2011

                                                                                                       December 10, 2011

Dear Family & Friends,

The Suzanne Retirement Project – Year 2

Suzanne has defied expectations and actually remained retired. She still stays up late, but now instead of driving to work in the morning, she settles down in what used to be my office and reads the same newspaper I read three hours earlier. Out loud. The pets seem to enjoy it.

Our alma mater, The University of Rochester, asked her to join the Midwest Advisory Council, which got us an invitation to a big planning meeting on Kiawah Island in March. My job as spouse was to run up and down the sandy beaches while Suzanne planned stuff.

In the fall we attended Meliora Weekend. I’m happy to report that the DEKE house was in the same condition as when I last saw it in 1973. Suzanne’s cheerleader friends were in better condition.

< me                                        cheerleaders >

In October Suzanne took a cruise to Nova Scotia with her Aunt Mary who is 92 and has been organizing cruise outings for the last thirty years. While she was gone I moved the file boxes she had brought home from work last year (see 2010 letter). They’d been inconveniently stored in the garage so I moved them to the attic where they will now provide an extra layer of insulation against the fierce Chicago winter. 


Facebook


Social media should be an ideal tool for scattered families to keep up-to-date. The problem with that concept is that Stephen is the only one of our kids to friend us. Profile pictures are interesting in what they reveal about a person. Guess which family member is the lawyer.

 Where are they now?

Stephen lives in Queens with his girlfriend, Anne Clark. Anne works as a policy analyst for the Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness and Stephen is a research scientist at NYU working on his PhD in Chemistry. Through the miracle of Google, I learned he has contributed to a paper that reveals that the Bcl-2 family inhibitor BH3I-1 potently inhibits p53/hDM2.


I was afraid to google the daughters. They are both pursuing artistic careers. Christie is studying jewelry-making at Central St. Martins in London and Nicole owns and operates NicoJoyMillinery.

NicoJoy straw hat modeled by Christie

Nicole

Christie Necklace modeled by Edward

                                                                      

Me

I continue to work on my novel, “American Jukebox.” Two of the chapters have been published as short stories. Links to most of my published stories can be found here at my blog: Do Not Go Gentle....

In August I competed in the USAT National Championship in Vermont. I aspired to finish in the top ten of my age group, but the 30 men who finished ahead of me aspired harder. Next year I hope to compete in an Ironman at C’oeur d’Alene, Idaho.

We hope you all have a great holiday season.

Len & Suzanne