2002 Christmas Letter

Hi all _

Each year seems to get busier and busier and 2002 was no exception. Both of us had a challenging year at our jobs including a lot of travel. In addition to numerous domestic trips, Jon made three work-related trips to Asia this year including his first visit to Seoul, Korea. Care traveled to Montreal for Discreet so often this year that she finally had to obtain a Canadian work permit. Together Care and Jon visited Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tahoe (ski weekend), Big Sur, Santa Barbara, North Carolina, Ithaca, and Kauai (Hawaii). As always, we chronicle the events and our travels on our web site at http://www.rizbee.com/2002/2002.htm.

We are both healthy and happy. Jon's parents and grandmother are doing well as are his three sisters and their immediate families. His oldest sister, Jane, was diagnosed with breast cancer this year and we are glad to say that she successfully completed treatment last month.

We celebrated our 16^th wedding anniversary quietly at home over Thanksgiving weekend. Our Siberian huskies Asia (2), Trout (16), and Rizbee (15) are all doing well. Despite their advanced ages (90-100 in dog years), Trout and Rizbee manage to get to the food dish twice daily. Asia more than compensates for their infirmities. When she is not tormenting Trout, she keeps us busy with hiking and frequent trips to the San Rafael and Novato dog parks.

We had two major vacations this year. The first was to Hong Kong over the 4^th of July. In late June, Jon had to speak at an Autodesk major accounts summit in Shanghai. Care accompanied him and from there we flew to Hong Kong for five days. Our original visit to Hong Kong had been on our sabbatical in 2000 which had proven to be too short for us to really see the city and surrounding area. This trip we explored Hong Kong including the Victoria Peak, Aberdeen, Stanley, Kowloon, and Macau. At the end of September we took our second week of vacation and spent it relaxing (hiking, snorkeling, biking) in Hawaii on the island of Kauai one of our favorite places.

During the year we also made several shorter weekend trips, one of which was a Santa Barbara flight (piloted by Jon and his instructor) to attend a Wavefront alumni picnic. Following our trip to China, we attended the wedding of one of Jon's co-workers in Ithaca. It was Care's first visit to Ithaca and she finally got to see Jon's old college haunts.

Both of us volunteered this year as Marin Open Space Trail Guides. We enjoy hiking, particularly Mt. Burdell, and it made our trips more purposeful. We continued our practice during the spring and fall of participating in our favorite wineries' food and tasting events including the Dry Creek Valley Passport weekend and the Russian River Harvest festival.

Jon continues with his flight training - once or twice a week. He earned his instrument rating in September and is now working on his commercial rating. In mid-September, after an arduous process, he purchased a 1979 Cessna 182, nicely outfitted for instrument flying. Immediately after closing on the plane, he flew it solo to southern California for a 4-day emergency training course where he learned to recover from stalls, spins, spirals, rolls, and control failures -- not a course for the faint of heart.

Autodesk went through some rough times this year and Care recently lost her job due to restructuring in the Discreet division. She has taken time off and honed her photography and tennis game but is now looking for work. Jon is very busy as Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for Autodesk's Building Industry Division. He was intimately involved with the acquisition of a new company this year that has dramatically reshaped his role and division.

Our home renovations, began over the holidays last year, are now complete. We lived with dust, plywood, and strangers in our house for 4 months, but the results were worth it. We have new carpeting, freshly painted interior, tiled floors in our kitchen, baths, and family rooms and a number of other enhancements.

As with most years, we are looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home. We are taking two weeks off this year to relax prior to a busy 2003. We hope you are all happy and healthy. We look forward to hearing from you or seeing you in the Bay area.

Home: www.rizbee.com

Jon@rizbee.com

Care@rizbee.com

Work: Jon@autodesk.com

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for 2003.

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