Hot Wheels

One of ToolMan's racing buddies has a son who submitted a video to the Hot Wheels video contest and he is in the top ten. If he wins, his parents plan to let him use the money for karting, I mean college, ok well, some of both...

You can check out the videos at http://www.hotwheels.com/index_hwkids.aspx

Max's video is the one in the widescreen format. As Kerri pointed out, you can see Daddy's speed gun clocking the hot wheel action at 73.2 mph.

Good luck Max!

Get Out of Town

Tomorrow ToolMan and I are getting out of town. Together. By ourselves.

We are flying over to Savannah for the day. A few years ago ToolMan built a two-seat airplane. It was a big project but ToolMan is always up for a challenge. I helped a good bit with the plane, especially when the project in our garage. This means if you ever need any rivets hammered, flush or round head, I am your girl.

In case you want to learn more about homebuilt aircraft like ours, check out our fellow RVer Dan Checkoway's site. One page that has some good tips is The Married Dude's Guide to Aircraft Building. It's a hoot, and should be required reading for any spouse undertaking any project of substantial size.

While in Savannah we won't be taking in veranda views or mint juleps. We are headed to a test day at Roebling Road to hang out with and help a great friend. ToolMan is not into any sort of race spectating, so one knows how great a friend this is for him to go. Tomorrow night we plan to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, The Shell House, before we head back.

13 years, 3 months

ToolMan relayed some interesting news with me this afternoon: SCCA is dropping the minimum age required to get a competition (race) license to 14 years old.

If you could see the enthusiasm with which ToolMan was sharing this, you might understand my quandry instead of being horrified. Some dads-to-be and new dads eagerly anticipate playing catch in the yard, building a tree house, and helping with math homework. ToolMan will happily do those things, but I suspect racing may occupy a special place in his heart.

If CRB has no interest that will be fine with him. But if he exhibits any interest ...

Weekend Reflections

I cannot seem to remember midweek (!) but I guess I can at least reflect on this weekend.

Friday I took CRB to the allergist. The doctor said that he did not think CRB felt well, but that he did not have an ear infection. He has put CRB on twice daily nasal spray and some singulair. I am concerned that my little boy is becoming more allergic. Genetically, he stands no real chance not to be, but I am so thankful that his ears seem to be resistant to infection.

Saturday morning we got up at 4 a.m. to leave for our "day trip" to Atlanta. We had three big missions. The first mission was to pick up the punch-line to a running joke between ToolMan and Wren – a crashed Suzuki GXSR 1000 motorcycle to use as a donor for the F1000 project. This motorcycle was recently run off a 20 foot embankment, its former owner having to crawl uphill for 9 hours with a broken body (he is doing much better). The bike is stout but is broken in half, telling what a big smack he took.

After strapping the bike (parts?) down on the trailer, we were off to our second mission - IKEA. I have wanted to go to an IKEA for a very long time. I love anything Scandinavian (I am a quarter Norwegian) and a trip to IKEA has been on my wish list for more than a decade. The Green Girl in me loves many of their company policies, along with the modern Scandinavian look of their goods, even if none of it will harmonize with my house. In case you catch a Cash Cab re-run the crashed motorcycle dude's dad said that IKEA is the world's most visited retailer. From my study of the catalog, I thought that the IKEA was going to be something special, and I was not disappointed. Any guesses to what we bought? Kid stuff. We got CRB some really neat things (play table with chairs, kid's picnic table for the deck, awesome green rocker toy, kool town map rug) for his first birthday or Christmas depending upon when he is ready. ToolMan humored me with lunch at the IKEA café and I got to enjoy some lingonberry punch.

After IKEA, we headed to our third mission: ToolMan's uncle's retirement party in Helen, Georgia. Uncle Wayne has had many interesting flying jobs – F4s in Vietnam, big iron to take people on vacations to exotic places, and lastly as an instructor at Flight Safety. CRB was the world's most hugged and kissed baby on Saturday. He THRIVES on attention, so he had a great day even considering he took only 45 minutes of naptime. ToolMan has an awesome family and we had a wonderful time! Again, I am reminded how we need to make big family gatherings a priority.

We got home around 12:30 am, and managed to be in bed by 3 minutes until 1. CRB giggled with delight when I put him in his crib. Home is good.

For more weekend reflections, vist Judi.