Hello Everyone,
Happy holidays! Here in Boston, we are approaching our third Christmas together (second year together in Boston) and would like to update our friends and family on some of the changes and experiences we’ve gone through.
1997 After [finally] completing her Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech in January 1997, Jackie took a job with Lockheed Martin designing microwave components and antennas for satellites. She relocated to sunny Sunnyvale, California where the weather was warm and sunny most of the time… until Jim came to visit her for a while in February 1998. Have you heard of El Niño? Some people say there is no such thing, but we believe. It rained nearly everyday of Jim’s visit, but he still got to golf and we got to do some mountain biking. After 15 months in Caly, Jackie decided the suburban sprawl of the South Bay didn’t agree with her, and that she wanted to be closer to home. She moved to Boston in May 1998, taking a job with Raytheon designing antennas and microwave components. She now works mostly in phased array antenna design.
Jim has been working the last 31 years at Scientific Solutions, Inc., in New Hampshire, a 35-40 minute commute from their home in Woburn, site for the story "A Civil Action." Lately he has been updating the company Web site, www.ssilink.com, in addition to his own at www.tiac.net/users/parinell/home.htm. Normally he is an acoustical engineer for this small company that designs and builds novel systems for measuring sound and vibration, along with whatever else that comes along. His work sent him to the Arctic this year for two weeks to test a device that will be used to transmit data about the Arctic Ocean collected by a self-navigating submarine under the ice cap. It was a thrilling experience with only a 4’ slab of ice keeping you above 9000’ of water, nothing but white as far as the eye can see, a sunset that takes 45 minutes at 11 at night. There have been several media exposures about the ice camp and the US nuclear submarine that surfaced through the ice, including a one hour special on CNN and a whole article in the upcoming April 2000 issue of National Geographic. Unfortunately, like when a book becomes a movie, Jim was one of those characters that ended up on the cutting room floor and won’t be featured.
We currently rent a house in Woburn, MA in the suburbs of Boston, where the two cats (called "Popeye" and "Squirt" by Jackie, "Gray One" and "Black One" by Jim) have a fenced in backyard with typically long, uncut grass to run around in. Actually, walk around, as both cats are, shall we say, cheerfully plump. The house is a little quirky. If Jim were to spike his hair, the top would touch [almost?] the dining room ceiling, which is just over 6’ high. And if you come to visit, well, we hope you don’t slide off the guest bed. The floor is a little slanted in there and we’re continually having to slide the bed back in place. In the last few months, we’ve done a lot to make it more homey. Jackie has installed a dining room carpet painstakingly trimmed for the trapezoidal room. Jim has helped out, assembling the computer desk while the carpet adventure was going on. It took so much time that we both thought about listing these things as hobbies. Everything looks great now. The tree is up, little Santa candlesticks are on the dining room table, and even Jackie’s 1984 Accord has a Douglas fir branch on its windshield. Luckily, global warming or El Niño or whatever has kept it warm enough lately that Jackie has been able to withstand the Northern climate.
We spent a week in Berlin this past spring while Jim attended a conference. The city was an odd mix of new and old, capitalist and communist, German and global (worldly? Non-ethnic? European?). The former East Berlin especially had trouble deciding what it should be, as the former no-man’s land of the Wall is now where many big companies have their European headquarters, and the previously charming Friedrichstrasse has glitzy, expensive department stores and a Planet Hollywood. Several memories of the war are still there, including a bombed-out church in the city center. Oh, and lots of meat.
We continue to play Ultimate frisbee. Both of us have won national, world, and summer league championships. One of the great things about frisbee is that we combine the fun and challenge of the tournaments with traveling to cool places like Scotland. This past summer, we attended the world ultimate frisbee championships in St. Andrews, Scotland. Jim’s team Death or Glory ("DoG") won the whole kit and caboodle, going undefeated for the week-long tournament and taking the world title. Jackie’s team Lady Godiva put up a good battle, but was a little undermanned for the week-long tournament and lost in the semifinals. We had a great time, and got to travel around Scotland and also Iceland a bit. Jim went a week early with a friend and golfed 12 rounds at some of the world’s oldest and most famous golf courses, including the Old Course at St. Andrews (the first golf course, people played on that site as early as the 12th century) and Carnoustie, site of this year’s British Open. We also got to see some of the other beautiful sites of Scotland, like castles, lochs, and Edinburgh. On the way home, we did a three-day whirlwind tour of Iceland, with memories of fjords, waterfalls, and geysers. The most memorable was the bird cliffs of Latrabjarg, where literally thousands of gulls and puffins nested at the top of a 1000’ sheer cliff, and hikers can walk right up to the edge of the cliff and peer down.
Also in frisbee news, DoG won its sixth straight national championship in San Diego this year. In frisbee, DoG is like the Braves of the ‘90s, or a little better but don’t tell Jackie that. DoG is really a joy to watch if you ever get the opportunity. Lady Godiva won the national championships last year (’98), but lost in the semifinals this year. In 1998, we won the Boston corporate summer league championship together with our Team "Tech" (not related to Jackie’s alma mater).
Jim is playing in a new frisbee sport called Goaltimate. His team won $2500 by finishing 2nd in the inaugural tournament which was featured on ESPN2 this summer. Tournaments for 2000 are scheduled in West Palm Beach, Vancouver, and NY, and the organizer is very optimistic that ESPN and other sponsors will continue to back it, with a possibility of a semi-pro league carried on live TV as early as 2001.
We hope this Christmas finds you well.
The Internet version of this can be read at www.tiac.net/users/parinell/xmascard.htm.