This is the most recent photo of us, taken in December 2001 at Len & Marge Hutchings' house, where we had a delayed Thanksgiving dinner. This is the photo we used on our Christmas card. It has been reduced in resolution for faster loading using the Pegasus JPEG Wizard.
We had another delicious Thanksgiving dinner at Connie and Robert Levy's in Beverly Hills during the Thanksgiving weekend, where we got together with our Southern California relatives.
Hope everyone has an enjoyable Celebration of the Winter Solstice and the Changing of the Year - according to my sources, it must be the Year of the Horse.
This is a compilation of some of the high spots of 2001, the real Millennial year. Some of the links below (which are not in the printed version) are to pictures; use your browser's "Back" button, or the keyboard shortcut ‹Alt›-‹Left Arrow› to get back to this page after viewing them.
If you'd like to view any or all of the pictures we took this year, PhotoWorks has them available online. Using this link, you just click on the roll or rolls that interest you (and wait for them to download).
Kiyomi, through her non-profit TIE, supported the Yabe Village (Japan) elementary student's Taiko performance in Alaska. It got a lot of local publicity and was reported in the local paper. Everyone who attended enjoyed the performance. Kiyomi also coordinated the Yabe-Sand Hill joint Internet project, and introduced several other Japanese schools to their Alaskan counterparts while she was there.
In December, she gave a presentation on Online Mentoring. Alaska is considering adopting online mentoring, and Kiyomi gave an overview of what's available, and how it can work for them.
Stan and Kiyomi celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary with a Renaissance cruise to Spain and Portugal, including Lisbon, Gibraltar, Tangiers, Casablanca, the Canary Islands, Cadiz, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia and Barcelona. It was very enjoyable, and we had nice (but cool and windy) weather the whole time. It was also interesting to see the places we read about in history books, where Columbus docked his ships and El Cid fought the Moors. If you're interested in a full report, click this link (for photos use the link above).
Aya graduated from Santa Clara University 16 June 2001. All her close friends and American relatives attended the ceremony and picnic. We have some pictures here. She received her degree with a major in Finance and a minor in Japanese. Her Winter courses included International Finance, a religion course, Japanese, and a business ethics class. After a 5-week trip to Europe this summer, and a 3-month contract job with Futuredex, it looks like she will settle down with a permanent job at Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) in Santa Clara, very close to Santa Clara University.
Kiyomi went to Japan several times this year. The visit in July included time for a sad occasion - the one-year anniversary of her step-mother's death last July. Then in November, Masao Yamasaki, Kiyomi's father, passed away, so Kiyomi and Alan flew back to attend the funeral and take care of his affairs.
Kiyomi continues to pursue other business contacts and opportunities in Japan, relating to publishing articles and books, e-learning, project-based learning, and coordinating investigative trips to America for educators and government officials.
Aya and Alan visited Europe this summer: London, England; Paris, Nice and the south of France; Monaco; San Sebastian, Alicante, Ibiza and Barcelona Spain; Venice, Rome, Milano (Alan returned home), the Cinque Terra, Italy; Interlaken, jumping out of a plane into the Swiss Alps, Switzerland; Munich, Germany; Prague; Amsterdam. For a full report, visit Aya & Alan's European adventures and pictures.
We had a nice vacation, click here for a full report. There are also pictures online, if you're interested. Will Hawaii be our retirement home? Only time will tell, but it sure looks inviting!
Stan is webmaster not only for the family home page, but also for Kiyomi's business CrossTech, and her nonprofit organization, Teachers International Exchange. In addition, he is co-webmaster for the Stanford-Palo Alto User Group (SPAUG) for PC's, and hosts a Web Page Creation and Maintenance Special Interest Group (SIG).
Stan visited his parents in San Diego several times, including once with Kiyomi and once with Aya. Southwest Airlines offered prices he couldn’t refuse, and the visits at non-holiday times allowed him to have a nice time socializing and advising on computer-related matters, eating cherry pie and other favorites, getting a haircut, and bringing back macadamia nuts and oranges. The visit in May allowed him to celebrate Mother's Day and brother Lee's birthday with them. His parents learned everything they wanted to know about computers but were afraid to ask—and probably a lot more than they actually wanted to know. The visit in August let him admire the new computer, and help with its configuration, until the hard drive died; then he helped with the troubleshooting and replacement. Fortunately, it was still under warranty, and Lee could help get everything going again. Then Stan and Aya visited after Thanksgiving at Connie's house.
Alan continues working for Cambridge Sound Works as lead installer. He had developed a sideline of installing the equipment he sells, as a value-added service (for a fee), when Cambridge thought it was a good idea, and made him lead man in the new Cambridge installation service. This means leaving the sales department, but he was given a neat panel truck full of installation equipment. He is the proud owner of a black Nissan Xterra, which comes in handy for trips to the beach or ski country.
He has started attending a Tae Kwon Do dojo again, picking up where he left off several years ago after a knee injury, and has begun working out regularly.
He had the opportunity to spend three weeks in Europe this summer as a 21st birthday present. He visited England, France and Spain, celebrating his 21st birthday in Barcelona.
If you have comments or suggestions, or just want to chat,