No snowflakes around here (as usual), however Christmas tree stands have magically appeared on the street corners, there's a BIG GUY in a Santa suit ringing a bell in front of the grocery store and the Mall has begun to inundate the masses with non-stop holiday music for our shopping pleasure ... Christmas has once again LEAPED upon us like a starving lion upon an aged feeble wildebeest.  HOW GRAPHIC!  Sorry ... guess I got a little carried away.  With a chill in the air he travels ... making the appointed rounds and gathering presents for family and friends.

The news of the year is my NEW JOB!  I left Microcomputer Electronics in May and started the following MONDAY at Rockwell/Collins.  I was rewarded for my prompt arrival at Collins with an immediate three week stay in sunny Cedar Rapids, Iowa (COLLINS'   HEADQUARTERS).  Collins is to Cedar Rapids what Boeing is to Seattle ... there are two things in Cedar Rapids ... Collins and corn fields.  I spend about a week of every month there (just call me "Mr. Jet Lag").  I've traveled to L.A. a few times as well ... really accumulating those Frequent Flyer points!  I have started a software contracting company up for Collins in the Seattle area ... Pacific Scientific Software (Pac Sci) currently consists of 5 people: 2 business principals, 2 technical principals and they recently acquired a senior level engineer.  They've undergone extensive training, have set up their office and we're in the process of negotiating their initial contract with Collins.  It's been a very exciting and unique task.

The basement of my tutor has all woodwork stained and is basically finished.  I removed a main vertical support down there by having two steel plates fabricated and installed on either side of the main horizontal support.  It really opened up my den ... now POOL TABLE  assembly awaits!   There's some wallboard I touch up to do yet with carpeting and tile to install.   I took a landscaping class from the U of W with a friend in spring ... yep, you guessed it ... in the middle of summer the parental units, Nora and I began a major landscaping project.  I've stripped out all of the existing turf and have poured quite a bit of exposed aggregate concrete in the front and backyard.  I had three tons of "one-man" rock and five yards of "three-way" dirt dumped in the front yard ... really impressive use of landscaping buzz words, eh?  Added vertical 4x4 posts at staggered heights, attached sheet metal to them, and proceeded to construct a 1-3 foot high multi-leveled rock berm around the perimeter of the back yard.   Can you say "obsessed with home improvement", Alan?  Upcoming attractions include: leveling the yard, finishing the underground sprinkling system, seeding the lawn and planting the remainder of the trees and shrubs ... hopefully it won't take all of '91 to finish what I've started.

In somewhat chronological order the year's activities included: BED and BREAKFAST in Victoria, Figure Skating Championships in Tacoma, MANNHIEM STEAMROLLER in concert, SKI-TO-DIE Canadian Ski Tour 1990, season tickets to the PACIFIC NW BALLET, rafting and camping in eastern WA, GOODWILL GAMES (basketball, water polo, gymnastics and volleyball), annual SUN ISLAND REVIVAL Fourth of July party (complete with c-c-cold water river tubing, exploding watermelons and ritual fire leaping), the SKI-TO-DIE summer ski trip (no major injuries this year!), HOWIE MANDEL in concert, KRISTEN BARRY concerts (the daughter of my boss has a ROCK BAND), KARAOKE bar singing (Art does a GREAT Julio Inglesias), comedy clubs, Halloween as a "7-UP CAN" (Nora was the "SPOT") and a dinner excursion aboard the MOUNT RAINIER SCENIC RAILROAD (an old steam engine train complete with 1900 period costumes).

I played softball again this year on the mighty SHANNON AMBULANCE team (we won't discuss win/loss ratios ... but we have fun).  I golfed a "39" this year for nine holes (pretty soon I'll have to buy a pair of those snappy plaid golf slacks).   I jammed a few fingers in Art's volleyball league and am I repeating the SKI KING ski instructor clinic again this year on weekends to re-learn last year's lessons ... it began last week.  Never made it hang gliding last year but BUNGEE JUMPING looks interesting ...
  
  
  

Nora and I are off to Dayton in a couple of weeks to spend Christmas with big brother, his wife and their little wild ones.  The parents are dropping in on their annual pilgrimage to Florida for the winter months from Wisconsin (I thought only birds did that).  I always enjoy going back to Dayton ... brings back memories that are lost living in the far left hand comer of the map.  Look forward to a bit o' partying with my old college buds ... Jeff, I believe a rousing game of "caps" is in order!

In closing, I wish you all a Merry Christmas 1990 and a New Happy Year (sorry ... dyslexia).  As always "mi casa es su casa", so if you find yourself in Seattle, stop by, make a few long distance phone calls, drink all the beer, trash the place and then leave ... your stay should be enjoyable ... just like when I visit you!

See you soon ...