Thursday, February 22, 2007
22 February 2007
The first post of 2007, no, I won't be all sentimental and talk about the past year etc etc, save that for another time.
But, I do now have the time and opportunity as well as some issues to blog about. I've been at home for 4 days now recovering from having my wisdom teeth pulled. I've been watching about 4 to 6 hours of Food Network every day, not exactly how I planned on spending my week. Giada is still my favorite, Rachel Ray pretty good, and I do enjoy Bobby Flay and Tyler Florence. Emeril is OK, but his TV presence is not nearly as good as some of the others. You also notice on some of the shows, like Emeril they dont tell you the amounts of stuff they're using, gotta leave some of the trade secrets to them I guess. Thats what I like about Rachel Ray, she tells you exactly how to make it. Paula Dean manes some good stuff too, and so does Ina Garten.
Yes, I do realize how lame that paragraph was, so let's move on...
Pudding choices have really improved since I was a kid. Tons of new flavors, low fat, fat free, sugar free. I gotta say vanilla is still one of my favorites, but also a new favorite is Dulce de Leche which is like vanilla pudding w/ caramel on top, very nice.
Now, not a good basketball year for my Deacs or The Pack, but I'm still riding that Orange Bowl high. But NASCAR season is upon us, and let's take a look at this past weekend's Daytona 500.
Toyota's Debut in the Nextel Cup series and in the Great American Race was filled with drama. After Michael Waltrip was DQ'd from qualifying and had his crew cheif and others sent home for finding an illegal substance in his intake manifold he had to race his way into the race in the Gatorade Duel (or it might have been the Bud shootout, there are 2 different preseason Daytona events which i get confused). But race his way in he did, and 4 of the 8 Camrys made the field. But none had an especially good day. The race started off pretty slow and boring, not too much going on for the first half, but as the sun went down things got pretty crazy. Three big crashes in the last 50 or so laps really wrecked havoc on some of the favorites and contenders. My guy, Dale Jr got taken out in the next to last crash which resulted in NASCAR's version of overtime- extra racing. That means that they go to caution then restart the race w/ a green flag, next time by its the white flag (one lap to go) then the checkered- we get a couple extra laps out of the Daytona 500 (which i guess really makes it more like the Daytona 507 or something, not sure how i like this overtime policy, they used to just end it under caution if thats what happened, but i guess that takes the excitement out of it). So the restart saw your Grandpa's favorite driver, Mark Martin (who's so old he doesnt even drive the viagra car anymore) in the lead trying to hold off Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch, and he sure did hold them off, but then Kevin Harvick found an extra gear that no one else had thanks to a strong push from Matt Kenseth and was able to pull up on the outside and pass them all. Busch tried to block him but couldnt get up in time and Harvick went by to battle w/ Martin for the lead in the last turn. Meanwhile the attempted block from Busch got him out of control and caused a crazy firey crash behind the two leaders that took out several cars and sent on across the finish line on its roof with flames coming out of the hood. As the leaders approached the line Harvick pulled just ahead of Martin and won the race by just about a foot, a couplet tenths of a second, for one of (but definitely not THE) best Daytona 500 finishes.
Can't say I was happy with the result as I strongly dislike Harvick and all my favorite drivers were involved in wrecks, but it was an exciting finish. But where was the aggressive driving the first half of the race, and what was the set up that allowed the cars to stay so bunched up on those restarts. I know its a restrictor plate race and thats the idea, but it really seemed the field was more bunched than usual for the last 50 laps.
Oh well, an exciting start to the season, now bring on California.
The first post of 2007, no, I won't be all sentimental and talk about the past year etc etc, save that for another time.
But, I do now have the time and opportunity as well as some issues to blog about. I've been at home for 4 days now recovering from having my wisdom teeth pulled. I've been watching about 4 to 6 hours of Food Network every day, not exactly how I planned on spending my week. Giada is still my favorite, Rachel Ray pretty good, and I do enjoy Bobby Flay and Tyler Florence. Emeril is OK, but his TV presence is not nearly as good as some of the others. You also notice on some of the shows, like Emeril they dont tell you the amounts of stuff they're using, gotta leave some of the trade secrets to them I guess. Thats what I like about Rachel Ray, she tells you exactly how to make it. Paula Dean manes some good stuff too, and so does Ina Garten.
Yes, I do realize how lame that paragraph was, so let's move on...
Pudding choices have really improved since I was a kid. Tons of new flavors, low fat, fat free, sugar free. I gotta say vanilla is still one of my favorites, but also a new favorite is Dulce de Leche which is like vanilla pudding w/ caramel on top, very nice.
Now, not a good basketball year for my Deacs or The Pack, but I'm still riding that Orange Bowl high. But NASCAR season is upon us, and let's take a look at this past weekend's Daytona 500.
Toyota's Debut in the Nextel Cup series and in the Great American Race was filled with drama. After Michael Waltrip was DQ'd from qualifying and had his crew cheif and others sent home for finding an illegal substance in his intake manifold he had to race his way into the race in the Gatorade Duel (or it might have been the Bud shootout, there are 2 different preseason Daytona events which i get confused). But race his way in he did, and 4 of the 8 Camrys made the field. But none had an especially good day. The race started off pretty slow and boring, not too much going on for the first half, but as the sun went down things got pretty crazy. Three big crashes in the last 50 or so laps really wrecked havoc on some of the favorites and contenders. My guy, Dale Jr got taken out in the next to last crash which resulted in NASCAR's version of overtime- extra racing. That means that they go to caution then restart the race w/ a green flag, next time by its the white flag (one lap to go) then the checkered- we get a couple extra laps out of the Daytona 500 (which i guess really makes it more like the Daytona 507 or something, not sure how i like this overtime policy, they used to just end it under caution if thats what happened, but i guess that takes the excitement out of it). So the restart saw your Grandpa's favorite driver, Mark Martin (who's so old he doesnt even drive the viagra car anymore) in the lead trying to hold off Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch, and he sure did hold them off, but then Kevin Harvick found an extra gear that no one else had thanks to a strong push from Matt Kenseth and was able to pull up on the outside and pass them all. Busch tried to block him but couldnt get up in time and Harvick went by to battle w/ Martin for the lead in the last turn. Meanwhile the attempted block from Busch got him out of control and caused a crazy firey crash behind the two leaders that took out several cars and sent on across the finish line on its roof with flames coming out of the hood. As the leaders approached the line Harvick pulled just ahead of Martin and won the race by just about a foot, a couplet tenths of a second, for one of (but definitely not THE) best Daytona 500 finishes.
Can't say I was happy with the result as I strongly dislike Harvick and all my favorite drivers were involved in wrecks, but it was an exciting finish. But where was the aggressive driving the first half of the race, and what was the set up that allowed the cars to stay so bunched up on those restarts. I know its a restrictor plate race and thats the idea, but it really seemed the field was more bunched than usual for the last 50 laps.
Oh well, an exciting start to the season, now bring on California.
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