7 Harbor Road Morganville, NJ 07751 3 January 2007 2006 Seasons Greetings from Suzanne and Rod: The year 2006 saw the Peases on the road again, this time together (mostly). With Suzanne officially off the NAWBO board of directors for the whole year, trips were no longer exclusively oriented around the schedule for that organization. Rod was even included on both of the major trips, but she did find time for one unchauffeured visit to Chicago in April in support of the local Chamber of Commerce's ATHENA program. In late spring we did a month on the road to San Francisco (NAWBO Annual Convention) and back, taking lots of time to go slow and see some of the sights along the way, as well as relatives in Louisiana. We even camped a couple of nights in Big Bend National Park, getting to hike through some desert country that we had not seen before. We even got to see one of the rare desert thunderstorms, watching while it blew down the tent, and then enjoying the show from the inside of a Honda Civic for the remainder of the night. Not quite as scary as being kept awake by bears in Sequoia, but equally restful. Beading is now an integral part of our life, both at home and on the road. The term "escalation" is applicable. Having started with tiny, inexpensive beads used to make a strand which would hold a single focal stone, Suzanne has moved to large pieces of semi-portable art involving multiple cabochons in a beaded matrix, requiring a back-brace and orthopedic footwear. The polished stone cabs used are not available in bulk (at any reasonable price), so every excursion from the house must be routed by a source of these stones. Its not so hard when the destination is San Francisco (Arizona is a good source), but getting milk from the corner store has become rather difficult. Beading was even an excuse for one of Rod's infrequent trips into New York City. Suzanne wanted to try to get her jewelry into Henri Bendel, requiring that she line up in early November in the wee hours of the morning for an opportunity to be rejected by their buyer. Rod figured seeing NYC by night, carrying a bag of jewelry, was an experience not to be missed, so went along. You can't really understand the meaning of optimism until you talk with someone who will line up a 4 am to try to sell stuff to this place. Late November saw us on our way to see New Zealand, one of our lifetime goals. Details (and photos) are on Rod's web site, but the short version is that we loved NZ. By crossing the equator it was spring down there, so we went from freezing NJ to lovely weather. Since we didn't pay any attention to the US while we were gone, we didn't realize until we got back that NJ had the most temperate Nov-Dec for a century while we were gone. Even that couldn't spoil the glow from 3 weeks of hiking and sightseeing all over the south island. Digging out from under 4 weeks of mail and sorting through thousands of digital photos is part of the explanation for why the 2006 letter is dated in 2007. We wish you a happy and prosperous 2007. Suzanne and Rod web pages: Rods home page at http://home.att.net/~rod.pease/ Suzanne's business home page at www.ampersandgraphics.com Kevin's business home page at www.cerulean.st email: Rods email: rod.pease@att.net Suzanne's email: spease@ampersandgraphics.com Kevin's email: kwpease@comcast.net