Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays, everyone! See you next year.....

Guatamalan Insanity Peppers

Three times this week I've come across coyotes in Mac Forest. Today I even managaed to get a picutre of one. I had gone months and months without seeing a coyote. I'm not sure why I keep seeeing them this week.

Everytime I see one, I think of an episode of the Simpsons, where Homer eats the Guatamalan insanity pepper, and meets a coyote with the voice of Johnny Cash, who turns out to be his Spirit guide. Sadly, this coyote just looked at me for a while, then trotted off into the woods. No spiritual guidance was offered or received. Maybe I need to start with a Guatamalan insanity pepper. I'll keep an eye out for one.

Tahoe in July, Anyone?

Yesterday was the Western States lottery. (The "winners" of the lottery get to run the 100 mile race in June). We had a party at a friend's house with all the local lottery entrants, and watched as the results showed up on the web, one at a time. It was a good party, but not a good lottery, as none of us managed to get picked. So I won't be running that particular race this year.



But, before leaving the party I committed to a plan B: the Tahoe Rim 100 miler on July 19-20 (http://www.tahoemtnmilers.org/trt50/). My friend Scott signed up as well. I'm not sure who twisted who's arm, but we're both signed up, and working on twisting a few more friends' arms to join us.

On the entry form, I had to click a box certifying that I don't need a parent or guardian's signature, because I'm at least 18, and not "mentally challenged". Go ahead and insert your own joke about wanting to run 100 miles and being mentally challenged.

So this morning figured I'd better get a good long run. Only 7 months to train for this thing, eh? So I froze my butt off on a soggy, windy day. But near the top of the hills there was some nice snow. So I enjoyed that. My soaked feet enjoyed that less.

I also saw a pair of coyotes this morning on my run. One even stuck around a while and stared at me while I stared at him. Or her. (I wasn't close enough to tell). After a minute or two it walked off down the road. I tried to sneak after it for a while. I was sort've crouching on the side of the road, trying to stay hidden, when another running friend happened to come around the corner the other way. She probably thought I was some wierdo, creeping up the road while trying to stay hidden. She hadn't seen the coyote. :-)


Avery said something this morning that I'm pretty sure I've never said. She'd been playing on a toy phone, and I asked what she did with it when she was done. "I hung up" she said. "That's what you do when you're done with the phone - you hang up. Or press '1' for more options".
That last bit really cracked us up.