We are switching the annual reporting time to the Gregorian Calendar; not only because Olivier Faugeras (Tuan's advisor) pointed out during a visit in March that it was an improvement over an astronomical flaw of the Lunar Calendar, but also because we cannot wait to tell you the news of the year. On September 22nd, our son Minh-Dan was born. Although Lanchi's belly appeared bigger this time, it was still a surprise to everybody that he came out at 9.4 lbs (4.2 kg), and already equipped with teeth. You can check him out at http://www.terragalleria.com/family. He confirms his "Jumbo Baby" status with such a voracious appetite that Lanchi has the impression she had to to spend all her waking time giving him the breast. At less than three months, he fits perfectly in 6 month baby clothes. Tuan's mom arrived in August, to share the first months of Minh-Dan's life. She is particularly appreciated by Minh-Dan, who is very happy when he is talked to and would respond with a bright smile, follows by a string of babbles. In the first weeks he seemed uncomfortable in this world, for which maybe he was not ready, as his birth was induced (after 1 week overdue). He opened his eyes just a tiny bit, and cried each time he was touched. Now, he cannot be handled enough, and often demands it with his very loud voice. Vi-Van, 18 month old at the time of Minh-Dan's birth, found it difficult to get used to sharing her mom. After she had accepted that Lanchi would frequently hold Minh-Dan for feeding, she grew more attached to her dad, and would start crying if Tuan held the baby. Bedtime was particularly taxing, as Vi-Van would not go to sleep without her mommy at her side, but mommy had to feed the baby, who would start crying once Vi-Van starts crying (or vice-versa). It is rare for everybody to be asleep before 1.30am. As she becomes cuter and prettier every day (see web-page referenced above), Vi-Van also becomes more capricious and whinny, particularly since the arrival of the baby. Indeed, the first word that she learned was "baby" (besides "huh-oh", which doesn't count). At this time, she knows an eclectic collection of a dozen of words in two languages, in approximate order of acquisition: fish (in Vietnamese, go figure out), grapes (in Vietnamese, a favorite food), bye-bye, nuk-nuk (her indispensable pacifier), juice, blanket (in Vietnamese, the other indispensable item), apple, mommy, monkey (in Vietnamese), go down (in Vietnamese), candy (in Vietnamese, much preferred to real food), daddy (at last). Despite listening to French CDs and watching French cartoons, so far the only "French" words she knows are the name of the DvDs. One area where she is very good, though, is for climbing. Before she started to walk, she learned to go up and down the stairs, and now she can pull a chair to climb on any table or counter, even balancing herself on a rocking ottoman. This, combined with her physical agility, gives great hopes to her daddy for a brilliant climbing career. Last year, Lanchi was re-hired by her company, Argonaut Technologies. In April, the whole company was acquired, and like most employees, Lanchi lost her job a second time, like two years ago, when her whole department was dissolved. Because of her pregnancy, she chose to go back to being a stay at home mom, which she found out to be even more demanding, especially when the two babies start crying at the same time. Vi-Van can rarely play by herself, so she wouldn't let her mother surf the web for rare orchids for more than a few minutes. With nobody to car-pool with, Tuan further reduced his hours at SRI, barely staying above the minimum of 50% needed to maintain benefits. Despite producing virtually nothing significant or even worthwhile for the entire year, he still collected a couple of company awards. He focused more efforts into the terragalleria.com web site, and further improved his position on the web as well as the business. Just replying to inquiries (3000 emails sent), learning how to haggle licensing fees (specially with various divisions of National Geographic) preparing digital files and prints, improving the site's infrastructure (which is not visible to users, but makes running the growing business more efficient) and adding new material left him no time for other projects such as the long-awaited National Parks book. Although switching to digital photography opened more possibilities and provided higher image quality than 35mm film, unexpectedly, it did not result in time savings, quite the opposite in fact. Besides requiring more rigorous asset management (this translates, among other things, to running a dozen external 250GB hard drives), digital images (often duller and flatter than scans) also require more image editing. Selling photography on the Internet is a bit like hunting birds by shooting randomly in the sky. It requires a considerable amount of traffic, since the ratio of buyer to visitor is only a tiny fraction of a percent. We always appreciate any links you can give to us if you operate a blog or web site. In any case, as a friend or family member, we would like to offer you again free access to our desktop wallpaper images. The new username and password is "friends2006". With the new family demands, Tuan executed just two photo expeditions. Despite having already decent coverage of the desert, he had to go to Death Valley for what many described as the best bloom in recorded times due to an exceptionally wet winter. The surprise, though, was that most of the Valley, normally bone dry, was flooded and became a lake several miles wide. After driving to other desert areas, he returned at a spot where he had made a mental note one week earlier by the water's edge, and set up his camera in the pre-dawn darkness. When the sky lighted enough to see clearly, he realized that the lake had dried out. In July, after being stranded for months, Tuan revisited the Canadian Rockies, where previously he came to climb frozen waterfalls. He found out that in the Summer, with their snow-free, beautiful turquoise blue lakes, the region is even more deserving of their reputation as the grandest wilderness area with easy access in North America. In April, we flew to Hawaii for our family vacation. We spent the first week in a time-share apartment in Kapaa (centrally located) on the island of Kauai. Being the oldest of the islands, Kauai has the most dramatic landscape carved by a longer history of erosion, and is also less developed, which normally makes for the best opportunities for hiking. But weighted down by Vi-Van and Lanchi's pregnancy, we couldn't explore very far. During the second week, we stayed with Lanchi's uncle on Oahu. Vi-Van just began to walk, and loved the warm water and beaches, which in general were more sheltered from the surf than Kauai's. Despite repeated efforts, only on the last few days of our stay, did Vi-Van allow her grant uncle to hold her. Upon our return, Lanchi coordinated a large home remodeling project that took more than one month. The kitchen and all three bathrooms were redone, as well as the carpeting and new paint. During the reconstruction, we still had to live in the house and had to navigate around the dusty and messy place. We were finally ready to welcome our new baby, and even managed to find a name for him (although we haven't settled yet for a translation) before going to the hospital. We wish to you and to all your loved ones a year 2006 full of happiness, health, prosperity, and success, and hope to hear some news from you. Tuan, Lanchi, Vi-Van, and Minh-Dan (+1) 408-223-8419 3159 Ravenswood way, San Jose CA 95148, USA