Welcome to my personal pages. You’ll find links here to the portions of my life that don’t include Spencer. At the present time those would be stuff about my body image and body work including yoga, my inclusion in the book Pride & Joy and both my 50th birthday party (Dec,. ‘99) and my 60th surprise party.

You may want to know more about my personal history to get you started. I was born in Newport, Rhode Island in December, 1949. My only sibling, Ric is five years younger then me and lives with his wife and three daughters in the house we grew up in. We spent a week together during our New England tandem tour in 2001. Mom was living in Del Rey Beach, Florida, where she and my Dad retired. Dad passed away in November, 2004. In February of 2012 we moved her up to Rhode Island so she’s close to family. She’s thriving there. I generally make a trip to visit Mom annually. We threw a family reunion and celebration of Mom’s life in May 2014. That’s my brother Ric with Mom and I when we visited her in Florida a few years ago after she’d fallen and broken a few bones. She’s well now.

I graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1971 with a BS in Textiles and Clothing. I never worked in the field, instead going directly overseas to serve as a Recreation Center Director for the US Army in Korea and Germany. After eight years overseas I returned to the US and worked for the YMCA in Arizona for a year and then in Seattle for five more years. After that I spent three years as Program Director for the Seattle Center, creating their Winterfest and annual Ice Rink (among other events). Then I started my first business, Community Events Management. I produced the NW Aids Foundations walk-a-thon in 1988 and wrote their operations manual. After several years of large-scale community events I transitioned my business to graphic design.

You can see samples of my print and web design work at my business website. Since 2009 my focus has been on building custom WordPress sites for clients and then training them so they can maintain them themselves. I love the flexibility of working at home. Though having one’s own business is always a bit of a roller-coaster ride.

Besides tandeming, I enjoy anything computer-related (I’m a geek) and of course I love doing yoga and reading. These images are of my first and only attempt at rock-climbing in December of 2002 at the REI Flagship store.

I was the first elected board member to the Braeburn condo board when we first moved in, early 2006. We are currently active founding members of the cohousing community on Capitol Hill. We broke ground in the fall of 2014 and anticipate moving in in time to celebrate our first Thanksgiving there in November 2015.

I decided a year ago to set a date to honor Mom while she’s still able to appreciate the gathering of family. She’s been thriving at the Grand Islander, very close to my brother and his family, where we moved her in February, 2013. At 88+ she has all her faculties which is amazing. I […]

Editor’s note: please read latest updates at the bottom. To encourage more walking (10,000 steps a day to strengthen my bones) I decided to get one of those digital pedometers. I wanted one worn on the wrist. I thought I’d share my research. FitBit is the most familiar name and has two models the Flex […]

If you haven’t already read my first post from last December about standing workstations you might want to start there. It includes the background and lots of links to resources. I found the saddle stool to be a bit too wide for my pelvis and didn’t use it much. I was coveting the newly discovered […]

I sit at my desk, often without getting up, for way too many hours a day. Over the years I’ve tried setting alarms to get me up imagining I’d do a little yoga or climb some stairs in the building. It never lasts long. I’ve been aware of the standing desk movement for 20+ years […]

In our 1998 newsletter I set a goal to be “in the best shape I’ve ever been in when I turn fifty” (December 1999). Among other markers I would measure this by being able to do an unassisted handstand and backbend. Well, it’s three years later and a lot has changed. The first section below […]

First published in Seattle Yoga Arts newsletter, Fall 1998 Updates follow include photos from SYA Calendar Yoga has been in the background of my life for a long time. I took my first class in 1971. My bookshelf includes such classics as Jess Stearn’s Youth, Yoga, and Reincarnation and Richard Hittleman’s Yoga: 28 Day Exercise […]

If you have been diagnosed with Osteopenia or Osteoporosis, as Sheila has, and don’t want to take Fosamax, there is a new weight vest that can add to your bone density. By adding weight high on the body your bone gets stronger while you walk, exercise or do chores. There is a lot of great […]

Pride & Joy: The Lives and Passions of Women Without Children by Terri Casey I am excited to tell you that my personal story has been included as a chapter in a book titled Pride and Joy: The Lives and Passions of Women Without Children by Terri Casey, published by Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., Fall […]

When event-planning is in your blood, you don’t leave something as big as your 50th birthday to chance. So it was that the first weekend in December, 1999 we took over the entire Annapurna Inn in Port Townsend and invited Sheila’s closest friends to spend the weekend. It was an ideal opportunity to share quality […]