Race cars!

Bike wreck!

Thursday morning, while driving home from the gym, I saw a guy on a bike get hit by a car.   I was pulling up to an intersection where the light was red and he was riding on the bike trail, approaching the intersection from the right. There was a lady in a Chevy sitting in the right lane with her right turn signal on, intently looking to the left for a gap in traffic so she could make a right on red.  She never looked to the right and when her “gap” in traffic opened up, the cyclist was just starting to enter the crosswalk.  

She hit the gas right as he rode in front of her in the crosswalk and she popped him pretty good, sending him over his handle bars and onto the road.  Ouch!  She stopped and immediately got out to see if he was OK.  I put my car in park and got out and saw that he was trying to stand up.  Phew, he’s not dead or seriously injured.   The guy was in his late 50’s early 60’s, evidently the theory of “older and wiser” doesn’t apply to him since he wasn’t wearing a helmet.   He gingerly stood up, declined any help from the driver, picked up his bike and continued to cross the intersection on foot.  She asked him again if he was OK and he said he was fine, waving her away.  I asked him "are you sure" as he walked by, he just kind of waved and nodded, seeming to be more embarrassed than anything. 

If it had been me, I would have been seriously pissed and yelled at the driver for five plus minutes, but hey, that’s just me.  After he made it across the street on foot, he slowly got back on his bike and started pedaling up the trail again.  I really hope he was OK, as I know from personal experience that the adrenaline rush from being knocked off your bike by a car blocks a lot of the initial pain.  Only to have the pain sets in a little while later…  While he had the right of way, I’m sure he’ll slow down next time he pedals into that intersection and make sure that the drivers SEE him before he crosses in front of them.

Indy bound!

On Friday morning, I rolled out of bed extra early (3:40 am to be exact) and headed towards Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a day full of race cars.  The NASCAR series was racing at Indy and they brought the Grand-am series as the “opening act.”  I really enjoy the variety of vehicles that run in the Grand-am series, so it was definitely worth burning a vacation day to go see them (the CFO didn't agree).  Grand-am races have Daytona prototype cars and production based GT race cars racing at the same time, so it gets real interesting when the dramatically faster prototypes catch up to the slower GT cars and have to dice their way through traffic.  From this spectator's point of view, there is no better racing and I don't understand why the series doesn't have a bigger following.

The CFO's favorite NASCAR driver, Carl Edwards

 

A typical Daytona Prototype car

 

A GT class Audi R8

 

I left home really early because I was hoping to get a pass to one of the day’s NASCAR autograph sessions and they were handing those out at 8:30 eastern (7:30 our time).  What the online information didn’t say was that they were only giving out 125 passes...   I was probably #200 in line, so I left empty handed. In talking with some people around the track later in the day, the people at the front of the line got there at 6:30 am when the gates opened.  There is no way that I could swing that, so now I know that I shouldn't even bother with trying to get there early next time. 

I spent the rest of the morning roaming around the track, watching the NASCAR cars go through tech inspection and watching the Grand-am series cars being prepped for the afternoon races.  NASCAR is uber strict about keeping fans out of the pits, while Grand-am is the exact opposite.  You can walk right up to the trailer/canopy where the crew is working on the car and take photos from a few feet away.  Sometimes they even say, “come on in and take some close ups, just watch out for the guys with the tools.”  How cool is that?  I know there are safety issues with having fans that close to the pits, but NASCAR should really take note because it makes the fan experience so much better when you can get that close.

Crew working on a Daytona Prototype car

 

Lots of teams running Porsche 911's in the GT class

 

Brakes on a Porsche Cayman, yes, I was this close to some of the race cars.

 

The NASCAR cars were running the traditional oval course that the Indy cars run, while the Grand-am series was running on the road course, which uses part of the oval and then winds through the infield.  There are lots of corners in the infield section so you have many options for viewing the race.  I walked all around the track, watching from many vantage points and searching for photo opportunities that wouldn’t force me to shoot photos through the safety fence.  Stupid safety fence, great for protecting spectators and for ruining photographs.  I was able to find a couple spots where I could get some clear shots and I managed to max out the memory card in my camera while taking photos. 

 

The Grand am cars diving into turn one

 

A view back to the famous Indy Pagoda Tower

 

 

I spent a good bit of time playing around with settings on the camera, as I am trying to find the best settings that get the car in focus but blur the background as I pan along with the car. I really want pictures that show a sense of speed in them…  however, it is much harder than I thought to get the settings and my panning speed synced up. I will have to keep practicing until I get it right because they look so much cooler when the background is streaked and the car is in focus.

Blurred background

 

I also spent some time roaming through the infield parking lot taking pictures of spectator's cars, there was definitely some cool cars in attendance.  Here are a few of the "dream cars" that I was drooling over:

Porsche GT3 RS

Lotus Exige

Dodge Viper GTS

Twinkies

Another un-eventful week in the books.  Friday night, the CFO and I went out to dinner with some friends and rented the movie “Identity Thief.”  The movie had so much potential, but moved much slower than I would have liked.  I give it an “Ehh, I’ve definitely seen worse and better movies."

Saturday was a near perfect July day, the high temp was only about 80 degrees and it was just cloudy enough where the sun light was filtered and wasn’t beating down on us. We had some discount coupons for a couple of nurseries, so we went plant shopping and picked up a couple accent plants.  We spent the afternoon outside, me working off and on in the yard (mixed in with some lounging) while the CFO read a book while sitting out on the deck.  

The new additions to the garden  

 

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday weather wise, so I slapped a paint brush in the CFO’s hand and said, “Get to work.”** We spent the afternoon staining the deck railing and we have now stained everything above the deck's support structure… Now all we have left to stain are the stair treads and then the entire underside of the deck since, unfortunately, it is visible when you stand in the back yard.  Whose idea was it to stain the deck a color instead of using a clear sealer?!?!?! (The CFO's for the record) Next time, we will take her dad’s advice and pay someone to do this work. 

For me, painting is on that list of things that you hate to do; but you eventually forget that you hate doing it; until you start to do it again a while later; which reminds you that you don’t enjoy doing it; but you’ve already started doing it so it is too late to turn back; so you suffer through completing the task; all the while telling yourself that you will never, EVER do it again; only to eventually forget that you told yourself that you would never do it again; and then, at some point down the road, the cycle repeats...  Not surprisingly, I can’t remember what else is on that list, but I’m sure there are other things…

Are you supporting the sweetest comeback ever?  I am... 

**I actually politely asked her to help, but that doesn’t make for good blog reading, does it?  

Before and after (2013)

Our bed and breakfast was closed for maintenance this weekend, it was just me and the CFO.  On satruday morning, we decided to enjoy the unusually mild weather and went down to a botanical garden near Champaign, IL.  It eneded up being pretty small, so it didn’t take us too long to walk through it… We decided to eat lunch and then continue south to the outlet mall.  Surprise, surprise, a trip with the CFO ended up with shopping.

That night we went to see the movie, “The Heat” and got many laughs out of it.  It was funny to watch two talented female actresses do the good cop/bad cop thing.  As long as you don’t mind foul language, you should see it.  On Sunday, we went to church, out to lunch and then I spent the afternoon working in the yard.  After hosting guests for two weekends, I was a little behind on weeding my seeded areas. 

A good friend of mine suggested doing some before/after images of the yard.  Surprisingly, I don’t have a ton of before photos, but I was able to find some and then went out and shot some similar images.  Unfortuantely, the house is shading part of the yard so the photos aren't the greatest...  



 A view to our neighbor to the left:

 

 

Looking back towards the corner, including the utility boxes I've been working to hide:

 

From the back of the yard looking back towards the house:

 

A view along the creek looking towards our left neighbor:

 

 

 

It is by no means close to done, but I have made some good progress, while working on a shoe string budget.  I should try to total up what I've spent on plant material so far, but it hasn't been too much since almost everything was bought on clearance, as a small bareroot twig or grown from seed.

I could do that! (well, maybe)

Our Bed and Breakfast was booked again this weekend, with the CFO’s parents visiting us for the Fourth of July holiday.  They were scheduled to arrive on the 4th around 5pm, so I re-arranged my work schedule so that I could work on the 4th and be off on Friday the 5th.  That gave me a 3 day weekend instead of being off on Thursday and having to go back to work on Friday.  Who would want to do that and why was I the only one in our company to think of this solution?

Even though I wasn’t working on Friday, I still rolled out of bed at 4:40 and went to the gym.  The tough spin instructor (A.K.A. my favorite one [because I like to be abused, I guess]) was doing a 1.5 hour “challenge” ride instead of our normal 45 minute class.  Considering the fact that it was double the time I normal spend in class, I still managed to survive and enjoy it.  I cranked out 37 miles during the class... go me.  Unfortunately, I’m not sure how many calories I burned, because my heart rate monitor and the bike computer have stopped talking with each other.  I typically burn around 900 in a 45 minute class, so I could probably estimate that I doubled that number.

After I returned home and got cleaned up, we all drove up to the furniture store where we bought our couch.  The CFO and her mom love to shop for furniture (well, they really enjoy shopping for just about anything, expect maybe puppies or kittens) so we went looking for accent chairs and/or lamps.  We didn’t find anything, but had a good time roaming around the store…  We hit Chick-fil-a in Peoria on the way home, which was a huge plus for me!

Speaking of furniture, the CFO’s parents brought a chair back to us that they had been holding in their basement until it could be reupholstered.  The chair came from my grandmother's house (dad's side) and it is something that I have been wanting to redo for a long time.  There were some serious debate regarding fabrics for the chair and the CFO won out on this one… hence the pink back.  The final product ended up being very bold, but the colors do tie in with our new green couch.  I’ll admit that this isn’t the color scheme that I would have picked first, but it is growing on me.  We have one other chair from that same grandmother’s house, but we have yet to negotiate a color scheme for it yet.  Who knows how long that will take.

Before:

I don't know how old this chair is, but it had been this color as long as I can remember.  Some of the seams were ripped and it had just seen better days.  (as a side note, I've always considered this chair's color as green, several people have been arguing that it is gold, but I don't see that)

 

After:

 

 

 

I told you that it was bold... 

 

On Saturday, we tried to beat the heat and went to Uptown Normal for the Sugar Creek Art Festival as soon as the gates opened in the morning.  Evidently a lot of people had the same idea because the place was packed.  There were artists from all over the country, including a few from Georgia.  Some of them were really talented, some just didn’t suit my tastes and then there were a few artists whose work made me immediately think, “Hell, I could do that.”  Most of those were photographers who had broken a single landscape photo into 3 sections, printed each of them onto a canvas and then hung the 3 canvases side by side by side.  It creates a cool look, but not one that I would pay 800 bucks or more for…  Time to grab the camera and fire up photoshop!  We need some stuff to hang in the living room, so I think that I might make this is my new photography goal. 

By the time we walked the whole show, a couple items still stood out to us so we circled back and made a couple purchases, including this painting from a lady in Missouri.  It is brightly colored and ties in well with our glass pieces (and the new pink chair).

 

After church on Sunday, the CFO’s dad and I went to see the movie “White House Down” while the girls went out shopping.  The movie started out a little slow, but the pace definitely picked up later on, with a couple little twists along the way.  While I don’t really consider Jamie Foxx to be a serious actor (but more of a comedian), he did a good job in the film. 

The purple cone flowers that I seeded in the backyard three springs ago are putting on a serious show this year.  I really like how they have become a wave of color across the yard (just as I had planned it, I might add), but it makes me mad that the black eyed Susan's that I seeded at the same didn’t establish as well.  I really wanted sweeps of each color intertwined with each other… I will make a second attempt to reseed the black eyed Susan's this fall.

This is the view from the master bathroom in the house that they are building beside our house.  It is a nice view of our yard, I wonder if the future owners would mind if I took a photo from here next year?  You can see the wave of purple cone flowers in the back, don't pay any attention to the dead weeds in the foreground.

 

Which brings me to another issue: Since I have been knee deep in weeding, mulching and trying to get plants established, I can’t seem to really enjoy the yard yet.  People come over and say, “it looks beautiful,” and I can’t just respond with a simple “thanks.”  Instead, I have to say, “eh, it’s a work in progress,” or “well… there are a ton of weeds out there.”   I guess that I am the only one who knows that a plant over there has died and left a hole in the grouping, or the fact that the back area along the fence line is all weeds because the seeding didn't take, or that parts of the maple tree died and after I pruned out the dead, it looks lop sided.  It is one of those “I can’t see the forest for the trees” kind of thing.  I need to just build a fire in the fire pit, roast some marshmallows and sit back and enjoy the garden.

Do I expect too much?

The CFO’s brother and his fiance flew in for a weekend visit, arriving late Thursday evening.  I went to the gym and work as usual on Friday while the CFO entertained them.  The CFO was also in charge of meeting the installer for our much anticipated living room and kitchen window treatments at 3:00pm on Friday.  It took over 2 years of off and on shopping to find a material that the CFO liked and then another 6 weeks to have the shades made.  At around 3:30pm, I received a text message from her saying “they look awful.”  “Oh great,” I thought.   We just spent a chunk of money on these roman shades and she doesn’t like how the material looks.  I hoped that she was just over reacting a little, so I didn't dwell on it..

When I arrived home after work, I immediately saw why she didn’t like them.  It wasn’t the color/pattern of the material or how they were put together, it was the fact that sunlight blasts right through the back liner and the material, totally whiting it out, except for a 1.5” band around the edge where the material was doubled over for a hem.  She was right, they looked like crap.  I immediately got on the phone with our representative at Lowes and, of course, since it was after 5pm on the east coast, she would have to wait until Monday for a resolution.  As the weekend went on, our unhappiness with the shades got worse.  At 6:30 am in the morning, when the sun is on the OTHER side of the house (these windows face west), they are still washed out by the indirect sunlight.  The only time you can see the true look of the fabric is when it is pitch black outside.

 

I took this photo in the early morning, when the sun was rising on the OTHER side of the house.

 

This one should give you an idea of how dark the fabric actually is, look at the valance at the top or the side where it is folded over.

 

It will be interesting to see how this works out, since these were custom ordered.  However, we were never told that the material would wash out in sunlight, even with a liner behind it.  Why would they even sell a fabric for shades that can’t block sunlight?   Hell, if this was the look that we were after, we could have spent $10/each for some cheap roller shades that would give us the same look.  Some of you are probably laughing because this kind of crap always seems to happen to me…  It made me start to wonder, do I expect too much?

On Saturday night we all went to see Darius Rucker perform outside at the Corn Crib, our minor, minor, minor league baseball stadium.  Just like last year's show at this venue, it rained all day, stopping just in time for the show.  Considering the fact that it rained all day, we really lucked out and had a nice cool and dry evening to watch the show, it was almost perfect.  Our seats were one row back from the baseball dugout and the front of the stage was sitting behind second base.  A group of 6 women and 2 men in their 40’s-late 50’s came and sat in front of us.  As my luck would have it, the two women in front of us were chatty Cathy’s and they talked all through the two opening acts.  I bit my tongue through those two acts and the CFO, seeing my frustration, kept giving me the “just ignore them” look.

I don't know why I keep posting blurry, Iphone photos of concerts, but here is another...

 

After they talked through the first two Darius songs, I had finally had it.  When I say “talked,” I should really say “shouted” because that is what they were doing.   When the music got louder, they just talked louder.  It is entirely possible that they didn’t realize how loud they were being, but I could hear every word that they were saying and it was driving me nuts.  Having observed the fact that the two guys in their group were both bigger than I am (wearing wranglers and boots, of course…), coupled with the fact that they were knocking back miller lites one after the other, I knew that I had to be somewhat tactful with my approach.

Halfway through the third song, I finally couldn’t take it any more so I leaned forward towards the two ladies and said, “I don’t know if you came here to have a conversation or to listen to a concert, but I came here for the concert, not to hear the two of you talk.”  I wasn’t sure how my comment would be received, so I just sat back in my seat and refocused my attention towards the stage.

One of the ladies looked shocked and pissed, like I had just kicked a 50 yard field goal with her toy poodle… How dare I say such a thing to her?  The other seemed somewhat more understanding and looked back and offered a half-hearted “Sorry.”  The good news is that they were much quieter through the rest of the concert and they didn’t mention it to the rest of their group.

I know the CFO wasn’t happy that I spoke up, but talking during a concert is like talking at the movie theater… you just shouldn’t do it.  We have had talkers around us at the last couple shows that we have gone to, I don’t know if is a function of me buying cheap seat tickets or if people in general are just getting more rude and inconsiderate.  I have a feeling that it is the latter, which is really sad.  What is this world coming to?  When you go to a concert (or a movie, show, etc.),  I don’t care if you sing along or occasionally comment on “how hot the performer is,” but otherwise, please shut the @#$% up and enjoy the show.  You can talk about it after it is over.  Yet again I ask: do I expect too much?

We headed up to Chicago late Sunday morning and went to Gino’s East, a Chicago style pizza place.  This was our second attempt at Chicago Style pizza, having not really enjoyed the first place that we tried.  The waitress took our order and informed us that it took about an hour to make the deep dish Chicago style… I thought to myself, “if it takes that long, it better be good.”  When the pizza arrived, the waitress explained that Chicago style means the sauce is on top… yes, the layers are the deep dish crust, then the cheese, the toppings and then the sauce.  You pretty much have to eat it with a knife and fork.  Gino’s tasted much better than the last one we tried, but I still wasn’t wowed by it.  I prefer a more doughy crust and this crust was more crumbly.  Perhaps I really do expect too much.

 

We then walked to Navy pier to go on an architectural river boat cruise.  Finally, something that met my expectations!  The guide was enthusiastic, very knowledgeable about architectural terminology and the history of the local buildings.  We saw some great views of the buildings, some of which you just don’t get walking on the crowded downtown sidewalks.  After doing this tour, I would definitely like to go back and take a more detailed walking tour of some of the buildings with the architectural society, the town is full of interesting architectural history.  And then, 45 minutes into our 1 hour tour, it happened.  Our inexpensive, small digital camera (I didn’t take the SLR because I was worried that it might rain) flashed “battery low” and promptly shut off. Seriously?!  The batteries can't make it through one hour of snapping photos?  

Yes, it is official, I do expect too much.

 

 

Movie weekend

I got a good laugh at work today while listening to the radio at work (I pretty much listen to the radio all day, unless I am listening to a podcast on my phone).  The University of Illinois, which is an hour southeast of us, was advertising season tickets for this coming football season.  The first laugh came because they have to advertise that tickets are on sale.  That would never happen back home at UGA, except maybe if the team had a long run of bad seasons.  The bigger laugh (yes, I actually laughed out loud) came when the ad announced that you can get a set of tickets for all 7 home games for $99.  I about fell out of my chair…  $99 season tickets that don’t require a “donation” to the GA Fund is what every Bulldog fan dreams of!    Hell, I’ve paid almost that much for ONE ticket to a single UGA game.  I’m definitely not living in football country anymore!

The CFO and I went out with two other couples for dinner and a movie on Friday night.  At dinner, we told the story of getting pulled over to our friend who got a ticket a few months ago (in a Prius, no less!).  She started laughing when we told her that we got pulled over (she really enjoyed the fact that we got stopped), so I sped the story up and said, “but he let us go with a warning.”  You should have seen her face immediately switch from a happy “ha, ha, I’m not the only one to get a ticket around here” to a stern “what the hell do you mean you didn’t get a ticket?” look.  It was priceless; I wish we had it on video.

After dinner, we went and saw “The Internship” with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.  I wasn’t sure how good it would be, but I actually laughed a lot during it.  After seeing all the images of the google facility during the movie, it was a little depressing to go back to my homely office on Monday morning.  I can’t imagine working in a place with slides, sand volley ball courts, napping pods and free food.  That would be pretty cool.

The rest of the weekend was laid back, with exception to an especially brisk Saturday morning.  we made a run to the farmers market, the grocery store and the gym and were home by 10:30am.  Serious efficiency was displayed. 

The remainder of the day was spent watching a movie, working in the yard, going out for pizza and watching another movie.  Some how, we’ve fallen behind on movies and we ended up making a serious push to catch up over the weekend.   Some of them were a little chick-flicky, but they all had their merits.  We watched:  Silver Linings Playbook (a little dark/twisted, but interesting), Guilt Trip (occasionally funny, but a little predictable), and Safe Haven (the chickiest of the 3).  There are still a few out there that we want to watch, but with company coming the next two weekends, I don't know when that will happen.  Evidently June/July is the busy time for our Bed-n-Breakfast, I just don't understand why people don't want to come visit in the winter time.

Weight watch update:  We hadn’t been to the other gym location in a while, so it has been a couple months since I was last on a scale.  We finally went to that location on Saturday and I can report that I have made more progress, dropping 3 pounds since the end of April.  I’m happy to say that I’m still eating potato chips, candy and cookies, so to still see progress is nice.  It just goes to show that if you burn enough calories, you can almost eat what ever you want.  Personally, I would hate to have to go on a serious diet, especially since leafy greens and my stomach don’t get along.  I also just renewed our gym membership for another 6 months; nothing motivates me more than knowing that I have pre-payed for 6 months of dues!   I’ve paid for it, so I better use it.

Starting weight (Nov 2012):  178 lbs.

Dec 30, 2012:  176.6 lbs.

Jan 19, 2013: 176.6 lbs.

Feb 9, 2013:  173.4 lbs.

Feb 23, 2013 172.4 lbs.

April 13, 2013 170.0 lbs.

April 26, 2013 169.4 lbs.

June 22, 2013 166.4 lbs.

150's here I come!

Tennessee trip

Unfortunately, my “lucky day” experiment of buying a lottery ticket on the day that I just received a warning after being pulled over for speeding didn’t work out.  My plan to join the much hated “1%” via the Powerball game was a bust; I didn’t even have one matching number.  Oh well, it was worth a try.  Myth Busted.

The CFO and I spent the week working during the day and hanging out with my mother in the evenings.  It was really nice to have mom around for the week and I think she enjoyed the downtime that she had while we were at work each day.  There are no grand kids to chase around at our house!  Since mom knows her way around a sewing machine, I requested that she bring hers on the trip so she could help us with a little project: 

The outdoor chairs that I rescued from a neighbor’s trash pile last year were attacked by squirrels over the winter and the back supports got a little chewed up.  We picked out some outdoor fabric and mom sewed them into covers for the backs of the chairs.  They turned out well, although the fabric seems more appropriate for a view of the ocean and not corn stalks swaying in the wind.

On Friday evening after work, the three of us got into the car and we headed south to Tennessee.  It took a little longer than expected, but after almost 9 hours on the road, we finally arrived at our destination at around 1 am in the morning.  The following day, we went to a wedding celebration for one of my cousins who got married while she was volunteering overseas.  It was a great opportunity to catch up with aunts, uncles and cousins that we hadn’t seen in years, some since our wedding 6.5 years ago.

The CFO and I made the return trip home on Sunday, making a 10 mile detour off the interstate so that we could to eat lunch at Zaxby’s, a restaurant chain that originated in my home town of Athens, GA.  I haven't had any Zaxby’s chicken since we moved almost 3 years ago, so it was nice to enjoy some chicken strips and their delicious dipping sauce.  I don’t know why I am so sentimental about so many food joints, but I am.  I briefly thought, "maybe I should open a Zaxby's in Bloomington."  A quick trip to their website leads me to believe that I won't qualify...  They require a minimum $400k  in liquid assets and $700k net worth.  How much is a 1995 miata worth?!

There was a lot of construction along our driving route and, on the ride home, I was totally frustrated with people’s inability to merge when a lane was closed for construction.  We didn’t have this problem on the way out, but evidently all the idiots were out driving on Sunday, causing a total cluster at each construction zone.  Merging is a simple concept; it sure isn’t rocket science, people!  What infuriated me even more were the people who thought that they were so special that they could zoom past the line of people who already merged and then try to squeeze in right before the construction cones block the lane. 

As you might imagine, I went out of my way to make sure that they did not pull in in front of me.  When I see them coming in my mirror, I make sure that my front bumper is glued to the back bumper of the car in front of me in order to eliminate the possibility of them merging in front of me.  I enjoy the frustrated looks that I get from them when I don’t let them in, like I’m the a-hole or something… Sorry, but it isn’t my fault that you either (a) can’t read the big, freaking signs that warned of this merge 2-3 miles ago or (b) you think that you too good to merge in ½ mile ago like everyone else. Either way, you will not be allowed in front of me.  I enjoy watching how many vehicles behind me deny them entry into our lane and always feel a bit disappointed when someone finally lets them in.

We finally made it home at around 6pm, tired and wondering where the weekend went.   Note to self:  1100 miles round trip is a lot of driving to spend a single day at the destination.  We went to bed early on Sunday evening and that 4:40 am alarm came way too quickly Monday morning.  Despite being tired from the trip, we both still managed to roll out and head to the gym.  That’s dedication, or craziness, depending on who you ask.