September 5, 2004. Hello all.  I've been updating my website slowly by surely.  You will find new content in the pages after this.  Thanks for stopping by.

Well, this is my first attempt at a web page. I'm not completely sure about the content that I'm going to place up there, but I'm sure it will be some mish-mash of friends, family, travel, genealogy, bullshit, blah-blah-blah. : - )

So with Dad having passed away earlier this year, I have spent a lot of time in Sacramento/Elk Grove, CA.. (was spending time there when he was ill too). So I've been helping a lot around mom's house when I can.

Its now July 7, 2002 and I just spent the week with Barbara Brenner, her dad George, mother Helen, and her girlfriend Charlotte putting in the sprinkler system into Mom's house.. What a chore that was. Chore and learning experience to be exact! : - ) Once I borrow Bryan's digital camera next week, I will add some pics to this. I did take some photos with my camera, but need to get the film developed, and I am horrible with that. Anyway will have a page dedicated to mom's backyard and house and all the stuff we're doing.

So my best-girlfriends are a major part of my life, and now all have children: Julie Rowan Diaz has a little girl named Emma Marie...Erin Powell Gress has a little girl named Caitlyn Mary...and Jodie Hemmig Austin has a son named Gavin Blaine. Sunday, July 8, 2002 Gavin will be baptized at New Creations Lutheran Church so I will take photos and post them up here, as a link.

I will hopefully scan some of Emma soon, as it's been a LONG time since Jul has sent me any pics...some mom she is..ha-ha! All the kids call me Auntie Baban, including Gene's three, (Madi, Syd and Josh), a name that Curtis made up for me in high school back in the mid-80's. Everyone liked Baban soooo much that it just stuck, and almost 20 years later, I'm still being called it. C'est la vie.

So building up after Dad passed away was Kristine's wedding to Gene Vega on July 20, 2002 in Lodi, California and the Wine and Roses Country Inn.

The day couldn't have been any better. While the bride was busy yelling at me, (as bride's often do to their maids-of-honors), we all had a fantastic time.

Now I only wish that I had really gotten a chance to eat dinner...more on that part later.

Kristine looked beautiful, and in lieu of Dad walking her down the aisle, she had our younger brother, Alan, do it. Everything was good until they got about half way down, then the big sap that Alan tends to get, (oh Mr. Tough Guy until something like this happens), started crying, so Kristine started crying, then Mom, me, Shirley, Auntie Helen, etc.

Ah, even Keith and Mikee had tears in their eyes...so much for machismo for men, eh?

19 November 2002.

This has been a real bad year for my family. Dad died in April.  Alan died September 30th.  Cousin Matthew Webster has been fighting cancer.  Mom had to have surgery.  Yet, all of us are trying to lead somewhat of a normal life and deal with our grief all in individual and joing ways.

On the positive side, you do see Kristine and Gene finally got married. So that was good.  Work is busy.  The deal still has not gone through with Hitachi and IBM yet, and has been delayed now until Dec31, so we'll see how it goes.  In the meantime, we've all been putting in long hours here to try and make the transition as smooth as possible.

I've been spending a lot of time with my friends Bryan, Tina, Damon, Jay, and Rich.  They've been getting me out and about so that I pretty much keep busy, (on top of work that is), and show some resemblance of a life.