thirtysomething...

A few pictures from the Coca-Cola 600 back on Memorial day. Testing out a new photo viewer. If you have problems viewing, just let me know.

Press Play, or you can cycle through the pics manually. Mouse over the image, you'll then see the controls.

Courtesy of (yes, again) LownissanDJ:

One day a guy dies and finds himself in hell. As he is wallowing in despair, he has his first meeting with the devil...

Satan: "Why so glum?"
Guy: "What do you think? I'm in hell!"

Satan: "Hell's not so bad. We actually have a lot of fun down here. You a drinking man?"
Guy: "Sure, I love to drink."
Satan: "Well, you're gonna love Mondays then. On Mondays, that's all we do is drink. Whiskey, tequila, Guinness, wine coolers, Tab, and Fresca. We drink 'til we throw up, and then we drink some more! And you don't have to worry about getting a hangover, because you're dead anyway."
Guy: "Gee that sounds great!"

Satan: "You a smoker?"
Guy: "You better believe it!"
Satan: "All right! You're gonna love Tuesdays. We get the finest cigars from all over the world, and smoke our lungs out. If you get cancer - no biggie, you're already dead, remember?"
Guy: "Wow...that's awesome!"

Satan: "I bet you like to gamble."
Guy: "Why, yes, as a matter of fact I do."
Satan: "Good, 'cause Wednesdays you can gamble all you want. Craps, blackjack, roulette, poker, slots, whatever. If you go bankrupt, it doesn't matter, you're dead anyhow."
Guy: "Cool!"

Satan: "What about Drugs?"
Guy: "Are you kidding? Love drugs! You don't mean...?"
Satan: "That's right! Thursday is drug day. Help yourself to a great big bowl of crack or smack. Smoke a doobie the size of a submarine. You can do all the drugs you want. You're dead so who cares."
Guy: "Wow! I never realized Hell was such a cool place!"

Satan: "You gay?"
Guy: "No..."
Satan: "Ooooh, Fridays are gonna be tough..."

Courtesy of LownissanDJ:

One evening a man was at home laying on the sofa watching TV and eating peanuts. He'd toss them in the air, and then catch them in his mouth. In the middle of catching one, his wife asked him a question - and as he turned to answer her, a peanut fell in his ear.

He tried and tried to dig it out but succeeded in only pushing it in deeper. He called his wife for assistance, and after hours of trying they became worried and decided to go to the hospital. As they were ready to go out the door, their daughter came home with her date.

After being informed of the problem, their daughter's date said he could get the peanut out.

The young man told the father to sit down, then proceeded to shove two fingers up the father's nose and told him to blow hard. When the father blew, the peanut flew out of his ear.

The mother and daughter jumped and yelled for joy. The young man insisted that it was nothing. Once he was gone, the mother turned to the father and said, "That's so wonderful! Isn't he smart? What do you think he's going to be when he grows older?"

The father replied, "From the smell of his fingers, our son in-law."

Have I got a good way to get rid of that burning lump of fire...

With an SCCA Hard Card. That's right!

An SCCA Hard Card.

What's an SCCA Hard Card you ask? Well, I'll tell ya.

If you are a member of the Sports Car Club of America (and I am) your membership card & license is printed on 2 pieces of heavy(ish) bond paper, that you must add a photo to, sign, and laminate together. This allows you to get into "hot" areas in SCCA events, and proves you are worthy to your fellow drivers. Ok, well maybe not the last part.

IMHO, the laminated card is Old & Busted. Enter the "New Hotness" The SCCA Hard Card.

Head over to SCCA.COM, click Member Services or Members (I don't remember which), log in with your member number, then click Hard Card & follow the onscreen instructions. Give them your Bank of America card number and in a few days you'll receive one of your very own Hard Cards made from new shiny plastic. No more cutting up photos. No more trying to find a laminator...

And hey, you also get a nifty SCCA lanyard to hang your new Hard Card around your neck at your next event! BONUS!!

The Card.

Apparently, you can upload any kind of picture of yourself that seems relevant.

The Lanyard

Been busy lately. Still moving stuff around in the house, blah blah blah.

Anyway, here's something fun to do if ya want. "Who knows me the best" It's a short 10 question quiz. Ya have to fill out just a little bit of info over at that site, and you can opt out of all the junk at the end. You can even create your own quiz.

Have fun. It's the first block over on the left border of the blog!


D

Everything is packed up! Finally. It seemed to take FOREVER. I think my niece knows exactly how I feel.

Is It Time To Go Yet?

Heather got me a ride & drive kinda thing at Brands Hatch for Christmas, and today I finally got to use it! The weather forecast for today was brutal. High winds, extremely heavy rain. Luckily none of that happened until we were on the way back home.

Brands Hatch is a very cool track. Lots of elevation changes with a few blind turns. The at the end of Brabham Straight the track has a dip right at the turn-in point for Paddock Hill Bend, which is just that. A somewhat blind hill into a right hander. It upset the Megane just a bit, but it really made the Formula 3 twitchy. Everything else is nice and fast. :) The single seater has only 4 gears and is rev-limited to 4000rpm. Which kept me down to below 90 mph for most of the track except the straights where I was bouncing off the limiter all the way down (~95mph). I could have gone faster in the Renault, (6 gears & no imposed limiter) but the instructors said No. Only use 4 gears to "prepare" us for the single seaters.

I was a bit nervous about driving the single seater. Never done that before. Once I got the car off pit lane (after 3 near stalls :noes: ) and past the first turn, it was such a natural feeling driving like that. Essentially you're laying down with your head sticking up. F***ing Brilliant. I felt more at home on the track in the Formula 3 that has no power steering, ABS, a suspension that barely moves, etc. than I did in the somewhat brand new, road legal Renault.

The Jag in one shot was driven by a track employee, giving "Hot Laps" for £35 to people wanting just to ride on the track. Only got passed by him once during each session. I passed at least 3 cars in each session, and lapped 2 cars in the Forumla 3 session. Go Me.

I'd SO give up autocross to do club racing in a formula. Brilliant. Just Brilliant.

Oh, BTW, I had the 2nd fastest lap of the day, and came in 1st out of my group of 25. :yea:


Clicking the photos will show a larger version. Special thanks to Chris Brier for shooting the pics!!!

Brands Hatch




The Track Layout


My Renault Megane Sport




Waiting in line on the pit lane




Coming out of Graham Hill Bend into Cooper Straight, about to pass on the straight.




Leaving Surtees going into McLaren then on to pass #7 on the entering Brabham Straight




My Formula 3. I happened to be #3 in both cars. :)




Me stalling the car.




Graham Hill Bend




Cooper Straight




Cooper Straight




More Cooper Straight




And again...




Entering Surtees getting held up by lap traffic. (Just got passed by the track's Jag)




Aaaand I'm done. It's much easier getting into the car than out of it.

Appropriate title, no? The Final Countdown by Europe... :hehe:

Yes, I've started counting the days. And the timer is counting down the seconds...

Oo Oo Oooo Guess What Guess What??


It's my grandfather's birthday!!


Happy Birthday, Papa!!

Yeah, I know. Slack.

I'm guessing you noticed the name change. :) March 15th and we're back in the US, back in the US, back in the US of A. I for one can't wait. Not that I haven't enjoyed living in England for the past 13 months. It's been cool. Cold & wet, too. I've seen a TON of stuff that I probably would never have seen on just a week holiday to the UK. Tons of photos. Yeah I know. You haven't seen them all. See the first line in the post. I'm planning on printing a few books when I get back. We've met a great group of people here in Headcorn, and will be sorry to leave them. They have definitely made our stay here MUCH more enjoyable and sane.

I've started packing up what I can. Mainly spring/summer clothing, books, toys, basically anything I can get away without having for the next few weeks. When we moved over we had 15 boxes shipped. When it's all said and done, 25 to 30 are going back.

I'm guessing you've also noticed the new blog layout. All of my photgraphs, css files, essentially everything that gave the AAViE version it's "Look" are stored on a local UK server which I'm having to discontinue soon. Once I get the Internets set back up in Charleston, I'll get the photojournals back up. :)

The house in CHS looks GREAT! I'll do a full write-up and before-during-after photo session once we get all settled in. Heather has had some trepidation during the whole renovation until the last few sets of pictures filtered in through email. Now she can't wait to get home and into the house! :whew: I'm glad we (read: she) weren't in the US when the renovation was going on. Just thinking about seeing the house day after day in such a state of disrepair gives me the chills. Progress is definitely more visible if you can cut to the next scene without seeing all the minor dull bits in between. It's almost finished. Down to a punch list now. :yea:


So, if there were too many words to read, here's the Cliff Notes:
Blog Name Change
Blog Layout Change
Moving to US March 15th
House is just about complete.

Just about a month or so left to go!!