New Year's Greetings from the Supnik Family
601 Heald Road, Carlisle, MA 01741
Martha at Supnik dot org or 978-369-7292

Teddy (Theodore Roosevelt) is now 16 years old.

Martha says:  I found out in March that all the things I was already doing to fight osteoporosis weren’t enough so I got a personal trainer and started lifting weights at home 3 days per week.  I also increased my attendance and effort at aerobics.  I now have biceps to rival Popeye and feel much stronger.   With stronger arms and back, even snow shoveling is easier and more fun.  As a result, in August, I successfully climbed Snowy Mountain (3899 feet), which is right across the road from Camp Timberlock in the Adirondack Mountains where we've been vacationing for 23 years.  I had always thought it was beyond my ability but found the Snowy Mountain state trail to be among the prettiest in the region.

    This fall I tackled some long-delayed decorating projects.  I made custom slipcovers for the playroom window seat and replaced the worn out living room drapes with new red curtains and roman shades and matching couch and floor pillows.  Our niece Ruth asked if she could come to us for Thanksgiving "like when we were kids" so we had 24 family members ranging from 3 months to 91 years old here all weekend. I'm glad the toys in our basement got lots of use again.  Bob and I worked together to feed all except the two nursing infants.  We've been married for 35 years now and could never have done this in the past.  "You've got to admit it's getting better, getting better all the time." (Beatles, 1967)

     This year I’ve continued to run the New England Quilt Museum library, maintain their website and answer quilting questions by e-mail as a volunteer or perhaps a "staff member without salary."  I’ve also enjoyed making quilts for several family members that you can see in the portfolio I’ve recently created on this website.

 

Bob says: An eventful year on the job.  In January 2004, my startup, Nauticus Networks, was acquired by Sun Microsystems.  In May, the surviving team moved to the Sun campus in Burlington.  Despite marvelous amenities and good people to work with, I soon realized that I had lost my taste for large companies.  In October, I joined a new startup, SiCortex, which is building a product for high-performance technical computing.  It's too early to say much, but the project is multi-disciplinary and very complex, and the team congenial and dedicated.  And the company is located at One Clocktower Place, Maynard, aka the old DEC mill -- where I started work for DEC more than 27 years ago.  Deja vu all over again, so to speak.

    My simulator project continues to expand, with a world-wide collaborative team of more than two dozen participants.  As a result, some of the less well known machines (such as the HP 2100 series, and the Honeywell 16 series) are getting thorough checking and serious use.  The next planned milestone is inclusion of graphics support, allowing simulation of pioneering video games such as Spacewar (1961) and Lunar Lander (1973).

 

Ben and Lori were all dressed up
for a friend's wedding in Florida

Nala was 3 years old when Ben and Lori
adopted her at a San Diego shelter

 

Ben says: This past August, Lori and I moved back to the east coast.  After a 6 day drive across the country with a stop at the Grand Canyon, we arrived in Washington, DC.  We now live in Silver Spring, MD,  just inside the Beltway. Nala (our cat) joined us about a month later after an exciting airplane trip.    Lori is currently working for the federal government.
    I am currently working on the X-Plane flight simulator.  In August, I went to Italy to meet with our artist.  We shipped Version 8 in November and are now working on additional scenery. I am still on the list for FAA hiring - they announced recently that they will hire 12,000 new controllers over the next 10 years, so I am hoping to hear from them this year.

 

Jonathan and Larissa

Luke and Mara were named after Star Wars characters

Jon says:  Larissa and I spent the summer in Redmond, Washington working for Microsoft.  We both then returned to Massachusetts in September so that Larissa could go to graduate school at Tufts.  I am currently searching for a job with a local computer games company.  We adopted our two beautiful Balinese kittens, Luke and Mara, from a shelter in Washington in June.