Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 10:35:46 -0500
Subject: Weekend Update: October 22-28, 2001 (Chop Chop)

Last Monday, I took a half a day off from work to spend with my
sister-in-law Hope and her husband, Tom.  We took a leisurely drive
through the nearby countryside stopping at a couple of farm stands
and New England farm houses to snap a few photos of the fall colors.
We had a good year but most of the leaves have floated out of the
trees and littered the ground.

Joy and I took Hope and Tom to the Garth Millett Auction in Concord,
New Hampshire that evening.  I was to be the auctioneer on Friday night
at our church teen fundraiser, so I wanted to get a refresher course,
and provide the four of us with some entertainment.  Joy and I came
home with four lots.  Tom wanted to bid on some antique tools but the
bidding closed (very cheaply) before he had the opportunity to think
about responding.  I took his bidding card away from him. 

On Friday evening, I went straight to the church from work because
the potluck dinner started at 6 and the teen auction started at 7.
Compared to the Concord auction, the church had donated over 100
items of value.  (Some of the Concord stuff is someone's trash and
someone's treasure.)  The teens raised over $1200 that evening.  It
took 2.5 hours of "Who will give me $50? $50 is where? $25. Who 
will give me $10. $10 I have. Now $15?  $10 I have now $15? ..."
And on it went.  Emily (painted slate, homemade snowmen table display) 
and Miranda (painted mason jars) donated some crafts and Joy donated
some of her jams in a basket.  It was great fun, but I think some of
the people were wringing me lower; the crowd was taking the advantage
for some good deals.

On Saturday morning, the teens were back at the church helping out for 
the Missions assembly at our church.  Joy and I stayed behind to get some
yardwork done.  I haven't used a rake yet this season, but instead,
I have enjoyed blowing the leaves onto the lawn and then running them
over and over a few times with the lawn mower until the leaves are in
itty bitty pieces.  I then put on the attachment to suck them into the
mower bags and cart the fine brown mulch down to the compost heap.  
It used to take six of us many hours of raking, dragging, and dumping
which I can do practically on my own in much less time.

Along about 2 o'clock, we cleaned ourselves up and headed to the church
for an appointment with Locks for Love and Tresses for Technology.  The
church had raised a total of $4600 to go towards buying new computer
equipment for the African Nazarene School of Extension where some college
friends of mine, Ramby and Karen Campbell are working on the mission field.
Laura Cox arranged the hair cut, having Karen's sister, Sandy Estey help
with the lopping of the braided ponytail.  (Sandy mentioned that it was
an added bonus for her to discover that I was also donating the hair to
Locks for Love, a charity that makes wigs for children who lose their
hair to chemotherapy; Sandy has lost two children to cancer.)  A number
of people gathered gleefully in the gym to watch the spectacle of two
years of hair growth fall from my head.  Just about everyone seemed
happy to see the hair go, none so happy as Joy; and I was happy that
it was being used for such great causes. Lorraine Munson-Carlsberg
commented that she liked my long hair because it was "me", "and this
look is you, too," she added.

The autumn breezes were just a bit cooler as I left the church.
When I got home, I took off the sides of my beard to complete the
new look (at least for now). Some have said that I look 10 years
younger to which I have wondered, how old did I look?  Joy says that
I look like the man she married and seems to be as happy as anyone
about the whole event.

On Sunday, we took our favorite world travelers out to lunch at
Bainbridges.  Hopefully, they will be sticking around home base for
a little while.

I'll attach one photo of the "finished product" but then send a
series of small photos in a follow-up email.  If you don't want
to look at my mug, then you can delete the follow-up.

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