A Diary of the Last Few Years
First, Here’s Last Year in Summary…
Wow…2008 sort of slipped by with all sorts of things, some nice, some
not…
January & February were spent in Santa Clara
wrapping up my GE Healthcare PKI role (they asked GE management again if I
could stay there longer as they had become pretty happy), followed by my 3-day drive
back home via Phoenix, AZ for a pleasant visit with Lew Payne. I
got hauled back out there in April for a week to restart the system, as they
didn’t take very good notes! April later brought me my annual GE EMS,
which was less than delightful, demoting me a level…
I got to visit the colonoscopy folks for the 1st time in April, which
was an “interesting” experience but OK overall (!), John &
Angie Pagel were married in June in Iowa, Dad passed away at the age of 85 after
several difficult years in July and Stu and Jill Divan were married October 11th
–see some pictures here.
My GE work plan was then dropped in my lap unexpectedly on October 22nd
… I spent the rest of the week fighting the desire to punch someone
and/or quitting and storming childishly out of the building, and then worked my
ass off for the rest of the year (10-hour days / little to no weekends, etc) to
get the work done for a “pass” rating at year end. Yes, it sucked
but I passed…
Next are some views of 2007…
An exciting year…my 20th GE anniversary in January brought
cake to a group meeting organized by Gary Strong and attended by many. Sandy
& I celebrated our 10-year anniversary in March with a week in Florida and I headed to UK for a short trip in April,
completing my US Citizenship journey the week I returned. We had a super fun
weekend in May with Kelly’s graduation and we spent a weekend in Spring
Green and watched the Players doing Shakespeare.
I drove out to Santa Clara
in the last few days of August as a vacation en route to my GE Healthcare job
at PKI, where I stayed for the winter. An absolutely super trip until my Salt Lake
City stop on Saturday Sept 1st for dinner with Joe Cannon –
the truck was raided that night while I slept, making life pretty irritating
for several weeks… After being there for only a couple if weeks, I was
urgently flown back to my CT-PET quality job to support the FDA audit, making the
folks less than happy!
I did have several free weekends while out there, visiting the San Francisco area as
well as heading to points north, south and east
2006 Sure Seems
like “forever ago”…
The last time I was actually here updating the
website was in early 2006…enjoying the winter weather, working hard to
keep our aging bodies fit (OK, just a little!), chasing after our normal "crazy" schedules at work & REALLY
enjoying life at our new house! We managed to get some "loose ends"
tied up around the house this year…inside, we managed to collect a number
of interesting items to fill some of our nook's & crannies and finally got
our unfinished walls covered with some wonderful wallpaper & outside, our
new driveway & patio have been in place since the spring, with gardens
& a mile or two of new grass (!) following in the fall.
Sandy continues to be buried at the office
(but loving it almost as much as GE
loves her !!) with customer visits & trade
shows…
Don's enjoying his job at work as
well as helping out now and again at Froedtert
Hospital with volunteer
work on the neuro
ward (yes, the place where they fixed
his head!) & enjoying his computer "stuff"
as ever!!
2005 was a Fun year…
Sandy was off to Washington
DC was on her visit list in late March & Don tagged along for a nice
visit with Stu, (who was with the AmeriCorps team for a little while). Don was a bit
lonely in the fall (as Sandy was away a lot) but was really, really happy to
ride along with Sandy's October show in Denver for a long weekend away in the
mountains; a visit to Glenwood Springs driving thru Glenwood
Canyon and lounging for a while at the steamy Hot Springs
pool.
Don’s Christmas present (from Santa) was a nifty new flat-panel monitor, upon which this page looks
extra-spiffy! There an online Photo Album viewer to allow you to have a visit to the
constantly growing CoolPix collection, with several thousand pictures today!
The older albums (Don's personal collection and the Palace at Nirvana viewer) are still
intact… We also put a UK Letter together in the spring & Don put it on line for those who didn't get a paper
copy…another annual-gram could be in works some day!
A Tiny Touch of 2004…
View our tentative 2004 plans for a minute; and as it’s
the year of the Palace in Nirvana…click
the links to view!
Here are some nice eSnaps of various events (click & then pick from the
list of files to view)…Sandy & Don visiting Kaci at Spring
break and out in Hawaii
with a gang of folks in November; Don meandering around on Father's Day, fishing up in Michigan
(June'04), visiting UK
& playing with some work folks here.
See some nice pix of the year’s SFTB
walk!
Some Views of 2003…
View our Jamaica, Puerto
Rico & UK
visits, Kelly’s summer departure,
Stu’s grad,
Don’s summer fishing in Canada
& CampFryers
fall trip & finally, a view of our thoughts for 2003.
Again, some nice pix of the year’s SFTB
walk
And a 2002 Tour…
2002 was a particularly challenging year for us, both in life and at work;
some of the high (& low) points are captured in a little month-by-month
matrix… Hope you enjoy the high points!
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Jan
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Alex passed away a few weeks before his 20th
birthday, leaving a huge hole in everyone’s life…
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Feb
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For our annual
winter week/Sandy’s birthday, we went to Palm Springs & San Diego this year
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Mar
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Sandy has a business trip to Orlando,
Don helped dozens of people move from Ryerson Road to the new building at Waukesha & spent some time at Ship Rock
in New Mexico
for Alex’s farewell
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Apr
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We visited Stu
at LaCrosse for a weekend
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May
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Don’s
Fishing trip to the Mississippi with the
CampFryer’s, Sandy has another business trip to Orlando, Kaci’s HS graduation &
our friends Regina & Rigo were married
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Jun
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Sandy’s business
trip to LA; Kelly & Kaci in town for 2 weeks during the summer
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Jul
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Don took an
extended business trip out to San Francisco, Japan & China
(birthday in China); Sandy had a business trip to New York and Laura & Andy were married
at a wonderful ceremony
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Aug
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Don’s
business trip to Florence, SC;
also long weekend in Bournemouth;
Stu’s 22nd birthday
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Sep
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Labor Day camper Weekend (the only time we
took it out!!) & Fall colors trip to Michigan
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Oct
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Sandy’s business trips to Florida & Baltimore
and San Diego;
Don has a fishing trip with the CampFryer’s & a nice bow hunting
weekend with several friends
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Nov
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RSNA week
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Dec
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Sandy has an outpatient
visit to try and fix the irritating ankle with a short surgery;
Kaci’s 19th & Kelly’s 21st birthdays
& we have a nice Christmas visit with family at the Pagel farm
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A little more detailed look at '01…
Winter months (Jan-Mar)…Sandy
visited the girls in Auburn
in Jan; sewing in room. A week in Mexico during the chilly-willy month of February with Alan & Ae-Kyung as well as
Regina & Rigo. Visited Mayan ruins at Chichen-Itza. Sandy got a new GE hat in March in the PET
business and Don did so too at CT, Quality King.
Spring was
consumed for Sandy
with her new job & leading her product launch. Life was considerably
complicated by a windy weekend in April, which dropped a big tree on the
garage. While not smashing things to smithereens, we did need quite a
lot of work to repair the roof damage, etc. We also decided to expand the work
a little & do some house updates by having the roof redone along with the
gutters, soffit & fascia. Looks prettier than before although it drained
pretty much all the little pennies out of the piggybank! Don put a new battery
in the camper (caravan) after leaving it out in the weather all
winter…oops – one of life's free lessons!! We also got our
“summer fun” car in April, a really neat toy! 
Turbo-charged, 2-door ragtop 900 SE made by Saab. In May we both went to the Mother's
Day Ball at the Capitol Rotunda in Madison;
this was part of Don's GE cancer board activities. We spent Memorial Day in San Francisco with Kelly
& Kaci; see the details here.
Summer was pretty nice with 3 weekend+ trailer trips: LaCrosse (met up with Stu
& had dinner at the Freight House), Door County (where we watched a neat
play at the Peninsula Players after sitting & watching the sun go down over
Green Bay) and finally out to Devil's Lake with Rigo & Regina where we rode
bikes, got a little diddly on beer, wine &
perhaps Tequila (!) and watched a Spring Green Theatre Shakespeare play. We
visited Sandy's
folks with Kelly & Kaci on the 4th (Kelly had her knee surgery again after
this). We went out with Lew & Patti after working in Lew's garage at their
house replacing the Saab brakes. I think the term we used to refer to this was
"Howling" as we drove around in the Saab after dinner & a couple
(dozen) drinks with the top down. Don also visited the UK for Jim
& Bev's 25th wedding anniversary.
We had an October fall trip all planned out (up
to getting the tickets & booking hotels) up to Yellowstone
but canceled the whole thing with the Sept 11th disaster. Don went out for a
weekend with the CampFryers & hunted a little. One short hunting trip up to
Gerry's (see the '99 diary below, too). We spent a weekend with Stu who is a
student leader out at LaCrosse to watch the football in the rain & attend
the RA's buffet dinner followed by a skit. We had a nice party at Sandy's boss' house in
late November. Sandy did a ton of running around
in the fall: Atlanta/Auburn & Orlando, RSNA…She was hoping to get to Italy with Marg
Pagel to visit Caryl who's staying there on a school semester but we couldn't
get the details worked out…Perhaps next year? Don's had a 10-day GE trip
to China
with the CT engineering team…was fun!
Christmas '01 was pretty cool. We had an all-day
gathering at White Oak with Sandy's
extended family, including Stu & Alex, as well as a personal family day on
Christmas Eve with Kelly, Kaci, Stu & Alex. Pretty neat, overall. Guess that that's about it for this
year…you can go to the top or back to Don & Sandy's Home Page.
A look back at our fun in 2000…
[A bit fuzzy 'cuz we lost the original web page! We do know a few things for
sure, so it’s OK]
While we didn't do much in the early months of
2000, Don had a weeklong GE trip to Palm
Springs in early April for some W-W-P-P-ing (see the GE definitions page). Sandy got to visit too, for a nice long
weekend. We saw the most amazing things while we were there…the most
stunning thing is the way the fields around Palm Springs were so alive
& vibrant in the middle of the desert…Death Valley is down the
road just a few miles! The Coachella
Aquifer (the real reason behind this wonder) is a wonder in & of
itself, holding millions & millions of gallons of water safe from the heat
underground. Don had visited the San Andreas fault in the desert near the Salton Sea with one
of the many Desert
Jeep Tours but when we tried to go back in our rental car we just never
made it…a little too stressful being "way out there" with no
cell phones! Another wonder is the views across the valley from 3,000 feet
up…we took the wonderful cable car
ride up to the Mountain view (as well as others like these) in Joshua Tree National Monument for a day.
Last, but by no means least, are the Fields
of Windmills that capture Nature's energy with the moving air.
When we came back home from the desert visit we
reached a decision & brought a little mobile home (caravan) for some easier
weekends away. Our new Bantam is a really nice home-away-from-home, made by
the Trail-Lite folks down in Warsaw, Indiana.
Out and about we went, Sauk
City campground & High Falls
up north in the fall! We took a 3-week vacation in Europe
late July/early Aug…Germany,
France, Scotland, England…Pretty neat trip! We
also spent some time in Madison
at the Badger football game with Caryl Pagel who's a student there.
Well, the rest of summer & fall certainly
came and went that year but the specifics are a bit fluffy right now. They're
really just lost in space with our ISP changeover so perhaps another day we'll
figure it all out!!! That's about it for the year…you can go to the top or back to Don & Sandy's
Home Page.
And Some of Our Good Times in '99…
[ At least we didn't lose this year! ]
We had a simply wonderful
closure to the year of 1999 (as well as to the century of the 1900's) with an
evening spent with many of our friends at a REALLY GREAT New Year's Eve Party…come
on in & see some of the fun!
Our Christmas fun with family was really good, too…Don's Wish List is
retained here, just for fun!
A great weekend away in the fall was when we went
up to the UP of Michigan
to see the leaves, hike, bike, etc. Our best day was at Mackinac Island,
a short high-powered ferry ride
away from St. Ignace & then a bike
rental to get around the island (no vehicles!) with a delightful visit to the Butterfly House. Don also went hunting up
in the woods in the fall with his friend, Gerry, and bagged a small deer who already helped Sandy
make some pretty Yummy Venison Chili!!
Our favorite summer break was a long weekend in
the Wisconsin
River Valley. We stayed at the Prairie Garden
B&B, a wonderfully reconditioned old farmhouse, and spent a day
wandering through The
House on the Rock, a truly amazing museum filled with literally miles (!)
of displays. Another day we hiked in Devil's
Lake State Park, beautiful scenery with an energetic clamber up the bluffs
-- whew! We also had a day out during the summer with our friends at the 2nd Annual Kettle-Moraine Jazz
Festival, a 2-day concert with many incredibly good artists. Daryl Stuermer (an
ex-Genesis guitarist) was clearly the hit for Don, but all the music we heard
was really good & worth every penny!
Sandy got to visit
Auburn, Alabama for a couple
weekends to see the girls & they (of course) spent a couple weekends up
here with us. Sandy
also had a pile of fun getting the landscaping around the yard almost
completely wrapped up this year & doing some of the delightful decorating
around the house.
Don's annual fishing trip in late July with
friends to Holinshead Lake,
Canada was very nice. John
did remember to get gas this year! The wind on
the lake made it difficult to stay in one spot & relax, but the fishing was
as good as ever! Lots to catch, lots to eat! And of course, we had plenty to
drink both in the boat & in the evenings!! Our trips up & back were
visually more amazing than any year before -- we saw a moose calf on the forest
road on the way up & a black bear and a lynx on the way home! Don was also
elected "Bull of the Woods" (CampFryer's
leader for a year) at the Black Hawk Park
spring trip -- see the photo
album for a couple of snapshots of the trip.
Back in February'99, Sandy & Don spent a
toasty warm week at the Crown Paradise
in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to get away from the FREEZING COLD Wisconsin weather. PV is a really wonderful vacation
resort on the Pacific coast with many, many beautiful places. The hotel is
right on the beach, with an amazing view. Our room was way high on the top
floor in the corner -- you can almost see it on the web site picture of the hotel!
The view shown along the hotel to the sea is exactly the same as the one we
had…we awoke each day to the sound of the sea & watched big sea-birds
float past our window. We spent a good deal of time during the day lounging
around the delightful pool with endless cold drinks & all the snacks we
wanted! The social director organized great games like Tequila Volleyball in
the pool & exercise sessions (which we declined!!) We went out horseback
riding one day in the mountains nearby with a group, & spent another
exploring the town. Sandy
shopped for & found a gorgeous sundress. We enjoyed Huervos Rancheros for
breakfast pretty much every morning with excellent coffee/juice/etc (thanks to
Blair House, a fine country Inn in Wimberly, Texas for the visual aid!!), and a
great variety of excellent foods at lunch & dinner. "Montezuma's
Revenge" took a bite out of Don on the 2nd or 3rd day but the
wonder-drug Imodium helped limit this to just one day…whew!
We said goodbye to our old cat, PaintPot, in June
of '99. Some pictures &
memories of him and another friend, Betsy.
Last but not least…our '98 UK Trip
We had a simply wonderful trip to the UK in July'98, not too long after
Don’s brain tumor surgery. Here's our Journal from the
trip…Pretty much fun, Fun & more FUN! Enjoy the journal.
Well, that's about
it for our diary pages…We may try to find some time later in the century
to tag a little more info & perhaps drill back a little further to '94 or
whatever…Who knows! You can go back to the top or head
back to Don & Sandy's Home Page. Hope you
had fun!!
Updated Aug/09