December 2004

We hope that our annual holiday letter finds you and yours well, and that 2004 has been as good to you as it has been to us. Please bear with us while we recap another exciting year. There are two parentheses for us this year: Chris graduated from college (for the first time), and Tim retired from IBM (for the last time). There will be more to come on each of these topics.

Once again, in February, Sue and Tim flew to the Virgin Islands to visit our friends Dave and Deanna Hoops. As you will recall, they have been cruising the Caribbean on their sailboat for the past three years. We met them in St. Thomas and spent a week in the islands, including three days off the coast of Vieques, which used to be a gunnery range for the US Navy. Very cool! In 2005 we’ll be meeting them in Roatan, Honduras.

On May 1, Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Michigan, with a BS in Computer Science Engineering. The undergraduate commencement ceremony was held at the football stadium. It was quite impressive. Sue’s mother and Tim’s parents joined us for the event.

Chris spent the summer in California, working for IBM. In August, Tim flew out to help drive back. They left on Sunday morning and arrived in Troy on Tuesday morning. So much for sightseeing!

Chris is now in Pittsburgh, attending Carnegie Mellon University. He’s working on an MSIT in Software Engineering, and will graduate next August. He has already started interviewing for “real” jobs, and has received one serious offer so far.

On July 1 Tim retired from IBM, after 30 years. It was a great run, and he can look back on his career with satisfaction. He spent the summer working on the boat and the house. He also started his own small business, TCM Marine Electronics Services, to sell marine electronics hardware and software, and associated services.

Our summer cruise was unfortunately cut short by a steering system problem, but we had a couple of great days in the anchorage at Harbor Beach, followed by almost two weeks of day sailing from our marina. We’re looking forward to next season, when we will be taking the boat to Lake Michigan for the first time.

In late August, Tim’s dad joined him for a two-day “father and son” cruise on Lake Huron. They spent a night in Port Sanilac Michigan before returning home. It was their first such adventure in many years, and both father and son will remember it for a long time.

Sue’s embroidery business is going great guns. She has just about all the work that she can handle, given the rest of the demands on her time. Her most recent project is wine bottle bags; she sells them through a friend’s “micro winery” and they’re a big success. Keep her in mind if you’re looking for embroidered shirts, jackets, caps, or the like.