Arthur Hu's Web-Linked Christmas Newsletter http://www.leconsulting.com/arthurhu/97/10/xmas97.htm

(click for gallery) And may the force be with you.

12422 107^th PL NE Kirkland WA 98034 425-814-2183 EMAIL: arthurhu@halcyon.com WEB: http://www.leconsulting.com/arthurhu

Holiday Blast. We started out the year with first storm in years I can remember having to haul out the tire chains just to get around town since the big snow of 1969 and Boston's Blizzard of '78. A lot of carport and shopping center roofs fell in, and it was nasty picking up Jenny's parents back from the airport.

Job Jenny's doing a fine job at the part of EDS that does bank ATM machine software. I spent the first part of the year at Design Intelligence downtown working on their publishing program. Now I'm at Applied Precision in Issaquah, their machine tests the probe cards that test chips. The Dodge Caravan went through 4 new but defective '97 cassette decks before they let us upgrade to the CD unit when the original unit clock stopped working. Got a '89 Taurus LX with power everything and leather as an economy luxo-cruiser so Jenny's dad could get the Camry. A nice, if common, car once they fixed everything. I haven't sold the Fiesta yet, but I got $900 for when the school bus bumped it.

Trips (check out photos on the web page "family album") Flew to San Francisco to visit Jenny's relatives in spring. Went RV camping with uncle Franklin to the Oregon coast and OMSI in Portland. Day trips to Puyallup State Fair, Richmond B.C, (Canada's New Hong Kong) and the San Juan Islands and the Whale museum, and Tacoma's new Washington History Museum. Went moteling to Eastern Washington, which hadn't seen since my Dad took the family out in a VW bus 30 years ago. Saw Spokane, Couer D'Alene Idaho, Grand Coulee Dam, and Leavenworth, which has a Bavarian alpine tourist theme, all in 3 days. We took ourselves and both sets of parents to see Beauty and the Beast, the stage play. The kids saw all 3 Star Wars, Hercules, and Anastasia on the big screen. We're still with Hope of God, a biblical, predominantly Asian church, and recruited Franklin and my Mom too.

Kids & Parents Eric is 6, he gets Kindergarten homework adding 3 numbers, and taking the circumference of a pumpkin! Peter is 4, he's in "Ready Start" a special public preschool program, he can type and write his name, though it comes out TPER E. Peter at 3 also made it all the way through Putt Putt by himself after looking over Eric's shoulder. Both are independently romping through Nintendo Mario-64, thanks to the Hu birthday fund, with occasional help from Dad and a cheat book. The kids can do just about everything but the penguin slide (and read the cheat book). At this rate, we'll be finished by middle school. Maybe they're playing too much, but at least it's something other than trains. Both can bang out Twinkle Twinkle on the toy piano, Eric in octaves on the Casio keyboard, and they can scratch out noises on the violin, but I haven't gotten them to Mozart yet. They've memorized the channels for Nick and Cartoon Network, and have acquired a taste for Scooby Doo. Henry is 1 ½, uttering words, has watched every one of our Thomas Tank Engine videos 25 times, and likes to hit the red button on the N64. He hooks up trains in the proper order, and is pretty good at bringing out shoes when it's time to go out. Jenny's parents are headed off to Vietnam for a few months, they've figured out how to take the bus to Seattle Chinatown for senior activities, Church and English lessons, and they take Eric to Chinese lessons in their church. My dad did extremely well in '97 thanks to the modern miracle of dialysis. My mom is getting used to retirement and new role as grandma, now that Carl and George are expecting again.

Web Site It's up to 1GB of space with all of my articles, research files, every roll of film since spring. It gets up to 300 users a day on weekends. We got a Casio QV-120 digital camera for quick pictures, found a classic working polaroid SX-70 (a 1977 autofocus SLR orig $250), but scanned 35mm still looks best. The web url is above, with pointers to family album, and video clips, like the marina boat roof collapsing from snow. My toy collecting area and Seattle tours are still the busiest sites and I've made more by trading toys than stocks (not that I made much in stocks…) My name made the cover of the Sept 15 National Review with an article that shows achievement gaps even in the richest school districts, but Asians outperform their neighbors even in more modest places like my hometown of Renton. The Seattle Youth Symphony had a special concert conducted by Vilem Sokol that Franklin and I played in Maybe next year I'll pick up a bit more music again.