• Dan graduated from high school in June!
• Brian just graduated from Villanova!
• The Wisconsin Badgers are going to the Rose Bowl again.
• Alan was listed in Who's Who in America, the 2000 Millenium Edition.
• Alan was declared a Saint in the Universal Life Church (a 50th birthday present).
• Sherri had lots of baguettes, cheese, and wine, on her two trips to France and devotes the year 2000 to shedding the evidence. She remains the most humble in the family.

Sherri: The year has been full of travel, work and family. Last year at this time we were in France and Spain, visiting our son, Brian, who managed to survive a year of study and the French (a.k.a. snowboarding and taking lots of trips to Italy, Portugal, Amsterdam, Florence, and England). From Provence to the Alps we ate, drank and absorbed French culture, oblivious to Brian's attempts to critique all aspects of their culture. I returned in July with Francophile friends, and we explored Brittany, Normandy and Paris. One of my friends, Kathy, who lived in France for 10 years, and another friend Joan, toured Chartres, stayed in a great B&B nearby, and drove through the Loire Valley chateau country in our rented silver Mercedes (due to some foul-up at the rental agency in Paris). Did we think we were "living large" or what? I'm "living" proof that "large" has been the result! I continue my exercise regimen, but with summer trips to Hawaii and Bali planned, I'm going to have to hit the gym far more often. Alan joined us after his conference in Birmingham (see below).

Work continues to go smoothly, except for the introduction of a new computer system that doesn't function (imagine what Y2K will do to it). As far as my students and the courses themselves, I'm still enjoying teaching at the community college. In fact, this year a group of students got together and gave me the book, The Century, to honor my 25 years of teaching at Brookdale. (Could it be?) When they presented the gift to me I was actually rendered speechless (for about 1 minute, maybe less!). During the Spring term I'll be teaching an honors section of World Civilizations II, and I'm looking forward to students that are serious and eager to learn. I'm also teaching part of a course on Vietnam, which will combine my interests in Asian and diplomatic history and peace studies.

As for politics, I'm supporting Bill Bradley. In fact, I took Dan to a rally at Madison Square Garden where we saw a bunch of basketball players like Bob Cousy, Julius Erving and Bill Walton. Dan is pretty apolitical, and hoped Jordan and Phil Jackson would make an appearance, but remarked that Bradley wasn't "too boring." I like Gore but I like Bradley even more, and, if we end up with either candidate we'll be okay. I also like McCain and would even consider supporting him for President, which exasperates Alan no end. However, I think he's right on the money on finance campaign reform. My congressman, Chris Smith, continues to wreak havoc on the United Nations due to his obsession with abortion, so my immediate campaign plans will be to work for his opponent.

Dan turns twenty in January and, then, no more teenagers in the house! (at least, chronologically). Brian will try his fortunes in Denver, where his girlfriend, Danielle, is attending the University of Denver. He's trying to decide between joining the Air Force to become a fighter pilot, or to save money to attend business school in Geneva, eventually to take over the snowboard business in Europe! Not a lot in common with his major, history, nor the ostensible reason for studying in France last year, archaeology. All in all, this has been a wonderful year, as Al and I continue to enjoy a life of love, common interests, and, maybe sometime soon, an "empty nest?" My family in Virginia will change on January 1, as my sister, Gina, is marrying her high school sweetheart. Last March my dad was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, and is hoping, along with the rest of us, that medical help will come soon. Fortunately, he has the support and care of Marge, his wife, and my brother and sisters, all of whom live nearby.

The best to all of you this holiday season, with great things to happen in 2000.

Alan: I have been at Rutgers for two years now, and everything is going great. Gera Stenchikov is working with me as a Research Professor and I have 3 students, Lifeng Luo, Juan Carlos Antuña, and new student Adam Levy. S. Ramachandran is working with Gera and me as a postdoc for another couple months. I continue my work on the effects of volcanic eruptions on climate, on soil moisture, and on detection of the human impacts on climate. I am involved with several joint research projects at Princeton and am starting a couple new projects at Rutgers, in addition to continuing my work with Kostya Vinnikov, who has remained at Maryland. This year I published 11 papers (8 already published, 3 in press) and have 3 more submitted. One of them was just published in Science, showing that Arctic sea ice is disappearing due to global warming, and we got quite a bit of publicity about it. I taught a graduate course in climatology in the spring and a course in atmospheric thermodynamics to undergraduate meteorology majors in the fall.

I turned 50 a couple months ago. I had 3 parties, a surprise in Hampton, one at my mother's, and a great surprise party at home arranged by Sher. I always knew that I would be 50 when Y2K arrives, but did not think it would be this soon. It is strange that life just keeps going on, with nothing particularly different about being this old, but it keeps going faster and faster. Oh well, what the L? One of my presents was my first balloon ride.

Dan went to his high school prom. He also graduated from High School. Boy, was his Mom proud! He's working hard at a construction job now, and still living with us.

I have been able to take some nice trips again. I debated Pat Michaels and Bob Balling on global warming in Washington this summer. Bruce Springsteen was performing down the street that night, so I went to see him for the first time. In January I went to Dallas and College Station. In Dallas I was given my AMS Fellowship by Gene Rasmusson. It was quite spooky to see Dealy Plaza, and to drive down George Bush Drive in College Station. I hope I never have to go to Texas again. In February I went to meetings in Boulder and Honolulu, both very nice places to visit. At the end of June I went to Madison for another meeting, and Sherri joined me for 4th of July weekend with our friends Ian and Norma. We canoed in backwaters of the Mississippi with Ian and Norma (and on the river itself, but it was too rough to take pictures), took a ferry across the river for dinner at a well-known supper club Breitbach's, saw a great small-town parade in Mineral Point (where one float was handing out free brats, the best I ever had), and saw Bob Dylan and Paul Simon in Milwaukee.

In July I went to Birmingham, England for 2 weeks (including a nice weekend in Wales), and then joined Sherri in France for a great 10 days in Brittany, Normandy, and Paris. We met in Jersey, an hour ferry ride from St. Malo, where we visited a neolithic tomb. We visited an 800-year old tourist trap, Mont St. Michel. We saw 10 museums in 3 days, the most wonderful of which was the Louvre. One day we climbed Montmartre. We saw a copy of the Statue of Liberty torch that has become an informal memorial to Diana. The last day it was raining, but we went for a ride on the Baton Mouge, where we saw the Eiffel Tower counting down to Y2K.

In August I went to Hampton with Sherri, my student Juan Carlos Antuña, and Gera, taking the Lewes Ferry. We visited Sherri's old house, probably for the last time, where we took a lot of pictures of the family. Later we visited Williamsburg, where Gera and I were arrested.

I was able to return to France in October, but spent the entire time at a meeting in a Paris suburb, Gif-sur-Yvette. In October I also went to Monterey, California and in November spent a week in Tokyo. I visited our friends Madoka and Emi. I went to the top of Tokyo Tower, but it was too polluted to see far. I ate sushi every day - Um, good! The last day we had yakitori at a stand on the street. In December I spent a week in San Francisco at the annual AGU meeting. They picked me as 1 of 3 out of the 8000 attendees to interview on National Public Radio Talk of the Nation Science Friday with Ira Flato. You can listen to the entire hour, if you have nothing else to do.

We went to field hockey game at Villanova where Chris played for VCU. Brian consoled her after their loss.

Sherri and I returned to Madison in September to see the Michigan football game. My father and uncle Len were there, too. We lost that game, but in the fourth quarter discovered that we had a good quarterback who led the Badgers to win the rest of the games and go to the Rose Bowl 2 years in a row. Something must be mixed up in the heavens.

May your 2000 be a healthy and fulfilling one. Happy New Year!

Love, Alan, Sherri, Danny, and Brian