Winter '99

Time again for the annual letter from the Corys. As usual, this has been an interesting year for us.  Chris and Earl have moved again and Vibeke has a new job.

The year has gone very well, we were able to go skiing several times last season and expect to do so again this year.

Earl’s contract at Marin General Hospital continues and he commutes to Saint Mary’s Hospital in Reno two days a week. This keeps him on the move and out of trouble.

Chris' continues in her job at Vision Software in Oakland as a staff consultant. She did so well as a "techie", they made her project a manager (the thing she was trying to avoid). Chris hasn't broken any bones this year, but she was able to tear a ligament in her foot. This time she has a removable cast so that she can take it off and don a pair of ski boots.

Three years ago, Chris’ cousin, Ricky Zuñiga moved to a small Mexican fishing village, Barra de Navidad, started a sport fishing business, and got married. Last year, while we were down there for his wedding, we created a web site for his business.

Ricky talked to Juan Pablo Aceves, the General Manager of the Cabo Blanco Hotel, and convinced him that we create great, award winning web sites. In April, Armed with a ice chest of goodies, laptop and a demo, we took off for Barra.

To make things interesting (challenging), depending upon your perspective, as we got off the plane Friday night, Ricky told us that we had a meeting the next morning with one of his customers who also wanted an award winning web site. So much for a vacation, Earl spent the evening and next morning creating another demo while Chris worked on two proposals. The sales call was a success and we had our second customer, Grupo Komet.

There was a big advantage, Juan Pablo provided free hotel rooms for the work we had done and we are able to write off the entire trip. Matter-of-fact, we are returning for New Years to visit Komet to supply Internet training and to gather additional information for their site. We will be returning for New Years to continue on Komet and Cabo blanco.

One weekend, Earl, Pablo, and a friend Rubee Taylor went to Fry's, bought parts and built a computer for Pablo. By the end of the summer, the network in the house had five nodes, an NT WEB Server, and cable modem access to the Internet. In August his mother, Cristina, flew up. On the way home from the airport, Pablo convinced his mom that he REALLY needed a scanner, on the way home, we took a side trip to Office Max. When he returned to Mexico, we packed everything in a big box and he hauled it home with him (he let his mother carry the scanner). We talk to him at least once a week through AOL Instant Message. Put him on your Buddy List, PRTRON and say hi.

In late August, the four of us (Earl, Chris, Cristina, and Pablo) took a little jeep trip around California. We started in Hercules and ended up in Reno the first night. After Cristina won enough money to buy a Tee Shirt, we went to Harrahs' on Lake Tahoe.  We visited Mammoth Mountain to play in the snow and stopped at a bed and breakfast in Bishop. The third day, we traveled down the Eastern Sierras through Red Rock Canyon, Mojave, and on to Universal Studios. We stayed two days in Southern California with Luis and Carol, Chris' brother and sister-in law. The following day we closed down Disneyland. We finish up the trip driving back through Solvang to Hercules along US101.

In the spring, Phil followed Judy's lead and was nominated for an Academy Award. Judy was nominated twice for awards for Schindler's List and Forest Gump, this year it was Phil's turn. He received a Technical Achievement award for his Spark Machine at the 70^th Annual Academy Awards.  Since Cecil helped with the electronics, he and Karen joined them for the presentation dinner and to watch Phil give an acceptance speech.

The big trip is next summer. We will be in Germany on Wednesday, 11-Aug-1999 to see the Total Eclipse of the Sun. The three one-bedroom condos we rented in the German Alps are filled with Bob Walden and Adele Schmitz, Phil and Judy Cory, Kirk and Karyn Huston, Vibeke, Reva Alexander, Anne Douville, and Xochitl Zuñiga. The four "young adults" are going to start their trip off in England the week before. After the eclipse, we plan to take Xochitl to Rome to see the Vatican and Italy. No trip would be complete without visiting Josef and Feltina in Fulda. They have sent us some very interesting material on the area and we are anxious to see them. We will finish up in New York City visiting "The Lady".

Two members of our household, Jeepers and Lilly went to visit Vibeke while we were in Mexico. Due to the large number of creatures residing at her house, the cats decided that living someplace else in the neighborhood would be better. Feeling, sorrow over our loss, Vibeke was quick to replace them with Zeus and Star (Droolie). After two weeks of living under the bed, Zeus left for greener pastures or to visit the coyotes.

Chris has continued with tennis every chance she has. She has standing games on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday and during the week. She won both the Singles and Doubles tournaments this year at her club.

This year we saw several good plays in Los Angeles. The three of us had our season tickets to the Mark Taper Forum, but Vibeke has not been able to join us as often as she wanted. Marie Gregor started coming along in her place. This year we only renewed two seats, but Marie continues to join us. Not only do we see fine theatre, it also give us an excuse to visit friends and family and walk along the beach. The highlight of this season was the one-woman show, Neat.

Speaking of Vibeké, she is living in a two-bedroom house in Santa Rosa. She has a new job in Petaluma as a Veterinarian Orthopedic Surgical Technican. We think that she may have found a career. She has had vet jobs for several years now and seems to enjoy it a lot. She plans to return to school this spring in Santa Rosa and to start a nursing career.

She started a little side business, house and pet sitting. She has had some interesting clients. For example, not only has she sat dogs that only understand Spanish, she pet-sitted Koi.

In the spring, before it got too hot, we spent the weekend in Anza Borragra Springs, visiting George and Janet Jefferson. George is now the Head Paleontologist for the California State Parks Southern District. There we met up with two of Earl's High School buddies, John Mortz and Richard Biggs.

Speaking of Oakland, we now live there. This is the sad/interesting, but true tale…

Several years ago, the City of Oakland started a downtown renewal project. Two years ago, Chris decided purchasing a new Condo in the Old Town Oakland area would be a good investment. She put her deposit down and waited and waited and waited. This year, after many delays, the building was completed. Chris found two corporations willing to rent it as a Corporate Apartment. When it came time to sign the papers, she was told that in order to get a low cost loan and a low down payment, she had to live there. No problem, we had lots of furniture, we could put some in.

Next she was told, that she needed to prove that our house was for sale by listing it with a realtor. No problem, we listed it for a higher price than anything in the neighborhood.

We signed the listing on Sunday night, agreeing that she could start showing it the following weekend. Our Realtor called Chris Wednesday afternoon and said that she was going to bring an offer that evening. When Earl returned from Reno Wednesday night, another Realtor met him in the driveway with a family to view the house, they also made an offer that evening. By the weekend we received yet another. The first one was full price, no contingencies, with a 30-day escrow.

In one-month time, we were out of our 4-bedroom, large kitchened, gas ranged, micro-waved, barbecue equipped, yarded, three-car garaged, cable-modemed, 2200 square foot house and living in a 1200 square foot, three small bedroom, no micro-wave, small kitchen, no barbecue, no garage, yard free condo. Needless to say, a lot of our stuff is in storage.

That is not to say we don't have room for visitors. We have a spare bedroom (the other is a computer room of course), that is fully equipped for visitors. The condo is located in the heart of Old Town Oakland, two blocks from the BART, next to one of the best restaurants in town, three blocks from China Town, 10 blocks from Jack London Square, one block from The Pacific Coast Brewery brew pub, one mile from the Amtrak Station, and 5 miles from the airport. Chris really likes it, she has friends over every Sunday for Earl's (el Waflero) waffles, people over a couple a nights a week for wine and Margaritas, and she walks to work.

Finally, to end the year, on Dec 11, Sherry gave birth to Shannon Marie Sands. Shannon weighed in at 6lb 5oz.

Well that’s a summary of our life in 1998. We are always happy to hear from you and what you and your family have been doing. We accept letters, phone calls, visits, e-mail, faxes, etc. If you are ever out our way, let us know and we can get together. Sunday waffles anyone?

Emails Us At:

Earl: EarlCory@aol.com,
Earl.Cory@SaintMarysReno.com, CoryE@Sutterhealth.org.

Chris: CCCory@aol.com,
Ccory@vision-soft.com

Vibeke: VibekeCory@aol.com