November 1, 2003

Thom used to always say that the only constant about me was that "Reality is subject to change without prior notice!" The events of this last year have certainly proved that and so much has happened that this year's Christmas letter is very long and still only covers some of the highlights!

I don't usually talk much about business but it seemed that most of the year has been devoted to business and getting my life back in order. In 2002 business was down for the company and just as things were looking up, this year, the dollar went down the drain and exchange rates massacred the company's profit margins. I realized that I had to come up with ways to increase efficiency so set about redesigning the software system we use in the business. As professionals would have cost a fortune to design the whole thing, I contracted with a local friend, Jim, who is very knowledgeable about this sort of thing, who worked with me to design the new system and learned how to do a lot of it myself. This was a huge undertaking as our system is designed to handle tens of thousands of requests for close to a million different items from a few thousand different manufacturers. This took many months and went live in October. Now I know how to program and tweak the thing and Jim takes care of the highly complex stuff if it is needed. At one point, while I was trying to write the pricing algorithms I had the entire upstairs floor of the house covered in sheets of paper showing the flow of the calculations. I went to lay down for a bit and came back to find that the dogs (who I had completely forgotten about) had thought that this was all a big game just for them and had shredded the whole lot.

While all this was going on, my sister Julia and I had been looking for a property that would work for moving the business. (Having the company in a building on my property was fine when it was just Cliff, myself and a couple of people but having 12 staff running in and out of the house, much as I love them, gets a little old after a while!) We had been looking in Martinsburg and had seen a couple of places that were dreadfully expensive and would not have worked when Julia noticed a small "For Sale" sign across the street. We asked and found a brand new, single story, ranch style house, very open plan with a double high 30 by 50 foot garage next to it. We took one look and realized that this would be perfect! The warehouse, shipping and stock could all be used in the garage (which was heated, air conditioned etc), there was another tiny little building with its own bathroom that would be ideal for her office, and the rest of the company could use the house. We made an offer, which was accepted, and moved in on the first week of November. (After we moved in, however, Julia found that the "bathroom" in her office looked great but that the sink, shower and w/c weren't actually connected to anything and just ended at a pipe in the ground! - She now uses the bathroom as a place for the dog to sleep while she is at work.) On that note, Martin Medical is doing extremely well and Julia has turned it into an amazing company. She landed the big national ADAP conference again last year and looks to have gotten it for 2004. She started an association for the medical directors of all the correctional facilities around the country to help advise them on how best to treat incarcerated populations and she ran the conference at the National Conference on AIDS to design the Southern States Manifesto.

At the beginning of November, and in the middle of all of this (packing and moving and all the things that go with moving a company as well as loading and debugging this huge new computer system) we found out that our ISO certification (an International Quality Standard that allows us to get lots of work) had been superceded and that we had two weeks to completely redesign, rewrite, implement and inspect an entire new system. The first time we did this, a couple of years ago, it took me six months to write the thing (again, professionals would have cost a huge amount so I learned how to do it myself). At this point I started to feel a little over my head but, thankfully, managed to get it all done (or at least I hope so - the inspection by the auditors is this coming Friday!)
The end result is that we seem to be doing better and I think that 2004 is going to be a good year and, hopefully, wont be as non-stop. I have been so lucky for many years that business has been good so one brutal year of work after all these good ones is not bad at all!

Personally, the year has been wonderful! The condo in DC was finally finished and looks great (all deep red, blue and green gem tones!) and I have been going down there about once a week or so. (More on the house shortly!)

At the beginning of the year I went to New Orleans with Julia and Gary and two couples from Shepherdstown. As they have all threatened me with death if I ever give any details on the weekend I will only say that you know things are bad when I end up being the chaperone! (It was great fun! - see pictures on my website for details)

In March, just before my 40th birthday, the whole family, along with two very dear friends, John and Sarah Metzbower, rented a 44 foot long catamaran and sailed by ourselves round the Virgin Islands. This had been something my father, Cliff, had wanted to do for a long time but I had some mixed feelings about this (to put it mildly!). When we all arrived in Tortolla (or Shitola as we rapidly christened it), my worst fears were realized. The place was appalling! With a cloud of impending doom hanging over us, we set sail …. only to have one of the most wonderful times I have ever had! We sailed from little deserted beach to little deserted beach with some of the most magnificent scenery and snorkeling I have ever seen. Ever night we anchored off another small island and took the dinghy ashore to drink vast quantities of rum and stuff ourselves on wonderful food. We sailed, swam, played cards, talked, read, ate and drank like fish, and all in all had an incredible time. I would love to go back and take a whole bunch of friends and do it again with a couple of boats! (Maybe end up at a spa on St. Johns for a couple of days at the end?? - Anyone interested?) The final night was my 40th birthday and we went to a great restaurant that is only accessible by boat, where the chef, an expatriate Brit, takes the stage at the end of the night and starts singing and playing the guitar. He also asks anyone with any musical ability to join him. Some of the songs were funny, some were just cute… but suddenly this one group of men in the restaurant, who were professors from Chicago or something and all of whom were pretty smashed, got up and joined him. One was on the piano, one was drumming etc and the result was this fantastic jam session. The tequila started flowing and I have vague memories of being dragged away by Julia in the wee hours of the morning - I have no clue who steered the dinghy back to the boat though!

When we got back to DC, the family had a terrific 40th birthday party for me at the Mens Club in Shepherdstown and folks came in from all over for a weekend of general debauchery. (I still can't believe that I have made it this long!)

The summer was pretty quiet with all the stuff going on with the business, so I didn't plan or do any travel with the exception of a weekend in Chicago, but I decided to go to the American Philatelic Society's big stamp show, which was going to be held in Columbus, Ohio in August. I spend a great deal of time on my hobby and have developed many friends through it. I had met and talked to the new president of the APS, a great lady named Janet Klug, a couple of times previously, but out of the blue she called me in August and asked if I would give a speech to the Board on financial and fundraising matters. I agreed and, feeling totally out of my depth, gave a talk to all these folks who I have been reading about, and whose research and articles etc I have been reading for years. Needless to say, I was really intimidated at first but ended up having a great time and they are kicking off a campaign to finish their new library and museum in Pennsylvania. They are a great group of folks and it adds to my enjoyment of the hobby (well - obsession is probably closer to it!) I am still working on my exhibit but, being just a little bit obsessive-compulsive, it just never seems good enough to display…yet.

While I was in Columbus I spent every day at the show and was in bed in the hotel, ordering room service and watching in-room movies by 8pm every night. On the last night, a Saturday, I realized that as this was my only summer vacation, I really should go out, if only for a cocktail! (Just think, only a year ago I was enjoying a month of decadence on Fire Island - now I am in Columbus! Maybe 40 has made a difference - Eeeek!) Anyway, I dragged myself off to a bar, ordered a drink and noticed a handsome guy across the room. We started talking and I found that he was one of the owners of a restaurant in town. I had been hearing about the restaurant all week from different folks but had been too tired to go out. We kept talking for hours and then left the bar and spent most of the night sitting in his restaurant talking. It turned out that he too had been working and had not been out for weeks either and, through a series of coincidences, had just gone out for a quick drink that night himself. I left Columbus the next morning but we started talking on the phone many times each day (and you all know how un-talkative I usually am on the phone!) and he came out to visit every other weekend. As many of you know already, his name is Nathan Langdon, he is 42 and is a wonderful man! (He can even spell Puccini, much to Cliff's relief!)

At the end of August I went to Pennsylvania for Susan and Laura's annual Camping Trip and, although it poured all weekend, we ended up under Taj MaTarp and had a great weekend. In fact, the rain made it better in many ways as we spent lots of time simply talking and being with each other. Our friends, Dave and Laurie, who own the land up there, always treat us so well and are a delight! On the final night, there was a huge lightening storm and they opened up their house so we could all sleep inside. The following weekend, Julia had a conference to do in New Orleans so we went back there for the National Conference on AIDS. When I got back from that, Nathan came out for the National HRC dinner and we then drove down to Ft. Lauderdale for a few days as he has had a time share there for years. We had a very relaxing time and I would love to get a little place down there at some point in the future. Since then we have been spending as much time as we can together and he is in the process of becoming a silent partner in the restaurant and putting his rental properties with an agency in Columbus so that he can move here next year. He would be in Columbus about 40 percent of the time and here the rest for the next couple of years and is thinking about buying properties for renovation and rent in the local area. I am still stunned by all this but a new chapter (and hopefully the rest of the saga) of my life has opened up and it is wonderful and I am very happy. Thom is and always will be part of me and my life and Nathan is neither threatened nor concerned. The people we love influence the people we become so he knows Thom through me. I truly am a lucky man!

While all this was going on, I had been working with Andy Singletary, the architect, on this new house. We had completed the design and were getting quotes from contractors just as I met Nathan. The design is/was amazing and things were progressing nicely until one evening in October. Nathan and I were sitting out back in front of a roaring bonfire and drinking wine and it was one of those perfectly clear, silent, beautiful evenings we get up here. We were talking away when he asked my why I was selling this house and building another. I started telling him how the house and grounds were too big for one person; that cooking for one was a pain and I wanted to be closer to town etc when suddenly I stopped and realized that none of those reasons were valid any longer. I love this house and love living here. The big stumbling block to keeping this place was that I couldn't do it alone. My personal assistant track record got even worse this year. I think I went through 4 or 5 assistants! There again, human resources has never been my strong point but eventually this fall I hired someone who actually knows what they are doing and seem to be able to help me with the upkeep around here. On top of that, I then realized that the house I had designed was, in fact, designed with me in mind and had not really taken into account anyone else living there! The upshot of the whole thing is that I am going to keep the land I bought as an investment and have decided to take the things that I loved from the new design and incorporate them into this house. (This works actually as the new house was going to cost an obscene amount to build!) With the staff gone, we are going to convert the upstairs of the old office to a large guest bedroom suite and use the downstairs as the garage. The old garage (which was the original office here - are you confused yet??) is going to be converted to an office and study for Nathan. The upstairs of the barn is being tiled and painted so that the disco is finished and the downstairs is going to be another little guest bedroom and paths and lighting are going to go in for both buildings. In the main house, I am finally getting a duel-fuel stove, which I have always wanted and I am working with Andy again to see if we can extend the basement and put an indoor pool and hot tub in. So… the Champagne Tea is back on again next spring and you will have to come and see the changes. (Keep repeating "Reality is subject to change without prior notice!", however.)

This fall I went to the Renaissance Festival most weekends, as always, and attended my friends Eric and Tracey's wedding just as the Festival ended. As nearly all the folks in and at the wedding were Rennies, they did the wedding in garb and held it at a gorgeous place on the Chesapeake Bay. It was a wonderful wedding but as it was a day wedding, ended around 4pm and so myself, Nathan and our friends Sue and William, in full Renaissance regalia (including the lace tights and metal codpiece etc) decided to go into downtown Annapolis for a pub crawl. The Army-Navy game was going on so the town was packed and we certainly stood out (but after all the red wine at the wedding, didn't really care too much!) Any time someone asked one of us why we were dressed like that we would simply respond "Because it's Saturday!" which really confused people!

I just finished the annual fundraiser for the IanThom Foundation, which was hugely successful and we raised over $15,000 from over 140 attendees (although the house looked like Al Queda had detonated a small nuclear device in it the next morning) and have just finished Thanksgiving at Julia and Gary's.

The family are all well. Val has roped Clifford into all her CASA volunteer work and they spend a huge amount of time on this. Both their health is great and they are getting ready for the Rotary Ball next week. Cliff goes through huge drama each year with this event but somehow volunteers to do it again every year.

Gary, Julia, Collin and Duncan are well too. Collin started prep school and just turned 13 so he is officially a teenager - God help us all! Duncan is still enjoying his school and both of them are great kids! (Soccer still rules supreme in the Lam household.)

My health isn't too bad but I had an ongoing problem with staph infections this year and will end up with a small scar on my cheek from one of them (time to visit the magic doctor I guess to see what they can do about it!) I had bone grafts from the bottom to the top of my mouth over the summer due to years of my medications on top of bad English dentistry as a kid but my counts remain decent. Other than that my health is pretty good, although the doctor is insisting that I need to exercise more and stop smoking - Grrrrr! I certainly would like to stop smoking so we will see.

I have continued to do lots of political and charity work and have kept updating, although not as regularly, all the stuff on my website. Both the dogs are well although they do look alike, even though Thor now weighs about 140 lbs and Scruffy weighs about 4 lbs soaking wet. The folks in DC still call Scruffy by the name of Snack as she is literally one mouthful for Thor. She is still bouncing around which is remarkable when you think that she is now over 18 years old. Both of them terrorize my cat, Emma, who ignores them completely.

That brings me up to the present. I am getting ready for the holidays and ransacking my brain to come up with something my nephews will love that will thoroughly annoy my sister and brother in law but inspiration has not yet stuck. Next year I am going to Colorado for the PPGLCC awards dinner on February 7th where they give out the Thomas Major Martin Award for Community Service (everyone is invited to come) and I have just been informed that the Mautner Project has named me their Man of the Year for 2004, so there will be a fundraiser/award thingy for that in the late spring (and please try to come - you can be assured I will be hitting you up for it!)

I am sorry this letter is so long this year but, as you can see, a lot has happened and I have found this year's letter more difficult to write than in the past. Things are in a state of transition but it is all change for the better and I feel wonderful and positive about the future.

I wish you and yours a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous Holiday Season and New Year and send all my love.