Smale Christmas 2013

Ah 2013: a year in which we failed to leave the United States for the first time since 2002, got furloughed, got craters in our yard, lost a tenor, and someone put out a contract on Alan.

First up, the contract. In May, Alan signed a three-book deal with Random House/Del Rey for his historical fantasy about a Roman invasion of ancient America. "Clash of Eagles" will be out in the fall of 2014, with subsequent books in the series to follow in 2015 and 2016. He is now working like a madman on Book Two. Once again he (and Karen) attended the World Science Fiction Convention, this time in San Antonio, and he also went to Capclave in the DC area. We anticipate that there will be many more science fiction conventions in the second half of 2014 as he travels to promote the book.

Yes, he still has The Day Job at NASA, serving as director of the HEASARC (High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive) and Deputy Chief Scientist for the PCOS (Physics of the Cosmos) Program Office. High points of the past year include the HEASARC winning a prestigious NASA award, and Alan working with a colleague and a summer intern on an interesting research project; low points include the chaotic effects of being furloughed when the Federal Government was closed, and having budgets arbitrarily thrown off kilter by sequestration.

Karen also still has her day job -- though with new NASA management -- and work continues as before on the science web sites at NASA Goddard. She changed contracting companies this year, which basically means her paychecks are signed by someone else, but it hasn't meant too much difference on a day-to-day level. Karen visited her Mom in Tucson a couple times this year, to help out during and after some surgeries (elective and non-elective). Mom recovered very well from both and she and visited us in October, just as the furlough was ending. On the photo front, Karen led Goddard Photo Club field trips to the Cherry Blossom Kite Festival, DC's Eastern Market, and the Maryland Renaissance Festival. She also enjoyed photo outings to the Library of Congress (where the reading room is open to the public just twice a year), the Preakness Balloon Festival, and to photograph birds of prey up close at a nature center.

This year The Chromatics said goodbye to Barry, our tenor for the last ten+ years, and welcomed Scott, a.k.a. the New Guy. We rocked the featured Saturday night gig at the Shore Leave Masquerade (a prominent science fiction convention) and two performances at the National Air and Space Museum, opened for the Tone Rangers at Jammin' Java in Virginia, and did many other gigs. We're also (slowly) recording tunes for an upcoming EP, pursuing a project with a very talented animator, and in discussions with educators about some future collaborations. Our Chromie fire, it has irons. We're looking forward to 2014.

Due mostly to Book Excitement, we scaled back the travel this year and did not do a big foreign trip. In January, Alan went to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, CA. In June we took a brief sanity-preserving road trip to the Poconos and to see the many waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park. September was the World Science Fiction Convention, and later that month we visited Colorado for ten days, staying with good friends Terry and John part of the time. And at the end of September, Alan went to a conference in Hawaii that was unfortunately interrupted by the Government shutdown, meaning he had to fly home early, although he did manage to get in some nice dawn walks on the beaches in addition to, of course, attending the conference. A couple weeks after Karen's Mom's visit, Alan's parents made the trip over the pond to see us for about 10 days.

We also scaled things back on the home front... well, no, actually we didn't. We replaced the garage doors in February, recarpeted the entire upper floor, repainted and renovated the laundry room, plumbed a new generator into our home system to be ready for the next power outages, and had a new geothermal heating and cooling system installed. This involved a giant rig thundering through our trees to dig four 250-ft wells and extensive trenches and a malaria pit -- at least that's what we called it when it was filled with water -- in addition to extensive indoor work. A bit of landscaping was required to recover from that, but we now have grass growing there again. Sort of.

It's nice and toasty in our house for Christmas, though!