Well, unlike last year when we had Woodstock, this has been a fairly quiet year.

Leo now works at Caldwell Manufacturing Co. in Rochester, and is an account manager for window manufacturers all over the East. He just bought a Nissan Pathfinder to replace his crumbled Toyota, and now has two cats, Asia and Lexus (not completely his).

Jan-Luc travels around NYC working in the production department of several features, TV, docs and commercials. He has no pets. You can verify his tales of celebrity sightings by writing him at janlucvd @ juno.com.

Marieke is moving up in the world, graduating from LeMoyneCollege in May, cum laude, with a BA in History. After that excitement wore off, she bought a car and got a local job, just something to pass the time until January, when she joins Americorps*VISTA and moves out to Alaska! She will be working for a year with the locals in Sitka,on a small island near Juneau. Visitors welcome!Write her at mariekevd (at) yahoo.com

Kateri enjoys 10th grade at RCH (Rome Catholic Junior/Senior High School). In the winter she appeared in "Bye Bye Birdie", and in the summer, in "The Music Man" (Jim helped with sets). She did pretty well in the Science Fair (2nd in her category), and at the latest Semi-Formal dance, was voted the Sophomore Princess. She spent a week canoeing in the Adirondack mountain wilderness, is taking up Irish dancing, and was commissioned for the Diocesan Youth Council.

Mary Margaret has survived a year as the Director of the Catholic Deaf Community of the Syracuse Diocese. Wonderful people, interesting activities, lots of travel, and something new every day! For Mother's Day, Jim and Kateri put in a new garage door with opener (such luxury!). Marieke and Kateri painted the living room and hall, and helped pick out the colors (blue) for the new carpet and redone chair and couch. This summer was cool and damp so we successfully grew potatoes!

MC the cat, Rocky's 3 gerbils (who room with us), and Smo the guinea pig haven't been doing much that's different.

Jim went traveling some, going to zinc mines in Upstate NY, a firing range in Petawawa, Ontario (near Madonna House), and the Nevada Test Site (they test atom bombs) for two weeks. Nothing sinister, he was just testing radars.

Since MM's job keeps her busy, we didn't get away for our usual crazy trips, but we did go to Detroit in the summer, and rode the monorail around downtown for a thrill. We all got together for Marieke's graduation, and visited Leo a couple of times. Once was in a cornfield maze.

Keep in touch! E-mail us at vandamme(at)juno.com. Have a look at all the other stuff on our webpages. We hope you are healthy and happy. Best wishes for the coming year!