Rob and Paloma came to visit us. I was told that the purpose of the visit was for Chris and I to meet Paloma, but I suspect that the real purpose of the visit was for Rob to see me fat. Not that we need a reason to visit each other, of course, but . . .

I was eight months pregnant and was, unfortunately, largely immobile. Under normal circumstances, I would have been planning trips all over the place and making extravagant travel scenarios for us. As it was, I had to stick close to home. We did manage to get out and see lots of local stuff, and Rob and Paloma took a trip to Kyoto. Mostly, we just sat and talked and got to know each other

We made a day trip to Kamakura and did lots of walking around Yokohama. We met with many of our Yokohama friends and we ate a lot of good food. I think that we went to Tokyo, but I don't really remember. I mean, I was REALLY pregnant. What do you want from me?

And what everybody wants to know, of course, is: What do we think about Paloma? At the risk of embarrassing the crap out of her, I will simply quote myself from my first intelligence (i.e.: spy) report to Elizabeth, dated 6 November:

“I have had a week to observe our subject and am happy to report favorable findings.

Paloma is highly intelligent, educated, dedicated, successful, driven, funny, sweet, charming, stunning, and adventurous. And boy, does she love your brother. For all the right reasons too! She understands him as well as he understands himself and they have a shocking amount in common. She is definitely Allison material. He is very happy.”