Once again, we write our annual letter to all. It seems like we just finished licking all those stamps for the last Christmas letter and the yuky stamp taste has not gone away. Is this an age thing? “Over the hill” and time flies faster on the other side?

We both continue to do well. I am still employed at L&S Electric in the Engineering Division, and I really enjoy my job. I have been “promoted” from the Front Desk (where I did all sorts of catch all jobs that needed to be done, greeted people, answered the phone, and had a window) to a back area cubicle where I write practices, develop and maintain forms, maintain project documents (ya know, filing), don't meet many strangers and don't have a window (the best part) and I LOVE IT! I even get to have “strange” hours.. I work 7:15 am (open offices and record daily out of office information) until 3:45 pm (if I remember to leave on time… I forget when I am in the middle of something.) Sugandhi (isn't that a pretty name?) is still my supervisor but our little three person Office Team has grown to a five person team in an attempt to keep up with the rest of the Engineering Division. One of our high points of the year at our division was achieving our ISO 9001 certificate at the first audit. (The two auditors said in the years they have been doing audits, neither has had a company pass the first time and with NO findings, and WE DID!!).

Paul continues to be the Lab Director at Powder Technology. His workload, thus his stress load, has been increasing and increasing. He now has five individuals working under him in the lab. Three on first, and two on second. He did manage to find some time to design and build workbenches in the workshop, but not much time to putter (Paul: “ but I did sort through years of accumulated junk, and threw away a lot of valuable stuff; used spark plugs, burnt out light bulbs, etc.”). Oh well, God willing, there is next summer.

We managed to make a trip to New York to see the folks over Memorial Day weekend. My parents were doing fine but we arrive to find Paul's mother in surgery. She had to undergo emergency gall bladder surgery. After many complications, she continues to recover slowly at the Cuba Rehab facility and is hopeful to return to her home.

I traveled to New York in November and was able to spend Thanksgiving with the family. Scott and his family came up from Allentown, PA, Sara has been staying in Ischua the past couple of months and Rose and her family live with Mom and Dad. It was a table full. We did miss Paul, Herb and Shelia.

Due to work constraints we were not able to do much traveling this year, so we elected to trade our vacation in exchange for an improvement to the old homestead and an addition to the family.

Over the summer we had a retaining wall garden put in around the workshop. It is really beautiful. We have bought a small fountain to put in next to the porch, but that will have to wait as a project for this coming season. Pictures of the workshop and retaining wall garden are at our web site.

In July, we also added Dalyte to our family. She is a 5 year-old Oldenburg mare (a horse). She has truly been “da lyte ful” for me. She did not have much training so this late summer and fall has been spent getting the basics down and getting her out to see things. I did take her to a show about a month after I got her and showed her in a halter class (a non-riding class). There were 12 entries, and she placed 4th. Her older half sister was in the same class and placed 5th. I was very pleased. A picture of her with her half sister at the show is posted at our web site.

(Paul: “Guess this means I got a lot of additions to the web site on my to-do list. Hopefully they'll be complete before you read this!” This is the link: http://www.stomieroski.com/2002/ )

I still have Lady. She is now 18˝ years old and going great. I discovered this summer that she has an under-active thyroid, which has caused her to be so lethargic. Now that she is on medicine, she acts almost 10 years younger. I don't ride her much, but we do manage to get out with the cart. She really does seem to enjoy it.

Well, as busy as we have kept ourselves this past year, in all honesty the hustle and bustle of life seems to be just in our daily routines and to be honest, not much else exciting or worth mentioning.

I give thanks to God for each one of you who cares enough about us to even read this letter, for the knowing you and how our lives have been enriched by you, for the blessings we have as being citizens of our grand country and the privileges and freedoms we enjoy (and sometimes take for granted), for His gift of Love that is our reason for the season….and the list goes on and on.

Paul and Susan