Gary Conquers the Monster Mile

Today, we went to the Dover Speedway for Gary to drive 10 laps on the "Monster Mile!" We showed up at 8:00 and everyone was very excited. The drivers were suited up and ready to roll and then the rains came and finally, at about 11:00, they cancelled out the morning session. They gave us a little garage area tour and then we left the track, trying to figure out when we might be able to fit another Dover trip into our schedule.

We headed over to our new favorite restaurant (shown in the slide show below) for lunch and decided before getting out of the car to head back to the track and see if we could talk our way into the afternoon session. Thankfully, they decided they could fit in one more driver, so we were able to get in! The skies were still threatening, but Gary was first to drive, so he got in his run before it started raining again! It was a very exciting day. Gary successfully finished the race and had a great time. I enjoyed my exciting 14-passenger van ride around the track at what seemed like break-neck speed, although I checked the speedometer and it was only about 65!

A highly recommended experience!

Dillon's Job

Dillon's job is to keep all tables cleared. Here he is clearing the coffee table. All magazines must go.

NYC Revisited

We went back to New York at the end of June to visit with Gar. We had lots of fun and I think we walked about 400 miles. We stayed at the Helmsley Hotel in Manhattan. The highlights were the double-decker bus tours that Gary and I took while Gar studied, checking out the Today show on Sunday morning, and the Spamalot Broadway show. Spamalot was hilarious - I highly recommend it. Lowlight - getting drenched on Sunday at the Pride Parade and my cell phone getting ruined from being wet! We had some nice meals and lots of fun. I kept trying to get into one of the 4000 Ann Taylor Loft stores that we passed, but we were either busy on our way to somewhere or the stores were closed. I had two coupons for $25 off each that were about to expire!! As we were walking back to our hotel on Saturday night, the Loft store near the hotel was having some type of party and I got invited in (maybe because we were peeking in the window trying to figure out what was going on in there at 10:00 PM)! I didn't go because my invitation consisted of some dancing young guy in there dancing in our direction and waving us in. I would have preferred a more official invitation, so we just kept walking, but I thought it was really funny, especially since I had been trying to go shopping there all weekend. I finally did get to do some shopping at the Loft in Brooklyn on Sunday right before we left to go home. :-)

I have to publicly announce that I am now a Jenna Wolfe fan. I had previously not been crazy about Jenna (the Sunday co-host of the Today Show), but she turns out to be such a really nice, down-to-earth girl that I am now a fan. She stayed outside after the show, talking to people and posing for pictures until everyone that wanted to meet her had met her and gotten their pictures, autographs, etc... Lester Holt ran back inside immediately. He may have had someplace to get to right away, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but Jenna was nice. Also nice was Janice Huff, who always stays out and talks to people. I have seen her there before and she's always extremely friendly. Watching the Today Show from outside the studio is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. It's neat to see how the TV business really works.

Progress on Queen St. house

Here are some pictures of the latest progress on the Queen St. House. We are coming down the homestretch. The hardwood floors are being refinished right now. We just found out that a Maxwell House commercial was filmed in this house way back when. I need to find out more details, but I hear that it was filmed in that pretty landing with the circular window section at the foot of the main stairs. It is looking so pretty that we are tempted to move in there ourselves! Check it out!