Henri Fankhauser (Chet Fankhauser's widow) made her annual visit to Wisconsin and it was pretty much the same as last year's -Chicago then Green Bay then a two-hour drive to her niece's home on 80 acres in the northeast corner of the state - most of it on two-lane state roads. There are occasional deer which may or may not remain beside the road, so one drives very slowly to be sure what they are going to do, on the chance of having the car totaled. The evening activities were Friday night fish-fry, Saturday night take-out Chinese, and Sunday morning going out for a hearty country-style breakfast. They reviewed family albums, sorted through boxes of records kept by her late brother, and got the facts on some long--gone family gossip. She returned after a short visit to her favorite college, Hillsdale in Michigan - then she returned home.

Margie Schmidt (Mechanical Engineering, 2004) and her husband, Randy, just returned from Sun River, Oregon. They traveled with Al and Carol Matthews who also retired from LLNL. The Schmidts will be traveling to Washington, D.C. on 9/2. It is their first visit and they plan to take in all the sites. They will be traveling to China in November with the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce.

Camille Minichino, (Engineering, 1990) has just completed a new 2-book deal for more miniature mysteries. She is currently doing a blog tour for the book that just came out August 5, "Mayhem in Miniature." She recently talked to the Castro Valley Rotary. If anyone is interested in a speaker for a book club or any other group, she is available!!

Apparently Ann Parker (Technical Information Department, 2007) just wasn't ready to retire quite yet. She's now working as a writing consultant for Cool Earth Solar, a solar energy startup company located right here in Livermore. Cool Earth was created by two engineers who worked previously at Sandia (Eric Cummings and Kirsten Pace). One of Ann's first projects was to update the company's website www.coolearthsolar.com. "I'm working with a group of very, very cool (pardon the pun) engineers who are involved in a neat technology. What could be more fun than that?" she says.

One of the most important issues for LLNL retirees is medical benefits. Currently, LLNS is working on the medical benefits plans for 2009 for employees and retirees. If these plans can be finalized in time for our meeting of September 17th (at the Elks Lodge in Livermore at noon), we have invited a representative of LLNS to attend our luncheon and share with us the available plans and changes for retirees in 2009. Should information on the medical plans not be available until after the September meeting, our speaker will be announced in the LLNL Retiree's Newsletter and on our website. Please make luncheon reservations at the website by September 13th.

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.