Storm's a Comin'

This week is going to end with a bang. I have a triathlon race Sunday morning up in Huntsville (two and a half hours north) that I will have to squeeze in between two days of appearances on The Shopping Channel. I'll be working off and on until midnight on Saturday and will have to travel directly to the race site. The race starts at 8:00 AM, so I think I'll just have try to nap in my car for a few hours. After the race I'll be appearing on The Shopping Channel again that afternoon starting at 5:00 PM. I should be able to make it back down in time, but I might be a bit tentative demonstrating whatever exercise equipment is on show...

Here's a photo from our visit to the Corner Gas sound stage in Regina, en route to the airport. We somehow managed to wrangle a last minute private tour of the set and even saw them film a take!

While I was in Regina last weekend I watched part of the Canadian Grand Prix broadcast from Montreal. What an eventful race! All kinds of racing errors, starting with Fernando Alonzo trying to get past his rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton going into the first corner. Circumstances led Fernando to a seventh place finish, while Lewis led from start to finish for his first win and a solid grip on first place in the season standings. Lewis is having an amazing rookie season. There were several other collisions that shook up the race order, including a terrible smashing-into-walls-and-flipping-over-and-over accident for Robert Kubica in his BMW. Fortunately he emerged unscathed. The finishing order behind Lewis Hamilton's McLaren was full of unfamiliar cars. Nick Heidfeld was second in the other BMW and Alexander Wurz drove his Williams to third. Kimi Raikkonen could only manage fifth, while two contenders, Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa were disqualified for leaving the pit lane during a red light. Yes, there are traffic signals in Formula One. The strangest moment came when Anthony Davidson hit a groundhog (!) and had to make an abrupt pit stop to replace his front wing.

Two weeks ago was the Monaco Grand Prix, never very interesting because it's nearly impossible to pass. But lots of glamour! The first four cars (Alonso and Hamilton's McLarens, Massa's Ferrari and Fisichella's Renault) finished in the order they started. Kimi had trouble in qualifying but managed to fight his Ferrari up to eighth after starting sixteenth. There was some question after the race over McLaren issuing "team orders" but it didn't amount to anything.

Listening to: It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by R.E.M. from Document.