2001 in Pictures

JANUARY TRIP TO MUNICH, GERMANY
	In January, I traveled with four other friends from Goodrich to Munich, Germany. This photo is taken in the Marienplatz, the central square of Munich. In the background, you can see the city hall. Juxtaposed to these old, ornate buildings are ultra-modern shops and offices. The city does a great job of mixing the old with the new.
	Becky and I are touring one of the many cathedrals in the area. This view is taken high atop the bell tower observation deck.
	Ryan and I are awaiting our tour time at Neuschwanstein, one of the world's most famous castles.
	Wheeee, look at us! Dan and Becky are sitting in the window of the room that we all shared. Our room was actually partitioned into two separate rooms with a sink in the smaller of the two. The bathrooms/showers were a ways down the hall.
	Dan took all these black and white photos. Here's a cool shot of the group in the subway. Germany, and I suppose greater Europe, have well developed train/subway systems that make travel convenient and easy as pie. Too bad America hasn't followed suit.

Oink! Nothing more fun than riding a plastic pig in downtown Seattle, I always say. In a business trip to Boeing, I managed to squeeze in a few days to spend with my Cedarville pal, Jana. A Seattle native, she showed me the sites of the city and I ate some amazing salmon in a restaurant on Puget Sound.

Here we are in the Dayton airport welcoming our Malaysian friend Charlie back from his business trip. He wasn't expecting anyone to be there and was thoroughly pleased to see the reception. I took the liberty of trying my hand at Chinese calligraphy.

GRANDMA DAYS, 2001
	This year we toured the Laurel Mountains of Pennsylvania for our Grandma Days trip. While at Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater" house, Chris and I shortened Grandma Pavlik's hike by carrying her part of the way.
	Here's the fam! Everyone on Mom's side of the family showed up for the occasion. We had a great time touring the area, playing lots of cards, and celebrating Grandma's birthday while here.

Mark! Here is my nephew wearing my 5 pound, size 13 shoes. What a great kid! We have tons of fun together, mainly sticking out our tongues and making farting noises. This is always a sure way to get his parents to holler. Oh my, what fun.

Hmmm, what exactly is this? My Uncle Charlie has purchased some property in Indiana and Dan, my friend Charlie, and I went over to help clear the land. Here Dan and my uncle are staking out the future lake with some high-tech surveying equipment. Now we're ready to go burn all the brush piles. Fire!

ROCK CLIMBING IN RED RIVER GORGE
	My friend Dan is in love with the more extreme sports so he hosted a rock climbing trip to the Red River Gorge State Forest in Kentucky. Here is a lovely picture of my bottom, proving that I actually made it up a few cliffs.
	This is a photo of Dan, climbing with all his gear, including sticky rubber shoes. Personally I think giant suction cups would be an added bonus, but maybe that's cheating.
	I tried to remember my boy scout days and get a cooking fire going. Miraculously, the flames appeared and cooking was quickly underway. It's amazing how yummy stuff tastes out in the middle of a forest.

A four wheeled quadra-cycle needs four people to pedal it, right? At The Greenbrier, we rented a four-person bicycle and pedaled it around the grounds. It's harder than it looks! The most fun was zipping down hills and scaring other tourists. Trust me, it's intimidating to see this thing come flying at you.

This year for Thanksgiving we were joined by the family on my Father's side. Here at the "kids" table are my cousins and their families...

...and at the "adults" table we find the rest of the gang, including my Dad's hand on the right side of the picture. Ooo la la, what a delicious feast we had. Indeed, I have much for which to be thankful.

It seems appropriate to close this year's memories with a photo of my family. From left to right: Grandma Handel, Brenda, Mark, Chris, Nancy, Grandma Pavlik, Steve, and David. Happy New Year from all of us!

Merry Christmas!!

12:01AM, December 25, 2001

Wow, I'm probably the first to wish you a Merry Christmas actually on the 25th! Seeing as 12:00 midnight (EST) just rolled by, perhaps it's about time for me to publish my Christmas letter (and then go wrap my presents). Much has happened in 2001 and I’m excited to tell you about it. As has become a tradition, I have created an online portion of this Christmas letter with pictures and descriptions at http://www.stevehandel.com. Without further delay, let’s dive in and take a peek at the past year!

Travel. This January four friends and I traveled to Munich, Germany for an extended weekend. It was awesome! We visited numerous eateries, shops, and tourist attractions like the Olympic Park and famous castles like Neuschwanstein. Be sure to check out the pictures on the Internet portion of this letter.

I also traveled to Seattle, WA, on a business trip to Boeing, my customer with Goodrich. I flew out four days early and spent some quality time with a college friend. I love Seattle and the Northwest! Of course it rained the entire time I was there, but I still had a blast. I rented a Toyota Solara and probably had a little too much fun zipping up and down Mt. Rainier. I also got a VIP tour of Boeing’s production lines for the 747 and 777 aircraft.

Work. Let me divide this discussion into two sections: pre-November 14th, and post-November 14th.

Pre-November 14th: This portion of the year found me at Goodrich as a project engineer on the main and nose wheels of the Boeing aircraft 777-200LR and 777-300ER. I had awesome folks plugged into key areas of my program and I had my portion of the program in tip-top shape as qualification testing approached. In addition, I had enjoyed going the extra mile by creating multiple company-wide databases for managing part information, design-revision changes, and time/cost metrics for all new programs. Also, I had negotiated free tires for qualification with American and Japanese companies and saved the company $134,000. As a "thank you" for this cost avoidance, the company gave me a $10,000 bonus!

Post-November 14th: As you all are aware, the aerospace industry has been hit hard due to September 11th fears. As a reaction to the market, Goodrich laid off 2,400 folk worldwide. In the same breath as presenting me my $10,000 "thank you" check, they included that I was chosen to participate in the involuntary lay-offs. Wow! What an adventure that announcement started! Many Goodrich folk have been very encouraging and I have few worries as I look forward to my future with a new company. I totally believe God has a plan in all this and I trust Him to see where He’ll take me. If I didn’t believe that, I’d probably be a basket case filled with worry and anxiety. I have begun my job-hunting process and expect to have some interviews in January of 2002. Stay tuned!

Friends and Family. I still have an awesome group of friends from Goodrich. We’re always getting together for dinner, movies, or trips here and there. To wrap up 2001, I’m heading out to Colorado to ski with three other guys from Goodrich. I am definitely thankful for my friends.

My parents still live in Columbus and I enjoy getting home to visit periodically (and eat good food!). Our family has also continued the "Grandma Days" family vacations. During these, I’ve been able to see extended family, my grandmothers, and my brother Chris, his wife Brenda and my little nephew, Mark! My nephew is so ADORABLE!!! We have so much fun together; I think that’s because we operate at the same mental level. Again, I am truly blessed with wonderful family.

2002! Amazingly it’s already 2002. I remember when we were all waiting for the year 2000 to come! My goodness, how time flies. In closing, I bid you all best wishes for the New Year. Don’t make too many New Year’s resolutions that you can’t keep (like getting your Christmas cards out in early December). Also, take a moment to reflect on the real reason for Christmas - the birth of Jesus. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

PS. Remember to view the pictures at http://www.stevehandel.com! Who knows, you may be surprised to find out YOU are featured!