Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Last Friday I gave a talk at a seminar at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, NM on the financial aspects of mid-life changes. The attendees ranged in age from the mid 50s to the late 60s. It was a mixed group from six states, some retired, some not. It was a highly cerebral group with three PhDs in the room. My wife, Iris, and I spent the night at a hotel in Abiquiu, then got up early so I could give the three-hour talk. It was different from my usual seminars in that it was more discussion than lecture, and it went extremely well.

That afternoon, Iris and I went on a tour of Ghost Ranch and saw many sites that Georgia O’Keefe had painted. All in all, it was a very positive break from my usual routine.

Over the weekend, I went to the Fan Fest at the Albuquerque Convention Center and got autographs of LA Dodger baseball players that I watched as a kid. They were brought to town by the Albuquerque Isotopes in preparation for the AAA Allstar Game, which will be held tomorrow. I’ve decided, after talking to some of the vendors who sell baseball and sports memorabilia, that I would like to buy a baseball signed by Sandy Koufax.

Yesterday I chaired this year’s first meeting of the Allocation Committee of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico--we plan to give away over $200,000 during the next two weeks. We’ll be listening to grant request presentations and deciding how to split up the money among all the different needs in the community. We discussed creating a grading system to apply to the presentations in order to help quantify our decisions.