Holiday Letter

Hi all –

Seasons greetings. We hope this has been a good year for you and your family and that the holiday season finds you happy and healthy. Early in December we are departing from our traditional holiday activities to travel on an extended seven week vacation. We are taking advantage of Jon’s second sabbatical which he becomes eligible for every four years of employment with Autodesk. It is amazing that he is celebrating his 8^th anniversary with the company. Our travels will include three new countries for us: Thailand, Vietnam and New Zealand. We are also going to explore western and southern Australia. Some of you may recall that four years ago we spent half of our last sabbatical getting to know the central and eastern part of Australia.

Late this summer, we lost Rizbee, one of our Siberian Huskies. She was 16 years old – quite elderly for a husky. She is survived by Trout , who is 17 and a year older than Rizbee, and Asia who is now 4. Trout is getting quite frail and has had a tough year. However Asia keeps her young in spirit such that Trout may surprise us by becoming a 20 year old (dog years, of course).

Our recreational travel this past year was geographically limited. We took a week long sea kayaking course with the National Outdoor Leadership School in Baja, Mexico in March. This was a NOLS alumni course which brought back memories of our trip to East Africa in 1998. We also flew our airplane down to Southern California to visit the Jon’s sister, Jane, and her family and our friends, Jim and Tisha and family, in Hemet. This year we hosted a number of visitors to the Bay Area. Boyd and Barb of St. Louis visited in June, while Jon’s sister Sara and her husband Rusty came out in July. In order to have three out of the four siblings together, Rusty and Jon flew his plane down to Southern California and brought his sister Jane up to join in the west coast reunion. Jim and Tisha came through in July and Jon’s parents were here in October. Jane also came up to see her parents and catch a plane ride with Jon and folks for an afternoon lunch in Mendocino.

Jon continues to enjoy flying. He logged 180 hours this year in his own plane and earned his commercial pilot’s certificate. He flew in a charity event for the Petaluma Airport called Penny-a-pound and completed a week-long course in mountain and canyon flying in Idaho. We are both going to an advanced mountain flying course in Idaho next July. Jon’s job in the Building Solutions Division of Autodesk kept him traveling quite a bit of the year. He is looking forward to less travel and perhaps a different focus upon his return from sabbatical.

Care worked last year but she did not get paid for all her activities. She honed her tennis skills on the court and management skills off the courts by co-captaining a women’s league. She trained to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children in Marin county, filed her first divorce case (pro bono) through the San Francisco Volunteer Legal Services Program and took training in some new areas of interest (insurance, mutual funds, corporate finance). In the fall, she was offered a position as a part-time attorney with the firm of Donahue Gallagher Woods. Although her tennis game is suffering, she enjoys being back at work and likes working in a law firm.

Jon’s family is doing well. All of the nieces and nephews are busy with their respective activities: sports, school, and friends. It is hard to believe that our oldest niece is starting to select colleges.

You can view our yearbook of activities for 2003 on our website at http://www.rizbee.com/2003/2003_highlights.htm. As usual, we will put a chronology of our sabbatical on the web when we return. In the meantime Care is learning to manage the art and mechanics of digital photography. Sometimes it sure seems easier with film. Watch for our site later this winter.

Best wishes for a happy new year.

- Jon, Care, Trout, and Asia