BCS Wrestling sent only one wrestler to State this year, senior Tyler Erme.  And this year I did not go to the Tacoma Dome.  Tyler went 1 and 2 and was out of the tournament on Friday.  I earned $125 again for shooting the top three placers at the 1A Regionals at BCS.  This may be my last year doing this though, since Bellevue Christian will switch to the Nisqually league down south and may not host the Regionals again.

  I prepared the BCS 2012 Track & Field web site and also, after two years, finally finished the "Top Ten" web site.   The whole reason I began my BCS sports photography so many years ago was because Coach Larry Royce had asked for a BCS Track & Field Hall of Fame.  With the help of friend Bruce Fremd collecting statistics from the coaches, I joined his stats with my photos and design ideas and now the site is done — until someone new breaks into the top ten in some event.

   Our other pet is "Momma One-eye." She is a most faithful visitor and our house is literally her house.  Nancy built a big bird house a few years ago and attached it high under the eves on the east side of the house.  The squirrels made their home in it — not the birds.  Some photos of Momma One-eye show that there still is something of a left eye, recessed in the damaged eye socket.  Perhaps because of her handicap, she is more dependent on us and thus more willing to approach us, and even step into the house from time to time.  She certainly pays no heed to the cats.  I'm sure If I had the time to devote to her (and I don't), I could train her to climb into my lap.

  A President's weekend shopping spree to remember:  We were just taking a walk to Bellevue Square and Nancy wanted to look for a sofa.  We had agreed for years on what we wanted in a "new" sofa —  something we could vacuum under and had a 1700-1800's style to match our Ethan Allen dining room.  We went through four stores and were walking toward a fifth when we saw that the old Bartell Drugs on Bellevue Way was now Estate Interiors, a consignment store for some classic used furniture and accessories.  It had been in downtown Bellevue for half a year and we hadn't seen it.  We got there only six minutes before it closed at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.  But we spotted a nice sofa and decided to check it out in detail when they opened at Noon on Sunday.  When we returned, we found that the sofa was a real Ethan Allen and we claimed it for $895. (It's similar to this one in style.)  But we weren't done.  I was looking at desks and settled on a classic Chippendale style desk for $995 similar to this one.  And finally, we spotted a 6' sofa table/console (left) that was a close match to our other furniture.  It was discounted to $650,  we managed to fit all three pieces into the van.  Now we really have to find room for this new treasure.

  On Saturday morning, we will be at 1 Peter 2 at the start of March.  There are eight to twelve of us who meet weekly now.  Who would have thought that I would lead this group since 2000 after being such a silent member of it for the first five years I was a part of it? We have retired medical doctors, engineers, a public school principal, a recently retired banker, two Microsoft managers, and others in the current membership.

We paused our trip through the Psalms after Psalm 89.  There one finds the answer to the question of Matthew 8:27.  "What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"

O LORD God Almighty, who is like you? . . .
You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.  — Psalm 89:8a,9

  Prayer:  How often we pray last instead of first.  Nancy misplaced the level.  She asked me to fetch it from the mud room where she'd been putting up shelves.  Not there.  Try the tool closet.  Not there.  So she came downstairs from where she'd been working (on JB's bedroom door) and searched everywhere I had searched.  Then (and only then) did I stop to pray.  The exact answer came to mind in mere seconds, "It's in the living room by the wood stove where Nancy had hung a framed picture."  Thank you Lord.

 Annie spent nine days in the hospital and spent a total of four weeks away from the classroom due to her Typhoid fever.  She seems quite well when we Skype with her.  She says she goes back on March 2nd (Korean time.)  She promises a full report on her blog.