Thirty

I considered a long, navel-gazing post about turning 30, but...that's not at all interesting, and, frankly no fun. Everyone asks how it feels, and the answer is...well, no different. That's enough introspection, here's what we did.

On Saturday, the 11th, we invited some people over for dinner. We did homemade pita and falafel with all the accoutrements (tahini sauce, roasted eggplant, tomatoes, feta). Karen went whole-hog and made a black forest ice cream cake (we used cherry ice cream between the layers of cake). The house was warm by the time we served it, so it got a little melty around the edges, but not so much that it turned into soup. Our friends were impressed, and threatened to come by daily to beg for cake. It turned into a really nice evening.

Now, this short summary obscures all the (sometimes frantic) preparation that went into the event, complicated by a high-level delegation (including the #3 person in the State Department) that came on Friday and had a couple of meetings on Saturday. [NOTE: You can go to http://turkmenistan.usembassy.gov/pr20090710.html for the press release and a transcript of the press conference so you get an idea of some of what goes on here. ] I got the fun of notetaking at one of the meetings, and had to crank out the report immediately thereafter. No big deal, it was an easy report, but meant that I was out from 10:30 until 2:45. It drastically cut the time available for day-of preparation. Knowing this, I made up the pita dough the night before, and cooked the chick peas for falafel as well. Karen did the cake a day in advance, and we churned the ice cream Friday night, assembling the cake then so it could firm up over night. Saturday, we made a slightly earlier than normal market run so I could immediately go to the meeting (which was, of course, delayed by the official governmental meeting that took place before it). While I was out being official, Karen did a phenomenal job of cleaning and other food prep. We're also battling a fruit fly infestation, so the vacuum cleaner came out about hourly to suck as many of the little guys up as we possibly could before guests arrived. It all came together great, and on Sunday, the actual day of my birthday, we got to take it a little bit easy. All in all, a nice way to spend the weekend: good food, good company and a good rest afterwards.