December 15, 2004
Well, it is that time of year again. I cannot believe how quickly the year goes by. It seems like I was just writing this letter a few days ago. But here I am again.
This year was busy but did not have as many major events as the past couple of years. That is fine with me. I am getting too old to have such a hectic life. But it is still complicated enough. In the month of November alone, Dan and I made 6 trips between us, all separate from each other. It just never seems to stop.
We finished off last year with a trip to Dallas/Fort Worth just
before Christmas to see our BSU Broncos play TCU in the Fort Worth Bowl. No
one there expected us to win, so they were quite shocked when we did. It was
great. About 2000 people went down from Boise for the game and we had a blast.
Most of them came right back because the game was on Dec. 23rd, but
we went early and stayed for five days, coming back on Christmas day.
Dan had arranged to get his band tightened while we were in the Dallas area and he got it too tight. After 5 days of not being able to eat anything, he ended up flying down to Tijuana to have Dr. Ortiz fix it. Thus, he spent New Year’s Eve in Mexico and flew back on New Year’s Day. He said that was an interesting experience, as they shoot real guns off around town at midnight. He could hear them from his hotel. But the trip was a success and he has not had any problems with his band since.
The year started out pretty quiet and slowly in comparison to recent ones. We took a quick trip to Seattle in January for the Seattle Bandster Bash, a group of Dan’s fellow lap-bandsters. After that we actually both stayed home for a couple of months.
In April Dan’s mother decided it was time to give up the big house in California and move to the Chicago area. So Cinda flew to Monterey (leaving 2 month old Cooper with his dad and grandma Lester to watch him) and she and Dan drove a U Haul truck with much of Mom’s stuff in it across the country to Chicago. Dan’s brother Irv, sister Gayle and sister Sue, as well as others, spent the week before helping to get things ready to go. Dan drove the truck, first to Boise to leave some things here, then to Salt Lake to leave things for Sue, and finally to Chicago, where they unloaded the rest of the stuff into Cinda’s living room to be dispersed later. I had gone to California to spend Easter with Karen and her family in the Bay area. Dan and Cinda arrived at our house with the truck about two hours ahead of my flight home on Easter Sunday. Dan’s mom sold her house and flew to Chicago and has been living with his brother Gary and his wife Shelly since.
In March we decided that it was time to treat Dan to a life-long dream. We bought a red 1993 Corvette roadster. I must say that being a Corvette owner opens up a whole new world. There are all kinds of activities and new people to meet. One of the first trips we made in our new toy was to Jackpot, Nevada in June. I had to get used to being on the freeway in a Corvette with 18 wheelers whizzing by. Anyway, we had a great time in Jackpot. I won the slot machine tournament and won another trip to Jackpot, which we took around my birthday in September. It was on this trip that I decided to dye my hair red and quit my job at AG Edwards. (Yes, the two decisions were related.) I sent out over 100 resumes, got over 30 calls, and began working for a small local financial planning company, Echelon Group, in mid July. I work as an assistant to one planner, Sue, and I just absolutely love her and the job. It started as a ½ time and I am now working ¾ time. Sometime in the next 3-4 months I will start working full time. But she is real flexible about my taking time off which is very nice. I LOVE being a red-head.
Meanwhile, Dan had another surprise up his sleeve. He fell
in love with another Corvette. This time he found it on eBay. It is a custom
painted 2001 convertible with checkered flags along the sides, a red front
with crossed C5 flags on the hood and a white back end. 
This picture shows up picking
it up in Dallas. Believe me, we get noticed in this car! Anyway, we made the
winning bid, but had to wait about 5 weeks to get the car because Dan had a
tummy tuck on June 28th, just a few days after we made the deal on
the car. The recovery from the tummy tuck turned out to be much longer than
anticipated, but the first week in August, we flew to Dallas to pick up our new
‘baby’ and drive it home. In spite of having a drain in his tummy, Dan had a
wonderful time driving the new toy. We took a full week driving it home. We
spent two nights in Albuquerque and visited with Susanna and Lorraine. Then we
spent a night in Durango visiting with Jane and then on to Salt Lake City to
visit Dan’s sister Sue and her family. His mom just happened to be visiting
there so we got to see her too. I was glad because I hadn’t seen her in over a
year. We then spent the weekend in Park City and came home.
Anyway, we got the Vette home and got rid of the Honda and the 1993 Vette. Dan drives it to work every day and so far has not gotten a ticket, but he sure does get a lot of attention. He has been asked to participate in a couple of parades, one for a local high school’s homecoming, where he drove one of the princesses in their parade to the stadium; she sat up on the back deck and waved to everyone. We participate in a lot of the local Corvette Club activities and have met a lot of new people that way this year.
In September, I went to California to visit Karen. Although the trip had been planned for several months, it didn’t end up the way we had planned. Karen had just put Tom in a nursing home a week before and the very next day ended up in the hospital herself to have her gallbladder removed. She was actually in the hospital off and on for over a week due to pancreatitis. She was pretty sick and had just gotten home the day I flew in, so I rented a car and drove to Fresno from the Oakland airport and spent the weekend there with her. Tom passed away about two weeks later. He had been very ill for a long time. Karen really had a rough couple of months with all that was going on, but she seems to be doing better. I went down there for Thanksgiving and we had the happy visit with her kids and their families that we had planned to do in September.
Dan spent Thanksgiving week in the Chicago area. His mom turned 85 on Thanksgiving Day and all of his siblings and many of their children and grandchildren were able to be there on the day after to celebrate the event with her. Dan spent the week at Cinda’s getting to know Cooper, our newest grandchild, who will be one year old in January.
We are going to Maui for 17 days on the 23rd of December. We have not been there in two years and boy am I READY! If we were not going there we would probably be going to Memphis for New Years. Our BSU Broncos have ended up with an unbeaten season. They have the longest winning streak in the country. They are number 10 in the AP and coaches polls and number 9 in the BCS poll and will be playing Louisville in the Liberty Bowl on New Year’s Eve. We have had a great season. Our games were on ESPN 7 times this year and we have never lost on ESPN. It has been a lot of fun this year. And it will be even MORE fun next year. We just bought ourselves a Christmas present, a 60” Sony HDTV with a DVR. It was just set up this week and it is awesome!
We are busy all the time. We play bridge 2-3 times a month. Dan is leading a Bible class, which I also attend, on Wednesday nights from 6-9 and serving as Lay Eucharistic Minister once or twice a month at the Sunday services. We also usher together at church every six weeks or so. We also have a new addition to our family. My boss’s mother passed away two weeks ago and we inherited Angel, an AKC registered 3 year old Pomeranian. She is very well trained and we are enjoying her a lot. We had never considered getting a dog, but there you go. Sometimes life has little (and big) surprises in store for us.
Dan plays racquetball 2-3 times a week and I do water aerobics twice a week. Dan’s weight has stabilized and he is about the same as he was a year ago. He looks great after his tummy tuck. I still struggle but keep trying to watch the carbs and get more exercise. Dan spends as much time as he can in the yard tending to his 50 plus rose bushes. I am the envy of the office for about 6 months of the year with fresh roses on my desk every week.
We try to get to all the football games and as many of the basketball games as we can. In addition to my new job I am also working free lance about 6 hours a week during the school year at the University Library Reference Desk. It helps keep my library skills up.
We are already planning to attend my family reunion, tentatively planned for July of next year in Lawrence, Kansas. We will also get to the Chicago area sometime next year, and will get back to Maui sometime next fall. So on and on it goes.
We hope everyone has a very happy and peaceful New Year.
Love to all,
Dan and Gail