Garith (Engineering, 2002) and Amy Helm (Laboratory Services, 2002) enjoyed a 16-day Panama Canal cruise from San Diego to Tampa, FL in January. Ports included Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Colombia. Highlights were an open-air tram through the rain forest in Costa Rica, the walled city in Cartegena, Colombia and, of course, the transit through the Panama Canal while enjoying "Panama Rolls", coffee and the sunrise.

Bill Simecka (Engineering, 1989) is the new vice president of the Performing Arts Club here at Sun City Anthem. He also still helps out back stage for the performances. Bill is also a member of the Billiards Club.

Sue Simecka (Engineering 1983) will be dancing two numbers in the upcoming show in May. She now has a dance teacher on board at Sun City Anthem that teaches two days a week. Sue's dance class group is called, "The New Age Dancers." Sue loves dancing and finds it to be challenging and great exercise to keep in shape. She also makes her dance group's costumes.

Bill and Sue are going to Los Angeles in April to celebrate Bill's 77th birthday with his youngest son and Sue's GREAT-Grandson, who all share the same birth date!

Sue enjoys continuing to be the lead anchor on Channel 99, which takes up a great deal of her time with interviewing, writing and editing her weekly program segments.

Joan Gigliati (Engineering, 2004) has been a volunteer for the Valley Humane Society doing office work (answering phones, computer entry, etc.) for several months now and enjoys it very much. She works about 8 hours a month and they are very flexible in scheduling time around her busy "retirement" schedule. They are always looking for more volunteers to help in the following areas: dog handlers and fosters, cat fosters, cat care and comfort, office and administration, fundraisers, special events and public relations, Pet Therapy, Paws-To-Read children's reading program, Just-Like-New medical fund, and more! If anyone might be interested, they should contact Wendy McNelly, Operations Director, VHS at (925) 426-8656. They do such good work and any little bit of help in any way is so appreciated. Joan has also recently taken a quilting class with five other ladies, including Jane Olson (Mechanical Engineering, 1993).

April's Retiree luncheon will be at noon on Wednesday, April 19th at the Elks Lodge in Livermore, 940 Larkspur Drive. Our speaker will be Linda Barton, City Manager for the City of Livermore. The title of her talk is simply "Eminent Domain".

The Travel Group meeting is Tuesday, April 25th at 2:00 p.m. in the Community Room of the Livermore Police building, 1110 South Livermore Avenue. The topic is "Western China and Mongolia" by Miles and Jackie Loyd.

Please send any news or input (please include the date and department from which you retired) to Jane or Gus Olson. E-Mail: Jane@LLNLRetirees.org or Gus@LLNLRetirees.org.