John continues to work with the Haskell group at Yale. He is now the official editor of the Haskell Report (mainly because he didn't say no) and also continues working on the Haskell compiler. They are now working on a system for PC's. His group is also involved in a contract involving computer-aided education for high school students. This involves creating a virtual world (called a MUD - multi-user dungeon, although it has nothing to do with real dungeons unless that's how students view their educational setting) in which students will carry out their course work and interact with other students and teachers.

Marti is continually amazed at the amount of a mother's time that can be absorbed between home and children. Many of the lofty goals she set when she "took a break from employment" are now rather fuzzy lofty goals. She is still serving on the board of directors of our local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. This is at times a very rewarding service, and at times a very frustrating one. True to her normal habits, she is perhaps a bit over involved, and confused by the politics of dealing with others that have either differing levels of enthusiasm or channel their enthusiasm in different directions. They managed to pull off a rather nice Walk-a-thon last May, and will strive to do so again this year. We now have three families, totaling 13 people becoming owners of nice homes they would not have been able to afford without Habitat's help. Marti is also devoting more time to Eric's school, and PTO activities. She assists Eric's class in the computer lab every Friday. After a brief introduction to the out-dated technology available to these students, Marti became the school's spokesman on the technology update committee, who's proposal may begin to be implemented as soon as next fall. There may be an opportunity for future employment with the school system, as they struggle to catch up and educate their teachers.

Eric is doing very well in school. He enjoys math and computers (especially when Marti is helping his teacher in the computer lab!) and likes to draw pictures and write stories on the computer, but not necessarily in class. Unlike his parents, showing promise that he may be a good speller. Eric's collection of toy dogs is getting bigger and bigger - we have promised he can have a real dog next year. Eric spends a lot of time playing on the computer now - SimCity is his favorite game. He also has been going on lot's of bike rides with his family, although he often feels these death marches are secret attempts by his father to 'build character'!

Jay spent the year in his terrible twos. He is of the opinion that everything should be done his way and he lets us know when we don't meet his expectations! He thinks he can do anything Eric can and has learned how to get around in most of the games Eric plays on the computer. In fact, he has more curiosity about the computer settings than is healthy for the rest of the family. Given a few minutes at the computer, he can change enough settings to keep us baffled for hours. He can get around most of the obsticles we set up for him. Mommy is particularly frustrated with his favorite cure-all, "when in doubt, reboot!" Jay also rides his trike as much as he can, and tries to climb all the rock climbs that Eric does, and some that Eric wouldn't. Since he still gets a free ride on Daddy's back, he is a bigger fan of mountain biking than Eric is.

This year we traveled to North Carolina and West Virginia in April. Eric has now climbed classic routes at Stone Mountain, a large granite dome in North Carolina. John tried to give Marti a heart attack by letting Jay climb the rock via one of the easier routes. Yes, Jay started serious climbing a bit younger than Eric did. John and Eric went kayaking on the New River (one of the easier runs) and everyone got soaked trying to climb at the New River Gorge during a downpour.

Over the summer, we joined the grandparents family in Las Vegas and went over to San Diego for a computer conference (with a lot of climbing along the way!). While John was at the conference, Marti and the kids went to Dizzyland and other touristy stuff in the area. After the conference, we went to the eastern side of the Sierras for more climbing and hiking. Alastair Reid, who works for John at Yale, and Jared Toman, a climbing friend from Wallingford, joined the party. Eric's favorite climbing place was the Buttermilks, a hill covered with strangely shaped boulders near Bishop, California. We then drove to Denver by way of Utah. Thanks to Al Davis for giving us a place to stay for a couple of days on our way through. The highlight (or lowlight!) of the trip through Utah was John and Jared's climb of the Titan, a huge crumbling sandstone tower near Moab. John has been trying to get to the top of this thing for over ten years. Now that he has succeeded, he won't have to work so hard at convincing young climbers that there is reason to climb it, and Eric won't have to endure the gnats waiting for Daddy to finish his climb.

In Denver, we continued visiting our friends and climbing rocks. Eric and Jay have a wonderful time playing with their uncles and grandparents; John and Marti enjoyed being able to sneak off to the mountains without the kids!

Marti's family is doing well. Her sister Anna's family, in Texas, has moved to a new house. It seems that niece Amber, also approaching 3, is totaly different from Jay, but just as strong willed. Sister Nina's family is entering a new phase, as nephew David starts applying to colleges. My how fast they grow!

John's parents are still active and healthy. They still travel all over the world as well as volunteer for many different groups. All of John's brothers now live in the Denver area. Alan within a half mile of Mom and Dad, Doug near Boulder, and now Jim has moved to Fort Collins from Portland after getting a job with Hewlett-Packard.

Our address remains the same:

John and Marti Peterson
25 Lincoln Drive
Wallingford, CT 06492
(203) 265-2350
peterson-john@cs.yale.edu

You can also find us on the world wide web (warning! computer nerd alert!); John's home page is http://www.cs.yale.edu/HTML/YALE/CS/HyPlans/peterson-john.html. Stop by for a virtual visit. In fact, you can stop by for a real visit - guests are always welcome!

Best wishes, the Peterson Family