Update 9/13/2005:

Mark finished his work at New Mexico Mutual (but they ended up finding
more work and that lasted until 8/12) and is now working at Presbyterian
Healthcare Services, a non-profit association of several hospitals and clinics all
across New Mexico.

The boys have started back to school at Georgia O'Keefe Elementary and
things are more or less normal.

This summer, we spent a week in Colorado with Mark's family and spent
a weekend at Chaco Culture National Historic Park.



Ellery and Keith working on Junior Ranger badges at Chaco Canyon



Ellery, Walker, and Keith with their "pop bottle rockets".
Yes, those things really fly.


Update 7/1/2005:

We all are together in Albuquerque now. Laura has passed her CPA
exams and Mark will finish his contract at New Mexico Mutual Group, a
workman's compensation insurance provider, on 7/22.



While we were in Clovis, we did get to visit Blackwater Draw, an active archaelogical dig where
Clovis Man evidence was first discovered



Laura and Ellery went camping in the Sacramento
Mountains at Camp Wehinahpay with Ellery's Cub
Scout Pack in Clovis.



While Ellery and Laura were "roughing it", Keith was exercising
his mercenary gifts by selling golf balls that had landed in Mai and
Grandpa's backyard over the years back to the duffers.



Ellery helps himself to the neighbors' cherry tree... Mmmm!



Once we got back to Albuquerque, dad finally fulfilled his promise to take everyone to visit
El Malpais, an inactive lava flow by Grants, NM. Yes, that's all lava in the background.



Can you find the boys hiding?



On either side of mom and Ellery is where Lava
flowed over previously hardened lava in a sort of
lava fall.



It really felt like we were on another planet once we were in the middle of the lava.


Update 4/17/2005:

Here we are in Clovis, NM, waiting for the folks who have sublet our
apartment in Albuquerque to move. The boys are settled in their
temporary school here in Clovis. It's a real treat to get to see Mai and
Grandpa for a bit, but some job stability seems like it would be nice...



Ellery Promptly Built a K'NEX Thing in Clovis



This is atop the breaks in the caprock just south of San Jon, NM.
The microwave relay has been there for as long as I can remember.
The windmills are new - about 1 megawatt each.



In case you thought they enhanced the scenery...



The windmills didn't stop this cholla from blooming below them.
Ok, maybe the bug is ugly to some people. ;-)



Update 3/17/2005:

The end of this adventure is now. We will leave for Clovis, NM on
Tuesday, 3/22/2005 to let the kids finish out the school year and get to
visit grandparents until the folks currently staying in our apartment in
Albuquerque move into their new home.

On to the next adventure, whereever that may be.


Update 12/4/2004:

As it turns out, "just a little bit" has ended up being less than Comstock
originally asked for. Of course, that's why they hire contractors - we're so
easy to get rid of! My last day will be 12/22/04. We will stay here in NY
until the end of January to give see if another contract in this area comes
up and give the boys a little continuity. If nothing comes up, it's back to NM.



Ellery climbing at Sterling Forest, NY



This was in our "temporary" apartment in Nanuet, NY



Update 10/9/2004:

Ok, I didn't get any pix as promised. Mercedes has moved to California.
John, Vivian, and John Wesley (now known as "John", not "Wesley")
have moved to Florida. My friend Jeff is getting married next month and Roland's
looking for new digs. Laura and the boys have joined me in NY, initially
for just the summer, but then Comstock asked me to "stay just a little bit
longer" and, well, true to the irony that is our life, the boys are BACK in
the same school they left a year ago when we moved to Albuquerque.



We did go to to a Yankees game this summer. That's an Albuquerque Isotopes hat on Laura.

We live in an apartment at 151 Avalon Gardens Drive, which is less than
a mile from the house we sold last year. We still have our apartment in
Albuquerque, but no job prospects have come up that way - my "finanance
industry" experience just makes me a whole lot more marketable here. We
still think we'd like to end up back there, closer to my family.

While we're not technically "members", we consider ourselves part of our
old church home, the New York City Church of Christ. It's kinda funny to
be "visitors" at Laura's former employer - we're still in their health insurance
group under COBRA.

Anyway, we did go back to the Southwest to pack up and bring more clothing for the
school year. We also went for my parents' 50th Anniversary in September,
then I went back 3 weeks later for my great aunt Izzy's funeral. She was 102 and about
as nice a person as there ever was.



This is Acoma Pueblo, west of Albuquerque.



At the top of the Tram on Sandia.



Inside the High Finance restaurant at the top of Sandia peak.




Update 4/29/2004:

If you've landed here and you do not know me, you may wanna backtrack to
Albuquerque and take that left turn Bugs is always talking about. For
those who do know me, this is kinda what I'm up to recently.
I am attempting to update it every 2 weeks or so until life
settles down. Plus it serves as a "place" to put recent pictures of my
misadventures for my kids and Best Friend (aka Wife) to view from back
home in Albuquerque.

After working 7 years as the Information Technology Director for a large
non-profit church association called "ACES World Sector", I have decided
to go back to technical programming. At a majority of my rare interviews
in the past year, I was asked about "Recent Technical Experience". We
actually did some extremely technical programming at ACES: one project
included a client program written in C for a wireless Palm VII that
wirelessly submitted telemetry data to our Lotus Domino back end. My
friend Wayne helped with part of the client, and I did all of the back
end coding in Java by myself. The re-engineering of office procedures
from this project reduced head count by one accountant. But my
Presumptuous Director Title and the fact that 80% of my time was really
spent in non-technical endeavors weigh heavily against my attempts to go
back to programming.

This year, a market data firm in Westchester County, NY, offered me a
temporary contract to maintain programs that examine data from stock
exchanges and change them to a form suitable for their customers (yes,
geeks, that's called a "parser" ;-)). Even though this took me far away
from my family in Albuquerque, it should address the aforementioned
"Recent Technical Experience" hurdle my career ran into. My goal is to
find permanent technical programming employment in Albuquerque in C/C++ or
Java under some Linux/Unix variation or "Real Time" OS. So, in the spirit of
making lemonade when life gives lemons, I'm trying to view this as an adventure.
Coming by 5/1 should be pix from the unfolding story, I mean adventure.

<coming soon, a picture of roland, jeff, and me>

Upon arriving in NY, I was welcomed into the home of my friends Roland
and Jeff, pictured here with me in their living room. They deserve a
Major Award for their incredible hospitality towards me.

<Coming soon, a picture of 600 Mamaroneck>

My client, Comstock - Interactive Data, is in this building. This is
just a building, yes, but it's the one I work in. Here's where it is:
<Click Here>. Here's their homepage www.cmstk.com

<Coming soon, picture of John, Vivian, Wesley, Mercedes, and me>

After a couple of weeks with Roland and Jeff, I decided not to wear out
my welcome and am staying with my friends John, Vivian, Wesley, and
Mercedes. I am looking for temporary housing for myself and the rest of
my family who will come to NY for the summer.

- Mark