Dear friends and family,
We had a very good 2012, and hope that you did as well.
Dan completed his 12th year at Intel, and is
still the engineering Program Manager responsible for development of all Intel Xeon E3 platforms. Nancy is still working part time as microbiologist at the Capital Medical Center in Olympia. She is still
spending a lot of time volunteering for World Vision and cooking dinners for
Thurston County Community Youth Services.
To start off 2012, we had a severe snow and ice storm in mid-January. Winters in western
Washington State are usually wet but mild, with one or two light snowfalls that
melt rapidly. But this storm was different. It started off with about 18 inches of snow,
then turned to rain, leaving about an inch of solid ice on top of the
snow. A real mess! And to top it off, much of the electric power
distribution here is above ground, so many poles and power transmission lines
fell. We were relatively fortunate; we
had no power for only about 2 ½ days.
Some of the more remote parts of the region had no power for up to 5
days. We were able to get some heat from
our two gas fireplaces, but house temperatures got down to the 50s and we had
no hot water. We were very glad to get
power back!
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| Our back yard with 18 inches of snow, topped by a sheet of ice! |
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| One of our trees, glazed in ice. We lost a large Lacy Maple tree in the storm. Fortunately, no damage to the house. |
In February, we had a very different perspective on snow during our annual trip to Park City Utah. Then, we were able to enjoy the snow, doing a lot of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
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| Cross-country skiing near the McPolin Barn in Park City, Utah |
In April, we celebrated Dan’s mother’s 80th
birthday with a group lunch at Lidia Bastianich’s Lidia’s Italy Pittsburgh. Dan’s mother still looks and acts much more
like 60 than 80….
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| Dan's Mother & Ken, just prior to the birthday party |
Dan had less business travel this year than prior years due
to his role and due to economic conditions, but he still had two significant
international business trips. In late
April, he traveled to Poland and Germany.
In June, he visited Taiwan.
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| The Old Town section of Gdansk, Poland |
Dan has been to the Munich area at least a dozen times for
business, but Nancy had never been there.
So we spent a week in Bavaria, with Dan showing Nancy all the places he
had discovered over the years. We saw a
lot of sights in the city of Munich, toured several of King Ludwig’s castles,
and went on a day trip to Salzburg, Austria, hometown of Mozart and where the
Sound Of Music movie was filmed. As a
special treat, we rented a BMW for a day and Dan drove it on some
unlimited-speed sections of the Autobahn.
He got the speed up to 190… that is, in kilometers per hour!
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| Schloss Neuschwanstein, one of King Ludwig's castles, in Bavaria |
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| Our boat ride on an Alpine lake near Salzburg, Austria |
Closer to home, we did our part to cheer on Team USA for the
2012 Olympics. The U.S. Olympic Team Diving Trials were held nearby, so we were able to attend the finals for the
women’s 3-meter springboard and the men’s 10-meter platform. Definitely an exciting event, and some of
those we saw went on to medal in the Olympics!
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| Warmups for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Diving Trials. It's a long way down.... |
We continued to enjoy the natural beauty of Washington
State, hiking on Mt. Rainier and taking advantage of the nearby Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.
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| Peak wildflowers at Mt. Rainier |
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| A great blue heron and a seagull at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, just 15 minutes from our house! |
And in the little spare time that remained, we continued to
pursue our hobbies of running, cooking, seeing sights in Seattle, and going to
restaurants. Dan is trying to get more
serious about photography, and is hoping to upgrade soon from the
point-and-shoot camera that took these photos.
Dan didn’t have time for any golf in 2012; maybe in 2013….
Best wishes for a merry Christmas, and a healthy and
prosperous 2013!
-- Dan & Nancy
All photos and text (C) Daniel & Nancy Perich, 2012
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