Happy New Year!
Posted by mike | Filed under family, friends, news, spirits
From Vizma, Cooper, Beemer, and I, we hope that everyone has a Happy New Years. Have plenty of fun and keep it safe. We’ll see you on the flip side. PS – we are heading to the event at International Market Square in DT Minneapolis. If you are there, let us know!
Rockin the NYE champagne!
Merry Christmas
Posted by admin | Filed under family, friends, news
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone was good, family was close, and loved ones are well.
Tags: christmas
Far Infrared Sauna
Posted by mike | Filed under family, news
This is our newest health item in the quest to find everlasting piece of mind, positive spirit, and a slender body. Well, i know one thing is for sure, you can easily produce a gallon of sweat in 30 minutes. It is really cool actually, i was very skeptical at first as it was Vizma’s idea but this thing is really growing on me. I sweat more in the sauna than i do running 8 miles. That’s got to be doing something positive right?
So, here’s the story. We (wife and father in-law) pick up the sauna at the FedEx storage facility, drive it home on a huge pallet in the back of a pick-up truck. They unload it into the garage. I come home on Saturday night to see all of this all over the garage. I immediately realize that i have a new project. For how big the unit is, it was essentially 6 pieces. The base or floor, four sides, and the ceiling. We had it assembled in under an hour. The build quality is very good, i was very skeptical of this as well at first.
Anyone wonder what this is supposed to do (or cure)? 
- Reduction in joint pain and swelling
- Detoxification
- Weight loss
- Cardiovascular health
- Stress relief
- Relaxation
- Clearer skin
- Tissue elasticity
- Cancer therapy (controversial)
- Chemotherapy
There you have it. What a list. I’m reserved about the majority of the list but i do believe that I’ve had visibly clearer and smoother skin in just 3 days, some weight loss, and certainly feel completely relaxed after using the Sauna. So, the others i will just have to see about but so far so good. I suppose i should thank my wife now for this monstrosity in our basement. ;-)
Post-Road America ALMS Weekend
Posted by mike | Filed under automotive, family, friends, racing, sports
This past weekend at Road America for the ALMS race was (as always) fabulous. Such a great time, money and time well spent. We got to meet, greet, and get autographs from the Corvette and Ferrari teams. I as able to get my Ferrari helmet signed by both of the Risi Competizione team drivers Jamie Melo and Pierre Kaffer (pics to be posted as soon as I’m done editing the batch).
We stayed in quite the shanty hotel…the Days Inn in Fond Du Lac Wisconsin is not highly recommended. We were fine with it but had i brought my wife it may have been more of a problem.
The weather was hot and humid every day with temps reaching 90 every day. That’s okay though and it beats severe storms and rain.
The GT2 Corvettes did very well in their second outing posting a 3rd place podium finish for one of the cars. Not bad for a team still working out the kinks of a new chassis. Very surprised about the Risi team who have been struggling as of late. The M3 BMW’s finished 1-2 for a very strong showing; looks like the sanctioning body will need to look at smaller diameter restrictors soon…the bimmers were dominating this weekend.
A full album of pictures will be uploaded shortly once I’m finished with all of the editing; i know you can’t wait. I also have a couple of short videos I’ve taken with the iPhone to share.
Click on the photo below for the full gallery on Flickr.
History Made – Inauguration 2009
Posted by mike | Filed under family, friends, news
Yesterday, on the 20th of January 2009, the world saw history on the soil of the United States. Our 44th president was inaugurated in a wonderful swearing in ceremony.
I couldn’t help but feel optimistic, full of pride, and proud to be an American yesterday when i woke up for i knew what was in store and for the changes that would occur in our country for years to come. I feel that there has not been this kind of enthusiasm and excitement in US politics since JFK. There were over 2 million people that stood outside in freezing cold DC temps to witness the inauguration, that is amazing.
I hope you all are as excited as i am for positive changes and strong leadership in the US for the next few years, regardless of your party affiliation, it’s an exciting time for America. It will be a very challenging but fruitful future for the US should we execute well on our objectives. I also believe slowly we will begin to repair our world image and demonstrate the kind of quality decisions, exceptional attitudes, and vibrant economy the US is capable of.
Barack, lead us strong and true….
Surgery Update
Posted by mike | Filed under family, news
I had to go into surgery yesterday for what’s known as a bilateral sportsman hernias. Yeah, fabulous description huh? It turns out that i tore my abdomen wall in 3 spots on the right side and a single larger tear on the left side. They remedy this by stitching up the torn muscle and also applying a mesh patch behind and in front of the abdomen wall where the injury occured. These patches essentially allow the skin and muscle to grow through them to create a stronger abdominal lining than the areas without (once all healed of course). Yesterday was good as the novacane that they injected int he surgery area was long lasting and didn’t start wearing off until last night. I’m now trying to only take the Percocet narcotic that was proscribed when needed…the stuff really whacks me up. Over the next couple of days there will be plenty of pain, bed rest, ingestion of drugs, and of course sleep. Should be back int he full swing of things in 2 weeks though, so it’s not a very long recovery time. I can start running again in 3 weeks! 
If you are interested in learning more about this crappy problem, you can read everything you would ever care to know about it here: Sports Hernia
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by mike | Filed under family, news
Just dropping in to say happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there, hopefully there is no shortage of good food, family, and fun. I know we had a blast hanging out with our family and the mutts! We even managed to get a walk in after dinner. Too bad there were gale force winds today otherwise it would have been a lot nicer out.
