Diary of the Last Few Years
Updates for Don & Sandy and family were captured at our eDiary here for a number of years before the creation of FaceBook's eHistory tool in late 2011, allowing this site to become historical in and of itself/not getting further updates... For a more "historical" view, you might start at the end & read it backwards? Have fun, regardless ;)
First, Here’s 2011…
[Sunday, January 1st, 2012]
December was busy for us on multiple fronts, with the holidays (always fun!), Sandy helping with the move in Atlanta and Don graduating from Carroll U (finally!) whilst being actually actively buried in work! Don also worked on the new eDiary, loading parts from this site... more to come!
Saturday November 5th was celebrated with Glyn & Laura at a nice Guy Fawke's bonfire and the next Friday (yes, 11/11/11) had Sandy as Chef-de-la-cuisine, creating a fresh-caught salmon delight for our Gourmet group -- lots of good food, wine and yakkity-yak! Rich Fillet's delicious culinary skills were shared the next day with a couple dozen friends at Brad & Donna Wulf's farm (near East Troy, WI)... took Sunday *off* to recover ;)
Sandy & I left home on Oct 15th to go to Atlanta for a week+ to help with Kelly & Quentin's wedding... An absolutely awesome Saturday (Oct 22nd) wedding -- lots of details to come here as the photo's get released!
We had a short weekend over Labor Day in Rockford, IL to watch STP -- we had really good front-row seats... just awesome! Sandy spent most of the month after this travelling thru Europe on business for her MR Oncology role, spending a weekend at 74 Ray Lea Rd to enjoy her niece and nephew! I have been advised that Sandy became the "most amazing Auntie" after taking perhaps a dozen little apples from the garden and creating a "pie" for the youngsters... yummy-yum-yum, apparently!
I also had a nice weekend away at the end of September with the CampFryer's group near Oshkosh, and then drove home in a meandering way thru the Northwoods to sample the Fall colors, etc... you can see some snaps of each
We had a wonderful weekend in August with Karon & Dan at their lovely Lakewood resort, enjoying everything that comes with! Stu & Jill visited for a couple days earlier in the month, and Kelly's bridal shower was held here with 2+ dozen friends and family!
July 4th was a party-filled day with visits to Bob Senzig and Ken & Diana... nifty!
We had a neighborhood social party at the house the weekend after that... "upstairs only" ;P
Sandy changed the color of some of the walls at our house... feels like new!
Kaci & Dave's son, Maxwell Bridges, arrived in May and is growing like a weed ;)
Don was off to the UK in April for a fun week with his college Spring Break (see pix) and is today down to just 2 classes in the fall semester to graduate... Summer sessions included a basic statistics class in June (bit of a headache, but a passing grade!), a far bigger headache with an online class in July that cost us a pretty penny for no gain at all, a pottery class in August (that was very busy but fun!) and the Carroll University computer science capstone project along with each of these which took a fair amount of R&R time away from him.
A little cash actually flowed in from some website work for Creative Logic, and although the website owners decided to take their ideas in a different direction, Don built on the concept to start up Musical Poetry, a neat idea that's still in its infancy as of this writing (Nov)
Next is 2010 in Summary…
The biggest family event of 2010 was that Mum passed on peacefully in April, after losing her fight with liver cancer. After Alan planned the funeral, etc, the Iceland volcano prevented us from traveling from the US to England at all – many other relatives were able to join the farewell, though. Mum was cremated, and her remains were scattered by Alan nearby in a place that we knew as the "Bluebell Woods", a country delight near Winchester.
Alan and I decided a few weeks after this to not retain our inheritance at 70 Elmes Road. After belonging to Dad, Mum & us for more than 55 years, we spent quite a bit to bring parts of the house up to code, etc, and to find a sales agent. We’ll still each end up with a little inheritance for our savings once everything's closed. Sort of a sad thing in some ways for me, as something like my roots from more than 40 years ago are now leaving. Memories are not all good, though, hence the “in some ways” thing… there’s always a tendency to look back, I guess, wondering about why this or that happened, if you know what I mean?? Also many good ones, of course!!
The next most significant event for us was to hear from Kaci & Dave (her beau) that we were going to be grandparents! They visited with us for a week over Christmas; we were also visiting everyone in Atlanta, GA around Thanksgiving to help them move into a new flat that’s nearer to sister Kelly (and her beau Quentin) and also a lot closer to the hospital where our 1st grandchild will be born in just a few months! We’ll eventually also be moving South to be closer, but that’s going to be a few more years up here with all the lovely weather!!
For our family in Alexandria VA, Stu & Jill moved from their flat to a house (with some help from professional movers) in early December after their rent went up for the 3rd year in a row and sort of shot thru the roof… They’re both still quite close to where they work and are enjoying the fun of unpacking all those boxes!!
On another family front, David and Anna VanDenLangenberg were married on June 5th, sharing a really nice family get-together up in the Green Bay area.
Sandy was working particularly hard in 2010 to help GE Healthcare’s MR business reach their year-end goals… Off on another overnight trip to Houston Texas in early December, chasing closure for another of the many customers who showed up at the annual RSNA show, wanting to “buy one” of those million-dollar+ MR scanners!! Good for the business, of course, but a bit of a grind for those doing all the travel, etc.
Work for me has continued to be very sporadic, with a couple of part-time technical roles, a money-making "ride-the-gravy-train" idea for a web thing, several weeks in the summer to help with the US Census and several interviews that went well, but simply did not blossom. Finishing the Fall semester at Carroll U with the final exams for the term being their typical “ouch” when those darned answers just won’t come to mind (!), I'm at least continuing with a reasonable GPA, around 3.3… Am doing OK overall, and if things continue without hiccups will have a pretty good Bachelor’s degree (computer science) in hand by year-end 2011 – a very well-established limitation for job interviews!
Hopefully this work cr*p gets a whole lot better here in the not-too-distant future – guess we’ll see. The US economy has not helped with my job search, etc… at least being “on the dole” lasted until the spring. It’s not quite solid, either, with all the political shenanigans that I’m sure continues to make the USA into the world’s best buffoon!
An Interesting Yet Complicated Year…2009
2009 was an event-filled year, starting with my being hit by the massive GE layoff on Jan 17th… over 1,000 people were let go from our Milwaukee area HQ, bringing so many difficulties to so many families – we were blessed by the fact that Sandy's role was not impacted at all, avoiding a family budget disaster. While quite emotional about all of this "rejection," I was lucky enough to qualify for some financial freebies, including a week's pay for each of the 22 years I worked there (which was paid out in weekly tweaks with unemployment checks from the state), up to $8,000 for college tuition over the next 2 years (if I took relevant classes) and a 10% check for signing the "I'll be good" GE RIF paperwork! I was also lucky enough to find myself hooked up with some Fairchild folks from the early 80's – pretty neat weekend visit to the DC area!
I started taking classes at Carroll U in the Spring to utilize the free GE funds as well as work towards that missing paperwork to get a job (!) and I also restarted my consulting business that brought me to GE in the mid-80's. Not too much going on there but a good basis for the future.
We learned in early August that Mum's liver had never really recovered from her December 2004 diagnosis (auto-immune hepatitis) and this had ended up with a diagnosis of liver cancer, making her end-of-life just a few months away. I had visited Mum et al in the UK in April for about a week, and came back for a weekend with Stu in October. When I returned again to spend Christmas there, Mum was in the hospital after a fall in the kitchen (which was never fully explained) and she was not very able to be communicative. A virus assault also slowed visits to almost nothing so it wasn't much of a trip.
A Few Things About 2008…
January & February were spent in
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 (buried at St. Johns in Winton), 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 did pass the damned thing… I took some time off after that for Christmas, etc
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
I drove out to
I did have several free weekends while out there, visiting the
2006 Which 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.
Don's enjoying his job at work as
well as helping out now and again at
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!
Mum Shave was diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis (an auto-immune liver problem that's like cirrhosis) late in the year. Some treatment was prescribed and things appeared to get better.
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 |
Alex passed away just a few weeks before his 20th birthday, leaving a huge hole in everyone’s life… |
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Feb |
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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Apr |
We visited Stu at LaCrosse for a weekend |
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May |
Don’s
Fishing trip to the |
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Jun |
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Jul |
Don took an
extended business trip out to |
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Aug |
Don’s
business trip to |
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Sep |
Labor Day camper Weekend (the only time we
took it out!!) & Fall colors trip to |
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Oct |
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Nov |
RSNA week |
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Dec |
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A Somewhat More Detailed Look at '01…
Winter months (Jan-Mar)…
Spring was
consumed for 
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
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
We had an October fall trip all planned out (up
to getting the tickets & booking hotels) up to
Christmas '01 was pretty cool. We had an all-day
gathering at White Oak with
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).
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
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
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!
Don's annual fishing trip in late July with
friends to Holinshead Lake,
Back in February'99, Sandy & Don spent a
toasty warm week at the Crown Paradise
in Puerto Vallarta,
We said goodbye to Don's aging kittycat, PaintPot, in June of '99. Some pictures & memories of him and of another friend from the past, Betsy the pooch.
Last but not least…our '98
We had a simply wonderful trip to the
Looking even further back into the early 90's, a thread or 2 from the past are dragged into the diary "just for fun"...
When Don was stationed in
Soltau, West Germany in the 1970's, he was snapped with some Army mates...
Don's on the left, next is Ginger, then [], [], Kim Nott, Johnno and [].
Names may yet be added!
A young and happy Sandy, snapped with one of her youthful hobbies...
Well, that's about it for now for our diary… We may try to find some time later in the century to tag a little more info & perhaps drill back a little further to '87 or whatever… Who knows! You can go back to the Top or head back to Don & Sandy's Home Page. Hope you had fun!!
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