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We have been in Fayetteville for 2 ½ years now and continue to enjoy it and find new things here. We get out and about enough to appreciate the pace and lifestyle of a small city more and more. The only thing lacking is a major art museum and opera, and Alice Walton will be taking care of the former.

Ellen is now assistant library director at the Springdale Public Library and continues to enjoy working with a colorful and diverse staff and clientele. Springdale is growing as fast as the rest of the area, but is quite different from Fayetteville as the growth has been more sprawling and, because of the poultry industry, has involved a growing Hispanic population, now about 25% of the city. Ellen knits (this year it was socks) and has been weaving again, intending to use up that yarn we have been carting around since the yarn shop days in New Hampshire. Book II, our library kitten is now a cat, and is as fascinated with knitting and weaving as Ellen is, but Book’s contributions are less positive. Book's portraits are here.

Tom is in the creative writing program at San Francisco State working toward his MFA (?maybe next spring?) after getting an MA at the same institution. He hopes to eventually teach at the university level. In the meantime, he is accumulating rejection slips, but having served as an editor for the university literary magazine, he now understands how capricious the selection process can be. He recently had a short fiction piece published in the SFSU student magazine Transfer 92 which also won the Leo Litwik award. He is home for the Christmas holiday and hanging out at the local book store and adjacent coffee shop.

Rob completed his MFA as of December and is staying on in Fayetteville, at least for a while. He is staying in the house we bought on Cleburn Street, about 5 minutes from our house. He is painting and entering shows and selling a bit, so he is encouraged. His long term plan is also probably teaching at university level. In the meantime, he is slowly getting gallery representation and preparing for a show in July at the Art Center of the Ozarks. He and Golsa are busy painting and moving his studio. They both recently placed in a nice gallery in Little Rock. His recent and current work is on his web site at www.robandes.com

Rich is working as a broadcast engineer supporting local news at a Tulsa television station. As far as I understand it, this job involves spec-ing, designing, building, maintaining and repairing equipment used in the broadcasting. And explaining to blow-dried aspiring “Anchorman” why they can’t have it now and their way. Natalie is doing video production at another station in Tulsa. On a Thanksgiving visit, they announced wedding plans for April. Stay tuned; update at 11. His site is www.wylin.com

Gene is now back with Amgen, as of April, covering a territory that lets him live in Fayetteville. He fills time not traveling in the workshop reducing large pieces of wood to small ones. Which includes a little (very little) ship modeling. Most of the latter part og 2006 was devoted to making Christmas gifts - you can see them at his woodworking page.

We made a pilgrimage back to Pennsylvania for Ellen's mother's 99th birthday, and passed by Harrisburg to visit Gene's mom also. There are a few photos from the visit on a separate page. Click Here.