We are living in Fayetteville, but, as we still do some consulting overseas, we have not totally retired.  In 2008 Ellis taught for The College of New Jersey for the 9th time in July, this time in Bangkok, and we made a consulting trip to Cambodia and Indonesia in February.  Ellis went to Mali, West Africa this month.  Although the 18 months in Vienna was wonderful in 2004-2006, we don't plan to live overseas again.  

In 2006 we purchased a small Winneabago View RV, and have taken two big trips (4 weeks to the west coast, and 4 weeks to New England) so far, plus some smaller journeys around Arkansas, the Gulf Coast and Colorado.  The plan for the next few years is of one big trip and several small ones each year. 

Ellis' parents are 88 and 92 and continue to live independently in their home in North Little Rock.  We drive down (180 miles) to see them once or twice a month.

We both continue to enjoy life in a booming university town.   Several years ago we built a large garage with an upstairs hobby room (for the model trains, of course) and an exercise gym. Ellis works on the model railroad as often as he can...sometimes 3-4 hours a day, and sometimes not at all for a few weeks when other projects pop up.  Kay is in a book club and enjoys yoga classes several times a week.  Ellis likes to join friends for breakfast at nearby "down home" restaurants, and attending university baseball games is a springtime passion.

We are in generally good health, but Ellis has had a number of small issues in the past two years:  hernia repair surgery, shingles which resulted in the occasional  loss of one vocal chord, a prostate cancer scare (so far, so good), and a small melanoma (totally cut out, so not a problem).  However, we count our blessings and try not to look back.  Yeah for Medicare!  That's at least one payback for reaching 65.

Kay started taking piano lessons in 1953, and finally has the instrument she deserves!  We purchased a beautiful, totally rebuilt 1923 Steinway Grand Model M.  Our neighbor, Jura Margulis, is the Artist-In-Residence at the UofA and plays internationally often, but found time to baptize our piano with a concert for 40 of our friends in January, 2008.  It was a wonderful evening!

Andrew lives in Los Angeles where he received a graduate diploma in Film Scoring at USC in 2007.  His first degree was also in film scoring (Berklee College of Music in Boston) and he finished the music of a feature film with Sally Kellerman of MASH (the movie) fame. More about him on Andrew's web site.  He is Musical Director at Improv Olympics West, a comedy club in Hollywood where four evenings a week he is the pianist for improv comedy groups, and often works at Second City LA.  During the day he scores movie projects and writes music for concert band.  His first piece was published by Grand Mesa Music in Colorado.

We are thrilled that Andrew is able to join us for a Christmas trip most  years.  Recent trips have included Vienna and Venice (2004), Paris (2005), Thailand, Laos, and Viet Nam (2006), and Washington DC (2007).  Looks like it might be Argentina in 2008.

Below: countries we've visited. (make your own map)