The Coopers' 2005 Christmas newsletter

We hope that 2006 brings all of you much joy.

Amica

Our Dogs

So now our most senior dog has (had?) cancer. Amica is 13 and thinks she's a pup. She still chases her tail and jumps up and down with excitement when dinner is served. So one night when she lay down and refused her dinner we rushed her to the emergency vet. Two days later out came her spleen and a nasty looking growth which was a cancer called hermangiosarcoma, usually fatal within 6 months. So off to CSU vet school again and an aggressive set of chemos. Four months along and no spread. We may have caught it about as early as it can be caught. We are hopeful.

Volunteering and Kung Fu

We now volunteer for the local Animal Humane Society. Two of our dogs, Amica and Rex (the white one), have been certified as therapy dogs. We visit a local rehab hospital with them once a week. Twice they have been voted volunteers of the month. It is really amazing what joy petting a dog brings to some of those people.
We took up Kung Fu in June. We went three times a week when home. By November, when we stopped (due to many small injuries), we had both lost close to 20 lbs each. Yes the secret is exercise more and eat less. It really works. Kitty also got off prednisone in the Spring; the drug which had been an obstacle to her losing weight.

Rex drives the RV with Navajo

Falling Water with icicle.

Bridge and Travels

We went to fewer tournaments this year and so won fewer masterpoints - we will win around 600 this year as opposed to around 850 last year (which made the top 100). This year we drove to Pittsburgh for the Spring Bridge Nationals, so missed our annual San Diego trip. We got to the finals of the Grand National Pairs but did nothing special otherwise. The weather was miserable and cold so we left early. Steve was actually seen in long pants!
The highlight of the trip to Pittsburgh, aside from getting stuck in mud in West Virginia, was visiting two of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces in Western Pennsylvania, Falling Water and Kentuck Knob. Many more pictures are in my photo albums.
The Fall Bridge Nationals were in Denver, another unsuccessful venture for us. We got to the round of 16 in the Senior KO (yes we are both over 55 now).
Kitty is still involved in the Bridge in the Schools program and her Bridge teaching materials continue to used by teachers everywhere.

Friends and Family

Kitty visited her best friend Karen in NH in July. Naturally it was the hottest most humid week of the year there when she visited. They worked on Karen's web site for her hand-made beaded jewelry, Copperfield Bazaar. Karen has breast cancer but it was caught early and the prognosis is good. Kitty also saw her parents and her brother on that trip, and they are all doing fine.
We had a nice visit with Dave Spahn and Linda Reed in Dubuque, IA, on the way back from Pittsburgh. Linda and Kitty developed the concept for a Mondrian-based design for a new web site for arts-oriented charter school Cortez Hill Academy (see below left), which Linda helped found.
My cousin Marty gave a talk in Santa Fe so she and her parents, Aunt Trudi and Uncle George, came for a visit. We had a wonderful time. Aunt Trudi and Kitty discussed gardening most happily, went to the Botanical Gardens, and visited Kitty's favorite client, High Country Gardens, when in Santa Fe.
It got cold in Albuquerque so we left for California in early December to go to several Bridge tournaments and visit with friends (the Woolseys) and family (Kitty's cousins Lee and Merla) in San Francisco.

Aunt Trudi in our Kitchen

Cortez Hill

Open Sky Web Design

Business has been almost too good this year: many more database sites and lots of programming work for other designers, some fun work in Python and PHP - creating tools to make managing web sites and converting documents easy for our clients, plus a number of CMS (Content Management System) sites using the free PHPnuke system - including the two original designs shown here. Kitty used this software for her own portfolio and forums. She also made a site of this type for the Rugby Refs of NY (yes her son Paul no longer thinks she is a dinosaur).

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