2007 Holiday Letter

Mira and I have continued our on-going study of what it means to be "semi-retired". Mira continues to work with a large tenant at the Eaton Centre and continues her work with the Canadian Association of Women in Construction where she is responsible for their website - cawic.ca. I did very little for-profit business in 2007, but was busy organizing the itSMF Canada National Conference in Calgary in May, and continue to be busy with the Canadian Information Processing Society and the Toronto CobiT User Group.

The Friesens, Roosen-Runges, and MacNivens joined us to welcome in 2007. This year we trekked out to the cottage on a regular basis - the "warm" (for Ontario) weather encouraged regular trips. In early February, we celebrated Mira's birthday by a trip to Ottawa. This was the famous Ottawa Winterlude, complete with ice sculptures and skating on the Rideau Canal. We splurged and stayed at the Chateau Laurier - the old, distinguished railroad hotel in downtown Ottawa. NOTE: Click on any image to get taken to a larger version of the image; use your browser's back button to return.

In March, Mira and I ventured down to Princeton. Our good friend, Allan Borodin, was spending a term at the Institute for Advanced Study. They invited us to come down for a visit. It was a most interesting experience. We got a chance to see Princeton - we even took a visitors tour of the university. We spent a day in New York city. NYC is only a short train trip from Princeton. The weather was unusually mild - that's a photo taken on the grounds of the Barnes collection just outside Philadelphia. The Institute, however, was the most distinctive part of our visit. Everything there is calculated to give its scholars the maximum think time. As only one small example, the cafeteria serves gourmet food, at McDonald's prices. No need to leave the Institute.

Paul, Mira's nephew, and his partner, Jonathan, visited us again this year in April. They are now established in Columbus, and it's only a day's drive from there to Toronto. This year, for a change, we returned the visit, albeit for only a brief stop over in September. Fortunately, we were able to spend time with them and their twin boys. The photo on the right shows Paul with Bailey and Annson. The "boys" (Paul and Jonathan) now have a full family, being an active part of all phases of the life and development of the twins (born to a lesbian couple in the city with contribution from one of the boys). We're looking forward to a visit by the boys again early in 2008.

Carmona, a "White Village" in Andalucia

In May, Mira and I went off on our Spanish Adventure. This was our first trip to Spain and our first experience with Elderhostel - an interesting organization that started by providing college lectures, complete with inexpensive rooms in unoccupied dormitories during the summers. It's now developed into a major touring organization, with links throughout the world. Unfortunately, our Spanish Elderhostel trip was rather poorly organized (in the opinion of one couple for which this was their 43rd Elderhostel trip). Notwithstanding the poor organization, southern Spain was very interesting, blending Christian, Jewish, and Muslim themes - the area changed hands several times with a mix of architectural and religious themes.

Barcelona, Art Nouveau	Alhambra, Granada	Spanish fighting Bull
Mosque/Church	Town in side of hill	Grazalema

In July, Mira's sister, Doris and her husband Zoltan, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. All of their five children and all of their fourteen grandchildren were present. It was a very special weekend in Cleveland. That's where they lived most of their married life (they are living in Baltimore now in retirement). That's where I was born and raised. That's where my parents acted almost as grandparents to their five children. It was a time of fond memories, all carefully planned by the children. The weekend included a chartered bus tour of all of their old neighborhoods, and a meal at one of their favorite Hungarian restaurants. We were honored to be invited to participate by Doris and Zoltan.

Over the summer and into the fall we had a number of visitors. The most

exciting visit was Mira's niece Dora, her husband Lou, and their five year old twins. Two five year old self-reinforcing brothers almost guarantee excitement. We took the ferry over to the islands in Toronto harbor. We had a long walk exploring two of the islands, ending up at the small children's amusement park on Centre Island. The next day we went to Harbourfront to enjoy the free events that can be found there. That's the Paris family watching an event at Harbourfront. The visit ended all too soon. Maybe in this coming year we'll get a chance to show them our cottage as well as downtown Toronto on their next visit.

In September, we had a multi-part visit to Ohio. First there was my 50th High

School reunion. It was more than a bit odd seeing faces I had not seen in 50 years, looking 50 years older. I recognized only some of my classmates, but my height allowed more of them to recognize me. That's me with my alternative High School yearbook photo - during High School, the French Horn was an important part of my life (and I was a chubby teenager). The same trip, we spent some time with Dora, Lou, and the twins, and even fitted in a swing down to Columbus to see Paul and his extended family.

The other "big" visit was Mira's brother, Otto and his wife Margie. They have

not been to see us in over 20 years. Otto is now retired and they are living just outside Seattle. We spent many hours talking, both in Toronto and out at our cottage. One of the high points of the visit to the cottage was a boat tour that took us through the Peterborough lift locks. They are counterbalanced tanks of water that raise boats up to 125 feet long up some 60 feet. It's an example of spectacular 19th century engineering - one of the few remaining lift locks that still works. We were all impressed.

We also had other visitors to the cottage from as far away as New York, and two couples from Toronto. This year we got good value from our cottage.

Barbara Deller

The Friesens

The Roosen-Runges

2007 was a year of steady construction in our city. As the year began, a

condo just south of us was dismantling its central crane. These photos were taken from our dining room window. This is the first time we had a chance to watch as they took apart one of those large cranes, taking it down a piece at a time, using a smaller crane. By the time the year was coming to a close, the second tower was being finished. Its crane will be coming down any day now. This has been a building year for Toronto. We've got a dramatic addition to the Royal Ontario Museum by Daniel Liebeskind, with a much better addition by Frank Gehry to the Art Gallery of Ontario under construction. And 80 story condos are springing up in parking lots that had been vacant for decades. Toronto is growing up.

My work on professionalism and IT continues. In May, CIPS accepted the Risk Management Practice Guideline that was developed by a Task Force I chaired. In June, the Manta Group featured my Outsourcing Spiral Methodology in one of its Executive breakfasts. I was one of the three speakers who kicked off the Toronto CobiT User Group meetings. At the moment, I'm engaged in developing the material that CIPS will use as background for its online Professional Ethics exam, due to be released in early 2008. And, on the side, I'm leading the effort to put in place a new platform for the CIPS websites.

Mira keeps busy managing construction projects for her main client, the Ontario Financing Authority, and her work with CAWIC. I keep busy with the occasional client and my work on professionalism. And we're both looking forward to 2008 when we hope to see more of the world, more of our family, more of our friends, and more of our cottage.

Bob Fabian
December 2007
Toronto, Canada