We are all well; however, Trout and Rizbee, our Siberian Huskies, continue to slow down. They are now 13 and 12 respectively. Although Trout had to have a tumor removed this fall, she has bounced back quickly. They both still have good appetites, though!

Although we continue to work for Autodesk, we had less business travel this year and all of it was in North America. Mid-year Care changed the market group with whom she works to the Discreet division. Discreet is responsible for multimedia software – much like Wavefront – where we previously worked. Discreet is based in Montreal so she travels there every couple of months and no longer flies to New Hampshire. The Discreet group has lots of challenges – the work is similar but the people and market are different than the past three years.

Jon has also changed roles. In June, Autodesk reorganized and Jon became the chief of staff of a group called Autodesk Ventures – which was set up to incubate web businesses for Autodesk. In October, Autodesk Ventures spun out our first web company -- buzzsaw.com. When buzzsaw.com spun out, Carl Bass, who had been leading Autodesk Ventures, left to become buzzsaw.com’s CEO. Jon was promoted to Senior Director in charge of Autodesk Ventures. The upcoming year looks busy as Autodesk plans more internet initiatives and Autodesk Ventures begins investing in web companies. Jon continues to be responsible for the technological aspects of Autodesk mergers and acquisitions, but so far this year most of his travel has been to Silicon Valley – an easy drive from Marin County.

Care and Jon took a number of short trips this year including Mendocino in January with Nick and Cynthia Weingarten, Orange County in February to niece Megan’s Bat Mitzvah, Monterey and Carmel in February with Jon’s parents, Post Ranch and Palm Springs in April, a Buddhist monestery called Tassajara near Big Sur in August, and our annual weekend at Sea Ranch in October. Our big vacation this year was to the Swiss Alps. In September, we journeyed to Zurich and the Bernese Oberland area of Switzerland – near Interlaken. We spent 10 days hiking, reading, and enjoying fine food and wine. The views were really spectacular. Even though the trip was short, we did cover a lot of ground and had a very good time.

We also had several visitors this year – the Baabs in January, Jon’s parents in February, our niece Megan in March, and Jon’s classmate Wendy Fearing and her husband in July. We are going to Ohio right before Christmas for Jon’s annual family Christmas party and hope to see friends and SDRC colleagues there. Our friend Dave  visits right before Christmas. Autodesk is closed for the last two weeks of December and we are looking forward to having the time off. This spring, we are eligible for sabbatical and are planning an extended trip to Australia and China.