Peace and Goodwill 

Greetings and happy holidays to my friends and family!  

*I am vexed!  Another year is almost over.  Why do the days seem to evaporate the older you get?  How unfair!  I have to say, however, that many of those days were very memorable; isn’t that what really what counts anyway--senior moments and all!  Those I am truly thankful for.

*My favorite line in the movie "The Gladiator" 

There were births and deaths, celebrations visits and travel in 2000.  We started 2000 with a bang aboard the Red and White ferry on the San Francisco Bay!  Our two new puppies Dash and Lilly were born in February and came to live with us in May; they are ten months old in December.  Lucy and Patches lived a long happy life and have left us for heavenly comforts. I will miss them both.  Lucy, for being the comedian that she was and Patches, for being the one-woman cat with biting power!

It is hard to believe that it has been one year since our good ‘ole pal Luke passed. The surviving family member is Billy (now eight) - so loving but being the only cat he is not quite sure what to do with the puppies but he tolerates them.

My sister Chelong and son Tinton spent two months in California, spread out over Northern (at our home) and Southern California (at Eileen’s home).  We had a blast.  Did a lot of touring, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe (a snow storm in May), Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, to name a few.

Lucia’s second cousin Patrick got married to Molly and our house was location for one rainy October morning brunch with 60 plus guests.  If you know our house, you know why this is significant.  Everything worked out, what a very cozy bunch!  Other houseguests were her Mom, Jane, cousins Pat and Pam, best friend, Dawn whose son moved up here and is going to Cal.

We did very little traveling this year, but managed a trip to Puerto Vallarta in June and Hawaii, the big island, after Thanksgiving.  

Alternative to air travel, we purchased a pop-up tent trailer.  We do love to be outdoors and camp, but sleeping on the ground (albeit having had excellent Thermarest pads) was getting old.  I personally hated schlepping everything in and out of the car as well as dust and dirt you would drag in and out of the tent.  We managed to get 5 trips in this past summer:  Gualala, Sonoma Coast, Sugarloaf Ridge, Napa, Big Sur, Rollins Lake, and the American River near Sacramento.

We also managed to watch a few movies.  The Gladiator, Almost Famous and Best of Show were among my favorites.  We also saw the fabulous "O" at the Bellagio and the Las Vegas performance of Blue Man Group.  If you haven't seen them, they are the characters in the most recent IBM TV advertisements.  Saw a few plays and broadway shows.  All That Jazz, Buckminster Fuller, The Vagina Monologues and some music starting with the Judds in January a Wynona concert in the spring and KD Lang this winter.

Starting with the Red and White ferry for New Year’s eve, it seemed like this was a very water-oriented year for us.   My moon is in Pisces and Lucia’s sun sign is Pisces…maybe that explains it?  

Anyway, we had the opportunity to do a bit of sailing on the bay.  In late February my friend Vicki invited me to join her and a friend for a sail.  It was peaceful and mellow going out, but coming back we were hit by a major wind storm, it felt like I was in a washing machine, I was too stupid to know that I was in possible danger (ignorance is bliss!)  

When in Puerto Vallarta, we chartered a 52ft sailboat and sailed Banderas Bay, which was a nice calm sail under the sun (in comparison).  Then Cindy another good friend invited us for a sail on July 4^th. 

Susan who owned the boat with several friends happened to have it on July 4^th, so we hung out for Port tasting while docked in Angel Island,  and later went for a test sail (Lucia by the way also went to sailing lessons with Vicki and was required several practices before she could move on to the next level). 

So Lucia steered in the very wild bay.  Cindy was white knuckled; and my fear was overcome by silly and senseless laughter.   We survived.  There wasn't any doubt  with a very wise and able captain, Susan.  Lucia needed practice and she sure got it.  That was just for excitement.  We ended the evening watching the fireworks.  We could see Sausalito, Berkeley, PacBell Park and the San Francisco Embarcadero (two of them simultaneously).  

Then in October, we went again for Barbara’s birthday, another 52 footer cruising the bay in a nice warm afternoon and watching the sunset!  

In addition to sailing, our friends Karen and Sylvia who have a summer home at Clear Lake have a beautiful speedboat, which we played around in as well.  

Lastly, we enjoyed some kayaking in February in Elkhorn Slough between Santa Cruz and Monterey where we saw huge jellyfishes with heads bigger than beach balls, sea otters, waterfowl and seals.  In April, we went again with my sister, Isa, Greg and Tinton, but this time we had a little problem!  This is a long story, but to make it short, at one point or another, two of the kayak’s rudder pedals broke, Tinton capsized, and we lost time getting back and ended up fighting the incoming afternoon winds.  (Call me for details) 

We were tired puppies and I hurt my left shoulder.  It still hurts!  Unfortunately I can’t kayak until my boo-boo is all well, which is too bad because we would have loved to kayak in the big island.   

We did spend time in the water snorkeling, touring the Kona coast  on a Zodiac boat where we saw some spinner dolphins and a bay tour on a glass bottom boat where we saw a white tip shark.

One of my clients offered me a position that I could not refuse.  FileNET Corporation, a software manufacturer of eProcess/eBusiness solutions is now my employer.   Although they are in Costa Mesa, California, I was offered the convenience of working from home.   Although I do fly over on a regular basis, the Oakland and Orange County airports are great airports to travel from; both are no more than 15 minutes away.  I decided that if I were to be employed by someone that I was NOT going to take a job in Silicon Valley and drive the grid locked commute from Oakland.  Although I am not a Southern California kind of gal, I have to admit I love the weather!

My job is fun…I get to do innovative web stuff.  I am responsible for delivering any type of training that is not the traditional classroom instructor led type.  So we get to play with new tools, new internet technologies and build a new video and eLearning studio.  I really like the folks I work with.  My management is very supportive and willing to provide the appropriate resources to get the job done.  I get to hire a few people in 2001, yeah!  

I**

Isa is doing just fine in Santa Cruz.  She is going through life like we all are…experiencing changes as we all do.  Some fun, some not so fun.  She spent a month in Guatemala this spring attending a Spanish language immersion program.  Besides the general benefits of being bi-lingual, speaking Spanish in the Santa Cruz area is a great asset as a teacher.  She is getting good at it, but needs practice.  

She loves music, and has a varied taste.  She continues to be a Phish head trying to attend as many concerts as she can...the last one was in Las Vegas several months ago. 

She practices and studies Yoga and has for many years.  She continues her Masters in Education studies at UCSC, and will graduate in June 2001.

We did some work to the house in the Santa Cruz mountains.  We did more landscaping, constantly trying to find the magic plants that will survive very hot and very cold weather and aggressive gophers.  No luck yet.  We also had the house painted this fall but always have a lot more to do!  Speaking of gophers...Our painter, Abel, was clearing out some sand from a trench when to his surprise a plant just fell infront of his very eyes, shortly after a gopher stuck his head up, "what's for dessert?"            **daughter, Tagalog

I can't complete a recollection of 2000 without a mention of the darned bug.  Would you believe the source?  Only in the Philippines!  First bug that ever got me.  I was so furious. 

I usually start work fairly early because I have clients in the East Coast.  I got an email from the most unlikely person to say "I Love You" to me. It never occurred to me that this could be a prank by any means. I thought they were just passing on some clever marketing strategy.

Because it was about 6:00am Pacific Standard Time, and I had not yet turned on the news, I was unaware, caught off guard.  Of course I attempted to open it, and the rest is history.

I was getting emails from everyone telling me that I had sent them this terrible virus, and still not aware of the strategy behind this bug,  I was responding telling them, I didn't send them anything. 

Once I finally discovered that I had gotten infected, I couldn't even get a remedy for it.  Once I finally found a remedy it was too late anyway. I lost over 2000 images.  Luckily I had backed up everything through January 1st.  Unfortunately, I lost everything from January 1st to late April when this happened.!

Thanks to 35 mm photography, I am able to have pictures from some snapshots taken during that timeframe. What an awful experience.  I almost won't open ANY attachments now although I have a daily scan from McAfee.  Live and learn..

Again, I learned many lessons and received many blessings in 2000.  I thank the heavens and as always, I’d like to share my great happiness and love to everyone in my life this holiday season and the coming new year!

Please browse through some snap shots and a few art photos taken in the last 12 months.  

My website is www.gracespace.com, check it out for previous journals and other fun stuff. Link to view Lucia's annual holiday poem.  Keep in touch! graceg@pacbell.net