But, OUCH!, it hurt this year! I finished in 4:13.03, beating Puff Daddy by over a minute!

AND, on November 3 (the next day), Anne attended the first annual Packard Cup st Stanford's Golf Course, to raise money for ALS Research. This was a great event, raising over $500,000 for the cause.

Thanks to Tom Watson and our Tournament Chair, Ken Hagen! Here I am with both of them.

• December 18, 2003:

  We are leaving for California tomorrow and I just spent a couple of hours updating this web site. Hope you enjoyed the front page. As you can see, I've been very busy.

  The Packard Cup golf tournament was amazing. Tom Watson couldn't have been more gracious and Ken Hagen, our Tournament chair, could not have organized it better. We raised a ton of money and everyone had a great time. If you want to learn more about it, check out www.packardcup.org.

  On November 2, I ran the NY Marathon again, raising about $13,000 for ALS and having a lot of fun (at least for the first 13 miles). It was a hot day, and I was pretty cramped up for the last 5 miles -- had to walk quite a bit at the end. I felt much worse than last year, but then again, I ran a lot faster as well. Tom, Jake and John hung around all day -- missing me at the 8 mile mark, but catching me at the 24 mile mark. I was pretty delerious by then!

  Over Thanksgiving, we decided to take on a new adventure and try the Grand Cayman Island. What fun! We rented a great beachhouse in Cayman Kai and had a ball. You can get to all the pictures from our home page.

  John's been recruiting like mad this fall as well as coaching. He's made some progress here, has a new assistant coach whom he loves working with, and generally everything is great.

  Jake is making great strides in reading all of sudden -- very exciting for all of us. The kids continue to flourish in their new school and have made many new friends.

  That's it for now. Happy Holidays to all!!!

• October 21, 2003:

  We are just back from the Head of the Charles last weekend in Boston. Boy, did we have fun! It was a major milestone for Yale as well with John's Frosh 8 coming in 3rd in the Youth 8 event, beating all the other colleges except Harvard. John's varsity came in 7th among colleges, but with a very close time to places 3 - 6. Looks like they just might be competitive!

  As for me, I had a ball rowing in the double with my friend Ginny Gilder. We came in 10th in the Masters Double. Probably the right result given our non-training approach!

  The New York Marathon is approaching fast. On November 2, I'll be joining 30,000 others in (hopefully) completing the 26.2 miles. I'm using the event to raise money for ALS Research. If you're interested in giving, call me at home, or email me!

  One last thing: we recently had a chance to get together at the Yale-Dartmouth Football game with two GSB classmates, Tom Jurewiscz and Erin Conway. We had a great time, although the kids outnumbered the adults by way too large a margin:

  

• September 12, 2003:

  Our school year has begun and it has been nothing but great! The kids love their new school. Both have made friends already and have fit in nicely. They each have 17 kids in their class and 1 1/2 teachers so we cannot complain! Soccer and music have began last week as well and it is nice to get back into a routine.

  We've had a number of guests already (which we love!). Anne Heller and Tom Nagorski and kids spent a night with us, Sharon Wurtzell came for a long weekend and various new assistant coaches have stayed overnight while they look for new homes in the area. It is great to have a semblance of a social life again -- we have a wonderful home for it!

  My mom continues her adventures in Alaska. If you haven't read that section of my website, it is worth a few minutes. She's amazing. She's topping off an incredible Alaskan adventure with a 3000 mile drive to San Francisco! I hope to see her there when I'm back for my annual "chicks" weekend on Sept 24 - 28th.

• August 20, 2003: The rhythm of our summer lives in New Haven has gotten somewhat established. John is back working hard. He's recruiting, as well as hiring two new coaches -- a volunteer assistant and a new freshman coach. I've been getting up early to train for the upcoming NY Marathon (November 2), then hanging with the kids during the day. I spend a lot of the day working hard on a golf fundraising event my non-profit is hosting at Stanford University on Nov 2, with Tom Watson!! His caddie has ALS and he's gotten involved in raising money for research. He has endorsed the Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins as one of his priority causes!

  We've headed out to Madison in the afternoon a few times for swimming and playing with the kids friends (thank you Uncle Bob and Margaret!). We joined the public library here, have the kids signed up for soccer and for music starting in Sept, so I guess we're settling down just fine!

• August 12, 2003: The boys and we had a great time watching the Mets vs. the SF Giants at Shea Stadium, thanks to the generosity of our friend Doug Baird who gave us some fantastic tickets. We were first and second row behind the Mets dugout. We got there early, in time to see President Clinton meeting players on the field right in front of us. Jake tried to throw his glove at him for a signature, but some secret service guy intercepted and threw it back.

  We watched the Giants warm up, including about 6 home run hits from Barry Bonds. Unfortunately the Giants lost, beginning what would become a six game losing streak, but Barry Bonds did hit two home runs during the game, making for great entertainment.
  

• July 26, 2003: We've just returned from a month in Madison at the beach. The boys reconnected with their friends from the shore and played hard everyday! We had great weather and great guests including most of our extended family. One of the highlights was Uncle Tom taking the boys rock climbing on real rocks in a nearby park. Others include both boys learning how to kayak on their own and taking them tubing behind the motorboat for the first time. The boys also attended camp for a week at their new shool in New Haven and fit in very quickly. We think this will help ease the transition in September.
  
  

• July 12, 2003: BIG SURPRISE -- BIN ARRIVES MONTHS EARLIER THAN EXPECTED! He arrived at NY's JFK on Friday afternoon and by evening was back at the beach house with his new family. He is so cute...obviously has been well cared for and loved for the last 15 months. No signs at all of his premature birth as he is HUGE!
  

• June 17, 2003: Jake performed an end of year Variety Show with his first grade class today. Our favorite part was the "Jokes" -- each of five boys told two jokes. Jake's were:

  "Why did the dinosaur cross the road?" Because chicken's weren't invented yet!

  AND

  "Knock, knock" , "Who's there?", "Dwain", "Dwain who?", "Dwain the bathtub before it overflows!"

  Only three days of school left. Thursday we're having a "Moving party" here at our house for 11 of Tom and Jake's closest friends.

• June 11, 2003: We closed on our New Haven home yesterday. A momentous occasion. And a big relief. We now have a permanent address.

• June 6, 2003: I forgot to say that one of the highlights of our trip was our visit to Google.com to see Charles' new work place. As we left the building, Jake summed it all up by turning to me and saying,"Mommy, that was a kid's paradise!" Like many Silicon Valley companies, the interior was perfectly designed for 7 year old boys OR 30 something year old boys with arrested development...But seriously, what a great job and company!

• June 2, 2003: We just returned from a great trip to California!!! We loved seeing everyone. The highlights included seeing Aunt Alice, Sarah, Paul, Harriet, the Sullivan-Sachlebens, Uncle Charles, Uncle Billy and Gesine!!! We were sorry to miss Amy and Paul. Aunt Alice and Sarah and Paul generously put us up. We also got to see a Giant's game, go to the Academy of Science for dinner, and play on Baker Beach. Thanks to all who included us in their plans while we were there!

• May 2003: THE FAMILY EXPLOSION CONTINUES!!! Joanna has announced baby #2 coming next January. Yippee!

• April 25, 2003: We learn that Alison and Tom have been cleared in the adoption of their second son -- Bin. We expect to welcome him in August!!! Congratulations to the Patricelli-Norrdin family!

  Here is their announcement:

  Dear Family and Friends,

  As some of you know and some of you don't know, we have been in the process of adoping a new addition to our family. We wanted to pass on the joyful news that we have been matched with our son, Kim Ye Bin. He is from Korea and in Korean his first name is listed last and his last name is listed first, so his name in Bin. He was born January 30th, 2002--nine weeks premature. He will be coming to the U.S. in 3 to 5 months. Attached are pictures taken in September and November. There is some final paperwork pending, but we wanted to share our excitement with you.

  Love,

  Alison, Luke and Tom

  
  
  These pictures are taken from Nov 02 and Sep 02, respectively.

• April 9, 2003: We close on our Princeton house and move to a small rental in Princeton for the rest of our stay here! Our new address is P.O. Box 129, Princeton, NJ 08542 for mail purposes.

To see what's going on with our extended family, check out:

• Charles Martin's Web Site
• Sally Martin's Web Site