Recommended Reading

You really must read THIS blog post written by Alaskan blogger Ti.  I personally found it refreshing and inspiring.

If you'd like to, you can read my first ever contribution to Geargals, HERE, which is basically the opposite of Ti's post and totally frivolous.  But maybe then go back and re-read Ti's post to get you back in the mood of awesome.

Dreaming

If you're like me, you spend an inordinate amount of time engaged in daydreams that are so absurd you feel a little embarrassed for yourself each time you catch yourself legitimately agonizing over whether you just "regular" save the entire town by chance (in some boring cliche manner) or whether you do so covertly to hide the fact that you're a highly trained super secret operative (whatever an operative is).  These are not my daydreams obviously -- just an illustration.  (If you don't spend a lot of time running/hiking/biking and/or on the road in your car or on planes, maybe you don't spend much time in pretend-land, dunno if this is normal). 

Anyhow, at the Banff Mountain Film Festival there was one film that fed one of my consistent daydreams -- being part of some sort of major polar expedition.  These two guys from Australia, who came across as fairly regular guys with tremendous ambition and chutzpah, successfully walked to the South Pole and back, being among the first to do so (a funny Norwegian beat them to it more or less but waited for them near the end so they could all finish together, very touching).  If you can watch the movie, I highly recommend it.

I really really really want to do something like this.  I'm going to.  Not sure what, exactly.  (I've commissioned Jill to come up with something since my daydreams don't typically involve real places or things that relate to reality).  But I'm so excited about the (at least imagined) possibility of making pretend a reality.  Why not.

Sonja's Adventures in Murder

you have seen this already if you're my Facebook friend

I was in Missoula for work and received this photo texted from one of my neighbors.  Just moments earlier I had received a call from a different neighbor letting me know that the dogs had escaped and Sonja killed a chicken.  There were police (three squad cars) there and everything.  Secretly I was glad that I couldn't do anything and poor Ted had to go handle the situation.

After talking to one of the police officers, I learned that the chicken owner declined restitution stating "it's only a chicken" or something like that.  We wanted to do something neighborly and apologetic since it's still a pretty terrible thing to have your chicken (what if it were a pet?) murdered in cold blood in the middle of a work day.

After getting a rough guesstimate of the address, I delivered a card and restaurant gift certificate to the neighbor who seemed to be the appropriate neighbor.  She called that day saying it was sweet but all her chickens were fine, and really they're just chickens.  I then delivered the card to the neighbor who my neighbor who took the incriminating photo thought it was.  Nope.  Wrong neighbor.  She believed it was across the street and that perhaps his chickens were running loose again -- he was in the process of fixing his fence.

Not wanting to repeat this more than a few more times, I knocked on the door.  It was his chicken.  "Happens all the time" he said.  Well, I sincerely doubt that but who knows.  He was rushing out to go hunting and didn't really have time for more than a handshake and brief introduction.  All the other chickens were fine and uninjured he claimed.  Neighbor relations achieved.

Next week we are slated to appear in City Court for having loose dogs.  Our first appearance in front of the new District Court Judge -- Ted's new boss and all.  Never a dull moment with our dogs.  It did occur to me that our neighbors' chorus of "it's only a chicken" might not be heard in other parts of the country.  We're lucky I guess to live where chickens are "just" chickens rather than prized pets.  Or are there such places?  Clearly I was not raised on a farm.  And should not get backyard chickens.

EDITED: Oh yes there are such places.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/nyregion/displaced-by-storm-couple-seeks-rental-with-access-to-chicken-coop.html?hp&_r=0

Blah blah blah

Sheikh Yourbooty (on the right) and Kathy on the left (not a great pic of Kathy but didn't take enough pics of Ted's Halloween costume so this is the best of him)

After a whirlwind of adventuring I've been, well, working.  I know, not that exciting.  I am planning on White Mountains 100 in March, if I get in (I am 4th on the waiting list) and plan to throw my name in the hat for Western States, though it's extremely unlikely that I will get in (which is just as well).  Ted and I have a couple legitimate vacations planned.  We're going to Key West for Christmas and Mexico in late March. 

From a training perspective I plan to focus on getting faster between now and February (not really because it will help me at White Mountains but because it feels good and involves shorter workouts).  I think my endurance base is good enough to just ski tour/skin up the mountain again this winter and try to make sure I get a few longer days in.  So really I don't plan to train... (as per usual). 

That is all.  I will have little to report for awhile so until I come up with something interesting to say, which happens never... ok until I take more pretty pictures, see you.