January 23, 2008, Chevy Chase, Md.

Now here is another tradition, or custom, or groove.  Today at work we held our annual all office seminar.  Normally in the office our training sessions are segregated .  Three different classes are held each week, one each for beginners, intermediate,and experienced.  But once a year in January we all get together, the purpose being to learn something new, to get to know other agents , and of course have a bit of fun.  Today's seminar was a great success.  I can say this because for the first time the whole day was orchestrated by our Ned Rich, the Manager who joined us one year ago.

Holding a training session for our group of agents is difficult, because we have brand new agents along with those with 30 years experience.  Today's topic was dealing with systems, so it became a refresher for the 30 Million agent and new information for the 2 Million agent.  This was followed by an agent panel, which is always well received.  Learning from your peers is the best way for adults to learn.

This event was held at the Bethesda Country Club, a great facility.  Full breakfast came first, followed by the speaker and the panel.  We were gone by 12:45.  Everyone left smiling, and I hope learned at least three new ideas.

January 22,2008, Chevy Chase, Md.

This weekend we were at the farm.  It was cold. Very cold.  But the farm is wonderful so we put up with the cold.  But now I have another problem in my life.  We have no computer or Internet at the farm.  So once again my anxiety goes up because I can't do my job  Already my sister-in-lay has e mailed to ask why I'm not doing my job.  These remote places are lovely, but  they give me trouble too.  So Ken is working to find a solution.

Ken and I live at the farm in the Hill House, a home we built as a guest house and then decided to move in to it ourselves.  Glass every, with views in all directions.  Very modern inside, but looks a bit like a barn from the outside.  The old farm house is a wonderful example of a turn of the century farm house, with porches on three sides.  We purchased this farm in 1997 and we love it.  The first thing we did was pull up the carpet and refinish the Georgia pine floors.  And then we painted and wallpapered.  Then a few years later we finished the third floor as a play room, and also re-furbished the kitchen, adding four windows and moving the cabinets and counter tops.  So the house is modern on the inside but looks like a vintage 1914 home from the outside.  Andrew and Christina and the girls live in the farm house and Ken and I as I said, live in the hill house.

Fortunately for us, everyone loves the farm.  I am not sure why, but perhaps the clean air and never crowded.  We own 315 acres at this farm, and we keep Angus cattle.  Our good friends Alan and Helen Jay, and their son Brian and wife Tammy work our farm.  So we have a working farm in both appearances and fact.  They grow corn, sorghum, and hay, along with the raising of the cattle.  It is very pleasing to the eyes to see these black calves up and down the hills. In addition, the  grandaughters have a freedom they never have in the city, and they love it.

We purchased our first farm in 1973.  We could not afford it so my brother bought half, and then we bought them out when it was clear they were only helping us out.  So we bought 55 acres of an old farm  that came with a house that had not been lived in for 15 years, and had been taken over by the birds.  But we had camped all over North America in a tent, so we were thrilled to have our own rustic retreat.  Our standards were low, but we loved it, and Ken and I and Andrew and David went there every other weekend.  We met all the local farmers.  Now Alan and Helen are the last folks farming in the area.  So what started all those years ago at our old farm has transferred into our wonderful farm of today.

January21,2008, Chevy Chase, Md.

Routines and customs bring me great pleasure, as I mentioned before.  Thursday night we had Kennel Club.  The event occurs once a year, for those agents who made Top Dog ten times in the year.  It sounds as if we are all fools.  But really, this is the real deal and actually is the hardest ticket in town, to get to go to Kennel Club. So here is how you get invited.

When I was a new manager, in 1987, I wanted to do something to say thank you to the agents who were working very hard, so I started Top Dog Lunch.  I took out for lunch the agents who had three transactions that month.  We went to a new restaurant every month, and of course the group was different each month, but it was fun.  Kind of silly, but fun, and the agents appreciated the gesture.

A couple of years later, Eleanor Balaban, one of the agents on the E.&O.Committee (Efficiency and Organization Committee) suggested that there should be something for those agents who have made Top Dog lunch every month.  It is very difficult to do  as an agent every month.  We committee discussed the question and we decided to hold a dinner in January every year for those agents who had made Top Dog ten times in the year, for the agents only.  In addition I ordered gold dogs, so be given to the agents at what we called Kennel Club.

The first event was just like magic.  They were not aware of the dogs, the dinner was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown,  and the food and ambiance was wonderful.  It was a very special event the first year and it continues to do so now.  This was the seventeenth Kennel Club, and the agents love to be invited. This year we had 38 agents qualified for Kennel Club.  For me this is one of my very favorite events in the year.  It is so festive and joyful an event.

Now the real question to ask is...when does a custom or routine become a rut?. 

January 16,2008, Chevy Chase, Md.

Customs and traditions are so comforting.  Tonight we had dinner with Andrew and Christina, Kate, Mary Frances and baby Molly.  I stole this idea from my friend Alana Lassover many years ago.  When Alana had her first grandchild, she wanted to see the baby regularly but she did not want to be a pest to her son and daughter-in-law, who lived in Bethesda.  So she asked them if it would be alright to bring dinner over once a week.  They were delighted to have a free dinner, Alana got to see the child, they all got to visit together, and then when the baby went to bed, Alana went home.  The visit lasted about 2 hours.  When Kate was born, I asked Andrew and Christina if we could bring dinner over once a week.  They were pleased as punch to have a break from cooking once a week, and also to visit with us.  We have been doing it every week for the past 10 years.  We either bring carry-out of chicken, Chinese or pizza, or bring food from Ken's kitchen.  Tonight Ken cooked roast lamb, potatoes and carrots.  Delicious.  We leave just before the girls go to bed.  The benefits to us the old folks are enormous...and the children and grandchildren  also enjoy the routine.

Another custom that brings pleasure is our dinners with our good friends Freddy and Phyllis Ross.  They too have a wandering life style.  Their home is in Potomac,but they live two months in Switzerland in a small town in the mountains, and then five months in Florida.  During the winter in Florida, they return home twice for a week each.  Our routine is to have dinner together once when we are both in town, either in our apartment or their home. We book our next date at the dinner, because both Phyllis and I carry our travel calender with us. It is actually difficult to find a date when we are both in town.  We enjoy their company, and again it is a pattern or custom that gives us pleasure.

Of course Ken and I have said that when he has cooked for 25 years, he is quiting cooking, so I guess we will have to develop a new pattern.  His 25 year stint will be over in August.

January 15, 2008, Bethesda Maryland

I am fairly disciplined and peculiar with my readings. I never read fiction before going to bed. It took me many years to know that I am prone to finish the book before I turn out to light. And as my responsibilities increased I has to fore go the all night reading. I never read political periodicals before bedtime either. They make me irritated and keep me awake.

Fiction I read at the farm or in Texas or Nova Scotia. During breakfast I read political magazines, usually for half and hour. If I complete them I read non fiction for the half hour. Ken keeps half dozen book on the go at all times, while I finish one before I start on the next. That has always my pattern, and it still works for me. The evenings we are at home I read for about an hour, usually fiction, but when nine o'clock comes I switch to Science News.


Every month I read the following magazines: Smithsonian , The New Criterion, America Heritage, Popular Science, Wilson Quarterly, Bethesda, Co-op journal,Commentary,National Review, National Geographic, History, The Beaver. Weekly I read Science News and Weekly Standard. Notice I read no newspapers, nor do I watch T.V. news.

I have encouraged my grandchildren to keep a list of the books they have read. I wish I had kept a list of all the books I have read. As our literary memory fades with age, it would nice to look up the list of books you read in 1965. I heard a radio program where John Updike reported that he had never felt that he was loosing his literary memory..until he began to read a book unknown to him where he found his hand written notes in the book. Horrors.

My system is disciplined , that is true. But it lets me sleep at night, and also gets me enough time to read.

January 14,2008, Bethesda, Md.

Now I am home..at least I am at work. I will be interested to see how diligent I am with my log when I am working. We will see.

Our journey home was uneventful. One couple in the airport caught my attention. She was beautiful, and he was not even close to handsome. So they kind of didn't fit together. But they were married and they clearly were enjoying each other. The only problem was they did not speak loudly enough so I couldn't tell what they were saying. I felt like telling them to speak up. She was crocheting a hat for herself while he watched both her working and the football game. But they talked and laughed all the while I watched them. They were about 40. Very unusual to see grown up folks clearly enjoying each other while they await the time to board the plane. Often you see children have fun at the airport, but seldom the adults.

Several folks have suggested that I say something about work, while I am working. At least say something about the real estate world today, they are saying to me. One comment I heard today that many agents in other companies and other offices are moaning and groaning about the market. We have assumed that today's real estate market is the best market we have right now, and we go about figuring out how the be effective today. Moaning and groaning is not helpful to anyone, most of all you.. so we say "get over it and enjoy".

January 12, 2008, Texas Lake House

Today I am a happy camper.  David and Suzanne, Saral, Abigail, Allison and Samantha are all under one roof at the lake.  It makes a grandmother smile.

My days at the ranch are full of self directed activity.  Every day I walk on the property for an hour or so.  Every day I read.  Every day we feed treats to the longhorn.  I look to see how many fish we have in the water tank.  When we bought the ranch the old windmill did not function. Now it does, so the water that the windmill pumps runs into a large water tank.  It is old too, and it also did not hold water.  But Ken fixed it and now the tank holds water, and the water runs over to the trough for the cattle.  When the weather was very hot in June one year, I and our friends Pat and Mal Allington swam in the water tank.  It is about 20 feet across and 8 feet deep,so there is plenty of water to cool down.

We first put 8 fish in the tank...4 gold fish and 4 grey perch.  The after a year we counted 24 fish.  Six months later we found 7 goldfish and 1 perch.  And  six ago we found one very large perch in the cattle trough.  What is going on with these fish?  Now we have 7 goldfish and one perch with one very large goldfish.  I do no longer swim in the tank.  I do not go to Texas so late in June.  The fish are too big.

Every night at the top house I read the writings for that date from this book given to me by my cousins husband.  It is an anthology of the greatest diarist's, edited by Irene and Alan Taylor.  "The Assassin's Cloak" is the book.  Great read, but I only allow myself to read from that date.  I have just read "The Kite Runner".  And finished another Christmas book, which I will not recommend.  I catch up on all my periodicals.  We have all the Hornblower series so when I run out of new I turn to our library.

We have dinner with our friends at the ranch.  And we do like all good Texans, we drive to Junction or Kerrville or Fredericksburg just for lunch.  And of course we have to get our mail at the post office in Harper.

It certainly does not seem to make for a full day.  But It keeps me happy.