Dear friends and family,

Friends sending you their year-end reviews are a great motivator to get yours done and this year was no exception. The photos have been snapped, culled, edited, and uploaded, but the text is something else.

Around 2004, we were toying with the idea of going to Africa for our next trip, but it turned out to be impractical. Then we started hearing reports from our friends about how much they enjoyed Istanbul, and the foundation was laid for our trip to Turkey and Egypt. Starting in Istanbul, we went down the beautiful western and southern coasts of Turkey, finally turning inland to Cappadocia. In the middle of that itinerary, we flew to Egypt where we took in the sights in Cairo, Aswan, and Luxor. The entire trip took a month and went surpringly smooth, given that we didn't take the package tour route and booked all the hotels and transportation ourselves.

There were also side trips to the U.S. Open, Bryce Canyon and Zion, UT, a ski trip to Jackson, WY, an educational cruise to the SF Bar Pilots, and a ride on one of the Tall Ships.

In October, I went on a business trip to Dusseldorf for help our counterparts in Germany roll out the new Vodafone portal. It was a very productive experience, enabling me to put faces to voices that I had only known through conference calls. It also gave me the opportunity to travel to Amsterdam and Vienna. Rene, in the meantime, is still working at Oracle.

Happy Holidays!

Dan and Rene