Christmas 2007
An angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them,
"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news
of great joy that will be for all the people.
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;
he is Christ the Lord."
Dear Friends,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us.
This page is a photographic annotation of the email
(or regular post) that you may have received.
[If you want to see a bigger (and sometimes also wider) version of the pictures,
just click on them.]
Rather than go by topic, we'll go (roughly) by month this year.
In January I decided to take down the ugly box elder tree in the back yard.
It was dying but still had plenty of live branches.
Before felling it,
I cut off some strategic branches
by climbing up with a hand saw,
and actually tipped it over with an 18" crowbar
after cutting it appropriately.
Since I had this one to deal with, I delayed ordering my usual three
cords of log-length wood.
That proved to be fortunate,
as I broke my foot snowboarding in February and wouldn't have
been able to deal with that much wood.
I was able to finish splitting the box elder wood despite my air cast.
Laura got the cast off her broken hand,
and spent most of the rest of the year doing therapy so she could
play her guitar again, among other activities.
In May Katherine graduated from the University of Rochester,
and we trooped over to see it, as shown in the picture of Katherine,
her parents, and my parents.
Her brother the photographer was there as well.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the senior show in which
various campus groups performed,
usually featuring the seniors.
Katherine juggled with fellow juggling club members, as can be seen on
youtube.
In May Matt finished his first year at Stony Brook University
on Long Island;
he began his second year in the fall.
He's still in the physics program at Stony Brook and is enjoying school.
In July, Matt and I went to Edinburgh to the American Scientific
Affiliation annual meeting, "New Frontiers in Science and Faith."
It was a good meeting, covering subjects like global warming
and combatting militant atheism.
You can read the abstracts and even download the audio on the
web site.
Laura's sister Sally and daughter Virginia visited in August,
as did my sister Amy and her daughter Jeanette.
At left is Laura's father Blaine with all of his daughters and
granddaughters.
Virginia wanted to do some deep sea fishing,
which I had some doubts about since I never had much luck with the
half day trips from Maine.
Well, Virginia showed everyone how to do it,
as seen in the picture at right!
Also in August I published a paper in the Lincoln Lab Journal.
Although most of what I do is not really confidential,
I haven't had that many things approved for public release so if you're
curious about what I've been up to
(which probably means you're a very close relative)
you can click on the little diagram at left and download the fifth paper
in the issue. (My coauthor's work is at the beginning,
and my stuff starts on page 313.)
In the summer Katherine worked on an
economic development internship in the Rochester area.
In September she went to Spain to teach English to kids 4-12 near Barcelona,
working for the Spanish government on a one year appointment.
(Spain became the third Spanish-speaking country she's lived in for
two months or more.)
As the dollar has fallen to record lows in currency markets,
I've been able to tell everyone that my daughter is paid in euros!
She has had a chance to learn some Catalan (she already knows Spanish)
as well as do some traveling around Spain.
In the picture she's in front of a Roman aqueduct
not too far from Barcelona.
Katherine expects to be looking for a job back in the US in the summer.
(Her degree is in human rights studies with minors in Spanish and
linguistics, in case you will be looking for
someone like that this summer!)
In October Laura and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary
(we were 13 when we got married...).
We went down to Long Island to visit Matt and then headed into NYC
as shown in the pictures.
Laura photographed a few werewolves accosting a random priest
who was just walking by (this was before the broadway strike)!
Well, that's it for the pictures;
not a lot else has changed greatly.
Laura and I continue to teach the pre-K/K kids in Sunday School and
sing in the choir.
I'm still at Lincoln Lab and Laura is still at the same startup,
although it has a new name for 2008, Zeemote.
Tim (and for Laura, Katherine, and Matt)
In January I decided to take down the ugly box elder tree in the back yard.
It was dying but still had plenty of live branches.
Before felling it,
I cut off some strategic branches
by climbing up with a hand saw,
and actually tipped it over with an 18" crowbar
after cutting it appropriately.
Since I had this one to deal with, I delayed ordering my usual three
cords of log-length wood.
That proved to be fortunate,
as I broke my foot snowboarding in February and wouldn't have
been able to deal with that much wood.
I was able to finish splitting the box elder wood despite my air cast.
Laura got the cast off her broken hand,
and spent most of the rest of the year doing therapy so she could
play her guitar again, among other activities.
