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  Jean
Lives Her Dream
in Twelve Angry Women
Jeannie Beth was excited to be
called back after auditions and even more delighted to
be cast as Juror #9 in the SPU fall production of Twelve Angry Women.
The play ran for eight performances
(including the dress rehearsal) and Nancy made it to six
if these!
Jean played the eldest juror, aged
72 we were told. She wore a gray wig and sat as
one of three jurors with their backs to the audience
most of the time. It was good she had her back to
the audience because she made a very attractive senior
citizen. Her skill as an expert knitter was put to
good use as she continued to knit throughout each
performance. She provided a turning point in the
drama as the first juror to change her vote from
"guilty" to "not guilty."
Hers was not one of the few major
parts, but she was very happy to be cast in the play in
this her very first college quarter. She speaks of
backing off from choir next year to make room for more
drama.
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Nathanael's 9th and Final
XC Season Comes to an
End
It was a beautiful cold day in Spokane at the 2011 NCAA
Division II West Regionals. Nathanael ran his
personal best with a 10K time of 33:23, and I cried.
I didn't want it to end. Nate had given us so much
joy over so many years, and he went out in great form.
The SPU men finished 6th in the GNAC championships and
were not ranked in the top 10 in the NCAA West Region.
Their top runner, freshman Jordan Wolfe, was injured and
did not race at Regionals. But the Falcons ran
their best race in years and captured 7th out of the 17
teams from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana,
Hawaii and California. Their top 10 finish was due in
big part to that fact that their 3rd through 6th place
runners finished less than five seconds apart.
Nathanael (6th for SPU) kicked past a number of runners
to finish a half step behind teammate Will Harrison.
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 There is no advantage in Cross Country to
passing your own teammate. Nate finished
65th out of 123 runners, but 8th place Humboldt
State's 4th, 5th, and 6th runners finished in
70th, 71st, and 72nd places. Nathanael did
his job, "bumping" their 4th and 5th runners,
and SPU scored 246 to Humboldt's 249, and 9th
place UC San Diego's 252. SPU's 7th runner
did not finish, so Nate's 6th spot was vital.
Nathanael's race was not as picturesque as his
2nd place finish for SPU in Bellingham in the
snow last year, but he proved his value to the
team.
With his fourth varsity
letter in Cross Country, Nate will receive
another award at the Spring SPU All-Sport
Banquet.
I am so proud of him, and
tears came to my eyes, at least briefly; once
just before the start and again in mid-race.
My photos again appeared on
the SPU athletics web site and in The Falcon
student newspaper.
The SPU women came in 5th in
GNAC but also did great, finishing 6th out of 24
teams in the West.
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7565 46th Avenue SW
Nears a 'For Sale' Date
We continue to empty 7565 and for a few
hours we reclaimed a bit of our living
room (right) before we unloaded another
van load into that space (lower left).
The rest of our living room is still
full of junk (below right.)
The old house is now receiving furniture
to "stage" it. It will go on
the market in early December. Its
new door and many other upgrades give it
nice curb appeal.
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A Commitment
to Another Season
I've chosen to
continue my Wrestling photography for
BCS. But I've only committed to
the home matches this year. Each
year I wonder if this will be my last.
But it's no big chore to cover five
events
between December and February.
Whether or not I
continue in 2012-13 will depend much
upon how my work is received by the
team. In 2010-11 I felt like I got
more encouragement from coaches at
schools like Nooksack Valley than from
my Vikings.
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Thanksgiving at
Susan's
Nathanael's room- mate
Nathan joined us at Susan's this year.
Nancy's slow cooked turkey was well received but
my garlic mashed potatoes were judged too rich
for the plain tastes of the Rutherford clan, but
I loved them. Tom and Annie joined us via
Skype.
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 My Day Job has Me Hopping
This quarter we hired Daniel
Hallak in September to help with our new Master
of Arts in Social and Sustainable Management
degree program (MASSM), a one-year graduate program for
students with non-business undergraduate
degrees. In mid-November, we hired Thomas
Lane as Operations Coordinator for our Center
for Integrity in Business. And, alas, also
this month Lindsey Peterson announced her
departure for another position at SPU, leaving
her role as our Associate Graduate Director.
The work for me into late November has been constant and demanding.
We did manage to put on our
annual Distinguished Speaker Series luncheon
with the regional head of JP Morgan Chase.
Fortunately, no Occupy Seattle protesters showed
up. As usual, I was responsible for
preparing the event website, the online RSVP
system, the nametags, the post event online
evaluations, and at the event itself, the
lighting, audio, and of course the still
photography (above). We seated nearly 300
for lunch.
This month I handled the
academic advising load for Drs. Deming, Kierulff
and Schlee who are all on sabbatical this
quarter. I taught a third session in the
BUS 3620 Management of Information Systems
class. I redesigned the web site for the
MASSM program and launched it, and at the end of
November I'm starting once again on the big job
of scheduling 24 professors and adjuncts for
three graduate programs, three majors, three
minors and various other classes in daytime,
evening and weekend courses for all of 2012-13.
I had already prepared the summer 2012 schedule.
The dean and the two associate deans make a lot
of decisions and assign a lot of work, but on
matters academic, much of the actual work falls
to me. Perhaps only half of my actual
duties fall under "technology."
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The Sacred Sounds of
Christmas
Jean sang in the Women's
Choir in Benaroya Hall at the 12th annual
Sacred Sounds of Christmas concert.
Carols are often slow and
there were long pauses between each song as the
various directors replaced one another.
Benaroya Hall is a beautiful
venue but at least one member of our party had
"obstructed view seating" as Jeannie Beth was in
the first row of her choir and stood behind the
harp!
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Bits and Pieces
 We
finished 2 Thessalonians in Bible study in
November and will be at Psalm 82 in December. A two week
break for the holidays will get us to 2012 where
I will lead the men through the minor prophet
Joel.
Now what possessed me to buy a Nikon
28-200mm 3.5-5.6 AF-D lens, manufactured 1998-2006,
when
just last month I bought a
Nikon 24-120mm 3.5-5.6
AF-D? Except for the increased telephoto
range of the newer purchase, they are very
similar. This lens was $500 new, so my
winning eBay bid of $135 with free shipping
explains a lot. My older 80-200mm and best
70-200mm are also quite similar (although the
70-200mm is lightning fast for stopping sports
action). The real reason I was still
looking as lenses was that I won yet another
eBay bid the week before. For $575 I purchased a
second Nikon D300! I love my first D300,
but it has nearly 130,000 shutter clicks on it
now with an average life of
shutter 150,000. I've
been watching the D300's on eBay and they've been
generally selling for over $800. But this is
a well
used one with 68,000 clicks. 
It does come with
a useful off-brand battery grip. It will be my
 backup and if the shutter fails on one, I can
use the other while I get the shutter replaced. For wrestling, either lens should do fine, but
for Track & Field, I can leave my 70-200mm on
one and something shorter on the other. I
knew I would get a better backup camera than a
D70. I'm delighted for one under $600.
Nancy is my default model now that Jeannie Beth
is away at school. I always test a new
lens when it arrives. And I tested the new
(used) D300 earlier. Everybody is happy
when Dad starts his Christmas baking early!
Note on Nathanael: At SPU it's "no-shave November."
My own comment at a recent staff meeting:
"I don't mind giving blood. I'm happy to
do any public service I can do lying down."
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