2002: Making a Home in Alberta
Last time we managed to put an end-of-year letter together was at the
end of 2000. We had moved from Delaware to Alberta in Canada on that year,
had taken jobs at the University of Alberta, and had bought a house built
in 1954 across the street from the campus of the university. We were then
planning a major remodeling of the house.
The remodeling did take place in 2001. We lived in a dusty and sometimes
cold basement from February to June of that year. The house was pretty
much gutted and put back together. We added many windows, made the kitchen
very open, improved insulation, re-plumbed, etc. The main parts of the
interior of the house are now done. Although we moved upstairs in June
of 2001, the final touches on the house were not completed until the end
of that year.
We were also quite busy during 2001 with traveling. I went to the Canary
Islands, Genova, and September 11 found me in a nice spot in Brazil. Scott
spent another period in London for his annual Navy active duty period, but
then took a leave of absence from his Navy job, thus he was not traveling
as much to Seattle, but we both kept traveling to different places in North
America as both of our jobs require attending several conferences.
For Christmas and New Year of 2001 we went back to the South of Brazil,
rented a house at a nice spot at
the beach and spend about 12 days with my immediate family. My niece
and nephew have grown a lot. We again had a great time cooking, taking long
walks along the beach, going for boat rides, etc.
I was happy to host several professional colleagues here in Edmonton
in the Winter term. In January we went for our annual departmental Ski trip
to Jasper. As I decided that skiing is not for me I took up snow shoeing
through the woods with a group of non-skiers. We also went again through
the Maligne
Canyon crawl, a wonderful experience in a beautiful canyon. We walked
over the frozen river and saw beautiful cascading frozen water falls.
After a busy Winter term (that is the way they call what is
known as the ``Spring term'' in the USA here --- for a reason), my annual
travel to Europe took me to Grenoble in France and Berlin in Germany. I enjoyed
very much both visits. Visiting Berlin was very special because of all the
different layers of dramatic history that are evident in that place. In
the meantime we also re-hired our home re-modelers to add a deck to the back
of the house and to redo the front and back steps, and all the walks around
the house.
Starting at the end of June, we had a very busy Summer. Nonetheless
we had time to host a bbq in our newly completed back deck for my gay and
lesbian swimming team. We were very fortunate with good weather for all our
back yard events this Summer. We received professional colleagues from Quebec
and Michigan, and went back to the Shadow Lake Lodge.
A group of primitive but very comfortable cabins up in the mountain close
to a lake. You only can get there hiking or on horses. They provide very
good food, and we spent the days hiking to different beautiful spots.
Scott's parents came to visit along with his brother Brett and his
nephew Braden in July. We went with the entire group to visit Drumheller
and see the world-class dinosaur museum
there. We even had a chance to try to feed Braden to a dinosaur, but he
would not take him. We also explored several sites in Edmonton, such as
the Fort Edmonton Park. After
Scott's parents went home, we took Brett and Braden to a horse back riding
trip through the Kananaskis area. We spent three days riding horses,
6 to 8 hours a day, and stayed in cabins in the back country. The views were
just magnific, and we had lots of fun. Braden said that it was one of the
best vacations that he ever had.
That was in spite of some frequent whining after several hours on
the back of a horse during 
the trip (which I could relate to!). In one of the pics you can see
Scott going into the TP for his morning shower.
Edmonton hosted several conferences in the areas of artificial intelligence
and databases at the end of the Summer. My Ph.D. adviser attended one of
the conferences, and brought his family with him. It was very nice to catch
up with them and see how much the kids have grown.
My mom, my step-dad, and my sister arrived in early August. We rented
a motor home and went for a tour of the province of Alberta for 9 days. We
started in the badlands/Drumheller area, and finished in the Kananaskis region
(where they had have the G-8 summit in June). This was the first time that
any one of us had traveled on a motor home. It was very enjoyable and confortable.
The campsites in Alberta are very well equipped and confortable, and we
liked to be able to be together, playing cards and visiting while traveling
from one site to another. My mom and my stepfather were quite impressed
with the fact that there was still snow in the mountains at the end of the
Summer. Kananaskis is a beautiful mountain region. We had lots of fun cooking
together, playing games, and visiting.
When we made back to Edmonton we were quite busy visiting several of
the sites around here, including the Fort Edmonton Park where there re-enact
the early settlers life and show several historical periods, the Ukrainian
Village where they re-enact one day in the life of the small village
in the 1920s, the West
Edmonton Mall, and the Devonian Botanical Gardens.
We were also busy getting ready for our big 10-year anniversary party
that took place on August 18. We had a beautiful warm sunny day, many of
our friends attended. We were specially thrilled that our neighbors from
Delaware were traveling through Alberta and managed to work our celebration
in their travel plans. We hired Heather Bishop, a Canadian folk singer to
entertain. It was a lovely day, we received well wishes from friends all
over the world and were very happy. Most of you have seen the pictures of our anninversary
celebration on my web site.
In spite of all this activities, we managed to have a nice vegetable
garden. And my Mom enjoyed very much the opportunity to harvest fresh salad
greens and vegetables to cook some of our meals.
In April we started the process to adopt a child. We attended a workshop
in June, and finished our ``dear birth parents'' letter late in August soon
after my family left. With this we entered ``the pool'' of waiting prospective
adoptive parents. We now have to wait for a birth mother to pick us as her
chosen adoptive family. In recent communication with the adoption agency, we learned
that our file is moving quite slowly through the process, and our expectation
is that we will be waiting 2-3 years before we have ''a matching''. A gay
couple that live close to us adopted a baby a year ago, from time to time
we babysit for them.
The Fall term this year was extremely busy with classes, committee work,
conference organization, and such. It is pretty much a blur. In the last
two months we put our personal lives on hold and could not take many evenings
or weekends off. This is the price that we pay in this job for the flexibility
that we have to do things that we want during other periods of the year.
We are now preparing to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma to spend Christmas with
Scott's family. Scott's maternal grandfather is not very well, and we are
anxious to get there and spend time with the family. We expect this to be
a very special time with them.
We wish you happy holidays and a happy new year. Keep us updated about
what is going on in your lives.
Nelson and Scott.
The remodeling did take place in 2001. We lived in a dusty and sometimes
cold basement from February to June of that year. The house was pretty
much gutted and put back together. We added many windows, made the kitchen
very open, improved insulation, re-plumbed, etc. The main parts of the
interior of the house are now done. Although we moved upstairs in June
of 2001, the final touches on the house were not completed until the end
of that year. 
For Christmas and New Year of 2001 we went back to the South of Brazil,
rented a house at a nice spot at
the beach and spend about 12 days with my immediate family. My niece
and nephew have grown a lot. We again had a great time cooking, taking long
walks along the beach, going for boat rides, etc.
After a busy Winter term (that is the way they call what is
known as the ``Spring term'' in the USA here --- for a reason), my annual
travel to Europe took me to Grenoble in France and Berlin in Germany. I enjoyed
very much both visits. Visiting Berlin was very special because of all the
different layers of dramatic history that are evident in that place. In
the meantime we also re-hired our home re-modelers to add a deck to the back
of the house and to redo the front and back steps, and all the walks around
the house.
Starting at the end of June, we had a very busy Summer. Nonetheless
we had time to host a bbq in our newly completed back deck for my gay and
lesbian swimming team. We were very fortunate with good weather for all our
back yard events this Summer. We received professional colleagues from Quebec
and Michigan, and went back to the Shadow Lake Lodge.
A group of primitive but very comfortable cabins up in the mountain close
to a lake. You only can get there hiking or on horses. They provide very
good food, and we spent the days hiking to different beautiful spots.
Scott's parents came to visit along with his brother Brett and his
nephew Braden in July. We went with the entire group to visit Drumheller
and see the world-class dinosaur museum
there. We even had a chance to try to feed Braden to a dinosaur, but he
would not take him. We also explored several sites in Edmonton, such as
the Fort Edmonton Park. After
Scott's parents went home, we took Brett and Braden to a horse back riding
trip through the Kananaskis area. We spent three days riding horses,
6 to 8 hours a day, and stayed in cabins in the back country. The views were
just magnific, and we had lots of fun. Braden said that it was one of the
best vacations that he ever had.
That was in spite of some frequent whining after several hours on
the back of a horse during 
the trip (which I could relate to!). In one of the pics you can see
Scott going into the TP for his morning shower.
My mom, my step-dad, and my sister arrived in early August. We rented
a motor home and went for a tour of the province of Alberta for 9 days. We
started in the badlands/Drumheller area, and finished in the Kananaskis region
(where they had have the G-8 summit in June). This was the first time that
any one of us had traveled on a motor home. It was very enjoyable and confortable.
The campsites in Alberta are very well equipped and confortable, and we
liked to be able to be together, playing cards and visiting while traveling
from one site to another. My mom and my stepfather were quite impressed
with the fact that there was still snow in the mountains at the end of the
Summer. Kananaskis is a beautiful mountain region. We had lots of fun cooking
together, playing games, and visiting. 
In spite of all this activities, we managed to have a nice vegetable
garden. And my Mom enjoyed very much the opportunity to harvest fresh salad
greens and vegetables to cook some of our meals.