Eating Green

"If there was a superwoman of the vegetable world, Vegetus would be her name — she’d run around on lean celery-stalk legs, wave robust carrot fingers and command people to eat their spinach and drink V8 juice." -my latest in Inside Columbia. Read all about it.
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29000+ Feet

Our first movie outing in Santa Fe... appropriately, we spent the first part of the day on a mountain ourselves...

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String

Winkley and her Christmas present.

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Westward Ho!

"Missouri had long been the portal of American expansion, the pad where great expeditions were outfitted and adventures launched, the place where the westering fever burned at its highest pitch. It was the flash point, the port of embarkation." -learning about the Santa Fe Trail in Blood & Thunder: An Epic of the American West.
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Hole in the Wall

"The walls were plastered with clay, and the ceilings still have soot from the fires that were used for light, heat and cooking." -my Santa Fe guidebook's description of the caves at Bandalier National Monument. Went yesterday -- fantastic.
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Snow Hound

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Christmas Eve Hike

"Of course, people do go both ways." -The Wizard of Oz (thought of this during our trek up Atalaya Mountain yesterday -- 9,100+ feet -- and of course we took the steeper route).

Merry Christmas!

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Fast Food, Literally

"We had a deer crash through one of our dining room windows...one of our employees was a high school football player and ran into the dining room, cornered the deer and pulled him out of the restaurant in a headlock. It was a pretty amazing event to review on surveillance video!" -the owner of several mid-Missouri Taco Bell's tells us a story in the current Inside Columbia's CEO.
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Running Clubs

"Twenty-page paper newsletters are the primary means of shuffling information among members (and the fact that I produce these documents eight times a year using a computer still amazes some of the old timers)." -my musings on the Columbia Track Club. Read the rest of my post about running clubs on RunnersWorld.com
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Say a little prayer

Newsroom happiness :)
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Christmas Cookies

"What's on the calendar for Christmas? More cookies in the toaster oven?" -e-mail from Jan. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
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Santa Fe National Forest

"If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything." -Alan Watts

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Let it Dough

See the rest here.
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Value Meal

"Beer has food value, but food has no beer value." -printed on the bottom of our receipt at Second Street Brewery.
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First Snow Day of 2010

Snow at Outside. Several inches and counting!

"Winter came down to our home one night, quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow." -Bill Morgan, Jr.

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Registration Confirmation

May 7, 2011!
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Audience

"It comes back to the question, whom are you writing for? Who are the readers you want? Who are the people you want to engage with the things that matter most to you?" -writer Amy Hempel
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Working World

"I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works." -Oscar Wilde

First week at Outside!

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Yesterday's Run

Up a mountain to 8,612 feet elevation; 8 miles in almost 2.5 hours.

"Endurance is patience concentrated." -Thomas Carlyle.

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On Track

"The railroad is held in highest favor by the optimist, for it permits him to make transit with great expedition." -Ambrose Bierce
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Downtown Santa Fe

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Stop? Maybe?

"Always look both ways before crossing a one-way street in New Mexico." -advice given to me during last night's run with the Santa Fe Striders. There are definitely some scary drivers in this town.
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C is for Cookie

"I want to have a good body, but not as much as I want dessert." -humorist Jason Love.

Turns out you can make cookies in a toaster oven....

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Later Gator

"The big news is that long time employee Matt 'Homeslice' Dreier up and moved with his wife to Santa Fe. We will miss him dearly and hope he is having fun running up mountains and bombing down them on his bike." -latest Tryathletics newsletter. Kind of sad :(
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Up up and away

"8,603." -our altitude on today's hike to Picacho Peak.
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Sustainability

On the wall at the Santa Fe Farmers' Market.
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Ho Ho No

"Santa Run called off for snow." -read the article here.
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Moo to You

On the wall at the Ranch House Cafe in Canyon, Texas.
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At the Gas Station

"Don't go trying to be all masculine on her." -a truck driver's way of telling Matt to let me do my share of the driving to Santa Fe.
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And Another One...

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Lunch stop

"Do what you want to be right or be happy." -sign outside of a pawn shop in Stroud, Oklahoma.
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Oh yes

"Land of Enchantment." -New Mexico's nickname. Preparing to be enchanted.
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Moving

"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." -Conrad Hilton
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Into the Wild

"I prefer the saddle to the streetcar and star-sprinkled sky to a roof, th eobscure and difficult trail, leadinginto the unknown, to any paved highway, and the dep peace of th wild to the discontent bred by cities." -Everett Ruess, in his last letter before perishing in the wilderness in 1934.

Headed West this week! Sooooo excited!

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Little Bit Sad

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Sweet Stuff

"Whitney Dreier walked away with third place." -recap of the Holiday Pie Contest in the Columbia Tribune. If the whole journalism thing doesn't work out, maybe I'll just open a bakery...?
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Thankful

"Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds." -Theodore Roosevelt

And in pies.

Happy Turkey Day!

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Paws Up

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Headed SW

"Moving to New Mexico is apparently moving to a foreign country." -a line from a funny article about the problems New Mexicans encounter with the "outside world." Let's hope we won't have similar experiences...
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Hooray, Columbia!

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Ciao for Now

"Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends." -Richard Bach.

Nice "going away dinner" last night!

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On the Move

"I always tell my kids if you lay down, people will step over you. But if you keep scrambling, if you keep going, someone will always, always give you a hand. Always. But you gotta keep dancing, you gotta keep your feet moving." -Morgan Freeman
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Does a body good

Trail run @ Rock Bridge this a.m.!
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Me me me me

"He argued that all people are selfish, but that the combined selfishness of many people benefits everyone. He wrote, '[We are] led by an invisible hand ... without knowing it, without intending it, [to] advance the interest of the society.'" -thoughts about Adam Smith's 1759 The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
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Pizza Truck

As seen on RAGBRAI during the summer:
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People thoughts

"You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do." -Eleanor Roosevelt.

True, although there are certainly exceptions, I think...

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Monkey Food

"When you eat a piece of fruit as a snack, instead of a package of Oreos, you feel good about yourself, almost like you’ve built a well in one of those African villages which needed a well, or like you’ve run a half-marathon." -a New Yorker article about bananas. I actually disagree with the author's dislike of bananas, but I found his writing quite humorous (even though his use of "which" in the quote above should be "that" according to AP style. Likely not a Mizzou grad.).
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Amen

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Synchronized ... cycling?

Watch the video here. Incredible.
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Typo

Needless to say, I will not be running this 5k.
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Talking with Tom

"I told him he was the best Jefferson statue I’d ever seen..." -part of my first-person essay for Virginia magazine.
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Up Above

"I always knew I loved the sky,
the way it seems solid and insubstantial at the same time;
the way it disappears above us
even as we pursue it in a climbing plane,
like wishes or answers to certain questions—always out of reach;
the way it embodies blue,
even when it is gray."

-Linda Pastan

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Always Write

"A page of good prose remains invincible." -The Journals of John Cheever
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Go Forth

"There is only one success -- to be able to spend your life in your own way." -Christopher Morley
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Oh, Paula

NYC Marathon is today:)

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Bring it On

"Your day is about to get better." -guy from the Tribune who called to tell me I'm a finalist for the paper's annual pie contest. Amazing.
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Race Across the Sky

Race Across The Sky 2010 from Citizen Pictures on Vimeo.

Saw this last night -- very inspiring!

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Run Smart

"The Chicken will accompany us; he claims to be tired of being 'cooped' up & is looking forward to the opportunity to flap his wings & make some noise among friends!" -Nancy informs members of our running-club-turned-trivia-team that the Chicken will be making an appearance at Friday's trivia event to benefit the Farmers' Market.
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Autographs

"I wonder how many copies I'll have to sign?" -Kruzer contemplates his new found celebrity status during our phone conversation yesterday (as mentioned in Saturday's post, he's got six pages of fame in this month's Inside Columbia).
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High Achievers

“I can honestly say educators believe they have the same expectations for all students, but perhaps we have different expectations without really even realizing it." -Hickman's principal on race relations at the high school. Read more in my Inside Columbia article about minority students who are breaking stereotypes.
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Tasty

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Happy Halloween

Trick or treat!

"Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." -Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven.

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Mental Disability

“I can learn like you can, but it takes me longer to learn.” -Jon Kruse, in my latest Inside Columbia article. Read it here.
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Good Pain

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Pop

"A judge just came into my office as I popped bubble gum on my face." -text from Tricia (Trish, maybe one day when you're a super-star Supreme Court judge, blowing bubbles will be your signature trait).

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Forced Idleness

Well, it was severely shortened, but it is nonetheless a post on Runner's World: "My quads ached, my hamstrings tightened, my knees buckled, and my blistered feet oozed and bled. A toenail on my left foot turned black and fell off. Walking was tedious; stairs were mountains too steep to contemplate." Read the rest here.
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Contentment

"I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books music, love for one's neighbor -- such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps -- what more can the heart of a man desire?" -Tolstoy's "Family Happiness."
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Going Ape

"Where humans are caged and monkeys run wild." -slogan for Monkey Jungle...where we met King the gorilla, May the Orangutan and lots of other little primates, including some who swam and others who had trunk-like tails for grabbing food. Amazing.
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Sunday in Miami

"A traveler. I love his title. A traveler is to be reverenced as such. His profession is the best symbol of our life. Going from -- toward; it is the history of every one of us." -Henry David Thoreau

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GameDay

M-I-Z......Z-O-U!
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Personal Best

“I don’t want to let the other girls get too far ahead of me...I pretty much try and focus really hard on the person in front of me.” - Kim Smith as quoted in a NYT article about elite athletes pushing past the pain during competition.

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Cookie Monster

"There’s no way to stop warm, fuzzy feelings for a warm, fuzzy monster." -my latest on InsideColumbia.net
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Tough Times

"These students have signed up for journalism school knowing that's the climate they're facing, and they're not thinking 'doom and gloom' ... There's something exciting happening in our industry. These folks want to become part of that." -from NPR's recent article "What's the Point of Journalism School, Anyway?"

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Am I Mad?

"You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are." -Alice of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Watched it Sunday night; cute film.
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Never too old

"This is my first time making apple cider." -Matt's 96-year-old aunt Helen helps out on the farm yesterday. Amazingly, she is older than the antique cider press we were using (made in 1921).

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