrate the benefits of U.S. friendship.

Their aim is to secure an alliance with a nascent democracy neighboring Iran that, as a key oil producer, has seen its strategic importance to Washington increase sharply amid the political turmoil engulfing the Middle East.

But analysts say that, without U.S. military protection, they may end up trapped in fortified diplomatic bunkers while bureaucrats at home struggle with the logistics of organizing and securing one of the biggest U.S. diplomatic endeavors ever undertaken.

[...]

A handful of U.S. military personnel will remain in the country, working with the embassy to help with arms sales and training for Iraqi forces. Talks could resume next year on whether more U.S. troops can return for future training missions
In the meantime, U.S. officials say there will be roughly 16,000 people involved in the American diplomatic effort in Iraq.

About 2,000 will be diplomats and federal workers. The remaining 14,000 will be contractors - roughly half involved with security while the rest will be doing everything from keeping the kitchens running to managing the motor pool.

The operation will focus on the fortress-like U.S. Embassy in Baghdad -- the largest and most expensive U.S. diplomatic mission in the world -- as well as at consulates in Basra, Erbil and Kirkuk, each of them "hardened" to resist militant attack.

[...]

For U.S. diplomats and other federal officials working in Iraq, a day at work is likely to involve working the phones from behind blast walls and under heavy guard.

Potential threats include a much-diminished, but still lethal, Sunni insurgency; Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia groups; and the possibility of resurgent ethnic conflict.

Diplomatic facilities will be equipped with their own radar to detect incoming mortars and missiles, while rare movement around the country will be likely be severely restricted.

"They are not going to be able to move around much. That's obvious," said Dov Zakheim, a former senior Pentagon official during the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations who has specialized in looking at U.S. contracting in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Of course they are in a combat environment. As long as they deny that then there are a lot of issues they are sidestepping."

[...]

You can read the entire article here.

No Tigers Here, Just Packouts and Holidays

First, I want to wish you all the happiness of the holidays, whichever holiday you celebrate. And general happiness if you don't celebrate at all.

Second, yes, I have been gone a while. But no worries...I haven't gone dark or even been reprimanded. It is just...well...have you ever tried to blog via ipad?

I have, a while back, and it was a pain.

So when I went to the states last week and only took my ipad with me, I knew I wouldn't be blogging. I should have told you. Sorry about that.

I went to the states last Friday for a whirlwind packout tour.

Yes, that is right, a packout. But not mine. My wife's.

We are all together again!

I arrived on Friday. Saturday we went to her folks for a few hours. Sunday we orgnaized. Monday I packed out the HHE and UAB while she was in class, then moved the two of us and the cats into a hotel. Tuesday I packed out the storage shipment. Wednesday, I spoke to the Estonian class and Thursday I met with new property manager. Plus got a new washer, turned in the cable box and did last minute cleaning of the apartment so we can rent it out.



Friday we got back on a plane for Estonia, arriving here Saturday.

And yesterday was Christmas.

So you can that I wouldn't have been able to blog even if I had taken my computer.

But all's well that ends well, and I am back in Estonia, with my wife and the cats, as well as the dog and the bird. Our whole family got to be together for Christmas.

And that is the happiest ending I can think of.

I hope your Christmas was just as happy.

"A life can never be repaid, but it can be honored."

It is nice to know that should I be killed in the line of duty, my wife will at least receive a flag honoring my (and her) sacrifice. Now if she could also receive my pension and social security like opposite-sex spouses...

Congress passes bill giving flags to families of federal employees killed in the line of duty

Civil servants killed while on the job will receive honors and their agencies will give an American flag to their next of kin, under the Civilian Service Recognition Act, which the Senate passed Thursday with unanimous consent.

[...]

The Office of Personnel Management has estimated that since 1992, nearly 3,000 federal employees have been killed in the line of duty.

"This benefit may seem modest, but it's significant to our federal employees who work within this nation and in countless overseas posts," said Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., who introduced the bill in the House. "A life can never be repaid, but it can be honored. This bill ensures that."

You can read the whole article here.

The Tree Is Up...and I'm a Little Down

No surprise, finding a Christmas tree here is definitely a lot easier than it was in Jerusalem.

Thanks to a recommendation from one of my colleagues, I drove south of town to a nursery with a great selection and great prices. I found a nice 6.5 ft tree for 25 euros. And although the price was not as good as in Jerusalem (Israel gives free trees to diplomats), it also didn't remind me of Charlie Brown's tree.

Today my goal was to get the tree set up.

I cranked up the Christmas music (thanks to 97.1 WASH FM's 24 hour Christmas music and the I Heart Radio app) and started decorating. The lights were a bit of a challenge...I decided to get 220v ones rather than using a transformer and our old lights, but they are not a string so much as a circle. It took a bit to figure them out and the make them work (because I loosened some of the bulbs getting them out of the package...taking lights off the tree that worked before you put the ON the tree...not fun).

Once the lights were up, I put the ornament pictured above on...we bought it from the Hallmark shop in Chapel Hill, NC for our first Christmas together in 1999. I always put it on the tree first.

Each of our ornaments is a memory. Before my wife and I got together, I had a tree of stuffed teddy bear angels, and the tree still bears some sign of that. The tree topper is still the teddy bear angel and there are still lots of stuffed angel bears all over it. But there are fewer than there have been in the past, and each year the number decreases as we add other ornaments. Each place we go for vacation and each place were we spend Christmas, we acquire an ornament. So there are ornaments there from Chrleston, SC, Chimney Rock, NC, and Ft. Pulaski, Ga., but also from Baku, Istanbul and Jerusalem. And now Tallinn. This was the last ornament to go on the tree.


I always loved Christmas as a kid, though it has periodically taken some hits. My first Christmas after my parents separated still makes me a little sad, and the Christmas after the death of my great-grandmother, with whom I had spent ever Christmas of my life until then, was also a hard one. Hardest of all was dealing with Christmas after the death of my mother. It took a long time for me to feel the joy again. Losing my grandmother two years ago was less hard, because we managed to have all of us together with her, including my brother and his kids, on her last Christmas.

This Christmas too will be good, because I will be with my wife. But I will miss Christmas with my dad and his side of the family, and that makes me a little sad. And being apart from all of my family, especially my wife and dad, right now has me a bit in the dumps. The tree is pretty (though I forgot to pack the garland...I vaguely remember that I thought it was in crappy shape and that I'd get more here...wish I had remembered that when I was at the store today...), but it makes me miss everyone.


I know we'll be together soon, but forgive me if I am a little misty all the same.

"All I want for Christmas is you."

Michael Guest Op-ed: A Changed U.S. State Department

Ambassador Michael Guest, the first openly gay appointed to serve as a U.S. Ambassador, wrote an op-ed for the Advocate. You should go take a look.

Michael Guest Op-ed: A Changed U.S. State Department

"For those of us in the hall, Clinton’s speech seemed powerfully spoken from the heart. To me, a gay former diplomat, it also demonstrated the resilience of our diplomacy to respond to real and urgent needs. The speech, indeed, represents only part of a powerful legacy she will leave on LGBT rights at the State Department. Her early efforts to end discriminatory workplace policies for gay and lesbian diplomats set the standard for other federal agencies. The department’s attention to LGBT problems in its annual human rights reports has strengthened. Passport procedures have been changed to benefit transgender citizens and gay and lesbian parents. International speaker and exchange visitor programs now consciously reach out to LGBT populations, helping make the case for equal treatment in even the most skeptical overseas audiences. Funding for antidiscrimination and hate crimes–related projects has followed. And U.S. embassies now interact increasingly with LGBT groups at all levels, giving the latter greater visibility and respect in their communities. "

You can read the whole op-ed here.