On the 26th, mom joined the family and Don and Randy at Nathanael's end-of-season wrestling banquet. She enjoyed her evening out but remained tired.

But life for Jean may have changed for her on the 28th.  At 4:30AM Nancy and I got up and prepared to drive Jean to Swedish/Cherry Hill (where she'd first been taken back in early November.)  But this time she was going in to have a pacemaker installed.

A medical exam and the wearing of a heart monitor for 24 hours earlier in the month had convinced Dr. John Petersen (dad's heart doctor) that Jean really was due for a steady jolt.  Her doctor, Dr. Dennis Hom, ("Dennis the Menace" as she fondly calls him) approved.  Her heart rate was regularly in the 30-36 beats-per-minute range.  Just after the surgery Dr. Petersen told us it had even dropped into the 20s.  He seemed especially happy with the potential for mom's increased energy and a better life.  Her rate is now 60 bpm, bringing her oxygen level up to 100%. 

Her surgery was 8:30AM to 10:30AM on the 28th and I stayed with her in her room until 6:30PM.  That's when Nancy brought the kids by with flowers and took me off with them to see As You Like It at Taproot Theatre.

Most career and season records only date from 2003-04 when Coach Brandon Prior joined BCS.  Jason Pheling is a State Champion and wrestling legend at BCS.

I was especially proud of my COSTCO cake design.  The flags I made told of the 8 years that the BCS wrestlers had been named Academic State Champions, including all four of Nathanael's years on the team.

My 105 slide PowerPoint show entertained the wrestlers, coaches and families at the February 26th banquet.  It was followed by a 15 minute video I put together, from Nancy's recordings, of very brief highlights of each wrestler.

I wonder if I will have the desire to do this when Nate is at SPU.  Will I take so much time following BCS wrestlers around to matches?  But watching the large 7th and 8th grade class of wrestlers in practice -- at least right now -- I'm inspired to continue on in
support of BCS wrestling next season.

Doris is a running and coaching legend and a lady I greatly love and admire.

(From the SPU Falcon) SEATTLE (Feb. 19) - Longtime Seattle Pacific University cross-country coach Doris Heritage, a pioneer of the sport and the face of Falcons running for nearly 50 years, has announced her retirement at the end of the current academic year.

Heritage concluded her 30th season as head cross-country coach in the fall, guiding the Falcon women to a second place national finish at the NCAA Championships.  This was the highest NCAA placing in the program’s history, as SPU sophomore Jessica Pixler won the individual title.  During Heritage’s tenure she also served as a coach for the SPU Track & Field program.  Her middle-distance and distance runners have helped form the foundation of the nationally prominent Falcon track team, which she serves as assistant coach after having been head coach for six seasons in the early 1980’s.
 
“The joy of running has meant so much to me over the years, “said Heritage.  “It has been a pleasure to get to share this joy with the student-athletes at Seattle Pacific and make a meaningful impact in their lives.  It truly has been a special experience.”
 
Without a doubt the world’s premier distance runner during the ’60s, Heritage first honed her skills as a member of the Falcon Track Club, the forerunner to today’s women’s varsity.  Under the direction of Coach Ken Foreman, the then-Doris Brown set two American records before graduating from SPU in 1964.  Eventually she owned every national and world record from 440 yards up to the 3,000.

Heritage was named to the U.S. Olympic team in 1968 and 1972, taking fifth in the 800m at Mexico City. A last-minute injury prevented her from running the 1500m in Munich.  She won the silver medal (800m) at Pan American Games in 1967 and 1971. From 1967-71, Heritage won an unprecedented five consecutive world cross country championships, and raced on nine U.S. world teams in all. During her prime she won 14 national titles, and set a world record in the 440, 800, mile and 3000m. Still running in front of the pack, she won the U.S. Masters cross-country title in 1989.

Jeannie Beth Gets Her Braces Off

We already knew she was cute, but look out now!

Just in time for her High School acting debut, Jeannie has her teeth back.  She will be acting and singing in Bye Bye Birdie at BCS this May.

As you Like It

OK, I liked it.  But I was too tired to really get the most out of it.  I had a Diet Coke at intermission and that helped.  Taproot Theatre staged Shakespeare's As You Like It in the 1960's and the Forest or Arden became a sort of commune for the many pairs of questing lovers.  What struck me most was how much of "the melancholy Jaques" I see in myself.  He was humorous, but when all the lovers returned to their normal (now married) lives, he stayed in the cave in the forest.  Nathanael, Jeannie, Nancy and I enjoyed this play when mom was being cared for by the nurses at Swedish hospital on the 28th.

It may happen that I will "inherit" a course of my own in the business school.  I have proposed that BUS 4625 Organization's Presence on Net be revised to include a major web design project. It would give me a chance to focus on one area (an area of much greater interest to me than Statistics) and give me a reason to retain my "Instructor" title.  Dr. Ken Knight (who hired me in 1991) has taught this class and he retires this spring.  With real web design content the course may grow from 10 students last quarter to who knows how many.

The first site I plan to update will be my business SL8.com.  It's now embarrassing to have that site like it is and still call myself a web designer.