Congratulations, Joe, you found me! Thanks so much for being persistent. I've been meaning to check in for quite a while (yeah, right, I hear you all say...) and only have time now for a brief note. Thanks to all for the kind comments.

In brief, what's kept me away from the 'Cat has been...love. In July 2005 I moved to California to be closer to my daughter, taking a job as a developmental pediatrician with Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara. Then in November I met one of the urologists at Kaiser, though we didn't meet at work, but at a wine-tasting sponsored by the (don't laugh) Physician's Satisfaction and Wellness Committee.   Seems like my psychic friend in Hawaii was right when she told me, a few years ago, "You're going to marry a Jewish doctor." Jackie and I will be married in August. We've just moved into a new house (well, actually an old house) in Menlo Park, on the San Mateo Peninsula near Palo Alto and Stanford. Jackie has an 8-year-old son from her first marriage. My daughter Shayna still lives with her mom in Ojai, near Ventura.

Gotta run...I'm trying to help Jackie finish some more unpacking, and then may try to take my mandolin to the Bay Area Slow Session in San Leandro, which will be my first musical outing in quite a while. I did have a chance to sing a couple of times with Dave Swan's friends in Oak, Ash, & Thorn, and that was a huge thrill. Jackie isn't a musician or singer, but she loves music, and I've already dragged her to a couple of folkie events (including an OAT performance in Berkeley, and a house concert with good friends Mudlark--including DADGBE--in Davis).

Can't promise I'll be as frequent a contributor to Mudcat as I was in the past, but at least I have a good reason to be otherwise engaged!

Best to all.

Aloha,
Mark