Lascatx -- I play French horn. I was a long-time member of a quintet back in B'ham and was fortunate to arrive in Santa Fe just as a quintet here was losing its horn player. We're comprised of an attorney, a HS band director, a retired forest service biologist, a wetlands conservation/restoration consultant, and a technical type who works at Los Alamos labs and can't really tell us what she does for a living (!). I know your son will enjoy his quintet -- any small ensemble, really. I found that my playing really improved when I joined a quintet some 18 years ago. Having to carry your own part with no section mates to lean on is good experience.

This year I gave my sister Mark Vieira's book, Into the Dark (Turner Classic Movies): The Hidden World of Film Noir, 1941-1950, and for Mark's birthday, I gave him aKierkegaard anthology, edited by Robert Bretall, which contains the best translations. I had Mark over for brunch week-end before last to give him his late birthday present because I wanted to read part of Either/Or to him to help explain why I was giving him this book, and he wrote me a nice thank you note afterwards. My sister really liked getting Mark's book, partly because I introduced her to him at his studio in Hollywood when she came to visit me one year. Right now I am reading the autobiography of Brenda Lee. I only recently discovered her very early (pre-teen) recordings when I saw her on MeTV on the Danny Thomas Show, during which show Danny Thomas advised her to put off her music career. Anyway, she sang Dynamite on that show, which I had not heard before and had to have. She recorded that song, along with Rock the Bop when she was 12, and they are my two favorite songs of hers - I'm not really a fan of country music, but I do like Rockabilly, which is what she recorded in the beginning. Her autobiography is really interesting and makes me like her even more. She got to meet Elvis when she was 12 and also tried to help the Beatles get a record contract in the '50's but was unsuccessful in that attempt. I seldom read novels any more - most of what I read is non-fiction, but I do read some science-fiction. I have a collection of "UFO, CONTACT from..." books (from Wendelle C. Stevens) that I bought at UFO conventions that I used to go to, and I consider those to be some of the best science-fiction books. I used to go to the UFO conventions with my friend Jimmy to listen to the outrageous (and often funny) stories that people would tell there, but they stopped having the conventions here after the year 2000, when their predictions did not come true.

This is a January deal, but I got a great deal on a new chandelier. This will go in my eclectic den/sitting room/game table room I’ve shown here before. It’s meant to be a formal dining room, but we don’t need one. Anyway, after putting together some gifts cards, it cost me $25:

What great memories, love the photos. My mother and an aunt always swapped hosting Christmas Eve. Both sides of my grandparents came when it was my parents' turn. We always went to my maternal grandparents' house on Christmas Day since Thanksgiving was at my paternal grandparents. As far as snooping, I still do not like surprises. I looked for and found our presents around 13yo. Mom hid them in a closet in my dad's study/office. I found the skeleton key in her night table. I only recall opening one wrapped present - very carefully lifted the tape and opened. It was a ring and I remember being disappointed when I saw it. I never snooped again. One Christmas a local bank had tin cans of various sizes, and you could bring whatever you wanted to go in the can and they would seal it so that a can opener was required to open. My sister and I received some cash and a necklace in our cans. Mom received a diamond ring and a legal document saying the mortgage had been paid in full. Some of my favorite gifts when I was little were clothes my maternal grandmother had desigend and made for my Barbie dolls. She had designed and made all of my mother's gowns for dances, some party dresses and coats. Also a bike, roller skates and a skateboard given in various years.