This week's subject was suggested by Photographics:
 
All creatures great and small

Well... from me this time, not ALL, but SOME of my favorite creatures --

Everyone is welcome to join in. All you have to do is post one or more photos regarding this subject on your site and comment OVER HERE that you have posted, so we can all come by and have a look.

Each Friday there will be a new challenge as long as you keep sending in subjects. (See the previous and upcoming subjects.)

The photo challenge is not a contest. It's not about who comes up with the best photo or who has the most expensive equipment. It is about people from all over the world who love taking pictures. There's enough competition going on in the world, so you can't win anything, except maybe some new Xanga friends.

Have fun!

I love it when a punch line sneaks up on me.  A joke that could be a groaner if I anticipated the denouement can have me chuckling off and on all day if it catches me by surprise.

Do you follow Doonesbury?  This week, I have been getting to know Toggle, a young veteran of Iraq with TBI (traumatic brain injury, but I suppose everyone knows that by now, unfortunately).  A couple of days ago his overbearing and overprotective mother made a disparaging remark about the physical appearance of Toggle's "girlfriend" whom he has met on Facebook, but not IRL.  Mom compared the girl to an animal.  I recalled this when I saw todays strip where the girl's identity was revealed, but I couldn't recall what animal it was, so I went into the archives and found that strip.  A terrier... I might have said she looks like a cockatoo.

But wait, there's more!

Hunt and Peck split up at the back of the pack.

For most of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Tim Hunt, DVM, and Alan Peck, both rookie mushers this year, have traveled with a loose pack of rookies at the back of the race.  Since the checkpoint of Shageluk on the fifteenth, they had been entering and leaving every checkpoint within ten or fifteen minutes of each other, as the rest of that rookie pack moved ahead, gaining one, then two checkpoints on Hunt and Peck.

At Kaltag on March 19, they entered at the same minute, rested an identical length of time, and left together.   I speculated yesterday that they might end up tossing a coin in Safety to determine which one of them would get the Red Lantern.  But then last night before I got off the computer I refreshed the standings one last time and saw that Dr. Tim had already checked into Unalakleet a couple of hours earlier, and Alan Peck was still shown out on the trail from Kaltag.  I told Greyfox when he called that I was concerned about Peck and his team.

As of 9:24 this morning, Dr. Tim Hunt was shown in Shaktoolik for almost an hour, and Alan Peck apparently still had not reached Unalakleet.  The next time I refreshed, on an update time-stamped at 9:38, it showed that Hunt and Peck had jumped up one position in the standings, even though their geographical locations hadn't changed.  That was because the other Peck, Aaron, whose team was down to six dogs when he checked into Elim yesterday, had scratched.  I still haven't a clue where Alan Peck is.  I reiterate:  next year I will find a way to pay for the GPS Tracker subscription.

[UPDATE:  Alan Peck checked into Unalakleet at 12:25, about eleven hours after Dr. Tim had checked out of there, and four hours after Tim Hunt checked into Shaktoolik.  Three and a quarter hours after checking in, Peck was still in Unalakleet.]

Out in Nome, it is official:  Chad Lindner of Fairbanks finished in 30th place Friday, after 12 days, 4 hours, 22 minutes, to earn Rookie of the Year honors.

There have been two more dog deaths.  A five year old male named Maynard in the team of Warren Palfrey died on the trail between Safety and Nome late Thursday.  An eight year old male named Omen in the team of Rick Larson died between Elim and White Mountain Friday.

To end on a happier note, when Jessie Royer, the leading woman in this year's Iditarod, finished 8th at 5:07 AM the 19th, eleven minutes behind Aaron Burmeister, for her second top-ten finish (she was 8th in '05, too), observers noted that the tails on all 13 of her dogs were wagging.  That means something.  It's notable, and it had also been noted that Lance Mackey's dogs were wagging their tails as they won the championship.

I am eagerly anticipating tomorrow's announcements of the awards, particularly the Golden Harness for the lead dog of the year, and the Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award for exemplary dog care.

I'm going to go stand by the wood stove for a while now, to warm my hands before I do some more reading on Xanga.  I have not plugged in the electric heater under the computer desk -- on principle -- it is the Equinox, fercrissakes.  This morning when I got up it was nine below zero outside.  As I made coffee (no mishaps this time) and had breakfast, I watched as the temperature dropped a few degrees.  Last time I looked it had turned around and was up to minus 6.  Spring is here!  Now -- when, dammit, is breakup gonna come?

The Iditarod website calls it Day 14, but it has really been only 12 days since the real start in Willow.  I guess it's irrelevant.  They have it right in the standings.  The latest team into Nome is Robert Nelson in 29th position at 12:15:41 with 12 dogs in a time of 11 days 22 hours 15 minutes 41 seconds.

You can check the standings yourself for details.  I'll hit some highlights here.

Mackey won again, of course, only the third musher in history to win three Iditarods in a row, with 15 dogs (his full starting team minus Chucko), setting a record for winning with the most nearly intact team (most dogs left at finish, fewest dropped along the way, etc.)  After Schnuelle in second and Baker in third place, the rest of the top ten came in close together yesterday:
Mitch Seavey with 10 dogs
Cim Smyth with 9 dogs
Dallas Seavey with 9 dogs
Aaron Burmeister with 10 dogs
Jessie Royer with 13 dogs
Ramey Smyth with 8 dogs
Hans Gatt with 13 dogs

Jessie Royer was the first woman into Nome.  Dee Dee Jonrowe finished thirteenth, Aliy Zirkle seventeenth (Her husband Allen Moore is in White Mountain at this time, in 34th position.  She must have gotten first pick of the dogs this year. ), and Judy Currier finished 26th.

"Huge Mess" Hugh Neff, who finished fifteenth, got some serious frostbite in the wind on Norton Sound.

Two mushers who surprised a few people this year by finishing out of the top ten were four-time champion and current holder of the all-time fastest under-nine-days speed record,  Martin Buser, in 18th place, and the only five-time champion, Rick Swenson, in 25th.

Chad Lindner is out of White Mountain now, in 30th position, practically assured of the title Rookie of the Year, unless something serious happens to him or his team.  Next rookie after him, Harry Alexie, is currently waiting out his 8 hour layover in White Mountain in 36th position.  He will not be eligible to hit the trail until after 6 this evening.

Jen Seavey dropped one of her pups-in-training in Eagle Island.  She and the remaining 15 yearlings got into Shaktoolik in 48th position, more than an hour ahead of Tim Osmar and Rachael Scdoris.

Alan Peck and Timothy Hunt are keeping each other company at the back of the pack.  They might end up using a coin flip at the end, as others have done before them, to decide who goes first and who gets to keep the Red Lantern trophy for last place.  Or, they might, as others have done, turn it into a race from Safety.  I guess it depends on whether they think of the Red Lantern as a trophy or a booby prize.

Ed Iten and Melissa Owens were the latest mushers to scratch.  Rob Loveman and his fans are reportedly disgruntled over his being compusorily withdrawn as non-competitive.

The Awards Banquet in Nome is scheduled for Sunday, March 22, at 3:30 PM.  Given where the remaining teams are on the trail and their average speeds thus far, it looks likely that Alan Peck and Dr. Tim Hunt won't be in Nome by then, but Jen Seavey and the 23 other teams still on the trail could make it.  Unless something intensely interesting happens before then, my next Iditarod Update will cover the Awards Banquet and the awards.

I have a backlog of tasks waiting to be done, and the brain fog takes some of them off the top of the list, at least until some of that fog clears.  If I had been thinking straight, I would have had a Coke this morning to get my caffeine level up before I tried to make coffee.  First, I put everything together right, except for leaving the carafe in the other room.  Without it under the spout to trip that little spring valve, the water and grounds backed up and overflowed down into the machine and eventually over the counter and onto the stovetop and floor.

I cleaned up the external mess, gave the coffeemaker a thorough internal cleaning, put a filter in, loaded it with grounds, poured water into the tank, pushed the button, then noticed that I had left out the spouted insert that holds the paper filter.  That wasted some grounds and made another mess before I pushed the button, unplugged the machine, and cleaned it again.

As I typed the first paragraph above and sipped my much delayed and more costly than usual coffee, my French toast was scorching on the grill.  I would call it burned, but that would make it inedible and I need the blood sugar too much to wait for a new batch -- with no assurance that the second wouldn't, under the circumstances, come out worse than the first.

Experience has taught me not to try some things, such as psychic readings, when the M.E. flares up this severely.  Wouldn't you know it?  ...suddenly, after weeks with none to do, Greyfox has done two past-life readings for me to complete and post, and somebody has questions for me to answer.  They will wait.  Greyfox's have been waiting already, while his attention was otherwise occupied with making a living and keeping prior commitments.

Today's brain fog is piggy-backing on some sensorimotor deficits (AKA stumbling and fumbling) that have been going on for weeks, and ravenous hypoglycemia that set in after my last trip to town.  I'm a wreck, and have an appointment at the clinic on Monday.  Going anywhere at all is strenuous and fatiguing.  Going to the clinic is also fraught with other hazards, including stupid people and opportunistic infections just waiting to attack my compromised immune system.  I am aware that I need to avoid setting myself up for self-fulfilling prophecies, but it is hard not to predict trouble when past experience has led me to expect it.

To think that at one phase in my life I spent good money on bad drugs to make me feel this dopey.

I will be back later with Iditarod news, maybe, and maybe with one or two of the blogs that didn't get done while I was doing race updates every day.  O...BTW, somebody hates me for my reporting.   My writing is making an impact!

REMINDER:

I will give a gift of 12 months of Premium Xanga to each of the two people I think need it the most.  There could also be one six-month Premium Xanga gift for a runner-up.  Let me explain...

On second thought, I'll explain at the end of this entry, so that everyone doesn't just click off into the ozone right just yet.

What got me started today was thinking about how European courtroom groupies have been robbed of their fun twice this month.

First, gigolo of the year, Helg Sgarbi--

...who some people say looks like Lembit Opik (and, by the way, just who is Lembit Opik, anyway?)--

...pled guilty and got -- what, seven years? ...nine? -- for seducing and swindling BMW heiress Susanne Klatten--

and three other wealthy women.  I, for one, had been hoping to learn more about mysterious reclusive Italian sex guru Ernano Barretta--

...who allegedly operated the camera that made the videotape that Sgarbi used to threaten Klatten, and who is said to have told police that Sgarbi wasn't born with that name, but was actually the son of a Polish man forced by Nazis into slave labor for Klatten's father.  Loose ends... I hate missing pieces and loose ends and untold stories.

More recently, just as it was looking as if there would be a long and juicy trial for Josef Fritzl--

who kept his daughter as a sex slave in a secret cellar underneath the family home for 24 years, he, after viewing the daughter's video testimony, changed his plea to guilty and goes quietly into a secure psychiatric facility for the rest of his life.

That's one story that I, for one, have heard more than enough of.

But back to the tabloids.  Once in a while, among the stories about celebrities I never heard of, and disgusting pictures that keep papparazzi from starvation while keeping a few fat and/or intoxicated celebrities awake nights, there's a cute one like this, of Christina Ricci and her new boyfriend, Owen Benjamin.

A year or so ago, I don't exactly remember when, I noticed that ArmsMerchant's comments didn't display the "Life" badge.  I thought I had bought him Lifetime Premium Xanga... but then doubts crept in.  Worried that his Premium was going to run out, I started working to earn enough Xanga credits -- 100,000 at the time, to give him the gift of Lifetime Premium Xanga.

With widgets and surveys and Welcome Wagon (mostly WW), I piled up the credits.  By the time I discovered that the absence of Greyfox's Life badge was due to Xanga's screwup, I had accrued over 50,000 credits (on my KaiOaty site, because I do most of my commenting as SuSu and tend to spend the credits I have here on Minis).  Since I was already over halfway there, I decided to go on and earn the rest of the credits and give Lifetime Premium to some other deserving Xangan.

I am now up to 63,333 Xanga Credits at KaiOaty, and I have just learned that Xanga no longer lets us pay for Lifetime Premium with Xanga Credits.  I learned that at the same time I learned that Xanga Welcome Wagon, supposedly "down for maintenance" will not be coming back.  Those revelations came in response to an email I sent to complain about getting ripped off for 650 credits on a survey by one of PeanutLabs' partners.  I'm cutting my losses.  I have enough credits to give two people a year each of Premium, and can in a short time earn enough more to give someone else a 6-month gift of Premium.

You can enter for yourself, or nominate as many people as you like, within the scope of 5 simple, and very flexible rules.  Details at KaiOaty.

Lance Mackey in White Mountain, 3/17/09

(Photo from AP)

Recently, Lance Mackey said of his team, "They're superstars!"  Most of the 15 dogs who won the 2009 Iditarod had not been in either of Lance's previous winning teams.  They are young, and could have several more wins during their racing careers.  Zorro, the foundation stud for Comeback Kennels, now retired, has sired a line of undeniably superior sled dogs.

Larry, one of the veterans on this year's team, led them down Nome's Front Street today...

...where Tonya greeted her victorious husband with a kiss.

"Immediately after winning, he gave treats to his dogs.  'This never gets old,' he said at the finish line, hugging two of his dogs. 'It's pretty awesome,' he added. 'Pretty cool.'" (Mary Pemberton, AP)

Craig Medred wrote:
"As he came across the Bering Sea ice outside of town, 15 of the 16 dogs with which he had started the real race north at Willow on March 8 were rolling along at a steady trot, pulling in harness like so many Eveready bunnies."

"I'm so proud to get through this," Mackey said [to KTUU]. "This one was really, really smooth. I've never had a team work like this as a whole, come together in every situation. In every situation they seemed to excel."

A few hours before Lance's triumphal passage under the Burled Arch, Kim Darst, the Iditarod rookie helicopter pilot from New Jersey, had to be airlifted off the trail.

Sebastian Schnuelle and John Baker were about six hours behind Mackey out of White Mountain and should finish in second and third places today.

The next six, in contention for fourth through ninth places, Burmeister, Royer, the Seaveys father and son, and the brothers Smyth, are waiting out their 8 hour rests in White Mountain.

Fifty-six teams are still on the trail.  Current Red Lantern is Trent Herbst.

It's not over yet.  There is still the Awards Banquet, pictures from that....

Later

Susan Butcher did it from 1986-'88, Doug Swingley from 1999-'01.  Others have won four or five Iditarods, but nobody has won in more than three consecutive years.  Maybe next year, Lance can break that record.  This year's team included several young dogs with their careers ahead of them.

I found the first bulletin on the victory at KTUU.com, posted at 11:40 AKDT.  Iditarod.com was way slow posting the win and winning time.  Here it finally is, posted at 12:08:

First nose of 15 dogs passed under the Burled Arch on March 18, 2009 at 11:38:46, winning in 9 days, 21 hours, 38 minutes, 46 second.

Yaay Lance!

/
/ Trail update UPDATED below /
/
I search the web for Iditarod news, so you don't have to. 

Someone called "Atlanta Dogs Examiner" at examiner.com, apparently doesn't know that the race doesn't end when the winner crosses the finish line.  It isn't over 'til it's over, and the last dog on the trail has gotten to Nome.  But this person did have the news about the dog gone missing when he panicked and took off after a sled crash early in the race:

Another rookie, Lou Packer, MD, from Wasilla, lost two dogs in a much more harrowing and final way.  The Anchorage Daily News carried his story, and it is worth reading in its entirety.  He was out in the open when the wind came up that has slowed the entire race and caused a number of teams to scratch. (photo by Marc Lester, ADN) 

The phenomenon he mentions below, of having the wind pick up pieces of ice and throw them, is one I have experienced.  Sun and wind together create an ice crust on top of the snow, then gusts break off big chunks of the crust.  When I went through such a storm, I was huddled inside four walls, hoping none of the ice would crash through a window.  He had it lots worse.

[more here]

---

Lance Mackey still has fifteen dogs.  He dropped Chucko at Eagle Island on Saturday.  They left White Mountain at 2:11 AM today.  People who have subscribed to Iditarod Insider and can follow the race by GPS Tracker know exactly where he is now.  Next year, one way or another, I am going to have that tracker. 

The trail from White Mountain to Nome is 77 miles.  His team had been doing a consistent 8 MPH through most of the race, but between Elim and White Mountain in cold temperatures, high winds and blowing snow, he averaged 4.6 MPH.  You do the math.   I will sit here and refresh the standings, and post an update when I see that he has gotten to Safety, the last checkpoint before Nome.

UPDATE:
Lance spent 8 minutes in Safety, leaving at 8:48.  His time on the trail from White Mountain was 6 hours, 29 minutes, average speed 8.48 MPH.  Next stop, the Burled Arch on Front Street in Nome!

All 3 leading teams apparently skipped Golovin -- either that or the checker there is incapacitated or offline.  Sebastian Schnuelle will be eligible to leave White Mountain at 8:52 AM; John Baker at 9:18.  Sab checked into White Mountain with 14 dogs, John with 10.

[UPDATE:  Schnuelle and Baker each dropped one dog at White Mountain.  Schnuelle left with 13 at 8:56; Baker with 9 at 9:24.]

The race for fourth place is between six teams currently on the trail out of Elim:
Aaron Burmeister and 10 dogs, out at 3:09;
Dallas Seavey and 10 dogs, out at 3:19;
Dallas's dad, Mitch Seavey and 10 dogs, out at the same time;
Ramey Smyth and 9 dogs, out at 4:03;
Jessie Royer and 13 dogs, out at 4:38;
Ramey's brother, Cim Smyth and 11 dogs, out at 4:40.

[UPDATE:  Aaron Burmeister checked in at White Mountain at 10:26, followed at 10:30 by Mitch Seavey.  Both will be eligible to depart for Safety, then Nome, at about half past six this evening.]

Jeff Holt, whose dog Victor died early in the race of unknown causes (the necropsy was inconclusive), is the latest musher to scratch, out of Grayling.

Chad Lindner, out of Unalakleet with 14 dogs at 6:40 AM, has at least a 3 hour lead on his nearest competitor for Rookie of the Year, Harry Alexie, still in Unalakleet with 12 dogs.

Rookie Alan Peck is in last (57th) position with all 16 of his dogs, out of Grayling shortly after 9 last night.

Rookie Jen Seavey is in 54th position out of Grayling about half an hour ahead of Alan Peck.  She still has her entire "puppy" team (really yearlings, in training) of 16.  If you wonder why I'm covering Jen more closely than other rookies and back-of-the-packers, it is because I'm bemused and intrigued at the idea of this newlywed woman training a pack of pups at the back of the race while her bridegroom and new father-in-law are battling it out up front in the money positions.

Later all -- and thank you to everyone who has let me know you are following the race with me.  I'd be just as interested and excited only sharing it with Greyfox, but it's fun knowing that others are enjoying it too.

Race officials had predicted that the winner would pass under the Burled Arch in Nome sometime late tonight or very early tomorrow.  That was before the teams at the front, on Norton Sound, were slowed down by high winds and blowing snow.  Some took shelter at a trailside cabin, others waited it out in a checkpoint.

Lance Mackey was slowed somewhat, but still holds a significant lead.  He checked into White Mountain at 6:05 this evening.  There is a mandatory 8 hour layover in White Mountain for all teams.  Lance will be eligible to leave there at 2 AM.  Weather will have a lot to do with how long the run from there to Nome will take.  It's probable that he will finish during daylight hours Wednesday.

Sebastian Schnuelle and John Baker were checking out of Elim about half an hour before Mackey checked into White Mountain.  Their race will be for second place.  Schnuelle, the 2009 Yukon Quest Champion, has more dogs: 14, to Baker's 10.  Schnuelle has competed in four previous Iditarods.  His best finish was tenth place in 2008.  John Baker's Iditarod record is impressive:  thirteen finishes, nine of them in the top ten, and $365,432.78 total prize winnings.  His best finish was third place, in 2002.

The race for fourth place looks like it is between Jessie Royer's team of thirteen dogs, Aaron Burmeister's ten, Dallas Seavey's ten, and Mitch Seavey and his eleven, who all left Koyuk within half an hour of each other around 8 PM today.  Jessie has been leading the women for a few days.  Today, Dallas, who had been moving up slowly and steadily, passed his father, 2004 Champion Mitch.

The number of teams on the trail is down to 58.  Chad Lindner, in 37th position, currently leads the rookies.  Dr. Tim: Timothy Hunt, DVM, is the current Red Lantern (in last place).  Dallas Seavey's wife, rookie Jen Seavey, still has all sixteen of her pups in training, currently in Grayling in 54th position.