Bob Finds a Friend

Recently I received an email from my brother Bob, who is currently in Afghanistan working. He sent me this photo and wrote that this guy picutured with him is Sgt. Anderson. He added "This is how small the world is. I went to college with Sgt. Anderson and we even used to drink a beer or two together back then. I haven't seen him since college and now 15 years later we are working together halfway around the world. What's even wilder then that is we grew up only 30 miles from each other".

Talladega or Bust!

Talladega Motor Speedway was incredible.

Jerry was very organized. All I had to do is show up. He picked me up at the Atlanta airport on Friday and took me back there on Monday. He had all the food and supplies we needed. We camped on the infield with the track all around us. It was quite a learning experience. We are going to rewrite the rule book. Not one thing they wrote in there was correct. But being seasoned Nascar campers, we adapted and survived.


Jerry seemed to be enjoying himself as he met other Nascar fans.

Here's Jeff's car before they duct taped it together after the "big one" on lap 7.


One of the highlights for me was a tour of the Fox Sports Network Broadcasting booths (yes multiple). It was incredible. Thank you Jerry for arranging that. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all that goes into a broadcast.


They say "you haven't been to a Nascar track until you've been to Talladega". Well we've been. Check out the complete slide show on the left.

Leaving for Talladega

Jerry and I are getting ready to head to Talledega. These photos are from our last Nascar trip to Atlanta. We'll have lots of new photos next week.

Avery's progress

Here is the link to Avery's CaringBridge page. She came through her surgery yesterday very well. You can see her progress here:

http://caringbridge.org/visit/averykillian

Back from Vegas

Makita and I met Lorrie and Brad in Vegas to celebrate Brad's 40th birthday. More details to follow. Have to get to work now. Another short week for me. Going to Talladega on Friday.

Visit from the Borough

Ellie's sister Barbara is in Minnesota this week. She lives in the Borough of Stonington, Connecticut, where Ellie is from. Last night we went over to Dave and Ellie's and had a really nice visit and some nummy burgers and dogs on the grill. Mom Eleanor and Dad Andy was suppose to come too, but Mom's hurt her back quite badly and couldn't make the trip.

You can keep track of Barbara on her blog: http://bjperry.blogspot.com/

Nakita (aka: Devil Dog) was wound up!

Avery's in Children's Hospital

My friends Robin and Kurt Hopp's new baby grandaughter, Avery, is in Childrens Hospital in the cities. It was discovered on Tuesday that she has Congestive Heart Failure and will require a six hour surgery on Monday. Please keep little Avery in your thoughts and prayers.

Deep Frieded a Turkey

Sunday was Makita's first attempt to deep fry a turkey. He had assisted once before in Atlanta when Jerry Katz brought a fryer and a turkey to the Atlanta Motor Speedway. So he had some background. It turned out pretty good. Maybe it was a little tiny overdone.

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday we took the grandkids to the Nisswa American Legion Easter egg hunt. I think they all had fun (with the exception of Kyle, whom must being getting too old for this kind of thing. He was a very crabby and unhappy kid). After the egg hunt we went to Pizza Hut. That place will never be the same.
Kaleb didn't want his photo taken, so he hid behind this giant tree.
Kiehra was a good egg hunter. And yes, that is snow on the ground.
Kaylee and Lindsey pose for their picture.
Kaylee really liked the Easter bunny.

NCAA Hockey Update

Last night was really disappointing when Miami (Ohio) beat Bemidji 4 to 1. Game over. So tomorrow night the NCAA Hockey Championship game will be between Boston and Miami at 6pm CDT.

Going to Talladega!

My friend and co-worker, Jerry Katz, won infield camping and race tickets at the Talladega races the weekend of April 25/26th. Jerry's been promising me Talladega for years and years now. So he's finally living up to it. He's letting me come along. Happy Birthday to me. I'm stoked. Talladega baby! Super Speedway! Restrictor plates. Big wrecks. Bigger parties. Go Jeff Go. Roundy round. Yippy.

Bob at Work

Here's a photo of Bob going to work. Hmmmm, my heavy artillery (pencil and paper) is looking pretty silly. I shan't bitch about my job anymore.

Gordon Finally Wins One

Yesterday Jeff Gordon ended his 47 winless streak. It was also his first ever win at Texas Motor Speedway. Jeff is leading in points.

Eddie's Equipped with Direct TV

Yesterday Eddie (the motorhome) got equipped with satellite TV. Now no matter where I'm at on this planet I won't miss a minute of racing, hockey, football, bull riding, boxing, cricket, soccer, dog sledding, Olympic snowshoeing, an episode of the Golden Girls, Girls Next Door, Girls Gone Wild, Survivor, Idol, Leno, Laugh-in, Ax Men, Cops, Good Eats, Dirty Jobs, Bill O'Rielly, Sex in the City or the 10 Minute Abs infomercial. Break out the Cheetos.

Good Grief Already. Enough Snow!

I took this photo this morning. I have no idea how much snow we've gotten but I know I'm getting pretty sick of it. This has been the longest winter I can ever remember. Enough already.

Bemidji State Advances to NCAA Frozen Four

Who would of thunk it? North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth were both knocked out but little 'ol Bemidji Beavers marched on.

Courtesy of Western Michigan:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Tyler Scoefield netted to goals to propel Bemidji State over Cornell 4-1 Sunday night at Van Andel arena to advance to its first ever appearance at the Frozen Four, becoming the first ever No. 16 seeded team in NCAA history to do so.

Bemidji State now advances to face Miami on Thursday, April 9, at the semifinals of the Frozen Four in Washington D.C.

Professional Bull Riding

A couple months, ago bored out of our minds (long long winter), Makita and myself found ourselves watching Professional Bull Riding. We can't stop watching. These cowboys are unbelievable. They are nuts (and have huge one). Well like every other sport, we picked our favorites. Makita jump right in and choose Guilherme Marchi and Renato Nunes, both from Brazil. Marchi is currently in 2nd place in the Built Ford Tough series. Nunes is in 6th. In typical Kimkay fashion, the kid I was pulling for, Ryan Dirteater (yes that's really his name), had a serious injury (broke his femur) last weekend and is out for the year. My other cowboy, Austin Meier is in 8th place. So I'm on the lookout for another cowboy to wreck. Here's a clip from Ryan's accident.

Mackey Wins 2009 Iditarod

All the mushers that are going to finish the Iditarod this year have completed the race to Nome. Yesterday afternoon the 52nd team crossed the finish line. 15 teams had already dropped out.

Last week, on March 18th, Lance Mackey finished first for his third consecutive win. He matches only two others to win three in a row, Susan Butcher (1986, 1987 & 1988) and Doug Swingley (1999, 2000 & 2001). As a matter of fact there's only been 7 mushers to win multiple races. Rick Swenson holds the record for the most wins at 5. One multiple winner, Martin Buser, who's won four times, also holds the record of the fastest finish ever in 2002 (8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, 2 seconds). My brother Bob actually went to Alaska years ago and lived and worked with Martin and his dogs.

Here's a photo of me and Brad in Alaska in 2007 posing at the end of Martin's driveway. We were excited to find the Buser Kennels. We went up to the kennel's and spoke with Martin briefly. He didn't have much time to talk, he was cleaning up dog crap. Lots and lots of dog crap.

Big Blizzard

Lorrie, Brad and family are snowed in up on Casper Mountain. Yesterday they received three feet of snow up there. Winds were reported at up to 50 miles an hour. That's about 5 miles an hour higher than normal (LOL). The news was saying that Casper was shut down yesterday. I think they're starting to get the snow cleaned up now except the road up the mountain is still closed.

Busy Weekend

Saturday we went out to Dick's and helped gather sap. Makita had never seen the operation. It was fairly warm out and the sap was running.

Sunday we worked in Club Ed (motorhome). It's getting cleaned up, stocked and ready to roll. And of course we had the race on while working in there. I tried rooting for Kyle Busch because I hate him and it seems like everyone I root for loses. Well the mo-foe won the race. So that back fired severely.

Now the weather has turned to crap. It's raining and they're predicting snow and ice for the next few days.

Check out the NCAA Hockey update over on the left hand column of this blog. I was very pleased to see Bemidji there! I hate to cheer for them though. It may jinks them. Fighting Sioux is still in it and of course Duluth, who played superior hockey this past weekend is advancing to the NCAA playoffs.