Are you one of the people who watch a DVD movie and, when done, automatically scroll to the “Bonus Features” and watch the outtakes and interviews (which would make you more like Josiah and less like Gilbert)?  Well, here are some of the miscellaneous ramblings that wouldn’t fit in the annual letter...or which weren’t fit for the annual letter.

Winnie helped organize Vacation Bible School at our church in Richland.  Although she has called herself “craft challenged” she took on the job of arranging the craft times during the week.  She has also continued to participate in Sunday school by doing organization and purchasing of items.

Josiah finished 5th grade at Amistad by being part of a math team representing his school at a regional competition called “Math is Cool” (www.academicsarecool.com) with a few dozen other schools.  Although he had helped coach the students, Gilbert did not attend the competition, because he was taking Andrew on his first overnight trip away from Mom and brother, to the WA state elementary chess championships.  Competing in the first grade section, Andrew managed two wins in five games and also managed to leave his jacket behind in the playing hall even though it was raining on the way out.

Earlier in spring, all four of us had taken our first family trip to the Washington coast, going along US 101 on the Olympic Peninsula loop and visiting bits of coast and rainforest.  Over Memorial Day weekend we went in the opposite direction across the arid east to Boise to visit one of Gilbert’s schoolmates who had moved up with family from California.

Andrew participated in coach-pitch softball in the spring and both boys took swimming classes and played soccer in the summer.  Josiah and Andrew both decided to join a junior rock collectors’ club.  The boys stayed home with Daddy one weekend where Winnie took a trip to the Bay Area for a relative’s wedding.  Prior to that, Gilbert had a couple of California trips for business; one to give a presentation at a conference in Southern CA and another to help set up a project satellite office in Oakland.

Gilbert attended part of a leadership conference in August with people from church but had to leave early to help with soccer and Josiah’s birthday party, missing a section with a recorded interview with Jimmy Carter.

The entire family (and some puppets) took the weekend to attend MissionsFest Seattle (actually across the lake in Edmonds) in October, which included speakers who have established churches in the Middle East and others who are combating HIV and slavery (not a topic for history books only).  Their website is http://www.missionsfestseattle.org and it will next be held the first week of October, 2008.  There may be similar conferences (no registration fee, all by donations) in a city near you, check the site for links.

The following month, Gilbert and Winnie attended a day-long presentation about a number of subjects where actual facts differ from contemporary presentation, called “Steeling the Mind” (see reference in Winnie’s section of the newsletter).

Gilbert had the family start a pretend portfolio with $10,000 initial investment as of January 2006, with dividends and commissions on trades included.  For 2006, Andrew’s 14.23% gain (Google, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart) was the only one that didn’t beat the 15.48% of the S&P 100 or 15% of the Dow Jones Industrials.  Winnie topped the list with 26.23% (Cisco, Conoco-Phillips, First Energy, Google), clearly ahead of Gilbert (22.96%) and Josiah (21.84%).  For 2007, there was a “deposit” of $4000 to either collect 4% interest or be invested.  As of Dec. 1, Andrew has made a big comeback with a 25.88% YTD gain (above and beyond the additional investment), followed by Winnie (20.37%), Gilbert (13.52%) and Josiah (12.67%).  All these crush the YTD of the S&P (2.71) and Dow (6.73%), largely fueled by the rise of Google.  However, Andrew has picked up a big gain from McDonalds and Josiah from General Motors, two mature companies that Dad certainly wouldn’t have touched in Jan. 2006.  Winnie also got a boost from putting part of her 2007 additional funds into Medimmune, which was bought out a few months later.  You can try this yourself in 2008; we limited ourselves to stocks within the S&P 100 and Dow Jones Composite Indices to avoid getting a lucky small stock pick dominate.

Things people said (guess who said them):

“The Three Bears opened a motel.  Every room had three beds.  One was too hard, one was too soft, and one was just right.  The sink had three knobs for water: too hot, too cold, just right.  Every bathroom had three toilets.  One was too tall, one was too small, and one was just right.”