Subject: Weekend Update: March 5-7
Date:    Mon 3/8/99  8:48am

As I drove home on Friday, I passed a business that was selling snow
blowers on clearance.  I toyed with the idea of purchasing a
snowblower when I first moved to Pepperell until I compared the price
to that of four additional snow shovels.  A friend of mine, who
remains anonymous for his own protection, bought two snow shovels and
his wife asked him why on earth did he buy TWO?  Well, the idea is not
to have spares handy if one shovel breaks.  

We got about 8 inches in Pepperell and the rest of the Merrimack
Valley; enough to cancel the Sunday morning church services.
Eventually, the five of us all got outside together to move the fluffy
stuff, making quick work of the driveway.  Several snow storms and
seasons later the shovels are still working, although I did throw the
spade off of one; the repair was quick and the shovel put back into
service.  

The "plus one" of our family has been housesitting in Quincy while my
parents dream of snow (and laugh) in their Florida luxury apartment
for another week.  Miranda had an attack of homesickness, and (we
confess) Joy and I have been feeling it (missing having Mandy around)
a bit more lately, as well.  (But I only have five shovels!)  Miranda
is enjoying her new job with the After School Program in Quincy public
schools.  It's right up her alley and school major so we're glad she's
found this job instead of taking chicken parts out of a vat.

My son, Andrew, seems to be learning a valuable lesson in sacrifice,
having given up playing on the Nintendo for the Lenten period. Don't
know if it is quite "kosher" but the end result is beneficial.  I on
the other hand am not struggling mightily with the loss of Coca-Cola;
but perhaps that will change.

Joy has finally settled on a stencil for the living room after more
than a year of pondering what to put in there.  As much as I dislike
offering an opinion on certain things, she pulled me into a stencil
shop and we agreed on an interesting set of stencils.  First, a
lattice will be lightly stenciled in the background on top of which
will be stenciled a vine of some sort, and maybe a few flowers here
and there.  It will have to be seen when it is done because the
description doesn't do it justice.  I'm excited about it.  (I really
should take indoor pictures for my website.)

Joy and I also went to Gardner, MA, "The Furniture Capitol of New
England" in search of a piece for the computer room.  I kind of liked
a large roll top desk (to house the computer) but realized later that
I couldn't get the desk into the room because the doors leading to the
room are 6 inches too narrow!  Anyway, Joy was less impressed with the
prices than she had hoped to be. Mayeb there is an auction piece out
these somewhere. We hit 4 or 5 furniture outlets before the snow
started to fly and we called it a day and headed home.

Hey, by the way, Pastor White put me in touch with Rick and Val Adams.
Val has a web site you should check out, (if you remember her).  It
features her singing (you need RealAudio to hear the clips).  Check it
out at http://cre8iv.com/valerieadams .

See you later.

Mark
Mark Metcalfe, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.     _      metcalfe@cadence.com
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