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Sunday February 13, 2000
About three months ago there was something arrived in the mail that I wanted to save. I wrote SAVE on a post-it note and attached it prominently to the item, so that it didn't get caught in the recycling, then tossed it on the cluttered kitchen counter. The item that it was to save was directions to a museum for kids. When the day came to make the trip, I pulled the SAVE note from the item, headed out the door with the directions, tossing the post-it note back onto the counter. Since then, the SAVE post-it note has reappeared no less than three times having attached itself to something else that it thought should be saved. No one would throw it, or the item attached, away, because it was marked SAVE. It took me until this third time to realize that no human intervention had attached it to its current host. Such is the immortality of a post-it note on which someone has written SAVE.

Sunday, December 19, 1999
It's been too long not to have some news. I have no excuses except lack of time. But forget the headlines for the moment and please read our 1999 ThomasLand Christmas letter.

Monday, September 27, 1999
Parents often debate on the propensity that a child has toward the arts or engineering, for example. Sometimes these debates are put to rest for us, but leave us with conflict not knowing what to do with the child that excels in both areas. Gregory has been a champ at taking things apart ever since he removed the heating vent and cast his unwitting Noah's Ark passengers down its dark canyons. So much for the engineering side of the beast, but then I suppose engineers must also excel at putting things together. We're not there as yet. But as if to put an end to the eternal conflict, Gregory decided, this past weekend, that his bedroom wall needed a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine emblazoned on it in Crayola's best. Luckily www.crayola.com has tips on removing any of its products from a variety of surfaces. This was good because it allowed us to focus not on the artwork or the problem of how it would be removed, but to revel in the fact that our first-born is a multi-talented nightmare. Did I say nightmare?

Saturday, August 14, 1999
We're watching the email from the East Coast where my Mother checked herself into Bryn Mawr Hospital for observation and tests this past Friday. Our prayers and well wishes go out to her. It's a beautiful day in San Jose and it's winter at Happy Hollow Zoo where they've trucked in 40 tons of snow for the kids that never see snow without going to Lake Tahoe. We arrived a bit late and decided to head to the Children's Discovery Museum instead. In case you wondered, our Gregory is 2 years, 9 months and 24 days old and our Spencer is 11 months, 15 days old today. That means that it's almost time for a first birthday party for the little guy. It will probably be someplace that we can hose down. Gregory's third birthday party is planned for The Jungle where he and his friends can crawl through tubes, dive into plastic ball pits and eat pizza to their hearts content. Gregory's friends from his pre-school will all be there and it should be quite an event to watch for in VideoLand in late October.

Sunday, July 18, 1999
My father, Melvin Roy Thomas, would be 90 years old today if he was still with us. On this beautiful Sunday, we think fondly of him and the wonderful times that we had together. Donna, Gregory and I have some kind of stomach bug today. If that hadn't been going on for a few weeks, I probably would have blamed it on my trip to Mexico City last week. This is a beautiful time to visit Mexico City, which is built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the ancient Aztec capital. The daytime temperature is in the mid-70s with almost no humidity, few clouds and no smog. Despite our two day business meeting, we were able to tour Chapulltepec Park, the Plaza de la Constitucion (aka the Zocalo) and to dine at the 17th century La Hacienda de los Morales. Chapultepec Park is the largest open space in Mexico City, spreading out around the base of Chapulin hill upon which sits the castle built in the mid-1780s by Viceroy Bernardo de Galvez. The Zocalo is where the Halls of Monteczuma and the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan once stood. La Hacienda de los Morales is an ancient building, which has been transformed in an elegant restaurant with bars and banquet rooms. "Los Morales" means the "place of white mulberries". Visitors enjoy the scenic beauty of its gardens and the colonial architecture. To learn about Mexico City visit http://www.go2mexico.com/mexcity/ for tourist information or surf to http://www.haciendadelosmorales.com/ to experience La Hacienda de los Morales.

Sunday, June 27, 1999
There were lots of folks in Sacramento this week that thought that they had found the largest model railroad on the planet. The over 35 steaming engines were not just on display, they were moved amidst the throngs of spectators like O gauge in the basement at Christmas. That's something completely enthralling that I hadn't expected. Lest we forget where the toy trains came from, here's a bit of scenery from Railfair '99. Imagine, if you will, several thousand people milling around a crosswalk between a steam calliope as it played adjacent to the Sacramento River, a high-speed Talgo passenger train, Hollywood-veteran Sierra Railway #28 puffing and kids scrambling onto Thomas the Tank Engine, when you hear the unmistakable baritone blast from something very large accompanied by a clanging warning bell. The crowd splits, as if by Moses, and the largest operating steam engine in the world, #3985, slowly powers by within feet of you en route to its latest display station nearby. Then imagine that you're on the river walk adjacent to the Sacramento River cooling off from the hot Railfair sun. You hear that same announcement of motive power in motion and you look up to see the spectacular #4449 Daylight moving a crippled #844 into a display station behind #3985 and #3751. You can see the unmistakable sunlit prow of #4449 in profile through the trees as she decouples #844 and moves ahead to align with the viewing stairs. As you walk toward the California State Railroad Museum Foundation roundhouse, you realize how lucky you were to be upwind of #844 when she burst a pipe [Thursday] and embarrassed herself by burning her engineer, then coating most of the downwind people, trains, displays and everything else with black oil droplets. But before you felt too sorry for the audio crew that was cleaning the oil from their console before the next performance, you realize that the group that was going to sing at the stage is now standing at the front rails of GP9 #5623 instead! And before you felt too sorry for the folks at Daylight Sales whose tee shirts had a new found realism, remember that they were worth far more with real #844 oil as a souvenir. And, you might even envy the folks who had attended Thursday's "Race of the Shays" [yes I said Shay races] knowing full well that they would not be needing any additional sunscreen for the remainder of the day. Lots to tell, but pictures are worth a thousand words. Kalmbach Publishing offers its sneak preview at http://www2.trains.com/trains/railfair99/railfair99.html and ThomasLand has an extensive Railfair Gallery available on our Main Entrance page by clicking RAILFAIR GALLERY or at http://www.thomasland.org/railfair

Tuesday, June 22, 1999
The largest gathering of operating steam railway engines in the world in 8 years is underway in Sacramento, California. Now that our family resides on the left coast, as you might guess, we're packing up everyone and we're off to Railfair '99 soon. For information on Railfair, just surf to www.railfair.com although their web site only hints at what is in store for the true train aficionado. On the kid front, Spencer is growing more every day and beginning to walk very well. He's adorable, but then you would expect me to say that about a 9, well almost 10-monther. Gregory is 2 years and 8 months and is as cute and antagonistic as any boy his age, I guess. He's loving one second, then tears something apart the next. We'll keep 'em both anyway. We have to. Who else would we show all of these marvelous trains to?

Sunday, June 13, 1999
It's almost Summer in Silicon Valley and the weather is beautiful once again. Work has been extremely busy with me working from 7:00A-8:00P on many days. Hopefully this will pay off soon! The kids, Gregory and Spencer are doing just fine. Gregory starts pre-school on July 6th for 6 weeks so Mom will have a bit more free time. Spencer is navigating the house in the walker that we purchased for Gregory, so walking is not far beyond. Mom somehow keeps the house in tact and makes sure that everyone is fed, too well sometimes. Dad is looking at cars again, so it may be toy time again soon.

Sunday, April 4, 1999
For years we have had difficulty distinguishing grandparents to our children. Not only are there three sets of grandparents, enough of a challenge, but we have two grandmothers with the same name. I have finally solved the grandmother naming convention as follows ... Dorothy Atz will hereafter be known as Mom-Mom-Dot-COM and Dorothy Miller will hereafter be known as Mom-Mom-Dot-ORG. This agrees with the Internet convention of using the COM designation for commericial establishments, for example Mom-Mom-Dot-COM works at Bevans. And it agrees with the ORG designation for public service organizations, for example Mom-Mom-Dot-ORG attempts to take care of Ike, a thankless public service to be sure. Happy Easter from Gary, Donna, Greg and Spence!

Sunday, March 21, 1999
The dogwood trees were right. Spring is here and with its arrival have come warmer days, blue skies, rain showers and the rainbows that they bring. I just returned to San Jose after being chased by snowstorms as I attempted to depart northeastern cities. For the first time in four years, Donna and I have managed to actually park a car in our two-car garage. If you are familiar with California homes, you will share in our happiness. What drove us, so to speak, to just-in-time Spring garage cleaning was a series of six car burglaries in our neighborhood. Apparently someone feels that he or she has the right to break our car windows and take whatever he or she deems of value therein. The police, of course, do what they can, but short of hiring a full-time security guard or installing outdoor surveillance cameras, there is little that we can do. We are at the mercy of these creatures. The irony is that if he or she had decided to start his or her string of car-terror earlier in the Winter, I might have wound up with my car in the garage during the winter and had to do less frost-chipping. Hopefully he or she will contain his or her interests to just cars, eh?

Sunday, February 21, 1999
The weather is starting to hint of Spring, finally. You might think that we lived in Fargo, North Dakota, to hear the folks in Silicon Valley complain about how cold it was this year. Ten degrees can really make a difference. We're just not accustomed to chipping ice of our windshields here. The kids are doing fine. All of us had a short-lived cold, which I take as a good indicator of something. They say that no news is good news and in this case, there sure isn't much news, so everthing must be just fine!

Saturday, January 16, 1999
It's unseasonally cool and damp in San Jose this year. Gary and Gregory have colds. Spencer is 12 lbs. 12 oz. as of his 4-month check-up and doing fine. He is beginning to sleep through the night several times each week. Anyone who has experience with newborns will know how welcomed this is. Spencer is much more active and much more aware at this age than was Gregory. We are speculating as to why and what lies ahead. Meanwhile Gregory is communicating much better and surprising us with comments about things that we didn't think he understood. Donna is bleary-eyed from trying to keep up with the rest of us. January is ripping by as Januarys usually do. Christmas decorations are coming down little by little. Happy New Year!