Coach Joseph

Chuck is a high school teacher and this year he also happens to be coach of the sophomore basketball team! The school has a varsity team, JV team, sophomore team and a freshman team (sports are big) so his guys are just starting to reach full man size and they are not quite sure what to do with all that body mass yet. I went to their game on Friday and his team won 62-24... it was all about the coaching!

Bonfire on the Roof!

L to R: Timmy, Kimmie, Paige, Chuck, Christine, Dan

Dan's friend Christine was in town from DC for the weekend. It has been raining all week but the weather cleared up this weekend so she got a taste of the California sun! And, of course, no trip to Manhattan Beach would be complete without some time spent up on our roof so we had a bonfire last night.

Payne's Prairie Preserve

So the responsible thing to have done this weekend would have been to stay home and do some of the bazillion things that don't get done during the week HOWEVER dashing off on the spur of the moment to bike the Gainesville Hawthorne State Trail (which skirts around the edge of Payne's Prairie Preserve), tromp around Micanopy and have a beer at the Yearling while listening to Willie Green do his blues thing was oh so much more fun.... okay, so maybe between the tromping and the blues-ing Dada and I only covered about half of the 32 mile round trip but in our defense we were somewhat "equipment challenged"... Next time we'll do the other half. Promise.

Peace, Love and Hairspray

The coldest Tampa night in memory (32 degrees!) and I'm at Stageworks Theater's Tie Dye Black Tie event in a minidress... am here to assert that in such conditions dancing becomes a survival technique. The evening was a blast (thank you Jim and Cristina for including me) and huge money was raised towards the new theater!You can only imagine what this looks like this morning.... the ozone may never recover...

Breckenridge with Jason and Dani

L to R: Jack, Dani, Gabi, Nate, Jason, Paige, Chuck

Chuck and I spent New Years in Breckenridge Colorado with some of Chuck's college friends, Jason and Dani. Jason is from Colorado and his grandparents have a house in Breckenridge which is where we stayed. This was my first non-spring time ski trip and it was COLD. Jason and Dani are getting married this summer in Italy so the next time we see them we will be much warmer!

Julie and Jeff at Lake Tahoe

It was a wee bit chilly at the top of the mountain. And, given that I was still recovering from pneumonia and Jeff from Bronchitis....our ski days were a little short. We were happy to make it to lunch time each day. However, we are now officially in Redfield Training Camp - along with Paige - in preparation for our February Montana Ski Trip. Paige and I have promised to be in as good shape as we both were last year for our Deer Valley trip! Challenge On!