Dear Friends and Family,
We are grateful that this past year has been one of stability for Steve and Nancy, allowing us to be an island of peace in the midst of the sometimes-turbulent lives around us.
In May, Steve ended his two-year sabbatical by starting a new company, Seeq Corporation [link]. Seeq is developing software that transforms industrial process data from sensors and instrument systems into actionable business intelligence that companies can use to improve their business decision-making. Seeq has begun working with target customers to guide the development of the tool suite. Earlier this month one media outlet named Seeq one of the Ten Coolest “Big Data” Start-Ups in 2013 [link]. You probably have heard the term Big Data as a major trend in high-tech start-ups. Steve thinks he found an under-served, but capital-intensive market niche that has been clamoring for better tools. Keep your fingers crossed.
A small, select team of people work for Seeq in a virtual environment, meaning people can work from their homes. Seeq’s employees are spread over several states, and use a virtual office tool to interact on a daily basis. Every two months the team gets together face-to-face for a week of meetings. June was Marin County, August’s meeting was in Hood River, October’s in Fort Collins, and we just returned from the December meeting in Seattle. In February we plan to host the Seeq team here in Fountain Hills, AZ.
Nancy has continued to be active with the 99s Women’s Pilot Association, joining the Southwest Section at their meetings in Bakersfield and Sacramento this year. She also attended the annual International meeting in Bozeman, MT where she got to zip line for the first time, among other fun Western activities. Nancy has also stayed active with both her church in Hood River, teaching a Bible study over the summer, and also her new church in Fountain Hills. She recently hosted the ladies of that church for their annual Christmas breakfast.
Despite Nancy’s flights to her above-mentioned 99s event, this year we’ve not had the opportunity to fly as much as we usually do. We even had to skip our annual East Coast trip, and really missed our chance to visit with friends and family there. In August our TBM went into the shop for an avionics upgrade that was expected to take four to five weeks. Five MONTHS later, we finally have it back all in one piece and operating smoothly. We’re planning to do lots of flying during the winter months.
Rich and Tabitha are doing well, still living in Seattle. They came to the Gorge often during the summer to hike, bike, wind surf, kite board, enjoy their numerous friends, and sneak in some quick visits with us. We recently enjoyed their company over Thanksgiving, and plan to join them back in Hood River for Christmas.
Rich has been promoted inside Amazon and has worked hard on their Kiva warehouse automation project. Tabitha has joined Steve at Seeq as Marketing Director and Office Manager. She enjoys juggling the many roles ranging from HR paperwork, accounting, arranging travel, coordinating meet-ups and managing board logistics along with her graphic design and media relationship tasks. Although Tabitha joined Insitu when it was about 100 employees, she is on the ground floor with Seeq and is considered one of 10 founding partners. Steve is enjoying working with Tabitha on a daily basis and remarks how blessed he feels to be able to share the new start-up with his daughter.
Last year we missed several Christmas and New Year events due to Pixie developing a badly swollen paw, which the vets initially thought was cancer. Both she and Angel were eventually diagnosed with Valley Fever. They are both fine, but will probably have to take anti-fungal meds for the rest of their lives. Casper the cat is about 19 years old now but also continues to do well. He spends his days moving among his favorite sunny spots and snoozing. Interestingly we always just accepted that moving Casper from one home to another would be a chore, which included drugging, constant commotion from inside his portable kennel and several days’ recovery. This week we took him in our plane from AZ to WA without drugs and just let him wander about like the dogs. He found the best seat and snoozed the whole trip. We now understand all that racket was about equal treatment (or for the cat lovers amongst you, “royal treatment”).
We are still eager to have visitors, and are hoping the exceptionally cold temperatures up north this winter will entice more people to come enjoy the Arizona sun. Please let us know when you’d like to come, and we will book you a room!
With love and peace to you all,
Steve and Nancy
Pixie, Angel, and Casper
Sliwa 2013 Picture Gallery
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| Steve was elected to the Embry-Riddle Athletic Hall of Fame in Feb for his leadership (not for his basketball). It gave a good chance to visit Daytona friends including Coach Ridder & wife Vicki. | Kristi Garwood, son, and his friend visit last winter. Note the “Camp Sliwa” T-Shirts that Seeq business partner Brian Parsonnet commissioned for our AZ house. | |
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| We spent Canada Day in Vancouver WA with friends Peter and Gigi from Europe. We are planning a big trip with them in 2015. | Tabitha and Nancy get ready to go out for a dinner in Ft. Collins during one of our Seeq Weeqs [sic] of face-to-face meetings. | |
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| Nancy and best friend Marcie took several trips this past year in our TBM aircraft. |
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Picture of Steve flying the TBM along side a photo ship for some aerial shots of the TBM. |
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| Brother Dave and his daughter Andie flew Steve’s motorglider to the Annual Touring Motorglider Fly-In that Steve helps to organize. We went by TBM. | Tabitha and Rich enjoy mountain biking, hiking, and camping together. They are glad to be fully settled in the Pacific NW again. | |
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| The 5-month avionics upgrade (phase 2) is complete. Most of the analog dials, gauges, and instruments have now been replaced with digital versions. | Casper finally convinces us to get his own seat in the airplane and he’ll be fine. Here he is riding through turbulence. | |
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| Steve’s startup, Seeq, is gathering some momentum in the press. First software products will be released late next year. | Seeq is a virtual company with no facilities (yet). Teammates use an online tool that simulates the office environment. |
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