Christmas 2002
Jan & Dan. Dan retired in May after 37 years of university teaching. Jan, Suzie, Kaitlyn, Michael, Sarah & Kurt, and Betsy surprised him with a cake outside his classroom after his last class; then all took a limo ride (Suzie’s treat) to Spiedini’s Italiano Ristorante for dinner. Memorial Day Weekend, our kids and their families came home to celebrate his retirement. Peter & Tony prepared a CD slide show on Dan’s life, and everyone sang “Danny be good” (to the tune of “Johnny be good”). In July we drove to DC to visit Katy [stopping in Dayton, OH, to visit Jan’s brother John and family, and Jan’s mother (90)]. In DC, when Katy was working, we took the Metro subway to the Mall, toured museums, and saw the Imax 3-D movie “Space Station”. Dan did some genealogy research at the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Jake took us to the play “Born Guilty’ at the Jewish Community Center. Evenings we ate at different ethnic restaurants -- Ethiopian, Indian, Thai, Greek, Chinese, etc. -- all within walking distance of Katy’s apartment at Dupont Circle. David was in DC and joined us some evenings. One evening Katy’s roommate Ashlee and her boyfriend Corey drove us to Vienna, VA, to see a performance of the Sherpa Undergound at a local coffeehouse. On the way back to DC, Corey saw a 7-Eleven store and remembered it was July 11 (7/11) of their 75th anniversary year, and they were giving away free Slurpees that day. He pulled in and we all got free Slurpees. It was a most memorable evening being chauffeured in a Camry through DC with all the monuments lighted, sipping our free Slurpees. Sunday we went to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (the largest Catholic Church in the Americas).
David, Seabrook, TX, is a senior scientist with the Automation, Robotics, and Simulation Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. He designs robots to assist astronauts -- for assembly/inspection/maintenance of the Space Station, and for planetary exploration. In September he conducted field tests of a robot at Meteor Crater near Flagstaff, making a side trip to Steve & family in Tucson. David is also developing software for life support systems (air regeneration/water recovery) to be used for Lunar and Martian colonies. His private company, Texas Robotics and Automation Center, works on government contracts. David also works one week a month at the Naval Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC. As usual, he was busy traveling, giving talks/workshops, consulting, and serving as a judge at robot competitions -- NASA, Pensacola; IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Washington DC; Robotics Institute, Carnegie-Mellon U., Pittsburgh; Spacecraft Autonomy Group, NASA’s Ames Research Center, San Jose (he got in some scuba diving at Monterey); Intel Science and Engineering Fair, Louisville; AAAI National High School Robotics Competition, Norman, OK; International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Lausanne, Switzerland (he toured the “Blur Pavilion”, which is shrouded in a perpetual cloud of man-made fog, on Lake Neuchatel); and the AAAI Conference in Edmonton, Canada, where one of David's robots, “GRACE”, was the star of the conference and was interviewed “live” on CNN. While in Canada, David did some hiking in Jasper National Park. He also took his annual hiking/camping trip with is friends, this year to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. David was also busy supervising (“writing very large checks for”) major remodeling of his house.
Suzie, Jerry, Kaitlyn (8) &
Michael/”Micha” (3) live in
Middleton, WI (north side of Madison).
Suzie & Jerry were busy managing their 2-year old business, Skyline
Steel, Inc. (structural steel fabrication). This year they provided steel for buildings in Illinois,
Minnesota, Iowa, and for fire-fighting training structures shipped throughout
the U.S. and Asia. Suzie does
accounting, payroll, employee benefits, multi-state trucking licenses/permits,
401K, insurance (unemployment, health, dental, disability, life, auto,
business, workers comp, etc), pollution control permits, taxes (income,
payroll, sales and use, fuel, federal excise, heavy vehicle highway tax,
etc.). Kaitlyn (2nd grade)
loves reading, math and art (she was chosen to help paint a mural on the wall
of the new kindergarten at her school).
She is in Brownies, and takes gymnastics and swimming. Micha enjoys playing with cars and trucks,
swimming, dancing to all kinds of music, and gymnastics. In November, Suzie, Jerry, Kaitlyn, Micha, and Betsy flew to Phoenix,
where they met up with Jan and Dan.
After a breakfast visit with Jan’s brother Greg, we all drove to
Flagstaff where we joined Steve & Jane and Oliver, David, Peter, and Katy
at rental cabins for Thanksgiving vacation.
We all made side trips to Walnut Creek Canyon with its cliff dwelling
ruins, Grand Canyon, Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona with their many colorful rock
formations. Dan, Jan, David, Steve,
Jane, and Oliver took the train from Williams to the Grand Canyon. Dan, David, and Peter also visited the
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, where the planet Pluto was discovered and the
first evidence for an expanding universe was collected. This year Suzie and Jerry finished
their basement with a family room, exercise room, bedroom and full bath. Their home has become the central meeting
place for their ever-expanding extended families.
Steve, Jane & Oliver (3) live in Tucson,
AZ. Steve is an astronomer with the Lunar
and Planetary Laboratory, U. of Arizona, and with the private Planetary
Science Institute. He researches
the formation of Earth-like planets, asteroids, and the extra-solar planets
recently discovered. In October he gave
a presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Division for
Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Birmingham, AL Jane is at the Steward Observatory,
U. of Arizona. She works with a team of
astronomers building the Multiband Imaging Photometer to be launched next April
on the Space InfraRed Telescope Facility (the next of NASA's space observatories), and routinely travels to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to
help coordinate the launch. At home
they have been landscaping their new house – mixing over 3,000 lbs. of concrete
(one wheelbarrow at a time) and laying 3,200 bricks for a 1000 sq/ft patio;
building a huge play set and multi-level sand box (5 tons of sand), moving 14
tons of rock mulch and 12 tons of top soil (again, one wheelbarrow at a time),
planting trees; installing an underground sprinkler system, etc. Oliver goes to the Jewish Community Day Care
-- activities include music and singing classes, Hebrew and Judaics, “cooking
with Tina”, nature hikes/picnics, games in the gym, and swimming and tennis
lessons. After his busy week, Oliver
enjoys relaxing with his parents, sipping an ice-cold can of soda, and watching
Scooby Dooby Do. In March we visited
Steve & Jane. It was a bitter-sweet
visit, as everyone was mourning the loss of Steve & Jane’s son, Shaw Henry
Morrison, who died just hours before birth on February 27. The only explanation doctors could give was
that perhaps pressure or a twist in the umbilical chord interrupted blood and
oxygen flow. Jane’s parents, and David
and Katy, Nancy and Sam, also visited to offer support. This fall Jane organized a Kortenkamp family
gathering for Thanksgiving in Flagstaff, AZ; since she, Steve, and Oliver would
not be able to come to Wisconsin for Christmas. Jane and Steve are expecting their third child, a girl, in March.
Nancy, Matt, Simon/”Sam” (2) & Lance (1), Houston, TX, are awaiting the birth
of a third boy in April. Nancy is Director of Audiology at the Rosewood
Ear, Nose, and Throat Center. Matt,
a house-husband, is taking night and Saturday college classes to become a
science teacher. He also works part-time for a lawn care company. Matt and Nancy love to run, and Matt ran the
Houston Half-Marathon (1:31:40) in January with Peter, Tony, and Julie. Nancy had not trained enough after the birth
of Lance in November, so didn’t run.
Sam enjoys playing outside and doing woodworking with his dad. He especially loves running his trucks through
the sawdust. Lance likes to be anywhere
that Sam is, and has a ball with all of Sam’s toys. In January we flew to Houston for two weeks. Tony, Peter, and Katy joined us there. We alternated visits to David’s house and to
Nancy & Matt’s house. Near Nancy
& Matt’s house is Memorial Park with a wonderful dirt running trail. One day running the trail, Dan, Peter, and
Tony made a side run to see the “Beer Can House” – “One of Houston's
most famous artistic achievements, the Beer Can House is the creation of the
late John Milkovisch. You'll never think of aluminum siding the same old way
after you've seen the remains of 50,000 beer cans covering every available
surface and hanging from the eaves.” In
March, Nancy and Sam flew to Tucson so he could visit his cousin Oliver. In May, Matt and Sam flew to Florida to
visit Matt’s father. At Christmas,
Nancy & Matt, and kids drove to Wisconsin for the annual Kortenkamp holiday
reunion.
Peter
& Julie. Peter is a doctoral candidate
in astronomy at the U. of Iowa, Iowa City.
He is working on his dissertation – a radio telescope study of the
sun. He collected his data at the North
Liberty Radio Astronomy Antenna, part of the Very Long Baseline Array (a series
of ten radio antennas spread across the United States and its territories from
the Virgin Islands to Mauna Kea, Hawaii).
He published some of his research on solar wind in Astronomy and
Astrophysics, and the journal of the American Astronomical Society. Julie works as a music therapist at the
Hospice of Palm Beach County, FL. Peter’s first love is playing French horn (he
has a master’s degree in French horn performance). Peter usually practices horn on the roof of the Physics and
Astronomy Building (in the roof observatory during bad weather). He auditioned in September for the Palm
Beach Opera while visiting Julie. Peter
& Julie enjoy running, and they ran the Houston Half-Marathon in January
while visiting David. Peter was 10th
in his age division (1:30:37); Julie was 45th in her age division (1:55:03). When Katy was visiting Peter, they drove up to Cedar Falls, IA, to visit their Grandfather
Kortenkamp (92), and uncles Leon (from San Francisco) and Ed.
Sarah
& Kurt live in Arbor Vitae (near Minocqua), WI. Sarah finished her two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the
Medical College of Wisconsin, and took a job as clinical neuropsychologist at
Marshfield Clinic’s Lakeland Center in Minocqua (a small resort town in
northern Wisconsin). Marshfield Clinic,
Marshfield, WI, with 38 regional clinics, is one of the largest medical clinics
in the U.S., with about 600 physicians serving over 4,000 patients/day. In February, she attended the International
Neuropsychological Society Conference in Toronto. Sarah & Kurt bought a house in the woods north of Minocqua,
where their dog Summer (a Vizsla) has room to run. They have a 4-car garage, part of which Kurt developed into an
art studio where he works on his own pieces and commissioned pieces. He has pieces on exhibit at a gallery in
Door County, WI. Kurt also works at
home as a computer consultant via the Internet. Sarah & Kurt bought a kayak this summer (their property has
access to a lake); and are looking forward to learning snowshoeing and
cross-country skiing this winter.
Betsy Middleton, WI, is Co-Teacher at ARC
Community Services (Center for Women and Children and Healthy Beginnings),
Madison, Wisconsin. She works with
children from drug and alcohol abuse homes. Betsy also has an online
business called sisterbox.com -- “The faster, easier way to send a care
package without losing the homemade touch.”
She sells pre-made gift
boxes, and has a virtual mall for those who want to individually select items
for a gift box. Betsy’s apartment is
only 1 mile from Suzie and Jerry’s house.
This is very convenient because Betsy often baby-sits Kaitlyn and
Micha. She also goes on training runs
with Suzie. In September, Betsy, Peter,
and Tony delivered Katy’s car to DC (bought from Sarah & Kurt, who had
bought it from Steve). In Indianapolis
they made a sentimental side trip to see Grandma Lang’s old house (she moved to
Dayton many years ago). In DC they did
the usual touristy things – museums, Imax movie (“Space Station” in
3-D), and played Frisbee at sunset on the National Mall (and in the Reflecting
Pool!). They then drove back with Katy,
who was taking some time off from her job.
Katy, Washington, DC, is a
research assistant at the Urban Institute (a think tank for nonpartisan
economic/social policy research). She
was lead data analyst on a grant from the Dept. of Health and Human Services to
study effects of family structure (marriage, cohabitation, divorce) on
children’s well-being in a welfare population.
Katy’s friend, Jake Laufer, is leader of the rock band Sherpa
Underground. Last winter she and
Jake spent a week in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where Jake’s parents own a
time-share condo. They also skied in
the Poconos where Jake’s parents own a house.
In April she and David visited Steve & family in Tucson. They did a lot of hiking in the Saguaro
National Park – the Desert Museum, and to the top of Sombrero Mountain. Over the 4th of July, Katy went
camping in Western Pennsylvania with friends, visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s
Falling Water House, and went rafting for the first time. Katy spent several weeks this fall living
with Peter in Iowa City. She was
researching graduate schools, and applying for graduate work in evolutionary
psychology/behavioral genetics starting next fall. In November, she visited Chicago on a road trip with Jake; they
saw a Second City show, and visited some late-night blues clubs.
Tony, UW-La Crosse, is a senior education major, planning to teach science and computers in high school. He works as a driving instructor. In January, Tony and Peter drove to Houston to join their parents who were staying with David for three weeks. We all helped David with house projects, picked out some new furniture, and Peter and Tony installed David’s new 61” HDTV. Tony also ran the Houston Half-Marathon, placing 3rd in his age group (1:32:42) and received a lovely engraved glass plaque. For spring break, Tony flew to DC to visit Katy. He toured the museums on the Mall, saw “The Serengeti” at the Imax theatre, took a trip to Mount Vernon, ate Ethiopian, Thai, Middle Eastern, etc. Tony and Katy drove to NYC with Jake, caught one of Jake’s solo acoustic guitar performances at a bar on the Upper East Side, saw a Broadway show (David Auburn's "Proof") starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, and saw Carson Daly doing TRL at the MTV studios. This summer Tony’s rooming house caught fire, and most of his possessions (including computer) were ruined by smoke and fire retardant sprayed by the fire fighters. The house was remodeled and is now much nicer than before. Last year Tony began teaching himself guitar, and is quite good. He recently performed before an audience for the first time, playing his own songs, and enjoyed it very much. And, with help from Kurt, Tony recorded his first CD, playing his own music. This year Tony’s girlfriend is Brenna. She plays on the UW-La Crosse women’s hockey club.