Valerie's 2004 Holiday Letter
Another year has come and gone... where does the time go?
My biggest project this year was to reorganize my
web photo albums to a new service that has lots more cool features. In the process, I did manage to get a few new Odyssey 2000 (O2K) photo albums published as well. There's a 5-year O2K reunion planned for next Fall, so my goal is to have the remainder of my O2K photos published by then. To read my O2K travel journals or be notified when new O2K photo albums are available, please subscribe to my O2K newsletter.
There have been two household changes this year. Carlton and cat
Stella have moved out and housemate John and kitten Skittles have moved in. My house projects were much more limited this year. I had the deck stained, got a new driveway put in, and did some minor repairs and landscaping. There are just a couple more big projects left to do, but they can wait for another year. I continue to enjoy having a big house with lots of room for guests and entertaining.Last Christmas was spent with my family at mom's cabin at Fox Lake. We greeted 2004 in style with my
10th (Nearly) Annual New Year's Eve Party.
I'm still active with the
Twin Cities Bicycling Club (TCBC) and participate in many rides and social events. In April I co-hosted the 1st Annual Swap Meet. In May I went on the Loomis Mountain Biking Adventure in the Chequamegon National Forest near Cable, WI. In June several friends joined us for Fox Lake Follies XXIII and the 15th Annual Tour of Lakes Bicycle Ride at mom's cabin. In July I volunteered at the 23rd Annual Watermelon Ride and our Tamarack rest stop had a Mexican Fiesta theme this year. In October I had great fun at the 23rd Annual Halloween Ride.Many weekends in August and September were again spent at the
Minnesota Renaissance Festival helping friends Jon A and Sunny P at their pottery booth.
In October, my mother Marilyn, sister Debby, and I took a two week
European vacation. We traveled by tour bus on a whirlwind trip to France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands.That about does it for 2004. I've got a couple of bike trips and vacations in the works for 2005 and hope to get out and enjoy the bike and friends more than I did this past year. Happy 2005!
Updated Dec 12 2004 by Valerie