How I met Michael Waltrip

See the tall guy standing in the background? That's Michael Waltrip. I took this with my phone after having just talked to him while standing in that line. He patted me on the back.

It happened thanks to Twitter.

It was Friday evening and we were camping the weekend at Martinsville Speedway for the NASCAR race. Court and I had been hunkered down in the tent most of the day thanks to cold and rain. We were bored and getting hungry. The rain kept us from setting up our cooking area so we decided to hit a restaurant in town.

Just then, Michael Waltrip and Denny Hamlin (who won the race, BTW) had a conversation on Twitter about where to go for dinner. We looked up the place on our phones/GPS and off we went.

And sure enough, while we were there waiting on our pizza, in came Michael Waltrip. I was in line for a beer refill, and he got in line behind me. I turned and said to him, "I offered to deliver for you. Had you taken me up on it, you'd have your food by now." He said "You did? Oh you mean on Twitter?" And he patted me on the back.

The empty table in the picture wasn't empty for long. Jamie McMurray and some of his crew sat there. This was both exciting and disheartening, because well, he's this year's Daytona 500 winner, but then again, when they sat down, they blocked our view of the two women seated in the next booth.

The woman with her back to us is Wendy Venturini, of NASCAR RaceDay on SPEED. That's the show where I've managed to get a sign on air in the past. The woman facing her in the picture is Becky Blankenship, her producer. Becky's tweets are really funny.

It was a major score to see Wendy and Becky for two reasons. First, Syd has a crush on Wendy. I sent this picture to Syd and got to gloat and make her jealous. Second, as it turns out, Becky was the object of my RaceDay sign for this year. Of course, our chance meeting coupled with my premeditated sign (I did it in Publisher and printed it at our Fed Ex/Kinko's Wednesday night) made everything seem quite stalkerish.

Becky, we were not stalking you. We were stalking Michael Waltrip.

Right now I can hear Courtney saying "What's with this "we" business?"

The sign was to show our appreciation for how funny Becky is and hopefully drive up her Twitter follower count. A month ago she produced a piece about Twitter in NASCAR, and Wendy and everyone in front of the camera at SPEED got a good spike in their follower counts. Becky, being behind the scenes, didn't see the same spike. We just wanted to help things along.

Well, turns out we caused a bit of a Twitter stir. When show host Kenny Wallace saw our sign (just minutes before the show went live), he pulled out his phone, took a picture, and sent it to Becky. And that hasn't been the last of it.

Sorry Becky. I meant it to be fun. I hope for the most part it has been.

Despite some awful and at times scary weather, we had so much fun. Then again it may have been way too much excitement for me.

I think I will do something a lot less over-the-top next time.

The rest of the weekend (except for Saturday) was a weather nightmare that got really scary on Sunday, late in the afternoon. In one weekend we had temperatures dipping to 29 (frost on tent), to bone chilling heavy rain and flooding, to violent wind gusts & tornadoes. It was not a time to be in a tent, but there we were. Actually, at one point we got in the car during the storm.

Pictures, with comments, are here.

Winter gloom

Daylight savings time has ended and for me that marks the beginning of the long, gray, depressing slog through winter.

I don't do well with short, dark days.

To make things even darker, NASCAR's season ends this weekend.

I don't know what it is about NASCAR, but it makes me happy. Just about nothing else does.

This season isn't even over and I'm already counting down the days to next season's Daytona 500. It falls on Valentine's day in 2010, and that's just 89 days from today. By then the days will be noticeably longer and brighter.

89 days to go. I think I can tough it out.

Did I tell you about the time I went blue?

It was yesterday, when this happened to Ryan...

My Ryan Newman Weekend

Anybody who has followed this blog knows how much I love Tony Stewart. He's the driver I picked when I decided to follow NASCAR. And I've loved every minute of following him.

Tony's having a great year this year, and that makes it all the better.

Yet this weekend may have changed all that. [Syd just fell off her chair.]


Let me back up a bit.

When you go to a NASCAR event, you don't just go for the racing. You go for the shopping. True fans wear apparel supporting their driver. Though I am well stocked in Stewart apparel, I had nothing supporting Newman.

At every race there are haulers, one per driver, selling apparel. The stuff they carry is a lot better than what's available online. We headed straight for Newman's hauler, and I got my hat and shirt.

That same afternoon, Newman won the pole. In NASCAR-speak that means Newman was the fastest qualifier and lined up first to start the race. Winning the pole earned him first pick of pit stalls. He chose pit stall one, which just happened to be directly in front of our seats.

Could it get any better?

Yes.

[No, Newman didn't win the race.]

The icing on the cake came right after the race, as we were exiting the stadium. We were walking back to the campground when a golf cart on its way to the helipad drove by carrying Ryan Newman and his wife Krissie. No one walking along side of us noticed (Ryan & Krissie were in the rear-facing back seat of the golf cart). But I turned around to see as they drove by and sure enough, it was him! I said "Great race Ryan!" and he looked over to me said "Thanks" with his bashful smile.

~SWOON~

Though I dressed in red and sported my Old Spice shirt in support of Tony, I donned my Ryan Newman cap in honor of his winning the pole. I am so glad I was wearing Newman's hat when we had our conversation.

Move over Tony. I've fallen and I can't get up. From now on, it's me and Rocket Man.

And just for Maggie...

We're back

Got home late yesterday afternoon. We weren't the last to leave the Martinsville Speedway campground, but just by nine campsites. We had a great time.

I'll write about it soon, but right now I am SWAMPED with work. And the church newsletter needs to get to the printer by noon. So here are some pictures. I think I captioned most of them.

Getting my NASCAR fix

We're leaving Friday morning for a weekend of camping at Martinsville Speedway. I am too excited for words. Thank goodness for twitpic.

I'm posting this one

I start so many posts. Then I delete them.

What have I been up to lately...

We made one last trip to the water park and splurged again on the cabana (and cabana girl). Once you've done the park that way, you're spoiled.

We spent Labor Day weekend in Arkansas, visiting Court's family. We both picked up colds while there, and then I got even more sick once we were back. I'm better now (after a trip to the MD), but still very tired. Fortunately I don't have a lot of work happening right now.

We had a good visit with Court's family. There were more than enough reasons to be worried for the kids. I'm relieved to say that despite all the adult dysfunction in their lives, the kids (ages 16, 13, and 10) are doing okay. One good thing going for them: they are involved in a really good church. People are looking out for them.

Court deserves sainthood for being nice to her parents and other sister (she's 25). And that's all I'll say about them.

We did our every-second-Saturday gay cafe this past weekend. We splurged on one of these. OMFG was it good.

Church is in full swing after a summer hiatus, and that has me busy. I edit the newsletter, I'm a trustee, and I'll also be leading a few services this year.

My mother called me the other night and we had a very positive conversation. This is really good. She and I have so much anger. It's time to just get over it.

So far so good with Amanda and her move from high school to the community college. The newness has worn off and now she's getting into the hard slog. She's upbeat. My days are filled with driving to campus to pick her up or drop her off.

We have a busy fall coming up. We'll be in Pennsylvania in a couple weeks to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday. We also have plans to go to the State Fair in Richmond, the Wine & Garlic Festival in Amherst, the Apple Harvest Festival in Winchester, and we'll be camping at Martinsville for a weekend of racing.

I'll also fly to Kansas City next month for two days of staff meetings. I'm not looking forward to that.

I'm excited for the Chase, NASCAR's version of a playoff, which begins this weekend. My driver, Tony Stewart, is second in points. He's had a bad month, and does not have good momentum going into the final ten races. I hope he turns things around. I'm really excited for the fall race in Martinsville. Hopefully Tony will still be in contention by that race.

Of course I'm loving football now that it's back. I married a Razorback, so they are a sentimental favorite, along with Pitt and Penn State. And then there are my hometown Steelers, who I think are the worst-looking good team of the bunch. I have a hard time watching them play.

I guess that sums things up for now.

End of summer purge

I'm sorry to see summer come to an end. It's been a good summer. It's the easy time of my calendar. Soon financial aid season will be upon me and I'll be at my laptop for hours upon hours, days and weeks at a stretch. Not looking forward to that. In fact, I'm dreading it.

I had my annual physical last week and though I don't have all the lab results yet, I don't expect any surprises. I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. The coughing that had me down during spring (likely allergies), is long gone. The nausea that began last year and worsened this past spring is also gone. It left with Celexa.

Speaking of Celexa, I think I'm finally through the withdrawal. Looking back on it, the process probably hit its apex when I was in Oregon in June. I was so miserable that weekend I wanted to die. I wasn't depressed or suicidal. I just wanted to die. Hard to explain. It's all behind me thankfully. I feel great, both emotionally and physically.

I think my thyroid may be off kilter a bit, so I half-expect to get a call from my doctor to change my Levoxyl dosage. I say half-expect because if my thyroid was off like I think it is, I'd be dropping a lot more weight. I have been dropping weight, but it's because I've been working at it.

After a seven month stretch when I took a break from weight loss and rarely exercised, I picked it up again, in earnest. I came off a stressful winter/consulting season with a serious case of cabin fever. When work wound down, I busted out. I've spent every possible minute of every day this summer outside (or in the pool), doing something.

The batting cage is the perfect compliment to Frisbee golf [I throw from left-to-right and swing from right-to-left]. Just saying.

I've had a lot of time for the outdoors because this is my off season. I've not been especially busy with work. I do a different kind of modeling in my off season. I do these cookie-cutter, assembly line, predictive models. I get a fixed price per model, and there are enough to do that I earn half of my year in my off-season. Yet I hardly work at all.

Unfortunately, the rest of my year doesn't come so easily. I haven't figured out how to adapt my econometric models to an assembly line system so that I can get the same price-to-effort ratio. I need to work on that.

When one can't work, one must play. Playtime aplenty has had its rewards. I dropped 10 pounds over the summer.

I've dropped 50 pounds since quitting my day job 14 months ago. My knees are a lot happier and I no longer suffer from GERD.

I'm working hard to drop 25 more. Then my plan is to clean up the rest of my act just long enough to pass a physical for affordable health insurance. The difference between Fat Trop and Lean Trop is about $200/month in premiums. Cha-ching.

I've blogged enough for now about banjo, except for this cute thing. The kid in the lesson before mine is an 8-year-old girl learning guitar. She's just starting out and already she's doing a respectable rendition of Walk the Line. When her lesson was wrapping up, I overheard her tell the instructor "They're going to make a movie about me, just like in Walk the Line." So. Cute.

If there was a movie about your life, what celebrity would play your part? No clue who would play me in a Trop biopic.

Another reason I'm sad to see summer end: Amanda. I enjoy being home with her through the day. I'm so lucky to have that. We'll still have it after school starts, but it won't be the same.

Amanda has been pumped for school after her first two orientation classes; her full schedule starts tomorrow. I hope she takes to college the way I did. I hated high school so much that I almost skipped out on college. As it was I delayed college until I was 20. That was the right thing for me. I hope this is the right thing for her.

I am so desperate to see Amanda blossom.

Courtney and I spent a lot of date nights this summer at city stadium, where the Hillcats play. Minor league baseball is a lot of fun. We went to the game last night and saw a great fireworks show afterward. I'm going to miss nights out at the stadium.

NASCAR has been SO much fun this summer because my guy has been at the top of the charts most of the season. He had a bad night last night though. Hope that's the last one. NASCAR lasts until November, so there's a lot of racing left.

Finally, I'm sorry to see summer end because with fall comes another birthday (October). I'm going to be 49 this time, and that's hitting me HARD.

I can't stand it

Despite a few setbacks, it's been a summer of joy for me. I'm having a great time lately.

Among the things bringing me joy this summer is racing. My guy, Tony Stewart, is having a Cinderella season. Only he's no Cinderella.


He's a been number one in the point-standings for weeks. He needs wins. Every win earns Tony 10 bonus points in the Chase (playoff) standings. Two drivers have more wins than Tony.

Tomorrow they race at the famed Brickyard in Indianapolis, Indiana, Tony's home state. I want him to win tomorrow so much it hurts.

If life is a fairy tale, Tony Stewart will win and Ryan Newman will place second in tomorrow's race. A NASCAR- obsessed gal can dream, right?

If Tony can't win, then Ryan just must. He's an Indiana boy too, a graduate of Purdue. Though Ryan is likely to make the Chase, he's not safely in. He needs a good race tomorrow.

If Tony or Ryan can't win, then I hope Junior wins. He needs a win more than anyone.

Excitement is giving way to nervousness. I'm getting so that I can't stand myself. I may have to walk this off.

I hope it's a good race tomorrow.

Desktop Porn

The Keystone State, Tony, and me

We drove to PA this weekend to see my parents and sibs and celebrate my dad's 80th birthday.

Tony Stewart drove in PA this weekend and won his first points race of the season.

All in all, it was a pretty good weekend to be in the Keystone state.

Someone is compensating

I'm rethinking my baby daddy fantasy.

He won!

My guy and two-time cup champion Tony Stewart won his first race as an owner-driver last night.

Way to go Smoke!

When he left Joe Gibbs Racing (a powerhouse in NASCAR) to become a team owner, I thought he'd go the way of other owner-drivers, like Michael Waltrip, or worse, Robby Gordon. For sure he'd never be competitive again and, oh well, I like rooting for underdogs.

Stewart's never been an underdog this season. He's been comfortably in the top ten since the first race, and is currently second in the point standings.

Stewart is typically a late-season driver, with most of his wins coming in the second half of the schedule. I hope last night's trip to victory lane is the first of many to come this year.

Go Tony!

My most excellent day at the paperclip

As you may have guessed, I had a great time at the race on Sunday. We left the house at 8:00, stopped at Panera for breakfast to go, and reached the track by 10:00.

We were directed to an access road that leads to several parking lots located behind the camping area. While it meant easy-in/ easy-out from the lot, it also meant walking all the way through the campgrounds. And they were muddy. This is how things were after two days of constant rain:


When we got to the track, our first order of business was buying tickets. We decided to wait to buy tickets for fear the race would be rained out. Though we paid a bit more per ticket, we ended up in very good seats. More on that later.

The next order of business was finding a good position for the airing of NASCAR Raceday Live, scheduled to begin at 11:30am. Here's how the show looked from our point of view. We had to fight for position. And it was VERY windy.


We stayed through the first 30 minutes of the show and then headed off to buy merchandise.


After that we headed through the gates and to our seats. We had excellent seats. We were right off turn two, about 24 rows up, with a great view of pit stall #1 and the pit road finish line. In a race where it's hard to gain track position, pit strategy is everything. We saw several close battles to be first off pit road.


This was our view of the back stretch.


The pre-race flyover.



My guy, Tony Stewart, had a GREAT race. A lot of tires were blowing, ruining the fortunes of many drivers by putting them lap-after-lap down. Stewart finished a solid third, his best finish so far this year. Take a look...



The best part? Court and I behaved like the married couple we are. We held hands almost the entire time we were there. Sitting in the stands, I either had my arm around her, or she had hers around me. My back started bothering me, so I spent the last 250 laps kinda leaning on Court. We were clearly a couple. And no one batted an eye. No one gave us grief. In fact, no one even noticed us that I can tell. It just goes to show you: NASCAR fans have way more class than most people are willing to admit.

The guy in the seat next to me was a real-estate agent from NC. I told him about my desire to own farm property somewhere between Hickory and Asheville. He's a Jr. fan. The guy next to him was a Harvick man. Next to him was an Edwards fan. And next to that guy were Stewart fans (husband and wife). Most of the people in our section were married men out on a Sunday without their wives. One in ten people were women, who were generally there with their husbands.

The last 50 laps were COLD. Clouds came out and it was VERY windy. I had trouble driving home for the wind.

We had a great time. I can't wait until the race in October. Maybe I'll persuade Syd to come back for that one. Who knows what I might do to her otherwise.

If you missed NASCAR Raceday today...

then you missed seeing this sign on TV.


I'm watching it on the DVR and that obnoxious sign is in just about every shot. HA!









Here are three snippets from SPEED's Raceday...



The fly-over...



After Chris in ATL gave me his pole.

What it was like at Martinsville Speedway today

NASCAR is nearby this weekend, so I decided Court let me go to the Speedway to watch qualifying for Sunday's race. The closer I got to the Speedway, the harder it rained.

Qualifying was rained out. Many exhibits were shut down. I got drenched. It was a huge disappointment. After 30 minutes of downpour, I went back to my car.

But that's when the fun started. The more it rained, the more people were stuck in the parking lot. I watched driver after driver not know how to use 4WD. My Judy got through the mud just fine. It's a lot like driving in snow. I would have LOVED to really muddy her up, but I decided not to.

I don't know how people are going to get their cars in and out of those lots for Saturday and Sunday's races.

Check out these seats

These awesome seats are priced at $35 for next week's race in Martinsville, VA.

We're going.

The intolerance of East Jesus VA

I've pushed the envelope a few times during my six years as a resident of East Jesus, VA. I've deliberately pushed buttons with bumper stickers. And do you know what I've discovered? You can push buttons, and even though passions may be high, people in East Jesus pretty much leave you alone.

This was especially true at the height of the marriage amendment campaign in 2006. I thought for sure my dear Judy (my vehicle) would be vandalized. But people left Judy alone, and she was untouched. Score one for civility.

This all changed the other day, when I discovered that my Judy had been violated. Someone scraped a sticker off her back window.

The sticker deemed too galling for someone's eyes, you ask?

This.


As it turns out, some things in East Jesus ARE sacred.

Cheer up everyone

NASCAR starts in two days.

Greetings from Little Rock

We're having a fine Christmas with Court's family. There has been minimal drama, for which we are grateful. Things are quite improved from last year.

Court's grandfather, who broke his hip and shattered his elbow nine weeks ago, was able to come home for the day. It is good to see him. He's lost a lot of weight but otherwise is doing well.

The kids had major parts in the church Christmas Eve service, so we went. Court's dad introduced me to the minister as Court's "spouse." This is huge. The minister was very welcoming. We were impressed.

Court gave me a Christmas gift for the ages: a gift-certificate for eight laps in a Sprint Cup car at a track of my choosing. I'd love to do it at Talledega, but I'll most likely cash it in at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, NC. I am so excited.

We took the kids to see Marley & Me. It's a good movie, but has a sadder ending than My Dog Skip. There wasn't a dry eye in the theater. Even Amanda cried, and she has emotions of steel.

We're taking it easy today. Tomorrow we are headed to Hot Springs for the Mid-America Science Museum.