Where's the Update? Last week, I took a trip with my entire group to Portland, Oregon for some team-building activities. Mark Hamlin called it a vacation and I admit that there are some aspects of travel that are nice. However, we went to accomplish business goals and I think we did a good job of that. Getting home was no picnic, though, as the weather in Chicago delayed flights and forced us to find a reroute through Denver, Colorado. Originally scheduled to land in Boston at 8PM, we were lucky enough to get on a stand-by flight and into Logan International Airport by midnight. (This was before Logan's radar problems of the past weekend!) I got to bed at 2AM Friday morning. I put in a short day at work on Friday, tidying up some details from the trip and catching up on email, (which can really pile up). After a Good Friday service, we all retreated homeward and the kids set about painting eggs for Easter. Now, my kids are pretty odd in that we don't dunk hardboiled eggs in a food coloring mixture after they have been scrawled on with a special crayon. (I'm thankful that the Paas kits no longer require vinegar like they did when I was a kid - YUCK!) Instead, Miranda broke out her painting set and brushes and they decorated a dozen or so white eggs that Joy had blown out for some days or weeks ahead of time. If that's not enough oddity for you, Miranda and Emily also set about painting a Thomas Kincaide knock-off on the canvas of a couple of ostrich egg shells we have been meaning to get to for the past three years; since our trip to Texas in 1997. On Saturday, we did a little shopping, taking the girls with us. It has been a long time since any of the kids went shopping with us. Jessica grabbed a can off one shelf and wondered why anyone would want to buy a Bumble Bee in water. (Those not in the USA, Bumble Bee is a brand name of tuna fish.) We also enjoyed the company of a couple of families over the weekend: the Magnuson family on Saturday and the Gonzalez family on Easter Sunday (no relation to Elian, that I know of). We arose early on Easter Sunday morning. The church was holding a breakfast before the services so that pushed our Easter Sunday routine up a half hour or so because Joy still hides chocolate Easter eggs in the barn for our kids (now 20, 17, 14, and 11) to hunt. And they HAVE to search for those eggs, too; it's tradition. Joy reminded me that my mother provided Easter baskets for us when we were 20. As a matter of fact, on that Easter, Joy had a 1-day old Miranda with her in the hospital. By the time she got home with our newborn first-born, her chocolate Easter Bunny had mysteriously morphed into a badly sculpted Easter Chicken. It seems that chocolate ears and other shavings were too much temptation for Grandpa Metcalfe. Andrew is often the first to arise and he gets his own breakfast. The Easter Bunny left his favorite cereal out on the table; his chosen Lenten fast over. Emily can go back to eating lunches again, and I had a half glass of Coca-Cola before breakfast and it was smmmoooooth! After a traditional spiral-cut ham, Joy shooed all the kids out of the barn to hide yet another stash of eggs so that the girls in the Gonzalez family could also hunt for the eggs. She even hid one in the crook of my arm while I dozed on the couch, resetting my internal clock from my Left Coast trip. That evening, we returned Mandy to college to finish off the busy week. Mandy will be back this weekend again because her friend, Christi Linton is getting married. I've agreed to video tape the events before I head off on my next business trip on Sunday to Phoenix, Arizona. So, this means that the next weekend update might be even later than today's. If you really need that fix, I have over four years (yes, that's hundreds) of these updates at http://www.fortunecity.com/millenium/tulip/309/wu.html. Enjoy! Mark _____. __ Mark Metcalfe __ _____. &/ \^ .\_ Cadence Design Systems, Inc. _/. ^/ \& | | 270 Billerica Road, MS04 | | `. . . \___< Chelmsford, MA 01824 >___/ . . .' |_|~-~|_| (978) 446-6451 |_|~-~|_|