Hi there,

It's been a year of drama, turmoil and adventure, starting with the acceptance of Ken's novel The Do-Re-Mi by Poisoned Pen Press, followed by his disappearance from The San Diego Reader where he had been writing a highbrow column about people and their cars.

The next several months, Ken devoted to writing a Self Evaluation Report for the Distance Education and Training Council, in an effort to achieve accreditation for Perelandra College, which Ken and Pam created a few years ago.

Then Pam took a job in Yuma, Arizona, teaching English at Arizona Western College. She began to stock up on suntan lotion and prepare for the trauma of a full (and then some) time job, after a year of writing books, on her own schedule. She co-authored a primer on the Dead Sea Scrolls with Dr. David Noel Freedman, which they sold to Eerdmans, revised her PhD thesis on time in the 24 hour novel, and ghost wrote a stirring life story for a pastor friend.

Meantime, Zoë was growing even bigger, prettier, smarter and more talkative. Ken suspects that in her 4.5 years she has uttered more words than he has in 61 years.

And Cody (Ken's firstborn son) remained the world's only Phi Beta Kappa ultimate fighter, while he worked on finishing a teaching credential and moved from his apartment near the beach to a house inland, closer to the school where he teaches.

In Tucson, Darcy (Ken's firstborn) started a Master in Education Leadership program through Northern Arizona University, while almost single-handedly (according to her dad) leading her school (Sycamore Elementary in Vail, Arizona) to be rated as one of the highest performing on those tests our president thinks are the key to world intellectual domination. And her devoted husband Darren has passed up offers of prestigious and lucrative jobs to remain the bartender at El Parador so that his father-in-law has an excuse to stop by and knock back a bit of Scotch when he's in Tucson.

Baby Nick (Darcy and Darren's firstborn) had his 2nd birthday in May, a few days after Pam's 29th (she claims). Nick is a happy, alert little fellow who calls grandpa Papa and has a throwing arm that gives Papa hope he may see fulfilled his desire of watching one of his offspring pitch in the World Series.

Karen (Pam's mom), retired from Fuji Film, and devotes abundant time to making Zoë feel ultra-loved and collaborating with her on all kinds of crafts.

And Tim (Pam's brother) proved his courage and endurance by surviving an entire summer in Phoenix without a car air conditioner. Apparently his brain didn't melt, as he finished his internship and became a CPA.

Then in late November, after a bunch of great reviews for The Do-Re-Mi left Ken feeling invulnerable, a team of accreditators came to visit Perelandra College and kicked him back to earth by putting more red marks on the report he wrote for them than any junior high school English teacher ever put on the world's worst essay. Which indicates Ken's a better novelist than bureaucrat.

So it goes.

Your weary correspondent, KK