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The sleigh’s in the shop and the reindeer are all sick?
Quite a dilemma … even for you, Saint Nick.
You what? Bought a Harley with big saddlebags?
Bet it’s candy apple red with shiny chrome mags.
You’re wearing biker black leathers over your suit?
That way nobody will mess with you on your route?
You’re right about that, my big bearded friend.
It will be Christmas as usual I’m sure in the end.
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Greetings from the Pacific Northwest! Last Christmas was spent in Dayton, visiting
with my brother Dave, his wife Nan, and their
teenage procreations. Back in Seattle, New Years Eve found us at a neighbor’s
party … Shannon stayed awake for the millennium roll-over then crashed on the
carpet shortly thereafter. Nora and I played co-ed softball in a spring league
with many of my old Boeing colleagues. In the first few games (with adequate
stretching and practice), I managed to pull a hamstring, strain my back, break a finger,
and throw out my arm … pain has a funny way of bringing back the memory of why I
quit playing 8 years ago. We finished on a high note though, winning our last game
(let’s see, counting the forfeit, that would make us 2 for 10).
 Memorial Day
weekend had us flying the friendly skies to Maui for 11 days of beaches, relaxation
(when not chasing Shannon), and sunshine. We’ve been to the various
islands there 4 times in the last 10 years, a very stress-free vacation destination!
We happened to be in Kaanapali during a week-long jazz festival, so Shannon got
to sway to the music along with the rest of the Hawaiian shirt clad crowd. A sunset
cruise was also on the agenda which included the mandatory consumption of a half dozen
Mai Tai’s. Sea turtles were out in force all around the island and Shannon got
to see her first ocean. Tentative walking on the shifting sand at first, she soon
took to the beaches like a silicone-injected California girl and loved splashing around
in the waves. The coolest thing about parenthood is getting to experience things
for the first time again through the eyes of your child.
Summer saw it’s share of reunions. In late June, most of my old ski/party
group met down at Mt Hood in Oregon for our 20th year reunion. Rick, Dave, and I
were the only 3 to actually ski, everyone else content to hang out at the pool, hike,
chase around their offspring, and party in our various rooms at Timberline Lodge there.
Deb and Jennifer organized whole affair, culminating with a great slideshow of
our various adventures together one evening and providing lots of festive skeleton decore
as was tradition. I even snagged the “Crash and Burn Lifetime Achievement
Award” for my careless attitude toward safety (stupidity?) when skiing,
mountain-biking, windsurfing, etc. No one “bit it” as much as I did …
most of the time the end result wasn’t pretty, but I guess it provided some
entertainment value to my fellow Ski-To-Diers along the way.
In late July, we flew back to Dayton again for my 25th high school reunion. Seemed
a bit strange that most of the people that we ended up spending time with at the reunion
were friends of mine from grade school, not really high school. “Remember that
time we snuck out of your house on a sleep-over, walked all the way to the Dayton Mall,
jumped the fence into the drive-in theater, drank some beer, and stayed out all night?
” Hmmm … guess I was pretty wild back in 8th grade.
 Summer is prime
time for home improvement projects, and we packed
the summer full of them. We started by having 45 yards of good mulchy dirt and 7 tons
of one-man rock dumped in the driveway. I rented a John Deere backhoe/loader for a
weekend to reshape the backyard, and move the dirt and rocks back there. I found it
impossible to level the dirt with the backhoe (too bouncy, high center of gravity), so the
following week we rented a “bobcat” and Nora spent the entire weekend getting
the various backyard areas level in it. We built one-man rock terraces in a
number of places where we had drastic level changes or wanted a rock accent. A few
weeks later, it was back to the rental store (“Hello, Mr. Steffens!”) renting a
hydraulic rototiller to till in all the new dirt into the existing soil. We had a
100 foot tall tree taken down (in the middle of the backyard) and then hand raked all the
tilled dirt to smooth it out. Next we built a level 20x30 foot enclosure out of
layered 4x4s in a corner of the backyard for Shannon's swingset/fort/slide that was soon
to come. We ordered 12 yards of "playchips" and another 12 yards of dirt, and
moved the playchips into the enclosure (about 8" thick) as a cushion for
playset mishaps. It took 2 weeks for Nora and I to assemble the beast when it
finally arrived with Shannon and several neighbor kids swinging, sliding and climbing on
it as it all came together. I installed wiring, insulation, lighting, plywood walls,
and doors on the storage shed (built last year) and finally moved the remaining 12 yards
of dirt from the driveway. A sprinkling system. grass, lots of planting, and a patio
will be projects for next spring.
In mid-October, I had to spend 3 weeks back in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa (Rockwell Collins headquarters) working with their advanced web development team and
getting some valuable training from the Internet experts there. I left 5 days early
with Nora and Shannon joining me to sneak in a visit to my parental units in Appleton,
Wisconsin on the way. Shannon flew so much this year that she now has her own
Frequent Flyer card! While in Appleton, my mother organized a mini-family reunion to
introduce Nora and Shannon to both sides of my extended family. I had a great time
visiting with my aunts, uncles, and cousins, most of whom I hadn’t seen for 25 years.
It was also fun to see the grandparents dealing with Shannon’s strange little
personality (guess she takes after Nora there). After a long weekend of Disney
videos, parks, and playing “tea-time” with Grandma and Grandpa, Nora and Shannon
flew home and I continued on to begin my three 60-hour work weeks in Iowa.
Web development has continued to be Digital Vision’s business focus. With
a dozen websites under my belt, it seems that each one is a little more sophisticated and
refined than the previous one. My Rockwell Collins (real job) web development has me
writing ASP and JavaScript code for some very impressive database-driven dynamic content
web-based tools. Another year and some further graphics training should allow me to
use the word “professional” with regards to my fledgling web abilities.
What a creative medium for my artistic, technological, and organizational skills!
Nora continues on in her 32 hour work week IS Manager position at Universal Avionics (12
years now). It’s 
quite a challenge for us both to work (somewhat offset shifts)
and give Shannon our full attention in the afternoon. Especially true now as she
enters her “twos” and tries our parental patience as she figures out her role in
the grand scheme of things. As Shannon’s personality has developed, it somehow
seemed appropriate that whenever we’d ask her “Where’s the princess?”,
she would always point to herself. The Halloween costume Nora picked out for Shannon
this year finally put that question to rest.
Thanksgiving was spent with Nora’s family with all the
trimmings … one of the few times in the year that we get a chance to all be together.
With football as a traditional Thanksgiving fare, what a great opportunity to
mention that the University of Washington Huskies are finally going to the Rose Bowl (first
time in 10 years)! Ahhhh, all is right in the world again! We have had season
tickets to the Husky home games for many years now, sitting at the top of one of the end
zones in a big group with many of Nora’s old college friends.
May the New Year bring you all hope and love, the nation a
President, and peace in the world. If Seattle ends up being in your vacation plans or
work travels, make sure to stop by, have some “tea” with Shannon, hang with New
Wave (our cat), and grab a shovel (lots of landscaping work to do yet). During the
year take a minute to e-mail us a paragraph or so letting us know what’s happening in
your direction … we don’t get many from our old friends and it’s such an easy
way to stay in touch. As Y2K comes to a close, we wish you a Merry Christmas 2000!
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