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Product complexity is one of a growing startup's many challenges. How can we offer users more without making it harder for them to find success using our product?
As a new product manager on what had become a convoluted Google Maps product, Andrew Ofstad was challenged with solving this problem, and led a product redesign with one core aim: Restore simplicity to the product without sacrificing capability.
Today Andrew is the co-founder and chief product officer at Airtable, a collaboration tool that make technical databases accessible and easy to use for less technical folk. It’s used by everyone from product and marketing teams to cattle farmers and filmmakers.
Writing software that is tied to hardware releases, like Android, is reminiscent of shipping a CD-ROM. It’s not like most other projects in software today where it’s iterative and you’re constantly shipping features, .
Prioritization is the most important thing you do as a Product Manager and to do it well you need a good mental model of what your users are doing with the product first.
The lesson of Google Maps in 2010 was that an ambitious team will keep building and shipping new features but at a certain point you need to take a step back and look at it with fresh eyes.
Airtable is trying to recreate the immediacy of products like spreadsheets or Maps where you can manipulate the data directly, but in something that has more structure like a database.
The danger of eating your own dogfood is that you can lose touch with how your customers are using your product which may be for vastly different use cases.
Adam Risman: Andrew, welcome to the show. Could you give us a quick rundown of how you got to where you are today and the problem you are trying to solve with Airtable?
Andrew Ofstad: I started my career at Google as part of the Associate Product Manager Program, which was started by Marissa Mayer. Basically they take new grads and throw them into the deep end as a product manager, so it’s a great opportunity to learn a lot quickly. My first project was Android. This was in 2009, when Facebook and Twitter weren’t interested in building Android apps, so the actual Android team was responsible for doing that, and I was the Product Manager for those two social apps. It was a lot of working with Facebook and Twitter, getting their assets and actually designing and building those apps. You do one year on a product and then you rotate to another one.
My second product was Maps. I was always really interested in geography and always loved maps, so I was super excited to work on it. From the ground up we took Maps and redesigned it. At the time, back in 2010, Maps had become super complicated. There were all these teams working on different features, and the mandate coming down from Larry (Page) and Sergey (Brin) for Maps is to organize all the world’s information, at least geographic information, and so there were a ton of information – maps, imagery, business information, street instructions, etc.
Maps had become really cluttered and complicated; it wasn’t a simple interface anymore, so we had this great opportunity. There was a team in Seattle that developed this new technology where you could actually render the maps in the browser using webGL, and this was a nice excuse to appropriate that technology and redesign Maps from the ground up. That was my project.
While I was working on that, I got the itch that led to Airtable. My friend Howie and I had always talked about doing a startup together, and I had always been interested in creative tools that let normal people do things that previously only experts or programmers could do. So I prototyped a lot of products where you could build web pages and simultaneously Howie had sold a company to SalesForce and was a Product Manager there. He saw that a lot of business tools were reinventing the wheel and becoming simple databases with some simple views and logic and workflow on top. One of the most important things he also saw at SalesForce was the ability to actually customize these tools to fit your very unique workflow.
The problem is if you’re adopting a business app, a lot of times they’re very rigid, inflexible, and you can’t really make them fit your very specific use case, so you’re either stuck with a very rigid application or you have to build your own and need somebody that understands databases to configure something like SalesForce for example. Or you need a programmer to build a custom app. The other side of the spectrum is just using something like a spreadsheet, which wasn’t really intended for being used for that use case and was built for number crunching and financial modeling.
There wasn’t really a tool where as an end business user, you could really build a good, internal application to manage a very specific process of workflow. We wanted to build something that was easy enough for anybody to use, and that’s where we aligned with Airtable. We started doing a lot of prototyping, built an initial demo, started showing that to people, getting a lot of feedback and refining that over time. We’ve grown the team and the product, and it’s been a good adventure so far.
Adam: You weren’t just with Android in the nascency of your own career, but in that of Android itself. Looking back at that experience, what sticks with you today now that you’re a founder yourself?
Andrew: There are a few things that made Android really interesting. You’re shipping software that goes along with hardware, so there are very tight deadlines where every six months you have all these carriers and partners expecting the next version of Android that they’re going to ship on their new phone. You’re tied to a hardware launch, which is a very rigid timeline. Compared to most other projects in software that we see today where it’s iterative and you’re constantly shipping features, you basically had to build like the old days when you were shipping a CD-ROM. That drove a lot of urgency, but also excitement in the team, when you are given this mandate to build this very ambitious new release and you just kind of have at it.
The other thing that really made Android interesting was the neck and neck race with Apple. I joined before the Droid was released, and that was the inflection point for Android. At the time it wasn’t really clear if it was going to be a huge success. There wasn’t a lot of adoption and it was right before an inflection point, so that urgency of competing directly with somebody also made things very interesting and made it a very fast-paced team to join initially.
Some of the lessons from that you can apply to any company. At any startup you’re racing against the clock and you only have so much runway, you always have competitors and you’re always fighting the status quo as well, so there is that same sense of urgency you need to convey. As much as you can take the actual urgency of what we’re doing and the problems we’re trying to solve for our customers and communicate that to the team that’s actually building the feature, he better it is as a motivator. It actually creates the same urgency you see in a very hard deadline on Android. We try to do that as much as possible and really tie the people that are working on the product back to the customer who are really demanding these features and really excited to see them.
Adam: What do those rigid deadlines teach you about prioritization, something that’s such a huge challenge for early stage startups?
Andrew: Prioritization is pretty much the most important thing you do as a Product Manager, and you obviously want to be working on the most important things that you can ship in a given time period. But it’s hard to figure that out before you actually start diving into it. It’s a matter of figuring out the bare essentials that you absolutely have to have and then stack ranking those. It’s also figuring out what trade-offs you can make – are there a few shortcuts for things that are less important?
The danger in that is that a lot of times, you can sacrifice a lot of quality product decisions – you throw things out that would make the product very delightful or otherwise would be worth the investment just to squeeze in these other few features that might not be used by most of the users. The first thing is understanding the use cases and having a feeling for that 80/20 split, where you know what people are doing with the product most of the time and stack rank the use cases. Figure out how to make the experience completely awesome for the 80% and then afterwards we can fit in the 20%. You need a good mental model of what your users are doing with the product first, that’s the prerequisite for any prioritization. After that, it’s all about making sure that for those experiences everything is really simple and really delightful and as high-quality as possible.
Adam: Speaking of making things more simple and delightful, in 2010 you moved over to Google Maps. What was the state of Google Maps when you got there?
Andrew: Google Maps in 2010 was a pretty amazing product. If you look back to 2005 when it launched it was also a ground-breaking product, because at that time everything was a full-page reload. You go to Mapquest and you press a button to move the map over and the full page refreshes. It didn’t have any interactivity. In 2005 Google Maps launches and you’re able to reach out and grab the map and drag it. You have this interactivity, which made it amazing. Even though it didn’t have the same feature set as Mapquest, it basically went beyond that because it was so easy and efficient to use.
Between 2005 and 2010, Google had invested a lot in Maps and added a lot of information to it – imagery, street view, business information, satellite view, all these aerial photos. The team had focused on getting a lot of information into Maps without rethinking the UI to accommodate all the different information. There were teams distributed between New York, Seattle, Mountain View and Zurich who were building all these features disparately. In a lot of ways it reflected the organization, where there are all these really smart teams doing amazing things and pouring these great features into Maps, but there wasn’t really a thought process around how they’re fitting into the whole.
Adam: So you have organizational complexity that’s essentially fueling product complexity?
Andrew: That was part of it, and it was a slow buildup to that complexity. It was like boiling a lobster. It was slow increments over time and nobody realizes if you don’t look at it with fresh eyes that this thing is really complex and cluttered. An ambitious team will keep building new features and keep shipping things, and that’s great. But at a certain point you need to take a step back and look at it with a fresh eye.
Adam: Walk me through your process in this unique challenge. Did you begin by paring things back or start from first principles?
Andrew: We actually started with first principles, which helped a lot. We had a great excuse to do that, which was a team in Seattle who was building a completely new way to render the actual maps. The way it worked before is we’d render these map tiles in the server and send them to the client as images. This team found a way to render the map directly in webGL in the browser.
We started thinking of all these cool things you could do with that. You could change the map every time you click it or you could show animations in the map. We could render the map however we wanted for any different search or context and make it interactive. This gave us an excuse to rethink Maps from the ground up around that new technology, and I think that helped a lot as opposed to paring down.
The other thing that helped is we didn’t say that on a certain deadline we’re going to completely eliminate the old Maps and replace it with a new one. That would have created the problem that every team starts flooding to the new Maps team to add all these new features and pretty soon you’re right back where you started again. So we had the existing Google Maps and we spun this project as the new Google Maps, which you can opt in to try. It was this beta thing, and that led us to keep it constrained to the most important use cases in the early days and build up the components that we needed to really make those use cases shine.
Then organizationally it helped because slowly you wrap in your other groups like the Directions team and it’s not like everybody piles on at once. It’s a slow trickle of people moving over to the new thing. It helped a lot for us to start with just a prototype and scale it up from there and slowly get more people involved and excited about it, as opposed to having a completely separate team, which just suddenly launches a product and replaces the old one.
Adam: As you’re getting more and more people involved, what types of constraints did you have to put in place to make sure this iteration of Maps didn’t get too bloated?
Andrew: Philosophically we wanted to limit ourselves to a few UI components. We wanted to make sure it was mostly about the map and not just a bunch of chrome around it. We really focused on that aspect and took a lot of inspiration from mobile apps at the time. We saw a lot of really simple design for complex products in mobile apps and we took that as inspiration for the web app that we were working on. It was taking the constraints that you have on mobile, like a small screen and then applying that to where you actually do have a lot of space. We wanted to create this simple experience that covers these core use cases really well and does it in a really interactive and efficient way for the user but make sure that we’re following these constraints.
You have to find the pieces of UI that are simple yet expressive.
The other important thing is as you’re designing this you have to look at all the use cases and over time think about how they’d fit into the larger pattern. You can’t just build a one-off feature for a very specific use case; you have to find the pieces of UI that are simple yet expressive. An example on Google Maps was the search box. It’s a very expressive thing where you can search for anything in the world and it should just pop up on the map, or if you do an auto complete, you can surface directions from that – keeping things contained to these expressive components. Imagery, for example, always reflects the current context of the map so if you search for something, the imagery would reflect exactly what you searched for.
We took a lot of inspiration from mobile apps where things are very contextual and you tap on something and suddenly the UI becomes about whatever you tap on. We don’t just show everything at once, which is a lot of what we were doing before – where you just turn on the map layer or the photo layer and there would be a ton of photos on the map. We wanted to make it contextual so every part of the UI always reflected the thing you were currently focused on in the context of the current map or search.
It takes a lot of discipline of being very intentional and stewing on a feature for a long time, running through the use cases in your head and then making sure you’re not trying to throw everything into it. Going back to building from the ground up versus paring down UI, it’s a lot easier to go from the ground up and make a really clean UI for something that’s very complex.
Adam: You mentioned taking inspiration from mobile apps at the time of this project, but today, what do you see as a model product that’s very sophisticated in terms of capability but has managed to keep their UI very simple?
Andrew: I was always into creative tools and I really like Sketch. Figma followed in their footsteps as well but if you look at the status quo at the time it was Adobe tools like Photoshop that were super complicated. You can do a million things with filters, image processing, etc, but what most people were actually using it for was designing web apps. Sketch saw that and realized that basically you’re just trying to design web pages, so you want the design tool to reflect what you can do in the actual medium, which is the web. They pared that down and made it contextual where you can select objects and the UI changes to show what you can do with that exact object rather than showing all the controls at the same time.
I definitely took inspiration from tools like Sketch in the Airtable days after Maps. Today I still think they’re doing a great job.
Adam: Looking at the work you did with Google Maps and what you’re doing with Airtable today, one of the biggest crossovers is that you have made the content the UI. What other lessons from your Google Maps experience did you apply as you got Airtable off the ground?
Andrew: We actually called that Maps project Tactile Maps, because we wanted users to feel like you could reach out and touch the map, click on the place, drag it, move it, etc. For Airtable, we wanted to make it about the data as much as possible. When we looked at other database tools out there like Access, when you first started with it, you’d have to go through all sorts of configuration, set up this schema, and do all this meta stuff around actually setting up something that you can put your data into. The reason people love spreadsheets is you can just pop it open, there’s a grid, and you just start entering information. You can easily, directly manipulate the data itself. You can bulk select, delete things, change colors, copy-paste, etc. There are all these ways that you can reach out and touch the data.
With Airtable we wanted to recreate that immediacy of something like spreadsheets or Maps, where you can reach out and touch the data and manipulate it directly, and bring that over to something that has more structure like a database. That’s one of the main lessons: making it as easy as possible to manipulate the data quickly and get down to working directly with information.
Adam: You mentioned the spreadsheet metaphor. With horizontal products like yours, which have such a wide array of use cases, how important is it to have a metaphor like that to communicate what a product can be used for? How has that helped as you’ve brought Airtable to market?
Andrew: Airtable is fundamentally a complex product and something that’s a bit difficult to wrap your head around without actually seeing it. The spreadsheet metaphor helps us a lot because when people see a grid they expect it to behave like a spreadsheet, and we support all of the things it can do.
One thing we’ve learned is being able to show the product in the context of data that the user actually understands goes a long way. When you’re starting in the onboarding flow of Airtable, we have you pick a few example templates, which are hopefully relevant to you, and then we show you those templates in Airtable. We show the grid, which looks like a spreadsheet, and people understand all the patterns they’re familiar with there and we support all those patterns.
But we also want to show the differences, which is one hard part if you rely on an existing metaphor. A lot of times people expect it to behave exactly the same, but when you actually show data, it communicates pretty clearly what’s going on. One of the main differences between Airtable and a spreadsheet is that each column is a specific type and each record is like an object you can expand out into a form. When people see columns of data that all look the same whether it’s a colored select drop down or attachment or text or link to another record, that helps to convey this is a grid like a spreadsheet and it supports all its interactions, but there are also these key differences that you should be familiar with. The data really speaks to that and lets you play around with it.
Adam: One of Airtable’s key use cases is product teams. Are you guys using Airtable to build Airtable? And if so what unique insights does that give you into your product?
Andrew: We use Airtable for everything from our product roadmapping to our marketing editorial calendar, where we we’re planning our next blog posts and feature launches, to tracking our bugs. Pretty much everything where we need to track something for our product development or marketing we use Airtable. In the early days we were just building the product for ourselves.
Adam: So you knew you were really solving a problem there?
Spend a lot of time talking to customers who have use cases that are far removed from yours.
Andrew: Exactly, so as early as possible we started using it for all that stuff. But there’s some danger that you lose touch with your customers if your customers are using it for vastly different use cases. It’s important that if you’re using it internally all the time to also spend a lot of time talking to customers who have use cases that are far removed from yours. We have everybody on the team do customer support rotations, where they’re talking to customers through Intercom, and it really drives a lot of innovation.
We have hack days and people always build the features they actually want to see in the product from using our databases, but it’s also important to make sure everybody’s exposed to everybody else’s use cases to make sure that we’re not just building it for ourselves.
Adam: As Chief Product Officer, are you still interfacing with customers at this point?
Andrew: We do a lot of big customer tours where we’ll go to New York or set up a bunch of things in San Francisco and go to one meeting after the other to see how people are using the product, where there are roadblocks and how we can help. I do a lot of that. It’s the main job of a product person to try to understand the customer and translate that into the most important things to work on next, so it’s definitely important and something that I always want to stay involved with.
Adam: You guys have over 30,000 companies using Airtable now. How did you get those first several? What were you doing on the front lines in the early days?
Andrew: In the early days we had a half-functional demo that we showed to friends and investors. We’d work on Airtable all day then the next day we’d do a bunch of user studies and show it to people and get thoughts. Our first real customer was a non-profit called ScholarMatch in San Francisco. My co-founder Howie had worked with them before and knew the Director pretty well. We were showing her a demo and she’s says, “We’re looking for a way to track all our students, donors and events.” They were looking at some sort of expensive SalesForce integration or building their own custom software. We showed them the demo and she asked when they could start using it. We’re weren’t really ready for that yet, but we set them up and they were our first customer.
It’s a really complicated product so it took us a while to get it to what we consider the V0, where it’s a complete product. Initially it was people who heard about us though Product Hunt or Hacker News or people we knew directly and it spread from there. Now it’s purely word of mouth. All these use cases where we’ve seen a lot of adoption, like video production and marketing teams, word just spreads within those verticals organically. It from pure enthusiasts who love the technology to people where it was solving a very acute pain.
Adam: Like a lot of horizontal products, you’re bound to have some very unusual or unexpected use cases. For instance, you have farmers tracking their cattle on Airtable. What’s the most unique or surprising use case you’ve come across, and did it teach you anything new or different about your product and its potential?
Andrew: That may be the most surprising thing, the number of cattle trackers that people have built. There’s actually a vertical piece software called CattleMax. It’s just a database app for tracking your cattle and everybody’s switching from CattleMax to Airtable now, which is awesome.
People use it for work, but they also use it for personal use cases and have a lot of really cool, unique things they’re tracking in Airtable. People will track all the characters from a comic book in Airtable and have these really cool images of it. We’ve seen everything.
Adam: Well with a spectrum of use cases, you’re going to get feature requests that are all over the map. I’m sure you’re saying no to more and more things everyday. How do you make sure that you maintain simplicity over time and don’t just become another bloated project management app?
Andrew: Especially on a horizontal product, from day one you have the problem of people asking for all these random things that if you throw it into the product, it’s going to apply to their very niche space, but it’s going to be clutter for everyone else.
We think very carefully before we build a new feature, and we have this concept of simmer features where for these big things we know we’re going to do eventually, we let them sit there for a while and we think about it and just keep it in the back of our minds. So as we hear more and more use cases from more and more verticals, we can see how they fit into that and figure out a way to take that set of use cases and build a future that is generalized enough to kind of adapt to all of them. So we take a long time to actually think through a feature if we know it’s going to be like a big component.
The other thing is building in a modular way so that for different use cases you can like add or remove pieces. One simple example is that in Airtable, you have columns in your tables. Each column is a different field type, so you can add any different field type you want and you can combine them in different ways and you have this combinatorial explosion of complexity, where you can customize and fit a lot of different use cases by adding different structure to the table.
Then we have this other modular concept of views where a view is a different way you can present that data, so you kind of have like your raw table with records, which are just configuration of different fields, and then we have different ways you show that. It’s these modular components you can combine in different ways and mix and match. Basically if you’re using our table for one case, you can use these five fields together and these two views, like a calendar view and a gallery view, but you don’t have to see a button for the map view and all this other stuff that’s not relevant to your use case.
We try to think in terms of expressive components that you can kind of mix and match into your own application. At the end of the day, we think of Airtable as an application builder. More and more we’re going to tackle different layers of that stack, where you can basically build like a full-fledged application. But there’s a lot of complexity in that so you have to build features that are flexible and generalizable but still have a cohesive metaphor behind them.


text: Diamond symbolises strength, purity and belief. It is thought to bring good fortune, prosperity and an abundance of spiritual energy to its wearer. Wear your Diamond Crystal bangle for courage and hope.

industry_corpus2: Others


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Dependable mini LED strings utilize durable construction and advanced technology to earn the trust of commercial installers across the country. Enjoy longer runs of light and easier installation using commercial LEDs, with water tight co-axial connectors to reduce maintenance time during the busy holiday season. Fully rectified full wave LED Strings are flicker free meaning you see consistent, brilliant amber light for a professional looking display.
25 Amber 5mm Commercial LED lights spaced 4" apart on green wire, 9.0' total length.

industry_corpus2: Manufacturing


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Richmond House School has been supported by our planning consultants in Leeds in developing proposals for a new early years building.
Led by planning director Stuart Natkus, the application includes a sports and performance hall, and reconfiguration of the existing buildings.
The school, which dates back to 1935, is an independent co-educational preparatory school for children aged 3 to 11 years and has operated for over 80 years from its site on Otley Road in Far Headingley.
Rachel Gillen, senior planner, explained: “Richmond House School is very well established and the proposals will allow the school to improve its facilities, providing a dedicated sports and performance hall and a new permanent early years building.
“The early years building will be a single storey unit that will provide space for a two-form intake of 18 pupils for Nursery and Reception and will include staff areas, cloakroom facilities and external play areas.
“The new sports and performance hall – which will also be used by the public – will incorporate a four-court sports hall and changing facilities and will allow year-round physical education which is currently weather dependent.
In December a public consultation event was held at the school featuring exhibition boards with visuals of the plans, details of the team and project timescales.
Helen Stiles, headteacher, said: “These plans represent a significant investment in Richmond House School.
“We’re extremely proud of the teaching and learning that takes place here, and having the best facilities possible is important to protecting that.
Halliday Clark Architects provided designs for the project.

industry_corpus2: Subject Education


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Do you plan to have a party with your schoolmates to celebrate a prom or ends-year and you are looking for a nice place close to the beach where you can have a good time and enjoy yourself for a reasonable price? Do you plan a school field trip or look for suitable accommodation for activities and trips in the surroundings?
Lipno and the Jenišov Camp is the right place to go. We can host smaller groups as well as larger school events. The Camp is well-equipped and very close to the beach and many attractions in the surroundings that are worth a visit.

industry_corpus2: Travel & Geography


text:
Merchandising articles from metallica.com, donttreadonaustria.at or any other Metallica related website will be posted in this section.
You are a new member in here? Well, just introduce yourself to other community members!


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Mounting Solutions: Toroid Mounts, Components Headers, Shielded Coil Forms, & Solderability.
By Dale Nicol, Micrometals Inc.
By Dale Nicol, Micrometals, Inc.
By: Jim Cox, Micrometals, Inc.
The purpose of this application note is to cover the properties of iron powder as amagnetic core material for inductors in switch-mode power supplies. The different considerations for DC output chokes, differential-mode line filter inductors, power factor correction inductors, and high frequency resonant inductors will be covered.
A brief overview will be given of the development of carbonyl iron powders. We will show how the magnetic properties of the iron affect inductor performance and will show, through example, how the physical size of a core along with its winding details interact to affect Q Vs frequency characteristics.

industry_corpus2: Power & Energy


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As the new Official Representative (OR) or Designated Representative (DR) for your institution, you are taking on some new responsibilities. Those include promoting ICPSR resources on your campus, insuring that ICPSR Direct is functional, and assisting data users in locating, downloading, and working with ICPSR data. If your familiarity with statistical software and data analysis is limited, fear not. You can focus on promoting ICPSR resources and helping users search for data of interest, and then refer users to individuals and resources on your campus that specialize in statistical software packages and data analysis.
View IP ranges requires password.

industry_corpus2: Math & Statistics


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I recently took a continuing education class about retirement planning. The instructor was super enthusiastic about a recent piece of research that showed that, based on historical data, retirees’ ability to safely spend from their portfolios would be improved if they followed a set of rules in which they dramatically adjust their asset allocation each year based on current interest rates and price-to-earnings ratios.
Personally, while I find such research interesting, I don’t think I’d be able to trust it if it were my own money on the line.
My qualms can be best explained by an analogy I heard several years ago (though I don’t remember where).
Imagine that we want to test whether eating various types of mushrooms improves health outcomes among people with pancreatic cancer. So we find 50 people with pancreatic cancer who are willing to participate in a study, and we find 50 different species of mushrooms. Each person in the study gets one type of mushroom, and they eat that mushroom everyday for lunch. Person 1 eats Mushroom A everyday, Person 2 eats Mushroom B everyday, and so on.
As it turns out, Person 17’s cancer quickly goes into remission, while he’s eating Mushroom Q every single day.
What does that tell us? Not a lot, really. Mushroom Q might be useful as a treatment. Or perhaps Person 17 was just a lucky individual, and it has nothing to do with mushrooms.
Fortunately for the sake of our research, mushrooms (at least the ones we’re testing) are harmless and not especially expensive. In addition, there are lots of people with pancreatic cancer. So we could do a study in which many people with pancreatic cancer are given Mushroom Q (while others are given a placebo), and we see what happens. In just a handful of years, we’d have a decent idea of whether this mushroom really has any effect or not.
Unfortunately, for two reasons, this type of research isn’t really possible for market timing strategies.
With investing, somebody can look at historical data and come up with a strategy that would have worked wonderfully in the past. This is like the first part of our mushroom research in which we test a bunch of different mushrooms. But we can’t go out and do a large number of simultaneous tests of the new strategy. For example, if we want to test how a certain market timing strategy affects likelihood of portfolio depletion over a 30-year retirement, we have to wait 30 years to get any new independent data points.
Part of what makes our hypothetical mushroom trials feasible is that all of the people involved can still get whatever medical care is currently considered to be the best for fighting their cancer (e.g., radiation, chemo, surgery, etc.). That is, the patients don’t have to bet their lives on mushrooms being more effective than chemo/radiation/surgery.
With investing, current conventional wisdom says that using a “strategic asset allocation” strategy is the best approach (i.e., an allocation that varies with your life circumstances but not with market indicators). You cannot simultaneously use that type of strategy and a “tactical asset allocation” strategy in which you vary your allocation based on your chosen indicator(s). It’s one or the other.
In other words, to the extent that you want to try out the new approach, you have to abandon the conventional wisdom approach. There’s no “chemo, plus eat some mushrooms” option here.
I recently came across an excellent article by Todd Tresidder discussing the many imperfections of the 4% withdrawal “rule” for retirement planning. In the article, one of the suggestions Todd makes is to incorporate market valuation levels (as measured by PE10) into retirement planning decisions.
Because using market valuation (most commonly measured as PE10) as an input in investing decisions is a topic that comes up fairly often, I thought it might be helpful to share my thoughts here on the blog.
PE10 is calculated as the current market price of the S&P 500, divided by the average of the last ten years of inflation-adjusted earnings for the S&P 500.
Like regular P/E ratios, the idea is that it can be used as an indicator of whether the current price (of the S&P 500, in this case) is high or low relative to earnings. The purpose of using ten years of earnings rather than just one year is to eliminate the impact of meaningless short-term fluctuations in earnings.
The most common suggested use of PE10 is to use it to make asset allocation decisions. For example, researcher Wade Pfau wrote a fascinating paper showing that from 1871-2009, a market timing strategy using PE10 (i.e., moving to stocks when the market is at a low PE10 and moving to Treasury bonds when the market is at a high PE10) would have significantly outperformed a simple portfolio with a fixed 50/50 stock/bond allocation.
A second, related use of PE10 is to use it as an input when deciding how much you can safely spend from your portfolio per year in retirement. Again, Wade’s research on the topic is excellent. He shows that, historically, the higher the market’s value (relative to earnings) when you retire, the less you can safely spend from your portfolio per year.
Despite the data showing the historical usefulness of PE10, I’m not comfortable using it for my own portfolio decisions.
As a general rule, the market does not like to be predictable. For the most part, once market inefficiencies (i.e., patterns that can be used to reliably outperform the market) become well known and easy to exploit, they tend to disappear.
So rather than a data set of 140 years, we’re left with just 34 years (1977-2010). For an indicator that is only supposed to have useful predictive value over periods of 10+ years, 34 years isn’t a heck of a lot to go on.
Is Using PE10 a Terrible Idea?
Despite my personal lack of confidence in PE10 as a useful predictor, I think I’d place PE10-based decisions in the group of investment approaches that are at least reasonable — far better than, say, day-trading individual stocks.
For instance, if PE10 was at a historical high at a time when TIPS yields were also very high, I wouldn’t fault somebody for moving more of their portfolio to TIPS. Similarly, I think it would be reasonable to use a lower withdrawal rate if you retire at a time with unusually low TIPS yields and an unusually high PE10.
On the other hand, I’d be extremely reluctant to suggest either moving more of a portfolio to stocks or using a higher withdrawal rate from a retirement portfolio just because PE10 is low by historical standards.
Stocks or Mutual Funds: Which Should I Buy?
There are very few circumstances in which it makes sense for an individual investor to own individual stocks rather than mutual funds.
The reason it’s (usually) such a bad idea to own individual stocks is that it results in more risk without (in most cases) the expectation of higher returns.
Why Are Individual Stocks Riskier?
This is the easy question. The more of your portfolio you have invested in any one company, the more risk you’re exposed to. Nothing hard to understand about that.
By investing in a broadly-diversified mutual fund (for instance, Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Index Fund, which includes over 3,000 different companies), your portfolio will be exposed to far less company-specific risk than if you own just a handful of individual stocks.
Why Is it Hard to Pick Above-Average Stocks?
This is the question many investors struggle with. Many people are unaware of the fact that there’s more to picking winning stocks than simply finding companies that will experience above-average growth.
At any given moment, a company’s stock price already includes the market’s best estimate of the company’s future growth. So a stock’s performance isn’t a function of how quickly the company grows. It’s a function of how the company’s growth compares to its expected level of growth.
In other words, picking an above-average stock does not mean finding a company that’s going to grow quickly. It means finding a company that will grow more quickly than the market expects it to.
And that’s no small task. The market is made up of millions of individual investors as well as a small army of highly-intelligent, specifically-trained professionals whose sole job is to estimate such growth figures. It’s silly for most individual investors to think that we can reliably outsmart such a massive collection of data and intelligence.
When Might It Make Sense to Own Individual Stocks?
You’re looking to do something other than maximize your returns for a given level of risk. For example, you derive an entertainment benefit from picking stocks or a self-actualization benefit from buying the stocks of companies that do things you morally approve of.
But for most investors, there’s no reason to own any individual stocks whatsoever. Doing so just increases the risk in your portfolio without increasing your expected return.
My reply–and this won’t surprise regular readers–was to ask what reason he has for thinking that an individual investor can reliably outwit the professionals.
His answer: I need a 12% return in order to retire on time. So normal market returns probably won’t cut it.
Unfortunately, the market doesn’t care that you need a reliable 12% annual return in order to make your retirement plans work. Your need for a given return doesn’t increase your probability of getting it.
To use an analogy: “Going 60 mph won’t get me to work in time” is not a good reason to drive 120 mph. Similarly, “normal market returns aren’t good enough” isn’t a sufficient reason to try to earn above-market returns.
If you have no reason to think that you have a meaningful advantage over the professionals–and I would argue that most investors do not–then the only reasonable answer is to adjust your plans. Figure out a way to make your life work with market returns, whether that means retiring later, working part-time, or cutting your expenses.
Technical analysis is a method of attempting to predict future movements in stock prices based upon data about past movements in prices. For example, when you see an article or book discussing the significance of patterns found in stock price charts, the writer is using technical analysis.
How well has it performed in the past?
Why should it continue to work (even if everybody finds out about it)?
Three gentlemen recently performed an extremely thorough study in an attempt to answer question #1 regarding technical analysis.
They tested 5,806 technical trading rules and applied them each to 49 different countries–the 49 countries (some developed markets, some emerging markets) that make up the Morgan Stanley Capital Index (MSCI).
In regards to my three tests above, technical analysis doesn’t seem to make it past the first one. But even if it did, I don’t see how it could make it past test #3. I don’t see any credible reason why profitable technical analysis methods should continue to be profitable once word gets out about them.
Our financial markets may not be perfectly efficient, but surely by the time I (or you, or any other individual investor) hear about reliably profitable technical analysis strategies, the big market players have already found out about them as well, thereby eliminating any hope we may have previously had of profiting from them.

industry_corpus2: Finance & Economics


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Another Mp7 question. I am looking for #3 exhaust pipe for a 2007 ctp713b. Mack part #4ME5160AM. The local mack dealer isn't much help. Anybody deal much with bafter market? Where is a good place to try? Thanks.
i have a 2007 pre def mp7. Trying to remove the plug for the injector harness on back of the engine. Whats the trick?

industry_corpus2: Automobiles


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There's an analogy to be made between the Lenovo Yoga Book and its namesake practice. Done well, yoga provides functional fitness for any task at hand. When poorly executed, it's frustrating and injurious. Yoga Book lands somewhere in between.
This novel 2-in-1 tablet/notebook is one of many hybrid devices that attempt to streamline the best features of pre-existing technologies and adapt them to fit our lifestyles. Our test model is a mobile version powered by Android, but there are also desktop-powered variants that run Windows 10.
At first glance it looks like a small laptop. But the display is a touchscreen, so you can navigate with taps and swipes. Instead of a clamshell hinge, the display can bend completely forward or backward, so you can use it as a tablet with the keyboard slate concealed underneath.
I say keyboard slate because it's just that – a smooth black slate where physical keyboard buttons would normally be. Yoga Book doesn't have physical keys, only a backlit QWERTY keyboard (dubbed the "Halo keyboard") that appears on the platen when the device is running in keyboard mode. Switch to drawing mode, and the keyboard disappears, letting you use the included stylus to write and draw instead.
I welcome the concept of a 2-in-1 tablet/notebook, and even Lenovo's interpretation of it. A book-sized device that you can use as casually as scrap paper or as intently as a computer? Sign me up. Delivered elegantly, it could become the ultimate note taker. That may not be a glamorous title, but it's one of near-universal utility.
The Yoga Book stays promising beyond the first glance. While not exactly drool-worthy, the matte black metal case (also available in gold or gunmetal gray) is attractive enough. It occupies a sizing sweet spot: Not so small it's impossible to type on, but not large enough to be inconvenient to carry. The Book is somewhat heavy for its size, but that heft provides a solid foundation on which to write. It's highly smudge and scratch resistant as well.
Since we're accustomed to seeing mobile devices with little or no exposed hardware, I can't decide if the Book's "Watchband Hinge," seen in previous Yoga devices, is eye-catching or an eyesore. It's made up of bundled metal rods with rolling cylindrical gears. These mechanical parts would look more at home on an airship or the Game of Thrones set than on this year's mobile technology, but it works great, so I'm sold. The hinge stays in place at every angle, and it's easily adjustable when you need it to be.
The Yoga Book is US$500 for the Android version or $550 for the Windows version, so Lenovo also gets points for affordability. With all of its decently-packaged flexibility, this seems like a high-value device for the price. Theoretically, it supplants the need for a separate tablet, laptop and pen-and-paper for about the cost of last year's iPhone.
But those build details aside, the Yoga Book's outstanding feature is the number of different ways you can interact with it. Type on the Halo keyboard or draw on it with a stylus. Put a ballpoint tip on on the stylus and you can draw on paper while it is digitized onscreen. Tap and swipe the display like a tablet, or use the trackpad below the keyboard. Most of these input devices work passably well on their own, but the way they come together is chaotic.
For example, the digital typing experience surpassed my expectations, even if it's still a little questionable. In Lenovo's defense, the idea is not inherently preposterous. After all, we have no problem texting away on our smartphones, and the Yoga Book is primarily mobile technology dressed up like a laptop. I actually found the unfamiliar size of the keyboard more disruptive than the lack of keys.
True blue touch typists might struggle with the keyboard, but I'm convinced that those types are increasingly rare, as we all get used to typing on different types of devices. There's also a predictive text feature that works well and has proven useful at correcting most mistakes and learning your typing style.
So my primary qualm with the keyboard isn't its lack of keys, but its jumbled feeling. I keep accidentally resting my hands on the trackpad as I type, because it's crammed in so close. This annoyance is exacerbated by the fact that the trackpad seems to be the biggest weakness: Gestures don't seem to work well, and it's touchy at all the wrong times. Another, stranger problem is that while typing, I've inadvertently turned the keyboard to French several times. Quelle horreur! I'm not sure exactly how this is happening (I presume some kind of keyboard shortcut) but a cursory Google search suggests I'm not alone.
I have similar observations about using the Real Pen stylus. It's sufficiently pressure-sensitive (2,048 levels) for most writing and doodling applications. It works well in isolation, but not always in a way that facilitates workflow.
Like any plastic-nibbed stylus, it can be used to draw directly on the keyboard area/drawing slate. My only disappointment here is that the stylus doesn't work on the touchscreen, so when you're using the Yoga Book as a tablet, it's fingertip-only.
The other way to use the stylus is to swap out the plastic nib for one of the included ballpoint ones and write on actual paper. It's designed to work with the bundled Book Pad, a pad of paper that magnetizes in place on top of the slate. When you write on the paper, your notes are magically digitized on screen. That perk is rare even among drawing tablets.
But with this multi-faceted nature comes complications. Changing the nibs is a clumsy process – you have to use the pen cap to work them out of the pen. There's no convenient storage for the stylus or its nibs, and the device is not compatible with any other type of pen. Replacing a Real Pen costs $40; it's $15 for a set of ink refills. On the plus side, I have noticed that other sheets of paper, placed on top of the keyboard slate, works just as well as the bundled Book Pad, though BYO-paper does not seem to fall within manufacturer's recommendations.
Beyond its finicky parts, software limitations are really holding the stylus back. When you're using the stylus (just hit the built-in button to switch between keyboard and drawing mode), Lenovo's Note Saver apps automatically fires up. Note Saver can save as a PDF and share notes with third-party apps, but since it doesn't back up to the cloud, you're probably better off starting out with an option like Evernote in the first place. So you'll constantly be running away from the Note Saver, or trying to back it up.
Third-party app support seems rather glitchy as well. The first few attempts at using the stylus in Evernote failed; things seem to get temperamental when there are too many apps open at once. Lenovo put some twists on Android Marshmallow to give it more laptop-like functionality, but those capabilities don't extend far below the surface.
For example, there's a good multi-window feature so you can see more than one app at a time, which is essential for activities like watching a video in one app and taking notes in another. However, many key apps (like Google Docs) don't support multi-window mode. You also have no control over the size of the windows – they are automatically sized into columns that take up about a third of the screen. And with multiple windows open, performance, which is less than impressive to start with, slows down noticeably.
All in all, the dressed-up Android operating system shows promise, but it's less than perfect. Even without trying the Windows version, I'm tempted to say it would be worth the upgrade to get away from the mobile operating system, though of course more robust software may introduce problems of its own.
Beyond the Yoga Book's many input devices and souped-up mobile OS, most of its other features are unremarkable. It does have a strong battery; I squeezed at least nine hours out of a full charge. It's not a photography-driven device, but the front and back cameras get the job done. The display is a little disappointing; low resolution and high brightness makes for a cheap look and color inaccuracy. The sound and microphone are a bit tinny and muffled, but just fine for personal video watching on a budget device.
All in all, I'm impressed with the innovation and boldness of the Lenovo Yoga Book. Still, I can't help but wonder if all those input options are overcomplicating things. Either way, they demand an operating system that can marry their functions seamlessly without breaking a sweat.
That being said, it's not a stretch of the imagination to picture college students or certain professionals using one of these and liking it very much for specific applications – as long as they are prepared to work through some rough spots.

industry_corpus2: Computing & Telecommunications


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What’s important to you and your family? If security, permanence, love and safety for children and youth come to mind, then strategic planning for your philanthropy can make a difference. It makes good sense to give wisely and to maximize your tax benefits. Canada has some very generous rules and tax laws when it comes to charitable giving both during life and through your estate, but they can be complicated.
You can include the security of a loving permanent home and family for children and youth as part of your personal financial strategy. Thoughtful generosity can transform a child or a youth’s life; it can change the world.
A note on your dinner tables announcing that instead of wedding favors you and your partner have decided that on this special day that you create your future, you have chosen to help a child who needs a family create their future, by donating the favor money to CHOICES instead.
We welcome your donations to enable the continuing work of CHOICES Adoption & Counselling Agency. Donations are tax-deductible in Canada. If you are considering a gift from your life savings and investments, we want you to have the peace of mind that your decisions are well informed. When you give to CHOICES, we want you to know that you have made a difference and that we are accountable to you.
Sustaining Donors make monthly contributions to CHOICES through a pre-authorised withdrawal, arranged with the donor’s bank. All information remains confidential.
Sustaining Donors provide a steady income toward the work of CHOICES, which greatly benefits the long-term planning and commitments of CHOICES regarding projects and orphanage work. Sustaining Donors receive our quarterly newsletters and our Annual Report.
To join the Sustaining Donor Program, call us at 1-888-479-9811.
Planned Giving is one of the most powerful philanthropic tools available to you today. It’s also one of the most popular. The benefits are immediate and far-reaching.
Planned giving is, in essence, deciding in advance what happens to your estate. It puts you in control. Whether its cash, securities, life insurance, real estate or gifts in kind, a well-planned gift ensures your legacy makes a statement about the things that are important to you. Through CHOICES Planned Giving Program, you can fund long-term programs that benefit children, youth and their families. We invite you to ensure the best possible future for children by considering a planned gift to CHOICES. A planned gift to CHOICES is, of course, a tremendous benefit to the waiting children, the families and the agency.
There are as many reasons to give as there are givers. But whether your reasons are altruistic or simply tax-related, the benefits of planned giving are powerful ones.
Satisfaction – Knowing that you are giving back to a program or cause that holds special significance for you.
Control – Reducing the risk that your wishes will be hindered by circumstances beyond your control.
Peace of mind – Ensuring that family and financial matters are resolved privately.
Convenience – Putting your investment in the hands of others, so you don’t have to worry about ongoing decisions.
Security – Finalizing your charitable choices now instead of later – or never. Too many people postpone or never realize theirs.
Everyone benefits from the power of a planned gift – you, your family and your cause. Of course, we want to ensure that each of these groups receives the maximum benefit possible, which is why CHOICES offers a wide range of planned giving arrangements. Which way of giving best suits your goals?
The easiest way for you to assist CHOICES is through your will. The agency can accept and provide charitable receipts for both cash bequests and gifts in kind. We can also assist with drafting the bequest. By remembering CHOICES in your estate planning, you can help to ensure that our MISSION to work both locally and globally toward every child having a permanent, loving family and a safe, nurturing home and community will be maintained well into the future. Bequests to CHOICES ensure a solid financial foundation which will continue to support children and youth in finding permanent families and supporting them, as well as supporting birth families and humanitarian aid to orphanages around the world.
Drafting your will to include a charitable bequest is an easy process and should always involve the proper legal assistance. A well-drafted will is an invaluable document and relatively inexpensive when accompanied by the peace of mind that your assets will be well taken care of when you die. If you already have a will, you can easily add a codicil making a bequest to CHOICES. Donors can direct a specific amount of money in a legacy or a percentage of the estate residue to CHOICES. A bequest may also include other types of assets such as securities or properties. The tax receipt for a bequest goes to the donor’s estate. A bequest can be immediate or deferred. A deferred bequest is often made by a testamentary trust. Some or all of the deceased’s assets will be placed in a trust. The income from the trust will be paid to his/her spouse or other dependents for life. The trust will be dissolved at the death of the last surviving beneficiary and the remaining assets in the trust will be passed to the Society.
Charitable bequests enable donors to minimize tax liability on their estates. It also provides donors full control of their assets during life.
Normally a donor can claim a tax credit for up to 75 per cent of their annual income for charitable donations. However, in the year of death and the year preceding, the limit is increased to 100 per cent. If the bequest consists of gifts of appreciated property such as securities or real estate, additional tax credits may be applicable.
A contribution made by way of beneficiary designation such as an RRSP, RRIF or an insurance policy is also eligible for a tax receipt. In the case of RRSPs and RRIFs, the funds used to make the gift are also taxable upon death. If the whole proceeds of an RRSP or RRIF are donated to a charity, the tax credit might be able to completely offset the taxes due upon death.
To assist in issuing a receipt to the estate when the gift is realized, it is helpful if the donor can provide CHOICES a copy of the clause in his/her will pertaining to the bequest when the will is drawn. Your lawyer and accountant are the best people for you to work with in making an important decision such as making a bequest.
A powerful gift with big benefits. Small annual installments can mean a substantial gift for CHOICES, plus your estate is not affected and the gift is not diminished due to taxes, probate or administration fees. Choose to donate with an existing policy or a new one.
Life insurance is a product which is purchased for as many reasons as there are individual policy holders. You may have purchased a life insurance policy for your child’s education that was not used, or perhaps you have an old life insurance policy purchased for you by your parents when you were a child. These policies could make a wonderful gift to CHOICES, and provide you with significant tax savings.
Naming a charity such as CHOICES as the owner and beneficiary of a life insurance policy can entitle you to income tax credits on premium payments or an income tax receipt for the cash value of an existing policy in the year that it is donated. While you may no longer need the policy for the purpose which it was originally purchased, it could provide you with a means of receiving considerable savings on your income tax or on the distribution of your estate.
There are several ways you can use life insurance to make a gift to CHOICES. You can donate a policy you own but no longer need, or buy a new one as your gift. Alternately, if you have other assets you’d like to contribute, you can use life insurance to replace the value of those assets for your heirs.
CHOICES is also able to accept donations of real property such as stocks, bonds, and other assets. Gifts in kind may be made as outright gifts, through a will or in trust. Donating appreciated stocks, bonds and mutual fund units is the most tax-effective way to make a gift.
Donors can turn their investments into gifts for CHOICES. When individuals sell an appreciated stock, they are required to pay tax on 50 per cent of the capital gains, but if they donate it to CHOICES, they pay tax on only 25 per cent of the gain.
Whether you donate cash or appreciated securities, you will receive a tax receipt that creates a tax credit. An extra tax incentive available for gifts of appreciated publicly listed securities makes stocks the least expensive way to give. Donors receive a tax credit for their gift and the extra tax incentive provides additional savings of up to 11 cents on every dollar donated.
The donation of qualifying shares purchased through employee stock options would be treated in a similar manner as a gift of publicly listed securities. These donations are therefore eligible for reduced capital gains inclusion rates providing the shares are donated within 30 days after their acquisition and in the year they were acquired.
If you donate your appreciated securities to CHOICES you pay tax on only 25 per cent on capital gains. Consequently, you will also receive a tax credit that will lead to additional personal savings of up to 11 cents on every dollar donated. Qualified shares acquired through employee stock options can also be donated to CHOICES and are eligible for reduced capital gains inclusion rates too.
A high potential option – both for the amount you can give and the tax benefits you receive. You simply provide in your will for the same amount to be bequeathed to CHOICES.
Perhaps not the traditional way of giving, but a very effective one nonetheless. Land or buildings, commercial or private, make excellent charitable gifts. The property can either be used by CHOICES or sold, with the proceeds used for purposes designated by the donor. You have the satisfaction of making a major gift to the CHOICES now and receiving an immediate tax benefit, yet you continue to use and enjoy the gift property for the rest of your life.
A gift of residual interest with retained life use most commonly involves a donor’s principal residence or other personal real estate, such as a cottage or vacation property. When a gift of residual interest is made, the property is transferred irrevocably to CHOICES, but the donor retains its use for their lifetime or for as long as the life of the donors’ spouse (after the death of the donor).
When the transfer is made, the donor is entitled to a charitable tax receipt for the present value of the ‘residual interest’ – the value, in today’s dollars, of the property that CHOICES will receive upon your death. This is an actuarial calculation based on the current fair market value of the property, your age and the current discount rate.
Residual interest in a personal residence can be an appropriate gift, but in fact, other property you own and use may also be a likely candidate. In this case you will be taxed on 50 per cent of the capital gain attributable to the residual interest, but the tax savings from the donation receipt will always more that offset the tax on the gain.
A charitable remainder trust can be created during life or by a person’s will. It can be a very effective way to make a significant donation, provide a guaranteed income stream and have the security of professional trust management.
A charitable gift annuity or remainder trust is known as a gift that gives back. You as the donor make a contribution to CHOICES, and in exchange for your donation, CHOICES will purchase a commercial annuity from a licensed insurance company. The amount of your annuity depends on your age and the size of your contribution, but the rate is almost always higher than what you now get from your investments, and it is guaranteed.
The income from your annuity will continue for as long as you live, no matter what happens to the economy or to interest rates. If you are married, you may select an annuity that continues as long as either spouse lives.
Your gift annuity brings you another bonus: depending on the age at which you take out the annuity, a part, or all of each payment will be tax free. In some cases, your donation is also entitled to a charitable tax receipt which will result in tax savings on your income tax return.
Endowment and bequest funds held by CHOICES are pooled for investment purposes. All pooled funds share in both capital growth and annual income from earned interest.
Making a planned gift to CHOICES is easier than you think. For more information on planning a gift to CHOICES please contact Robin Pike, robinpike@choicesadoption.ca, 250-479-9811.


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Contribute to the community. Add sheet music, tabs or chords for "Prelude No. 2 (excerpt) - Kenny Burrell".
Request this song. Then, some users will may try to write sheet music, tabs or chords for "Prelude No. 2 (excerpt) - Kenny Burrell". Jellynote won't provide sheet music itself!

industry_corpus2: Film & Entertainment


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Dynamo Solar LED Torch - Enter Energy & Water.
This compact green powered torch is great for camping and for the car. Just a few cranks on the handle of this torch and it will give you a super bright light. It also features a solar panel to keep the torch charged and ready for use. The built-in hi-efficiency lithium battery allows you to charge over and over again. The batteries don't need to be replaced - just wind to recharge. A rugged, super bright, ergonomic and versatile torch.


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How can it be almost the end of January? How are you doing with your goals? Have you written them down yet? I find when I’ve got them written down and in front of me I can focus on getting them completed!
Continue to monetize my blog. This is an ongoing goal. I made a start last year and plan to continue on with it this year. I have written several sponsored posts. I have also set up my very own page on Amazon. I get to put all the items I just love from favorite cookbooks to gardening tools. Check it out, it is a page that I will be adding to! Another part of this goal involves getting my readership up. If you enjoy reading my blog please recommend it to your friends. The more the merrier!
2. Create a cookbook. You may remember this goal was on my list last year and I finally put it aside. My goal for this year is to have my cookbook ready by November 2019. I have been working away at this. After numerous days I finally gathered all the recipes off the blog. I actually have over 450 recipes. First step is to get them organized into topics such as desserts, salads, etc. Then I will begin to actually copy the recipes into a document ready for printing. What a process!
3. Have 20 minutes of exercise at least 5 times a week. Our weather has been quite nice lately and we managed to get quite a few walks in and the total amount of time spent walking was 295 minutes, just shy of five hours! I actually beat this goal this week! It’s about time. It’s been fun noticing all the spring flowers that are already in bloom! so different from Vermont.
4. Explore ten parks or hiking trails in the state of Washington we now call home! We did make it to Bloedel Preserve this week, but this is not a new park for us. We have been here several times but it is just such a beautiful place to walk.
5. Incorporate 20 18 new recipes into our dinner plans with the focus being on healthy eating. I did try Blue Apron for the first time and picked out meals that were Weight Watcher approved. I had a special discount so the price was good and I didn’t have to think about what to make for dinner. We tried a total of four of their recipes and they were pretty good. Lots of plastic waste so I might try to recreate the recipes at home, and I won’t be ordering Blue Apron again.
6. Read 35 30 new books this year. Finished my fifth book , Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg. She was also the author of The Story of Arthur Truluv, which I just loved. Night of Miracles is a continuation of The Story of Arthur Truluv and I enjoyed it just as well. I love when you find a new author who has a lot of books that I haven’t read yet!
7. Complete Four 2 knitting or sewing projects this year. Second project is finished! Have not finished any more projects but a dear friend of mine is sending me material to make more placemats! Love projects that come together quickly! Next up, more placemats!
8. Visit family on the west coast. Haven’t made any progress on this goal yet. However my brother-in-law is planning a family reunion on the east coast this summer! Exciting to have such a trip in the works. The difficulty will be getting all four of our grown children, plus spouses and three grandchildren to fly east in August! I’m excited as the reunion will be held in my favorite place, Nantucket. It’s my happy place, although I don’t get there very often!
9. Explore Six 5 new museums in the area. There is so much to learn about this new area we are living in. We thought the first museum we visited would be the Tacoma Glass Museum but we’re still waiting for the pass to show up a the library. Instead we grabbed the pass to the Tacoma Art Museum! Amazing how much money a pass from the public library can save you! We enjoyed a nice Saturday afternoon looking at all the artwork.
10. Find a new home. Still looking, our realtor is back from vacation but nothing has shown up on the market that we like! Very frustrating but we just have to be patient. Next week we are heading down to Portland to meet with a realtor there. Just curious how the prices compare.
« What is Campaign Monitor?
We’ve been searching for a home as well and ended up re-signing another year’s lease. There’s not much listed where we are right now and what is I find is expensive for what it is. Good luck!
Good luck to you as well. We may end up moving into a larger rental and putting off the whole process for another year! There is nothing on the market right now that is right!


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This is the fruit of Maggie’s first solo note writing endeavor. I think it is excellent and darling. For those who don’t get to hear Mags chit-chatting, this is actually a perfect application of phonics – there is no “r” in “from”. She was working on it very busily during Ian Lugg’s sermon that night and was quite proud of her accomplishment when she gave it to me. She said she had missed me that day (she had spent part of it with some friends) and wanted to write me a letter. I will be treasuring this indefinitely.
I love it. And do her fingernails shine like justice?
nice! gold star to tony…it’s in the mail.
Morgan! Wow, it’s really you! This is Jenny Wilcox. I found this blog in a very round-about way…how funny. The last time I saw you we were both pregnant with our first babies 5 years ago. My, how time flies.
Hey Mo! And great job Mags. I just wanted to stop by and say hi from Virginia, I have actually been thinking about you guys alot. I miss you and will see you soon.

industry_corpus2: Literature & Emotions


text: King of Glory volunteers to serve the 2nd Sunday of each month from approximately 4:00 pm – 7:30 pm, with 20 people preparing food, serving the meal and cleaning up the facility. Please see the sign up board in the Narthex or contact the Church Office at info@kogaz.org if you would like to serve this important organization. Please note, the minimum age to volunteer for Paz de Cristo is 12 years old, and we are limited to 4 spots per month for students 12-17 years old.


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Several days into a trip to Oman, my father and I pulled into a fly-bothered cafe on the coastal highway to Sur. We were in Tiwi, a seaside fishing village near one of the country's most mouthwatering gorges, Wadi Shab. Lined with terraced plantations and pea-green pools, the 'gorge between the cliffs' is a beaut. The plan was to grab a few photos before continuing southeast.
That was when we met Said.
Said was a local Omani boy — maybe 16 years old, tall for his age, wearing a cap, sandals and toothpaste-white dishdasha robe. Matter-of-factly, he approached us at our rental car and offered to guide us into the gorge.
"First swim. Then walk. Then swim, then walk, then swim," he said.
Swim? Dad and I looked at each other. Said didn't seem like a tourist guide and he didn't ask for a fee. Two possibilities played out in my mind — one involving a headline reading 'Gullible father and son hacked into 2,317 pieces in Omani gorge. Wallets missing'. But there was something about Said's manner, about the moment in which his offer came, that felt good in my gut.
When I was a kid, Dad might have taken this decision for us. But I wasn't a kid any more. This was the first big trip we'd taken together as adults. We'd had our share of ups and downs so far; our moments of connection and our moments of fist-clenching irritation. We'd gotten lost in the souqs of Muscat and wondered at the clouds of butterflies on mountain roads. We'd slept inches from each other in grotty hotels; passed unhelpful remarks on each other's driving habits. I'd gotten food poisoning and lost my lucky hat. He'd been eaten alive by mozzies. By the time we got to Tiwi, on the far eastern coast, the holiday could have gone either way.
Dammit, we said, let's do this.
Said nodded and set off with a long stride, leading us away from the car park and into the gorge. He stayed about 20 yards ahead, texting and playing Bob Marley loudly through his phone speaker. The cliffs rose higher and tighter around us. The terraces ran out. Phone signals flickered and vanished. After 45 minutes or so, the path stopped and we stood metres above a stream.
Said produced a plastic bag, motioning at us to put our phones inside, and held it over his head as he waded into the water. I fully expected never to see him again. But we followed, in sandals and shorts, stepping over rocks and between reeds, picking our way through a canyon that grew thinner and taller with every step. We swam, and walked, and swam and walked, finally coming up against a rock face split by a tiny crack that felt like the width of a human head.
Said disappeared into the slit. Hearts in mouth, we swam after him. Our heads fitted the fissure like keys, and we doggie-paddled forward, banging shoulders and ears off the increasingly claustrophobic walls. Nightmare scenarios began playing out in my head: skeletons being discovered; mothers weeping. Stupid trip! Stupid me! Stupid Oman!
Then we emerged into a cool pool in a cave. A smashing sound turned out to be a waterfall. The endorphins flushed. We paddled, jumped off a ledge, whooped, high-fived and tried to shoot photos in the semi-darkness. Said stared at us in bewilderment, and we felt guilty for doubting him. Looking at each other on that ledge, in that moment, I think it's safe to say we were back in the groove.


text:
Storr clients are putting our expertise and experience in asset management to work to manage a broad range of assets and ensure prompt and efficient response to relocations, corporate restructuring, new construction delays, and more.
Floor covering is typically an afterthought in the design process, yet as one of the most visible and eye-catching part of your work space, it can have the greatest impact of all your architectural and furnishing decisions.
Interior Office Design + Space Planning calls for professionally-trained experts and that’s just what you’ll find when you turn to Storr as your interiors partner.
Effective delivery and installation services call for two key elements: knowledgeable, experienced installers and access to a comprehensive and reliable supply of furniture parts and components.
At Storr, our goal is to provide our clients with cost-effective solutions to improve employee comfort and educate them on how to apply ergonomic principles in their own work environment.
Storr’s team of veteran facility management experts brings to your organization the knowledge and services needed to keep your facility running smoothly, so you can concentrate on meeting the core business objectives of your company.
Relocations are complex, time-consuming projects that can have a major impact on productivity and your bottom line if not managed correctly.
With over 120,000 square feet, our showroom has a huge selection of used and PreOwned office furniture including deeply discounted workstations, desks, seating, storage and other items to enhance your workspace and fit your budget.
Storr Office Environments project management team leads projects strategically with hands-on responsibility and accuracy.
Our HIPAA-trained records center staff allows clients’ to ensure regulatory compliance, and provide efficient and secure management for hardcopy files and data contained on electronic media.
Storr’s refurbishment + renewal services can improve the appearance of your facility and offer significant cost saving solutions to meet budgetary constraints and preserve capital for use in other areas of your organization.

industry_corpus2: Real Estate & Construction


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The current EUR/MYR exchange rate is 4.68. (Last updated on April 18, 2019 07:06:09 UTC).
It means you will get MYR 4.682 for 1 EUR or EUR 0.2135 for 1 MYR.
MYR exchange rate was last updated on April 18, 2019 06:35:00 UTC.


text:
These annual reports present the percentage of women who report experiencing a particular outcome of interest in New York State, New York City and New York State excluding NYC from 2004-2016, by selected demographic characteristics such as race/ethnicity, age, education, marital status and Medicaid status.
These reports present trend data for New York State, New York City, and New York State excluding NYC from 2004-2016 by selected demographic characteristics such as race/ethnicity, age, education, marital status and Medicaid status.
New York State PRAMS is an ongoing mail/telephone survey of mothers who have recently given birth to a live born infant. PRAMS collects information from mothers about behaviors and experiences before, during and after pregnancy to learn more about how to reduce infant deaths and low birth weight births. The PRAMS project was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1987 because infant mortality rates were no longer declining as rapidly as they had been in prior years. In addition, the incidence of low birth weight infants had changed little over the previous 20 years. Research has indicated that maternal behaviors and experiences during pregnancy may influence infant birth weight and mortality rates. Information collected from PRAMS is not available from other sources and provides data on smoking during pregnancy, oral health care, vaccines during pregnancy, nutrition, domestic violence, psychosocial stress, HIV testing, sexually transmitted diseases, breastfeeding and family planning. The goal of the PRAMS project is to improve the health of mothers and infants by reducing adverse outcomes such as low birth weight, infant mortality and morbidity, and maternal morbidity. PRAMS provides state-specific data for planning and assessing health programs and for describing maternal experiences that may contribute to maternal and infant health.
New York State utilizes a stratified sampling approach to select PRAMS samples. Each sample consists of two strata: mothers of low birth weight(<2500 gm) and normal birth weight (>=2500gm) infants. This is done to obtain a reasonable sample size for mothers of low birth weight infants and generate stable estimates. Any records with missing or invalid birth weight information were put into the low birth weight group in the sampling frame.
Although the probability of being selected into each stratum differs, the number of women from each stratum in the resulting sample is approximately equal.
To produce population-based estimates, each mother was assigned a sampling weight. These sampling weights account for varying probabilities of selection of mothers because of stratification by birth weight. In addition, the weights account for non-response and non-coverage.
Since PRAMS utilizes the stratified sampling method, estimates generated from PRAMS data are subject to sampling error. The standard error of an estimate measures the sampling variability among all possible samples that could have been drawn from the sampling frame. The standard error for each estimate is expressed via confidence interval (CI).
The weighted percent of the response for selected questions and 95% CIs are provided. CIs provided were obtained from SAS using the “surveyfreq” procedure via the specification of first order Taylor Series linearization approximation. Unknown or missing values are not included in the analysis.
Breastfeeding initiation Did you ever breastfeed or pump breast milk to feed your baby?
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Yes."
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who breastfed for four weeks or more.
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who breastfed for eight weeks or more.
Infants placed on back to sleep In which one position do you most often lay your baby down to sleep now?
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "On his or her back".
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "My new baby sleeps with me or another person".
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Yes."
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "during my most recent pregnancy."
2002-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "I needed to see a dentist for a problem."
2002-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "I went to a dentist or dental clinic."
2002-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "A dental or other health care worker talked to me about how to care for my teeth and gums. "
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "1 to 3 days a week" or "4 to 6 days a week" or "everyday of the week."
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "To prevent birth defects."
2004-2016 Numerator: Respondents who reported smoking any cigarettes.
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who reported smoking any cigarettes.
2004-2016 Numerator: Respondents who reported having any alcoholic drinks.
2004-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Yes."
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "I wanted to be pregnant later" or "I didn't want to be pregnant then or at any time in the future."
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "I visited a health care worker and was checked for diabetes."
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "I visited a health care worker and was checked for high blood pressure."
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "I talked to a health care worker about my family medical history."
Diagnosed with diabetes before pregnancy Before you got pregnant with your new baby, did a doctor, nurse, or other health care worker tell you that you had any of the following health conditions?
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "How smoking during pregnancy could affect my baby."
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "How drinking alcohol during pregnancy could affect my baby."
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Getting tested for HIV (the virus that causes AIDS)."
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "What to do if my labor starts early."
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Breastfeeding my baby."
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "What to do if I feel depressed during my pregnancy or after my baby is born."
2009-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Physical abuse to women by their husbands or partners."
2004-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Yes"
Postpartum Depression Since your new baby was born, have you asked for help for depression from a doctor, nurse or other health care worker?
2012-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "yes".
Postpartum Depression Since your new baby was born, has a doctor, nurse, or other health care worker told you that you had depression?
Postpartum Depression Since your new baby was born, have you taken prescription medicine for your depression?
Denominator: All respondents, excluding those who were NOT told by a doctor, nurse or other health care worker that they had depression.
Postpartum Depression Since your new baby was born, have you gotten counseling for your depression?
Postpartum Depression Since your new baby was born, how often have you feld down, depressed, or hopeless?
2012-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Always" or "Often".
Postpartum Depression Since your new baby was born, how often have you had little interest or little pleasure in doing things you usually enjoyed?
2000-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Yes"
2004-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Yes".
shot or tell you to get one.
Received a flu shot before pregnancy During the 12 months before the delivery of your new baby, did you get a flu shot?
2012-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Yes, before my pregnancy".
Received a flu shot during pregnancy During the 12 months before the delivery of your new baby, did you get a flu shot?
2012-2016 Numerator: Respondents who checked "Yes, during my pregnancy".
Received a Tdap vaccine During your most recent pregnancy, did you receive a Tdap shot or vaccination?
How to use the interactive report?
PRAMS utilizes a stratified systematic sampling methodology with over sampling of low birth weight births. Approximately 135 mothers are systematically selected from birth records each month. Low birth weight births are sampled at a higher rate to ensure adequate representation. The selected mothers are sampled between two and four months after giving birth. Mothers are sent questionnaires asking about their pregnancies and the time immediately after the birth of their babies. Questionnaire packets include a cover letter, question and answer sheet, a consent document, and a small gift as an incentive. If a mother does not respond after three questionnaires are sent, attempts to reach her by phone are made. Mothers are offered a $25 CVS gift card as a thank you if they send back the mailed questionnaire or do the interview over the phone. Data collection procedures and instruments are standardized to allow comparisons between states. Mother's responses to the questionnaire are linked to extracted birth certificate data for analysis. Thus the PRAMS dataset also contains a wealth of demographic and medical information collected through the state's vital records system. The availability of this information for all births is the basis for drawing stratified samples and, ultimately, for generalizing results to the state's entire population of births.
Research has shown that maternal behavior and experiences during pregnancy may influence infant birth weight and mortality rates. The PRAMS questionnaire provides data that are not available from other sources about pregnancy and the first few months after birth. These data can be used to identify groups of women and infants at a high risk for health problems, to monitor changes in health status and to measure progress towards goals for improving the health of mothers and infants. When combined with data from birth certificates, these data can be used for planning and assessing perinatal health programs. In addition, because PRAMS uses standardized data collection methods, it allows data to be compared among states.
Is PRAMS data available at the county level?
No, PRAMS is a nation-wide survey from CDC. Each participating state samples between 1,300 and 3,400 women per year. Typically, the annual sample is large enough for estimating statewide risk factor proportions, with a confidence interval of plus or minus 3.5% at 95% confidence. Sample sizes are not typically large enough to estimate county level risk factors.

industry_corpus2: Health & Medicine


text:
Think local. Eat Local. Stay local. Buy Local. Shop Local in Bonita.
Why Shop Local In Bonita?
The Shop Local Movement in Bonita helps strengthen the local economy, protects local services and supports the people and businesses that give Bonita its unique character.
When you shop at a Local Indie Business in Bonita more of your money stays within the community. How? Independently-owned businesses reinvest as much as 25% more revenue into the Bonita community when compared to other non independently-owned businesses. When you Shop Local in Bonita and support the Local Indie Businesses, you're not only being a smart shopper, you're also supporting the people of Bonita.
Become a Local Bonita Partner!
Take the quiz and reveal how much you care about Bonita.
If you own a Local Indie Businesses in Bonita you can get it featured right here on this page and also participate in the Certified Locally Owned™ program from ShopLocal.us.
To begin click the button below to tell us about your locally owned Bonita business.
Find a Bonita Shop Local Buddy!
Shopping local in Bonita is always easier and more fun to do with a friend or two.
It will keep you motivated to find local indie businesses in Bonita as alternatives to chain stores and create new local habits by getting out and exploring Bonita towns and neighborhoods together.
To help you with this, we're creating a Bonita Shop Local Buddy Network. Find some local like-minded friends with whom you can make the Shop Local Shift together. Organize safe and secure Shop Local outings in Bonita while meeting new local friends who are also passionate like you about supporting their local communities.
Help out your favorite Local Indie Businesses in Bonita by getting them recognized at Shop Local.us.
Share the Shop Local love by telling us about the most amazing independently-owned businesses in the Bonita area. Just give us a little bit of info about the business and why you think they're awesome.
We'll be sure to give you props so they know how much they're loved by their loyal local customers in Bonita.
Buy locally grown fruits, veggies and other homemade specialty foods direct from your local Bonita farmers market or direct from local growers through Community Supported Agriculture groups. When you shop at the supermarket, try to buy items that are local or at least regional. Read the labels to see how local your produce or food items are before you buy.

industry_corpus2: Hospitality & Catering


text:
B’zT has an upcoming great collaboration with United Sport Clinic.
Amazing meeting with Coach Juan today for the future collaboration. Check his website http://www.unitedsportsclinic.com and how he can help your children to be at their full potential. B’zT will take care of children’s safety of course! Stay tuned on what we are planing for NYC marathon on March!

industry_corpus2: Sports


text: ‘Classic Crown’ is the largest of our floral crowns.The blooms on this crown, extend two thirds around the circumference of the crown. It will incorporate spray roses and a second flower type that coordinates, on an adjustable ring of greenery. Let us know the color palette you are working with, and we can source the blooms that will fit if you let us know ahead of the event time.


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Finding a chiropractor in Rudolph can be overwhelming, but your search doesn’t have to be. If you are looking for a chiropractor in Rudolph, you have options.
A referral from your primary care doctor or specialist should point you toward a reputable Rudolph chiropractor. A doctor should only offer recommendations that they would use for themselves and family members. This can help you narrow down your search. If you have special criteria, such as location or their technique, let your doctor know that too.
Once you’ve finished asking around, compare how many people have recommended the same Rudolph chiropractor. Chances are that is a great place to focus.
Your chiropractor can treat mechanical issues musculoskeletal system. However, your Rudolph chiropractor can’t treat all associated pain with these areas. Severe arthritis, osteoporosis, broken or fractured bones, infected bones, and bone tumor related pain are a few conditions your chiropractor may not treat.
Keep in mind you might not be aware of what you prefer or dislike until after you’ve had your first few treatments. You should be comfortable expressing yourself. Your Rudolph chiropractor should listen to your wishes.
Skill and technique do improve with time, so you might prefer an experienced Rudolph chiropractor. A few years or longer, in addition to their education, is a decent amount of time for a chiropractor to hone their skills.
You should get along well with your Rudolph chiropractor and feel comfortable around them. This includes speaking to them about your care as well as when they touch you. If you don’t feel at-ease, you should consider finding a new chiropractor.


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Talk of a team other than the Centennial High School girls volleyball team winning the City League championship hasn't been uttered for years - until now.
When Northland won 25-11, 25-13, 25-15 on the Stars' home court on Sept. 7, it put Centennial's nine-year hold on the City title in jeopardy. The Vikings can take another step toward finishing off the Stars when they play host to the rematch today in the second round of City-North Division action.
The last team other than Centennial to win the City title was Brookhaven in 2000, and Northland's only championship came in 1998.
The Vikings were 8-0 in the City-North before traveling last Tuesday to Brookhaven and have been winning with a mix of senior returnees and a group of maturing hitters led by juniors Kierra Simpson and Edderra Jenkins.
"We haven't beaten (Centennial) in probably about 10 years, so it was a tremendous step for us," senior outside hitter Asia Skipper said. "We've all been working hard. We have two tremendous (middle hitters) in Kierra and Edderra. They've been really improving and going to camps. We've finally put the pieces of the puzzle together."
Northland went 6-1 in the City-North last season to finish second behind the Stars (7-0). Teams in the City-North and City-South are playing each conference opponent twice this season.
In addition to the hitting abilities of the 6-foot-2 Jenkins and the 5-11 Simpson, 6-3 sophomore Jasmine Weatherspoon, Skipper and junior Jazmine Lee also have provided strong hitting.
Other key players include seniors Tayshawna Burrows, Roniesha Ennis, Ashia Ford and Midia Martin.
"I really love our captains, Roneisha and Asia (Skipper)," Simpson said. "This year we've been trying to keep everything really positive, and we have a lot of returnees so our teamwork is really good."
"We've got some great hitters in the middle to put blocks up," Ennis said. "The main difference from last year is that we're more confident, and having that enthusiasm helps us to win."
Before last Tuesday, Centennial was second in the City-North at 7-1 and Brookhaven and Whetstone both were 5-3. Last year, the Braves finished third (5-2) and the Bearcats were fourth (4-3).
Brookhaven beat Whetstone 25-18, 25-12, 17-25, 25-10 on Aug. 31 but lost the rematch 15-25, 12-25, 25-23, 25-19, 15-12 on Sept. 23. The Bearcats fell to Centennial 25-23, 17-25, 19-25, 25-21, 15-13 on Sept. 14.
"I'm not too pleased about (the loss to Centennial)," Bearcats coach Tomeka Howell said. "That was one that we should have won. We just have to minimize our errors better."
According to Howell, senior Madison Morris and sophomore Renee Cheeks have been leading the way with their play at middle hitter. Junior Chelsea Matthews has been the top defender.
The Bearcats have been forced to adjust to playing without senior Tierra Smith, who is out indefinitely with a knee injury.
"We're learning how to play together," Howell said. "I'd probably say we've been a little better of a defensive team, and we're trying to work on different coverage. Defense is one of the things we've been stressing."
�Northland boys cross country runner TaQuan Hale is on track for a successful postseason.
The City meet will be held Oct. 13 at Whetstone, and Braves senior Evan Schwartz is the favorite heading into the boys meet. Hale could be the second-best City runner.
At the Whetstone Arrowhead Invitational on Sept. 22, Schwartz was first in 16 minutes, 22 seconds and Hale finished second (17:12) among a field that included 14 teams. A downpour during the race hindered times for most of the competitors.
Hale's best time this season is 16:38, which is 17 seconds off the program record. Senior Daniel Smith and junior Alejandro Nunez have been among the Vikings' other top runners.
"I didn't put as many miles in as I wanted this summer because of some back problems, but now that it's feeling better, I can run more," Hale said. "I was going to try to stay with (Schwartz) for the first mile (of the Arrowhead Invitational) but kind of realized that I had to let him go."
The Beechcroft boys and girls cross country coaches also are pleased with their teams' progress heading into the final weeks of the regular season.
The boys have been led by senior Eric Taylor, who also was the team's top runner for most of last season. Senior Ahmadou Bayo also has continued to improve, according to coach Scott Davis.
"Our kids are doing a good job," Davis said. "Each week they're improving, and this year they've been able to get the full cross country experience with all of the adverse weather we've had to face."
The girls team has been led by senior Chwoina Stewart and has about a dozen runners consistently in practice for coach Dan Zedeker.
"We picked up a girl even (last) week," Zedeker said. "They're all doing really well. I'm pretty satisfied with the work they've put in, and they've all got good attitudes."
Of note: The Vikings are 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the City-North.
Of note: The Vikings were 5-2-2 overall and 4-1-2 in the City before last Tuesday.
Of note: The Vikings were 0-6 before last Tuesday.
Of note: The Vikings were 8-0 in the City-North before last Tuesday.
Of note: The Cougars are 3-2 overall and 2-0 in the City-North.
Of note: The Cougars were 3-7 overall and 2-5 in the City League before last Tuesday.
Of note: The Cougars were 0-5 before last Tuesday.
Of note: The Cougars were 2-10 overall and 2-6 in the City-North before last Tuesday.
Of note: The Bearcats are 2-3 overall and 2-0 in the City-North.
Of note: The Bearcats were 5-4-1 overall and 3-2-1 in the City before last Tuesday.
Of note: The Bearcats were 5-6 overall and 4-3 in the City-North before last Tuesday.


text: Do you dare to be different? If you're someone who refuses to conform then the Nissan Juke with its unique styling is sure to appeal. Built in the UK, this compact crossover is a family car that will never fail to turn heads thanks to its unique looks. Boasting supermini dimensions combined with an elevated ride height and dynamic handling, it's quite unlike anything that has come before. Test drive one of the used Nissan Juke models for sale in Hornchurch at Birchwood Motor Centre by contacting a member of the showroom team today. You can also browse our latest stock here on the website.