We hope the year has been as much fun for you as it has for us. Last year I joked that I had traveled a lot, well this year the entire family was in travel mode, although not necessarily together.

Last Christmas, all Catherine wanted was a cat. She begged and pleaded but had to wait until January until we adopted an adorable cat that she renamed Callie. Catherine loves to spoil Callie and to tell everyone how adorable she (Callie) is. Callie is white with blackish-brownish spots and a "raccoon" tail. She has emerald green eyes and loves crawling into boxes, particularly if it is in front of the fireplace to sleep. Callie loves rubber bands. She'll chase them across the room and meow to tell whoever is home that she has found one.

Aside from Callie, Catherine does have some other interests. In the spring, Catherine was in the STEP presentation of Under the Sea as a 'spirit'. Prior to going to Hawaii Catherine got contact lenses. The highlight of the Hawaii trip for Catherine was the day she went scuba diving. She had a great time. After the trip, Catherine had a 'babysitting' job for about a month during the summer. This school year Catherine is in eight grade and making straight A's. On the athletic side, this fall, she was a center halfback on her school's field hockey team.

David had a good first year at college. He kept his grades up and is on the dean's list with a 3.9343 GPA. Because of his AP credits from high school, he was considered a sophomore after his first semester. David's first college job at Dietrick Dining Hall gave way to more enjoyable work in the Mechanical Engineering Department, which eventually led to his present job with Techsburg, a growing corporation started by the professor he worked for at the Mechanical Engineering Department. David got engaged in June. David met Paula at school. Paula graduated in May with a degree in Exercise Science and is now working on her master's degree. Paula and David spent a week in the Bahamas in July, courtesy of Paula's mom (graduation present).

Matthew finished up his junior year and after a quick visit home left for the second part of his engineering co-op program at Sandia National Labs in Livermore, California. This time Matthew wanted to have his car with him, so that meant driving across country both ways. Matthew put a lot of miles under his butt, but had his car stereo to keep him company. He stopped at a number of sites and National Parks along the way. You can see a more detailed chronicle of his trip and California exploits on his Web site. While in California, Matthew celebrated his 21st birthday. He also spent several weekends taking scuba lessons, completing his ocean dives in Monterey Bay. This semester, Matthew is enrolled in the Cornell wine tasting course - well on his way to becoming an oenophile. In additional to finishing up his coursework this semester, Matthew is doing a lot of interviewing, looking for a high paying job so he can start paying back his college loans after graduation in May.

For the first part of the year, Sonia was attending Rutgers (New Brunswick) full time. She was taking 14 credits of upper level undergraduate and graduate courses to complete her requirements for NJ earth science teacher certification. She aced the semester, due in no small part to the long hours she put in studying. In addition, she squeezed in time to study for, take, and pass the Praxis exam, another part of the NJ certification requirements. Then there was the 'little' matter of finding a job. After a round of sending resumes, Sonia accepted a job at a local high school about 25 minutes from home. She is still burning a lot of 'midnight+' oil, taking care of planning lessons, writing lesson plans and correcting papers.

Sonia, Catherine, and I spent 2 1/2 weeks visiting four of the islands of Hawaii at the end of June and early part of July. I had a business meeting in L.A. , so Sonia and Catherine met me there and then we flew out together to Hawaii. Our itinerary included Hawaii (Big Island), Kauai, Oahu, and Maui. Sonia and I felt like seasoned visitors, this being our third trip. The highlights included snorkeling, diving, lots of good food, and beautiful sunrises and sets. There's a photo album of the trip with more details on the Web site.

The NJ drought took care of our garden except for some hardy weeds.

Not much done around the yard. Just lazy! Pretty much the same for the house. We replaced about 20 cracked tiles in the kitchen. The hardest part was trying to figure out what to do since we could not get enough matching tiles. We chose a contrasting color.

The phone company saw fit to give us a new area code. We can now be reached at (856) 778-8936. We continue to evolve in the electronic age of E-mail and Web sites.... note some address changes since last year. As part of one of her Rutgers' courses in the spring, Sonia put together 3 web-based lesson plans with Michael supplying the technical expertise. She has collected several awards for her efforts.

Michael, Sonia, Matthew, David, Catherine, and Callie

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