Merry Christmas!

It’s year three of the Great Recession…. At my place we have been trying to ignore it, while aggressively 'eating our children', my 401K. But not to worry. You may recall I have been one of the Founders of BlackRidge Technology. It’s been great: all out-go, and no in-come for the last two years. But I believe! I believe!!! (I do) So I also invested some serious money into the company. So now I am a Founder, A Round Investor, and wait! Employee! Yes folks, we incorporated a couple of months ago and quickly won two contracts from some (no-names please) Government agency, and thus am now getting a modest paycheck. Small now, more later, after the Army signs a $4.5M contract to develop a product that protects our troops from Taliban cyber warriors. So I got that going for me….(which is nice.)

Despite the economy and our body politic, we did score some fun. On a happy note, we managed to eek out an 11-day trip to Florence and Rome. Pretty cool. The statue of David in Florence by Mikey-A was truly jaw dropping. We loved the classical artistic and architectural legacies of Rome and Greece, now mostly contained in the museums and churches of Rome and the Vatican. It was amazing to see the icons of Western culture up close and personal. But I finally wore the babes out. After 6 days of non-stop museums and churches, they caved. I think it was somewhere along the 2 miles it took to wind through the Vatican to the Sistine Chapel. Your brain can only absorb so much ridiculous splendor before it all goes into the bit bucket. (A technical term.)

Florence	Kelly and Ali at the Trevi Fountain	Rhonda and Eric at the Vatican

Ali entered year 2 at Johnson and Wales University in Denver. She changed her major to Marketing, which I think is a better fit for her. However, “year 2” meant no more dorm, which in turn meant I got to rent a humongous U Haul trailer and drive her 1700 lbs of stuff to Denver. What fun. I especially enjoyed carrying her oak bedroom set up 3 flights of stairs at 5280 feet altitude.

I hadn’t been backpacking in a few years, so thought I’d give it a whirl. Typically, I tried to fit a whole season into one trip. I mean, Summer is short, and I have a busy calendar, right? So I decided to hike 14 miles up into the Sierras, to a lovely little lake at 11,000 ft. I got about 13 miles in, when I came across a handful of crazed survivors streaming out of the pass to the lake. They were unanimous: “Turn around! Save yourself!! Run for it!!!!” They looked like they had chicken pox. Billions and billions of skeeters were in maximum hatch, and all out for blood. I turned around and fled back to the road end. Total trip: One day, 27 miles, with a 42 lb. pack. Oh, and 5000 ft up and 5000 ft back down. I now know the limit of my physical exertion: 26 miles….

Mile 13 ½	Mile 26

Kelly is weathering the recessionary storms at Levy Strauss, where she is an attorney in the legal department. They lost their General Council, so all is chaos. Hang on there, Sloopy. But she did say she had the best birthday ever! We rented a vacation home on the Russian River in the heart of California Pinot Noir Wine Country. We kitted up 3 days worth of food and prepared lavish Tuscan-style meals for three days, in between visits to the wineries along Westside Rd. No folks, it does not get any better. I am certain I gained 5 pounds. The sun breaking through the redwoods across the Russian River in the morning was a mystical experience. It was crazy beautiful.

Of course it wasn’t all food and fun this year. I re-roofed the guest house in between rain storms. It was way harder than I expected. I encountered mold, termites, mealy bugs and carpenter ants, but who’s counting? I also put on a termite-proof front porch. Ha! Let’s see you eat that, you scummy Isoptera! And I finally put the siding on the backside of the house. Only took me 20 years. Finally getting warmed up, I “disappeared” the side porch, replacing it with a Victorian-inspired portico. (See right) This was a week-long project that took over a month. More carpenter ants, termites and mold. Not to mention rusted out gutters, and much time on the roof in the 100+ degree heat. All in all, a fun project. (!?!!)

For my birthday we spent 6 days in Salzburg and 3 days in Munich. Salzburg rocked. Best live music ever. We went to a Mozart & Diner Concert at St Peter’s Cathedral. We scored a front row table and had a robust baritone and gor-gee-us soprano sing “best hits” from three Mozart operas, two feet from us. OMG. The next day, with the Marriage of Figaro dancing in my 'bed' head, Rhonda and I climbed to the snow line on Austria’s highest peak, Gros Glockner. We also visited Hilter’s Eagle’s Nest, which was …well….interesting. Munich, on the other hand, had, um, issues. But I’m not one to gossip, so you didn’t hear that from me.

Salzburg	Gros Glockner	Nymphenburg Castle

Rhonda’s Financial Advisory business is trucking along. Markets go up and markets go down, but people still need help one way or the other. Both Rhonda and I attended our high school reunions…separately. That avoids, well, a lot. I recommend this to you folks. Spouses don’t belong at a high school reunion, unless you went to the same school of course. Great, except I ended up at the wrong reunion. Where I went there were all of these old geezers. No idea where mine was….

Back in SF, Kelly got a new 3-bedroom apartment overlooking Golden Gate Park. Very nice. We got a tour, then walked over to Hardly Strictly Blue Grass. This is Warren Hellman’s gift to the people of SF. It’s a 3-day event with 7 continuous venues and many, many dozens of the best country, blue grass and rock and roll talent. All free! Saturday evening we had to choose among Emmy Lou Harris, Elvis Costello and Rosanne Cash. Since I love (sh….) Rosanne, we stayed to listen to her sing the best songs off of her best albums. Good thing Rosanne and I are both happily married.

Ali and boyfriend Andrew came for Thanksgiving. (If you say one word, this letter will self-destruct!) On final approach to SFO, Ali’s plane was struck by a tremendous bolt of lightning. It rocked the plane and many of the hapless passengers screamed bloody murder. As you engineers know, this happens all the time and rarely hurts the plane. The crew was completely calm, and the plane landed without incident. But of course they closed SFO on the spot, and Ali had to sit on the runway for 90 minutes, because no planes were allowed to leave the gate. (Yeah, well, what about all those people on Ali’s plane who had issues in their pants? Couldn’t have been healthy….) We were clueless to all of this of course, knowing only that darling daughter had landed, but did not appear for 90 minutes.

Alas, this year showed me I am not half the man I used to be. Seven long years ago, I managed to run 107 miles in one week. A personal best. This year I managed 52 miles in one week. Okay, less than half a man. God, it’s hell getting old. I hope you’re not!

Merry Christmas!

Eric and Rhonda