2009 Update

Best wishes to all for a happy 2010. We are ending 2009 in good health and looking forward to changes ahead in 2010.

Jake has completed his first three semesters at Willamette University and just finished a good semester, which included organic chemistry and microbiology . He was a teaching assistant again in a freshman biology class and will have the opportunity to TA next semester. He is looking forward to getting to know the Cascades as a backpacker with the Outing Club at Willamette. He is leaving his options open to pick up chemistry as a second major. This summer he is planning to work at a USDA lab in Pullman, Washington, and will live with his Aunt Rebecca.

Quincy was very active in theater at Las Cruces High School and just completed stage managing the LCHS production of The Wiz. It was long hours, but the production was well received, and she got more experience in theater. She has all her college applications in and has her acceptance letter from NMSU and University of Evansville. She will have her interview with Evansville in January to get into their theater program (it is very competitive) and hopes to hear from Southern Oregon soon (just got her transcript to them). She completed her first two college courses at NMSU this semester and has signed up for two more next semester.

Stu and I are well. Stu continues to enjoy summers off, and I continue to enjoy the benefits, like the deck-and-hot-tub addition Stu and Jake built last summer. We also traveled east, saw family, visited DC (always a favorite), and generally enjoyed rapidly dwindling time to be together as a family. Stu and I both battled the flu of the swine in September, and recovered without major drama.

Teaching remains a highlight of professoring for Stu. He developed a class in food engineering this year and continues to teach the 'Beer Class' (aka Brewing Science and Society) to a full house each semester. His research these days is primarily in experimental design, which means he usually can be found with a computer in his lap. Retirement looms, or at least is a possibility after the kids complete college!

I continue to be a bike commuter (now on my dream bike, with the 30-year old Fuji in reserve as the bad-weather machine) and have enjoyed the extra doses of fresh air. My work at NMSU this year has gotten more interesting, and I continue to enjoy the institutional perspective I have in my current job. Bassoon, book clubs, friends, hiking keep us busy and promise to fill the empty spaces when the kids are both away next year.

The time flies, but it is a privilege to watch Jacob and Quincy develop their own lives. Hard to believe 2010 is about here. Could the Y2K brouhaha really have been 10 years ago? Best wishes to all for a good life in 2010.

Merry Christmas to all...

Christmas, 2009.

We are in La Jolla, California, hanging out with the seam anemones at the beach (in one of the city's undoubtedly funkiest cottages) for the holiday. The weather has been beautiful, and the family time has been, as they say, priceless.

We arrived with Quincy on Saturday to move into this ~50 year old cottage that is 2/3 of the way up Ocean Lane. We were surprised that Ocean Lane was a staircase (no street-side parking for us!), but that sure keeps the street noise at a minimum. Jake was scheduled to arrive Sunday evening, but a delayed flight pushed that to painfully early Monday. But no matter -- having him around is worth as many late night trips to the airport as it takes. He will spend his birthday with us before he heads back to Salem in mid-January.

Mornings, the kids sleep in as Stu and I watch seals that resemble hefty bags loll about on the beach. We have explored the area on bikes (very bike-friendly, southern California streets are) and this morning plan to head down to Mission Bay for some birding. Afternoons, kids join us or not for exploration further afield. Yesterday we were at Cabrillo National Monument, the lighthouse built on the point that guards the San Diego Harbor. Today we will do a walking tour someplace.

It is wonderful to have 4 people at the dinner table again, and evening discussions have been great.

New Mexican for Christmas!

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Snow in Las Cruces

We got our third snowfall of the season yesterday. The roads actually iced over and school was canceled. (It also snowed on October 30 and December 1). A local photographer documented the December 1 storm here.

Natural history notes: the grassland birds are back. White-crowned sparrows and snow buntings have been at the feeders alongside pyrruloxias and juncos, which we rarely get. A roadrunner has adopted the deck railing as his own, and the quail are plentiful and fat. In winter, there seem to be more cecotropes (this is gross...) around, which Rosie just loves snacking on.

And it has been really cold for a couple of days. I will watch the saguaros around town (and the one across the street) to see if this kills them off. Saguaros can survive most Las Cruces winters (they do not grow in the wild here), but every 20 years or se we get cold enough for long enough time that the temperature kills off all but those in the most protected areas.

Quincy and I found a great recipe for chocolat chaud. I am embarrassed to admit that we augmented with additional chocolat (3 ounces) and whipped cream. (A recipe for death by chocolat, but what a way to go!)

Semester is over except for finals week next week. Quincy is done with her NMSU Chinese class and will finish her floral class Tuesday. She has been working as Stage Manager for the LCHS production of The Wiz and has submitted her application to three colleges (NMSU, University of Evansville, and Southern Oregon). She still has time to apply to others if she wants but has her top choices taken care of!

Noche de las luminarias is tomorrow night (set up requires hot-tub therapy afterward) on campus. Dinner with the Brew Master for Shiner Bock is Wednesday. The Wiz plays this weekend. Floral Auction (for Q's class) is Tuesday... busy week.

Thanksgiving, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Below is my first video on this blog. Rosie, the long suffering saint of doggie, bears the gato Nom well.

Got back a little bit ago from the celebration at the Silvas. It was perhaps a little smaller than usual, but good to see everybody again. We had good food, conversation, friends, music, wine. With each passing year, I appreciate all over again the privilege of watching these kids grow up. They do their parents proud.

Of course, I missed Jacob, but we talked to him today. He is with his Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Jeff in Dayton, Washington and is going skiing tomorrow. Then Pullman Saturday, and back to Salem Sunday.

The lights one the mountains north of Las Cruces during the holiday season are shining now.

Tonight's project.

Quincy mad this in class tonight. Sure will miss this class at the end of the semester!

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At the field once more.

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Beautiful sunrise

This sunrise followed my first ride in on the new bike. Beautiful.

Oh, and new bike arrived Tuesday. It is a sweet ride.

Stu and I refurbished the hydroponic bed, so in a couple weeks we will have lots of goodies. Still have room for containers, so I will be shopping for some tomatoes, etc. next weekend.

Fabulous weather here. Great walk this morning, nice ride this afternoon.

Tournament of Bands

This was one of the bands from yesterday's Tournament of Bands at NMSU. One movement was mostly percussions, and everybody got to play on the barrels. It was a great visual!

Or maybe it was Tourniquet of Bands. LCHS has a great season in a lot of ways, but the kids did not earn the scores from the judges to place in competition.

Nonetheless, Quincy is completing her year of lasts -- last band competition (yesterday), last IEP (Friday), last time performing at the Field of Dreams (a couple weeks ago), and this Friday, the last BIG game against Mayfield. The football team has also not had a stellar season, so playoffs look unlikely. But since she is already staying busy stage managing the fall play The Wiz, she will not be at a loss for stuff to do.

Her year of lasts is also one for her parents. I have hawked for the last time at Field of Dreams and plan to never again load up hundreds of nacho boats with chips. My concessions friends plan regular get togethers next year on Fridays to celebrate our evenings without standing for hours on cold cement floors in a loud, confined little space serving lines of people what passes for food at athletic events. Yes, we have healthy choices. No, we never sell more than about 2 pieces of fruit an evening, but we sure do move those frito pies!

It got cold this week, and I even biked home in snow on Wednesday. The deck was covered with snow Thursday morning, but as typical of New Mexico, it lasted only briefly. Weather has returned to beautiful, and since it is Sunday afternoon, all the sunspots on the west side of the house are occupied with sleeping pets (and one human).


Stu returned from a trip to NSF in Washington DC Friday in time to see the LCHS boys soccer team win their first state cup game. Jake had his first swim meet of the year and was happy -- or at least not unhappy -- with his performance.

Empty nesting practice

This was Jake a couple weeks ago at Willamette, before the weather turned cold, blustery, and rainy. (It has been beautiful here this week. Biggest weather issue has been the tail wind for my ride home...). His swim team worked at the opening for the Kroc Center in Salem.

Quincy is at her last high school Zia Band Competition in Albuquerque. With her gone for the day, Stu and I are practicing the empty nesting thing. I (vaguely) remember what it was like to have time to make a nice dinner -- a friend is joining us, the bread just came out of the oven, and I think I can recall how this all works. Of course, we will have too much food.

We are also winding down in the football marching season. As a band parent, I have one more game to work, even if it is the insane Cruces-Mayfield game (a rivalry often mentioned in the top national high school football rivalries). Six years of selling horribly non-nutritious food to the masses is a long time, even if other Cruces parents (I thinking of you, Travises!) had a much longer tenure. Cruces could surprise us and go to lots of playoff games, but it is not looking like that at this point in the season.

Ah well, fall in LC is beautiful. Good time to start thinking about getting into marathon shape!

Cape Lookout

A most excellent day yesterday.

We started out with Salem's Farmer's Market (excellent) where we picked up way too many apples. Jake gets to keep most of them, but they were fresh, locally grown, organic, and of varieties never heard of in New Mexico. Yum.

Met Jake about noon, watched a soccer game for a bit, and had the welcome opportunity to meet Jacob's swim coach. Or at least Stu did. Not knowing it was his coach, I spent the time on the phone to Quincy. Doh!

Then on to shopping (outlet center was crowded!) and the beach. We hiked along Cape Lookout to the end and will have more photos later.

Jacob was most generous with his time. Now to meet him for breakfast and head to the airport.




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Greetings from a very large chair, Salem, OR

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Senior night photos

Quincy and Stu, about an hour before a downpour stops the halftime show.

Gratuitious illustration, Flu, etc

Photo above is not totally gratuitious. It is from last Saturday's farmer's market, and almost impossible to see under the blue tent are 2 long-time friends of ours. Recognize yourself, anybody?

Other news: Stu has had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week or so. Started a week or so ago when he was car number 4 in a 6-car pile up on University Avenue. Nobody was hurt, and the airbag did not even deploy, but the back bumper on the Jetta at the very least needs replacing. And the car now changes lanes by itself, so I guess the front end needs work, too. Amazing thing: the younger (student-aged) drivers were indignant that cars stopped so quickly in front of them that they did not have time to stop. All students were cited for not taking due care...

He went from that to a return of his cough in a way that felt like pneumonia to him. Getting pretty good at diagnosing these things, what? But he did not diagnose the flu, which he also shared with me and probably Quincy. I started Tamiflu today and have another prescription waiting at home for Quincy, who is still insisting that she just has a cough and is not really sick. We'll see on that one.

Quincy has her first application in (NMSU) and has 2 more underway. She is being very independent on this one. Jacob is having a good semester so far at Willamette.

Oops.

Quincy changed the oil on the Echo yesterday. Clean-up took more kitty litter than the Exxon Valdez. Oops, indeed.

Weekend catch-up: Senior night for the LCHS band was Thursday. The half-time show was rained out about 3 minutes into the show. It was the first time I recall ever having rain at a band event. These southwest kids grow up thinking all weather is perfect.

Market and other stuff Saturday, quiet day Sunday. Big rattle-y snake kept me from the hot tub Sunday evening. Grrr.

Senior night for the band

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Band takes the field!

The LCHS Showcase Band took the field at the first home game. The band looked super. The football team lost 28-14 after a 14-0 lead at halftime. Ouch.

This week's flower arrangement

I think I like a class that involves pretty flower arrangements every Tuesday. This is Quincy's effort for week 3.
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Labor Day Monday

The little guy to the left is a mountain patch nose snake, who slithered across the back porch last week. Jake was not here, so he did not get picked up and cuddled. There was a Wilson's warbler on the back willow today, and hummingbirds are buzzing me as I write this. The day is beautiful -- it looks like it is raining in the mountains, but the weather station across the street says it is 80 degrees, 33% humidity, with a 10 degree wind.

Quincy shopped until she dropped today. No new shoes, but she did come home with hair extensions in 3 colors, none of which are found in nature. And a lot of new shirts. And an application for work with Barnes and Noble. With the way she reads, I am not sure that is really a money-making proposition.

Jake reports a good start to the semester at Willamette. The dilemma he is working through now is whether he should double major or opt for a minor. And what that subject should be (chemistry and biochemistry are the leading candidates). He needs to decide soon as these both will take careful planning if he wants to do a semester abroad.

The important lesson for the day is that the WiFi signal is strong on the back porch. Bird list while I have been blogging here includes: curve-billed thrasher, black-throated sparrow, miscellaneous hummingbirds, doves, cactus wren, lark bunting, and more doves. The quail have had a good year (Gambels and scaled) and there are still young coming to the feeder. No raptors recently, but Jake and I saw a golden eagle before he went back to school.

Enjoy Labor Day, one and all. I recently read Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, an excellent read and one which, in hindsight, seemed appropriate for Labor Day.

Closing out the evening...

With the first rattlesnake under the new deck. Felt pretty weird to know with certainty that my feet were about 8 inches above a rattler. Just a small one, though.
I guess no hot tub tonight!

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Catching up, August 2009

Stu dropped Jacob off at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon today for the start of his sophomore year. He was good company over the summer, great help on the deck and getting the hot tub installed, and he helped me keep up on politics. Always good to keep tabs on how your kids are thinking. He does pretty well in the thinking department.

While Stu and Jake have been on the road, Quincy and I declared a formal-meal-free weekend. Good to give a break to the digestive system occasionally. And I maintain that one of Stu's dark beers has more nutrients than pretty much any fast-food meal money can buy.

Quincy started her senior year of high school (senior photo, right). She has a only four classes at the high school, so she is taking classes at NMSU as a dual credit student; there she gets to indulge in her interest in languages (she is in first semester Chinese and patiently explains the writing characters way too many times to her mother) and in her sense of aesthetic. Tuesday night's class is a horticulture class in floral arrangements, and I think it will be really good for her. She gets to play with flowers, learn about design, and bring pretty things home each week. Pretty cool, really.

Stu and Quincy are getting over some bug they were kind enough to share with me. They were both affected on weekdays; my version took over a weekend. Rats. But I was well enough to sit through Julie and Julia today without coughing more than that which is considered socially unacceptable.

Today was the first time I really had enough time to enjoy the new patio furniture. Most excellent place to spend with the Sunday Times. I really do have to find a good northern sky chart, though, for hot tub time. I get through Cassiopea and the Big Dipper and then have to start looking for airplanes. Many of our activities seem to be focused on the north. The dogs and I watched 3 coyotes romp from north of the house on the top of the Black Quartz Mountains today (Annie pointed them out to me). Great view from up there.

Stu just called from north of Sacramento. He's going to try to get home tomorrow night, but he is also recovering from the Quincy croup and is down to one driver.

And so it goes.

It is time again for the green!

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New hot tub and deck: Old mountains

This is how Jake and Stu spent the summer. Expect to get much use out of it after the long bike rides home. It is at least as cool as it looks.
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Patio on Friday

Just finished installing the swings on the back porch. Kids need to test them out extensively.
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Disclaimer: snake picture

This guy was crossing the road on our way home tonight. Stopped and brought him home for good luck. Jake sure is good at catching bull snakes.
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Showcase at sunset

Last year of band!
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Biking Milestone

Posted this on Facebook July 4...

With this week, just completed a year of cycling to work. Tally: 3 replaced tires (I recommend Kevlar), 6 new tubes (none following the move to Kevlar!), 1 new seat, 1 set of lost keys, 1 new chain, ~5000 miles cycled, and about 250,000 feet of uphill, homeward-bound climbing. And considerable guilt-free dark chocolate. My thanks to the shop crew at Outdoor Adventure for keeping the old Fuji rolling!

Lazy Sunday

Muse is growing really quickly. She will soon be bigger than Widget. She is a total klutz: she falls off furniture, lands short of targets, and stumbles over her own feet. She has an incredibly loud purr and uses it generously. In the photo, she is taking up the entire dog bed. The dogs are 10x her weight but she rules.

The hot tub is in the back yard with most of a deck around it. It is a comfortable place to watch stars and city lights, and full moon nights in the tub are excellent. Jake and Stu built the deck and just await a few more parts to complete it.

Stu's birthday is tomorrow, but since Quincy has band camp until late, we celebrate tonight. Her schedule is mostly worked out for the semester, although we are rearranging all her NMSU courses. She will spend half days at NMSU if all goes well.

One more week til NMSU and LCPS start up, and this is the last year LCPS start-up will be an important milestone of the end of summer. Feels strange.

Last night was a nice get-together at a friend's home to celebrate summer birthdays. I am incredibly fortunate to have such friends. Thanks to you all, especially Katie.

Here's to long weekends!

Saturday's celebration of Independence Day started with a 10:00 concert at NMSU of the Mesilla Valley Concert Band. It rained enough before to soak the music and make us all steamy, but the crowd seemed to not be put off. Stu, Jake and Quincy were all there, but only Jake made the front page of today's paper (above the fold!), perched in a tree watching the concert. Photo is at the right.

We finished the day watching the town's fireworks display at a friend's house.

Last weekend we got a new kitten -- Muse moved in to be a playmate to Widget. Widget has not yet appreciated this to the extent we hope she will, but Annie follows Muse around, totally entranced. Muse is about 3 months old and very playful. She was a pound kitty, but she had been fostered out to the pet food store. As we still get pet food from there, I am now afraid that they think we are suckers for every cat needing a new home...

Other news? Quincy finished up her run as stage manager for This is our youth, a play at LC's Black Box Theater directed by NMSU's CMI screenwriting instructor Amy Lanasa. Jacob will be doing some reseach for a food-safety lab on NMSU campus this summer, and Rosie still snores.

Rainy day at Cape Henlopen

In my child's mind, Rehoboth Beach is dirty and crowded and Cape Henlopen is the place where you can play with cool stuff that comes from the sea.

The Cape was great this morning, if rainy. Life guards huddled under umbrellas. Beach was clean.
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Rainy day at Cape Henlopen

In my child's mind, Rehoboth Beach is dirty and crowded and Cape Henlopen is the place where you can play with cool stuff that comes from the sea.

The Cape was great this morning, if rainy. Life guards huddled under umbrellas. Beach was clean.
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The George from the Lincoln

Night in DC. Thunder overhead and a choir singing by the reflection pool. Because if you are here in DC with a choir, why wouldn't you sing?
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Beautiful days in DC

We have had beautiful weather for touring DC -- yesterday we spent most of the day on bikes with the fattest tires in the world (picture below), following around NPS rangers on a tour of forgotten landmarks in DC. The Grant statue (above) is not so much forgotten, but it was good to be reminded that Grant gazes at Lincoln, his commander in chief (and beyond to the Lee estate in Virginia, confiscated to create Arlington National Cemetery). Quincy elected to not join us but did laundry. (Any advice?)

Also spent time at the Eastern Market and just cycling around the city. DC is a great city for biking.

Today we visit Ford's Theater and the Supreme Court. We also hope to hit Mount Vernon, the Newseum, and other highlights of geekdom.

Biking here and everywhere

Bikers and shoes at Las Cruces' Bike to Work. Oddly enough, what we all had in common was that we were not at work. My feet are in there somewhere.

From the carbon footprint calculator at the Nature Conservancy, I have saved about 6600 pounds of carbon dioxide in my nearly year of biking. I aim to give up breathing soon to try to further reduce my carbon footprint.

Great horned owl at Home Depot.

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Mystery of the yoyos

Dozens of glow-in-the-dark yoyos (or parts thereof) litter the side of the road on the way into town. Branded as Lockheed Martin. What's up with that?

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uh... May already?

Not keeping up well with the blogging these days.

But it is May. NMSU classes ended Friday, Quincy will take AP exams this week and next, and Jake arrives home in about 10 days. Stu is done teaching for the semester and has a busy summer planned.

This dealing with adult children thing is harder than it looks. Quincy asserts her independence, we push for standards. The car, after all, should not attract more flies than the dump in July. Jacob loves college, but still calls when he needs a sounding board for a paper, statistical methods, or politics. Perhaps our value is in our consistency of availability, values, opinions. But there is a fluctuating and faint line between too much and too little, and by the time we get it figured out, the landscape has shifted again.

This spring has seen a number of health challenges to friends, family, and colleagues. I don't think the season has been any worse than usual; rather, our community ties get tighter every year as we discover that people we know are family to others we know. Las Cruces is not a small town, but it seems that way often.

Spring has come to the Mesilla Valley: highs are in the 90s next week and the spring winds have been not too bad this year. Typically I have about a 20 mph tailwind pushing me up the big hill at the end of the day. I am now at 10 months of biking to work daily, and the hill gets easier in infinitessmially smaller increments.

April already?

Jake is back in Willamette but planning for a summer in Las Cruces. Quincy has already traveled on the band trip, so I guess it must be near the end of the school year. Wow.

What I've missed: Stu, Jake, and I marched in the Bataan Memorial March again this year and recovered relatively quickly. Might even do the Organ hike this weekend.

Quincy turned 17. I completed another Ursus issue. Work has been crazy busy for us all.

The sharp-shinned hawk brunched on the white-winged dove yesterday morning outside the north end of the house, as sparrows danced around. Were they confident that they were too small to be on interest, or that the hawk was not interested in a lagniappe?

Jake home for Spring Break

Most excellent to have Jacob home for a week!

He had a late night flight Friday and will be here until after the Bataan Death March next Sunday. Concert today, Spring Break at NMSU next week, and I plan some annual leave to compensate for no vacation.

Lots to do around the house!

A springtime Midsummer

LCHS finished its production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last night to a standing ovation from an audience of about 250. Quincy played Starvling (she is pretty skinny) and looked like a very comely boy. I also saw the production on opening night, and the cast really grew in comfort with every production. Stu and Quin also helped with the set.

I ordered mass quantities of red chile for when Jake comes home for spring break. Will spend a day making mole, a favorite of Jacob's.

Jake says he is learning a lot at Willamette. For example, after the swim season finished, his swim team formed an intermural basketball team, and Jake says he has learned just how well swimmers play basketball. (Especially him: not so well!) Classes are going well for him this semester and he will come home on March 20 for a week. Quin and NMSU have Spring Break at the same time, and I hope to also take time off.

Stu, Jake, and I are also all getting ready for the Bataan Memorial March on March 29. This will be our second year. We will have our greatest success when we persuade the Q to do it with us.

Walking by dung heaps on a snowy morning

Dung heaps, about a mile from my parent's home in Delaware. Steam is coming off this one from the exothermic decomposition process.

I am visiting again, which means more snow in Delaware. I now really want to visit in June to see if I really can make it snow every time I visit. Cool!

The night and day after I took this, it snowed about 10 inches more. I would have enjoyed it more if I was not trying to make a plane out that day to come home. Didn't make the plane, or home, but got to spend the night in the luxurious Sleep Inn accommodations at the Dallas airport. Beat the hell out of airport chairs...

Mom has much more energy that she did during my December visit and seems to be improving. She will start radiation therapy the week of March 17, which will, we hope, eliminate an annoying and persistent spot she on her lung that was found in September.

Dad and Kent are both well.



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Getting ready for solo and ensemble.

I was instructed: No pictures!

Quincy was in Solo and Ensemble at LCHS today. She played a brief (intentionally) solo unaccompanied (unintentionally; her accompanist could not make it at the last minute). She has not checked her score and, I suspect, will not do so. The young man in the striped shirt is Chris, a friend of Quincy's.

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Hiking the Boyd

Gorgeous morning for a hike. We started out a little after 9 and were at the saddle just south of the Boyd about 10:30. Then the weather started to change -- temperature dropped, wind started kicking up, and we watched the weather roll in from the west. Hike home was much easier and we made it before the rain passed us over. (it is raining not as I write this)

Hikers were Miley, Phillip, Annie (black spot Phillip has his hand on), Stu, Belle, and Rosie off to the right. This is a Bataan prep hike -- Only about 6 weeks from Bataan! Must get registered soon and see if we will hike with 2 or 3 this year.

Other news: Jake has started his semester well, Q is working hard here. Stu will travel to see Jake swim next week in Seattle for conference swim -- he has been instructed to bring back crab. I am heading to Delaware at the end of the month to visit the parents. Will bring back crab? Not exactly the same thing.

I am 7.5 months into my year cycling challenge. The ride home feels easier all the time, and I am learning to avoid the places where tire-shredding glass lives. I made it through the worst of the cold and the shortest days, but the windy times lie ahead!

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2008 in Review

2008: we hiked our first marathon, climbed mountains, built things, tore others down, found more ways to eat local, learned new technology, made new friends.
Greetings to all, near and far.

2008 was an eventful year in the neighborhood, what with two visits from the local SWAT team, one massive conflagration, and a house-leveling explosion. Family news happily cannot match that, but we had our share of milestones.

Quincy continued her involvement with theatre onstage in Talk Radio (she and Stu also constructed the set) and as a techie in Beauty and the Beast (no photos were allowed...). She was also in the LCHS Showcase Marching Band, which had a very long season since the football team won the state championship! Other Quincy highlights are here, and include a month-long trip to Germany to visit her GAPP partner (her blog about that travel is here). We sadly come to the end of our era of exchange students: the ones we hosted were great kids.

Jacob continued swimming last winter, spring, and summer and filled the spring with academics and preparing for college. He graduated from Las Cruces High School in May and celebrated with two weeks in Thailand. In August, Jacob started college at Willamette University: he enjoyed his first semester and learned, importantly, that kids from small-town New Mexico can hold their own with kids from top high schools from around the country. He really liked his courses, and next semester he will be a teaching assistant for the biology course he just completed. He is also on the Willamette swim team.

Because of Quincy and Jacob's travel plans, this was the first year in many that we had no family summer travel. But Stu and Mel did get away to Cozumel, Mexico, to celebrate 25 years of marriage. Of course, while we were away, a wildfire came within a mile of the house and kept Jacob awake and on watch. Our December travel to Florida (picture, above, in the Everglades) was excellent -- warm and relaxed, with excellent food and beautiful scenery.

As for Stu and Mel? We are still both at NMSU and active in the community. Stu continues his research and service but is best known on campus as the Beer Guy. He is a local soccer ref, the go-to guy for stage and marching band set pieces, and the brewmaster for the Erasmus B. Dragon hiking club (no hiking club should be without one). Melody has colleagues who are experts in the uses of social media and keep trying to drag her into millennial forms of technology (see most amusing example here). In July, she started commuting to work on her reliable Fuji (older than some of her colleagues) and has enjoyed getting to know the local cycling landscape. If the ride home is an uphill grind, the ride in is a downhill thing of joy!

We have lots of room and invite anybody wanting an escape from the cold to come visit. Or gain foreign relations experience: You can see Mexico from our front yard!

Best wishes to all for a great 2009.