This was a busy year, although not one with landmark events.  My work as a PhD student in the OU College of Education kept me jumping – I took a heavier than desirable course load in order to satisfy a funky residence requirement.  The work is a refreshing change from my regular routine and I’ve met a bunch of interesting people.  The telecom industry and my department aren’t very diverse, being mostly a bunch of white guys, but Education has a lot of minorities, women, and international students.  I’m still several years from finishing, but the journey has been rewarding.  As an added bonus, the evening classes keep me from being at home, subjected to the heavy metal ‘music’ that blasts forth from the basement.

My day job continues.  There are, as with every job, high points and not so high points.  We moved to a new building.  Well, we moved to an old building, actually, but it was a step up – my new office is on the second floor and has two windows!  My new Voice over IP class was well received.  I was elected (shanghaied? drafted? dragooned?) President of the Association of Telecom Professionals, a Columbus-area trade group.  My term on Faculty Senate expired and I was appointed to a nice suite of University committees. 

We did some travel, more-or-less the usual: a very nice week at the beach with Cindy’s family, a long weekend in Tennessee for the family reunion, a few days at Scout Camp, the Michigan-Illinois football game in Ann Arbor, Thanksgiving in Rochester.  The Stony Brook Memorial Beer and Baseball Festival went to Phoenix, where my goal was to have a golf score lower than the air temperature.  107 strokes was a couple too high.  Cindy and Greg did Pennsic.

Rob decided that a year of dorm life was enough and, since OU students are required to live in university housing or with their parents for two years, moved back in with us.  He’s chomping at the bit to move into an apartment with his buddies.  He’s a computer science major and on track to graduate in four years.  He works in the math department, more-or-less as a gopher.  I don’t see Rob as much as I’d like, since he’s more-or-less nocturnal, staying up late and sleeping late.

Greg is in his Senior year at Athens HS.  He applied to the Interactive Multimedia program in the School of Visual Communication here at OU.  Viscom is an extremely competitive School and they won’t look at his portfolio until January, but he’s been admitted to the University.  He drums.  He arts or whatever you call doing art.  He plays Madden football on the Playstation.  A sobering fact: Greg, Rob, and I all wear the same shoe size.

Visit our '2003 - The Year in Pictures' web page at www.CivilizationAsWeKnowIt.com to see a photographic record of the past year.  Well, as I write there aren't really any pictures to speak of, but keep looking.  There is a version of this letter with hypertext links. 

That's the news from beautiful Appalachian Ohio.  May 2004 bring you good health and happiness!

Phil