Evidence

(Spent last weekend in Austin at STAPLE! — another great time with some terrific people — and out at Carol and Doug's. More to come later, including pictures of the tractor and the vineyard there.)

Dog Park! Now, with actual running!

Spring seems to have come early to Santa Fe — it's welcome, but we could use the water that more snow would bring. But, we'll see … plenty of time for it to turn again.

Brunch with James downtown, then a visit to the museums for a whirlwind tour of Through The Lens, Pulling Strings, and Alternative Spaces.

With the afternoon free and a sunny day, we drove Cheyenne over to the dog park at the Santa Fe Humane Society. We took her there New Year's afternoon; they have a big, fenced 22-acre space for all the dogs, and then a few smaller runs reserved for one group. We spent some time in the latter that day, with a dog who had no clear idea what she was supposed to be doing there, and not really enjoying the mud and ice on the ground.

Started off in one of the private parks again and actually got her to run — something we've not gotten to see yet — a bit between us, or when chasing a ball (though, then, only as fast as the ball and stopping when it did). So we moved over to the big group park.

Where she did fine, having a good time walking around the edges. She did kind of have a fondness for chasing after the smaller dogs (y'know, the prey animal sized ones) and could get a little rough when there was a scrum of activity around them. But she handled herself well, ran and frolicked around, chased the odd ball, and really wore herself out over the course of the couple hours we were there. We visited with plenty of nice dog owners and a wild assortment of pets, from the about-to-be-retired assistance Golden Retriever to the scrappy, one-eyed little (and I mean little) Rocket, to the rescued Westy, to the "family" of Husky-oids.

A lot of fun to have her off leash, to see what she does (and learn not to worry too much about it), and watch her run. I think we may have seen a bit of her going almost all-out — which is more than enough to leave us in the dust. Literally.

Coming Down from the Ridge

Publishing Empire, cont.

Finally, the new one we made with Jamie.

Internationally Ranked NMFF Fencers

I know this isn't about us — or even, if you can believe it, the dog — but we've got some pretty amazing news coming out of NMFF.

From coach Jamey Odom:

Jake Harbour and Gavin Medley finished higher than any other Americans last weekend [at the Cadet World Cup in Goteborg, Sweden]. Jake placed 5th and Gavin 9th in a field of Croatians, Russians, Canadians, Australians, Swedes, and Norwegians, to name a few.

This was an achievement of historic levels — by New Mexico fencing history, anyway. This is by far the top achievement of any New Mexican fencer. The fact that it is being done by two people is even more impressive. Both fencers attend Santa Fe Prep and maintain a superb GPA.

Gavin and Jake are poised to make the US World Cup Team by leading the points list with 1,900 and 1,890 points. The next closest fencer has 1,500 points. The final event to earn points before they announce the world team members is the Junior Olympics. This huge event just happens to be held in Albuquerque February 13-16. Jake and Gavin fence on the 13th and 15th from 1pm-4pm. Please come Sunday and cheer them on.

Jake and Gavin are both great guys, dedicated fencers and they've earned their top placements. Sadly, I can't claim any credit, I'm just another one of the fencers they roll over in practice.

Update: an article about them at the Santa Fe New Mexican; I'm way in the background in that photo.