1997 was the computer upgrade : year - in March we got a Micron Millennia with MMX, CD-ROM, sound board, Zip drive ? the whole works. Then the business computer got upgraded to a MMX Pentium chip, more memory, a fast CD-ROM drive, bigger hard drive, and Japanese Windows 95, Word, Excel, PowerPoint. So now Kiyomi and the kids can easily compose letters in Japanese. Unfortunately for me, you have to know Japanese L to be able to use it.
Our family outings this year included a ski trip to Wyoming in January; a 4-day cruise to Catalina, San Diego and Mexico, with an overnight stay at Yosemite on the way back (with Kiyomi's father) in April; a trip to San Diego for Stan's father's 50th birthday in June; a trip to Hawaii for a stay at the Hawaiian Hilton and 7-day cruise for Stan and Kiyomi; another trip to San Diego for Stan's parents' 50th wedding anniversary; and ski trip to Utah at the end of December. So 1997 was a very busy year.
Alan finished his Junior year and became a Senior. He has submitted his applications to colleges (UC Berkley, Davis, Los Angeles, and Colorado State at Boulder) and will decide where to go sometime in 1998. His Baccalaureate is scheduled for Sunday, June 7, and any friends or relatives who would like to attend and join us for a buffet afterwards, please save the date. Alan competed in several Tae Kwon Do tournaments this year ? he took the Gold medal in the California State competition, the Silver medal at the AAU tournament at San Antonio, Texas, and the Bronze at the Junior Olympics at Charlotte, NC in August. He started working at Eddie Bauer, in the Stanford Shopping Center (not far from where Aya works.
Aya continues at Foothill College, taking courses like Japanese, Astronomy, Statistics, Algebra, Business, Accounting, etc. She hopes to transfer to a four-year university as a Junior in the Fall of '99, probably as a Business major. She continues working at Joan & David to earn spending money and gain experience in the business world. After a 3-day stop-over in Hawaii, she accompanied Kiyomi's father back to Japan, and spent a month there, immersing herself in the language and visiting with relatives.
Kiyomi went to Japan several times to give seminars to Japanese executives and to visit her relatives. She also gave numerous seminars in the US, and has acted as liaison to groups of Japanese executives, government representatives, and educators who wanted to investigate US companies or educational facilities.
Stan continues for his tenth year at Lockheed Martin, working to make the Laboratory Information Management System even better and doing the chemical analyses of process baths used in production of solar cells, and other hardware used on commercial and military missiles and satellites. He continues to read science fiction, computer magazines, and science articles.
If you have comments or suggestions, or just want to chat,