Lair Merry Christmas 2005

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Lair’s

Life Begins at 60 – Parade Magazine front cover on December 11, 2005– also referred to as “Second Adulthood” and “Age of Mastery” – good way to start letter since Sandy will hit the 6-0 mark on March 16, 2006. There is an old Satchel Paige question – “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? With that in mind, Sandy is just about to turn thirty.

The Lair family has had a busy year. Christy continues babysitting and day care work at First Baptist Church Mother’s Day Out, and Sandy a day each week at Big Cedar, Sister’s Flower shop, and various interior decorating jobs. Herb is in second career with UBS Financial Services in Little Rock. Having once worked at CIA, working for a Swiss bank makes a lot of sense. Actually their stock has doubled over the last year or so while competitors have been flat. The Swiss are very efficient and continually generate a good rate of return, mainly because they do business in about every country, in their case, neutrality pays off big time. Always plugging business http://financialservicesinc.ubs.com:8080/fa/herblair

(actually, if you can sell software all over the world from the Ozarks, building a financial services business is a piece of cake). 

The UBS arrangement (Herb in LR, 3 or so days a week) works well, since we have 2 grand kids in Little Rock --Cooper 7 – does a lot of reading and is a great student and Sophie 2 – she’ll either be a dress designer or a stripper – she tries on and changes clothes constantly and sometimes prefers not wearing anything at all. Wendy has her hands full.

Craig is doing well – partner at the Rose Law Firm – handles many high profile estate and tax clients. Recently ran a marathon (26 miles) in Las Vegas – check out

http://www.lvmarathon.com/

 and do a search on lair -- actually finished it and has run a triathlon – not sure where he gets his athleticism? Possibly running from the Clinton’s or the mob? There was a rumor that the sports boards at the casinos had 100 to 1 odds that an attorney couldn’t run the marathon (maybe that was on finding an honest lawyer in Vegas?) – I guess we’ll find out if and when Craig makes any big purchases 

Family spent some time in New York saw several plays – Lion King, Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrel, Sweet Charity,etc. as well as Letterman, Today Show. Sandy and Christy got separated at Macy’s – not sure who was lost – Christy kept her cool while Sandy panicked! Christy also got locked in airline bathroom on way home – other than some banging noise in the back it was a quiet flight for the rest of the passengers.

Big news in Arkansas sports is that the Razorbacks hired a high school coach as football offensive coordinator – shows that after a 4-7 season, they’re willing to try about anything – also might note that Tennessee had similar problems and are attempting a Lazarus maneuver (bringing Cutliffe and hopefully their offense back from the dead). Speaking of dogs, that reminds me that our dog, Camry, nearly died from a liver disease, but we turned him into a vegetarian and he is doing well now.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (remember March 16^th, hint -- good time for a surprise party – don’t worry about this letter giving it away to Sandy – she can’t remember anything that long)