Well, so it was supposed to be a decennial letter. Yeah, well…

Seems like it’s been a busy year for Betty and I. ‘Course, it seems like most of them have been busy, so I really shouldn’t be surprised. In reverse chronological order-

Betty and I are now living in the same house again (cue the sighs of relief from various family members and friends). She moved back in over Thanksgiving vacation, and it’s really been kinda nice. After almost three years of talking about our relationship and developing skills, we’ve both found that living with the other again is almost easy. Having the house to myself for a couple years was great, but, been there, done that…

As part of her move, I remodeled one of our bedrooms into a walk-in closet for her- had a 7’x7’ mirror installed on one wall, did some custom shelving, and added a skylight. Found out that household projects get way more intense when you start cutting holes in your roof. Big holes, at that.

Two weeks before Betty moved in, I went from Claris Corporation, where I’d been working for the previous seven years, to a company called Frame Technology in downtown San Jose. (Frame’s big product is called FrameMaker- a high-end publishing product used by places like Boeing to publish all their manuals.) Claris was really my first big job out of college, so it’s been an adjustment for me. I’m now the Manager of International Engineering, responsible for the translation of Frame software into other languages (mostly European, Japanese later).

As part of both my former and current jobs, I’ve spent four weeks in Europe since August. Betty was able to join me for two weeks- one in Dublin, Ireland, where she got a chance to sightsee while I was working, then a week in London where we did the ‘castles, churches, and beheadings’ tour. (Wherever we went, there was always some mention of how many people lost their head on a particular spot. Condemned royalty tended to practice before the event- one didn’t want to look awkward while being done away with.)

Betty, still at Tandem, had her six-week sabbatical during that same period. (Draft newsletter ends here – I don’t think I ever finished or published it.)