Here are my picks for the 2011 24hrs of Daytona. I believe I picked the over all winner the last two years in a row. Not feeling as good this year here they are.
DP
1st-02 Ganassi-the weakest driver on this team is a pro driver
2nd-10 Suntrust-I know I will get some flak for this from Paul and Joel
3rd-45 Flying Lizard-1st time for the Lizards but they are the second best race team in the race
4th-90 Spirit of Daytona-this is my wild card pick non-Riley chassis with little past performance. Driver lineup
5th-5 Action Express-I don't think the 99 is past their 24hr bad luck. Action express stays out of trouble and always finishes

GT
1st-67 TRG-Andy Lally.
2nd-70 Speedsource-They need to stay out of trouble for 24hrs
3rd-54 TRG-Driver lineup
4th-66 TRG-Driver lineup
5th-94 Turner-Not sure the BMW is ready for an overall

Snowmobile recovery over old dam Stillwater Reservoir

Working on my picks for the Daytona 24. DP is harder than I thought. The Ganassi cars are both loaded. At first glance it is easy to eliminate the following DP's 7, 23, 55, 60, 77. I haven't given up on the #76 because Mr. Big Oil probably won't drive many stints. The rest of the driver lineup is solid. Same with the #9, keep the gorilla out of the seat and they have a strong chance. GT class is much easier. Quickly eliminate 00,4,11,17,18,22,30,32,36,40,41,42,43,44,48,53,56,57,63,65,81,86. They will be lucky to be running at the end. These cars are all good driver lineups. 07,(I moved the 40 car to the eliminate list as I wrote this),54,59,66,67,69,70,88,94. I will make a final top five list for each class Thursday night. Probably just remove all non-Riley cars and all non Porsche and Mazda/Riley cars. Although I like the SunTrust #10 right now. Wayne Taylor may be a little looney and emotional but, He has been doing endurance racing a long time. I would take him over Seth Neiman. Ricky Taylor was faster the Max the Ax last year.

Minus 34 degrees F on Stillwater Reservoir this morning. Yesterday it stayed below zero. Mom stayed in.

Oliver and I rode at Cliff's farm today. Z120 and Ski Whiz. It was very cold out. This Sno-Pack followed us home.

President Obama taking off at 2pm. Pictures form our bedroom window.

My Sebring Entry List

Green, yellow, and red indicate my confidence level of the car appearing. I'm also not entirely sure that the GTC class will be participating but I've haven't heard anything from the series itself indicating it isn't.

Betty misses Philip already.

Phil, Kate, Cameron , Oliver, Elliot, and I went to Cliff's farm Sunday to ride snowmobiles and sled. It was a nice day not too cold.

Last Sunday (after camping in the snow), we made Boeuf Bourguignon. After consulting Julia Child, Alice Waters, and Ruth Reichl, we decided to go with Ruth Reichl's version. In all it is pretty simple.

Cut some bacon and some cheap cut of beef into chunks:

Flour and then brown the beef:

Deglaze the pan and pour the liquid over the beef to sit until the veggies are sauteed:

Saute the veggies and then add some wine (about 750ml):

Already tasting pretty good:

Saute some pearl onions and mushrooms:

When it is nearly done, add potatoes and sauteed onions and mushrooms:

Pretty exciting:

After a mere seven hours later, it is all over:

Rachel hard at work.

This is the retrieval of 2 snowmobiles that went through thin ice over the old dam by Perkins Island. The riders go out ok. They were taken to the Stillwater for a warm shower and dry clothes. They were unable to get the snowmobiles out today.

We had about 6 inches of snow today. the kids had a lot of fun playing out.

picture of Paul taken by Elliot. This would be a good one for facebook.

step 1-drag 300+ pound not running snowmobile from garage
step 2-for no logical reason pull recoil starter 5-10 times to see if engine will start
step 3-look at snowmobile and wonder why engine won't start
step 4-pull recoil 4-5 more times
step 5-look at snowmobile and wonder why it won't start
step 6-remove spark plug and look at it
step 7-replace spark plug
step 8-pull recoil 4-5 times
step 9-spray enough starting fluid into carburetor to put and elephant to sleep
step 10-pull recoil 4-5 times
step 11-look at snowmobile running for about 10 seconds
step 12-look at snowmobile not running for about 5 minutes
step 13-remove carburetor to check needle and seat (this step takes a minimum of 20 minutes and requires a special box wrench that has been cut to fit carburator bolts just right)
step 14-replace carburetor using special wrench
step 15-pull recoil 10-15 times or until arm is tired
step 16-look at snowmobile for about 10 minutes
step 17-check gas tank to see fuel level
step 18-realize fuel pickup line has broken off and fallen into gas tank
step 19-remove seat and gas tank
step 20-try and pour fuel from gas tank into an empty gas can without getting any fuel on you
step 21-fail miserably at step 20
step 22-fish out broken fuel pickup from gas tank and replace with new one
step 23-replace gas tank and seat
step 24-pour remaining fuel from gas can back into gas tank on snowmobile
step 25-pull recoil about 10-15 times until snowmobile runs
step 26-ride and enjoy snowmobile
step 27-open hood of not running snowmobile and wonder why the engine has stopped running
step 28-tow snowmobile back to garage
step 29-repeat steps 2-6
step 30-look at not running snowmobile and wonder why it has gotten easier to pull recoil
step 31-remove cylinder head and discover blown head gasket.

Steps 1-25 takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Step 26 sholud last about 15-20 minutes. Steps 27-31 take about 30 minutes.

Donnie and her cat.
Building the New Year's Ball

Eye-O


Oli controlling the situation with one hand on the string for the New Year's Ball and the other broadcasting commands and entertainment on the loudspeaker.


Happy New Year. Post that on facebook, weirdo.

Here are some views from the winter of 1996. The hood was up on the Arctic Cat to tinker with the carburetor more often than not.

Chris

This is a familiar scene. Reminds me of the early days with the old camp. We would spend the whole weekend getting a snowmobile running for an hour of riding time.

made you look.

Rachel and I just finished reading Farmer Boy. Apparently, it wasn't part of Rachel's family literary canon.

We went camping and skiing at Lassen National Park for New Year's eve. It was cold and it snowed all night. We didn't even make an attempt to stay awake until midnight but some other campers woke us up with their countdown, so we were able to acknowledge the entry of the new year despite our best attempts to sleep through it.


Rachel with the fumaroles in the background.

Here's a picture of Rachel in the camping area. We dug the snow out about 2-3 ft. down so that our tent would be protected from the wind. But it wasn't windy. We got about 6 inches of snow during the night.