and comforted by the fact that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

For example, although Stephen Carriere has made a coaching change, (to Priscilla Hill after nine years with Peter Johansson and Mark Mitchell), he has proven that switching coaches is still the thing to do (whew, I was worried that by the time I got back it'd be out of style!).

And although Rachael Flatt is growing up and making some changes (showing more "spunk," per this Colorado Springs Gazette article), she is still consistently awesome, winning the recent Colorado Championships, despite coming in second place in the short to Alexes Gilles (Per the Gazette).

In some other news, Evan Lysacek has won the 2009 Readers Choice Award for Skater of the Year from U.S. Figure Skating and SKATING Magazine, per this release. Congrats to Evan!