Subject: Weekend Update: Thanksgiving Week 1999
Date:    Mon 11/29/99 12:00pm

Last Monday, my father-in-law celebrated his 70th birthday over a
steak dinner.  Joy and I took him out to a Mexican restuarant, On the
Border.  Dad kept telling jokes to the waiter who smiled and laughed
at the appropriate times so I had to pay him an extra dollar in tip.
He may have deserved more.

I brought Miranda home from ENC on Tuesday.  It was really nice to
have her home, although it was all too short.  Christmas break is just
around the corner though.

The Crawford Clan, sans nephew and wife, poured into the Manor on
Wednesday evening for our annual rite of Thanksgiving together.  I was
not my usual full participant in the festivities because of some
lingering bronchitis that I kept swearing would be gone in just "a day
or two more."  I finally gave in and saw my doctor just today about
getting the medication I need to finish this.  I'm sorry it subdued my
often-ebullient personality at the family reunion, but I doubt the
rest of them are all that sorry. ;-) Andrew made up for it anyway.
All of our children are excited whenever Aunts Faith and Hope and
their entourages come to call.

Joy arose at 5:15 on Thursday to put the turkey in the oven.  Oi!  she
spent hours and hours on a meal that lasted perhaps 25 minutes, and
hours more in the cleanup with help from the rest.  But it isn't the
meal; it is the reunion that we're there for.  We haven't yet finished
the turkey leftovers.  (Some animal has been enjoying some of the
leftovers on our porch these last few nights!)

Hope, Tom, Charity, and Dad left late Thursday afternoon.  Faith and
John the next day.  Within minutes, the boxes of Christmas decorations
were being mined out of the basement and the decoration of the Manor
has begun.  Joy and the kids (but mostly Joy) will spend the next week
in putting up six trees and other decorations.

I wanted to seize an infrequent opportunity on Saturday to travel to
Cape Cod to visit my parents.  Joy asked if I intended to invite
anyone home on Sunday because the Christmas boxes are all over the
house.  She was in the middle of her cyclone cycle.  When I assured
her that I would not, she felt better about leaving the house for the
trip to Falmouth on the Cape.  When she's done, the place looks
fabulous, but then it always does because she is so good!

We had a nice time with my folks and I helped a little with some
computer furniture.  I came home with a large oil painting of a and
hung it on my office wall here at work; there was no place for it on
the Cape, and it would be shame to stick it in cold storage.  I'll try
and make up something metaphorical about the ship in an oncoming (or
clearing) storm to justify its ostentacious presence in such a sterile
high tech office environment.

The younger kids all had things to do on Sunday, so we spent it alone
with Miranda and took our college student out to each twice that day.

Lots to do between now and Y2K.  Ready, set...

Mark

     .-~~\                   Mark Metcalfe
    /     \ _                metcalfe@cadence.com
    ~x   .-~_)_	             (978) 446-6451
      ~x".-~   ~-.
  _   ( /         \   _      Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
  ||   T  o  o     Y  ||     270 Billerica Road, MS04
==:l   l   <       !  I;==   Chelmsford, MA 01824
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