The downside to turning 21 overseas:

Your license expires without you realizing, just when you're done working and want to rent a car and travel around the country. But instead of realizing this when I was making a reservation with the rental company, I realized it yesterday, after getting up early and hitching a ride over the mountains to the next town over to pick it up from the airport. After pleading with the rental car lady for about 20 minutes and seriously wondering if I could get a New Zealand license for about 2, I decided to just make a day of it in Queenstown. I proceeded to enter lots of swanky shops wearing my sneakers, dirty jeans, carhartt, and backpacker pack, with which I knocked over several rich Australian tourists by the sale racks. Back in Wanaka last night, I frantically searched for cheap buses that could take me where I'd planned on going. So far I've only found a way to get to the west coast glaciers. The project for the rest of today is to find a way to get to most of the other places I wanted to go, including Arthur's Pass (of Lord of the Rings fame) and Mt. Cook. When I return on the 24th, I'll be getting on a plane back to Boston. I'm excited for the new year with a new team!

On the starting line at the Farm.

On a snowshoe expedition.

Rock climbing in skate boots.

-AM

Another beautiful day...

Thank you, and welcome.

After three moose, four bears, one flip, and a road trip across the country, I'm back on the East Coast. Summer training has been non-conventional (is that a word? I don't know...physicists are bad at English), and tons of fun.


Training....of sorts


Be sure to avoid the dead whale.


It's a rough life.


I succumbed to peer pressure...

Looking forward to seeing all of you in a few weeks. Let's rock things this year. Be sure to say hi to our new freshman when they arrive.

-TP

Life was good today.

Hey there Pterodactyls.

Hope that everyone is enjoying a most lovely summer. With this dreadful economy, typhoon-worthy precipitation, and fasterskier.com becoming harder to navigate than my income tax returns, I've managed to find some time to sit down and blog away.

Rather, I've compiled my summer into a video highlight reel:



For those of you who didn't appreciate country music, consider me your Missionary to the Church of Latter-Day Honkey Tonk.

My summer's been nice. Highlights have been:

1. Finally getting my resume laminated at Kinkos. They reported that it was the most professional looking document to me hand-written on the back of a KFC buffet menu.
2. World-record ascent of Whiteface via running shoes and mountain bike, Midnol-Midnol, 3:37:22. The folks at Guinness World Records have been rather lax in returning my repeated voicemail messages.
3. Coaching delightful kids. If you've never coached 6-12 year olds, do it. Just make sure to carry a bullhorn loudspeaker at all times, and wash your hands repeatedly.
   

I'll wager you all thought that graduating from college could never be so fun.




So be well, do good work and come back often.


D