Subject: Weekend Update: January 12-14
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 11:03:55 -0500

Nothing else fell apart or blew up on us after last week's update.
For that, we are truly grateful.

We did get the word on a reconditioned motor and it was on the lower
side of the estimate at just over $3000.  Joy looked at me and asked
if that meant we had an extra thousand dollars to spend. I gave her
one of those "very funny" looks.  While it is no fun to spend money to
"come back to even", God provides, and then some.  Thanks for the
notes I received after last week's update; they mean more to me than
you know.

The news from college is that the girls are doing well.  Mandy is
taking the January term off, pursuing additional means of income for
the upcoming Spring semester.  On the home front, Emily was off on
another "missing persons" weekend, spending her days and hours either
babysitting overnight or at a friend's house - a devious plot she has
hatched to keep her room from getting too messy, I think.  Andrew
stays close to home because of his contractual obligation to deliver
the Lowell Sun come rain, snow, sleet, or hail.  (Today, it will be
snow!)

Joy and I got to spend a cozy evening on Friday night while the
younguns went to gym night.  We watched Braveheart, (a gift for
Christmas), to remind ourselves that life in the twenty-first century,
even with car troubles, isn't so bad.  We should have watched a
chick-flick because my Irish-mongrel wife got mad at the British,
which then gets deflected at me!  (Thanks Edward I Longshanks!)

Joy and I had a real date on Saturday evening - a company holiday
party, which our office holds in January to get cheaper function hall
facilities. The party was being held up in Haverhill, a couple of
exits from where the Gonzalez family lives for the next couple of
weeks. (They move to Pepperell on the 27th.) I invited ourselves over
for the afternoon to visit.  We brought our party clothes to change
into when evening approached.

Joy wore a full length black dress with open back.  (A few times that
evening, I had to put my hand on her back to keep her warm!)  Wendy
Gonzalez offered to do Joy's hair in a french braid, tucked under with
an added touch of Baby's breath place din the braids.  Joy received
many compliments on her hair that evening.  As I got dressed for the
evening, my black socks were inadvertently left at home.  No problem;
I'd just borrow a pair from Rich.  Wendy handed me a pair which I
proceeded to don immediately.  She chuckled as she informed me that
they we her socks; a black knee-high thick stocking.  I didn't care
and wore them anyway.  I probably could have worn purple polka dotted
socks, though, for all the fashion concern I exhibited. All eyes were
on Joy, and not my socks.

We sat around a large tables with my colleagues and their spouses (or
dates).  After conversation, dinner, and some door prizes the dance
floor was opened.  I was impressed by the jitterbuggers who danced to
"In the Mood" and amused by most of the other dances.  More people
took to the floor for the slow dances.  I would have taken Joy out on
the dance floor for a slow dance, but I don't have a cell phone, which
I would need to call some church official for a special dispensation,
or suspend or resign my membership for an hour of wild abandon. But
Joy wasn't feeling up to swaying or swooning.  Well, maybe for
swooning, but for very different reasons.  (Joy's health is kicking up
a bit but she doesn't want to create a fuss about it, so that's all
I'll say in this forum.)  She did look terrific and I may have risked
my offices that night for a few minutes of privacy in public: "The
woman tempted me and I did dance."  (Perhaps if Joy had been Eve, and
I Adam, men would have been given pains in childbirth!!)

On Sunday afternoon, we went over to Eric and Linda Magnuson's for
dinner, again without Emily who went off somewhere to a teen council
meeting.  Joy and I weren't good company.  I went to sleep on their
couch, and Joy napped in a recliner for the afternoon while Eric and
Linda took Michael and Andrew sledding.  Now that's true friendship!
8^D (Sorry guys!  Good food and needed rest.  Thanks!)

Mark
--
+---_-----------+ Mark Metcalfe, metcalfe@cadence.com
| c a d e n c e | Cadence Design Systems, Inc.    Phone: (978) 446-6451
+---------------+ PCB Systems Division, Technical Communications Manager