Dear reckless eggnog drinkers,

First, my sincere apologies for not sending a Christmas letter last year. I don’t know what happened; I think it was all that eggnog, or was it the time warp? No one got a letter last year, so don’t feel singled out; everyone was individually ignored special.

           My life, surprisingly, went on, fancy that. The biggest news of last year was the big addition to the family. My brother and his wife Christine had a boy in November. Now he’s a year old and crawling up and down the stairs. Last year in Sept. Aaron flew me out to Seattle to paint the baby’s room and underwater fish theme. I received my usual payment of steak dinners and daily Starbuck Frappacino’s. On the plane out, it was a very safe flight because last year’s star sighting was James Doohan, ‘Star Trek’s Scotty, (sadly, now deceased, and he’s Canadian, not Scottish.)

        Of course Christmas will be celebrated again in Seattle at Aaron’s, with my folks and Baby Evan. I am currently clinically insane, since I am planning to drive (well, ride mostly) with Michael, my boyfriend, (yes, I said the word) from LA to Seattle for the holidays. He’s from Seattle but currently working in LA on the TV show ‘Las Vegas’ in video. (Don’t worry; I’ve never actually seen the show either). We just went canoeing for Thanksgiving, down the Colorado outside of Laughlin. Well, it was more like floated down. The water is really calm, the power boats are more of a worry than the, nonexistent, rapids.

            I went rafting on the American river this summer with my friend, now river guide, Dana, outside of Sacramento. A very cool and challenging river, class III. We stayed reasonably dry.

           Building more character, I’ve been painting a 100 year old barn belonging to the Hollywood Heritage organization where I am a member and do the archiving. This is their museum. I offered to paint it in another insane moment, not realizing I would need to scrap 10+ layers of paint off of it first. I’ve be working on it for 6 months (I keep running off to a fun restoration jobs). Well, to make it all bearable, I asked my mom to come out and help me in October. We had fun going to the Hollyhock house (Frank Lloyd Wright), Sushi, book club, and the movies, and then we scraped paint for days. We went in costume to a Halloween contra dance (where I met the fore mentioned boy). I went as Carol Burnett doing ‘Gone with the Wind' curtain rod and all) and mom was Kermit the Frog in a dress.

Interesting work this year, (which has been very good, knock on wood.) Lots of plaster repair on old buildings, exterior terra cotta and a faux marble altar. I got to repair an ornate ceiling at the Subway Terminal building, downtown. It had gold leaf accents. The job only lasted 8 days but if I could get that kind of work everyday… In another part of the building, there was a team repairing an immense (football field size, waiting area) plaster ceiling. I asked them if they needed help, and stayed for 2+ months. 

          I also was back at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. They add me into their budget every year now. My big claim to fame this year was during Academy Awards preparations, I made the local news painting and talking at the same time. To see this and other photos…

Go to my website under ‘Recent Projects’

(A big thank you goes to my website provider, my brother, Aaron.)

Stinky is fine and happy, but old, scrawny, and ugly (his growth is back over his eye, and the other eye is now strangely dilated). He’s now a cat only a mother could love, but as always, he doesn’t care. He’s 12+, cat-nip eating, years and counting.

Have a great Holiday, I tried to mail some of my pumpkin bread with chocolate chips, but it stained the envelope.

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Amy