4 Runners Down

Kurt, Donnie, Mike and Kam are done with their first legs, and Andrew took the course about 10 minutes ago. Still 3 hours before I get my turn.

30 to go.

Less than 30 minutes for Kurt. 8 more hours for me.

Ragnar Is Imminent

So it's just over 24 hours to the kickoff of our Ragnar Relay 2009. By noon on Friday, we'll be under way. Latest prediction has our team finishing in about 27 hours 30 minutes. Updates (not that this is a super hot blog) will be posted from the road, either by Blackberry or if we can find a hot spot.

I'm nervous. I've trained, maybe not enough. I've put in 190 miles worth of training runs, but since I've never done something like this before, I have no clue if that's enough. I just hope I don't break.

Tree Escapes Certain Death

The elm tree has escaped a horrible and tragic end! I had come home early a few weeks ago to find a city forestry inspector checking out my house, for what reason I had no clue. I went outside to chat, and he gives me the news... "Your tree has Dutch Elm."

"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

One of the (few) things I love about my house/yard is the tree in the backyard. It gives great shade and the canopy covers my entire yard. To lose that tree would drastically change the landscape of the entire neighborhood.

Below is a picture of the tree on the day of the trimming. Notice the large brown spot on the left (east) side of the tree. That's the Dutch Elm disease.

Another picture looking north.

The options are few: cut down the tree or take a gamble with trimming/treating. Taking down the tree would cost nearly $5k, given the huge canopy and sheer girth of the tree. Trimming/treating would be more palatable, $1200, but offers no guarantees of success.

I rolled the dice...

During the trimming, although the largest branch has already been mostly taken out.

A picture to the north. Notice the difference!

I'm hopeful. George from Northeast Tree said they found 20' of clear wood, which is a good sign. Additionally, it clears some of the weird growth patterns the tree had (resting on itself).

The treatment portion was on Monday, so now it's just wait and see. The next year is the key. If it survives that, treatment will continue every three years to keep the disease at bay.

All Porsche Car Show

Last weekend I went to the All Porsche car show in Roseville. This was my first show as a member of Nord Stern, the local chapter of the Porsche Club of America, so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was some awesome machinery on display, and cool people to talk to and meet.

I'm not a huge fan of the really early Porsches, like the three 356s pictured above, but these were in great shape. The colors from the 50s and 60s really stood out in from the typical Guards Red that infests the marque (of course, I'm guilty).

Here's a nice overhead shot of the car show portion. They also had a concours section, where the cars are all judged and points are given. Most concours reward originality, of which my car has very little.

The highlight of the show may have been this Carrera GT. Less than 1300 of these were made, and each was over $450k! The owner (second from right) was really cool and willing to talk about the car. I had seen this car 2 years prior, and the sound it makes can only be described as pure evil.

Another 356 coupe here, this one is a vintage racer. It's hard to grasp how small this car was. I bet it only weighs 1800 lbs.

A nice picture here, my car is three up. A few different generations of 944/968, which are very closely related. A 968 is closest, with two 944 Turbos, all Guards Red, of course.

Not all the exotica was Porsche, though. In the parking lot was someone's Tesla. Maybe the future of sports cars right here. All electric, with a Lotus backbone.

Brewer Game

On Tuesday a bunch of us from work drove down to Milwaukee for a Wednesday meeting. Side benefit? The corporate suite for the Brewers, who just happened to be facing the Twins.

We're glad to have had the suite, mostly because it was nearly 100 degrees out, even at 7:05pm! Not that the suite was super cold, but it does have A/C.

Neither pitcher (Liriano nor Suppan) had a great game. The first three innings took nearly 2 hours, and both pitchers had pitch counts near 100 at that time. In fact, all the action was in the first 2.5 innings.

Of course, no game is complete without some sausage races!

Niagara Falls / Syracuse

Last week Kelsey and I headed to New York (state) for a mini vacation and friend's wedding. The wedding was in Syracuse, but we had never been to Niagara Falls, so to Buffalo we flew! First picture is the falls at night from our hotel room. Unfortunately, we got in so late, we only got two pictures.

Below is again from the Marriott Fallsview.

We did the Journey Under the Falls, which brings you under the falls thru a tunnel, and a couple of viewing windows, to the bottom. It was pretty cool, although for the money, you might as well get the pass for four different sights. We didn't do the Maid of the Mist.

Obligatory video.

After Niagara Falls, we drove out to Syracuse. On Thursday, we did some winery tours, all near the Finger Lakes. There's a number of wineries, and we went to 4 or 5.

An old school wine press. Don't think any of the wineries use this anymore!

The Cayuga Ridge winery. Cayuga Lake was the specific lake we toured. They're mostly along the western shore of the lake.

Grape field. These were Syrah grapes.

The Thirsty Owl! This was a nice winery, very tasty.

On to the actual wedding, here's the wedding party. Kelsey made the dress she's wearing. Slaved over it, even!

And that was about it.

Afton State Park

Movie Theme Songs

Stan Bush was never the best singer/songwriter around, but his theme for the original, animated Transformers movie was pure 80s, and I love every minute of it!

His "remake" Sam's Theme for Transformers 2? Ugh.

Garage Sales

Best part of garage sales? Random crap.