The Randall's Break Ground! After years of soul searching, lot searching, contractor searching, and other forms of insanity, on August 3rd 2003, the Randalls actually broke ground on their new home. A sense of brevity prohibits the description of sordid details, but let us say that while we are pleased that we are now in the building stage, not all has gone smoothly. A small indication of recently resolved difficulties is that Patrice reluctantly turned down brother Nigel's offer to take a baseball bat to the knees of a particular sub-contractor. For our devoted followers, (close family and deranged friends) a weekly pictorial history of our house construction is available online. See also the "Patrice Builds a House" section below.

Ashley in College: Ashley is a freshman at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is, in her terms, "Kicking Ass in College". We believe that this translates into meaning a successful first semester academically (3.43 GPA). The GPA is important because she is in the Coordinated Admissions Program which will land her in UT Austin if she keeps up a 3.0 her freshman year. At the Chisholm Hall Dormitory, she is known as the Princess Nerd of the 3rd Floor because she studies instead of going out and getting wasted every night. So far this year Ashley has: gotten mononucleosis, had an article published in the school newspaper, and much to her parents horror, has become a pierced person (eyebrow). See more about Ashley and her roommate here.

Ian at the top of the foodchain in middle school: Ian is now in eighth grade in Bowman Middle School. This year saw significant changes for Ian. He started 2003 the shortest of the clan (not counting Max. Even at the beginning of 2003, Ian was taller than Max and he generally smelled better.) At the end of 2003 he is taller than Ashley and Patrice. Ian is in the National Junior Honor Society and has been accepted into the IB program. Ian has continued his saxophone studies and got a superior rating for both his ensemble and solo performance at the district UIL competition. Ian still does aggressive inline skating, grass boarding, paint ball, and thinks that the height of fashion involves exposing about 6 inches of boxer shorts above his pants.

Patrice builds a house:
After years of researching, planning, searching, budgeting, submitting permits, and many other details, Patrice finally put every thing in place to start building the house of her dreams. Patrice has selected walls, ceilings, floors, faucets, doors, windows, and well . . . everything! Our carefully selected builder, Dake Vannorsdel, assured us that all the preparation would make the building part fun and stress free. HAH!! While Patrice is still happy with Dake, the same cannot be said of her feelings for certain sub-contractors.

John
In what had to be one of the largest scheduling mistake in the history of Zyvex, Jim Von Ehr was out of town and John was asked to give Congressional Testimony. In spite of this the company is still in business and actually doing very well. A mystery was recently solved. It was not clear exactly what John's position was at Zyvex. Now that has all been cleared up. John is not the Chief Technology Officer, he is the Chief Technical Officer. John is still working on Matricism.

Pet Report:
Our intrepid guard dog Max keeps us safe from squirrels, birds, golfers, children, and clean floors. During his approximately 8 years of life, Max has, according to John's calculations, produced more than 10 times his body weight in fur.

The Relativity Report:
The Randalls: Bill and Vee (John's Parents) are all moved into their new house with Mike (John's Brother) in residence. Vee and Bill are both in good health. Mike is struggling with Hep C but is 5 months into a 12 month treatment that seems to have the disease under control. Sister Cindy's eldest, Shelly, is engaged and the date is Valentines Day to marry Matt Avery. Cindy may be losing a daughter but she is getting a boyfriend back, old flame Skip is moving in with Cindy and Kelsie(14).

The Stepchinskis: Eddie and Anita (Patrice's parents) are still in Houston in pretty much the same place they have been for quite a while. Both are doing fine. Brother Nigel and wife Rhonda are both still with the Houston Police Department and have no spare time because of their children Caitlin(12) and Kyle(9). Brother Patrick, wife Erica, and children Leanne(10), and Alan(7) were still in Clearlake last time we looked.