Christmas 1999

Dear Friends & Family,

In lieu of our traditional Christmas letter, we figured the arrival of Y2K was a worthy excuse for a New Year’s epistle. Not to mention we didn’t get it written in time for a pre-Christmas mailing. So, Happy New Year!

1999 zoomed by at warp speed.. A year ago January 4th, the new novel by Eric and his friends David George and Armin Shimerman hit the bookstores and quickly became the best-selling Deep Space Nine novel in the Star Trek fiction series. In February, Eric, David & Armin did a couple of book signings, including a blow-out extravaganza at the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas where the trio signed for several hours and were lavished with leather jackets, food, drinks and an all-expenses-paid weekend with their spouses at the Las Vegas Hilton. It was a blast and a good time was had by all.

In March, Eric joined his boss, Michael Piller, on a business trip to Chicago to attend a national marketing conference. Eric’s plane touched down at O’Hare just minutes ahead of a blizzard which blew through the windy city and made for a cold, but interesting weekend. Eric stayed with his friends John & Victoria (and their baby Alec) and had a nice visit before returning to sunny Southern California.

In April, friends Dave, Ali & Kim were in town from England to celebrate Dave & Ali’s 25th Anniversary. We also managed to keep busy with several Star Trek events, including the final Wrap Party for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which concluded it’s seven-year run on television in 1999. At the end of the April, Eric’s sister Stacey and her husband Marc were our guests. Marc’s brother Greg, his wife Vicki, and their two kids were able to join us one day for a backyard BBQ.

In May, we cashed in some frequent flyer miles for a trip to South Devon, England. We stayed with magnificent people – the Moorins -- who live in Torquay. Although we went to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary, it was they who showed us (and other U.S. guests) a grand time in their beautiful country – with daily tours and sightseeing to local attractions, several castles – even the port of Plymouth where the Pilgrims sailed to America. The countryside was, as always, breathtaking. It was a wonderful, wonderful trip and we enjoyed every minute of it. Especially the Devon cream tea. Debra also had the chance to score a couple hard-to-find Beanie Babies and pick up some mini-Beanie Babies thru a U.K. McDonald’s promotion.

Back home in Santa Clarita, we hosted another backyard BBQ at the end of May to celebrate Debra’s friend MaryAnne becoming a U.S. citizen. In June we had several more opportunities to enjoy our new backyard with a variety of BBQ and pool parties with various groups of friends. At the end of June, Debra received her 5-Year Service Award from Providence St. Joseph Medical Center. On the 4th of July, we both walked in the local parade to support U.S. Congressional Candidate Sid Gold. Eric is a member of Gold’s campaign staff for November 2000. At the end of June, Debra’s friends Linda and Angie were in town and we got to have a nice visit with them.

Eric spent most of the summer working at home -- telecommuting via email -- while his boss, Michael, made the transition to independent Hollywood producer. In other words, Michael opted not to renew his contract with Paramount Pictures and left the studio to establish his own independent production company, together with his son Shawn. The new company is called Piller2. The dynamic duo recently signed a two-year, multiple project development deal with The WB Television network which includes five TV pilot scripts and at least one guaranteed production. In September, Michael purchased his own office building in Hollywood. Eric has been charged with the day-to-day operation of the new business, and the various television projects have kept everybody busy. Later this month, major renovation and remodeling begins on the new building to convert it to a state-of-the-art production office.

In August, we became Aunt & Uncle to Zachariah Hamilton Cogswell, born to Eric’s sister Stacey in Eugene, Oregon. We were able to fly up September 3rd for a weekend visit with our new nephew and the proud, but exhausted new parents.

In October, we embarked from Los Angeles on our annual Cruise Trek adventure. This year we sailed south to the Panama Canal. Our Mexican ports of call included Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Zihuatenejo and Huatulco. Next we sailed to Guatemala with a stop in Puerto Quetzel where we opted to join an excursion to the northern jungles of Guatemala to visit the ancient Mayan ruins at Tikal. The ruins were amazing and we had a wonderful time until it was time to return to Puerto Quetzel and our rattle-trap aircraft wouldn’t work. We had to wait for hours in a jungle airport (guarded by soldiers toting machine guns) for replacement planes to arrive from Guatemala City. When they finally arrived, they looked like something left over from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, but we reluctantly boarded the so-called “aircraft” and began our long, death-defying journey back to the cruise ship, which was now 2 hours past it’s departure time. It was dark outside and we soon found ourselves in a thunder and lightening storm and our tiny plane was tossed around the sky in the severe turbulence. The pilot didn’t speak English. There was no flight attendant. We all thought we were goners. But after a while, we cleared the clouds and volcano peaks and could finally see the lights of Puerto Quetzel in the distance. We had been told earlier that the airport there had no runway lights, so we were concerned how the pilot intended to land in the dark. We were relieved to discover afterwards that the Guatemalan military had lined the runway with coconut shells filled with burning oil. It was an amazing and memorable trip. The rest of the cruise was anti-climatic by comparison. The next day we sailed through Golfo Dulce along the coast of Costa Rica. The day after that we sailed through the Panama Canal. Our next stop was Cartagena, Columbia. And after two days at sea avoiding hurricanes, we arrived at Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas where we spent a relaxing day at the beach. The next morning we completed our 15-day cruise at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Before flying back to Los Angeles, we had a few hours to visit with Debra’s parents who had just arrived in the area for their winter solstice away from Canada.

In November, Debra attended an oncology conference in Salt Lake City. Upon her return, we attended the Eurythmics concert at the brand new Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles (to be featured this year as the site of the Democratic National Convention). Deb’s parents arrived just before Thanksgiving for a three week visit – their first trip to California since Debra graduated from college. They performed all sorts of handiwork around the house and helped us finish projects we’ve been meaning to do since we moved into the house! It was a very nice visit and we had a chance to decorate and celebrate an early Christmas before they headed back to Florida (via Las Vegas). After we saw them off at the airport, we went out and bought a new car – a model 2000 Nissan Altima! On December 16th, we went to another concert at the Staples Center – this time to see the Divine Ms. Millennium (Bette Midler) in a warm-up to her New Year’s Eve event in Las Vegas. On December 24th, we flew to Eugene to spend the holidays with Eric’s family -- Zach’s first Christmas. December 26th, the entire family was together for Zach’s dedication. All in all, a wonderful conclusion to a wonderful year.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Eric & Debra