February was quite a busy month.
Miriam and Geoff engaged
First off, on the 9th Geoff got down on one knee in the middle of a romantic plaza in Mexico and asked a comfortably seated Miriam if she would marry him. Apparantly her response was to rub her hands together with glee, say yes, yes, yes and give him a big hug. She is now wearing the diamond ring he offered her as an earnest of his intentions. Congratulations, Geoff and Miriam. We now have two engaged couples in the clan.
Thirty-five years married
On Valentine's Day Ingrid and I went to a dinner dance put on by Marriage Encounter in Toronto. This doubled as our wedding anniversary celebration which came up the following week - 35 years. At the dance Ingrid and I won a raffle for the first time since coming to Canada over ten years ago - a basket with 2 bottles of wine plus some rather nice chocolates.
Stephen - quarter century milestone
Judith came home for Reading Week on the 15th. It was a pretty busy week for her and she even managed to get in some study "reading". 
It also worked out well with the timing of Stephen's birthday because it meant that the whole clan could get together for this quarter century celebration when, at precisely 16:00 on the 22nd Stephen crossed the line from the side where he was closer to twenty over to the side where he is now closer to thirty years of age - a moment of deep existential angst for Stephen which he now seems to have accepted with the maturity that comes with such milestones.
It also worked out well with the timing of Stephen's birthday because it meant that the whole clan could get together for this quarter century celebration when, at precisely 16:00 on the 22nd Stephen crossed the line from the side where he was closer to twenty over to the side where he is now closer to thirty years of age - a moment of deep existential angst for Stephen which he now seems to have accepted with the maturity that comes with such milestones.AUER House concert with Greg Klyma
Last night Ingrid and I went to an AUER House concert with Greg Klyma. Friends of ours, George and Monica, have taken to hosting house concerts featuring talented young singer song-writers in their home. We have been to four of these and really enjoy meeting these musicians, hearing the stories behind their songs, watching them play their instruments mere feet away from where you are sitting and, of course, getting them to personally autograph their CD's. Ingrid chickened out of repeating a friend's request to Greg to personalise the autograph to "Hard Kisser", the title of one of his songs...
Layoffs at work
On a more sombre note, this last week was extremely difficult at work where five colleagues were laid off due to the downturn in the economy and pessimistic financial projections for the short-term. Two of these good people had been working for the company since before I joined ten-and-a-half years ago. One of the things that I found particularly difficult was knowing that these were good, competent, hard workers. Once upon a time that was sufficient for one to be pretty confident about keeping your job but that is something that has changed in the last few months.
Wet basement
Our other negative for the month was that our basement took in water from the spring thaw and rain three times in the last four weeks. Two of those occasions coincided with Ingrid taking a day off from work - days which she had planned to use for things other than lugging a carpet wet-vac. We had been advised that we may need to rip up our back deck and reslope the ground at the back of our house. However, on the occasion of the last "flood" I had opportunity to examine the outlet from a rain downpipe that leads under the ground to a point lower down in our garden. There should have been water pouring out of there but there wasn't even a drop coming through. I am hoping that by redirecting the runoff from that downpipe I will avert future basement flooding and am now actually looking forward to the next warm downpour (temperature today around -13 Centigrade before the windchill.)
Viva The Sharks! Viva!
On a positive note I'm pleased with how my rugby team, The Sharks, have been performing in the Super 14. I should hasten to point out that the rest of the family support the Lions... Ja, well, no, fine.
