Dec. 8, 1995

Well, I just recently got back from another trip to the desert.  This
one was much more home-like:  Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I was there
for a week long trade show with Intergraph.  We were showing off our
latest workstations (Intel P6-Pentium Pro based, with our own
graphics accelerators) to the military Visualization and Simulation
world.  It was long hours so I didn't get to see much of the area.
Pity, since I haven't been that far West since I was 7.

Made it back in time to catch a plane up to NYC to spend Thanksgiving
with Madelyn's family.  We had a good trip.  Nathaniel particularly
enjoyed playing with his cousins.  There was even some snow in the
air one morning.  And plenty of cookies on all mornings.

Nathaniel is doing well in first grade, he also played soccer this
fall.  He seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.  I was assistant coach
for his team.  They didn't officially keep score.

We broke out the holiday decorations this past weekend,  we'll get
a tree this Sunday.  Also bought the Holidays candy, y'know, the
green and red ones from m & m's.  Place one, whole, on the outside
of your right, rear most molars and crunch down just enough to
break the shell and chocolate -- but not far enough to close your
teeth.  Then, without moving anything, just let the flavor kind of
waft across your tongue until you taste it all the way over on your
far cheek.  The peanut ones don't work at all, and the almond are
in a different class altogether (of course the mint ones border
on being anti-American). 

Anyway, this is a little rushed this year; I'm off to Washington,
D.C. for more demos.  Not a moment to slow down.  Or rather the
ones I do slow down for are spent with family or playing ping
pong.  Built a block cathedral with Nathaniel yesterday (from
a book) while Madelyn was at step-aerobics class.  Now I'm
off to a party for one of Nathaniel's friends at Chuck E.
Cheese's pizzeria.

Maybe after the holidays there will be time to walk down to the
railroad crossing at the edge of our neighborhood, set up a
couple lawn chairs in the corner of a field, amidst the cotton
stubble, leftover from November's harvest of white fluff, and
wait.  Wait to see if the new lights flash and cross bar lowers
when a train approaches.  If it's not too cold we'll wait
an half an hour, maybe more.

Hoping you get to slow down and enjoy the holidays.

-- Chip, Madelyn and Nathaniel