Winter '04

Dear Friends,

Time again for the Annual Cory Letter.  This year has been an interesting one.

Earl continues to hibernate in his downstairs office/cave working on websites, genealogy, and other obscure computer related trivia.

Chris enjoys her teaching job at St. Joseph’s Notre Dame High School in Alameda.  Since this is her second year, she is able to spend more time doing things, for example, chaperoning the ski club, going on retreats, moderating the dance club, and supporting the girl’s volleyball team.  Of course, she is able to get in a few nights and weekends of tennis.

Flying down before Christmas, we started the year in Mexico City. Chris and Cristina spent several days gathering up ingredients for Christmas Dinner. The turkey they made for Thanksgiving last year was such a success, that by popular demand, another one was required. New Year’s Eve included a large dinner with special New Year’s food. In all, a very filling week

We took a couple of mini-vacations during the year. During spring break, we went to Las Vegas to visit our money and dropped some more off to help pay the light bill. In August before school started, we joined the Gregors for a few days of hiking, boating, and biking at Big Bear. This was not a big ski year. We did get a few days in at Tahoe.

Early in the year, Jorge Villaseñor, part of our extended “family” in Guadalajara, moved into our downstairs apartment while taking English classes.

Since June is tequila party month, Chris decided that we needed to have our backyard rebuilt for the party. In May, Jose Vilchez and his crew made it spectacular. Earl added the lighting and Chris the landscaping.

Over 80 people showed up for the Fifth Annual Cory Tequila and Mexican Food Tasting to sample over 60 different tequilas. Don Rose once again supplied suitably engraved glasses for the occasion. Cristina and Elisa Troncoso joined us from Mexico City. Cristina helped with the Moles and other Mexican epicurean delights. Jorge showed everyone a typical Mexican toast, several times. In the morning, he showed us a typical Mexican hangover.

Since this was the first time in 25 years that Elias had been in the US, we took them on a 10-day, whirlwind tour of Northern California. This included trips to SF, Napa-Sonoma, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Angel’s Camp, the redwoods, and Sacramento. They experienced California/Mexican/American history, hiking, gambling, hot-air ballooning, shopping, drinking, and eating. In Sacramento, we arranged for them to meet with Chris’ cousins, Fred & Chris and Margie & Richard at Biba’s Restaurant. Elias watches Biba’s cooking show on PBS in Mexico and was thrilled to meet and talk to her in person.

A few weeks after the Tequila Party, Anne and Mark, returned from their yearlong journey to Mexico and Guatemala with a new dog, Luke. They moved back in to await the many needed repairs on “Westy,” update their website (travelswithwesty.com), and purchase a new laptop. In the mean time, Mark cooked great meals and Anne planned their next adventure. In September, they took off for Wisconsin and then on to Mexico and points south. They left their cat Squirt behind, again.

During the summer, Chris flew to Cihuatlán and Barra de Navidad. She relaxed with Martha Corona, watched her harvesting her bananas, sat in her condominium and on the beach reading Pope Joan and Harry Potter.

Irma Ortiz, our Mother in Mexico, celebrated her 80th birthday on July 13th. Earl flew to Guadalajara and Chris took the bus up from the coast. All the “kids,” cousins, friends, etc, gathered from all over Mexico to celebrate.

During the 10 days in Mexico, we rented a car and took off for Tapalpa in the mountains south of the city. Marta Villaseñor, Jorge’s mother, joined us for the excursion and a hike to a waterfall in high heel tennis shoes (go figure, only in Mexico!)

Chris was then off to the US Open Tennis Tournament in New York City. She and several of her tennis buddies spent a week in the rain watching The Open, touring The Big Apple, and promoting Alice Fried’s new book, Menopause, Sisterhood, and Tennis. Chris and her tennis buddies are the Sisterhood part and wanted to participate in the promotion at The Open.

Vibeké had a bad summer… It all started just after signing up to take the last class to get a degree. Her truck threw a rod. AAA towed the car to “Bill’s.” He said, it‘s dead, you need a new engine. Ok Bill, fix it up.

While Chris was in Mexico, Vibeke borrowed her car. It had been having some problems. These culminated when steam started rolling out from under the hood. AAA towed it to Bill’s. He said, it’s dead, you need a new engine. Ok Bill, fix it up.

While waiting at Bill’s for a ride home, Vibeke took off on an ATV to explore the surrounding vineyards. Going a little too fast around a corner, she entangled herself in a barbed wire fence and broke her clavicle near the shoulder. Bill got her home and Dad took her to the emergency hospital. (As it turns out, we should have left her at Bills and said OK Bill, fix her up.)

Anyway, she was unable to drive (no car, broken shoulder), unable to lift things, etc. After Jorge moved back to Mexico, she moved into the downstairs apartment. Then came shoulder surgery, a bone graft, and the final destruction of her vehicle.

Vibeke is now working at an Emergency Vet Hospital in Fremont, saving her money to get a new vehicle, apartment, and go back to school to get her Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT) license. (Her hospital experience has soured her on nursing humans.)

In November, Enrigue and Blanca Ortiz (more of the extended family in Guadalajara) visited for 4 days. We took them on a sample tour of San Francisco and Napa-Sonoma.

We spent Thanksgiving at home this year. Earl’s parents, Phyllis and Claude, drove up from Pacific Grove to join us with Oakland friends for dinner. We will be sticking around for Christmas, but plan on visiting the cousins in Sacramento and going to LA to see The Producers with Ed and Marie after Christmas.

Well that is a summary of our life in 2003. We look forward to hearing from you. We accept letters, phone calls, visits, e-mail, faxes, etc. If you are ever out our way, let us know so we can get together. Sunday, waffles anyone?