What an awesome, awesome weekend it was! Productive, surprising, exhausting, with both family time and some time to myself.
Friday night Whitney and I watched Juno the indie hit from last year that made Ellen Page an ingenue phenomenon. A nuanced film, it has the same deep characters and self-deprecating humor as Little Miss Sunshine. We both liked it.
Saturday was busy, as most Saturdays before Autocross are for me. But man, was I motivated–up at 6:30, TODO list in hand, ticking-off chores. It freaked-out Bella just a tad: “I get freaked out when you’re…organized.” We were the snack-bringers at the final Coach-pitch game of the regular season at 4, but we decided to head into Lexington to buy Bella some new running shoes and head to Sams.
We never made it to Sam’s Club. But, that’s a good thing.
So, we went to John’s Run/Walk Shop in Chevy Chase to get her fitted. Love that place–nice, knowledgeable sales people and fair prices. She picked some new Asics shoes, and Maria and I trotted around the home storefronts. Maria particularly liked the potato-chip chairs on the sidewalk of an adjacent shop.
Then the real fun began. I suggested having lunch at Joe Bologna’s, and Whitney jumped at it, and I casually said, “Why don’t we check-out the bike shop that’s beside it?”
Hehe.
Not motorcycles…bicycles. Whitney mentioned something about looking at automatic bikes on the Today show, and I figured if anyone would have ’em, Pedal Power would.
Lunch was great, and then we crossed Mill St to pedal power. We spent 45 minutes there, and Whitney got to ride a Cannondale F6:
She liked it quite a bit, and when we got home, I got some gumption and dusted off that old Schwinn Cruiser she yard sale’d last year. Whatta ya know? 65 psi in the tires and some Ice Wax on the chain, and it rode just like new!
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The Reds/Rangers game turned out like most of the others–the reds one, though in a tough 3-0 grind. Joey’s team is the regular season champs! I only wish here were here to see it…
I rode the Schwinn over to Harmony Christian church, where I heard a message on “The Gospel According to Chuck Norris” and a special number that was Christian Rap. Yes..Christian Rap music! Then I rode back to the house.
To finish out the night, we watched the next disc of Avatar from Netflix. Book III: Air is turning-out to be a tremendous season. Already deep, developed characters show new facets, and we got the first real scene with Fire Lord Ozai and Zuko. The Boiling Rock two-parter, in particular, was masterful.
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Autocross Sunday was fantastic! We had 60 drivers at the event. Here are the results from my class–I got a trophy after a tough battle with Laura in her C4 Corvette. We got 7 (!) runs on the course, and my times improved consistently, with my best at 40.119. Lots of tail-happy, ain’t-got-no-traction action.
The best part, though, was my worker assignment in the 1st heat: I got to be the starter, the guy who stages cars at the line, announces their #’s to the trailer, and tells them “GO”. My trainer for this new position was Jim Moore, the best of the best. For his day job, this guy is pilot-in-command of a UPS 747, and he’s Mr. No-nonsense. His mind works like a flight computer–checklists, goals, tasks, scans. During my heat, I kept 1 car at the finish, 1 car through the turn-around, and 1 car starting, and if I did it right, I had 3 racecars in the same frame of reference. *Very* exciting and flowed well.