Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 10:57:54 -0400
Subject: Weekend Update: October 19-21 2001

Joy does Christmas early.  She shops, she makes, and she plans.  Her
sisters are the same.  They learned it from their mother.  I have
Christmas presents stacked on my dresser to be sent home with her
sister Hope and brother-in-law Tom, who are visiting with us for a
couple of days.  I make a terrible companion at these times because
when I have a gift to give or receive, I want to give it NOW.  But
Joy is adamant each year about waiting until Christmas to give the
gifts that were bought or made months in  advance.  We have teased
her that she'd make us wait until December 25th to get a pair of
warm gloves because they are a Christmas present, even if it means
letting our hands freeze for the last of the Fall months.  It's a
tension that has existed between us for 23 years, and I suppose will
exist for some time to come.  Tradition is steeped into Joy, however,
who also insists that the Christmas decorations do not go up until
the day after Thanksgiving.  I don't mind too much, because I think
she needs the tension of holding the gift-giving anticipation to
build until Christmas Day.

This was Homecoming Weekend at ENC.  I got an email a while back
because this is the 20th anniversary of most of the class that started
in 1977 and graduated in 1981.  I didn't graduate in 1981 because
I took 7 years to complete college.  In those years, Joy and I were
married and added Miranda and Jessica to the family.  It is subjective
to say, I know, but I daresay that I had the better college experience.
I was the fortunate one to have my own 4-year old daughter meet me on
the other side of my diploma with a bouquet of balloons.  I know several
of you might want to be the first to say I have no class, but in terms
of college, and high school, I never really did.

A few years ago, Emily and Andrew chose band instruments and
that's been coming home to roost these days.  Emily is in the High 
School band and is marching up and down the football field.  Jessica 
could never do that with her piano, and Miranda also couldn't with
her violin.  It is an all-too-frequent occurrence these days with
two teenage younguns going hither and yon that Joy and I get left
alone to do the house chores.  On Saturday, Emily spent the morning
taking the PSAT exam.  Joy took Andrew to a rent-a-teen activity to
clean out someone's garage.  (I am not going to rent my own children!)
However, Richard Gonzalez offered to change the oil in my cars and
I didn't think twice about that.  I told Joy to meet me at Rich and
Wendy's after she dropped off Andrew so that the van could be serviced.
I then called Wendy Saturday morning while Joy was out ferrying the
Boy, and asked if she would like to make breakfast for me, which she
seemed delighted to do. Four eggs later, and two oil changes, we set
off back to the house for more winterizing chores.  We got the winter
storm windows in place, and blew out the outside lines (drained the
outside pipes).  Rich helped me out once again by installing a deadbolt
lock on our barn door.  All I could offer him was a soak in our hot tub
to sooth away the disappointment of the NY Yankees devastaing loss
on Saturday.  (Rich is a BIG Yankees fan, but I like him anyway.)

I guess some of you haven't heard about what's going on with the
"fundrazor", and more specifically to many of you, what about my
hair.  The date is set for the chop and I should have a couple of
pictures for you in my next Weekend Update.  Sandy Estey has the 
honors of clipping the ponytail; she's the sister of Karen Campbell
(Ramby husband) who are serving as Missionaries in South Africa.
How short will it get? I'll fill you in next week.

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