Subject: Weekend Update: January 19-21
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 14:15:16 -0500

Yesterday's snow finally covered up the boot tracks that my nephews
made on our side yard.  It hasn't snowed all that much really, but the
cold has stayed in the 20s or so in New England so we haven't had much
of a melt off.  I have adopted a new policy on our driveway to pack
the snow down into a glacier if the snow fall is under five inches,
and this has worked well enough for the past couple of storms.
Underneath, the driveway is dirt so scraping it all away is not so
easy with snow shovels anyway.

Friday was the only busy day of the weekend.  Andrew was headed to
Junior High Winter Retreat in the afternoon so he needed to be picked
up from school early to get his paper route done and whisked to the
church.  That meant that Joy needed the car. (Our van is still in the
shop after two weeks.  They put an engine in but then took it out
because they found that engine to be defective.  We hope to get it
back this week.)  I tried to get a ride to work but the two
Pepperellians in my town who also work at Cadence couldn't help me.  I
brought Joy to work with me, intending to get a ride home with a
co-worker, but we changed plans and I had her stay until noon.  She
got to sit and watch me make occasional tapping noises on my keyboard
and listen in on a phone call, but otherwise occupied herself by
reading.  I took work home for the rest of the day so the errands of
the house could be fulfilled.

We dropped the boy off at church.  We brought Emily with us. She
stayed with us the whole weekend (for a change).  We decided to take
Emily out to dinner Friday night, while the opportunity presented
itself for a time of just her and her parents.  Besides, Emily will be
15 on January 31 so this was an early birthday celebration. We ate at
Chilis, where I should start getting a Frequent Fryer discount for the
times I've eaten there recently.  As an evening night cap, we stopped
at the automotive parts store and I poured some radiator stop leak
into the car which hasn't been holding its antifreeze. (Oh joy.)

I was a complete lazy bum for the weekend.  Joy says that I need to do
that sometimes - that is, to not do anything.  I don't know, though.
Emily was immersed in a homework assignment all day, and Joy wasn't up
to anything exciting so time came and went without fanfare.

The snow came in earnest Sunday morning to cancel the morning church
services. I almost had back-to-back Saturdays except for the Sunday
evening excursion to the church and back. Perhaps Joy is right after
all, knowing that this coming week will be full, and the weekend
fuller with moving the Gonzalez family and the Superbowl party for
Miranda and Jessica and their ravenous college buddies. At least, they
can pack my driveway down.

Mark

P.S. My brother John turned 45 last Thursday.  The only comment I'll
make about my elder is that he can remember going to the hardware
store to test the TV vacuum tubes.

--
+---_-----------+ 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