The advent of a new year is one of three occasions during the year when I tend to look back on the recent past and appreciate all the good portions of my life. (The other two, if you’re interested, are my birthday and Thanksgiving). 2004 has been another mostly good year for the Sabella family:

Mark is doing very well at TCNJ, taking extra courses every semester so he can major in Finance and minor in Accounting while still graduating on time.

After five successful years running cross-country, Andy has decided to retire, mostly because the wear and tear on his feet was bothering him and making him anxious about his future health. Since his best friend Colleen also quit, he seems content with that decision.

Jean is still teaching during the day at County College of Morris and Statistics one night a week at Centenary College.

My parents are doing all right, their health being about as expected for two people in their early 80s. They are very happy living at Heath Village, a very nice senior citizen community nearby, which is close enough for us or my brothers to be available whenever they need us.

Jean’s aunt Ceil had arthroscopic surgery on her knee this past fall, and it is amazing the things she is able to do at her age of 80+. Hopefully Jean and I will be that lively in our old age.

Fei Fei is nearly finished with her doctorate and preparing for her tenure-track position at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaigne, one of the best Electrical Engineering schools in the country. She has her own lab with a nice-sized budget, and earning more money her first year than I am making. That’s her reward for all her hard work and brilliance.

This summer my nephew Chris was the first Sabella of the next generation to get married. It was fairly traumatic both for my college friends with whom Jean and I sat at the wedding, and also for my brother David and me who dread the thought of Stephen becoming a grandfather in a few years. If that is not the ultimate doorway into old age, I don’t know what else could possibly be.

We went to Notre Dame for the graduation of another nephew–Jean’s brother Peter's son Jesse. While there, Jean and I both chatted with Jesse’s brother Gabe who is very happy teaching elementary English in a small village in Japan.

Jean and I had a small 25th anniversary party attended by my parents and several close friends, which was fun. We also spent a weekend in Lancaster, most of which Jean spent shopping at outlets while I haunted two remaindered book outlets.

We spent two weeks this summer in Canada, camping near the St. Lawrence River and spending a day in Ottawa and a day in Montreal. Canada is a gorgeous country, with very friendly people. I would be thrilled to retire there, especially considering how crazy this country is getting with its tax-cutting frenzy and aggression overseas. I just need to convince Jean that it is not “too cold”.

I have a very demanding and stressful schedule at school this year, teaching 5 different courses, including Advanced Placement Statistics, which is a lot of work since I know nothing about Statistics at all. I spend several hours each night and nearly my entire weekend doing schoolwork, but I have a lot of very nice students who spend time in the Math Lab every day, so that makes up for a lot of the stress.

I published the 100th issue of my fanzine Visions of Paradise this past summer, and I am pleased with the generally-good reaction it gets from my readers. People also seem to enjoy my two blogs, which is nice and which encourages me to continue writing them.

I bought or received as gifts 25 books and 19 cds this year, most of which I enjoyed. My favorite book of the year was Guy Gavriel Kay’s alternate historical novel The Last Light of the Sun. My favorite cds were mostly compilations, including Fairport Convention’s Cropedy, Time-Life’s 9-cd boxed set The Folk Years and two-cd greatest hits collections by Jackson Browne, John Mellencamp and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Happy New Year everybody! Hopefully I’ll be in touch with a lot of you in the months ahead.