This is the best recent photo of us, taken in Alaska during our June cruise.
We were invited to a family reunion hosted by my father to celebrate his 80th birthday. As a special treat, he decided to have his party on a cruise to Alaska. What a great party it was!
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 Sheep.
This is a compilation of some of the high spots of 2002. 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's big job this year started when she was contracted by HP to take "trainers' training", and then train groups of HP managers and executives in Japan. The subject was "high-velocity business results in a dynamic HP". For them, it is a real paradigm shift. Kiyomi's job was to help them experience situations that would allow them to develop the new skills they require.
She has flown back and forth to Japan numerous times during the year to give the training, but it is the kind of work she really enjoys doing. This has been her major job, but of course she has taken on many other contracts for various organizations, giving training and conferences to people from government, education, and industry, both in Japan and the United States.
In November, her "baby", Teachers International Exchange, celebrated its 15th anniversary with a special trip to Japan for the Board of Directors. The group had some wonderful experiences.
Aya has settled down with a permanent job at Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) in Santa Clara, just across the freeway from Great America and just down the road from Lockheed, where Stan works. She is on a rotation schedule, this year working as a financial analyst for the Chemical Mechanical Planarization Product Business Group. She'll start another rotation in February. As one of the fringe benefits, she is in an MBA program sponsored by AMAT, and already one-fourth of the way through.
Aya's romantic interest continues to be a classmate from Santa Clara, John Kuolt. They just recently got back from a week at Le Sport resort on Saint Lucia in the Bahamas. The week was filled with activities such as scuba diving, massages, dancing, and all kinds of other adventures.
Alan is putting his home theater installation experience to good use in his own company, with his partner Dave Wood. They are still in the start-up phase, but have done several jobs. Hopefully the Holiday Season will inspire many others to buy and install home theater systems.
He has also started as manager for a Tae Kwon Do dojo, and has begun teaching again. He has just started giving a class for Olympic style instruction, and hopes to start the class in competition soon. He is in training to test for his Second Degree Black Belt in February next year.
His new love is a Rottweiler/Doberman mix female puppy named "Kuma" (it means "bear" in Japanese, after his previous Rottweiler).
He has met a nice girl named Christina from Bosnia. She graduated from UCLA last year, and works for Google.
Aya's Christmas present to the family was an outing to "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Now we're looking forward to part two this year. Stan & Kiyomi celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary quietly with a night out at a restaurant, and Madama Butterfly at the San Francisco Opera (family photo. It was a wonderful performance, and Stan's favorite opera. We saw two other operas this year, Tosca (Stan with Aya & Alan) and Turandot; it seems Puccini is our favorite opera composer. Stan & Kiyomi & Aya also saw "Mammamia!", featuring the music of ABBA, a Swedish group famous in the 60's to 80's, and being revived now. It was a very enjoyable musical, with good songs and a nice story. We also, on the recommendation of numerous friends, saw "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"; and we all agree, if you haven't seen it yet, see it! Tears of laughter were streaming from our eyes. Kiyomi and Stan were reminded of some of the cross-cultural experiences they had when they married.
Stan & Kiyomi & Aya & Alan, along with Anna & Wilton, Lee & Debbie, Connie & Robert, Pat & Bob & Eric, Ken & Judi Hamberg celebrated the family patriarch's 80th birthday with a Princess cruise to Alaska. We started from Anchorage, went by bus through the Kenai peninsula, a beautiful national park, to the port at Seward. We stopped at Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, and finished in Vancouver. Our glacier viewing was quite exciting, the glacier was calving every few minutes. Some of the more active relatives went kayaking, flying in helicopters, climbing on glaciers, and other vigorous activities. The more sedentary ones just relaxed on the ship, and took leisurely strolls when we stopped at the ports. Of course, the high point was the birthday party in the Crows Nest Lounge. Other exciting moments were Aya's dancing with our waiter at the Champagne Tower party, Alan puncturing himself with his crampons on the glacier, and the late-night dancing in the lounge. Anna and Wilton's photos are here. Aya's photos are here. You can access Lee's photos from here. (You have to register to view Aya's and Lee's photos, but registration is free. You can purchase any photos you really like, too.)
In May we began the project with a discussion with our architect. The project continued through the rest of the year, with physical demolition starting in September, and then the slow rebuilding. Kiyomi has been very busy choosing appliances, fixtures, color schemes, tile, slab, etc. There are just so many details that need to be decided. While the kitchen is demolished, we're using the kitchen at Alan's apartment for dinner, and the refrigerator, microwave oven, gas burner, and coffee maker for breakfast and lunch. There have been a few delays when things didn't go as planned, so it looks like it will be next year before the project is complete. The thought of the final product is what keeps us going.
Stan and Kiyomi put on a joint 60th and 50th birthday party at the Carmel Mission Inn for our close relatives. It was attended by Stan's parents, aunt & uncle, siblings and their families. We had a party game that required the relatives to try to remember trivia about Stan and Kiyomi's past. The questions and answers sure brought back fond memories. Then we had dinner, and then two cakes: white cake with lemon frosting for Kiyomi and (what else?) chocolate cake for Stan. The next morning we all had breakfast together, and then went our separate ways. It was great to have everyone together for such a happy celebration.
In late September, Stan started running a fever and getting chills. The first visit to the hospital resulted in puzzled doctors, who could not match the symptom (fever and chills) to any condition. After a week of alternating fever and chills getting worse, the second visit to the hospital resulted in blood tests being taken. The day after, Saturday, the fever hit 103 and the advice nurse, on looking at the blood tests, said, "it looks like sepsis in the blood, go the emergency room right now." So after a few hours in the emergency room, and what seemed like liters of blood drawn, Stan was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of endocarditis (infection of the heart lining).
The sepsis turned out to by my old enemy, strep. But this time, instead of attacking my throat, it attacked my heart. Fortunately, my body put up a strong resistance (hence the fever and chills), and after a week of antibiotics, I was released from the hospital. The saga wasn't over, though, because I had to continue taking penicillin; and not the usual pills, but by a pump that shot it into my veins every 4 hours for an hour. The bag had to be changed daily; fortunately, Alan and Aya were able to take good care of me. I was hooked up to pump and bag, but fortunately they fit into a "fanny pack" I could wear, so I was mobile, and after the first week, did not have any symptoms. Ten years ago, I would have had to stay in the hospital the whole time.
According to the doctor, the echocardiogram showed no visible damage, so I should recover 100%. The other tests showed I'm cured, so after a month off work, I was finally cleared to return. It is good to be well, it is so easy to take our good health for granted until we have a brush with mortality.
Thinking back on the experience, I remember feeling very much relieved once I was in the emergency room surrounded by the high-tech equipment and experienced nurses and doctors, and with a diagnosis. I never felt like I was in danger of dying, and I had no pain or discomfort, other than the fever or chills. The examination of my heart by echocardiogram was fascinating, I could see my own heart beating. Then they turned on the sound and I could hear my own heart beating. Then they turned on the doppler function, and I could see the blood pumping through my heart, in colors corresponding to the direction and speed of the blood. Truly amazing technology! Being in the hospital, I had plenty of time to catch up on reading, and I read four books and numerous magazines. I enjoyed the food. Although it was not gourmet quality, it was tasty and wholesome. I did miss chocolate, until the family brought a box of See's candy sister Pat's family gave me at the birthday party.
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). I invite everyone interested in computers to visit the SPAUG site, especially ShareWhere, which lists interesting websites on the Internet. The Newsletter has a monthly column by the president that has a lot of useful, current information and advice.
Stan visited his parents in San Diego several times. 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 February allowed him to celebrate Mother's birthday.
If you have comments or suggestions, or just want to chat,
