Christmas 2006

Happy Holidays!

Here it is.  The 2006 Tim and Victor Holiday Letter you’ve been waiting for!  Quick!  Go get a cuppa and sit down and savor the moment!

Let’s see… New York, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Rochester, Washington, DC, and The Cayman Islands… Again, it was a slow year for travel!  But a fun year, nonetheless.

The Cayman Islands… Victor won the prestigious President’s Club Award at work this year—given to only about 40 employees out of a staff of over 10,000.  Not bad.  The prize was an all-expense paid trip for two to the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman for a week.  It was rough being waited on hand and foot, having frozen wash cloths delivered on a tray while out on the beach…  Four months later, Victor quit that job to work for GetThere.  It’s still travel-related and he still works from home.  He loves the new job, even if he probably won’t be heading off to the Cayman’s any time soon.

Tim is still putting little pieces of food in little paper cups for the great unwashed masses at Trader Joe’s.  He’s also having fun building websites, and has actually made some money this year!  Life is good.

Washington, DC was a great trip.  Tim went down there with his dear friend Dorrie for the American Cancer Society’s “Celebration on the Hill”.  He is still very involved with Relay For Life and you can all expect a donation request late March or early April.  It’s the one and only time he asks anyone for money, and it’s a very good cause.  To add a bit of seriousness to this otherwise flippant missive, we lost a couple of dear friends to cancer this year, and several friends and relatives have been diagnosed and in treatment.  It sucks.  Big time.

If you’re feeling generous over the holidays and/or need 2006 tax deductions,  you can make an online donation at any time at http://www.acsevents.org/relay/mapeabody/tim .  It’s safe, secure, and tax deductible.

And now back to our regularly scheduled letter…..

We loved the mid-term election results.  ‘Nuff said.

No major projects around the house this year, but we do plan on redoing the office this winter.  Tim installed a wireless network, so we can now sit out in the backyard and work or play on the computers.  Okay.  It’s 25° outside so the sitting outside isn’t going to happen for a while, yet, but it will be ready when the weather is!  The nice part about the network is it only took several days, calls to the support desk (and escalation to “level two” support) and reformatting one computer to get it to work properly!  Piece of cake.

The office project will include ripping up the carpet, repainting, and maybe even getting Tim a bit more organized—or at least a bit less cluttered.  Think of it as a Christmas Miracle or something…..

We’ll be heading out to San Francisco again in February for Pop’s Birthday and to go to a reunion of Tim’s Grammar School class!  St Gabriel’s Class of 1966. Tim absolutely hated the school and even left mid way through the 8th grade because he couldn’t stand it, so this should be a lot of fun!

Cybil, our german shepherd/border collie is still running the house, chasing squirrels and rabbits, and barking at the UPS driver. Some things never change.

And so ends another year.

We hope this little missive finds all of you in good health and full of holiday spirit—or sprits—as the case may be!

And Happy Holidays—all of them!

Tim and Victor—and Cybil, too.