XMAS Letter 2012 with Rough Translation

Twenty dozen.  Richard drove halfway around the world without getting wet once.  If you check out Google maps, you’ll see what a feat that is.  He stopped just outside the nation’s capital but goes inside most days.  Halfway up the mountain was good enough for a first try, and the trees really are tall.  The roof is also a lot taller than it used to be, the lawn doesn’t need mowing, and the pool is shared with any number of his closest friends.  At least he doesn’t have to clean it or worry about a bear taking a swim with him, but there was the Binjabed Man.  He hasn’t exercised in about 203 years, but he keeps saying he will start again soon.  If you lose a ton on your house, you don’t have as much to lose elsewhere.  We’ll see if he dies first or becomes an expert.  When the kids are all gone, there isn’t as much to write about, but who advises him on his wardrobe? 

2012.  Richard took a new job at an economics consulting firm in Washington DC beginning the end of January and drove back to NJ most weekends until August when the house was finished and sold  (big loss) and Rochelle moved down to DC to join him.  They are living in a nice hi-rise apartment building for the time being just outside the District in Arlington, VA.  The commute on the Metro is wonderful and a nice shopping mall is just across the street so XMAS shopping is pretty easy.  He and Rochelle went to visit Arrin's in laws this summer and they took him biking halfway up Mount Diablo.  He didn't die, but will someday.   Harper and family enjoyed coming to the building to swim in the pool and otherwise enjoy the amenities while their house was under construction in advance of their sale - more below.  Driving on the weekends put him in a sedentary habit that he hasn't shaken yet.  The new job is good, but his first gig as a testifying expert ended with the client winning the case before he testified. Harper provided frequent insightful commentary on his clothing before moving away.  Once when I walked into her house wearing a new shirt, Harper (then about 2 1/2) looked up and said, "nice shirt Grandpa."  I was impressed.

Rochelle didn’t kill or do bodily harm to anyone but herself, but she was tempted.  At least we sold the house before Sandy came to visit.  She vows never to do that again.  Irene and previous visitors left enough of an impression.  The basement was cleaned out, the leftovers were sold on the webbernet, and it was full time grandma for a about a quarter until Hanna called and took them all away.  Does she want a house?  If so, where?  Does she want to sing or cook again?  She can barely resist the temptation to eat those greens before the go into the machine thing.  The party was the most fun she had all year, and then there was that guy without a head in the magazine that could also play the drums.  The pomp was sufficient for the circumstance, and there weren’t leftovers to take out in the snow.   

Rochelle spent much of the year overseeing yet another remodeling project with many frustrations with our builder and subcontractors.   A project that was supposed to start in July (2011) and end before Christmas, began in September (2011) and came to a merciful end in July (2012) just in time to put the house on the market.  At least we finished with the same contractor we started with - small consolation.  We will not undertake a major remodel again.  The hurricaines and other storms that came through during the year proficed interesing opportunities to serve others and to see the destructive power of nature.  She was glad we were gone before Sandy came along.  After spending most of her life downsizing - selling and giving away much of the stuff that fills a big house - selling the house in August and moving to the Arlingotn, VA to join Richard in a 2 BR apartment, she spent a lot of time being grandma to Rachel's kid(s).  Shortly after arriving in Arlington, however, she learned that Rachel and Shiloh were going to be moving to Montana.  She was sad that day.  Now she tries to decide whether to buy a house or stay in an apartment, whether to eat food or drink vegetable juice, whether to sing or dance like a psychotic.  Earlier in the year, in addition to doing the house, she did the wedding planner thing for Arrin and Marcus.  Multiple venues, but it was a lot of fun, and better planned (especially the weather) than Rachel's SLC reception so not so much food left over.

Rachel got a Ram Sam Sam now to go with the Binjabed Man.   Oh, Shiloh got a call from Hanna so away they ran from the grandparents.  Probably because they wouldn’t adopt the dog.  The Ram and Harp are pretty entertaining.  The Harp can’t get Rochelle to guess what, but she knows when her birthday is and last we heard, she wants to go home now.   The Ram eats and grows, is sparing with words, but does get that goolie goolie type look on his face from time to time.  Rapunzel and Eugene got some candy, but the hair was itchy.  

July 5 Rachel gave birth to Samuel Frederick Allen.  Sam and Harper (the Binjabed Man is Harper's version of Gingergread Man - long story).  Shortly after the grandparents relocated, Shiloh got an opportuinty to transfer to Montana, which he (and Rachel) obviously accepted.  Harper is learning to tell jokes, pretty funny.  She just turned 3.  Sam still looks kind of goofy, like most baby boys do, but in a charming way.  He's tall and eats much.  Wants to stand, but not yet.  Harper is in love with all things princess.  She has several, of which her favorite seems to be Rapunzel, whom she dressed up like for Halloween.  Euguene is a useful tag along.  The kids are very entertaining.  The parents are good too, but not nearly as interesting to talk about.  They live in Great Falls Montana; we don't.   

Chris spent the summer flying the alphabet.  The rest of the year, he did other stuff, like played with his dogs, typed on a computer, talked to people and ate bread.  Working on the railroad, working all day long, working, working, working, working, working, working, working!  Pancakes cooked in cabbage juice, those guys just think it’s swell, but if you ever eat the stuff, you’ll think you’ve gone to Toledo.  Which football team is really better, U or Y?  Does he know Tommy Smothers and e-commerce?  What’s the negotio?

Chris is now in the second year of his MBA at the U of Utah.  He had an interesting summer internship at a financial holding company.  He adopted a second dog, worked hard at school and at the internship and worked and worked more.  In addition to the official student duties, he worked on some volunteer things that have benefited the university and community, and he put together a football game between U of U and BYU MBAs.  If I recall, the red won, and there was typical pleasantness and good sportsmanship on all sides - did you ever see a church basketball game?  The first game ended (2011?); that was good.  The second (2012) was snowed out - at least until it could be rescheduled.  He has an intersting idea for starting a new business.  We're all excited to see his enthusiasm and anxious to see how it goes!!!

Arrin became a Barton, but not a Dumb one.  She crosses that bridge when she gets to it.  Riding to the top of the mountain in the rain, not the chocolate type.  Why doesn’t Marcus have a head in that picture?  Is that really her father’s daughter?  That’s what being an econ major will do for you.  How’s the sour dough out there?  Is there anytime to play in the sun after the work is done?  Seems not so much.  She always did want to go to Crete, but the rattlesnake wasn’t part of the plan.  She made the party lots of fun for all. 

March 23, Arrin married Marcus Barton and relocated with him to the Bay Area after graduation (she in Econ) from BYU in the spring.  She works in Palo Alto and he in San Jose or San Francisco depending on what is going on at the firm he works for.  She drives across various Bay Area bridges from time to time.  Do you know their names?  One of them is the Dumbarton Bridge.  She rode to the top of Mount Diablo in a driving rain storm, she was put on the cover of the BYU Bridal Guide - quite a nice glossy photo - greatly resembling her father : ), who thought she ought to be on the cover of the Econ Department Magazine too : ).  She works very hard and long hours.  Her parents wonder if they would be able to do it if they were her.  They had a nice honeymoon cruise and she was attacked by a baby rattlesnake outside the in-laws' house - thank goodness for thick jeans, which saved her from being bit.  And she made the wedding reception(s) a ton of fun for all.

Ben is in the burbs of Sin City.  He’s not oldest, and not youngest, so kind of like older the way the dragon was named.  He wears a tie, he carries books and doesn’t get paid.  Learning a lot and helping people is a great deal.  He appears to love what he’s doing, and so do we.  Snail mail occasionally, email most of the time.  Give us another year or so and a couple of phone calls.

Ben is serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) in the Nevada, Las Vegas mission.  We get weekly email updates and occasional letters.  He is having a wonderful experience.  We're all happy for that and look forward to talking to him on Christmas day. 

"Xmas" letter 2011 with translation

OK, OK, OK, so you didn’t get this letter in 2011. We understand the disappointment. Hopefully your misfortune wasn’t compounded by being in an earthquake, being flooded out, having your dog get stuck in a vat of glue or burning your toast in the morning. Who liked eleven anyway? Did we even go on vacation? On to 12 we go, and if you are lucky, you won’t be in a hurricane and you’ll receive another fine letter in December of this year. As always, Rochelle wants you to see the translation at: http://rrmanning.blogspot.com it should be there in a few days.

As they often do, things got crazy toward the end of the year, but this year crazier than ever before so we just didn't write a Christmas letter. We also didn't have a Christmas tree in our house, and Richard had to stop Rochelle from selling our artificial tree online. We didn't go on a vacation that anyone can remember, but we did spend a week at the beach in Delaware, and we drove the length of North Dakota, and we had lots of fun in various places, including home. We had lots of interesting weather events during the year, including a hurricane, major rain storms that flooded areas around us, but fortunately not us, an early heavy snow that dropped some limbs off trees, etc. We were able to join others in the Mormon Helping Hands effort to clean up after these events and found that interesting and enjoyable. Some of the homes we worked on had been in 10 feet of standing water for extended periods. Sheetrock and other building materials don't do well in such conditions. If you are reading this, you have already made Rochelle happy.

The walls creaked, the desk kind of wobbled and he got kind of dizzy. Later he heard the bells were ringing in DC.     The new C guy sent a video.   As a consequence, Richard joined the 9% in November and then got on the phone, the train and the airplane. Lots of meetings. Two people named Mike, but what happened to the other three?   Come February, will it be Idaho Avenue without a coat having fun until the sun comes up, or taking the risk of being buried yet again in white, this time following the Snow?  Let’s hope he likes it. In the process he got a close up look at the 99% and wondered what they wanted. Who needs a vacation when you can spray the guests in the back yard? Who needs to pay too much for a house when you can dump money into a renovation? Did the Archer shoot at you?

Richard felt the earthquake from his office at the major pharma company located in Whitehouse Station, NJ (he has learned that he shouldn't put company names in his blog so he doesn't). For as minor as the shaking was it was interesting that it made him queasy, almost nauseous. Earlier in the year, the company's new CEO announced a new round of cutbacks and corporate restructuring. Richard naively thought he would be safe, being the only one doing what he did, and having been recruited to the company just over a year before to do just what he was doing... WRONG. The day before Thanksgiving was his last at that company so he started calling people he knew, traveling a lot talking about new opportunities, etc. and landing some interesting offers. He also got a close up look at some of the "occupy" encampments. Interesting, to say the least. The most interesting jobs turned out to be in Santa Monica, CA and Washington, DC. He chose one in the latter - he'll be a partner in an economics consulting firm in DC. Let's hope we don't get stuck in the snow down there like we did this past year. We hope Rachel and Shiloh don't tire of us being too close. Moving there also reveres a long trend of a friend from grad school who formerly had followed Richard to three places of school/employment/residence. This friend (nameless out of respect for privacy) also works at the firm. Richard started writing the novel he has long thought he would write and learned that it is a lot harder to write fiction than he realized. He decided to just stick to nonsense - his standard genre.

Rochelle doesn’t remember the first half of the year because she was up before the sun, but not after June, for which she is grateful – even if the building didn’t start until September. She got to see the harp more often that way. She really must like dust and mud, and sheetrock soaked in water, and the sound of hammers. She is really not a hoarder; how much stuff can she sell? Sing a solo, do a dance for old folks – no problem. Make spaghetti? Well, that’s another matter. Decorate a Christmas tree? Forget about it. Let the trucks keep you up at night? No thanks. Some challenges are difficult, and the accompanying miracles small and large difficult to describe. Sometimes listening to your husband is actually a good idea. Let’s hope they are done before February ends.

Rochelle was freed from the responsibility of teaching early morning seminary (religious instruction for high school kids in our church) as of June. She has few memories outside that experience (which she says she enjoyed) due to sleep deprivation.   One reason she quit teaching is that we were supposed to start construction on a major renovation of the house in May or June to be completed in November or December. It actually didn't start until September and is still going on. We live in dust, we have no kitchen (hence no real cooking), no oven, no stove and only partial bathrooms (some with water-type facilities, others with lights, but none with both - until yesterday. Our family room is a construction zone and our living room is full of furniture from other rooms. No Xmas tree. Sounds kind of familiar.   Hopefully we're just a few weeks from the end of it all. Then do we sell the house? Maybe. What a drag.  She continued singing with a group of friends at retirement homes, this year featuring a solo performance that made some of the men in the audience swoon.  Arrin took a look at the basement and asked her mother if she was a hoarder so Rochelle started selling some stuff on various websites that exist for such purposes.  In the summer, Rochelle's father passed away after a difficult final few years. Richard convinced her to go spend some time in Pocatello with him and her mother when things were difficult and she was able to be there when he passed. She experienced some tender moments better left to her to discuss in person.

Rachel, Shiloh, Harper, Atti. The singing harp watches the show and dances and shops and loves noodles and manages the iPad. Now the dog is in the back yard, but the big gate thing is stuck in place, just like Harper sometimes. The jobs seem the same to an outsider, but then, we’ve never been to Manassas on the one hand. On the other hand, there is about half the pay but apparently more like ¾ of the work. Is that a good deal? Maybe if they give you some free spaghetti. Atti is still the dog – but it’s getting lonelier because grandpa is no longer the food wizard and grandma’s affections have gone elsewhere. The basement is becoming a zebra – slowly.

Rachel and family are frequently visited by the grandparents. Even more so toward the end of the year. Harper is hilarious, just like her grandfather. She turned 2 at Thanksgiving time. She sings and dances and says "outta here" with a wave of her hand when you are sitting where she wants to sit. She is a master of Apple technology, knowing how to operate an iPad and iPhone (at least the photos and video components) better than lots of adults. As for Rachel and Shiloh, they seem fine, but really we tend to ignore them anyway. They both work hard, Shiloh and friends/cousins built a nice fence so Attie can spend her days there. Poor Atti is largely ignored by the grandparents now that there is a small human to talk to. Rachel started painting the basement an interesting and attractive pattern, but progress has stalled in recent months.

Chris got into the red, fulfilling a long time dream of beating the blue on the gridiron. Did you see Groundhog Day - how long can you stay 21? Until about mid year, it turns out. In class to make the brain work – going well, and not folding shirts any more. The red car still chugs along – how much longer? Let’s hope there is a car payment on the other end. What is the summer like in NJ by the pool? Why does dad do those things? Chris was an Eagle, but his scout is a dog. It doesn’t look like a sheep. Has it been to Perth? How long can he live in a house? About three months. Then back to an apartment with a pretty good friend and a scout.

Christopher left his job in management at a clothing retailer whose name seems to suggest one can never get to age 22 (remember, no corporate names) and started the MBA program at the University of Utah (I guess it's OK to identify nonprofit organizations).  Still driving the red Passat.  Hoping to get a good summer internship and a good job on the other side of the program.  He has been very involved in student activities, including arranging a football game between the MBAs at the U and the Y (BYU).  The U won.  Evidently there were some hard feelings but that isn't much of a surprise if you have ever seen a Mormon church men's basketball game (the joke is: church ball is the only place you can see a fight start with a prayer).  Chris spent some of the summer with us in NJ, tending to the pool, having a party, being puzzled why his dad can't resist the temptation to spray visitors at the pool with water.  He started the semester living in a house near campus but got an Australian Shepherd named Scout and moved into a new apartment with a friend named Casey.  He seems pretty happy.     suggests

Who is that guy Arrin? At least this red car doesn’t have a NJ license plate – and she doesn’t have to have a NJ drivers license. Working in the man’s hat was fun sometimes, interesting other times, successful all the time, but also a long commute sometimes so NJ wasn’t so bad – especially on the hot summer days by the pool. What is that thing on your finger and why does your class care it was your birthday? What does X’X^-1X’Y mean? Is there such a thing as leptosis? Where did Leland J. live? Does he know the way to San Jose or San Juan? You know they don’t have a man’s hat in the Bay. Maybe that’s why the hotel is in that state.

If you look closely, you will see that we have added a new face to the enclosed card. We hope it's not premature. Arrin was engaged to Marcus Barton just before her birthday in November. That allowed her to show off her engagement ring in her econometrics class on her birthday. Her professor isobviously a very friendly fellow. She marries in March, graduates in April and starts a job in Palo Alto, California in July (?), working as an analyst for an investment bank. Marcus is a great guy - a little less noisy than some in our family, but we'll get him used to us. He also graduates in April and has a job in San Jose. So where will they live?

Summer in Perryville, Ben. Not a ton of cash, but a few tips: buy low, sell high; wear black shoes with black pants; take pictures if that’s what you do and they’ll pay you for it, but charge more; get a scholarboat; make friends even in the Garden State. New roomie, new ward, finish the summer and go back to school for one more half – then do the mister merry thing at Xmas time. No more teachers’ dirty looks, no more of many things, but much more of other things for two whole years. What does that camera do? Why do they call it Sin City? Where is Winnemucca? Will he need his coat or his umbrella? We’ll miss him but are happy for his service.

To begin the 2nd semester of his Freshman year, Ben moved down the hall to a new dorm with a new room mate and was in a new student ward (church congregation).  Funny how that works at BYU.  He came to NJ for summer and tried his hand for one day working at a plant nursery but settled in as a member of the wait staff at a swanky restaurant in a town nearby.  He made some money and learned some important life skills - like which spoon  goes where.  He got a scholarship for his photography work, and returned for the first semester of his Sophomore year before leaving on Dec 21 for the Nevada, Las Vegas West mission.  He'll be gone for two years.  The mission includes the western half of the city (clever naming, no?) and about the western half of the state, plus slivers of California and Oregon.  We miss him already and pray for his success and happiness.

To keep Rochelle happy, etc....

That's all there is.  Happy New Year!!