Hello. Here is our annual Christmas newsletter. We’ve been doing our newsletter on the web since 2002. Unfortunately, the 2002 web site is gone. But we still have Christmas Past going back to 2003, with links on the right side of the screen. (Links to 2002 and before are reconstructions.) So this edition is the 10th, a milestone.
We still live in a century-old house in uptown New Orleans on Magazine Street, a block and a half from Audubon Park. The house itself is solidly built and will likely last another 100 years. We could live here without our cars; everything we need is either within walking distance or a bus-ride away (the Magazine bus stops a half-block from our front door). We share the house with four cats: Rocky (in the photo above, our geriatric Persian), Jelly Roll (our tubby tabby), Wednesday (black and bad), and Petunia (f.k.a. Alexis, inherited from Ray’s mom in 2005).
We’re both active in Holy Name of Jesus parish. We’re members of the RCIA team, and we’re fixtures at the Sunday 6 PM mass. Both of us serve as lectors. Suzanne also serves as a eucharistic minister and a hospitality minister (what used to be called “ushering”). Ray is part of the 6 PM mass ensemble, attempting to provide guitar accompaniment to some excellent musicians.
Suzanne has been busy in retirement, building a yoga practice and competing in several half-marathons and other races. She teaches yoga classes at Life Yoga & Boutique, Touro Infirmary, West Jefferson Fitness Center, and Kona Fitness Center. She also finished several half-marathons as a race-walker, including the Rock ’n’ Roll in New Orleans, the Shamrock in Virginia Beach, VA (where she also did an 8-kilometer race the day before), the Jazz Half-Marathon, and the Stennis Half-Marathon at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where she was the second overall race-walker. She also did a series of Q50 races: 10 miles, half-marathon, and a 25-kilometer trail race. She has a blog about her race-walking exploits, which you can visit by clicking here.
Ray is stil practicing law at Adams and Reese LLP, focusing on appellate advocacy. He gave up one of his blogs (Minor Wisdom) but still keeps up his legal-writing blog, The (New) Legal Writer, which is popular among folks who like the topic. He’s still running a few times a week. He’s not much for racing anymore, but he did finish yet another Tchoupitoulas Barathon (6 miles, 6 bars, 6 beers—not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach). He takes guitar lessons from Vincent Marini (whose web page you much check out).
If we haven’t heard from you in a while, drop us a line. There’s an e-mail link on the right. Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a peaceful 2012.