Here’s the picture: 

somebody's excited

And the tangentially related follow-up is that the real Iditarod started this weekend, which is to say, the dog-powered Iditarod, not the human-powered one.  Apparently it’s going well so far, at least for this guy.  The human powered Iditarod, the Alaska Ultra Sport, which I endorsed last week, faced some of the worst weather it’s ever seen – while Chicago has been flirting with the idea of Spring, Ultra Sporters had fresh snow up to their waists at points!  Whoa baby!  Sometimes stranded, frequently pushing/carrying their bikes, it’s taken them a lot longer than previous years to reach the finish line, but they started rolling in on Saturday and are continuing to roll, ski, and walk themselves into the finish line even as this guy is just getting going…  

As far as the dog Iditarod goes, I’m of course rooting for Martin Buser, who named his son after a checkpoint (and we named our cat after his son).  But your actual Monday endorsement is still to come.   I just wanted to post this picture.