Happy 2006 |
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December
2005 Dear Friends, With the end of another year, we are back to share with you some special moments in our lives during 2005. |
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Lucia and Mauricio in
Salvador (Bahia), Brazil |
Lucia reading
in Natal, Brazil |
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Sasha at the beach
in Fernando
de Noronha, Brazil |
Alec back in Rio in
July |
Mauricio at
Sancho Beach, F. de Noronha, Brazil |
Sasha and Alec are
constantly changing. If you saw them one year ago and see them
now, you will surely see the changes. Sasha will be 18 on
December 31st and Alec turned 14 on August 3rd.
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Sasha's 2006 yearbook
photo |
Alec on day of 8th
grade graduation |
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Sasha on Junior Prom
day |
Alec at soccer
tournament in La Grange, NY in May |
Sasha on Junior Prom
day |
This was an important year for Sasha. It was the year that she chose where she could potentially live during the next four years. Sasha will start college next September. Her current plan is to major in political sciences and then go on to law school. She took an SAT prep course from September of last year to March of this year and took the SAT in March and June. The prep course was very helpful! Sasha made several trips during 2005 to get to know potential colleges. In February, she traveled with Mauricio to Massachusetts, where she visited the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (where Mauricio's dad got his Ph.D.) and Boston University and Northeastern University in Boston. | ![]() |
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Sasha in Amherst in
February |
Sasha in Harvard in
February |
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Sasha at Boston
University in February |
Sasha with Kim in
Orlando in March |
Sasha in Harvard in
February |
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In March, Sasha traveled with Mauricio to the University of Florida and in April, again with Mauricio to California, where they spent one week visting UC Berkeley (where Lucia and Mauricio got their PhDs), UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego. In Florida, Mauricio and Sasha spent a day with George, Linda, and their kids Kevin and Kim in Orlando. In California, they were with Mark and with Silvia and Joana in Berkeley and Renata and Mafé in Silicon Valley. | ![]() |
Sasha at the U. of
Florida in March |
Sasha at Berkeley in
April |
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Sasha and Mauricio in
Santa Cruz, California in April |
Sasha with Joana in
Berkeley in April |
Sasha talking with
Lucia from Santa Barbara |
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Sasha in Venice
Beach, California in April |
Sasha in Westwood,
Los Angeles in April |
Sasha in La Jolla,
California in April |
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Sasha at UC San Diego
in April |
Mauricio in La
Jollla, California in April |
Sasha in La Jolla,
California in April |
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In September, Mauricio and Sasha visited the University of Delaware, and in October, they visited the University of Connecticut and once again the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Finally, in November, the whole famiily accompanied Sasha to the University of Maryland in College Park and Georgetown University in Washington D.C. We spent a day with friends Telba and Ilan in Maryland. Sasha also applied to Rutgers University, the University of Texas in Austin, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor without visiting them. |
Lucia, Alec, and
Sasha
at the U. of Maryland |
Alec, Mauricio,
and
Sasha at the U. of Maryland |
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Sasha and Alec
at U. of
Maryland |
Lucia, Alec,
and Sasha at Georgetown University |
Alec and Sasha
at
Georgetown University |
This year Sasha got
her driver's license and now drives all around. Since August she has
been working two or three days a week as a waiteress. We've been
to her restaurant and
can attest that she is indeed a good server. In May Sasha had her
junior prom. She was beautiful. Of the seven courses she is
taking as a senior, three are AP (advanced
placement) level and may count towards college credit. Even
with the heavy school load and work, she still finds time to go out
with friends during the weekends. She usually gets home minutes
before midnight, when the driving curfew for under-18s starts. |
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Sasha driving ... |
Danger! |
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Alec
started High
School in September. He is witnessing through
Sasha's college application process how good grades in high school
matter. He takes three honors-level courses, a pretty heavy load
for a high school freshman. His 8th grade
graduation in June was followed by a big dance. In
May, his
8th grade class took their class trip to Washington D.C. Alec
continues playing guitar and even joined a band this year.
He took to Lucia when it comes to music. Like his mom, he plays
very well by ear but wants no formal musical education. |
Just kidding.
Sasha is a good driver. |
Sasha ready for high
school graduation in 2006 |
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Alec on vacation in
Brazil in July |
Alec graduate in June |
Alec at graduation
dance in June |
In travel soccer,
Alec continues playing for the Torpedoes, where Mauricio is an
assistant coach. This year the team traveled to La Grange, NY to play an
elite-level tournament during two days in May. The boys had a lot of
fun and ended up in third place (we took a last minute goal in
the last game and let the second place spot slip away). In the
Fall, the Torpedoes lost five players and did not do so well. The team
lost all but once match and was lowered from Primier to the National 1
division. Alec also likes to skateboard and doesn't seem to mind
the cold NJ winter temperatures. |
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Alec with Lou
and Maria at June graduation |
Alec and the
Torpedoes in May |
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Mauricio turned 50 on
July 27th of this year. To celebrate, we decided to travel to place we
had always wanted to go to: Fernando
de Noronha, an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean off of the
northeast coast of Brazil. We took the opportunity to take along
Holmdel friends Linda
and Boaz with their son Adam, Alec's long-time friend. They
had never been to Brazil. We spent four days at Pipa Beach in Rio
Grande do Norte, five days in Fernando de
Noronha, and four days in Salvador,
Bahia. We
also spent a morning in Recife and
Olinda. In Rio, we once again stayed at the Logoa apartment of friend Silvia from
California.
We also spent a few days in Itaipava
at Mauricio's mom's place, where we were with nephews and nieces
Thomas, Dominique, Alexia, and Gabriel, as well as friends Jayme
and Andrea, Patrícia and Gustavo, Betty and Johnny, and of
course, the host Renalva. |
Alec skateboarding in
Itaipava (Brazil) in July |
Mauricio and Alec
with the Torpedoes in November |
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Lucia
reading poolside in Itaipava, Brazil |
Breakfast in
Itaipava |
Colors of
Itaipava |
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Sombra e
Água Fresca Inn, Pipa, Brazil |
Mauricio with Boaz in
Pipa, Brazil |
All of us in Pipa,
Brazil |
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Lucia enjoying the
Pipa sunshine |
Alec and Adam after a
mudbath near Pipa, Brazil |
Off to see turtles
hatch in Noronha in July |
The vacation was perfect. Pipa and Fernando de Noronha are places you need to go to. | ![]() |
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Fernando de Noronha
in July |
Fernando de Noronha
in July |
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Fernando de Noronha
in July |
Mauricio turning 50
on July 27th in Noronha |
Sasha and Alec
in Fernando de Noronha in July |
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Lucia continued
beading strong in
2005. She took part in two street fairs and broke all sales records.
She made her first online sale to someone who independently found her site on the internet. From
mid-year on, Lucia turned into an architect, designing several
remodeling projects for our home. The first project was a new front
entrance and walkway. The second, still underway, is the remodeling of
the master bedroom bathroom. And next year, there'll be more! |
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Alec snorkeling in
Fernando de Noronha in July |
The new entrance
at 27
Dimisa Drive |
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Our new walkway |
Mauricio
as an archeologist in Santorini, Greece |
Santorini,
Greece |
Lucia and Mauricio survived
another year of cuts at AT&T. In
less than five years, AT&T cut its workforce
from over 150 thousand to under 40 thousand. In
November, AT&T was finally acquired by SBC, another
telecommunications company. With this, we expect
that the cuts will end. The new company will continue to be called
AT&T and has over 150 thousand employees. Lucia
can still work from home and, once again this year, she was able
to work from Brazil after our vacation and the return of Mauricio and
the kids to New Jersey. Besides the trip to Brazil in July, Lucia
visited her parents in January and traveled to Rio in May to be with
her dad during surgery. |
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Mauricio over mouth
of volcano in Santorini |
Mauricio in
Santorini, Greece |
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Mauricio had a lot of
work-related travel in 2005. Besides the trips within the US (a
conference in
Maryland and two visits to the University of Florida to work with Panos
Pardalos), he took part in PhD thesis defenses in Montevideo, Uruguay
(February) and Belo
Horizonte, Brazil (December), and international conferences in
Santorini
(Greece),
Maceió (Brazil), Vienna, and Camerino (Italy).
Mauricio took advantage of these trips to reunite with old
friends:
Leininha, Roberto, and Lili in Maceió, Tuffy and
Tânia in
Gainesville, Celso,
Angela, Paola,
Leonidas, and Simone in Santorini, too many people to enumerate
at MIC2005 in Vienna,
Márcio and Mara (friends from the Berkeley era), Luciana, and
cousins Marco Aurélio, Eliana and Mariana in Belo Horizonte, and
Patrícia and
Isabella, Jayme and Andrea, Christine, Geraldo, Gilberto, and Angela,
João Lauro,
Adriana, and Lélio, Abílio and Anna, Adílson, ...
in
Rio. |
Mauricio saw the
sunset from this café in Santorini |
Santorni,
Greece |
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Mauricio in Vienna in
August |
Vienna in August |
Vienna in August |
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For Thanksgiving, we made dinner
for over 25 friends. We ate Maria's crab casquinha, Valeria's turkey, Maria
Luiza's leg of
pork, Patrícia's ham, and a shrimp bobó,
also made by Maria, not to mention all the desserts. We don't
know how much weight we gained that
night. |
Camerino, Italy in
September |
Camerino,
Italy in September |
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This year we had several visitors. Carlos from Oklahoma and Paola from Italy in January, Lélio and João Lauro from Rio in February, Renata from California in September, Lélio again in November, and Lucia's cousins Maria Luiza from nearby in New Jersey and Alexandre from São Paulo for Christmas. |
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This year, our Christmas tree received the magic touch of Lucia's cousin, Maria Luiza. During the Thanksgiving weekend, she designed the new tree and helped Lucia set it up. |
A snowless 2005
Christmas |
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Finally, in 2005, Mauricio completed another long project: the book Handbook of Optimization in Telecommunications, edited by him and colleague Panos Pardalos. The book has over 1100 pages, in 37 chapters written by 79 authors. The project took over three years and the book will be published in February of 2006 by the German publisher Springer. | ![]() |
Christmas tree |
Cover art of
Mauricio's new book |
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We
truely hope you have a happy and healthy year's end and that 2006
be a year full of accomplishments. And, most important, that
Brazil once again wins the FIFA World Cup in Germany! Kisses and hugs, |
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