Hello Everyone!!

Season's Greetings!

Hello again everyone! Wow, has a year really passed since my last Christmas letter?!! Where does the time go! Well, first of all, I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And in French ... Joyeux Noël et une Bonne et Heureuse Année! And in German ... Frohe Weihnachten und viel Glück im Neuen Jahr! I sure hope that the old man in the red suit is good to everyone again this year!

School

You're never going to believe this news! Is everyone sitting down? Okay, then, well, believe it or not, I have finally finished school!! I turned in my M.Sc. thesis on October 4th, 1996, and we celebrated my graduation on November 21st, 1996. Wow, it sure is nice to be finished! The title for my M.Sc. thesis was "Aspects of Workload Characterization for Distributed System Models." It was 239 pages long! I'll include the abstract (summary) with this letter, in case anyone is interested.

I have been doing some contract web page work since graduating this fall. I'm working for the Computer Science Research Institute (CSRI) at the University of Toronto, and for the Canadian In-Line and Roller Skating Association (CIRSA). I'm also a teaching assistant for two sections of a 3rd year computer science course at the University of Toronto; the course is called, "Systems Modelling and Discrete Simulation."

My women's hockey web pages have expanded quite a bit since last year. I maintain about 250 different web pages now! The number of people who visit the web pages has also been increasing. At this time last year there had been 20791 different computers that had accessed the information on my pages since March 7th, 1995. Now there have been a total of 104254 different computers that have visited my pages!

I will be writing a column about my women's hockey web pages for a new women's hockey newsletter that is coming out in the new year. The name of the newsletter is "Women's Hockey : The Journal of Women's Ice and Roller Hockey in North America." You can get a free trial issue by sending your address to Women's Hockey P.O. Box 1007, Okemos, MI 48805-1007.

If you haven't visited my web pages yet, point your web browser to http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~andria

The above picture shows me hard at work on my web pages. I find it kinda slow typing with the gloves on though! This picture is from the Freewheel'n Canadian In-Line Skate Magazine, June 1996.

Last season was my final year with the University of Toronto Varsity Blues hockey team. It was nice to go out on a winning note, as we reclaimed the OWIAA championship with a 2-1 triple-overtime win over the University of Guelph! I couldn't give up the Blues cold-turkey though; so I am still going to a few practices this season to help out.

This year I'm playing for the Newtonbrook Panthers of the Women's Senior AAA Central Ontario Women's Hockey League (COWHL). I haven't started skating yet this season because of my recurring groin injury. It is improving though, so I should be able to start playing by the beginning of January. Thanks Nigel and Rita! The Ontario Provincial tournament will take place on the second weekend of February in Cobourg ... the winner goes to the Nationals in BC!

This year the 1997 Women's World Hockey Championship will be taking place in Kitchener in April. As I mentioned last year, I am unable to tryout for the National Team because of my injuries. I am volunteering some time to work on the web pages for the world championship.

On April 21st, 1996, I took a break from my thesis writing to fly to the University of New Hampshire for a weekend. I was inducted into the sports Hall of Fame.

I played a little Roller Hockey throughout last summer to relieve the thesis tension! We won the gold medal at the 1996 North American Roller Hockey Championship, which was held in Chicago during the last weekend of August!

I really should learn to keep my big mouth shut when those photographers are on the loose though!!! :-) This picture was taken during the Championship game in Chicago. It is from the "In-Line Hockey News : The Journal of Competitive Roller Hockey," November 1996.

I moved out of the U of T Graduate Residence at the end of October, since I could only stay there while I was a student. I am now living with Sue Ann Van Damme (a U of T and Panthers hockey player) and Kelly Nicholson. They're awesome roomies - it's fun! We're living in the penthouse (26th floor) of a huge apartment building close to the university ... it took me a while to get used to the height, but wow, what a view!!

My Mom, Dad, Leslie & Nancy are all doing very well. It's nice to see them a little more now that I've finished my thesis! My Mom and Dad are as busy as ever with the Hunter Farm Bed and Breakfast. Leslie and Nancy are still both living and working in Toronto. Some exciting news in our family is that Leslie and Bill Greene will be getting married on February 1st at our farm! Most of the wedding activities will be taking place on skates! It should be fun!

I'm still going out with Marc Ouellette (4.5 years!). He's busy these days as the statistician for the COWHL women's league, and as an assistant coach for the Panthers team! He is also working really hard on his Ph.D. thesis, and should finish up by November '97, and then, well... , we'll see!

Take care and enjoy your holidays! Have a wonderful Christmas and may God bless you and yours.

Love,

Andria ( Snipe / Taz / Dandy )

P.S. Click below to see a few magazine articles that I included with my Christmas letter...

• Article from The Observer, November 1996
• My Thesis Abstract, October 1996
• Article from The Toronto Star, October 16, 1996

URL:  http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~andria/andria/xmas/xmas_96_form.html