Dear Amy,

I have two children by a first marriage: Laura and Andrea. Ruth and I have been married for over 30 years and she didn't want to have children. Laura, who is now 40 and lives on Long Island, moved in with us when she was 15. Laura is married with no children. She is the choir master for a small church not far from her house and her husband, Kerry, works for Ricoh. . Laura graduated with a two-year degree in music from a community college. Andrea, is three years younger and lives in Bear, DE with her second husband, Rich. They have a gorgeous 3 1/2 year old boy, Ricky (the Third). They drove up for Thanksgiving Dinner and stayed a few days. Total exhaustion!!!! Ruth and I drove to Delaware after Christmas and spent a few hours with them. I had a terrible allergic reaction to a dog she was baby sitting. They both work for MBNA.
Andrea has a four year degree from a college in South Jersey. This is Rich's second marriage, too. He has two children by a first marriage. The oldest son is now in his second year at St. Joe's in Philly. The younger one is in high school. Lots of intrigue there. 
 
 

Allergies........

We no longer have pets. However, when I first met Ruth over 30 years ago she had four cats and seven dogs (Samoyeds). I am allergic to cats. When I was wooing her, do I have to tell you about the cats. They adored me and were all over me. I was popping pills and she never understood why. When we got married, we kept two of the dogs who became the center of our lives: Snow Bear and Cleo. When they died it was more than I could bear. I really didn't want to go through the loss of a pet again. Our life style changed somewhat and we did enough traveling to make it tough to have pets. Who wants to leave their pet at home?

Ruth works in the office and we are with each other all the time. We have a very special relationship.

Bill Loves Ruth.........

Ruth is anything but an accountant. Although she works with me, she hates anything to do with accounting. She used to do a lot of inputting of tax return data into the computer based on the info we gave her. However, with the change in technology she doesn't do too much of that anymore. She helps me with word processing of my articles and does some word processing of medical letters for a local chiropractor. She is also knowledgeable about how these blasted things work and helps me dig out of computer illiterate holes that I dig for myself.
The real story is that Ruth has two degrees in musicology from Hunter College. So, as you can imagine music is a very important part of our lives: ballet, opera and so forth. Real quality of life stuff.

I began our business in the mid 1980's. It has changed quite a bit and I've gained a lot of credentials and perspective over the years. As I've already bored you before, I concentrated on learning about how to protect taxpayer rights and played a role in orchestrating legislation to help protect taxpayer rights. Stuff that no one gives you credit but something for which everyone is grateful for without realizing why they have it..
Amazon.com just emailed me that the Hattie book is being shipped. Think I'll find anything useful for my quest?
Back to work for me!

Love, Bill

 Holidays......

Thanks, Amy,
Our Christmas was perfect. My daughter, Laura, is in charge of the choir for a small church not too far from so here. So, as has been our custom these last several years, we went to the Christmas Eve service. They did the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. Consider the small number of people in the choir, they really did an excellent job. The next day it was just Ruth and me. In the early evening we went to her house where we had a quiet dinner with Laura, Kerry (her husband), Ruth and me. Oh, yes, how can I forget Decker her Sheppard mix.