Holiday Letter 2008 - Deer Run Associates

Laura LeHew &
Hal Pomeranz
2 0 0 8 H O LID A Y N EW SLET TE R
Her Mark Calendar Reading
Preambulation
Greetings! This year was an
amalgam of old and new. We
started off by redoing our
master bathroom. It began
with, “Hey what’s that bubble
in the ceiling of the downstairs TV room?” (a leak in the
master bathroom) and ended
up with us replacing all the
tile, redoing some plumbing,
etc. Naturally there were
snags along the way. Luckily
the work is done, there was no
real damage, and the bathroom looks better than ever.
Quest, Colorado for WorldCon, Chicago to read at the
Woman Made Gallery for the
release of the Her Mark 2009
calendar, and Yachats for
Poetry Boot Camp with the
Third Wave Poets. For my
birthday we went to the White
Wolf Sanctuary here in Oregon. Hal went to Las Vegas,
Orlando, Virginia/DC
(several times), and NY for
business. We ended the year
with a joint trip to the East
Coast to visit Hal’s family.
We traveled a bit this year,
though nothing as exciting as
last year’s Australia pilgrimage. Hal and I finished up our
minor league baseball trip in
Pasco and Spokane (the original trip ended early when I
got a kidney stone), and we
spent nearly a week in Ashland for our anniversary. I
went to Kansas City for Con-
We moved my sister, Karen,
to Oregon and I took over as
her guardian.
My nieces have been prolific—gracing the family with 2
new additions this year.
On the artistic front, I
reached 100 total publications
in mid-summer and nearly 50
for the whole year—I got published a lot! I also started a
Roving Park Players
I’d love to say we got involved with RPP on the creative/acting side, but the reality
is that I’m helping on the
business side.
Uttered Chaos and RRP are
having a fund raiser January
25 & 29 with readings by
local poets and actors doing
scenes from upcoming plays.
Welcome Back, America
new play by Matt Tzucker
2.
3.
August I flew to Chicago and read at
the Woman Made Galleries launch
party for the 2009 Her Mark Calendar
•
I got to stay with Elaine Schultz and
visit my God son, Cougar—
• where we ignored those pesky,
inaccurate tornado sirens and
consequently slept through the very
nearby tornado (which never entertains in Ellie’s neighborhood)
a park in Spokane
press, Uttered Chaos, got
involved with a theatre
troupe, Roving Park Players,
and became more involved
with the Oregon State Poetry
Association (OSPA) as their
Contest Chair. You can’t have
too many projects!
We rescued 3 kittens (Raven,
Shadow and Smoke) and have
been diligently trying to find
them homes after their shots,
socializing them, and getting
them “tutored”, er, neutered.
•
Then I flew to Denver and went to
Denvention and had a swell time with
Trish Henry and Glen Cook and even
managed to have lunch Cheryl Loestcher.
•
Love the blue bear standing outside
the convention center!
It’s a Boy!
RPP performances in ‘09:
1.
•
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
www.rovingparkplayers.org
Niece Erin had another
surprise baby this year. Desmond arrived on July 7th.
Lorenzo showed up 9-2-07 and
Raymond turned 4.
Coincidence? Niece Angela’s little boy, Issiah DeAn-
dre Payton, was born 9-2-08
at 4:01 PM at St. John’s
Mercy he weighed 6lb 13oz.
Issiah
DeAndre
Payton
on
Halloween
Hal’s Groovy Cool Update!
On the work front, things
were very much “more of the
same” for me this year. But
since “the same” in this case is
working on interesting projects and getting the opportunity to teach to excited and
engaging students, I count
myself fortunate.
I continue to develop software for educational research
with my friend Matt Ohland.
Without any marketing to
speak of, our software is being
used by dozens of universities,
including some outside the
US. Feedback has been very
positive and we have a huge
“to-do” list of ideas for improving the software. The
home page for our project is
www.catme.org if you’re interested in learning more.
40 for his 40th
My training work with the
SANS Institute also continues. I seem to have settled
into a regular pattern of teaching in Orlando (April), DC
(July), and Las Vegas
(October) with occasional
side-trips for special presentations. One of the most interesting extra events I did this
year was a briefing on security
technologies for Patent Examiners at the US Patent and
Trademark Office. This was
definitely a very different
group of folks from my usual
students, and it helped me to
think about what I teach in
new and interesting ways.
This year I’ve been actively
trying to reach out to local
computer user groups in the
Northwest. I’ve given talks to
user groups in Corvallis, Portland, Seattle, and the TriCities, as well as here in
Eugene (of course). There
doesn’t seem to be as much of
a culture of mentorship in the
computer industry as there
was when I was getting started,
and I think local user groups
are one way of making things
better. If you’re involved with
a local computer user group
and would like me to come
give a talk, please feel free to
email. Bonus points if you
have a professional baseball
team (even minor league) in
the area that I can visit.
Despite another heavy travel
schedule for me this year,
Laura and I did get back to
DC to visit family for Thanksgiving this year. However, it
may have set a record for
shortest cross-country holiday
visit ever: we arrived Wednesday morning at 1am, slept at
an airport hotel, visited with
my mom Wednesday, my dad
Thanksgiving day, and then
returned to our airport hotel
Thursday night for a Friday
morning flight. Still, it was
wonderful to see everybody.
Lately I’ve been experimenting with the Internet service
Twitter (after severe nagging
by John Sechrest and Kevin
Kenan). I’m finding it very
useful for keeping tabs on
people that I don’t get to see
that often. My Twitter URL is
http://www.twitter.com/
hal_pomeranz if you would like
to use Twitter to track my
doings in 2009.
“Play fewer hands, bluff less, let
the game come to you.”
(Good advice for both
poker and life)
Baseball in the Tri-Cities
Sister, Where Art Thou?
photos of Virginia Nutt’s Iris’
lovely building out back
Page 2
In May I flew to Kansas
City to go to ConQuest and
visit my friend, Nancy. Nancy
This story
75-125
drove
me tocan
St.fit
Louis
after the
words.
convention
via
Vandalia
where
herpictures
motherorgraciously
Selecting
graphics
put
up. Andpart
fedofme
bisis anusimportant
adding
cuits
andtogravy.
real deal.
content
your The
newsletter.
She
also
let your
me photograph
Think
about
article and
her
beautiful
Iris’picture
and then
ask yourself if the
suplater
mailed
me
bulbs!
Which
ports or enhances the message
have
been
planted.
I got Avoid
to St.
you’re
trying
to convey.
Louis,
stayed
a
bit
and
then
selecting images that appear
to
flew
Karen
to Oregon. She’s
be out
of context.
now living in a wonderful
Microsoft Publisher includes
place in Veneta.
Karen would love to hear
from family and friends:
Karen Eaton
thousands of clip art images
Sherwood Pines
from which you can choose
87986 Sherwood St.
and import into your newsletVeneta, OR 97487
ter. There are also several
(541) 935-0653
tools you can use to draw
shapes and symbols.
Once you have chosen an
image, place it close to the
article. Be sure to place the
caption of the image near the
image.
in Yachats 06/27/08
She’s
doing
very
well.
And,
has
Karen at the beach put on
about
40 pounds. So she’s nearly
gained back half her weight
since her break. Chris is busy
transferring
guardianship/
conservatorship to me but it
has involved quite a bit of
lawyers and legalese (without
much ease).
Take Me Out to the Ballpark
I got to meet up with an old
friend of mine, Casey Hamilton in Seattle. No wait that
was **another** baseball trip.
But, as you can see I was a
platinum blond. I
was like that for 3
months before it
made me totally
insane! I got 3 poems out of the experience, all of
which were pubPasco
lished immediately,
so it wasn’t all bad.
On July 7th we set out to
complete our tour of the Nortwest League baseball parks by
sandwiching the trip between
Hal giving talks to local user
groups in the Tri-Cities area.
Timing being what it was,
we drove to Washington
during the fire season. The Laura (as a blond) with Casey Hamilton
night skies were simply
paths, and terrific restaurants.
amazing — it really did look
We also stayed at a great holike Armageddon. Beautiful
tel: The Hotel Davenport. It
and horrible at the same time.
was built in 1914 and recently
I wouldn’t recommend
restored. We received the
Pasco. There’s not a lot going
BEST service, of any hotel
on though we did get some
we’ve been to (except possibly
passable Mexican food. The
the Mandarin Oriental in
ball park was great and the
Hong Kong). Another plus is
people were friendly. And it
the amazing peanut brittle
was HOT. Really hot.
they give you every night. If it
Spokane was amazing. There
weren’t for the snow, I’d conwere cool bridges, outdoor
sider moving to Spokane.
sculpture gardens, hiking
Engine blocks (Spokane)
Howling Wolf Press’ Marketing Spin
This is the actual tale. Sure
At dusk when the moon was
there was a girl. Beatrix to be
in opposition to the sun B2
went to visit her mother. A
exact. And yes, her mother
pack of hunters followed her
(not her grandmother) lived in
bravely into the brambles,
the woods, as some sort of Tai
along dodgy trail heads, a
chi herbalist. Her name was
circuitous backtracking route.
also Beatrix. To avoid confuSome were
sion the girl was called
B2. Now B2 was cute as a
injured
button—if you liked
others became lost.
buttons with pointy
pointy teeth. It’s true
Only one
that her grandmother
stumbled
knit her a cape out of
onto
the
finest red wool for her
cabin
on
darling scary grandthat eventdaughter. Granny hoped
ful night. B1
2
a hunter would find B
let him in,
before there were probpoured him
lems. The boys
a cup of
were
sniffing
tea,
ran
White Wolf Sanctuary
around the raven- www.white-wolf-sanctuary.com him a nice
haired golden-eyed
hot bath
beauty who lured
before she
them deeper and deeper into
smashed him in the head. The
the woods. Some never relast words he uttered were “ah
turned along the well-worn
crap Beatrix what huge teeth
path. She was insatiable,
you have” and then she simthough it was never witnessed.
mered him into a tasty soup.
Laura LeHew & Hal Pomeranz
B2 arrived in time to add the
Hen of the Woods mushrooms she’d gathered on her
trek. And, once she thought
about it, B2 gutted her mother
and added her to the stock.
She was very hungry and it was
almost her birthday.
This poem will appear in my chapbook Beauty—
myth, fairy tale and legend for the 21st century
Please support the arts and (me)
by preordering it from Altered Crow Press:
send check or MO for $8 to:
Altered Crow Press
P.O. Box 2935
Eugene, OR 97402
http://acrowpress.blogspot.com/
Page 3
I Make Things Up!
I’m not making it up when I say I’ve had an excellent
year in poetry land. So far 48 poems accepted for publication and/or winning awards. I broke my milestone of
100 acceptances mid-way through the year.
In September ten poets (aka the Third Wave Poets) went
to Yachats on the Oregon coast for a poetry boot camp.
what writers do on retreat …
We’ll all be going to Taos in July of ‘09 and reading at
Third Wave Poets (from left to right) Be
Davison Herrera , Vicki Harkovitch,
Karen Clausel Lindley, Andrea L. Wat-
the Rane Gallery.
I started Uttered Crow Press and beginning in 2009 will be producing 3-4 chapbooks a year. The
scher, JoAn Osborne, Quinton Hallett,
first one will be by a wickedly gifted writer, Colette Jonopulos. Her chapbook Enough of Daylight
plunges us into the secret world of vampires with a keen intensity and runs us up hard against the
and me. Missing from the photo is
truth of their desires. Next will be a poetry anthology by my critique group, The Let Them Eat Cake
JoAnn Anglin.
Poets (aka Poetry4), including Diane Conrad, Lydia Foster, Vicki Harkovitch, Gene Humphreys,
son, Colette Jonopulos, Cheryl Loet-
Colette Jonopulous, Susan Kenyon, myself, Karen Clausel Lindley, Cathy McGuire, Nancy Moody
(who’s first book is also due out in ‘09), Sharon Munson, Eileen Peterson, Judy Richardson, and
Janice Rubin. Chairs will be the theme of the anthology. The rest of the chapbooks are under investigation. For more information and to preorder these books check out my website: www.utteredchaos.org.
In other writing news, I’ve been involved with the Oregon State Poetry Association. A lot. In the fall
I took over as the contest chair. Whew! I continue to co-coordinate the OSPA Eugene/Springfield
Chapter—Springfield Library Reading Series with Quinton Hallett.
Logo/art by Lydia Foster
Lastly, HeartLodge nominated me for a Pushcart Prize, along with 2 other members of Poetry 4.
“At Christmas, all roads lead home.”
Contact Us
L A UR A L E H EW
H A L P O M ER ANZ
PO Box 50638
Eugene, OR 97405
Phone: (541) 683-8682 home
Phone: (541) 683-8680 Deer Run
Fax: (541) 683-8681
Hal Cell: (541)520-7460
Laura Cell: (541)517-2198
email: laura@deer-run.com
email: hal@deer-run.com
www.deer-run.com
www.utteredchaos.org
~Marjorie Holmes, American writer.
While we won’t be “home”
for the holidays this year, we
will be at our own home celebrating with family and
friends.
Our home is always open.
“Be always at war with your
vices, at peace with your
neighbors, and let each new year
find you a better man.”
~Benjamin Franklin