Manchester, NH, Saint Patrick's Day parade (3/30/2008):

http://www.saintpatsnh.com/




Giraffe Unicycles:
Front of the Gym Dandies:


At home afterward:
Chris

Went to southern California to perform the first stage of an assessment of perennial grasslands within the California State Park System. Lots of flowers.

The valley I camped in at Anza-Borrego State Park:



Cheilanthes sp., a desert fern:



Melica imperfecta:


Dead beetles (Coleoptera) in an alkaline lake:



The Navy flew air support:



So did the turkey vultures:



Lots of flowers:

Salvia carduacea:


Monolopia sp. at Carrizo Plains



Blue oak woodland with a Lasthenia californica (goldfields) and Nemophila sp. understory in San Luis Obispo County:



Yucca brevifolia (Joshua tree) in bloom:



Hesperocallis undulata (desert lily):


Yup.

gratuitous easter photo.

After Steamtown/Scranton we headed to Lancaster County aka Amish Country. Got there late all the cabooses were taken. Stayed in a steamboat instead. The Caboose place is either moved, very different or there are two. I didn't remember it at all, the layout or the surroundings. Something is up there.
Went to the Pennsylvania Railroad museum. It seems as if they are competeing with Steamtown to see who can spend more money. The building was twice as big as last time I was there. Lost of really nice trains. Strasburg RR was across the street. We went over and watched them warm up the steam engine for the days first run.

Still Steamtown.

Steamtown is very different than when I was last there. It is a top notch museum now. Not just an old railyard full of junk. They still have that too. The original roundhouse has been restored and is used for its original purpose repairing and maintaining steam and diesel engines. It is worth the trip, about three hours from Albany. $6.00 for adults the kids were free. And yes, they have the Big Boy.

Maine Autocross: There first event is at Storyland. The kids wouldn't be interested because the park isn't open. But there is a kids division. Many of the 2007 events were across the street from my office.

http://www.maine.rr.com/08/autocross/default.asp

What about Lake Scranton? I'm still upset the vast Pennsylvania wilderness was filmed in Southern California. What would Gifford Pinchot say? Lake Scranton better be authentic.

Chris

We headed south to Virginia on friday. We stopped at a few times on the way down.

Noah

More than just repaving at Lime Rock?

Wilson Motorsports is outfit that did Miller Motorsports Park and Barber. The improvements to the uphill and the new pit entrance seem okay, but I don't know about the end of the esses or west bend. There has been no mention about what if any changes will actually be made when the track is paved in June.

Newman Hass, KV, HVM, Conquest, Coyne, and Roth at Homestead today.


Robot sweeper

Glitter eggs

Happy Easter!

Megan's Easter Bunny imitation.

We watched The Station Agent. Rachel thought it was much better than I Like to Kill flies. It has more trains. We also got caught up with The Office. The "Pennsylvania wilderness" certainly looks a lot more like southern California than Pennsylvania, unless there is some grove of ponderosa pine and incense cedar that I don't know about.

Happy birthday to Sharon and Barbara!

Class canceled.

Ad in the Wall Street Journal this week- Le Creuset is looking for a new CEO.

It's only practice guys. The race is saturday. I guess Friday was eventful.

Noah

Lemans

Friday afternoon. Ben Devlin driving.

#07, #20, #4, #45

Noah

Happy birthday Paul!

I saw a documentary last night that is a MUST see. It is called "I like killing flies". Title doesn't fit the movie, don't worry. You will not believe what you are watching though. It is about a little hole in the wall restaraunt in Greenwich Village NYC owned by a husband and wife for 32 years. It was on IFC.

Noah

Forget the IRL : Jonathan did OK but not as well as last year. Dad had more trouble getting the wheels straight this time.

Barbie party:

Chris

This was in Great Grandpa's slide collection. It is dated Dec.66 on the slide. It is Daytona.

Noah

We had chinese food tonight. This was my fortune cookie.

Noah

I thought Robin kept telling us the merger was going to fix everything?
So many races and jobs lost, just so the IRL can get 6 more cars.

The real winner is ALMS.

Sports Car Analytics has a nice summary of all of the ALMS and LMS entries (they ranked them based on expected performance).

Eco Racing will be running in ALMS this year. They hope to get a 50/50 blend of the spec Shell diesel and jatropha-based bio diesel by the end of the season(the fuel needs to be approved by ALMS and made available to all competitors). They are running a Radical SR10 with an AER Volkswagon V12. The body work is made out of biodegradable hemp fiber. It will also have solar panels to run some of the parasitics. It is also painted with water based paint. The rainbows are also environmentally friendly because they are pretty. I know I'll feel better about myself watching the car on Saturday.


Speed will have 11 hours of coverage of Sebring.

F1 next weekend too.

We didn't lose power, but it was windy and the lights flickered.

11 hours no electricity. 55 degrees inside Brrrrrrrrr.
Noah

The local ice race club didn't have any good ice to use this winter so they came up with an idea to race the cars anyway. Door to door rally racing. The used Dundee speedway in Dundee, NY. There are more photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/marnie/sets/72157604022960623/
Noah

Dallara has managed to make a car uglier than the Krohn Lola.

Tons of cars at the LMS test at Paul Ricard. Here a Spyker burns.

New Aston Martin Racing livery.

New closed top LMP1 Lola with Aston MartinV12.


LG Corvette should be on its way to Sebring today.

The weather has been sunny and in the mid-60s here, so we decided it was time to head up to Mt. Shasta to go camping.


We had about 7 feet of snow for our annual winter camping trip. The weather was warm and we didn't have a lot of energy after skiing so we didn't build a cool snow cave like Jonathan and Megan's, but we were able to make a fancy kitchen setup.



We spent a day skiing out from our campsite up around the mountain. The weather was perfect.


After we got back to the car on Monday, we took off our packs and spent some time sledding and skiing downhills before leaving the snow. Rachel did a face plant on the way back. It was awesome!

I finally figured out how to get rid of the fort the kids built in the playroom. Cameron made this snowman on saturday after the last snowfall. It is raining today the snow is melting fast.
AJ out Skinner in, "temporary".
Hornish out of top 35 in points. His Nascar season might get shorter quick.
Last weeks Nascrap race was fixed. The Roush-Fenway team got a no yellow call that kept two cars on the lead lap. One of them eventually won. The fix was clear as day. The announcers even had trouble covering it up as they were taken by surprise.

Overdue update:

Yes, Megan still has her wiggly teeth. The left over snow melted on the driveway so Jonathan practiced. It really wasn't very warm. Jonathan says his coat gets in the way.

Saturday snow:

Stillwater visit in February:




Chris

Winter picnic in a snow storm where we swim in the summer.

The only thing you need to know about the IRL takeover. The IRL was facing having to fund 4 more cars to meet its Homestead (and other ISC tracks) contract requirements. Champ Car had its strongest pre-season test since CART '02.

However, since November, Kevin Kalkhoven decided he didn't want to play any more. They put together a junk TV contract and people like Tony Cotman saw the writing on the wall and left the series at the beginning of the year.

So the Scranton branch was in trouble due to its horrible management. The superior Stamford Branch was in line to absorb the Scranton branch, then Josh announced he was going to Staples.

Stamford

Scranton

Updates from Homestead testing:

• The Dallaras are ugly, loud, slow, and boring just like last year.
• No word on whether the new drivers from Champ Car will be required to kiss IRL drivers on the podium, as is the current protocol.
• Well, the drivers got some updates for the new season.

$60,000 worth of teeth and other plastic for his face.

Certainly more than 60,000 Hugo Bucks worth of plastic.