Another year finds us all doing well, and wishing you and yours the same.
John continues to work with the Haskell group at Yale (for the computer savvy: http://haskell.org). He is now working on robots and computer vision using Haskell. One of the current projects involves using Haskell to control little Lego robots. Grown men getting paid to play with toys, what fun!
Marti continues to work with the kids at home, dabble in web page design, and volunteer for various school and neighborhood activities. Her latest project has been an effort to "reclaim" a small neighborhood park that had fallen into disrepair and neglect. Marti wrote letters to the town and neighbors, and a neighbor boy, Mike Proscino, organized a 'clean up day' as a community project. We had a good turnout, spruced up the park, and planted small flower beds for a fresh look in spring. The neighborhood seems to have embraced the effort, and the park is starting on the road to recovery.
Eric is thoroughly disenchanted with fifth grade and school in general. In his opinion, school is part of a plot to ruin his childhood with pointless and boring work. This may be correct, but hey - we had to suffer too, so we try to keep him motivated and remind him that he needs preparation for next year at middle school. He still shows more preference for, and promise in, math and science. The one subject he consistently enjoys is trumpet. Eric, John, and the instrumental teacher, Ms. Schwartz, will be giving a Christmas mini-concert for the kindergartners next week. Eric is also getting a lot of practice with basketball, and his skills are quickly improving. Dogs are still the primary interest in his life. He has started a dog walking business, and although he isn't getting rich, he is having fun keeping our neighbor's dogs happy.
Jay is thoroughly enjoying kindergarten. He adores his teacher, and likes to bring her flowers and little presents. With a January birthday, he is one of the oldest children in his class, and so far has no trouble with the material.
Our dog, Jack, is rounding out his figure despite occasionally joining us on our long mountain biking trips. The little fellow can run about 15 miles before he has to ride in Marti's backpack. Jay rides on an Alley Cat, which is a 3rd wheel extension to John's bike - complete with his own set of gears. Jay loves cycling with this set up, and really helps with the peddling. He strongly prefers the Alley Cat to his own two-wheel bike on which he is still wobbly, and can't do long distances, hills, or rough terrain.
As usual, we've been out on adventures again this year. Eric and John went climbing in Las Vegas. He liked the routes but not the long hikes to get to them! We all went kayaking and climbing in North Carolina, with Conor Walsh helping out with the kid care. Jay is getting braver on the rocks and climbed Stone Mountain and Seneca Rocks with us. Over the summer, Marti and John went off on adventures with our nephew Matt DeVries and his girlfriend Juliana. After a week and a half of non-stop kayaking and climbing we finally wore them out: old age and cunning triumphed over youth and vigor. The highlight was Juliana's surprise birthday party on a ledge in the middle of Independence Monument in Colorado National Monument. Eric also got out climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park, getting up Notchtop. We will miss one of our adventure partners this year: Alastair Reid has moved to Salt Lake City. We are looking forward to visiting him there - just to be sure he doesn't get lonely.
We have also been getting out in the Connecticut area a lot. Our Christmas picture this year is on top of a climb called Madame G's, in the Gunks in NY. Eric has taken some more kayak rolling classes and has gotten pretty good in the swimming pool but hasn't rolled in a real river yet.
Mom and Dad Peterson are still as active as ever. They visited here in the fall and we manage to get Grandpa in a kayak for the first time - which he seemed to enjoy. Marti arranged for the boys, to be baptized this summer at Mom and Dad Peterson's church, in Denver. Their cousin Diana joined in the service as well. It was a nice opportunity to visit with Mom and Dad, brothers, Grandma Trudy (Marti's Aunt), Marti's cousins, and other Denver friends and relatives - it's always great to see how everyone is doing. John's brothers are all doing well; the boys really enjoyed visiting their uncles this summer. John was managed to visit Marti's sister Anna and her family in Houston, TX, on a business trip. Marti's other sister, Nina and family, are also doing fine in Spokane, WA. Marti didn't get to visit her sisters this year, but the two of them managed to get together. It.s a shame we live so far apart. We also passed through Nebraska and saw many of our friends and relatives there. The boys stayed there with Grandma Gretchen (John's Aunt) and enjoyed making new friends and seeing new things.
That's all for 1998.
John and Marti Peterson 25 Lincoln Drive Wallingford, CT 06492 (203) 265-2350 Peterson-john@cs.yale.edu peterson-marti@cs.yale.edu http://haskell.cs.yale.edu/jcp/family.htmlBest wishes, the Peterson Family