It snowed again Monday night and Tuesday, and the wind blew a good bit of the white stuff onto our covered front porch, resulting in this pretty scene:

College basketball is a funny sport. Something like 40 percent of the regular season takes place in November and December, when almost nobody is paying attention. Another big chunk happens in January, when football still dominates the national conversation. Only once the Super Bowl ends, and March Madness becomes the “next big thing” on the sports calendar, do casual fans really start paying attention.

Knowing this, my original plan was that February would be the month when Pioneer Pulse really takes off. I’d do some more in-depth and featurey type blog posts, I’d try more aggressively to advertise the site to potentially interested DU and Denver types, and I’d generally gear up for the coming push toward the postseason.

Alas, the opposite is going to be true. For personal reasons wholly unrelated to the team or the season or basketball, I’m going to need to take a step back from my DU blogging for the rest of the regular season — we’ll cross the March bridge when we come to it — and let my new @PioneerPulse Twitter account do the heavy lifting through February.

I’m sure the blog’s dozen regular readers are crushed. :)

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Really, really cold:

I headed down to the Denver "Marade" for lunch. Lots of people honoring Dr. King. Also some miscellaneous protest causes, like these "Yes, Tunisia Can" folks. Love it. More pics at www.twitter.com/brendanloy.

It’s no #snowpocalypse, but 2011 will start in Denver with several inches of snow on the ground, and bitter cold in the air — 4 degrees now, below zero tonight.

Yes, that’s Dora the Explorer sticking her head out of Loyacita’s stocking. And yes, the grownups & the cats have stockings too. :) Becky = Harry Potter. (Go figure.)

Tracking him on NORAD’s website:

Christmas Eve dinner in progress: Pierogis a la Becky & the Zaks.

Randy Styles (WOLFMANBC) stayed a perfect 6-0 and took sole possession of the lead in the 6th annual LRT Bowl Pick ‘em Contest when San Diego State beat Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl last night. Casey Zak (DARMOKANDJALAD), who picked Navy, fell back into a second-place tie. Top of the leaderboard shown below.

Everyone shown picked Hawaii in tonight’s Hawaii Bowl (worth 2 points) except MUROYALS and RACHELDULITZ, who picked Tulsa –and will tie Styles for first place if the Golden Hurricane wins.

I always forget how much prettier — and more home-y and personal — our tree looks with all our ornaments added to the lights and garland. :)

Eat your heart out, Andrew Sullivan. Dusk over downtown Denver:

Gobble, gobble.

Two weeks and six days ago — i.e., exactly three weeks before tomorrow’s elections — I posted a series of “bold predictions” on Twitter. Mostly, they mocked the myriad, easily predictable ways in which the media and the punditry and the Interwebs always, always get things wrong when it comes to elections. Anyway, I thought I’d re-publish them now, and then we’ll see how many of them come true. FWIW, these all appeared around 11:00 AM Mountain Time on Tuesday, October 12.

Three weeks from this very moment, we’ll be hearing the first meaningless anecdotal reports about turnout. #boldpredictions

Three weeks from this very moment, anecdotes regarding VOTING IRREGULARITIES!!! will be causing #PANIC!!! and #OUTRAGE!!! #boldpredictions

Three weeks + a few hours from now, we’ll see leaked exit polls showing Dems doing better than expected. They’ll be wrong. #boldpredictions

Three weeks from this evening, IN & KY (early poll-closing times) will be the first races called. Pundits will read too much into obvious GOP wins there. #boldpredictions

Three weeks from tonight, we’ll hear many overdetermined explanations of a GOP sweep that can be summed up in 3 words: The. Economy. Sucks. #boldpredictions

Three weeks from tonight, @WolfBlitzerCNN will say “right now” and “CNN projects” and “best political team on television” a lot. #boldpredictions

Three weeks from tonight, someone on MSNBC will say something asinine about how this result proves America is still racist. #boldpredictions

Three weeks from tonight, someone on Fox News will say this proves America is a center-right nation. #boldpredictions

3 weeks + 1 day from now, Dems will be scrambling around in a fit of #PANIC!!!, disarray & recriminations. More than usual. #boldpredictions

3 weeks + 1 day from now, Obama will make obvious conciliatory comments about bipartisan cooperation, media will fawn. #boldpredictions

3 weeks + 1 day from now, all those VOTING IRREGULARITIES!!!! will be forgotten, except in states with a really close result. #boldpredictions

3 weeks + 1 day from now, the prevailing CW will be that OMG OBAMA IS DOOMED!!!! Just like Bill Clinton after the ‘94 vote. #boldpredictions