Greetings classmates!  I hope everyone has been well.  I’m reminded as of this writing that the last submission was not published in the magazine.  Your esteemed author missed the boat on getting it in on time.  I have updated the posts on our Blog site, www.kps94.org though so be sure to get updated there.

Nothing new with me on a personal or professional front – still kicking it strong being my own boss while surviving the slowdown in business.  Actually, things have been picking up during the first quarter of 2010 so good things are on the horizon.

James MacRitchie, Chuck Eaton and I partook in our annual and now, quite traditional “SausageFest 2010” with a ski/board trip to Jackson Hole, WY.   We changed things up this year by adding an extra day of skiing and got a few days at Grand Targhee along with some at Jackson Hole.  A great time was had as usual, less a “mis-borrowed” iPhone of mine that forced me to drop $500 on a new one – though the original was “returned” a week later to the hotel which I got back, and returned the replacement.  We’re already thinking of SSGFest 2011.

Getting on to a long overdue set of submissions . . . Tim Tran wishes a Happy new year to you all. I can’t believe it but I’ve been in the Bay Area for over 10 years. Eric Lindberg and I are re-starting up the Kings Point USMMA Chapter in San Francisco. In fact, we are organizing monthly meetings with the first one to take place on the Jeremiah O”Brien on January 26, 2010. Give me or Eric a call if you would happen to be in town and wanna join us.  It’s winter so I’ve been pretty active trying to get in as much snowboarding as possible. I’m also signed up for the ING Bay to Breaker in May. It should be fun. After that, it will be the San Francisco Full Marathon. My first time for a full so if you have any tips, I’ll take them.  That’s it for now. Hope to run into some friendly faces at the next reunion since I missed the big one in October last year.  Wishing you all success and prosperity in 2010!”

Mike Farrell wrote in after a long hiatus.  “I’m in Democratic Republic of Congo right now conducting port security assessments. I was able to get an internet connection and saw your e-mail (on one leg holding an antenna made of aluminum foil–lol!).  Doing fine here, minus mosquitoes and the heat. Family and I are still stationed in The Netherlands. I have been promoted to Commander and will be fleeting up to Executive Officer of the Europe office this summer. Kind of sad since this will be it for operational duties and I’ll be minding a desk from now on. Have not ran across many KP’ers in my work, but heard some delightful news about Wes Corbet from my Coastie colleagues working in Africa. Apparently he is doing well and has a good rep within the USCG…way to go Wes!  Missed the reunion but thought of everyone there. Hope it was a blast. Outside of being TDY a lot, family and I traveled to some neat places over the last year. Nestled ourselves in Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and France.”

Speaking of Wes Corbett, he did drop a line and a photo.  With the success he had implementing the “Master Plan” in both West and South Africa, he decided to move it to the Middle East.  He believes they needed the help.

Dan Forter is “extending my stay as a project manager for FPL in Wisconsin.  It’s a good job and is always interesting.  The winter wasn’t too bad, but Trish and I are definitely ready for summer!”  Congrats Dan!

Hans Rittinger dropped a quick reminder that he’s making Waves in Florida on his toy jet ski. Oh, he’s still making Power too at Florida Power & Light (I think Hans is working at FPL, yea?)

Rayme Lacy wrote in a nice update and has kept in touch with a lot of our classmates . . . “I am now working for Siemens as a Field Service Engineer on nuclear plants. We moved back to my hometown of Satellite Beach, Florida. My kids are now going to my old schools. Chuck Gardner will probably be my daughters math teacher next year. Over spring break we meet up with Jeremy Dehaii and his family at Disney World. We both were staying in the campground in our RVs. We spent a few hours with them at the pool. Nick Morgan and family are coming down the first few weeks in June. We are going to spend a week with them sneaking beer into the water parks. Nick likes coming down that week because it is national gay week at Disney. If anybody is going to be down there at the same time look us up.. Next year we are going  to have a KP reunion at Disney during the same week. So far my family is in, the Morgan’s are in, and the (Aaron) Buckos are in. We are working on the (James) Desmet’s as well. All are welcome!”  Nick, we never knew!

Thanks for the submissions!  I have updated our “MIA List” of missing email addresses on our website, www.kps94.org/MIA

Be sure to join our Facebook group “Kings Point Class of 1994” Till next round . . . ~Blake