The weekend o Rama

Well. A Whirlwind of a weekend has ended with me back at work while everyone else is grilling hotdawgs today. But a quick synopsis....

Found out that Ryles was placed into Gifted and Talented class, joining I-Man and addressing an obvious point of contention with her....

We then went to a Braves game with Bozz and Khris, couple of current Frat. It was a great game that went into extra innings. Braves win too....

Yesterday i went to Coca Cola 600 and the 29 wins when everyone else runs out of fuel... A late night back and today sees me workin... The twins are off swimming and grilling, it seems...

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so the past weekend saw a somewhat busy time... Saturday we went to I-Man's first meeting for the Academy team. No real surprises in the info we got but we did also get a tentative schedule for some matches/practices/tournaments... We then headed to Charlotte to the All Star NASCAR race.. it was a lot of fun for I-Man in that his guy ran up front for a long time (#48) and he surprised me with actually keeping up with his driver on the track, etc. It was all good until a pit stop mired the 48 (actually the % on this night) back in traffic. Suddenly I-Man wanted to go to the car...

Top things I noticed and heard from I-Man...
1) "Why are all these people walking around with no shirts?"

2) a definite look of confusion when walking into the Men's bathroom and seeing
nothing but troughs

3) "Why are all these people smoking?"

4) "Can we get a ride on a bicycle?"

A late return home and Sunday saw me attend the CUTBA board of directors meeting where I feel I was able to represent some concerns of Kappa Kappa Psi, and in return I am able to address some concerns of theirs to the chapter...

... then to I-Mans year end soccer party for his current team (a pool party) and then we chilled out before starting another week....

I also started a flickr acct where I am going to be doing one of those POTD type of dealios... I will put a link here in a few days once I get my upload mechanism and pattern going...

So.. tomorrow is I-Man's first team meeting with his new team.. then he will go with me to the All Star race in Charlotte. I am interested to see how he handles what will be a longer race day than he has ever experienced. But it will be seven shorts races so he will be spared the monotony of 247 laps in a row without caution that can occasionally happen at a race... I am sure I will have to pony up some cash for a #48 diecast car but I hit Ebay for a 5 dollar Jimmie Johnson t-shirt that I will present to him to wear and avoid that transaction at the track....

... speaking of which, I found out I definitely have Labor Day off(Monday) and am ponderin getting a group of people to go to the Atlanta race (Sunday) on a day trip sorta gig for that race...

... by the way, referring to a previous post... I realize that not everyone is on facebook, etc and I wasnt trying to single anyone out or anything...

And this is supposed to be a step in the right direction? I bet there is going to a a HUGE market (black, I bet) for the old light bulbs when this starts.. and let me guess, they will all be made in China... As I sit here in my downstairs den/livingroom/kitchen area.. I see 10 (ten) TEN light bulbs that would need to be replaced... 50 dollars a piece? Are you serious? I guess people want us to simply not use light at night, I am guessing... are the poor going to be able to afford these. Oh wait, let me guess, they will get them for free...

Funny.

Go here...

Yesterday was my birthday... I got tix to a Drive game in June,which is ALWAYS fun... got some materials to make a Manhattan and Ryles got me so Calvin Klein cologne I also got a lot of "Happy Birthdays!!!" on Facebook, which was really nice. I know that the reminder thingy makes it easy to remember birthdays and all that, but you still have to make the effort to send a message so it it was awesome to hear from so many friends. Birthdays are somewhat anti-climatic now in that you kinda personally look forward to it, but you know that the reality is that it isnt as "special" to others as it is to you, for obvious reasons...

..but it did make me happy to hear from friends from all over... texts, Facebook messages, AIM and calls were all nice... now onto the next thing...

Last year about this time, I-Mans soccer season ended and he found out that a couple of his teammates from his Rec League Championship team had tried out for the Academy team and made it. He was friends with them and was upset that he didnt get the chance to try out. I had not had him try out because, even though he was an integral part of that team, I felt he wasnt ready for the increased demands and expectations playing at the Academy level would place on him. Looking back on it, and seeing his overall level of play transcend Rec League at his position, it may have been a mistake. But not much we can do about that now. so...

...Five tryouts and a couple of evaluations during actual games later, I-Man is selected to U9/10 Academy team. And I am somewhat taken aback by his reaction as he is genuinely overjoyed to be chosen. He has said several times that he wants to play "at the highest level..." and obviously we are a loooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnng ways away from anything of that sort.But this is definitely a step in that direction. Now he will get a true taste of how competitive it is. This will now be a lesson of "there is always a bigger fish..." for him as he will no longer be able to be lazy and turn on burst of speed to catch up and take the ball away from less talented players. Now if someone gets by him, it will be a clear shot on the goalie that is likely to be a score(and a lot of screaming from the coach... and suddenly it will no longer be "everyone gets a trophy, thanks for coming" but "too bad, you lost.. no trophy for you... maybe...MAYBE.. we might be able to stop at McDonalds... maybe... we'll see" it will be good for him on many levels as the level of expectations and responsibility get amped up. I see many lessons, some hard, on the horizon... but I am willing to bet he will make some long time friendships too...

So the past weekend saw a trip down to Florence for everyone... I went to the Darlington races while Jessica went to a Sorority gig in Myrtle Beach. The twins hung out with Nanna and Papa.

I went down early on Friday and took the opportunity to meet Aunt Ashley for lunch in Lexington... and then did some quick shoppin for Mothers day. I then dodged the rain and watched Sprint Cup qualifying before meeting up with Papa and Uncle Wes for the Nationwide race. The race was uneventful, I must admit...


Saturday saw the twins heading to the lake with Nanna and Papa where I hear that both Ryles and I-Man caught fish, and rode the jetski's. I went to the track and met up with a guy from work. We then walked around the souvy trucks and got a chance to see some drivers... I was particularly excited to get to see David Pearson from relatively close range although he was kinda being mobbed. Pearson was my favorite driver growing up and if you look at the stats, Pearson won 105 races in less than half the amount of starts Richard Petty had... 105/400(Pearson) to 200/1000+(Petty) is pretty impressive. Notice the dude with no shirt... classy..(reference a previous post)... i thought about photoshoppin him out but figured you would miss out on the ambiance if I did... by the way, Pearson is the gentleman (right in middle of pic) looking obviously bothered by Mr no tshirt...

We then got a chance to see Mark Martin up close. I was stunned at how small he is. I honestly mistook him for a kid when I first saw him backstage because I was going to try to squeeze of a picture of him. I saw him but thought "that CAN'T be him... that's some kid that looks similar to Mark Martin"




We then reveled in more Americana at the NASCAR RACEDAY on SPEEDCHANNEL... I started to ponder at times if there were any black people at this event... (actually, I'm kidding. There were lot's o black people... still dont see many Hispanics or Asians though...) but not many rebel flags anymore... used to be I'd see a bunch of them but, as I have often said, that crowd and ilk is slowly phasing out. Its till exists, but eventually it will be somewhat a footnote... or at least I hope so... Anyways, I hope I can get some people to go to a race later this year. Maybe the Charlotte race or Atlanta race in the fall...

The race saw us in the usual seats Papa has every year that I am fortunate that he lets me have. These seats are virtually perfect... at the top of the bottom section where you can see most of the track, but close enough to feel the ground shake when they go by... and at the end of the row... with the concessions stands right behind us... and the bathrooms right beside them...

Anyways... Sunday was Mothers's Day and Ryles and I-Man got Jessica a card (I-Man made his) and a couple of Cd's she had been wanting... We hung out in Florence for a while before heading to Lexington where we met up with Uncle Wes/Aunt Ashley/Aunt Ellen and cousin Madison for Ice Cream with Nanna for Mother's Day. She got a Kindle from her kids, which is about as cool a gift you can get if you think about the advance in technology that will be seen as in 300 years or so...

We then went and watched Cousin Madison get some more experience riding her bicycle without training wheels... a few crash and burns, but that is to be expected...

Finally, we headed back up the highway, stopping off at Grandma's house to see her for Mother's Day. We hung out there for about 45 minutes before heading back to TRY to miss the budding T-Storms I could see off in the distance. we ended up getting caught in one super heavy storm, which serves to clean my car nicely...

And now we are into this week... work/school/soccer/lessons/homework/PASS testing/Soccer Tourney...