1988

I took a brief hiatus from writing the notes after 23 years. Miss me? OK, it was not really planned, I've been pretty busy with work, and I know I need a better method of collecting snippets from you awesome set of individuals. I'll put some brain cells on it since options abound through Facebook and our alumni website. Pass along any ideas that you have. Love to have you work on sending me your news, but I can work on getting them from you too. That's what you pay me for. On that note, I'm still waiting on that first paycheck.

Tom and Diane Collins MacDonald have another adult in the house. OK, daughter Sarah is now 18. I can recall reporting on her birth, so life is zipping by. Sarah's passion continues to be ballet, which she'll consider as she pursues school options. Daughter Carissa (12) competes in horse shows with her horse, a "nice boy" named Alfie. Kevin (10) is a jock in swimming, soccer and basketball. Todd (15) is a top distance runner in cross-country at his high school and competed in the Oregon state meet! Tom's still GM of Intel's server chipset biz, has become quite a curler (yes it's a sport!), and coaches Kevin's soccer team. Diane works part time pro-bono as the president of Parent Teacher Club at Kevin and Clarissa's school and plays lots of tennis.

Heather Donnelly Annaloro and hubby Charlie celebrated 10 years of marriage with a fantastic trip to Costa Rica, including zip lining in the tropical forest high above the tree canopy. Good to know some of us can still act young, even though some of us are surely hitting or coming up on 50! Heather and Charlie are skiing fanatics so you can ask her for recommendations. She and Charlie are travel aficionados, too, so you could get a recommendation there as well.

Hanne Olsen and Mark Proudfoot moved back to Reading, Pa., but will be spending this summer in Denmark, where they've kept their house. Like many of you, their youngest has hit a certain age. In their case, that is daughter Kristin (8), so life has gotten a little easier. Other Proudfoots are Danielle (10th grade), Thomas (7th grade), and Steven (5th grade), who are all most likely still into piano.

By the time you read this, Brent Koehler will be one-and-a-half years with no recurrence of cancer (squamous cell carcinoma cancer in left lymph nodes and tonsil). This fall, son Michael will attend St. Olaf College in Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Son Matthew is homeschooled and into guitar. Brent is back full-steam into his consulting business, biking and fishing.

Mike Wapner had moved his career into green energy initiatives, and was hired by Pike Research as a senior analyst for building efficiency. Mike works from home and his girls could not be happier. The company's headquarters is in Boulder, Colo., which is a nice place to "have to" travel to! Mike writes a weekly blog for Pike at pikeresearch.com. Even more important (maybe), Mike is chief of the mighty Ojibwa (many of you know, but I'll clue in the others, the girls' Indian Princess Tribe). In other news, he's on the board of trustees for his synagogue, and on the environmental task force for the park district. Daughter Julia (11) is doing crossing guard patrol, chorus, dance and needlepoint. Anna (8) is into piano, dance, ice skating and gymnastics. Mike is on a quest to see all 50 states capitals before his 50th and will report more on this. More trips galore then, most notably, the Dakotas and Yellowstone National Park.

Loved getting a holiday card from Susan Ward Underwood that featured her three beautiful girls, Alexa (12), Sammy (10) and Nikki (7). She and hubby Craig visited with Christophe Karvelis last April in Paris, and enjoyed some skiing with Mariellen Sullivan Carpenter and Noble Carpenter at Vail this winter. Apparently Noble and Mariellen still "got it" in flying down the slopes. Proof again, '88'ers are timeless!

The party has started. Dennis Sheehan and wife Mary have pushed their youngest out the door…politely…to college, empty nesters. Claire (21) is graduating from University of Portland and eyeing grad schools; Katherine (19) attends DePaul in Chicago and Erin (18) is at Seattle University. Dennis is still vice president at Immersion Corporation and lives in San Jose, Calif., during the week.

Michael Zink holds chief executive and Citi country officer titles for Citigroup Singapore role, so he's responsible for all aspects of the banks businesses, including investment banking, corporate and institutional banking, consumer banking and private banking. Big news on MZ: He's just been appointed to the board of advisers for the Kellogg Alumni Club of Singapore!

Amy Wahlert Principi is moving the kids forward. Molly is sophomore at Illinois Wesleyan University, and Nick is a junior in high school. Nick is very involved with Boy Scouts and works a counselor in the summer. Molly is an education major. Amy continues to work at Our Lady of the Brook and handles correspondences for the family foundation as well as volunteers at St. Alphonsus Parish.

Pat Ciriacks' son Kevin was married in August, but not before "the boyz" enjoyed some Canadian fly-in fishing. Kevin and Patrick won "Master Angler" awards for catching walleyes longer than 25 feet! Kevin is off to medical school. Daughter Jenny was honored with her fifth-straight team MVP and all-conference first team awards for volleyball. Now it's time to start picking colleges with great options for her, as physical therapy is in the plans. Pat is regional leader at Creation Technologies, an electronics manufacturing services provider, and leverages his experience to also be the firm's design engineering and leadership development chief.

Ok, good to be back with you all. Like I said, wait until we connect on Facebook , etc. That will really enhance the notes. You know me — I'll continue to leave out the stuff about Aunt Edna's hemorrhoids, etc. On our front, Jamie is a sophomore and thinks she'll go to grad school for library science, as it fits her personality and passions pretty well. She's also considering doing a semester abroad next year. She is still a minor in Japanese and has added Asian Studies. I hope she considers some travel and maybe some work in Japan after she graduates. Rosemary is molding young minds as a freshman/sophomore teacher in the suburbs here. I'm launching the coolest technologies these days at Motorola Mobility. Competition is tough but if we can knock it out of the park on explaining our super coolness, I love our chances. I've started doing one of those exercise regiments you can watch on DVDs, substituting some of the cardio for biking, running or swimming. It's an experiment, trading off time training for time getting super fit and have dropped about 20 pounds. Was it Ricardo Montalbán who said it's better to look good than to swim well? Something like that. Anyhow, I have three triathlons targeted for this summer with a possibility of more. I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn so let me know how it feels to get old. I'm not ready to do that yet. Big talker, me. Talk soon.