Archive | May 2009

Charlotte – May 23, 2009 / Coca Cola 600

NASCAR goes to Charlotte NC in May for two of their biggest races. The first is the All-Star Race. This year that occurred on May 16th, which was a very special night for me personally. My guy, Tony Stewart #14 (OfficeDepot/OldSpice/Chevy) crossed the line for his first win as an Owner/Driver. Only the 2nd guy to do this since the All-Star Race began.

The second big race, The Coca Cola 600 was scheduled to occur on May 24th. But between these two weekends Charlotte advertises the wazzoo out of these events calling this time as SpeedWeek! Culminating with a city celebration in the streets of downtown Charlotte which they call SpeedStreet! Food, fun and come meet NASCAR drivers.

Ok, so I’ve never been to SpeedStreet. We’re going to Charlotte for a family wedding which will give us a chance to attend the festivities. The three of us don our favorite driver T-shirts. SirEvil wearing his #88 National Guard shirt for Jr. I grabbed my Tony #14 shirt, and the little kid is wearing his brown Army #39 Ryan shirt. We topped that off with our matching straw Nascar hats, with our event and driver pins stuck all over them. I’m looking forward to party and excited to go…… Until we actually get there.

Where were the Driver booths and merchandise? We walked to every corner, nook, an section of “speedstreet” and all we saw were Sponsor booths, giving away free stuff. The little kid (who is about to turn 6) was run over 3 times by the rudest people trying to grab the free stuff. A very large black woman knocked him to the ground and about stepped on him just so she could grab 2 boxes of free Reynolds wrap. All we were trying to do is look at the cup car sitting next to the free wrap. You know…enjoy the real reason for this party in the first place, the cars, the drivers, the fan excitement! I was SO pissed!

We walked down a big hill to a section where we were told the merchandise trailers were. The “official” guide didn’t have a clue what we were talking about, because there was nothing in that section except a Chevy display, Jr.’s car and a few games for kids. Back up the hill to the one and only merchandise booth we saw. I walk up to the table and say to the sales guy “I’m looking for a Tony 1st win shirt”. His response? “Tony who?”. WHAT?! I step back, point to the shirt I”M WEARING and reply “Tony who?”. A sales guy next to him says “I thought it was a 1st win for all of them”. The 1st sales guy says “We have other shirts for him” pointing to my shirt. I answered “I wouldn’t buy dog shit from you now.” and walked away.

First rule of sales “Know your audience!”. I was so disgusted with the entire atmosphere and attitude of not only the organizers, and some of the booth workers, but of the attendees as well. Decked out in all our NASCAR gear, we saw (and yes I counted) only 23 other people with race shirts. I walked up to one guy, shook his hand and said you’re one of the only other people we’ve seen who is wearing a driver shirt. And then we left.

I don’t want to make it sound like we didn’t see and talk to some nice people. We did. But they were few and far between. The most disappointing part of the entire experience was what wasn’t there! Never again will we go back. What a waste of time.

The Nascar All-Star Race – A litte history

May18

Sunday night Nascar held one of it’s premier races, known today as the All-Star Race. While the race has gone through many names (4 to be exact), it has a great deal of history from its venue to its winners. Here’s a few facts about the race that might interest Nascar fans.

– The All-Star raced stared in 1985 when it was known simply as “The Winston”, after Nascar’s sponsor Winston cigarettes.
– It has always been held at Charlotte/Lowes Motor Speedway, with the exception of the 2nd race which was held at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
– The driver to win the first race in the series was Darrell Waltrip for Junior Johnson Racing.
– One of our household favorites, Dale Jr. won in 2000 his rookie year,
– Another favorite Ryan Newman won in 2002
– And my most favorite Tony Stewart won in 2009

Now for the Most, Fastest, Slowest and Winning-est
– Most wins go to Dale Sr and Jeff Gordon with 3 wins each
– Mark Martin, Jimmy Johnson and Davey Allison have each won 2 times
– Davey Allison is the only driver to hold back to back wins

– In 1985 Darrell’s prize was $20k, the 2nd race won by Bill Elliott gave him a purse of $240k
– The purse prize has floated back and forth between $200 and $300k for most of it’s history.
– It hit 500k in 2000 when Dale Jr. won the prize
– It slowly increased over the next 2 years and hit $1 million in 2003. Jimmy Johnson took that home. Officially he won $1,017,604, Tony’s purse in 2009 was $1,033,656.
– The highest purse to date was $1,101,325 taken home by Mark Martin on his 2nd time winning the all star race

– The highest average speed for an All-Star race was 185mph, in 2001. Jeff Gordon won that race.
– The slowest race was in 2007, 89mph (geez..was the whole thing under caution?) Kevin Harvick took that trophy.

– Chevy has 14 wins, Ford 9, Dodge and Pontiac 1 a piece
– The winning-est team, no surprise here, Hendrick with 6 wins. Roush and Childress have 3 each.
– Geoff Bodine Racing (1994) and Stewart-Hass Racing (2009) are the only owner/driver teams to have won the All-Star race.

– Conspicuously missing from the list, Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.

Today Is Penny’s Birthday

May18

Happy Birthday!

Penny is our son’s little stuffed dog that he cannot be separated from. I had put in my calendar the day we bought her and an automatic reminder came up on Sunday that it was coming up. Our kid is getting very good at reading, so when the message popped up he rushed over to my laptop and read the message while I was cooking dinner. Suddenly I hear “Momma Momma it’s Penny’s birthday!” He was disappointed when I said no that’s tomorrow. To which he replied can we have a party with cake and hats? So guess where Momma was today. Thank Gods Target had a clearance sale and I found some bday hats and matching plates.

He also asked for a chocolate cake with balloons on it. Yeah…I might find a chocolate cake. Might find a cake with balloons on it. But the likelihood of finding a chocolate cake ‘with’ balloons was going to be near to impossible. This morning I had to prepare him for one or the other, which do you want more? He chose the balloons. Continue reading →

SirEvil says the darndest things

May16

He cracks me up. And that’s one of the biggest things I love about him.

Let me preface this by saying SirEvil was born and raised in Charlotte NC. As such he does indeed have a very southern accent. Being from the south, he is also a self admitted Redneck. These things are important to know when considering his comments.

“I know I found the right wife. Asked her where she wanted to go for her 5th anniversary and she said “The BassPro Shop” resturant. …Yes!… Dinner and fishin’ rods, my kinda anniversary.”

“My wife is the perfect woman. She loves Nascar, really likes Football, would rather watch hockey than a cooking show and she “gets” Quintin Tarentino.”
Me: ..not to mention I hate sappy date movies…I hate when a movie makes me cry..give me Riddick, Ronin, Star Trek, Serinity or even Dr. Who any day!

Me: “I really like Richard Quest from CNN. He’s funny, his humor reminds me of you.”
If you don’t know Richard Quest he is a British Reporter on CNN.
SirEvil: “He’s loud like rednecks… only he’s like one with a speech impediment”

One night going out to dinner I wore a reversible skirt. Solid green on one side, same green but with flowers on the other. I asked him, which side do you like best?
SirEvil: “Ok there’s just no right answer to that. I like the side you like.”

One day online someone asked me to describe SirEvil..my response:
“When you look at him from behind, he has this gorgeous ‘V’ shaped body. Big shoulders, strong arms and the cutest butt. He turns sideways and the first word that comes to your mind is: Budwieser.”
(I can be funny too.)

I HATE Comcast! – Continuing Saga

May16

Continuing Comcast Saga

So we have a new neighbor who moved in across the street. Quiet guy for the most part. Until he cut down ALL the tree on his 1+acre lot. All those beautiful trees gone. Not much we can do about it; but it did give me an idea. Perhaps now we can get DirectTV. We’re not cutting down our trees and there hasn’t been a place on our lot that has a line of sight to the satellite. But without the trees across the street, perhaps we can put a dish at the top of our driveway.

All excited I contacted DirectTV and a guy came out to check our availability. He was a new guy, been on the job for about 1 month. Sadly he said we still don’t have a line of sight. I was truly sad and upset. I’m SO sick of Comcast.

I’m sick of being promised digital service and still not having it. We were told that they would be laying down new fiber through our neighborhood in 2005. Here in the middle of 2009, it’s still not available. All I wanna do is watch SpeedTV, F/X and NASA. I don’t care about premium channels. We have NetFlicks, it’s much better. But I do so want to watch our Nascar boys. And I would have loved to see NASA capture the Hubble and replace the camera this week. I love that stuff.

This weekend though is especially irritating. Our boys are in Charlotte competing in the Nascar All-Star race. And where is it being broadcast? SpeedTV. <sigh> At least thanks to the reporters who use Twitter, I found out about Tony’s mess up in his qualifying pitstop. And his funny comment about messing it up.

Which brings up the next irritating thing about Comcast. I made a comment in the Twitter #Nascar topic that we don’t get SpeedTV and I hate Comcast. Within 2 minutes I get a direct Tweet from Comcast. Huh?! WTF? The tweet asks “Can I Help?”? Sure, put fiber in my neighborhood. Of course there was no response.

Yesterday during the qualifying for the All-Star race, I’m back on Twitter keeping up the best I can with what’s going on at the track. Folk start talking about Tony and what he said. What?! What did he say?!!! Well of course I don’t know, because we have Comcast! Once again, I make a comment on Twitter that Comcast sucks! And within 2/3 minutes I get a direct tweet by Comcast again. Here’s the basic conversation:

Me: #NASCAR I wish I could watch the race tonight. COMCAST won’t provide SpeedTV to analog customers; and won’t update us to digital. Help?
Fri 15 May 18:14

Me: I truly truly HATE COMCAST!! (note I didn’t say this in the #Nascar topic)
Fri 15 May 18:14

Comcast: what’s wrong?
Fri 15 May 18:49 (30 minutes later)

Me: Comcast sucks. Next question
Fri 15 May 18:51

Me: We were told we’d have fiber in 2005. It’s 2009; we have no fiber. You wont provide Speed for analog customers. We’re stuck.
Fri 15 May 18:53

Me: If I didn’t have to cut down my trees to gt Direct TV, Comcast would have been fired years ago
Fri 15 May 18:53

Me: Yeah – I didn’t think you’d have a response. Another reason Comcast sucks!
Fri 15 May 19:10

Comcast: I’m at my little sister’s high school watching her look pretty and making me feel old. I’ll be back in a bit! Promise 🙂
Fri 15 May 19:26

Comcast: back now 🙂 can you DM the phone# we have on file for you?
Fri 15 May 20:24

Yeah – I don’t spend my life on-line or on Twitter. And right, I’m going to give someone my phone number, or some account number online. I don’t think so.

And what is “ComcastB” gonna do for me anyway? She gonna come out here and dig in the fiber? I doubt it. Considering the entire community has complained about this, sent in petitions and raised cane about it with the local government.

So what’s she gonna do? Make the exec’s change their programming and carry these channels I want on basic analog cable? I doubt it. If it were that easy, they would have done that by now. Just what do they think they’re going to accomplish by annoying people on Twitter? Make it “seem” like they’re providing good customer service? Bull shit. I’m being spammed in Twitter by a company I can’t stand to begin with and if I had my choice wouldn’t do business with at all!

To top it off, I get up this morning and find out that “ComcastB” is now following me on Twitter.Uh..I don’t think so! How creepy is that?!

Changing The Credit Card Pedestal

May14

The use of credit cards in the evaluation of credit ratings has to be reversed!

Currently having a credit card is placed at the top of the list in evaluating credit and credit ratings. This punishes all of us who are working to live within our means and being fiscally responsible with our budgets. My husband and left our 1st marriages with a mountain of debt from credit cards attained by our ex-spouses. We both worked very hard to pay off that debt and close all cards. Neither of us ever want another card again. And for being fiscally responsible, we are punished.

We have a mortgage, an equity line, and a loan on 2 Harley’s. We have never missed payments, never have we been late on payments. But when we applied for financing on the bikes, we were told that our credit rating was low and we could get the financing if we agreed to a higher ‘risk’ based interest rate. Why? Because I refuse to pay some bank a fee for the privilege of using my own money from future income? I choose to wait until I have the money in the future and then buy what I need or want.

For this I have to pay higher interest rates and am punished for being responsible. While other people who have 5 or 10 credit cards, which are maxed out, and can only pay the interest on those cards, live with financial gold stars and gain the highest ratings from credit companies. Perhaps it’s time to get back to the basics, if you don’t have the money to buy something, then learn to do without. Get rid of the credit cards, and live within your means.

Where would our economy be if people did that? Can you imagine? There might actually be a housing market right now that is stable, solid and thriving. Americans might actually have a savings account that can provide income for emergencies. People who bought a house, might actually have purchased one they were qualified to pay for. Geez, rocket science.

Goodbye Little Kitties

May14

Sadly we lost both kitties over the weekend. The second left us during Saturday night, which made the start of Mother’s day very sad. We placed them both in a very comfortable decorated shoe box, and buried them in the woods in front of our house.

During our service, their grandmother, who we call Momma Kitty, came to sit with us while we placed roses on top of the casket and filled in the grave. She just seemed to know what we were doing and was trying to comfort us.

It’s amazing how deeply a small little creature can get into your heart in such a short period of time. We cried, we said good-bye and let the Great Mother Earth watch over and care for them now.

Orphaned Kitties – Day 2

May8

Well the twins made it through the night and have been doing well today. Our main concern has been keeping them warm enough. We finally solved the problem by putting their box on top of a heating pad and setting the heat to medium. So far that seems to be working well.

We also discovered which one of the feral cats was the Mom. Seems it is one of the youngest, a year old calico that we call Dale. We initially named her after Dale Ernhardt because she’s black and we thought she was a boy. We realized our error when she was about 3 months old, which is the first time she let us pick her up. As a side note, her brother is orange and of course we named him Tony after my guy Tony Stewart awho at the time drove the Home Depot (orange) car.

So back to the kitties. They seem to be active, eating, warm and ok so far. We took an opportunity at one of the feeding sessions to determine their sex. We have one girl and one boy. SirEvil came up with a new suggestion for names: Zig and Zag.

Orphaned Kitties

May7

Wednesday night SirEvil said he heard something that sounded like cats crying in our backyard. Not unusual, we live in the country and there are many wild cats around our house. It was a stormy night, so we assumed they were simply unhappy about the weather. We went about our business today, but after we picked up our munchkin from school and returned home the day turned out to be anything but normal. Our younger dalmatian was going crazy barking in the back yard. After about 5 or 10 minutes SirEvil goes out to pull her behind inside, only to discover the sound of kittens from under our porch.

A few minutes later I took a walk outside to check the kitties and see which one of the feral cats is a new momma. Only to find a 12 hour old kitten laying in the middle of the mud, cold wet and no mom in sight. What was I going to do, I couldn’t leave it there. I scooped him/her up and rushed inside to wash the cold mud off, dry it and try to get it warm. The next hour we tried to find out if one of the cats came around looking for her kittens, but no one came or seemed interested. Once again we heard a noise that sounded like a bird in trouble. This time the sound was coming from the back yard and under the porch. Sure enough another baby kitty, covered in wet dirt and obviously cold. So we had another rescue on our hands.

While I was tending to the well being of our new twins, SirEvil was searching the internet for information and suggestions for what to do now. It’s too late to call the vet, so we’re hoping for intelligent information online. Sure enough we found a fantastic website to help. A farmer who has rescued several orphaned kittens. RuralRoute2.com

Right now the kittens are warm and sleeping soundly in the kitchen. We keep checking for a momma kitty who might be looking for her lost kittens. But so far, none have come around. We’re assuming the mom is one of the very young cats who hang out around our house and is too young to know what to do with the kittens. We looked around for the traditional nest, but have found nothing. We checked around the area where we found the kittens, again we found nothing. I feel bad about a momma kitty being out there and worrying about her kittens. But by the same token these 2 are way to young to be out on their own from a nest and with no nest under the porch, we really do think they have been abandoned.

Hopefully they’ll make it. We tossed around names for them at dinner. They are identical twins so far, and I suggested we name them “This” and “That”.

More to come…

The Problem with Doctors

May7

They Don’t Know Much!

I like my doctor, however, I hate doctors and the entire medical industry in general. I have to be monumentally sick to go see one. This past couple weeks my reason for this hatred crystallized.

A month ago on a business trip, I got sick. Extremely sick. With aspirin, my fever was hitting 103.8. After three days at my cousin’s house, I took an overdose of Theraflu and used the three hour buzz time to try to make the five hour drive home. That was on Good Friday. I don’t get why they call it that, maybe my information is lacking, but isn’t that the day they beat the snot out of Jesus and nailed him to a tree. I bet his opinion of that day is close to what mine was.

I went to my doctor on Monday and she did what all doctors do in this case, prescribed antibiotics. In my case I think that the illness was, in fact, bacterial as the antibiotics made a very rapid change in me. Now I know, if it had been a virus, that the antibiotic is useless, and I know that the point of prescribing it is to keep me from developing pneumonia or strep. In my case, considering how my palms and feet are still peeling, I actually did have strep, but there was no testing for that. Continue reading →