1999 Holiday Letter

 

Dear Family & Friends,

 

The first full calendar year of our marriage has passed and it has been full of adventures.  We brought in 1999 at home with each other watching the New Year’s festivities at the Space Needle.

 

In February, I left Attachmate and by March I was back at Microsoft.  I’m working as a Product Manager in the marketing group for Exchange Server.  Yes, that’s the same product Marc works on building wireless connectivity.  Our offices are in the same building, one floor apart-- we have been carpooling a few days a week.  Although this gives us a lot of quality time together since traffic continues to get more unbearable, it also results in challenges as we try to mesh our schedules. 

 

I’m really enjoying my new job.  It’s kept me busy and has sent me traveling quite a bit.  Since March, I’ve seen the Crown Jewels in London, tested my rusty German in Hamburg and Frankfurt (home of Hamburgers and Hotdogs), and will make a quick trip to Dublin before Christmas.  I also got a chance to visit my dear friend, Ali, in Atlanta when we held our annual Exchange Conference there in October.  It was fun to catch up.  I’m still waiting for the trips to Anchorage and Tokyo to come along so I can visit Christie and Mark.  Marc’s been working hard as well.  He made many trips to Scandinavia helping Microsoft acquire a Swedish wireless software company.  He’s hired a team of people to work for him and is making progress towards shipping their first product which provides the underpinnings for the “Wireless Web” you’ll be hearing about increasingly in the media.

 

Our good friends Rachel and Danny got married in June in New York, so we went out to enjoy the festivities.  It was a beautiful wedding and it also provided us the opportunity to visit with Bob & Judy.  We also met Mike & Jessie’s twins, Jack and Sam for the first time.  At the time, they were just a few months old and were very cute.

 

In July, Marc and I chartered a 32’ Nordic Tug and cruised around the San Juan and Canadian Gulf Islands for a week.  Marc did a great job as Skipper while I, as the the First Mate, took care of the anchor, lines, and all the cooking in the Galley.  We had beautiful weather all week.  We caught and cooked a fresh crab, saw a seal giving birth on a rock by Sucia Island, and did plenty of hiking.  It was a wonderfully relaxing week.  What a great way to take advantage of the beautiful northwest summer  – something we’d like to repeat each year. 

 

August brought another wedding of two close friends, Desteni and Brian.  Marc and I were honored to be candle lighters in the wedding.  Jill, Jeff & the kids visited us for a week before Labor Day.  Jackson and Ginger continue to grow by leaps and bounds.  We started our first anniversary celebration the same way as our honeymoon—in a Kenmore Air float plane.  This time we were bound for a long weekend in Victoria, B.C.

 

In October, we adopted a wonderful 10-month old black lab puppy from our vet.  The puppy had swallowed part of a rug and it’s elderly owners wanted to put him down since he was too much to take care of.  The vet did the emergency surgery to remove the rug bits, with the agreement that she would find the dog a new home.  We happened to bring Tabby in to the vet to check her claws, and fell in love with Gus.  So, we brought him home on a Wednesday.  He was already housebroken and learned obedience commands very quickly.  We took him for lots of walks, played fetch with him in the back yard and Marc built a big kennel in the backyard on Saturday, so he could stay outside while we’re at work.  But, Gus wasn’t eating right and was by Sunday was acting very lethargic and throwing up.  We took him back to the vet where we learned he wasn’t healing correctly from his first surgery.   They did emergency surgery again, but unfortunately Gus didn’t make it through.  Although we only had Gus for 5 days, he stole our hearts and we were devastated when he died.  He was such a good boy.  We miss him.  We are looking for a new dog and will know when the right one comes along.

 

Marc is keeping busy this fall working on our drainage problems (very common in Seattle).  He has now triumphed over the rain.  We are looking forward to spending the holidays here at home.  We will ring in the millennium in Vancouver with Pat and Cameron (no, we won’t be in a bomb shelter 10 feet under and our PCs will continue to work on January 1-- though we look forward to joining the rest of you in waking up before we were born on the 1st day of the new millenium).

I’ve enjoyed reflecting on 1999 and sharing our lives with you.  We wish you all a very happy holiday season – Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah! 

 

 

And, we wish you a year of good health and happiness as we enter the 21st century. 

 

Love,

Trina, Marc & Tabby

 

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