December 2020

 

Greetings from Friendswood, TX

            As with everyone else it's been a very unique year, fortunately we have not been too adversely affected. So here's what we have been up to:

            Phelan is now 6, he's in Kindergarten at Walter Hall Elementary School in the E-STEM Magnet Program.  He's in Ms. Goddard class in "Brick and Mortar" mode.  Phelan is enjoying making friends and learning cool things.  He's spending all his spare time playing MineCraft or watching other people play MineCraft on YouTube.  He's reading longer books this year as well as riding a bicycle. We go for some four to six mile rides several times a week.

            Megan is a teenager in 8th Grade at Brookside Intermediate and was accepted into the Science Magnet Program, based in large part due to her performance in last year's Science Fair where she advanced to state. She started this year as a online-only, but then switched to Brick and Mortar after the first quarter.  She's doing well and getting good grades, her science fair project, a continuation from her project last year "K9: Robotic Dog to test Prosthetic Leg" received first place in her category at her school science fair, she now advanced to District and then hopefully regionals. She was accepted into the Junior National Honor Society.  Megan is playing MineCraft and Roblox as well as drawing characters. She's starting reading Manga. 

            Winston's still at Boeing, and has been working from home since March and will remain working from home for at least another 3 months.  The Space Launch System is getting ready for it's first Hot Fire test, so that's pretty exciting.

            Ah-Ma lives with us and has been cooking us delicious meals and helps looking after Phelan.  For 3 months this Fall she went back home to Connecticut where she worked on her project where she's scanning and organizing old photos.

            Our cats Pepper and Pakhet have been completely unaffected by events and continue to live their best life.  Sunny the bearded dragon and Lunar Eclipse also continue to eat and exist.

            We put minimal effort into the garden this year, but were rewarded with Purple Yams, Grape Tomatoes, and Japanese Eggplant.  Our Orange Tree has joined our Lemon Tree and have  produced literal bushels of fruit.  If you live near us and want some citrus please stop by and pick some.

            Travelwise, we managed two trips prior to the lockdown.  From the end of December through New years we flew to Las Vegas and saw Penn and Friends Magic Show, and toured Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Lake Havasu, Hoover Dam, Lake Mead Recreational area, Valley of Fire State Park and finally back to Vegas to watch the New Year's Eve Fireworks over Fremont Street.  

            In March we took the train to San Antonio and repeated the itinerary from 4th of July, 2017. We took an Amtrak train and stayed for 4 nights/3 days.  We visited the Alamo, the Riverwalk, SeaWorld and the San Antonio Zoo. Phelan really enjoyed the train ride.      

            Our planned Caribbean cruise for July was understandably cancelled. And we followed guidelines and avoided any other travels.  But the allure of the road trip still beckons and we look forward to when we can go visit places again.  Oh the places we'll go...

            We participated in the Forest Path Academy/Music and More Spring Break camping trip to Brazos Bend State park in March.

            And we made a few day trips to Galveston Island, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, and Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge.

            We're sad to have not been able to do Trash Bash for the first time in 10 years, as it was cancelled.

            We did several home improvement projects this year with our spare weekends and Covid relief funds.  We placed about 750 sq. ft. of LVP down on the first floor, Cousin Robbie was a huge help moving furniture and laying down the floor.  We replaced the mini-blinds with cordless hex shades, and we refinished the craft and dining room tables.  We power washed our porch and driveway.

            For fun we built a couple of NASA themed Lego projects: ISS and Apollo 11 Lander. We played a bunch of Magic the Gathering, and other board games and have been building and exploring a MineCraft world.

            For Halloween this year, Phelan was a Dragon (we added wings to Megan's old Dinosaur Costume) Megan was a Bunny Reaper in a black cloak and Pink Scythe. We carved 4 pumpkins this year, One of Phelan in costume, and one of Julie from 20 years ago.  Megan carved a skeletal cat, and Phelan carved a ghost in some arched windows. We ran out of time to carve a portrait pumpkin of Megan. But plan to make it up before New Years.

            We think our biggest news of the year is of Kaito Inu, our new canine companion.  He invited himself into our family room on Thanksgiving. A small neutered male terrier mix, he had fleas, worms and terrified of adults.  He was not leash or crate trained nor housebroken.  He wasn't micro-chipped and has abandonment issues.  Our efforts to find his previous owners were unsuccessful. Our vet has given him a clean bill of health and estimates he is about 7 months old.  He is of course incredibly cute, and loves Phelan. Megan gave him the name which means flying sea dog.  (not that he's fond of water or anything)

            We feel fortunate this year to not have contracted Covid-19 and wish you and yours a happy, healthy and better new year

                                                                                                With Love,

                                                                                                      Winston, Megan, & Phelan

P.S. As always, we will try to post more photos at http://basil2.homeip.net/~basil/Photo.html

P.P.S. We would love to have you visit and play in our MineCraft world at basil2.homeip.net [Please let Winston know before you visit so he can Whitelist you]