Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 13:54:58 -0500
Subject: Weekend Update: February 20-24, 2002

It was fun to share in the excitement that Miranda had when she brought
home her very own automobile.  The color of the car is a dark blue-purple,
which shows up best in sunlight.  She says that she wants to name the car
- a practice that I think her cousin-in-law started - but wants to take a little
time to consider it, having rejected all of our suggested names: Barney,
Tinky Winky, and Leon the Neon.

(Post-email note: The naming of cars predates the cousin.  Apparently,
Joy and her siblings had a name for their old family car of their youth.)

Mandy learned more about car ownership with her very own first state
inspection and her very own insurance premiums.  Joy was nice enough
to get my Eclipse inspected while I was at work and even nicer to take
Emily to the Registry of Motor Vehicles in Fitchburg where Emily
obtained her very own learners permit. (!) Emily took an electronic
test which stopped after 14 questions (because she got them all right).
I think they must have been like, "What color is a Stop sign?" 
I asked Joy if she let Emily drive home from the RMV, to which
she responded, "In your Eclipse!?"  Good point.  It will be a while
before I have the nerve to let her foot on the pedal of "the Jet."

Kristen Hunt called on Friday looking for Emily and Miranda fielded
the call.  The Hunts were in need of a babysitter and asked for Emily,
but Miranda informed Kristen that both Emily and she were packing for
a weekend retreat with the church senior high youth group.  Jessica
was off at college so we ran out of female caregivers.  Undaunted,
Kristen asked if Andrew might be up to the task.  Daunted, Andrew
needed some reassuring answers before he could agree to safeguarding
her children, like "are there any diaper changes involved in this
job?"  Joy and Miranda were laughing at Andrew's apprehension, though
I certainly would have the same questions, myself! Thankfully for both
Kristen and Andrew, diapers were not in the job description so he
accepted the job.  Apparently he did a good job since Wesley Hunt
asked about Andrew the next day.

Rich Gonzalez made Jessica very happy by getting Ol' Lazarus up
and at 'em once again.  Maybe we should give it a cat's name for
the number of lives this car is having.  He replaced the front brakes
and front right tire.  I was going to take Emily out on Saturday for
her first driving lesson, but (of course) she was on her retreat.
The next question is whether Ol' Lazarus will fail inspection in April
or will the bucket of bolts continue to amuse us?

A poor little bat lost its way and found its way into our living room.
It hung upside down from some moulding near the ceiling and it seemed
to be soundly asleep.  I was able to get a mason jar under it and
slip it up underneath its feet, transferring it from the moulding to
the lip of the jar.  I then took it outside to find its way back to
some warm crevace somewhere. (I'll send a picture to the Pictures list.)

Joy went to the church Saturday morning to practice for the Spring
children's musical.  She left me home with The Boy to prune the
apple trees, but I could not locate the loppers and nippers.  Instead,
we drove tot he fire department in Pepperell to apply for a burn permit.
The Fire Chief was not in the office, so we left our five bucks in
an envelope and left the thought of setting a pile of brush on fire
for another day.  When Joy returned, she found the tools right where
I had left them and was ready to help me with the trees after lunch.
I begged for a few minutes on the couch, which turned into a nice
afternoon's nap, instead.  We still have a couple of months left to
winter, despite April-like weather, and another weekend to trim the
trees.

Joy and I took advantage of our scattered children and went to dinner
Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.  We met up with the Hitchcocks by
happenstance at Bainbridge's on Sunday and had a lovely lunch together.
Jeff ought to write down some of his escapades. He told us that at the
age of 16, he was pulled from an MDC dumpster by Phil Isley of the Isley
Brothers.  Ask him about it sometime.

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