Sunday, November 18, 2012

Why don't I pay attention??

In the beginning of October (seems like a lifetime ago) I read a book review for "The Iron King" by Julie Kagawa.  Somewhere along the line (probably due to my weird love of Ireland, Irish Folklore and most things Irish)  I read enough Irish tales to develop a fondness for stories of the Fae.  So  I requested the book from my library and it was available pretty quickly. 






It took me awhile - in small snatches of time to read this book.  But I got sucked in to the lives of Meghan Chase, Robin Goodfellow (more commonly known as Puck) King Oberon, Queen Titania and Queen Mab and her son Prince Ash.  Meghan's journey to take on the Iron King as she learns that she is 1/2 fae - daughter of Oberon and learns to start to awaken some of her power.   Then as I finished the book , questions still unanswered, the last page was the "Don't Miss "The Iron Daughter" available blah blah blah.  I then looked online.  The Iron King is apparently Book #1 of the Iron fey series.  Yes it also says that on the cover - stop laughing at me Grace!!  There are 5 books and 3 e-novellas connecting them in this series!!  At least as of right now. 

So next time you wonder why it is I always seem to end up reading series fiction....

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Hockey!!

I must admit that I'm going through some serious withdrawal right now.  Not from Sugar, Carbs or other foods ( I think I'm actually developing a sugar phobia) I am in serious need of some hockey.  The NHL is on strike. NASCAR is over, College football has only one more weekend left to play.  Hockey is supposed to fill this gap through spring.  I am desperately trying to convince my friends we need to take a road trip up to Albany to see the Devils farm team play.  High School hockey is starting soon - I may become the weird old lady in the stands with no kid to root for ( I still root for the Angie's HS)  I follow several players and ex-players on Twitter, I follow the Devils and the NJDevil himself , the mascot.  On Thursday several of them tweeted about a charity match between some Devil's Alumni and the coaches for the NJ Colonials the next day.  A $10 donation to the governor's wife's Sandy relief fund, a silent auction and bring some non-perishable food items for the Interfaith Food Pantry.  I called Curt - I didn't care if we had plans - there was hockey!!

I  ended up working late and being stuck in traffic ( how people can do rush hour traffic day after day and not turn homicidal I will never know).  I called Curt and arranged to meet him for a quick dinner at the Atlanta Bread Company in Morris Plains.  It took me an hour and 20 minutes to go 15 miles!!  Curt got there at 5 - thinking 45 minutes would be enough for me to make it - but NOOOOOO  I didn't get there until 530pm!!  Fortunately he thought to run into Shop Rite and pick up a few things for our food pantry donation while we waited.  Soup ( I had NE clam chowder - he had French Onion) and a yummy steak sammy later we were on the way.

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Not the greatest photo - I took it with my phone.  Some of my favorite players of olde showed up - Daneyko, Starkov, MacLean, Brylin, Dowd, Mullin, Marshall, Driver, Barr  (weird thing  happened - they got older?!  what's that about?) The Devil's coach DeBoer played as well (he and his wife came up with the idea and set it up in a week!)

Default title upload by motoblur

Default title upload by motoblur

From what they announced at the end of the game - they raised $44,000 for the relief fund , and what seemed like a ton of food!!  And I got to see some of my favorite retired Devils play a fun game!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Food Finds.

FIRST  let me remind you that I'm not a doctor, that I have these issues because I'd go too long between eating etc. etc.  Periodically (I'm aiming for weekly.. but this is me so grain of salt) I'm going to blog about foods that I have found to work well with my blood glucose issues.  By not causing a spike - they also don't cause in the quick drop in blood glucose immediately after.  And they are pretty healthy for non-vegans.

One of the issues I've encountered is that I have to be very, very careful eating white rice.  Especially the short grain white rice I get in the Japanese markets.  Jasmine rice, while super yummy seems to affect me for almost a whole day , not just after the meal I eat it at - I think it starts the pendulum swinging and it takes a while to stabilize my system.  One trick I have discovered (and I thought about it, because my grandmother grew up in a Japanese farming community and the farmers would mix their white rice with barley)  Is to mix about 1/3 white rice with 2/3 barley.  Barley is super low on the glycemic index, and it seems to temper the effect of white rice wthout changing the taste and texture too much.

I've been exploring other grains as well.  The "ancient grains"  spelt, amarynth farro etc.  I found this in Costco, and I love it!

Default title upload by motoblur

It's really yummy, has a nice texture and chew, cooks up faster than white rice.  The only thing I do is use just a bit less water than the directions.  Also, it's easy to make a single or double serving -not a whole pot.

It contains farro, barley, durham wheat, rice and whole grain oats.  A 3oz uncooked serving  ( I usually eat 1/2 to 3/4 of a serving) has 270 cal, 56 gr carb ( I get 30-45 in a meal thus the partial serving) 6 gr fiber and 8 gr protein. 

Monday, November 5, 2012

An Irish Country Wedding



Patrick Taylor's next book about the Doctors of Ballybuckleboo is out, and I got a copy from my library. ( Have I mentioned how much I love my library's reserve system?  I can put in my favorite authors - don't remember how many- and when a new book comes out by them , the library automatically adds me to the reservation list!)

I started reading it today, and it is as good as the previous books.  Too bad I have to work - or I'd be returning it tomorrow!!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

I finished a sweater for Anna's spawn

Default title upload by motoblur

Not the greatest picture - I took it at night and my CFLs aren't great for photos.  When I find out if I'm having a little alien niece or nephew, I'll weave a blue or pink ribbon through the eyelet border.  If she doesn't tell me (and I wouldn't be surprised if I don't find out until the Christening) I'll weave a yellow ribbon through.

I used a yarn called PJs from Knit One Crochet Two.  It's pretty neat - it is basically a really long thin strip of flannel.  It did give off some lint from the cut edges while I was knitting - hopefully (or not.. not real concerned about Anna dealing with lint) the lint calms down after laundering.  I have a  skein and a half left over (88 yds per skein) I may make a cap and booties if I have time.  Not time until she has the baby  it's due in March, but until my NerdWars dissertation is due on Dec 28th.  I have to make another 2 sweaters and one of the sweater is already committed to a matching cap and booties.  All three sweaters are with inexpensive machine washable yarn, because a big part of me thinks she won't ever use the sweater and they will end up in Goodwill.  I'm mostly making them to appease my mom.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

My Gym Is Open!

Yeah, I never really thought I'd say that either.  After Sandy blew through here, the majority of the Borough was without power.  (we lost cable for a brief time- but I needed to catch up on stuff on the DVR anyway... I was just pissed because it went out during Monday Night Football - and the 9ers were playing) Well, yesterday the gum got power back and today it was open!  For most of the week, it was really a moot point - I was working a lot of hours so really didn't have the time/energy to hit the gym.  Thursday, I had taken a day off (pre-Sandy) for a follow up appointment with my CDE, and I really WANTED to go to the gym on the way home.  Yes, WANTED.  I had a brief anxiety attack - that all the workouts I've done since August would be nullified and my liver would start acting up again, she tried to calm my fears - but those of you that know me realize that was an impossible task.

So this morning, Curt and I headed for the gym (me getting this diagnosis is probably the best thing for Curt's health!  He's been going to the gym a couple times a week, and from my cooking changing he's dropped just over 10 pounds... rat fink)  I did 45 min on the weight circuit and 45 min on the elliptical trainer. IT FELT AWESOME!!  I have reached that point that I told my Dr I would. When I was younger and in shape, I was addicted to the gym. Not a gym rat or muscle head, but I get to that point where I need to work out at least every other day or I feel crappy.  Both my muscles and my brain want the workout.  I almost got there last summer - but then when Irene hit and work went crazy I only sporadically hit the gym, and by November I was really only half assing it, then it turned into I'd feel guilty when the gym charges hit my account and would go once a month.  I now have an extra incentive to work out.

SO yes, I'm very happy I can get back in the gym.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Avoiding Brain Atrophy

Every once in a while, I decide I don't use my brain enough and it is in danger of atrophy. ( I wouldn't want to start rooting for the Chefs - sorry randy or gasp Jr -)   I had heard about Coursera on TED.  Coursera gives free online classes in a huge range of subjects by faculty of top universities. ( I believe it was co-founded by Stanford and Princeton - but didn't check so don't quote me on that) I kept meaning to check it out (much like I kept meaning to blog - and you see how that went for 3 months).   Then one of my friends (Fe's mom) said she was taking Intro to Logic.  I decided to take it with her - the only requirements were Algebra and Set Theory.  It was taught by a Stanford professor.

 I ended up dropping the class for a few reasons. 
1.  It was taking WAY WAY more than the 2-3 hours a week that it estimated.
2.  While I did get higher than an 80 on the homework (required to get a certificate of completion) it was by the skin of my teeth, 
3.  Here is my biggest complaint about the class:  I really feel that after the hard deadline for turning in the homework (there is the due date and if you are late you lose points for every day you are late - the hard deadline is when you get a 0 anyway) the professor should have posted the correct answers and some sort of explanation as to how one would arrive at that answer.  So if you say got 9 points out of 20 for a question (yup 9) there is nothing other than to ask in the discussion forums how to get the right answer.  Some students got the right answer but in different ways and you don't know which is the correct way.  In a live class you can ask the professor or see him after class.  And since clearly the next week is only going to build on something that you only grasp 45% of - you are going downhill quickly.
4.  Set theory wasn't discussed in the classes, but showed up in the homework and there was never an explanation of how set theory ties into Logic equations ( he did explain how Algebra rules translated to Logic) and you are left out there trying to figure it out on your own.

I haven't given up on Coursera.  I may even try another math class at some point in the future.  I am currently signed up for one class that will start at the end of November and one that will start in April.  They are both nutrition based classes, which given my newfound weird diabetes have a real relevance in my life.  I really encourage other people to check out their course offerings.




Thursday, November 1, 2012

Diabetes Awareness Month

November is Diabetes Awareness Month.  The CDC says:
*Every 17 seconds someone is diagnosed with Diabetes.
*Diabetes kills more people each year than Aids and breast cancer combined.
*Up to 1 in 3 adults will have diabetes by 2050.

So, in August, I became part of the statistics.  I got diagnosed with a form of diabetes.  I'm not a type 1 or 2 - because it's me - I can't be normal.  I have really low numbers.  I need to get them up and more stable.  (Who knew you actually NEED LDL - I always thought that was bad)

I have attacked this thing pretty aggressively.  Because while this can't be cured, it CAN be managed and I want to control it so I don't have to pop more pills.  I think the thing that really shocked me into action is getting a copy of my bloodwork numbers.  Granted I'm not a Dr, and I don't know what most of those things even are, but I am pretty smart and I can learn.  The report I got gave numbers in the "normal" range in black and those outside that range in  RED.  My report looked like I just massively flunked an exam.  This was a lot more concrete than my Dr telling me I needed to lose weight and exercise because my numbers were trending wrong.

I now have my own personal CDE, Joanne.  A bit crazy, but cool. She's also an RN.  I met with her, got a blood glucose meter, eating and exercise plan.  I then went to 4 weeks of classes given by her and another CDE that has a PhD in nutrition- and her dissertation was on managing diabetes with diet.   I learned so much about the way your body processes your food it is kind of mind blowing.  I then went to work trying to beat my liver into submission. (Yes liver - it's trying to kill my pancreas)

I don't know for sure how much of a difference I have made until my next blood test on the 24th (yes 2 days after my birthday and Thanksgiving... joy)  However, I had a followup with my Dr 2 weeks ago.  He was very happy with the numbers I had so far.  Today was my follow up with Joanne.  She was very impressed. (She had predicted that I would manage this well because of my attitude in our initial meeting and through the classes)  She was very happy with my numbers - and could even see where they started trending toward healing.

I have officially since August 1st lost 34 pounds.  AND  3.5 inches off my waistline!  

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Heat and "heat"


Sensational Haiku Wednesday
Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

hosted by Jenn!

The basics: Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

Here are her rules:

      Structure: While Haiku may be written by some in other styles, for THIS meme only 5-7-5 is acceptable. At least one of your haiku must be in this format.
      Theme/Prompt: We have a new prompt each week, and your haiku needs to be related to it, if not include the actual word in it. Feel free to leave a word suggestion in a comment!
      Linking: When you post your link, link to the blog post with your haiku, not to the main page of your blog.
      Reciprocate: If you participate and post your link on my website, you must have a link back here on your post. It’s only fair.
    Folks not complying with the above risk having their links removed. Don’t make me be all “Grrrr” and stuff, it makes me grumpy! Thanks for your cooperation!

This week’s theme is: Heat

Humidity Hell!

Heat indexes through the roof,

Where is the AC?

 

 

 

This global warming-

Is trying to kill me off-

Me like this? Never!!

 

 

Eyes lock from afar-

Pupils widen, pulse speeds up

Need heats from within.

 

Arms wrap each other,

the world no longer exists -

two souls merge as one. 

 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Sensational Haiku Wednesday
Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

hosted by Jenn!! Thanks Jenn!!

The basics: Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

Here are Jenn's rules:

      Structure: While Haiku may be written by some in other styles, for THIS meme only 5-7-5 is acceptable. At least one of your haiku must be in this format.
      Theme/Prompt: We have a new prompt each week, and your haiku needs to be related to it, if not include the actual word in it. Feel free to leave a word suggestion in a comment!
      Linking: When you post your link, link to the blog post with your haiku, not to the main page of your blog.
      Reciprocate: If you participate and post your link on my website, you must have a link back here on your post. It’s only fair.
    Folks not complying with the above risk having their links removed. Don’t make me be all “Grrrr” and stuff, it makes me grumpy! Thanks for your cooperation!

This week’s theme is: Natural

 

For a teenager

Getting the "natural" look

Takes hours of work!

 

For me and my "look"

A shower, lotion, hair gel

A quick pony tail. 

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Eggplants & Cucumbers

Default title upload by motoblur

Two kinds of cucumbers - lemon cucumbers  on the left and bush cucumbers on the right.

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Three kinds of eggplants.  From top to bottom  Calliope, Ghostbuster & Fairy Tale.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Default title upload by motoblur

I harvested 3 tomatoes!!  I beat both my mom and my father in law!  And I have 3 yummy tomatoes! (With more coming)

Default title upload by motoblur

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Sensational Haiku Wednesday
Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

Thanks to Jenn for hosting!!

The basics: Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

Here are Jenn's rules:

      Structure: While Haiku may be written by some in other styles, for THIS meme only 5-7-5 is acceptable. At least one of your haiku must be in this format.
      Theme/Prompt: We have a new prompt each week, and your haiku needs to be related to it, if not include the actual word in it. Feel free to leave a word suggestion in a comment!
      Linking: When you post your link, link to the blog post with your haiku, not to the main page of your blog.
      Reciprocate: If you participate and post your link on my website, you must have a link back here on your post. It’s only fair.
    Folks not complying with the above risk having their links removed.

This week’s theme is: Confidence

 





 

Attitude is all,

Always believe in yourself!

Pretend if you must!

 

Practice makes perfect.

Put some sassy in your step.

Chin high at the world.

 

They will see your strut,

They'll know not to mess with you!

Confidence is learn'd. 



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Keep Peter Piper away from my peppers!

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Bananarama, Ancho & Quadrato D'Asti Gialoto

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7 Pot Yellow & Jaoro

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Prof Meader's Chocolate Pepper

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New Mexico Red, Habenero, (mystery pepper - I lost the tag)

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Anaheim

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Fire Chile (with a pepper set)

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Ringo

 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Happy Birthday John!!

My "little" brother John has a birthday today!!  I wish he were on this coast - but he's in Cali - so here's to wishing him the best !

 

Breakfast at Le Peep

I had to go in to work for a meeting this morning - for an hour.  When I got home I decided I wanted waffles - but didn't want to make them - so I woke up the sleeping beauties.  We decided to go to Le Peep - they have an awesome breakfast menu and someday I want to go for lunch.  Curt and I had been there once before when the Angie was away at school.

This morning  I had the Belgian combo- 

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(yes I love black pepper)

Curt had the truckers breakfast - which was pretty much the same thing with pancakes.

Angie got banana raisin french toast - and one of my sausages,

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Apparently I woke up the two before they finished getting beautiful - they wouldn't let me take their pictures.

Definitely worth the ride.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Tomato... To-Mah-To ... part 2

My favorite heirloom - Mr Stripey grew about 4" this week and now has 2 blooms!

Mr Stripey 6.22

Cherokee purple - another amazing heirloom - grew 4" as well but no blooms yet.

cherokee purple 6.22

The chocolate cherry is one of the Angie's favorite salad tomatoes

chocolate cherry 6.22

For the first time this year - I have the yellow pear - supposed to be the size of a cherry but pear shaped.  Most yellow tomatoes are lower acid (not that acid bothers me - but sometimes are better with more delicate pasta and seafood dishes) and should be cool tossed into a salad.

yellow pear 6.22

I also have an ace - pretty high yield round red tomato.

ace 6.22

And sharing a window box with my cucumbers is a super sweet 100

super sweet 100

Coming soon - peppers, eggplant & cukes!!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Tomato ... To-mah-to?

So after a week of HOT (as in 100+ degree heat indexes)  weather, I figure I'll do an update on the balcony garden.

Some EVIL critter - my best guess is a squirrel - dug one of my baskets and ended up cutting roots of my solar flare tomato!!  It was potted with soil left over from last year - and I wonder if said critter hid an acorn or something in the soil and went looking for it??  I did find a few acorns in the bag - since we live under an oak tree I thought they had fallen in..So fingers crossed.. but it does look pretty wilted.

Solar flare 6.22

My bush tomato has about a dozen tomatoes- none are showing any signs of wanting to ripen however.

bush 6.22

Celebrity is a late fruiter - so just growing a bit - not much else to report on'

celebrity 6.22

Lemon boy - also a late fruiter is just hangin' out

lemon boy 6.22

I bought the Sweet n Neat - because it claimed a profusion of bite sized tomatoes on a plant that maxed out at one foot tall.  They must be right because it is currently 8" tall and has a bunch of blooms

Sweet n Neat 6.22

More tomorrow.

Thursday, June 21, 2012


Sensational Haiku Wednesday
Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

The basics: Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

Here are the rules:

      Structure: While Haiku may be written by some in other styles, for THIS meme only 5-7-5 is acceptable. At least one of your haiku must be in this format.
      Theme/Prompt: We have a new prompt each week, and your haiku needs to be related to it, if not include the actual word in it. Feel free to leave a word suggestion in a comment!
      Linking: When you post your link, link to the blog post with your haiku, not to the main page of your blog.
      Reciprocate: If you participate and post your link on my website, you must have a link back here on your post. It’s only fair.
    Folks not complying with the above risk having their links removed. Don’t make me be all “Grrrr” and stuff, it makes me grumpy! Thanks for your cooperation!
    P.S. This is a really busy time for me – I may not get around to everyone each week. Sorry about that, but unfortunately I need to attend to business before pleasure!

This week’s theme is: Postcard


Twitter and texting
Saying "hi" and " i miss you"
Are today's post cards? 

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Hanging Gardens

So here is take 2 on this post.  I tried posting this with my phone and screwed it up somehow. 

This spring has felt like it has rained 3 out of 4 days.  For 3 different weeks it has rained everyday!  I work outside for 3/4 of my day, so trust me - it rained.  there was more than one day  when I did my rendition of the Swamp thing leaving puddles of water behind me as I walked into the building - I looked like I jumped in the pond!  And swam around long enough to really soak up some water - even with a raincoat on.

The rain and the accompanying cool weather has pretty much repressed a lot of the growth on my plants.  I have a bush tomato that actually fought through and has a bunch of tomatoes - but there hasn't been enough sun/heat to start ripening them.  But you want pictures right??

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The two outside hanging pots have hot pepper plants in them - three in the near one - 2 in the far one.  The middle basket has an upside down tomato with basil from seed on top.  The planter on the rail has hers (they do well in the wet).  On the ground the closest pot is a rhubarb, then 2 tomatoes then in the long pot is a tomato and 2 kinds of cucumbers.

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Here we have the bush tomato, three different eggplants, three sweet peppers in the long pot and a lemon tomato up close.

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Here we have a sweet n neat tomato (supposedly it only grows a foot tall- I never grew this , or heard of it before) flanked by 2 hot peppers.

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chocolate mint and 2 hot peppers

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Two more upside down tomatoes with basil from seed up top and oregano in the foreground.

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This tomato hangs above the bush tomato, but didn't make it into the picture - as you can see it is starting to bud.

This week coming up is supposed to hit the 90's by Wednesday.  There is no rain in the forecast.  So, while I will have to water more - I'm hoping for some good plant growth.



Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Haiku Wednesday


Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

The basics: Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

Here are the rules:

      Structure: While Haiku may be written by some in other styles, for THIS meme only 5-7-5 is acceptable. At least one of your haiku must be in this format.
      Theme/Prompt: We have a new prompt each week, and your haiku needs to be related to it, if not include the actual word in it. Feel free to leave a word suggestion in a comment!
      Linking: When you post your link, link to the blog post with your haiku, not to the main page of your blog.
      Reciprocate: If you participate and post your link on my website, you must have a link back here on your post. It’s only fair.
    Folks not complying with the above risk having their links removed. Don’t make me be all “Grrrr” and stuff, it makes me grumpy! Thanks for your cooperation!
    P.S. This is a really busy time for me – I may not get around to everyone each week. Sorry about that, but unfortunately I need to attend to business before pleasure!

This week’s theme is: Celebrate

 

Family and friends

Share joy as two lives join,

Happy Mom, Proud Dad.

 

 

This haiku is for you Grace!!!

 

IMAG0548 

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Grand Am / Rolex

Catching up here... On Mother's Day, Curt and I went down to Millville - almost 3 hours- a lot for a tiny state like NJ, to New Jersey MotorSports Park for the Grand Am/Rolex race.  In the GrandAm series there is basically one driver for me - Max "the Ax" Angelelli.  (ok in the GP cars I have a lot of respect for Dempsey - he loves racing, created a team... but can actually drive- so props, but not stalk worthy)  Yes, I stalked Max-  outside his hauler

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In the garage:

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I had a brief laugh at the fact that Scott Pruett's team have custom (matching the car) bikes.

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Decided this dude was just a little to comfortable with a heat gun... hand him the hairspray.

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Caught some hijinks as the crew locked Max's co-driver Ricky Taylor out of the hauler

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I had my picture taken with Ricky

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Finally, success!!

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He even smiled for my camera!

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Of course the stalking didn't end there.

That's Wayne Taylor - the team owner and Ricky's dad  next to Max in the garage

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Ok - the actual race later