Subject: Weekend Update: October 30-31
Date:    Mon 11/1/99  7:58am

This is All Saints Day, the day after Halloween.  We missed trick or
treating this year because we were in church and also because Andrew
is at that middle age of not knowing whether to join the hoards of
candy beggars.  Joy had bought the requisite candy, not knowing if the
town of Pepperell would hold its candygrab on the Saturday but since
it fell between 6 and 8 pm on Sunday, we chose rather to darken our
home and take the candy to church for those who had made a similar
choice.

This is the time of year where conflict over "good" and "evil" seems
at its peak.  And perhaps it is because so much attention is brought
to bear on it.  However, the large portion of society views Halloween
in much the same way they view Christmas and Easter; convenient
traditions on which to express something or other, often in the way of
gifts and food.

We're one of the family's that minimizes the attendant effects of
Halloween while adopting the good natured part of costuming and
confections.  This poses a problem for some of our more staunch
Christian friends while still evoking a raised eyebrow or two from
those who see nothing whatsoever wrong with what All Hallows Eve
has become.

This is also a time of year for significant birthdays, especially this
November.  The following people enter the ranks of "the people who are
40" crowd within the next week or so.

My friend, Rosita        Nov  1
My sister-in-law, Nancy  Nov  2
My wife, Joy             Nov 12

[ My sister-in-law, Roni   Nov  4 (but she isn't TURNING 40 this year) ]

Yes, my wife ACTUALLY turns 40 this year, despite her 40th birthday
party that we held last year.  She has had a whole year of getting
used to being 40 and now she can do it all over again.  But this year,
we'll celebrate privately over dinner.

By the way, we started the weekend by getting the leaves off the lawn,
made possible by the riding lawn mower that is in my care for a year.
I got to tell you, I'm convinced.  Raking that lawn would take us
perhaps 4 times as long as it did to run down the leaves, chopping
them into tiny peices and spewing it into rows.  We raked the rows
onto a tarp and carted it down to the leaf pile to compost over the
winter.  Sometimes cheap isn't worth it; (refering to the fact that
we've pushed a mower all these years and raked the lawn, too.)

That's all for now.  Have a great week.

Mark
    (\____/)            Mark Metcalfe
     (_oo_)             Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
       (O)              270 Billerica Road, MS04
     __||__    \)       Chelmsford, Massachusetts 01824
  []/______\[] /
  / \______/ \/         Phone: (978) 446-6451
 /    /__\              Fax:   (978) 262-6363
(\   /____\             metcalfe@cadence.com