Subject: Weekend Update: February 9-11
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 12:34:21 -0500

My friend, Dan Yackel in Atlanta was kind enough to send me the
forecast of mild temperatures and sun, and Jan and Meredith steered
their vehicle to Florida this past weekend. My brother John also took
his family to the world of Mickey and Minnie, too, in sunny Florida.
New England had somewhat of a warmup reaching the upper 40s F on
Saturday, which melted *some* of our snow and turned my driveway into
a glacial block of ice. The wram up was short-lived.  Our temperatures
dropped back into the single digits again by evening.  Melt then
freeze.

On Saturday, Joy and I went back to the car dealerships and did not
purchase a car.  They still don't have the price I am comfortable
with, so I walked away.  "Lazarus", as I am now calling my 1990
Acclaim with busted head gasket and anti-freeze waste, is still
bringing me to work and home again.  I laugh now every time it starts
up, wondering if I will actually be in the car when it sputters its
last piston, or whether I will be able to "trade" it in ot drive it to
the salvage yard.  I got back online to find the dealerships in a
60-mile radius and I'll start the phone game this week to see if I can
get a better price. One of the good reasons I had to walk away was due
to a meeting that I was hosting at the house that afternoon.  I have
learned that it is a good thing to go to a dealership when you are
legitimately pressed for time.  I might have otherwise allowed myself
to be pressured into either the Mitsubishi Eclipse GT or the Toyota
Celica GT-S when in fact, neither was to the point of a satisfactory
price.  "Ding!  Time's up.  Gotta go.  I'll get back to you after a
bit more homework on the Internet."

Meanwhile, we held a meeting on Saturday afternoon that involved many
of the music team from our church to discuss the music ministry and to
build relationships as the team expands.  It also doubled as a
pot-luck social.  The brave ones scrambled out to the snow and icy
porch to grill their meals.  Joyce Hamlin brought plenty of her own
home-made clam chowder (a favorite of mine) and I confess to having
more than I should have.  We enjoyed the company of new and old
friends, the last of which happily stayed until almost Sunday.  I
would have offered them our guest room but their dog has not been
trained to use porcelain conveniences so they regretfully had to go to
their own home.

Joy has been suffering with a bad cold anyway and it got progressively
worse by the sound of her cough.  A lot of this type of thing has been
going around in our church, giving new meaning to the Contagious
Christianity class we offer.  We were able to take a Sunday afternoon
nap - first in a long time.  Later in the afternoon, I got up and
dressed, kissed her on the cheek and left for church; she never
stirred; didn't even wake up until about quarter to seven.  This
morning, she's made the appointment to be seen by her doctor.  Emily
has also had a cold but the men of the house have been spared, so far,
and I have hopes it will miss us completely.

We have a new men's quartet at church.  Ron Knepper (that's the guy
you've seen playing the organ from time to time) has replaced David
Bickom as our baritone, and we held our first practice with excellent
results.  Debut of the new quartet is next Sunday night.

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