The new distance coach for the Menomonee Falls Girls Track team is Bryn Saunders! She is so excited. She came prepared for her interview in January with a full season workout schedule, so along with her recommendations from the summer camp program, they pretty much hired her on the spot. Bryn had to come in for a Meet the Coaches meeting for propective runners and many were really glad to see her in this position. Her first day on the job will be Monday March 4th. Congrats Coach Bryn! We're still waiting to see if Paige listen to all the encouragement she's received from her Powerpuff coaches in the fall and will join the team. Back home here we had to renegotiate vehicles, so Bryn can get back and forth from Carroll to the Falls everyday. Since I'm working from home more often, I'll probably be the one without a vehicle. But Paige is willing to take a ride to school, so that makes things easy.

Paige and AJ looked perfectly paired for the school's Turnabout Dance on Feb. 9th. We forgot all about getting AJ a boutonniere, but luckily the florist made an exception and we were able to order one that morning. The group of 6 had dinner at one of their homes and off they went. For 45 minutes. That's when the school called and informed us that Paige was ready to leave the dance. Apparently less than 50 people turned out and that's not too much fun. They went back to the house that hosted dinner and played games the rest of the evening.

Jeff headed back to Virginia Feb 11 – 14 for their last visit to a heart hospital they're working on to make sure all the equipment is working right and ready to go. Arriving in DC on an evening flight, the 3 co-workers were disappointed to find that their "sedan" from the rental car company was a Ford Focus. The 3rd guy had to sit sideways on their 3-hour trip from the airport to the hotel because there wasn't enough legroom.

It's been a year since Bryn's visited the podiatrist, but her right foot (the one that had the bunion) was hurting and it wasn't going away after 2 weeks. The doctor ordered x-rays and Bryn was relieved to hear that the bone was all healed and looked good. It was a tendon over the top she had strained, so she got new inserts to hold the arch and relieve the strain and prescription-strength naproxen.

Continuing my efforts to make my home workspace as ergonomically-friendly as possible (and to keep me out of physical therapy), I found a highly-rated Herman Miller work chair on Craiglist for a reasonable price. While Paige worked on Sunday Feb 17, Jeff and I drove to McHenry IL to pick it up. It's in great condition and sits like a dream. The ride was nice and we got to stop at Ferch's, an old-fashioned soda shop) for lunch on the way back. Next, Jeff's looking to install a cork floor because it's supposed to keep the room quiet and warm.

This past weekend was an eventful one. Abby was supposed to come home Feb 15 – 17, but she really wanted to attend a skiing night that Friday, so she postponed coming home til this weekend. Bryn even came home and spent Saturday day/night with her sisters. In the meantime, I had already committed to attending the Carroll Alumni Wine & Beer Tasting and had extended the invitation to some of my local fellow alums. That invitation spread and Laura ended up coming in from Rochester NY and Karyn from Winter Springs FL! Since we had people come from such great lengths we made extra plans to see each other. We had a wonderful dinner at The Melting Pot on Friday night. Karyn and Sue toured the Carroll campus on Saturday, which I bowed out of since Abby was home. And Saturday, of course, was the wine tasting. You should have seen us trying to sum up the past 25 years of our lives through chatter and pictures on our devices in just 2 evenings. I'm exhausted today. I even scanned a bunch of photos from our college years to chuckle over during our visit. I'm excited because I now have standing offers to visit NY and FL!