Dear Friends and Family, OK, ok, we've succumbed -- it's the dreaded "form" news letter! We apologize profusely for the format, but I type faster than I write, and this way we can keep in touch with all of you... Lori and I completed our first full year of married life together, and it was a good year for us. We started the year in Red Bank, New Jersey, with Southside Johnny, the Asbury Jukes, and friends Sue West (the forever "loose" birthday girl) and Mon Shareshian. Any of you in New Jersey, Southside is doing it again this year, and we highly recommend being there if at all possible! Perhaps our biggest news of the year was also our first: We took possession of our new home during the first week of January. Let us say quickly that we love it! The house is set up on a hill overlooking more than an acre of beautiful land -- Lori is endeavoring to be able to cover half that distance with a single Frisbee toss. It includes an 800 square foot outdoor pool next to the master bedroom, and we also obtained the previous owner's hot tub. We keep the hot tub open year round, and it's a great place to be when the snow is coming down, or when we want to do some late-night star gazing. We had the opportunity to host several friends and relatives in our new home this year. Our first big visit was by Matt's parents and siblings, who came in for Passover. Lori's friends Dan and Linda visited just days before Linda gave birth. Dave and Trish also visited just after we opened the pool, and now their daughter Betsy can't wait for next summer. Dan and Cindy Cohen and their children visited several times -- Brandon and Brianne are now expert on doing cartwheel dives off the board into the pool! Trent and Dana also came in with Alec and his young brother David from Ann Arbor to share pool time and bar-b-q's. Alaine and Joey visited with Adam and Jordan; Adam really got a lift out of our recording equpiment! If you have young kids, the place to be is the Orel B & B! Steve and Ruth came in from California -- not bearing any secrets or anything -- to spend a day at the pool. Unfortunately, Steve got stung by a bee while sitting on top of the slide, so we had to have them exterminated. The bees, that is. Lori's maid of honor, Susan Gitelle Baron, drove in from Boston to spend a few days at the B & B, as well. Lori's cousin Elissa completed her whistle-stop tour of the continent at the B & B, just in time for us all to go down to Ann Arbor and catch the Indigo Girls from the 7th row. Matt's brother Stephen visited in September, and we went to the Michigan-Colorado game. Yes, we did stay for that final play. Besides entertaining guests, we were up to a few other things during the year. Both of us changed employment status: Matt finally switched from California based IntelliCorp over to General Motors, though his job and project really didn't change all that much at first. Lori's employer, The Cardery, closed up shop, and so she took the opportunity to become expert in many matters of gardening and home upkeep. Our gardens produced beautiful flowers and edibles this year -- we finally finished off the last of our tomatoes last week! Home improvement has been an on-going project. We had many friends and family members counseling us on how to wire a 3-way light fixture. Ultimately, we got it right, but not before causing a small electrical fire in the wall and making that emergency trip to the hardware store! In July, we became aunt and uncle to our first nephew, Remington Scott Millman. Lou and Randi are the proud parents, in Minnesota. The birth meant a bris, which meant only one thing: Road Trip! We started off by staying a couple of days with Rob and Amy Millman in Chicago, in their lovely new home. We then visited every cheese factory we could find in Wisconsin, but we didn't quite find all of them, so we'll have to go back sometime. We stopped off in La Crosse to visit Matt's cousin Tim, who was working there for the Park Service. Once in Minneapolis there, we saw the beautiful baby, participated in the ceremony, and caught up with Tim again for some good bar-b-q and a visit to the Mall of America. Otherwise, this was not much of a travelling year. We strayed just twice: In February, we toured California. In the Bay Area, we caught up with our friends from Kol Emeth, helped Paul Frankle make lemonade (a must of any visit to the Frankle household!), and took two days to ski Squaw Valley with Debra Rosler. On the way back from the slopes, we visited Judy and Marty in their stunning Moraga home. We then moved on south to visit many cousins and attend the wedding of John and Suzanne Chernila. We stayed with Rob Neustadt and Lois Bernstein, where we felt a sizeable aftershock of the big January temblor. Lori slept through it, though. Besides exploring the aftermath of the quake, we had time to pick peppers off uncle Jerry's tree, meet many of the Chernila relatives, and even to visit the San Diego area, where we stayed with Aunt Gert and visited the Lowell and Julie Potiker's home for a dinner with the Southern Californian Millman contingent. In May, we had our one East Coast trek, first to New Jersey, where we visited Matt's folks. We went in to New York, where we caught up with Matt's brother and friend Carol Leister, and caught a taping of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." Matt had a brief chance to meet his "favorite" drummer, Max Weinberg after the taping, and Max cursed out evil Zachary Alford big-time. ;-) Later that night while Lori slept, Matt and Stephen lived, died and finally exulted when the beloved Rangers finally beat the Devils. We then took the train up to New Haven for Matt's 10th college reunion, where we roamed the town with Fred and Lisa Douglis and their daughter Allison Nicole. Matt also had a chance to see the Yale Band in action, and to catch up with some of his old band buddies. By coincidence, the band was featured on national television during our visit. We also managed to catch a John Hiatt concert while in town, and I think we made a new fan out of Fred!! ;-) After New Haven, we visited Boston, where we stayed with Gitelle, saw Lori's friends, and checked up on Lori's old haunts. We even saw her old Condo, and witnessed what the then-current tenant had done to its kitchen. Yow! We have new tenants now. As for our current plans, well, we're going to be in California from the 24th to the 31st of December. Those of you in the Bay Area, if you're not on our schedule yet, leave a message. We want to see you! We're tentatively planning to visit New Jersey over Martin Luther King's birthday, so you New Jersey folk, be forewarned we'll be calling! Meanwhile, we have a new online connection. The userid is in honor of our cat Trico, who just yesterday brought Lori a most wonderful birthday present! One less tweet in the world, one more cat trophy! Lori is learning her way around usenet, mailing lists and the world wide web, and has found some really... interesting servers. Matt is active on the Bruce Springsteen internet digest, which he recommends to anyone who thinks they might be a fan. We hope we'll see and hear from you in the coming year. The pool will open around May 1. YOU ARE INVITED!!! Happy New Year! Love, Matt & Lori