Christmas
2003
Hello one
and all! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah,
a Joyous Festivus, and a Happy New Year to all!
We hope your year has been a good one.
Nancy and I have been busy once again this year with both work and play.
The year
started off with an unplanned “double vacation”. We had already planned to spend Christmas
2002 at our timeshare in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Suddenly Ohio State beat Michigan and
earned a bid to the BCS national championship game. (That’s college football, for those
unfamiliar.) So, Nancy and I flew to Florida for a
week on the beach, jetted home for a day of work and laundry then flew back out
to Phoenix, Arizona for the
Fiesta Bowl on January 3. OSU won the
game 31-24 in double overtime, arguably the most exciting college football game
ever played. (Personally, my feet didn’t
touch the ground for two months after that.)
The weekend after the game, we met up with my college friends Rod and
Renée and visited Sedona together. This
is a very scenic area that you’ve probably seen on TV. We did some hiking and took a hot air balloon
ride with our friends.
This July
we undertook a more unique experience.
We traveled to Nova Scotia, Canada for a
bicycling vacation. We biked for 30-50
miles each day, spending the evening in a different bed-and-breakfast or
inn. This was intended to be a group
tour, but no one else signed up with the tour company. Instead of canceling the tour, the company
gave the tour for just the two of us.
The countryside was beautiful, the city of Halifax was
great (we recommend the Maritime Museum and the
Citadel) and the people were all wonderful.
While
we’re on a cycling theme, Nancy and I both completed the MS 150 Pedal to the
Point ride this August. In this
fundraiser, you ride 75 miles from Cleveland to Cedar
Point amusement park on Saturday then ride back on Sunday. Many people go to Cedar Point for the evening
after they arrive then spend the night sleeping on a high school gymnasium
floor or in a tent (if they sleep at all).
We opted to head right to the Holiday Inn where we quickly crashed. It was two long days in a row but quite an
accomplishment.
Our other
big vacation this year was to northern Arizona and the Grand
Canyon. This was
intended to be a family vacation with my parents and two of our nieces where we
would take the mule ride down to the bottom of the canyon one day and back up
the next. However, about three weeks
before we were due to leave we got word that the mule rides were canceled due
to the need to do trail maintenance.
Although the others decided to wait for another time, Nancy and I went
ahead with the trip, and had a great time.
We visited a cornucopia of parks and attractions, including Petrified
Forest, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Sunset
Crater, Meteor Crater, and Walnut Canyon. We stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona – it was
such a fine sight to see. We got our
kicks on Route 66 and stood in four states at one time in Four
Corners, USA. We hiked three miles into the Grand
Canyon; when we turned to hike back, it was a 2000-foot
climb back up. All in all, it was an
excellent trip.
We had a
few other trips this year as well:
- In February we drove
to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for
the Groundhog Day festival, where we saw the groundhog and he saw his
shadow.
- In March for our 16th
anniversary we spent a few days in Las
Vegas with our friends Choo and
Karensa, where we saw comedienne Rita Rudner and the Blue Man Group. (We saw the Blue Man Group again when
they came to Cleveland on
tour.)
- In June we drove to Toronto
where we saw “The Lion King” musical on stage.
- In November we flew
to Orlando to
spend a weekend at Disney with some friends and co-workers.
Our
careers have also been rewarding this year.
Nancy was
promoted from project administrator to project manager at Key Bank this
April. It’s definitely a positive
recognition of her skills. She has 3-4
projects that she’s responsible for at any one time. She’s well-thought-of by everyone she works
with and is doing great.
For me, after
four years on the road traveling to the same client in Illinois week
after week, I finished up my time there in April. My commute now is much shorter, from the
bedroom upstairs to the office downstairs.
The project I’m on now allows me to work from home, which is a definite
improvement from traveling all the time.
I’ve had two one-day business trips since April and that’s it.
Another
bonus in my career is that IBM has decided to enroll me in their customized executive
MBA degree program at the University of Georgia. Every three months, I and about 45 IBM colleagues
travel to campus in Athens, Georgia from all
over the US and Canada for a
week of classes. During the rest of the
time we study from home, watching video lectures and doing group projects over
the phone and Internet. I will finish in
2005.
We have
found a new volunteer activity for ourselves.
Cuyahoga Valley National
Park is just a few miles away and we
spend a lot of time there already either hiking or cycling. After training this summer we began
volunteering on weekends staffing the visitor center in the park. We give presentations and tell people about
the park (although mostly we tell them how to find the bathroom).
This year
has been a milestone in another way.
Come January we will have lived here for six years, which is a record
for us. Our previous record was 5½ years
in Virginia. Surprisingly we’re not planning to move anytime
soon. Also living with us still are the
fabulous felines, Snickers and Brutus.
Brutus as you might imagine is still fat, weighing in around 20 pounds. Snickers just sneaks around trying not to be
eaten.
Well, as
our Christmas letter makes its way to you, we look forward to your letters and
pictures coming to us. Since we haven’t
seen some of you in a while, we hope that many of the pictures we receive will
include you as well as your children – just so we recognize you when we see you
again. J
Well, I
think that’s it for this year. We both
hope you have Happy Holidays and an enjoyable 2004!
Merry
Christmas!
Nancy and
Jerry Canterbury