December 12, 2002
Got untracked yesterday and production finished the Christmas card and got it down to printer. Robert Ray ran herd on it from his sick bed at home, got us a better quote (saved us $250) and hammered out the mechanical specs, etc. That felt good.

Had a speech at noon out at 87th Ave and Bell Road (no relation). It was a Christmas party for the Space Challenger Learning Center volunteers (about 50) at Montecito Assisted Living Center. Very nice meal (in fact the best I’ve ever had at a speech and I do probably 250 a year). Speech was so-so. Got off on a weak track and stumbled to recover. One guy nodding off, two others got up and left (always a bad sign). Gave away about 50 True Wests. As an honorarium they gave me 12 passes to take my staff up in the Challenger flight simulator. Looking forward to that. Supposed to be quite fun until it explodes. Just kidding.

Speaking of kidding, I just got word that one of my ex-partners read the business timeline and is livid. Even though I edited out his name he is reportedly madder than hell, never wants to hear my name again. Thinks this whole journal thing is stupid, unprofessional and wrong. Well, there’s someone else who agrees with Kathy.

Got back into the office at around 2:30, worked on several articles, lined up a staff photo for next Tuesday. Went over new circulation numbers. We have dramatic increase in outlets we will be in. Our next issue, Feb.-Mar., will have almost double the number of copies on newsstand. This is a great victory and took over three years to make happen. Everyone very excited, except for that one ex-partner. No kidding.

"No matter how much cats fight there always seems to be plenty of kittens."
—Abraham Lincoln