2011 Holiday Newsletter

Happy Holidays!

Well, we ended our last newsletter hoping that 2011 would be better than 2010, and in at least one way it was.  After living 20 years in our "starter home", 10 years of considering new homes and 5 years of earnest searching for a new home (with numerous different real estate agents as well as on our own), we finally bought our "dream home."  This is not news to many of you as we shared our long journey to home purchase over the years. The unobstructable view from the back of the house takes in Mission Bay and the ocean and this is really what sold us on the house.




Dee and her nephew, Matt, with Freddie - not noticing the spectacular view behind them.

  

We closed on our 26th wedding anniversary.




Toasting our anniversary on the patio of our new house at sunset.

 The house itself needs some work to be a little more dreamlike.  We bought it "as is." The "sunroom" needs work, the roof leaks (currently held at bay with tarps) and termites are going to town on it, the sink was leaking, the other plumbing not so great either, weird electrical connections everywhere - some lights we can't turn on, others we can't turn off.  The list goes on.

Other than that - we love our new house.  Any time we are overwhelmed about the the house itself, we just gaze out onto the bay and ocean.  During the summer, we also had nightly fireworks shows courtesy of Seaworld and are looking forward to more next summer. 
Because we have not yet decided on a remodel, we have not done anything with our other house.  We expect that we may have to move back into it if we significantly remodel the "new" one rather than suffer through months of no kitchen, no water, etc. and rather than renting another place.  Therefore, in the meantime, it is our very expensive storage unit.  We expect to either rent it out or sell it once we have decided whether we need it as a backup home.

Les is still at Foley.  Still performing patent procurement and counseling.  He even picked up a client through friends.  However, this has been a significantly down year and we do not expect 2012 to be all that much better.  It is a good thing we have been saving our pennies (well - except for buying a home...)

He is still brewing, judging, and, of course, drinking home brewed beer.

Dee's veterinary relief practice was significantly slow early in the year.  It picked up a little at the end of the summer, but she is still working at a modest pace.  She has plenty of time for jewelry making, but the jewelry sales are not happening.  Dee is also working occasionally at Weight Watchers as a receptionist, both to keep up her own program as well as to avail herself to all that is cutting-edge weight watcher technology (i.e. it is not for the salary!). 

Because of the home purchase, we have not had any big vacations, except that Dee was able to visit her sister Rita in Atlanta and really get to share soccer matches, the zoo, the botanical gardens and several homework sessions with her nieces, Elena and Alex.  She had a great time, especially getting ready for Halloween.



Dee with Rita and Jay at the botanical gardens

 


Alex and Elena hard at work on the gingerbread house

 
Dee's brother and sister-in-law, Larry and Mary, and Mom H. came for a visit just before we bought the house.  We enjoyed going to the zoo and a boat/bus tour of the SD Bay. Larry's favorite was having lunch at the famed Torrey Pines golf course. Dee had the opportunity to arrange a rendevouz for Mom with Dee's cousin Valerie at San Juan Capistrano.  It was a total surprise for Mom, including meeting Val's son, Tom, and the grandbaby!



Mom H. with  Valerie, Tom and Tom's mother-in-law, and the grandbaby



Our friend Barbara came for a visit from Three Rivers.  She even brought some eggs produced by her chickens.  Les' brother Bob has come for visits, including the 4th of July, where we and other friends had  spectacular views of the fireworks from Seaworld, Mission Bay, and La Jolla. We look forward to Bob being back for Christmas weekend.

We had a wonderful time having such visits and look forward to many more guests now that we have a house that can actually comfortably accomodate visitors.

After numerous reminders that we did not need 3 cars, Les finally broke down and sold the Honda.  Naturally, a few months later we are having fatal issues for the Infiniti.

Freddie Mac (FM), the dog, has proven to be no more trainable than in our first impression.  However, he has captured the heart of nearly every single friend we have.  He has spent numerous vacations in Poway at his pied-à-terre with our friends Ron and Judith. 


FM with Judith Roney on Halloween.  He really likes to wear costumes!

Melon, the cat, continues to hide from FM.  Unfortunately for her, Dee has figured out that she is allergic to Melon, which was causing Dee difficulty in sleeping, so Melon has been banished from the bedroom.

Harvey, the African Grey Parrot, is still the same. Still looks like he was in the tumble cycle of a dryer due to his feather-picking, but otherwise a happy camper.

We are happy that our families are all doing well and that we still get to see them from time to time.  We are grateful for the many blessings we have been given this year - both health and happiness.  We hope that you are well also and look forward to a better 2012.