Janksgiver in Mankato

Well, I am sitting here digesting my Thanksgiving "dinner" and thought I would post what we had since I thought it was an accurate sample of what is probably being served on tables all over everywhere today.
8lb JennyO Turkey Breast. Since neither of us like dark meat it was a pretty good deal and it only took a couple hours to cook instead of half a day.
Turkey gravy, prepped as labled on the package that came with the turkey breast.
5lbs of Potatos, mashed with butter milk salt pepper and some garlic powder. plus potato water!
Two trays of Potato Rolls. I always loved Bob Marr's potato rolls so this year I gave a crack at them using a random internet recipe. For anybody who is not in the know- these are simply dinner rolls made with the water from boiling potatos and this particular recipie had actual mashed spuds in the dough.
From the Box Cornbread Stuffing.tasty tasty tasty, probably really unhealthy or something but there wasn't any nasty turkey bits in it either! :)
Leann had some Jello prepped last night...it looked tasty.
I made one Pecan Pie while everything else was cooking. I used a Pilsbury pie crust, which appears to have cooked spledidly, though I haven't cut into it just yet.

Thats about it for now. Just thought i'd put it all down for posterities sake.

A Day At the Races

Well I am certainly getting my motorposrts fix these last couple weekends! Two consecutive weekends of 1/8th mile drag racing on the motorcycle! wow. Way fun. Not super challenging by any means but good cheap clean fun! holy cow.

THe first weekend was the learning curve, this later second weekend was working on techniques and getting shit done! I got through two rounds of bracket last weekend, but this weekend I broke out on the first round against a set up racing sled. I was pumped though because I learned A) how to launch and B) how to do a burnout in the waterbox. I also topped my personal best to-date with a 9.25 ET. Reaction times still leave a lot to wish for, but I am still new at this drag racing on a bike thing (and drag racing period)

Leann came with this last weekend and I actually managed to convince her to run her Grand Am. Good thing I did that too! She Tophied! made it three rounds in elims! Way to go babe! :) an 11.00 dial in did the trick! lol :P

-Gabe :)

1/8th Mile drags@Humbolt! WEEEEeeee

Holy cow. What a long night last night was! We (the MSU Dragrace Team) gathered at the Auto Lab at 11:30am on saturday for the "drivers meeting" and a quick rundown on how things operate at the dragway. Then we hit the road. An ME named Dan rode down with me and the Zuki which was a nice way to break of the monotony of the drive.

We arrived and payed our entry fee, got a number for the zuki, unloaded, and zipped over to tech. Tech was probably the most relaxed tech inspection I've ever been through. The fellow looked at the bike, checking for obvious leaks probably, and stepped on the rear brake pedal and he was done.

Then we parked the bikes in the bike lane and went back to relax and get suited up. We all got one run in before somebody blew water in the lights and evertyhign came to a halt. Pretty soon all the cars were at the track and there was a line a mile long. Several breakdowns and delays ensued, including a K5 Blazer blowing oil over the entire track. They ended up having to "tire" the entire outer lane.

Everybody just relaxed and talked with other racers. There was quite the mix of cars bikes and trucks there. Eventually I got te run down on ET bracket racing and about 8:30 (two and a half hours behind schedule) I gave a dial-in of 10.37 on Al's recomendation. Since there was only a handful of bikes we drew chips for runing order. I got paired with a full on drag bike and was obviously blown away. Thank goodness for double elim! Second round I got paired with Calvin and his 1200 Harley Sporty. I ended up breaking out, but Calvin beat me to the breakout so I ended up winning! yay! Next round I got paired with Frase and his 883 sporty (probably my closest competition, which is why I ate his subway! haha!) but the track officials didn't know what the hell was going on and sent Frase down the track alone, and I got paired with some street-drag bike, who again blew me away.

My fastest time was a 9.857, best RT was 1.218 which is pretty bad.

great fun and I'll be out there again soon hopefully!

-gabe :)

My money tree is not in bloom...

So I was lookign through the Specialstage.com forums and such. I saw that Kyle Sarasin is meeting with M-Sport for support in the Fiesta trophy...which is awesome. I am very much in envy of that kid. I also saw some posts from Lurch about the Mazda support that is in place. and holy wah- I better just go buy a mazda right now. Sure I might be able to get some support from other manufacturers eventually, but Mazda has the information in place as-is right now. hard to beat that!!

-g :)

Hello summer!

The nice weather is finally here! it was like somebody finally remembered to light the pilot light on the summer furnace. pretty dang nice!
I went for a nice long walk yesterday, down to the post office and back. Took a little under an hour.
I've been driving the truck more lately and really am torn about what to do with it. I hate paying for it and really want it to be replaced with a nice ole car. :( Especially now that everybody else has their rides out for the summer. Oh well, i'll figure it out eventually.
Looks like I will be going to Ann Arbor for jesse's grad. That will be pretty sweet sinec i haven't been there in a long time. Hopefully Leann will be able to come with since she has never been there. Looks like summer is going to be a busy busy time this year. Still have to figure out next years schedule and any travel plans for the summer. aaahhhh!!! heheh

-g :)

So, the new camaro is out...and, nice enough. So I am looking through the Jalopnik posts with some rather flashy pictures of their new press lineup and I notice the blatant RS badge on the grill of one of their silver cars. So I meander over to the chevy camaro website to try and "build my own" 2010 RS camaro. and what do i get? nothing. LS 1LT 2LT 1SS 2SS? WTF does any of that mean? I don't see RS on that list at all. Is this why GM is falling on their face? TOO MANY options and models? They seriously should just go back to the tried and true- make a car. market it. if people like it they will buy it, if not you stop making it. grrrr

-g

I spend too much time on Facebook. LOL

wow, I neglect this poor blog dont I? Luckily midterm time, tax time, winter rally season, and spring break are all done. This months bills are paid (somehow) so tonight I get to just sit aorund and enjoy my one day of relaxation and relative solitude. Or may just settle with satisfaction.

The Arrowhead WRS is done after the Keewenaw Winter Rally, where Leann and myself finnished 2nd in class. Me and Dad tied in the final points standing for 3rd behind Tim Winker and Dave Fuss. The sad part is if we had topped Tim's position I would hav taken the series. Dang.

Went to the Minneapolis Auto Show last weekend. Fun but nothing too amazing. I scored a navigation DVD from BMW, a poster from Porsche, and model car from VW, and a pen from Hyundai. Leann took a liking to the Nissan Xterra, which I think would be a fine vehicle for her although I think a Frontier may end up being a better choice since she want to haul her quad around. She also wants a new quad so yeah...

I am right now writing a cover letter for an internship at SAE in Troy...cool although spending the summer over there may be a pain in the butt. Jess or Mel could probably put me up for a while and the van is already over there so I would have a vehicle. I wonder how far Troy is from Ann Arbor?

Leann got the job at MVTL in New Ulm which is just awesome. good money, now she just need to keep her nose to the grind for the next month and get her degree without totally botching her classes! I'm sure she'll do fine, even though I know the last thing she wants to do is keep going to class.

Thanks the big news for now. Caio!
-G :)

Hallo everybody!

Just wanted to say that I am still here. Haven't died or fallen off the edge of the world yet. :)
Not much happening down south here. Money is super tight so pretty much all leisure activities outside of drinking have ceased. :) Sadly that includes rallys and automotive hoonage.
I am in the process of doing my taxes, FAFSA, and scholarship applications right now, which is a total bitch since it is also coming up to midterm time and I am running out of time. (or patience, or both)
On the upsides-
I just got ProE for free today, which is awesome.
I also found several Group-F rally videos where it appears that the main competitor vehicle is a BMW E36, so I have got my blood boiling again to go rally. (too bad for the money situation huh?)
Other than that life is still normal. My grey hairs keep multiplying. Leann had a job interview up the road in New Ulm and it is looking like they will be offering her the job which is great for her! Hopefully it wont send things askew between us. :)

Why my Silverado has little to do with petrolium consumption.

Seriously. My 15-20mpg on petrol is nothing compared to what that MONSTER must guzzle down. LOL So anybody who wants to poke at me just for driving an "ineffecint" truck should just shut the hell up. LOL :)
-g