December 9, 2001   Merry Christmas from the Steffens clan!  It's been a roller coaster ride this year with local earthquakes, the unfortunate events of September 11th, the resultant slide in the economy, the burgeoning unemployment rate, and our nation going to war. As I type this, Shannon sits at the other (her) PC playing her Curious George interactive PC game. Just after turning 2, she became proficient at using the mouse in a few short weeks.  I taught her how to open CD cases, load and unload her CDs, and launch her games over the course of the next month.  She'd figure out a new CD game in about 2 or 3 sessions.  She quickly mastered powering the power strip up, turning the PC on, clicking on Start in Windows, launching her games, closing them when finished, properly doing a shutdown, and powering everything down.  A month ago (not quite 3 yet), I came downstairs in the morning, heard the hum of the PC, and found Shannon downstairs dialed up to the Internet playing "Bear in the Big Blue House" on playhousedisney.com.  She had watched me switch the phone line switchbox to her PC, double-click on My Computer, open the Dial-Up Networking folder, double-click on my Fox Internet ISP connection, and start up Internet Explorer (defaulted to the Disney website) a couple of times in the previous week and had memorized all that.  Amazing what powers of observation go on in that little cranium.  Now all I hear is "Daddy I want to go on-line!"  Needless to say, Nora and I have resorted to hiding our credit cards! The last day of February, Seattle was hit by a 6.8 "deep" earthquake around 11am.  I was at work on the second floor and the beginning of it felt and sounded like a 400 lb. man was running down the hallway.  The serious shaking began and lasted about 45 seconds with about 2 minutes of slight wiggle after that.  This was the second quake here in 5 years.  A "deep" quake feels more like a constant motion back and forth in one direction ... the shallower quake in '96 was more of a jittery motion in all directions.  We were pretty lucky finding only some rearranged bookshelves and most of our wall hung pictures askew.  Strange feeling to have the earth move underneath you.  New Wave (our cat) was freaked out for several days afterwards! Nora got a few much needed maternal breaks this year.  In late March, she and her long-time friend Debi took a week off and attended the World Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver, BC.   Figure skating has long been her favorite sport attending the "Champions on Ice Tour" annually with many of her friends and "Disney on Ice" with Shannon, her friend Heather, and her daughter Paige this year as well.  In late June, I took Shannon on a 5 day trip to Wisconsin to see her "grand" parental units again.  Taking a 2 and a half year old on a long plane ride without your spouse right after her mid-day nap can be a recipe for disaster. In life one learns many lessons!  With my Father's failing health they haven't been able to visit us in Seattle the last few years.  Shannon had a great time playing with "Nana" and "Papa" Steffens and making the rounds visiting her "great" relatives.  Nora and her friend Heather also took a long weekend in LA in September attending a Madonna concert there and doing up the town.  All this "Mr. Mom" stuff in the interim takes its toll! In June, I took a one month leave of absence from Rockwell to finish up our backyard landscaping project we began last year.  Progress was slow due to the weather (lots of rain) but 70 more yards of dirt, sand, one-man rock, bark and another tree removed saw the main levels of the yard defined, the additional rock terraces completed, the firepit area in the back corner of the yard and our paths begin to take shape.  We worked well into August to get the sprinkling system and drainage tile in, power and water run to the storage shed, the deck steps reworked, and all the rototilling, rolling and grass seeding done.  Our backyard is no longer a big mud pit!  Still to come are stone paths, a few arbors, an upper and lower patio, further upraised berm definition, and lots of planting. We went to San Diego for our "big" vacation this year in September, a little late in the year for the really warm weather there. This was mainly a vacation for Shannon ... Sea World, San Diego Zoo, a few parks, and many beaches.  The water in California was way too cold to swim in with all the surfers sporting wetsuits.  I guess we're spoiled by the handful of times we've been to Hawaii. The Seattle Mariners had a stellar season this year at 116-46, a new American League record for the most wins ever.  Shannon really enjoyed the handful of games we saw at the new Safeco Baseball field with her baseball glove in hand yelling "Hit it to me, hit it to me!" repeatedly through out the game.  The UW Huskies had an up and down season ending it getting trounced by the Miami Hurricanes in an embarrassing away game.  Besides Nora’s Madonna concert in LA, we saw a resurrected “Cheap Trick” and “The Guess Who” at some smaller local venues, snuck in a few memorable plays in downtown Seattle, a county fair, and numerous children’s birthday parties! Digital Vision had another excellent year for a part time website development business, branching off in logo design, and business card and letterhead graphics work.  Getting to build websites for a wide diversity of businesses makes it all the more interesting (this year a church, a web design company, a land development firm, a hair styling salon, a technical sales company, and charity websites for my old high school in Dayton, Ohio and a civil action organization fighting a sewer plant being built near where we live).  Check out the Website Portfolio section of Digital Vision’s website http://www.digital-vision.com if you’re interested in seeing any of my work. My company Rockwell Collins spun off from Rockwell Corporate, have their own stock and their own identity now.  The company then quickly announced after September 11th events that 2800 (out of 15000 total) would be laid off over the next 6 months.  My local 42 person office was reduced to 28 over the course of that.  Nora and I both survived the massive reduction in force actions by our respective companies. In October I began an intensive 7 week training program (spread out over 6 months) to become a Windows 2000 Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE).  This is meant to enhance my skills and get the title after my name.  Most companies these days hiring for IS Manager positions are looking for that so we hope that provides us with a little insurance for the future. Shannon keeps Nora's father Bill very busy when we or he visits.  She's taken quite a liking to dancing with her Papa Jenkins to his collection of older country music and bluegrass.  I believe Lefty Frizzell's rendition of "If You've Got The Money" is her personal favorite high steppin' tune.  Quite the entertaining pair! With the troops asleep the house is unusually quiet.  Even New Wave is snoozing on Shannon's Pooh chair.  May the world find it's way toward this sense of peace and healing in this strange era of discontent.  May we all celebrate a Merry Christmas with a renewed sense of who we are, where we live, and what's really important in life.  Our New Year wish is that happiness finds its place in and around you.  Seattle has a home for you during your travels, just come prepared to dance with Shannon to "The Wiggles" (her favorite video from a children's show in Australia) and roast some marshmallows in the backyard firepit!  E-mail us a paragraph or two letting us know what's shakin' in your neighborhood and we promise you a reply … hitting "Send" in Microsoft Outlook or AOL is such an easy thing to do! Merry Christmas 2001!