The 2016 Randall Christmas Newsletter


Dear Randall trivia readers; Was 2016 full of adventure and excitement for the Randalls? You betcha! Ashley moved from Austin to move in with John and Patrice for a few months; Mambo, Gwen, and Senor Beau also moved in (Ashley’s animal entourage); Ian moved from downtown to near Northpark Mall; John (we think the invitation arrived because of some Quantum Uncertainty) got invited to the White House; and Patrice continues to construct Fine Art. That’s the short story, read on for the novella.

  

Ashley Moves Back to Dallas: After tiring of management shortsighted-pigheadedness in her latest job in Austin (selling internet services), and finding a preferred career in relationship and intimacy coaching, Ashley told her bosses to place their craniums in locations that receive few photons and asked John and Patrice if it was OK to move back to Dallas and live with us for a while. The plan was that Ashley would find a temporary job, complete her training, build up some clients and then find her own apartment. We happily accepted and have much enjoyed having Ashley around. She has completed her training, found a job, and has some paying clients. However, the plan has changed a bit. While undergoing her training (in San Francisco) she met a tall handsome young man who lives in L.A. Ashley claims that her business prospects will be better in L.A. The new plan is that she will move to L.A. in a few months.

  
Quadruped Section:
       
"Please sir, just a little more!"		 Mambo, Gwen, and Senor Beau Move in: Mambo is a brindle boxer/pitbull pile of puppy (he is not really a puppy but John calls him one) who gets along very nicely with Wolfie. Gwen and Senor Beau are Ashley’s feline companions. Gwen looks strikingly like our dearly departed cat Isis (but does not bring us dead animals). Senor Beau is a bowling ball covered with orange fur. Senor Beau and Gwen are pictured above and to the right. They refused to be in the same section as Mambo and Wolfie. Owing to the fact that some Randalls have cat allergies, Gwen and Sr. Beau spend most of their time in the cabana bath. They will let us in only when they are hungry.

Wolfie: While we are on the quadruped section of the Randall family we should discuss Wolfie who as mentioned above gets along famously with Mambo. Wolfie looks about twice the size of Mambo but only because he is 50% fur. Wolfie is heavier only by a few pounds. Wolfie has taught Mambo to bite bubbles that John blows, chasing ice cubes thrown on the floor, and barking at any and every noise in the house (or in a quarter mile radius). Mambo has taught Wolfie how to play tug-of-war.

   Ian Moves: After a year in a downtown highrise, Ian and roommates move to an apartment complex near Northpark Mall. They actually left downtown Dallas with their last load a couple of hours before a madman started shooting a bunch of Dallas Police Officers. Ian continues to do well as a personal trainer at Equinox in Highland Park. To say that his Gym is high-end is an understatement. Ian sees Troy Aikman on a semi-regular basis and Ian said it was hilarious to watch one of his clients look over and slowly recognize Kobe Bryant (on his farewell tour) working out on the adjacent weight machine. Ian finally has a girlfriend. (Its hard for him to find someone that will put up with his ugliness.) We quite like the beautiful young lady.

Patrice Stays Busy Patrice absolutely loves having Ashley live with us. It gives her another human being to instruct on the way to run their life. And she is really good at it. Before Ashley arrived, so did massive hail storms. A short distance from our home softball sized hail punched THROUGH roofs and ceilings. We did not have it nearly that bad, but bad enough to need a new roof, fixed gutters, stucco repairs, and a repaired fence . Before the rest of our neighbors had a chance to figure out what to do, Patrice had called a trusted roofing company to inspect the roof, got our insurance company here to confirm the damage and presto-chango we had a brand new roof. Patrice decided that we needed a cabinet in the masterbedroom to house our video components. She designed, John provided what he could in carpentry skills and Patrice decided that the results were accptable.

Patrice has also continued to work on developing new skills in making art. She tells John that she throws away 80% of what she does but John likes what he sees. Being the perfectionist that she is, Patrice will not authorize any of her recent paintings to be viewed at this time. But John put one up anyway.

  
Untitled Blue Study


 John Gets Schooled: In an effort to make himself a better business person, John hired the wonderful Tanis Cornell as his coach. Tanis suggested that he apply for the SBA’s Emerging Leader program. He did and had the wonderful experience of working his butt off during the course that lasted many months. As mentioned above, for some strange reason John was invited to the White House. No he didn’t get to have a beer with the Prez. He did get to meet a lot of interesting people and talk about quantum information science (Really, I am not making this up!) John also spent a lot of time with the Girl Scouts of NE Texas (They bribed him with GS Cookies), UT Dallas (Lots going on there), UNT, practicing the sax, and cat-herding the judges in the annual Tech Titan Awards Gala. Most of John’s time however was spent trying to make Zyvex Labs commercially successful. Lots of exciting things are going on at Zyvex Labs including our sister company Nanoretina which should have an artificial retina start to heal the blind in 2017. We are also about to start a new company to make a different kind of biomedical implant that will potentially cure many maladies. We also have a patterning (lithography) product that can make patterns smaller than one nanometer. It is difficult to explain just how small a nanometer is. It is billionth of a meter, but to put that in perspective, one billionth of the width of the great state of Texas is just about 4/100ths of an inch.

They Came From Down Under - The Barlows and Simmons visit: One of the most wonderful events for the entire Randall Family that just happened, was hosting for two days, Michelle Simmons and her family: Husband Thomas Barlow, and children Jack, Blue, and Bondi. We packed a ridiculous amount of activity in the 48 hours that they were in town: The Sixth Floor Museum, dinner in the West End, the Fort Worth Stockyards, the Kimble Museum, the US Bureau of Engraving, and a Mavs Game. We hope that they enjoyed the visit half as much as we enjoyed spending time with this remarkable family. The picture on the right shows the Barlows and Randalls at a Mavs Game. It must be Michelle taking the picture.

The Relativity Report:

The Stepchinski Saga: Patrice’s brothers and families are mainly still in Houston. Patrick, Patrice’s older brother is still very busy working as a mechanical engineer. Patrick and wife Erica are now empty nesters. Leanne is now a Scientist (Geology and Hydrogeology) at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio (we believe she is still active as BatGirl!). Alan is now off at UT Austin becoming a Biomedical Engineer. Patrice’s younger (but not smaller) brother Nigel and wife Rhonda are also now empty nesters. Their son Kyle is off in AggieLand most of the time trying to becoming a positive influence on Planet Earth. Their daughter Caitlin was married to Tyler in a beautiful ceremony that featured their daughter Annabelle (with a little help from Granny Rhonda) as the ring bearer. Nigel is still trying to avoid being called "Gramps". Patrice, John, Ashley and Ian all had a great time.

The Randall Recount: The big news on the Randall side of the family is that Shelly (John's sister(Cindy)'s daughter) is pregnant. That will teach Shelly's Husband (Matt Avery) to take her for a romantic vacation in Paris. This will be Shelly and Matt's second child. Their first child, David, refused to comment. Cindy(John's Sister! - Try to pay attention!)'s other daughter Kelsie and grand daughter Rilynn, are living with Cindy and Hubby Skip. Kelsie is still working as a vampire (Phlebologist) but can't make that much money sucking blood, so she is planning to go back to school. Mike (John's Brother) has a new knee and Margret (Mike's wife) has talked him into eating better. The two of them continue to be members of various Biker Gangs whose sole purpose is to take money from as many people as possible. Mike's daughter Kalli is a veterinarian technician living in Minnesota. Mike's son Cody is in the Army stationed in El Paso (back to the Randall Roots) with wife Kelsie (not Cindy's daughter) and daughter Parker who we have yet to meet. John’s mom Vee, now 94 years young, has decided that she would be happy living in the Parson’s House (near Cindy's house) where she has a very nice room and is making many new friends.

The Randalls wish you all a Happy and Prosperous 2017!

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