About

We are retired New Mexico state employees, Laird from the executive and Jonelle from the best branch, the legislature.  Laird started in state government as chief economist for the taxation and revenue department, then received a Fulbright to Russia for a year; afterwards, he worked as an international consultant for about 5 years, mostly in Central Asia, but also South Africa, Botswana and Turkey.  He retired as chief economist of the department of finance and administration.  His specialities are tax policy and revenue estimating.  For most of her career, Jonelle was the senior bill drafter for the legislative council service and worked 37 years to earn full retirement.  It could have been shorter, but she took about 10 years to work as an independent contractor — working mostly for the legislature.  In 2011, we went to Prague to earn an international TEFL certificate and we hope sometime to get to use it.  We’re on the lookout for short-term (a few weeks or months) opportunities to teach English as a second language, particularly for adults in government, academic or business environments.  So if you hear of anything, let us know!

On the personal side, we’re from Santa Fe, New Mexico and are the proud grandparents of Theodore and Sia.  We like to travel, so this site is mostly about that.  Thanks for reading us!  l&j