Significantly Insignificant

Being that today is the day before our Thanksgiving Day break and the office is nearly a ghost town, I have some spare time on my hands to play around on the internet. I was reading a discussion in a forum that I frequent and the subject turned to the Hubble space telescope.

Side note: There is a fairly famous Hubble picture floating around the internet that was produced from the Hubble staring at a perceived empty piece of sky. It focused on the same spot for 11 days and came back with this, a deep-field exposure that hints at the true size of the universe.

Then a poster linked this:

Check it out and lemme know your thoughts... barring the amateur narration it's quite the thought provoking video. So thought provoking in fact, that my brain turned briefly into banana pudding. mmmmm, banana pudding.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!!

This past weekend was once again time for a NASCAR weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. This is the third year that TMS has had a fall race date and I love the fact that Texas gets two race weekends a year. Some puritans cringe at the fact that a track like this gets a second race date (the other is the April-ish race weekend). But I dig it.


Dave, Matt and I piled our stuff into my trusty Honda Element and headed toward the speedway at about 9:00am. We all had a quick laugh as we cracked our first beer at appox. 9:30. I love race day. The Busch series race was scheduled to start at 2pm which may cause you to ask: 'why leave so early?'. and my retort: 'cuz traffic sucks if you leave too late'. Later departure times, before I wised up and started to leave the house earlier, have caused mid-gridlock aggression as we sit, idle, on I-35, beerless. It's an ugly sight.



As noted in my previous blaaahg, if Carl were to place higher than 36th he would clinch the Busch series title. He finished 11th and raised the cup high.

The beautiful, sunny 70 degree day was a bit overshadowed at the end by some bad news. As we arrived home post-race, Matt played a message on his voice mail where he heard his sister tell him that his father had suffered a heart attack. Flustered, Matt grabbed his backpack and jetted out the door. A few hours later I picked up the phone to hear Matt say that his father had a minor heart attack and that he would be undergoing angioplasty that night. Turns out all went flawlessly and his dad is expected to recover well in the coming weeks, thankfully.

This did, however, leave Matt by his father's hospital bed for the Cup race on Sunday. We haven't missed a race together since he took me to my first race over 3 years ago. Rene, on the other hand, has never been to a race and makes fun of me/NASCAR/me/racing/me as often as she can. Little did she know she was in for THE BEST DAY OF HER LIFE!!! Not really, but I think she had a good time, anyway.

We were able to meet up with one of her friends, Julie, who also loves NASCAR. Her and her parents always get a parking pass for the next-to-the-gate parking which I have never bought before... because I'm cheap...and spend my extra money on extra beer. Anyway, we devised a plan to have Julie sneak out a parking pass to us so that we can tailgate next to them. Julie met us about 50 yards outside the VIP parking gate and proceeded to Mission Impossible-style climb into the back of my Element and hand us the pass and duck down so that the guard who let her out of the gate wouldn't see/recognize her. Success! We find our spot next to her car and set up shop.

The race turned out to be the best race I have seen live. The last 15 or so laps involved Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson battling side by side lap after lap until Johnson finally took the lead for good for with about 6 laps to go. This marked Johnson's third victory in a row. He's onto a crazy good run lately.

One of the highlights for Rene was when the cars would leave pit road under green flag conditions. Our seats were right at pit road exit where you can hear the engines under power at a lower RPM. The resulting deep baritone notes are the things that make blood flow more quickly through your veins. I think she's getting bit by the bug...hopefully.

Once again, race weekend failed to disappoint, and I can't wait till the next race at Texas Motor Speedway.

I ♥ Carl Edwards (no homo)

7:05 am
I drove to the Grapevine Office Depot location as per directions from Google maps, Yahoo maps, and Mapquest.

7:06 am
Realize that all three map services are off by about 500 yards to the south.

7:10 am
After crossing the interstate I arrive at the actual Office Depot to acquire my wrist-band which will allow me to get in line to meet Carl Edwards, driver of the #99 Office Depot (go figure) Ford. I was picturing two different scenarios in my head about getting my wrist band: 1: The line would be long and out the door in order for people to get the goods, or, 2: No one would be in sight and I could walk right in. Fortunately the latter were true and I walked through the sliding doors to be greeted by a smiling face and given my ticket to celebrity interaction.

3:55 pm
I just got off of the phone with my soon-to-be supervisor at the exhibit house in Colorado. We were discussing the final pay situation and arrived at an agreement. It's official. :)

7:02 pm
I have just gotten back to the Office Depot in Grapevine and see the hauler for Carl's show car. The car is the new chassis that they are implementing this season and will run full time next season.
7:20 pm
After standing in a line that was about 40 people deep and chit chatting with the people in front of us I walk up to Carl to have him sign the die-cast model of his 99 car and get a quick picture. I ask him if he's sick of smiling and signing his name. He says he's not (liar!), and comments on how when he dislocated his thumb signing an autograph was more difficult. And then that was it, we move on and head home.

I'm looking forward to this weekend where, in the Busch series, if Carl places higher than 36th he will clinch the Busch series title. And I'll be there to watch him, hopefully, hoist the trophy.