One year ago today, Crossbo came to live with me. It's been a wonderful year. There's really not much to say that hasn't already been said, but I felt like I couldn't let the anniversary go completely unnoticed.

The word of the day was Yee-ha. In a day of continually evolving plans, Crossbo and I attended a local hunter pace/race event. The only thing I knew for sure in advance is that we were supposed to be there with beer. We lived up to that, and rolled with the ever-changing events.

Just in case anyone is still reading who doesn't know what a hunter pace is, it's an event where pairs of riders are timed on a cross-country course, and winning pair is the one that comes closest to some optimal time, which is not divulged to the riders in advance. Theoretically, it's a test of the riders' ability to maintain an ideal "hunter pace" over the course, hence the name. Realistically, it's closer to a crap shoot, but it's a load of fun.

I got email from my buddy Dennis Kucinich today. Before getting to the point (which was that he would appreciate a contribution to his Congressional campaign), he waxed eloquent about why we need more Congressmen like him (which we do). Among all the other wrongs committed by his less-enlightened Congressional colleagues, he mentioned that the average American family will spend perhaps $25,000 just on the Iraq War. Destroying another country for no good reason is bad enough ... but charging me $25,000 to do it really pisses me off. I'd rather buy a new truck.

As a public service to all the visitors who are being sent here by Google searches (surely you didn't really think old-fashioned Spalding's Bakery would have a website), I'll provide the important information before my babble. Spalding's new location is on Winchester Road, across from the peanut butter factory, near McDonald's. Store hours are 6:30-noon Weds-Sunday.

Another hunt season has ended, and I'm still alive. According to my calendar, I hunted 35 times this season, 14 on Arthur and 21 on Crossbo. And I almost had one very good statistic, a big zero for total falls. I ruined that streak yesterday, the last day of the season. I don't think I've ever had a perfect season, and I came so close this time. The worst part about it was that I was riding Crossbo, so I ruined his perfect record too.

UPDATE -- They're open!
It's that time of year when signs of coming goodness are beginning to appear. Birds are singing. Flowers are budding. Foals are frolicking. Grass is greening. As I've mentioned before, my official indicator of spring is my first glimpse of a bare navel walking across campus, and I saw that last week. This year, Spring brings us yet another anticipated joy, as a recent comment on an old story reminded me.

Today brought some ups and downs and interesting quirks. It started out great. Crossbo's mystery lameness disappeared yesterday and he was feeling sassy today. I decided to play it safe and give him some more time off, but that was no problem because Arthur was also feeling in his prime. With a 2:00 PM hunt, I had lots of time to relax and prepare without rushing. I should have known Murphy's law would have to kick in sometime.

You may have noticed that things look a little different here. We have a new and improved, or at least new, look. To take care of a few little bugs, I upgraded to the newest release of the Geeklog software that drives this site. I was too lazy to make all the changes necessary to make my old theme continue to work with the new release, so I switched to the default "Professional" theme supplied with the software. I might make a few minor adjustments in the near future, but unless there's a major backlash from faithful readers (see the poll), this is probably our new look.

Wow .. it's been a month since my last post. I suppose it's not much of an excuse that February was a short month. There just hasn't been much that I thought was worth writing about. That doesn't mean I've been a total couch potato. In fact, last week I was busy breaking in a new pair of Dehners.

My boss sent me a reference to this article about one of the most potentially horrifying effects of global climate change. But it wasn't a surprise to me. I had already seen a reference to a similar article on my former boss's blog. It's nice to know that I work with people who understand so well how grave a problem this could be.