…But Happy!: Infineon was a blast. IndyCars, Indy Pro Series, American LeMans in those rad-looking Daytona prototypes, and the amazing Historic Grand Prix cars. I took almost 1000 photos, mostly of cars, but I did shoot some human wildlife as well. Unfortunately, events conspired to cause me and Bud Moeller not to meet this time, but I did get some great photos of his car. Next time we’ll definitely say hello, Bud! I’ve already started cropping and resizing photos and hope to have my site updated with them over the weekend.

Got Everything? 

Tickets? Check.

Sunscreen? Check (SPF 70).

Sun Hat? Check.

Camera? Check.

MyFi? Check.

Walking Shoes? Check.

I’m ready to roll at Infineon. Watch this space for details and photos.

You Wanna Go Here: LoveHopeStrength

I saw The Alarm at the Mezzanine in July. Lead singer Mike Peters has wrestled leukemia twice, and he’s a real force on stage – their show was loads of fun. He’s founded Love Hope Strength to fund research and treatment for those battling cancer, and he and about 40 other musicians, survivors and a documentary crew are about to climb to base camp on Mt. Everest and perform an acoustic show. Cy and Jamie from The Fixx are among the trekkers starting out in mid-October. Follow the link above to learn more, and if you can get involved somehow, please consider it. I’m sponsoring a walker in another event they’re doing and have joined The Army in memory of my grandmother and in honor of my niece Ashley and friend Donna, both survivors.

TGIF: Battled a tummy bug the last couple of days – glad the week is over so I can rest. No Indy Cars this weekend, but next weekend I’ll see them race in person at Sonoma. Hopefully I’ll run into my old college mate Vince Welch, and my new MySpace pal, Bud Moeller. Bud races the Historic GP cars, and he and his wife Carol used to live here in the bay area, so they’re arranging wine and Alcatraz tours for a bunch for race fans. He invited a bunch of us from MySpace as well. I’m planning to be at the raceway most of the weekend, so I may miss the tours, but can’t wait to see all the races. IPS is running two races that weekend, so I can see the up and comers like Alex Lloyd, Hideki Mutoh, Ryan Justice, etc.

Pippi: We’re planning to hogtie Big Bunny and move him to the west coast.  We’re planning lots of things.

REPOST: Using babies as man traps…

Why do females get preggers to try and trap guys?

I was just reading the profile of someone whom I’ve always wondered about on that front – he’s not too bright, and at the time, there was a nice pile of money in his life – and it got me to thinking about this topic. Who could ever be so desperate and selfish as to use an innocent human life in such a way? Drop a kid with one guy, and if he doesn’t go for it, try another one. Eventually, they end up with a fool they can control and manipulate, and PRESTO! – the idiot spends his life trapped under the world’s largest thumb. (“Oh, and give Mummie your receipts…did you spend it all?”)

And then there are the children…most of the time, they’re just little pawns in a game. They suffer the worst of it, with a mom who treats them like they’re merely the ties that bind, and a dad with no spine, suffocated and emotionally wrecked. Gotta suck when your parents are TRASH like that.

Off my soapbox now..

Stats: Haven’t looked at my overall stats in a while. In the last month:

• 145 visits from 106 unique visitors
• 8 countries – Chile (obsessed with my Fixx photos), UK, Australia, Japan, Canada, Germany, Togo
• US visits from: Cali (one frequent blog reader in LA), DC, Mass., FL, VA (howdy, Leesburg), OH, NJ (rock on!), NY, MN

Welcome. This blog mainly keeps family and a few friends up-to-date with what’s on my agenda. Anything too personal or private or controversial (or interesting!) is shared in occasional email, so please forgive the mundane nature of this blog. But thanks for stopping by!

Franchitti Flies Again: The Flying Scot with The Italian Name got airborne again, this time just after the checkered flag flew at the Indy Car race in Kentucky. See Dario ride right up the backside of Kosuke Matsuura and go up and over – there’s even video from his on-board camera (just be sure to have the Dramamine handy). I hope we don’t see Dario’s luck run out on one of these deals – he walked away again…

Mission:Pip-possible: Did a mani/pedi at Cinta today, ran a few errands, then came back home to veg out. Brainstorming with Pippi on how to get her back to California. She desperately wants to bring her sweetie with her, but I’m thinking if he can’t manage it soon, she may just come back on her own. She loves him, but the messy situation he’s in (ex-wife screwed him financially, etc.) is really putting a strain on them.

…Check the Pond: A favorite way to catch up on email in the evening is with Pete’s Pond audio/video streaming in the background. From August to December, National Geographic runs a live WildCam, showing a watering hole on a game reserve in Botswana. You never know which species will turn up when, but if you ever need an instant safari, all ya gotta do is click.

To the Arcade!: Nailed down tix for the Arcade Fire gig. In the next 6 weeks I have a race and three gigs coming up. That’s twice as many events as I’ve attended all year so far. Too much work. Really crappy, that. Something’s gotta give…

Arcade!: I missed the Arcade Fire shows in June due to a flu bug. They’ll be back here on September 21. September will ROCK – Underworld on the 7th, Todd Rundgren on the 13th and then Arcade Fire. I’ve seen only two live gigs this year, so it’s good to have a raft of them to look forward to!

It’s Done: Barry Bonds set San Francisco rocking tonight with his 756th home run in the 5th inning against the Washington Nationals. There was a fabulous celebration afterward, with a dignified video message by Hank Aaron himself highlighting the festivities. My co-worker Jeremy was in the park for this one…can’t wait to talk to him tomorrow!

One Lucky Dude: Dario Franchitti is walking, talking, breathing and scarfing down pizza on pit lane this evening, very lucky to be doing so. Michigan turned out to be what Pressdog would label a “Festival of Carbon Fiber”, deluxe version, with plenty of cars into the wall, into each other, and a horrific accident touched off by Dan Wheldon that took out half the remaining cars. Franchitti was pirouetting through the air, nose down, then helmet down, then a barrel roll, landing on other cars before coming to a stop on his lid. Everyone walked away under their own power – Sam Hornish got out of his wrecked car and came to help turn Dario’s back onto its wheels. ESPN’s cameras followed Franchitti as he rejoined his team in the pits, and the number of people who stopped and hugged him and the concern on their faces showed just how beloved the guy is. Bummed for Danica – she missed the carnage and was the car on track that always got stronger as a stint wore on, but she suffered a cut tire and had to pit, which put her a lap down. She could have won her first race. As it was, TK and Marco came home 1-2 to salve the Andretti Green wounds. It just shows that – done correctly – there’s advantage to running a multi-car team, even if there’s a lot of bittersweet that comes with it.

Here’s hoping next week’s race at Kentucky is a lot less expensive for everyone.

Bondsless, Racing to Catch Up: Barry’s sitting out the last game in San Diego, where the Giants and Padres are tied at 2 in the 6th. Dario Franchitti is working some magic at Michigan – he dropped to the rear of the field on a bad pit stop, and within a handful of laps, he was back to the lead. Not even halfway done with the race, though, so anything could happen…

El Lay: Someone in the Los Angeles area is extremely interested in this blog – reads daily. Unless someone has moved there recently and hasn’t told me, I don’t really know anyone there who could possibly WANT to read this every day. Ah well. Hope they find more interesting reading material somewhere on the web! LOL!

A Nice Day: Took a little stroll, ran some errands and enjoyed a lovely day here in San Francisco. My foot’s bugging me a little but the temporary pad helps some. Found a way to get my UK pal’s gift onto my iPod so I can check it out on trains, planes and cable cars. Dario Franchitti won the pole for the race at Michigan, and the Giants are playing in Petco tonight against the Padres. Second inning saw Bonds tie Hank Aaron’s home run record…

A Little Better: This week wasn’t as hectic as I thought it would be – nice to have a moment or two to breathe and do things at a normal pace at work.

A Little Breather: Gonna take another slow weekend, watch some Indy Cars go round and round at Michigan, and finally have a moment to fully take in the gift my UK pal sent me. He told me to share it with Ms. Pippi, and she got hers today.

A Little Bother: Pippi reminded me of something I heard last month. Seems that dopey ex-”date” of mine has collected yet another admirer the guys put in the “SKIP DIVE/STALKER” category. There’s one who travels from another country to see him. No one can imagine why he tolerates her – they can’t stand her. There’s a girl who used to chase one of the other guys. That got her nowhere, so now she’s going after Dopey. Pip said something today that brought it to mind and it makes me marvel at bit – seems the only folks left he can spend time with are desperate, messed up or just plain dumb. Too bad he can’t seem to keep decent company…

A Lotta Chile: Someone using an IP address in Chile made three visits to my site today, each time only to my photos of the boys. Wouldn’t that just be ironic… (Naw, I better not finish that one. Some of you know where that one ends up – the SKIP! LOL!)

Still Smarting: Went to two doctors and had x-rays yesterday. No broken bones. The podiatrist suspects I may have pinched nerves. He gave me some temporary pads to stick to my foot that will take pressure off the metatarsals. That seemed to help some – much less pain when I had one on yesterday, but definitely feeling it without one this morning. If this “fixes” the problem, I’ll just need to get an insert to use in my left shoe.

Ready to Race: My Indy Cars are racing at Michigan International this weekend. Looking forward to it!

Mo’ Music: In addition to Todd (Tee Arr) Rundgren next month, we’re also getting a concert by Underworld! Really looking forward to that – love those guys.

RIP, iPod 2: My second iPod died today. (First one was the victim of me tripping and landing on it two years ago. No. 2 has been dropped a blue million times and I’m surprised it lasted this long.) So today, I hit the Apple store on the way home for a sleek, black 30G video iPod, which has been loaded with all my tunes, podcasts and a couple of videos. Now to load some photos, and if I can figure out how to get that gift from my UK pal on it, that will be perfect…