Brrrr! Merry Christmas!

Christmas came today and with it a beautiful clear and of course cold day. It also brought wonderful friends and a realization that even with wonderful, thoughtful presents the most important thing is the love of the people around us. Yvonne beat Santa to our house by about 8 hours and settled in with Grandma Gimli to stay with us for a few days. After opening our gifts from Santa and each other, we went for a walk to catch the few minutes of sun above the horizon.

The three Musketeers, (me, Dave and Yvonne), back together again. I can't wait to go on a run together tomorrow. I might take Vonnie out for 5 hours (she says 4) while Dave gives his first run a try after "the fall".

My two Daves, in their new hats.

Cheating just a bit, as Dave and took this picture a couple weeks ago while on our first long training run, 5.5 hours. But it puts me in the holiday spirit and makes me thankful for everything in my life this year- love, health and a group of family and friends that anyone would be lucky to have.

And in case I don't get to an end of year post, I'll repeat Josh's sentiment that explains the general happenings of 2010:

"We are all half crazy

and all at least half alright."

Word.

Musings of a Sled Nerd

So Jiggs and I are getting to know each other. Jiggs being the Little Orange Sled That Could. Besides trying to jump the gun a bit on the downhills, he's the perfect little plastic partner to set me on my course to insanity, I mean serenity. The dogs are loving the role reversal game. Agate likes to run along side with Jiggs, scoping out the situation. She is very clear, though, on her feelings about pulling a sled: "Don't look at me, Dude. I've done my time on the chain gang. What part of retired don't you understand? And you call that a sled? That's a plastic little scoop with a 15# weight in it. Geez. Amateurs."

Sigh. No respect from the doglot.

Dave's been indulging me and taking me and Jiggs out. At night. In the wee frosty night. I think we've got the cold weather running thing down. Icebugs, check. Neck gaiter, check. Foot gaiters, check. Boyfriend that tolerates your mental lapses, check:

Jiggs has a new bumper sticker: "Will run for chocolate". We all have our vices....

"A man needs something he can hold on to

A nine pound hammer or a woman like you.

Either one of them things will do."

Thanks, Ray.

I swore I'd never do this.....

....running with a sled, that is. I distinctly remember running the Little Su 50K last year with Yvonne, looking at those fools, thinking, "those fools." Yup, now I'm one of those fools. Someone, you know who you are, convinced me that the Susitna 100-miler would be fun. So, here I am, signed up for Susitna, never having pulled a sled. Not to worry, Dave to the rescue. this weekend, we put our training sleds together and headed out on the trail, 6 inches of new snow on the ground. It wasn't long before Dave realized what he'd gotten into. "Where are we? And why are we in this handbasket?":

As Yvonne can attest to, running long distances in the snow with me as a running partner is not always easy, with my black cloud ready to arrive at any moment. But Dave swears he'll stuff me full of Reece's peanut butter cups and that's all it will take. Well, maybe a little more than that...

Running the Highland trail:

Notice there are no dogs around. They're way up ahead, laughing at their good fortune of free-running all winter while we pull the sleds. The two partners in crime. Still smiling- first run went off without a hitch. Well no major hitches, just some minors ones involving off-trail wanderings, thin ice and some healthy sled-kicking. Just working out the kinks.

Of course, my new friend, the little orange guy in the picture, needs a name. So if you see us out there, it's Me and Jiggs:

"Me and my friends in the park drinking beer underneath the tree

Lying on your back as the sun goes down, you know it's perfect 'cause you've got to leave.

On a Saturday night in a town like this I forget all my songs about trains

A bar with a jukebox you on my arm heaven and earth are pretty much the same.

And I'm not sure I can make you stay

Sun's going down it's the end of the day..."

Next up, finally a couple trip posts...

Later days....

We are all half crazy....

...and all at least half alright. That's right, Josh. That just about sums it up. Today, I visited the Whistler collection at Glasgow University and an Exhibit called "The Glasgow Boys", of several local painters in the late 1800s. Both were excellent. I just got back from Josh Ritter. Just awesome. First time I've seen him with a band, and they were great. They all looks pretty nerdy and have got to lose the mustaches, but otherwise, perfect:

"If I could trace the line that ran

between your smile and your slight of hand,

I'd guess that you put something up my sleeve.

Now every time I see your face,

Bells ring in a far off place.

We can find each other, this way I believe."

I'm off to start the West Highland Way tomorrow.

Bye Bye, city.

P.S. - I'm now addicted to the Stieg Larsson series. Thank god #3 is in paperback over here already. Now I'm convinced everyone over here is ensconced in some kind of illegal activity. Don't worry. I'm resourceful. Salander is a good teacher.

Embarcadero Skies

Well, I made it, mom. No worries, as they say over here (for just about everything, actually- thanks, your welcome, here's your espresso). I'm staying in a hotel close to the West side, by Glasgow Univ. There's a great park, Kelvensgrove, about a 5 minute walk away. You can see the university campus in the background: You can also see that it's sunny. I think somebody told me it rains over here... I found all of this shortly after arriving because I couldn't check in right away. So off I went exploring, which Glasgow is great for- walking around- they make it really easy with a lot of pedestrian-only streets and a compact downtown area. After checking in, I took a nap and then.... Headed to Wilco at Barrowland across town. Once again, an awesome show. Jeff was...not unhappy. Very strange to see his angst morph into...less angst. He even talked to the crowd. He was happy to be among what he called "his people"- he said "I've been waiting to come back, I missed you guys in Glasgow. You're my people. You're all grumpy, right?" Ah, that sums it up nicely. Though I love Jeff and relate so much to his grumpiness, the real star of the night was Nels Cline: What a rock star. He is incredible with a guitar. They played all my favorite songs- Via Chicago, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, Red eyed, "When you're back in your old neighborhood...." and the following: "I have no idea how this happened All of my mouths have been overthrown. Happenstance has changed my plans so many times, my heart has been outgrown." It got quiet at one point and some guy in the crowd yells "We love Wilco!" and Jeff looks at him and says "well, I'd presume that why you're here...". heh, heh. After the show I somehow got into a conversation with a group of guys about the Kings of Convenience and they found out I was from Alaska. One of them was aghast (as only a scot can be) that I wasn't on Facebook. "you're from Alaska! If there's anywhere you need social networking, I'd think that'd be the place!" There were a lot of other words thrown in there but I didn't really understand them. Thanks, Wilco. So today I went off exploring for Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis. I stopped to have some fish and chips and a pint. No, that's not Guacamole. It's "mushy peas". Taste and texture just like you'd imagine. So the signage is funny over here. Somehow, this translates to "No littering". Now, I didn't think really hard about it but if somebody could help me out with this one... And lastly, the Necropolis. So behind the Cathedral, there's this big hill that was used as a cemetery for the Merchant class in the 1800s. It's awesome. There are mausoleums and huge headstones and it towers over the city. It's amazing to see the headstones at the top of the hill with high rises and smokestacks in the background. Tomorrow- art day and Josh Ritter. Gotta go, it's costing me 2 pounds per 1/2 hour. Cheers!

I wanna be your Kingpin...

Beautiful day to be alive, at the top of Mat Peak. Are your ears still ringing, Dave? You've been the hot topic of conversation lately. Take care of that T.

McCarthy comin' soon....

Ahhhh......

A hard days' work, a run with the dogs through the woods and a Guinness. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were here. Cheers.