csberry

I rarely watch races live nowadays. My aim is to get an hour or so into the race (not counting all the pre-race time) and then start watching the race on the DVR so I can skip commercials and long yellows. Thus, when the boys came home yesterday about a half hour before the green flag was scheduled to drop, I was set to play some Wii for 90 minutes or so before diving into the race.

Despite my telling the boys my plan beforehand, when Nigel decided he was done, and as time was winding down to when I told them I would be switching to the race. Calvin had a COMPLETE MELTDOWN. The boy turned into Robbie Gordon on a meth binge - yelling, hitting, knocking things over. I spent the next 45 minutes locked in his bedroom trying to get him chilled out. If there's one thing that is identical w/ 1yo-Calvin and 6-yo-Calvin is that when he gets overstimulated and freaked out, you gotta just hold him still for a while. No, the boy ain't autistic/Ausburgers(?sp)...

It was now a little after 5pm. Harper was in the kitchen watching JD prepare dinner, Nigel was playing on his computer, and Calvin was playing w/ dinos in his bedroom. It was time for racing! For 20 minutes.

JD was running a bit behind and Harper couldn't have her dinner delayed any further, so into the kitchen I went to feed Harper. As I get the time, I slip out of my seat and get everything prepared for Harper's bath and grab pj's. My goal was to have JD do Harper's bath and bed (it was her turn for bedtime anyway), so I could move my dinner to the living room and herd the boys between dinner, bath, and post-bath/pre-bed activity. When the bath was set and Harper was just nibbling on Cheerios, I moved into the living room to watch more racing. JD had other plans. I don't remember an explanation, but as I'm chewing my last slice of pizza, JD walks into the living room and asks if I'm finished eating so I can bathe Harper. Knowing that I'm now cranky about the situation and not wanting to snap (yet), I pause the race and head for the bath.

The boys hop into the bath just a couple of minutes after Harper and get out nearly at the same time. Instead of being able to hand Harper off to JD, I get to do pj's. As I'm doing that, I hear JD w/ the boys in the living room...picking out a DVR show for them to watch.

As soon as I had Harper dressed, I notified JD that the baby was ready for sleep and I quickly went to the bedroom and fast-forwarded to lap 99 (damned two-TV DVR isn't good about retaining where it paused on a show while it is being recorded - miss using my Tivos). I was now at the half-way point of the 500 trying to cram as much of the race into the following 25 minutes while the boys watched Fetch w/ Ruff Ruffman. I was able to get down to the last 60ish laps, put the boys down, and then finish the race thanks to ff through all the rain.

* I know a great deal of the blame goes to the rain that cleaned the track, but the follow-the-leader that dominated the race was jostled up enough to keep me from being bored, but this was a more lackluster Daytona 500 considering the prevalence of 3-wide racing in recent events at the track.

* I'm very pleased with Tony Stewart's attitude this past week and impressed with what his team of cars accomplished.

* Poor Dale Jr. had a bummer of a day that was partially bad luck and partially his shooting himself in the foot. With the level of frustration I was having around the house, I really felt for the guy.

* It's good to have Mark back on a full schedule so I have someone that I'm enthusiastic about seeing race. I knew Hendrick would give him a good car and crew, so here's to hoping that Mark can make the most out of this season.

* Digger the Groundhog and Friends? *rolls eyes* Surely, Fox, there was a better way to spend your dough to enhance our viewing experience than creating characters and stories based off an animated graphic you use when switching to the track-embedded camera.