The A2K Annual Brag Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy holidays and greetings from the Atookaiians during this very busy holiday season.

squinney is 14 1/2 and a freshman at A2K High School. She continues to play trombone in a freshman band. She is a Cadette Girl Scout and is an honor student.

kickycan is becoming quite the young man. At 8 1/2 and now in third grade, I think he's had as many girlfriends as squinney has had boyfriends. He remains active with karate and is looking forward to spring baseball.

...

Are you telling me that I'm actually supposed to read those things before I throw them away?

You could a done it for us. We don't get those kinda letters here in Europe.
Ahhhh, except from my b-i-l who lives in Atlanta!
Now where is that letter?

heh heh good one, jes - I just got one in the mail today



It is with great delight that we report Gus's marriage to CalamityJane which was held in Banff, Alberta in the middle of the Rockies overlooking the Hoodoos.

Both Bella Dea and Wilso are excitingly experiencing the challenges and rewards of parenthood.

May I add that gustav has been shaving and bathing every day
since we got married. In turn, I accepted his 4 deligthful children
like they are my own.

Little Walter, the youngest, is 4 2/3 now, and he's published his first
children book already. "Swamp Annie" has become a huge hit in preschools across America.

dlowan, we also call "bunny" is the second youngest with 6 and 2 month . She jumped into 3rd grade already, and it looks like she'll graduate high school before she's got her braces.

Roberta, the oldest girl, is already 16 and quite the beauty. Pageant after pageant is won by her. In a few years she'll take Hollywood by storm.

And there is the oldest, Edgar, almost 18 years old and such an accomplished businessman. You all probably have read about him in
Time magazine and I wouldnt be surprised if he makes man of the year
soon.

Now look where the time has gone. I sit here and humbly write to you all while I should do the laundry. Off to the river I go with my basket!

Cheers my friends.

Sheesus!
People write like that for real?

I don't know bigdice, but one of my colleagues told me yesterday,
that her pediatrician said that her baby boy (1 year old) is the most
beautiful baby he's ever seen.

Now the boy is cute, but not THAT cute!

Intrepid is fine but has been spending too much time at work. His Dodge Dart recently had to be replaced and he is now driving a brand new Pacer!

Ticomaya and I still bowl on Friday nights.

Georgeob1 still attempts to balance retirement with meditation and arbitration. The sailboat patiently waits bobbing up and down in its downtown berth and the airplane, while being flown a few times a month, rests a lot in its hangar.


CI and I took the little green Jaguar convertible top down, right through to Winnipeg and back.

(these are real and from the same letter)

i'm MAD i don't have a brag letter!!!!!!!

I used to get letters like this. None lately. Gotta go. I'm having a fitting for my tiara. (Thanks, Jane)

Bi-Polar Bear has been busy with his college applications with a focus on the Northeast. He had a great second semester while a junior and was the starting goalie for the varsity lacrosse team. He was inducted into the national art honors society and national science honors society.

Noddy maintained her straight A and A+ average through the rest of 7th grade and is doing the same in 8th grade. She was and is active in her school's drama club and plays clarinet for her school's band.

Montana is applying for a job at Sea World in San Antonio to swim with the dolphins and whales in the Viva show this summer -- what an experience that would be!

C.I.'s grandchildren already had their Christmas. They spent 11 days in China with their grandparents over the Thanksgiving holiday. They had a great time!

Roberta will fly to Texas to be home for Christmas. She is very busy in the National Hampshire Sheep office in Milo, Iowa, as Managing Editor of the Hampshire Heartbeat publication.

Farmerman planned to encircle his garden with a rock wall about 3 feet high. The wall is just a concrete block wall with no rock at the moment. He ordered the rock early last June and it was finally delivered at the end of October. Guess it takes awhile to grow rocks or something, and this is pseudo rock made from concrete. In the meantime, he's got 11 pallets of fake rock sitting out front all winter making the front of his house look like a German stalag prison. Maybe he should just put some barbed wire on top of the wall...give the neighbors something to ponder over.

Kickycan and the boer goats remain quite successful in the show ring. The goat breeding program is rather involved and sophisticated here. It starts with study of pedigrees, syncronizes does, flush, embryo transfers, and then wait for "kids" -- the next are due in February.

Gus celebrated his 100 year birthday in September, so it was a big occasion for us! Even though he is almost blind and very hard of hearing, his mind is good and for the most part, so is his health. He is in a wheelchair most of the time for fear of falling again, but is very social and known by all at the Pine Grove Nursing Home as well as most of the families, friends, and all other visitors to the home.

mushypancakes is still a Girl Scout and with her troop ran a summer camp for children at the library. She is on her school's yearbook committee and has fun with all the planning and also takes clarinet and voice lessons.

Chai now has a sewing machine and likes to sew when she isn't reading or on the computer.

After envying my Subaru's bad weather driving abilities, Slappy bought a Subaru Forester this summer; then, true to form, hit a deer with it in September (I think this brings his total deer strikes to 5!!). A little restorative body work and it's as good as new (The same, I'm afraid, can't be said of the deer ...).

This will be my first ever - ROFL!

dys's mom left in July for a year in Scotland, and we hope to visit her there next summer.

ossobuco adopted an abandoned bunny from work this spring, and she's become the delight and terror of the household, chasing the much-bigger cats around and finding all kinds of inappropriate things on which to chew.

Rockhead finished his spring semester and made dean's list! He came home for the summer and was able to join us in June for our annual trip to Albaturkey.

Region worked on his paper route after school distributing the Patriot Patoot to his neighbors even in springtime, in rain or shine. This next year, he has been promoted to Patriot scout, and will go to the games and report back, once he learns to type.

roger returned to A2K University for his junior year in the fall, driving an old Ford Probe. He moved off campus with friends and discovered cooking. He turned 20 in October (Can you believe it?). He is now treasurer of the student art club.

Dagmaraka made the switch from trumpet to French horn, and played in the pit band for a student production of "Gus and the Seven Ewes" in March. She now has a pet rat named Marshmallow.

Shewolf started her new company, Awk Cat House, and looks forward to a vigorous business in the new year, combining kitty photos and kitty sports, 10 to 3, Monday thru Friday, most weeks.