School’s Out for Summer

May 26, 2010





Rosie

School’s Out for Summer

This week marks the last week of school for the Key West Pre-school Co-op and while I was away in Indianapolis, Kathy was back in Key West wrapping up another year of teaching 3 year olds. The end of the year is always bittersweet as the relief of getting a break from work is tinged by saying goodbye to another class of wonderful kids and their families. The end of the school year is a time to celebrate and thankfully there is always something going on in Key West to facilitate celebration.





Tom & Ursala

Speaking of celebration, we have another very important milestone to celebrate this week as one of Kathy’s students, Rosie, has completed her cancer treatment and is now cancer free. Of all the fun reasons we celebrate in Key West, there are none that give us greater pleasure than this one. Sadly since I was away, Kathy had to represent at the party that her parents Betsy & Eric threw at Ft. Zachary Taylor beach to celebrate the occasion.

Tiffany & Brooks



The weather was perfect and there was a huge crowd of kids, parents, friends and well wishers, all in a festive mood to celebrate Rosie’s good health. The party lasted through sunset and everyone came away happy. Kathy had a great time.

Tara. Hilary & Susie

Josh, Lotus, Beth, Robin, Kathleen, Charles & Tanner

Eric, Betsy & Rosie

Kathy attended another party while I was away as well, this one hosted by our friends Nancy & Mark was a “brick warming” party to celebrate the completion of their new brick patio behind their house. Thirteen years in the making, the bricks are finally in place and from all accounts look beautiful. Key West people use just about any excuse to throw a party and this was as good a reason as any. I’m sure it is the first of what will be many such gatherings on the bricks.









And even though school is over, the learning never stops, at least for the teachers, as all the teachers at the preschool headed up the Keys this week for a conference about early childhood education. The conference featured a keynote speech from Shawn Brown (see link below) who has years of experience in bringing fun educational material to young students.

Shawn & Kathy

Shawn & Betsy

Super Fun Show

Mad Scramble

May 24, 2010







Mad Scramble

The final day of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 is known as “Bump Day” as the field is set with only the 33 fastest drivers, with those previously qualified, but not fast enough literally bumped out of the field. The day always brings plenty of drama as teams struggle to get their cars up to speed and into the field before the gun sounds at 6 PM ending the session. Last minute deals and banzai runs are often the order of the day. This year was no exception as the drama started right off the bat during the morning practice session.



Bruno Junquera



Tony Kanaan, who most certainly was a candidate for the fast nine, had crashed on Saturday relegating him to being a second day qualifier and starting no better than 25th in the field. Things got much worse during the practice when Kanaan crashed again in almost the exact same location. The crash precipitated a mad thrash by all the members of the Andretti Autosports team to rebuild the car and get it qualified in a manner of hours.





Tony & Danica

Members of all of the Andretti teams could be seen in the garage pouring over the car in a crazy scramble to get it rebuilt in a timely manner. Their incredible effort set the tone for the day as the teams near the back of the pack all tried to get up to speed in what perhaps were the hottest conditions of the month. It was a real struggle for most of the teams.

Jimmy Vasser & E.J. Viso

Takuma Sato

For those teams that were safely in the field the day was more about doing race prep and practicing race set-ups. It was a much more relaxed day for those teams. Bump Day was also Armed Forces Day at the track and there were thousands of members of US military forces on hand to watch the action. There were large displays of military vehicles and equipment and even performances by bands made up of soldiers.







The last hour of qualifying was as dramatic as it had been in years, hi-lighted by Kanaan sneaking into the field in the last hour and the dramatic final minutes during which the teams of Paul Tracy and Jay Howard made critical errors by withdrawing their times and not being able to reach the speed necessary on their final attempts leaving them on the outside looking in. It was a pretty hot and crazy day, but the field is set and the race set to go next week.

Kilroy's

The Slippery Noodle

Kevin at the Broad Ripple Brew Pub

I am headed back to Key West for a few days of work then getting back on a plane Thursday to return to Indiana in time for all the traditional race festivities.

Knock Out Qualifying

May 23, 2010





Pole Winner Helio Castroneves

Knock Out Qualifying

Will Power

The new condensed schedule isn’t the only new change this year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year for the first time in almost 100 years, qualifying was done in an entirely new complicated format. Qualifying was divided into two days, Pole Day on Saturday and Bump Day on Sunday. On Pole Day, the top 24 starters would be determined with a special knock out qualifying session for the fastest nine drivers held late in the afternoon.

Danica Patrick



Dan

This new gimmick was designed to increase the on track activity and add some additional suspense to the first day. Personally I did not like the new format, I am too much of a traditionalist, but the fact remains that the format did indeed seem to work as there were a lot more attempts and it remained interesting right up to the final gun at 6 PM.





I went out to the track fairly early to join my friend Dan in walking around the garage area and watching the opening couple of hours of qualifying. We had a great time, getting to meet and spend some time with former driver Bob Harkey, talking about the old days and hearing some great old stories about historic races. We also got to see former heavy weight Champion Evander Holyfield, who was visiting the speedway as a guest of A.J. Foyt racing. He still looks pretty damn fit and seemed pretty interested in what was going on.

Bob Harkey & Dan

Evander Holyfield

Alex Tagliani

Dario Franchitti

When we went out to the stands to watch the action on the track, sitting right by us was Indy Lights driver Pippa Mann, who had hoped to be the sixth woman attempting to make this year’s field, but could not get a sponsorship package together in time. Hopefully next year she’ll be on the track rather than in the stands.

Pippa Mann

Eddie Money



Abe

Ryan Briscoe

After the first round of qualifying, I headed over to join another group of friends to watch the fast nine knock out round. On the way over, I stopped briefly to watch 80s singer Eddie Money perform on the pagoda stage. It was a mob scene, so I lasted only through a couple of songs, but Money still sounded pretty much the same.

“Two Tickets to Paradise”

Helio Castroneves once again captured the pole position with a run over 228 mph followed by Will Power with Dario Franchitti rounding out the front row. As soon as qualifying was over, I headed over to Broad Ripple to join my friends Jody, Amanda, Kristi, Laura & Tim for what is becoming an annual dinner get-together. This year we met at Flatwater restaurant which is right on the canal in the former Bazbeaux Pizza location. It was a great evening catching up with friends who go back more than 30 years.

Tracy & Kevin

Jody, Amanda, Michael, Kristi, Tim & Laura

Laura & Kristi