Negative Ghostrider, The Pattern is Full

By now I am sure you have all heard about the Air Force One fly by in New York, and if you haven't, you can check it out here.

Somehow, I don't think this was the reaction they were looking for...

I would of like to have been a fly on that wall in the White House when they came up with this idea ...
"OK, let's fly Air Force One real low and real slow around New York City for a picture opportunity with the Statue of Liberty and what not. What's that? Tell the Mayor of New York we're coming? No, don't worry about it. We will be in and out before anyone even notices we were there ..."

File this publicity stunt under EPIC FAIL!

IRL: Kansas-Road Runner Turbo Indy 300

I watched this race Monday morning due to the fact it was tape delayed. Race Notes:

• Teams talk race strategy, rain forecast, plan for half distance in case of rain as well as full race distance.


• Clean start, Doornbos keeps it together and manages to only lose one spot on his first oval race.


• Kannan from p6 makes a move on Partick, p5, and Ej Visio, p4. Patrick sees him coming and pops out and blocks Kannan, passes Viso, Kannan jumps on the breaks. Great team work and communication.


• Back from break, Yellow flag. Helio has run into the back of Vito Meria, Helio keeps it off the wall and looks like all he needs is a new nose, Meria's day is done.


• Helio into the pits, can't get the old nose cone off, team sends him back out to keep him on the lead lap.


• Entire field into the pits next lap.


• Doornbos out first but hits tire in next pit box -- penalty coming?


• Doornbos sent to back of field for hitting the tire. Dixion back in front.


• Lap 21 ... restart, Dixion, Rahal, Moraes, Brisco, Kannan


• Rahal challenges Dixion for the lead on the high side, can't get it done.


• Helio driving like a mad man. Started from the back, moved to the front, accident put him at the back again, and is now fighting his way back to the front again.


• High side doesn't seem to be working for anyone today. Kannan tries it on Rahal for second and can't get it done.


• Dixion running first, is first of the lead pack to pit under green.


• Puts Helio into p1, two laps later he pits, and Dixion back to p1.


• Lap 79 and the talk turns to weather, rain shortened race now a possibility.


• 96 yellow flag ... Matos makes contact with the wall in turn 4 bringing out the pace car out.


• Have I mentioned how much I like Versus' coverage? Announcers are on the ball, camera's everywhere, awesome replays.


• Another round of pits, Dixion in first followed by Brisco, and Kannan. Brisco out first followed by Kannan then Dixion.


• At half way mark, more talk of rain.


• Lap 104 green, Dixion takes Kannan for second.


• Everyone feeling racy. Rahal making some moves.


• More Versus behind the scenes coverage, egg on the throttle demonstration, pretty cool.


• Helio finally figures how to get it done on the high side, gets by Kannan for 3rd.
  Danica uses traffic to get by Dario Franchitti for 6th.


• Leader Brisco into pits, Dario into the wall, yellow out, pits closed before Brisco got to the timing line, and has to do a drive through instead of stopping for fuel.


• Replay shows Franchitti way too fast following Rahal into pits, takes evasive action to avoid hitting Rahal, and ends up putting it into the wall and bringing out a full course yellow -- what was Dario thinking?


• Pits open, everyone in.


• Dixion out p1, Helio p2, Kannan p3, Brisco p4 --Brisco comes out the loser. Nice job Franchitti, you just cost Brisco the race.


• 41 laps to go .. green flag, everyone give the ok to go racing, no more fuel conservation.


• 4 laps to go .. Marco suddenly challenging teammate Patrick for 5th. Can he keep it together and finish the race without taking out his teammate?


• Final lap .. Dixion wins, Helio second and Kannan brings it home third.


• Nice interview by Scotts wife, who claims Dixion has been grumpy at home for the last three weeks because he has not won a race. This should put a smile on his face.

Doing The Don

Yesterday I dusted off the mountain bike and headed to the Don Valley for the first mountain bike ride of the season, which turned out to be a group ride to boot! (Thanks to Barry, Jim, Benjamin, Aaron and David for showing up!)
The first thing I noticed is just how different mountain biking is from road biking. I almost want to say it is more intense, but its not, its just a different kind of intensity. Does that make sense? I don't feel like throwing up or passing out road biking, but I do mountain biking.
I'm going to try and get out on the mountain bike a little more this year and see if it improves my road biking and vice versa. If you're looking for a ride that will kick your ass, let me know...

F1: Bahrain Grand Prix

Formula 1 continues to remain exciting with not a Ferrari or a McLaren anywhere in the top three. Top three spots for today's Bahrain Grand prix belong to Trulli in a Toyota, Glock in a Toyota second and, Vettel's Red Bull third. Click here for the starting grid.

Race Notes:

• Great start, everyone gets through turn one without too much drama. Some rubbing and bumping near the back going into turn one.
• Kimi driving like a mad man.
• Hamilton passes Button into turn one for third, McLaren seems to have figured out KERS technology.
• Webber driving like a mad man, coming up the ranks.
• Button out brakes Hamilton and takes back third place.
• Unbelievable action all over the track
• Fischella's Force India is a rolling chicane holding everyone up.
• Massa in the pits for damaged nose, part of the rubbing at the start.
• Lap 7 ... things calming down, running, 1. Glock, 2.Trulli, 3. Button. 4. Hamilton, 5. Vettel, 6. Barrichello., 7. Raikkonen, 8. Alonso
• 46 to go ... Toyota were running with a lighter fuel load than everyone else, Glock first into pits.
• Barrichello starting to look racy.
• 45 to go ... Trulli's Toyota into the pits, putting Button and Hamilton 1 - 2.
• 44 to go ... great battle between Alonso and Trulli for position, Trulli gets lose and Alonso takes advantage
• 42 to go Button and Hamilton in the pits, Vettle and Kimi now 1 -- 2.
• 41 to go Barrichello shows his Brazilian colours, gives Piquet the what for for holding him up.
• And as the battle heats up, TSN goes to break.
• 36 ot go Kimi in the pits, Button through to the lead, back out in p9.
• Button suddenly sitting pretty.
• Barrichello on the charge. Shot of Sir Richard Branson in the pits, deciding on future sponsorship, Barrichello doing a great job of selling it. Barrichello into the pits, is he on a 3 stopper?
• Massa's Ferrari is not a factor today.
• 18 to go Vettel 1st, Button 2nd, Kimi 3rd but still has to pit.
• 17 to go, Vettel in the pits, Button to first, back out in third.
• Looks like its between Toyota and Brawn for first and second
• 13 to go, Kimi in the pits, comes out just in front of Glock's Toyota for 7th. Glock passes Kimi, but Kimi has none of it and uses his KERS to get back in front and stay ahead of Glock.
• 11 to go, Toyota starting to fall apart, Trulli in third under pressure from Barrichello in 4th.
• 10 to go, Barrichello in the pits, Hamilton into 4th, Barrichello back out in front of Kimi for 5th. Ferrari holding on.
• Announcers suddenly seem to have no clue who is where on the track.
• 8 to go, Suzuki Nakajima first retirement of the day in the Williams Toyota.
• 7 to go, rolling chicane of Force India's of Fisichella is back. Causing problems for Massa and then holding up race leader, Jenson Button. Button finally gets by, what was Fischella thinking?
• Last lap, Button in the Brawn first, Vettel in the Red Bull second and Trulli in the Toyota third.

Another exciting formula one race. When was the last time you used exciting and F1 in the same sentence. First race run under sunny conditions this season, another victory for Jensen Button, probably his hardest fought race yet. Best results so far for Hamilton in the McLaren, 4th and Kimi in the Ferrari 6th.

Full race results, here.

IRL: Kansas Qualifying

At the racetrack where Graham Rahal made his IndyCar Series oval debut, he earned the second pole of his young career.
Rahal, the final qualifier on the 1.5-mile oval as storm clouds were building, recorded a four-lap average of 211.311 mph (1 minute, 43.5819 seconds) in the No. 02 McDonald's car for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. His effort knocked Dario Franchitti (210.967 mph) from the top spot and denied Ganassi Racing teams three pole starting positions on the same day in three different series.

In post-qualifying review, Indy Racing League chief steward Brian Barnhart determined the Nos. 10 (Franchitti) and 3 (Helio Castroneves) drove below the white line. Their times were negated and they'll start from the rear of the 22-car field.

Castroneves had qualified third (210.857).

That gave Robert Doornbos, making his IndyCar Series oval debut in the No. 06 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing car, a front-row look (210.665) at his teammate. Seven different teams are represented on the first five rows."We've shown we can compete on the street courses and now have shown we have the speed to compete on the ovals," said Rahal, who became the youngest pole sitter in series history at St. Petersburg three weeks ago. "I can't give enough credit to the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing guys for what they did in the off-season.

Danica Partick, the penultimate qualifier in the No. 7 Motorola car for Andretti Green Racing, will start third.

Starting grid, here. Race delayed to 3:30 am in Canada, so no Race Notes until tomorrow...

info courtesy of http://auto-racing.speedtv.com, pictures courtesy of me!

Advertising Battle

Check out this cool advertising war between Audi and BMW.

Referee

Check out this crazy picture. It looks like the dog in the middle is not very happy about something, and the Lab to the right is doing everything it can to stop the carnage that is about to happen. Yikes, I wouldn't want to be the one to break that up...

Gator Alley

This is not the road for a flat tire....This is the highway that cuts across Florida from the Atlantic side to the Gulf coast, and it's nicknamed Gator Alley. It runs along the top of the Everglades and funny enough, the wife and I have driven on this road, at night, and I swear to God there were actual alligators lying on the road still warm from the sun. This is one of the few times that I can remember when I did not want to stop and take a picture.

Ferrari's Secret Weapon

A The Adventures of MadMal and Hobbes (and Calvin too!!!) EXCLUSIVE!
A picture of Ferrari's new secret weapon, not sure if that's fuel for the car or fuel for Kimi ...
Whatever the case, at this point it looks like Ferrari will try just about anything to make their car go faster....

Welcome To The Future

Check out this crazy old ad I found floating around the Internet, from Honeywell promoting this new thing called e-mail. Strangely enough, my mom worked for Honeywell for years, and to this day I'm still not sure what they made.

courtesy of http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/20/ad-honeywells-electr.html

Race Notes: The Streets Of Long Beach Grand Prix

Race Notes:

Watching this Monday morning, due to tape delay...

• Great start, everyone makes it through without incident.
• Helio not doing too bad for a guy who hasn't been in the car for 6 months.
• The princess is on fire, from 22nd to 2nd through some alternate pit strategy and a little luck at the midway mark. Nice, aggressive driving, drag races Will Power out of the pits and beats him. I am finding a new respect for her driving.
• Dario shows that his driving style is more suited to cars without a roof or fenders.
• Lap 56 ... Graham Rahal gets the signal to go and leaves his pit with his fueler still attached. Mayhem ensues.
• Loving Versus coverage. Camera's everywhere. Great bumpers to break and in-race features.
• 9 to go ... Dixion is not having a great start to the season. Rear ended by Brisco while under yellow. Brisco called in for penalty.
• 8 to go ... green flag. Dario leads, Power second, Kannan, third, Patrick in fourth.
• 6 to go ... Marco tries to push Wheldon out of the way and makes contact in the hairpin. Wheldon stays out in front.
• 4 to go ... Dario opening up a gap between second place Power.
• 2 to go ... Tags puts the move on Hunter-Rhey and Hunter-Rhey closes the door, Tags comes back and makes the pass!
• Final lap ... Dario wins cut to Ashley Judd. Yup, Dario is back...

Full race results for the streets of Long Beach, here.

Race Notes: Chinese Grand Prix

Race Notes:

• Race started behind the safety car due to rain, 8 laps run under yellow before cars allowed to go racing.
• Green flag, Hamilton dives past Kimi, showing everyone he is the man to beat in the rain.
• Kimi on the charge, but can't keep up with McLaren's KERS system.
• Rain the great equalizer, cars off and on all over the place, last corner sending everyone wide.
• Hamilton suddenly slow ... due to on track spin ... everyone streams past.
• Bourdais moving up through the ranks.
• How can these guys see anything, let alone try to pass someone in all this rain?
• 38 to go ... yellow flag ... Vettle's Red Bull is rear ended by the Torro Rosso driven by Buemi. Kovalainen apparently also runs into Trulli's Toyota, ending his day.
• 36 to go ... Massa's day ends as his Ferrari dies on track
• 34 to go ... Bourdais spins on the restart, Hamilton thinks he is driving a 4x4, passes Kimi for the third time. I'm thinking Kimi is not a fan of the rain.
• 29 to go ... Piquet spins and takes out a shell sign bringing out the yellow, gets it restarted and moves out of harms way, back to green.
• 27 to go ... Button goes wide and Webber takes p2 away from him.
• 26 to go ... Webber goes wide, Button takes the place back.
• 25 to go ... Webber takes Button on the outside and grabs p2 back. Unbelievable racing for F1 and in the rain to boot. Red Bull's on a tear.
• 23 to go ... Hamilton from 4th comes in for his first pit, exits pits in 8th place.
• Announcers just said if Ferrari does not score a point in this race it will be the first time in 30 years Ferrari has failed to score a point in the first 4 races of the season ... way to go Kimi
• Not sure if I'm getting used to the snowploughs or are these cars getting better looking?
• 20 to go ... Bourdais spins off the race course like a top
• 18 to go ... Kimi just got passed by a Toyota ...
• 16 to go ... Vettel passes Button for the lead ... Alonso passes Kimi ... Ferrari not looking good.
• 14 to go ... Button in the pits from 2nd, out in 4th, no podium for Brawn today.
• 10 to go ... mayhem everywhere, cars going off left and right
• 8 to go ... Huge crash, Force India loses it and slides into the wall while under pressure from Hamilton's McLaren. Brings out only local yellow due to limited laps left.
• Loving the camera angles, in car shows how poor the driver's visibility really is. Wow, how can they do this at 100 plus mph? Nerves of steel baby.
• Final lap ... Red Bull makes team history with first ever F1 win to add to yesterdays first ever pole. Vettel's Red Bull first and Webber's Red Bull second, Button in the Brawn comes in third (podium after all!). Kimi makes history as well for Ferrari ... at ta boy.

Final results for the Chinese Grand Prix, here.

Racing News: Qualifying Day

INDY CAR

Will Power, first, Dario Franchitti, second, Raphael Matos, third. Here is your full starting grid. Surprisingly -- or not, Danica Patrick sits second last in the 22nd position. Will this be Will Power's last race for Team Penske now that Helio is back?

F1

F1 continues to shake things up. Sebastian Vettel driving for Red Bull, scored the team's first ever pole position, Fernando Alonso in the Renault was second and Mark Webber in the second Red Bull, third. Raikkonen is 8th and Hamilton, 9th. Here is your full starting grid.

Looks like tomorrow will be a great day for a motor car race...

Racing Chatter: PT Is Back -- Well, Sort Of...

KV Racing announced yesterday in Long Beach, that Paul Tracy had secured funding to run in this year's Indianapolis 500.

There had also been rumours that Tracy would appear in the two Canadian events to help boost crowds. Tracy said he was working towards driving in his home events, but that sponsorship was not yet in place.

"Well, we're working on it," he confirmed. "Obviously it's a tough economic time right now, and I'm fortunate enough that I've got good sponsors that have helped me through this economic time. I've got some personal sponsors with Monster that have stuck behind me. I've been able to put together some small deals to do a couple of little things."

He does not think his six-year absence from Indianapolis will be a handicap either.
"It's been a couple years since I've been there, but the track is the same," said Tracy. "The tradition of Indy is the same. It's four corners."
The press conference to announce Tracy's KV deal saw a surprise appearance from former Champ Car and IndyCar driver Max Papis. The Italian's NASCAR programme is sponsored by insurance company Geico, which is also backing Tracy at Indianapolis, so Papis attended the conference in the costume of the 'Geico gekko' character used in the firm's marketing.Papis, who only removed the costume's head to reveal himself halfway through the event, confirmed that he was there to support Tracy and had no plans to return to Indy himself.
"I'm driving the #13 car in the Sprint Cup Series, and that's a great challenge in itself," he said.

Well I guess if this is all we are going to see of the Thrill from West Hill, then it will have to do.

But I know even after sitting on his ass for a year, and looking a little heavier then the last time we saw him, PT can still drive circles around most of the drivers in the IRL this season. I hope he impresses everyone enough at Indy to secure sponsorship for a ride that will last for the rest of the season and not just the Canadian dates on the schedule, the IRL sure could use a guy like him to liven it up a little, don't you think?

courtesy of autosport.com

Racing Chatter, Take 2: Helio Not Guilty

Helio Castroneves was found not guilty of all charges of tax evasion yesterday. Spiderman will be back in the cockpit this weekend at Long Beach driving the number 3 Penske. Will Power, the fat lady is singing...

thanks to http://16thandgeorgetown.blogspot.com for the update.

Grass? What Grass?

This is my backyard. Every year I try to grow grass and every year it ends up looking like this. I really don't know why I bother, because this is what happens when you have two dogs that happen to be border collies.Every year I throw down grass seed and fertilizer and before it even has a chance to take, my two knuckleheads have ripped it up by running back and forth chasing squirrels and each other. Oh the joys of spring...

Digitized!

It took me almost a year to do it, but I finally got it done. I have managed to rip every CD I own to my computer and now have my entire music collection digitized. And even cooler, because I own an iPod Classic which has an 80 gig capacity, my entire music collection, all 6000 songs or 24 gigs, is on it. Can you say music to go?

Google I Think I Love You

Do you know what this is?Neither did I until last night.

That is the drip tray from under my fridge. Why am I taking a picture of it? Because for the last couple of months, there has been a bad smell in our kitchen. And for the life of us, we couldn't figure out where it was coming from.

Last night we finally decided that it was coming from the fridge, more specifically, from under the fridge.

Was it broken? Leaking? Did something die under there?

My wife began scouring the Internet for new fridges. Then she mention how much new fridges cost. I said lets call a repair man first and see if we can get it fixed.

Then a light went off.

"Type there is a smell coming from the bottom of my fridge into Google", says I.

And sure enough it lead me to the drip tray.

My brain started whirling. I checked Google again. Typed, how to clean drip tray into Google and how to instructions magically appeared.

Forget the repairman I said, I'm going to try to fix this myself!

And this morning I went at it.

Found the drip tray right away. Only problem was, its secured to the bottom of the fridge with four screws. And the only way to unscrew them was to get under the fridge.

Since it was only me, I managed to do this by jacking up the fridge on each side by sticking a paint can under it. Took the tray off and the picture above is what I found.

Now I want you to look closely. The short strip to the left is where the water from the fridge drains into, and the overflow goes into the big pan on the right. Now look closer. You can see that the thin strip is full of dog food. But it's not only dog food. Under that layer of dog food is 10 years plus of mouse shit. 10 years! No wonder the fridge had a God awful smell to it. 10 years! I had to scoop out the shit with a drywall knife!!

Have you ever seen mouse shit before? It's usually the size of half a grain of rice. The drip tray was FULL of mouse shit, so much so, that it had blocked the fridge from properly draining. Oh My God, I Have NEVER Been So Disgusted In My Life.

Thank Go for Latex gloves.

I got it done. Took it outside and cleaned it with soap and water and then again with bleach.

But thanks to Google, I saved myself the price of a new fridge, and the price of a service call.

But next time though, I might just spring for the service call ... and save myself with having to deal with that horror show ever again!

Happy Easter

A little Easter humour for your enjoyment...courtesy of a little fad called the internet...

Spring Make-Over

With spring in the air it was time to get the boys cleaned up for the warm weather. Dropped them off at the groomers at 9am and picked them up at 3:30pm. Long day. The wife drove by on the way to work and saw Hobbes up on the table. The lady was trying to blow dry his hair behind his ears and he was having none of it. Suffice to say, my man Hobbes is not a big fan of the doggy spa. Calvin I'm told loves it and all the attention. This is what it looked like when I came by to pick them up. Hair everywhere, all from my guys.I asked if they had been any trouble and this is what she said. "Calvin is never a problem, you can do pretty much anything you want to him and he couldn't care less. Hobbes is a true border collie, and her exact quote, "ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies". Yikes!Needless to say they were happy to get the hell out of there. And here they are, all clean and soft.
I give it a day....

Words Of Wisdom

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take",

-- Micheal Scott

Kumar Goes to Washington

Say what now?!

Kal Penn, whom many of you know and love as “Kutner” from the TV series House and from movies like The Namesake and the awesome Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, is joining the Obama administration. He’ll be a liaison between the administration and arts and entertainment groups as well as with my own demographic, the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.

...It should be also noted that he’s quite qualified (espeically since he was an adjunct professor teaching courses on Asian images in popular media).

I Guess you really can't believe everything you see ... or can you?

courtesy of http://www.joeydevilla.com/

Dog Washed Overboard Found Four Months Later

Here's a story to warm your heart on a cold day like today. Check it out:

SYDNEY (AFP) - A pet dog that fell overboard in rough seas off Australia has been reunited with its owners after surviving alone on an island for four months, reports said.
Sophie Tucker, apparently named after a late US entertainer, fell overboard as Jan Griffith and her family sailed through choppy waters off the northeast Queensland coast in November.
The dog was believed to have drowned and Griffith said the family was devastated.
But out of sight of the family, Sophie Tucker was swimming doggedly and finally made it to St Bees Island, five nautical miles away, and began the sort of life popularised by the TV reality show "Survivor."
She was returned to her family last week when Griffith contacted rangers who had captured a dog that had been living off feral goats on the largely uninhabited island, in the faint hope it might be their long-lost pet.
When the Griffiths met the rangers' boat bringing the dog to the mainland they found that it was indeed Sophie Tucker on board.
"We called the dog and she started whimpering and banging the cage and they let her out and she just about flattened us," Griffith told the national AAP news agency.
"She wriggled around like a mad thing."
Griffith said that when the dog was first spotted on the island she had been in poor condition.
"And then all of a sudden she started to look good and it was when the rangers had found baby goat carcasses so she'd started eating baby goats," she said.
Sophie Tucker, a member of the Australian cattle dog breed, had been quick to readjust to the comforts of home, complete with air conditioning, Griffiths said.
"She surprised us all. She was a house dog and look what she's done, she's swum over five nautical miles, she's managed to live off the land all on her own," Griffiths said.
"We wish she could talk, we truly do."

Story and picture courtesy of http://ca.news.yahoo.com, brought to my attention by my Facebook friend, John Bassett

Pilar Goes To Los Angeles

My wife Pilar recently went to LA for work. Here are some of the pictures from her adventures, enjoy.

This was her hotel. It was also the hotel that was used in the movie True Lies. And here is the view from her hotel of downtown LA.This is the view from inside the elevator. Look at the bottom centre of the picture below to see the elevator on the outside of the building. The elevator she is in was also used in the movie, True Lies. The hotel pool...The event my wife was working on was held at the Staples Centre, home of the LA Lakers and the LA Clippers NBA teams.LA's finest always on the job. In case you can't read what it says on the side; Bomb Squad.Park at your own risk...Working hard.Checking out the sites. Kodak Theatre.The Roosevelt Hotel. U2 shot a music video on the roof, not to mention many movies have been filmed their as well.

The world famous Mann's Chinese theater. Home to many Hollywood movie premiers.

Mansions in the Hollywood hills.

Where Hollywood goes to drink, Whiskey A Go Go.

Can you say 90210?

Rodeo Drive.

The Beverly Hills Wilshire Hotel, where the movie Pretty Woman was filmed.A shopping area in LA called the Grove.

Entrance to Paramount Pictures studios.

Melrose Avenue.

The world famous Hollywood sign in the background.

Famous people on the sidewalks of LA.

Santa Monica beach.

Venice beach

On the beach...... watching the surfers ...... enjoying the sun.Santa Monica pier.On the pier.The view from the pier.The Santa Monica coast.All pictures courtesy of my wife Pilar with her new Canon digital Elph.