Greetings! Another year has passed and this one has been full as always.

The biggest, and nicest change, is that I finally found a wonderful partner. Carlton and I met via an Internet dating web site. Our first date was just for coffee but ended up lasting seven hours! I don't think we've been apart much since. After 13 years of serial dating, it’s a very, very nice change.

Things have a way of happening for a reason and my new home, which seemed just a little too big last year, is now perfect for the two of us. Both of us being nerds, we each have our own dens for our computers and projects. We have a guest room and bath downstairs for when my mom or other friends visit. We've continued to work on many house projects. This year we replaced the roof, skylight, gutters, deck, two patio doors, sidewalk, and water softener. We also planted 13 shrub roses. We're hoping there'll be just one more year of big projects and then we can relax and enjoy the place a bit more.

In May and again in October, we joined the Twin Cities Bicycling Club (TCBC) for mountain biking in the Chequamegon National Forest near Cable, WI. It was Carlton's first time cycling off-road. He did his first end-o (or head-over-handlebars crash), came up bleeding in three places, gear scattered everywhere, and still had a grin from ear to ear, so I knew he was hooked.

Several friends joined us in June for Fox Lake Follies XXII and the Annual Tour of Lakes Bicycle Ride. The weekend at my mom's cabin near Brainerd was filled with great friends, great food, and great riding as always.

Later in June, mom and I took a two week European vacation. We rented a little car and drove the autobahn on a whirlwind trip of Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and Switzerland. It was her first time in Europe and I think we covered it pretty well. We retraced some of my route on Odyssey 2000 (O2K) but I also got to visit lots of new places as well.

July 4th weekend we flew to Golden, CO for my O2K friends Bruce T and Kathy K's wedding. In September, we joined Gerry R and more of my O2K friends in Nova Scotia for the Tour de Lunenburg. We enjoyed a wonderful week of touring, socializing, cycling, and eating! It was great to see many of my O2K comrades at both events. Most of us hadn't seen each other in three years, yet it seemed no time had passed at all.

We joined TCBC again in August for the Weekend on Wheels (WOW) in Northfield. Carlton got another lesson in the "fun" of cycling as we completed the last 20 miles of Sunday's ride in the pouring rain.

Most weekends in August and September were spent at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We helped our friends Jon A and Sunny P at their pottery booth. This year we both bought period costumes and really got into the act.

In October, we took an Olson family trip to visit the old farmstead in Oldham, SD. I think it'd been 20 years since I'd last been there. The buildings are all crumbling now but I got some beautiful pictures. We also attended Edna's 80th birthday celebration and it was great to see her and many my dad's family again.

Our current entertainment includes the addition of two new cats to our household. Stella (AKA "Little Miss Thing") is a year old, short-haired gray tabby and Young Jedi Master (AKA "Fuzzball") is a 4-month old, medium-haired orange tabby. Their antics keep us laughing on a regular basis, but less so at 5 AM when the little one thinks we should all get up and play.

I've added lots of new pictures to my web site and done some reformatting to make the photo pages easier to view. I'm still way behind on publishing the remainder of my O2K photos but plan to make that part of this winter's project list. Please subscribe to my O2K newsletter if you want to be notified when I publish new year 2000 trip pictures.

That pretty much sums up my year. Hope 2003 was good to you and 2004 is better yet!

Valerie