2009 Holiday Letter

A few thoughts from Debbi ...

As yet another Christmas approaches, I am compelled to wonder why it is that as we get older, the time flies by faster and faster. When you’re a kid, each year feels like an eternity – which confirms my belief that youth really IS wasted on the young!

We (okay, it was me) decided that since we didn’t get a vacation last year – unless you consider 3 days at NYU Medical Center and brain surgery a vacation? – we would take a nice cruise up through New England and Eastern Canada. It was the last cruise of the season and we scored a great price on it. Now we know why. The first day we were at sea, we got to experience gale force winds (gusting over 70 knots) and 20 foot swells. As some of you know, Willie is not really very sea-worthy. What we didn’t know is that I am no longer a good sailor either. Hm – imagine having impaired balance and getting tossed around the sea on a ship. It was like a carnival ride, without a safety harness. Luckily, things settled down on Day Two, but not before the top deck of the ship sustained a crack from all the rough weather. This supports Willie’s observation that, since we met, every vacation I’ve forced on us has involved some near-death experience! Weather notwithstanding, we had a very enjoyable week. Next year, for our 10th anniversary, we plan to return to Greece – hopefully without any mishaps!

I slowed down a bit work-wise this year. Turns out that brain tumor/brain surgery isn’t quite as easy to recover from as I initially thought. However, in spite of some energy dips and still having a profound need to nap at odd times, I did manage to have a pretty good year between Bifulco Business Solutions and The Coach Academy. So much so that I have decided to try my hand at writing a book next year. Stay tuned.

We finished our wine this year and bottled it this fall. We ordered Chilean grapes from a local winery last year so that we could go through the whole wine-making process from crushing to bottling. Unfortunately, I missed the crushing part (that pesky brain tumor thing), but got to have the rest of the experience. Pictured here is the wine bottling team.

The He Men Racing team has finally retired the blue Miata that they’ve been racing the last 6 years. In my humble opinion, they could have done this at least a year ago, but what do I know? Anyway, fear not as the HMR team will rise from the ashes to race again! As I write this, we have a white Miata in the garage, waiting to be stripped of everything that makes it a car (seats, steering wheel, engine, transmission, etc) . The rest of the winter will be spent rebuilding it as a race car.

This summer, we traveled to Chicago to attend the Acoustic Neuroma Association bi-annual symposium. Got a chance to meet a bunch of other brain tumor folks, and deduced that only really cool people get brain tumors! Had a lot of fun, and learned lots, too. It was pretty entertaining to be around a lot of other people who can’t walk a straight line and are deaf in one ear. As well as some others who have varying degrees of facial impairment. I felt totally at home!

In other news, our nephew Brian, just finished his second tour of duty with the US Army in Iraq. We are so glad he is on his way home, and hope that he won't be deployed again anytime soon. Our niece, Rebecca, made us grand aunt and uncle again this year when she gave birth to an adorable baby boy.

I made a trip out to Seattle in September to visit my friend Lynn, who continues to humble me with her dignity, grace, and humor as she fights cancer. While on the Left Coast, I swung down to Portland to visit with my parents for a few days. It was a good trip, although I came home sicker than a dog with what we all suspect was a mild case of Swine Flu. Which I gave to everyone here (yep, I am giver.)

Our parents continue to be in good health, for which we are grateful. My parents are flying out for the holidays and we will be having everyone over to our house for Christmas. Our animals (the 12 legs) are still doing well, and running our lives. Expect to hear more from Willie on this…

And, now, here is the star of the show … Willie!

Who’s Zoomin Who?

A couple weeks ago, Debbi and I attempted to lay claim to some quiet time in our sitting room, trying to savor what was left of a busy weekend, only to be accompanied by 12 legs worth of triangulated animals.


Quiet time rarely works out when you have pets. I started to think about why this is and who’s in control here? You see, as is often the case, Debbi was being held captive by the cats as they do battle in her lap for the primo spot. On any given day, Debbi’s lap serves as the boxing ring for about 25 lbs of cats. For you WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) fans, this is like a cage match where only the morbidly fascinated watch, and not unlike professional wrestling, someone is going to leave on a gurney.

Only after a couple of years of being monitored by the animals have I come to realize that their idiosyncratic behavior has much more meaning than initially thought. It’s really akin to aliens watching our every move, constantly testing us to see how we’ll react to certain situations. Our only saving grace is that their little paws aren’t equipped to turn the pages of a “Waterboarding made Simple” book found in their little cat tree house. Hmmmm, must remember to change my Amazon.com password.

An example of how manipulative these little aliens are can be found in Rocket (a.k.a. Scar), our elder cat. He’ll go to great lengths to seek me out in the house to see how long it takes me to follow him up to the 2nd floor room where he allows us to feed him. To get me upstairs, he’ll swat at my ankles and then run about three feet before stopping and looking back to see if I’m still in tow. This will go on for about 5-6 times until he’s hovering over his food bowl, tail raised high and proud of his accomplishments no doubt, with me petting him. Not sure how this little ritual started, but he prefers that I pet him while he eats. And should I stop petting him, or attempt to walk away, my action usually warrants a counter action – yep, I get swatted again until I’ve assumed the position. In fact, I’ve often wondered if a cat’s tail was like the digits on a human’s hand, which finger would he be waving at me….

Strange, but whenever this little series of events plays out, the other puppeteers, sorry I meant pets, are nowhere to be found. My guess is that it’s all part of their master plan thereby allowing the other animals to plot their next move.

Anyway, I won’t bore you with anymore details of our lives, especially with so many other Christmas letters vying for your attention, but I have thought if reindeer are anything like cats, it’s only by chance that Santa finds his way to your house. Because you have to wonder, is Santa steering or is he just holding on, hoping not to get swatted!

Enjoy the Holidays!