MY YEAR SHALL BE NEWER!

Reminder: New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment.

New Mexico is Friggin Gorgeous

Emo album art?

Snowed-in In Santa Fe

Well here I am, in the desert Southwest, eager and ready to do some hardcore winter training. Well, the training gods have decided to test me, and my what a gauntlet they've thrown:

These pictures should tell you three things:
1. I've been a little "sepia-happy" these days.
2. Random things in Santa Fe are pretty cool looking when covered in snow.
3. It snowed a lot, and we're stuck in our driveway. Translation: I've been doing a lot of this:

Wow! Look at These Pictures of the Sun! Also, Mara Abbott (keeps) Kicking Ass!

Some scientist -- or not even, he's just an amateur astronomer and photographer -- has take some remarkable pictures of the sun. The world is filled with wonder everywhere you look; photos like this help remind me to pause and appreciate...just about everything. Alan Friedman, thank you for sharing your amazing photos of the sun with the internet. (You MUST click on these and appreciate them full-screen.)

And speaking of brilliant stars -- Mara Abbott, Whitman College's own, has received a spectacular honor. She, along with Taylor Phinney, were deemed "Athletes of the Year" by USA Cycling. Mara had inarguably her best season ever, winning the USA National Championships, the Giro Donne (women's Giro), and two stages of the Tour de l'Aude in France. Mara, still in the springtime of her career, is already in the Cycling Hall of Fame. Damn. Mara is a constant inspiration for me, and she makes all of her Whitman cyclist teammates very very proud. Congrats Mara. Keep it up.