Indianapolis MotoGP 2011

One of the only sporting events I really get excited about is the annual MotoGP in Indianapolis. (Though I will say I'm exponentially more excited that Formula 1 is finally coming back next year and will give me an excuse to visit Austin!) This year turned out to be a little bit of a dud in the racing itself... the usual Saturday dirt bike flat tracks at the state fair grounds were cancelled due to the deaths resulting from the Sugarland stage collapse, and then on Sunday Ducati had a not-so-great day with Valentino Rossi MISSING a turn (TWICE, how does that even happen?) and dropping to the back only to be followed by some kind of tire issue or something with Nicky Hayden which put HIM in the back.

I know, I don't know the technicalities or anything, but we love Hayden/Ducati, and it was a little sad to see ex-Ducati rider Casey Stoner finish first.

Oh... wow, way too much sports talk. Highly unusual for me! Anyways, back to the next best part of the weekend, our annual Saturday night trip to Benihana. I finally got the Ceramic Cat mug I've been wanting since practically the first time we went there years ago, and we managed to NOT get kicked out, yet again! When the Shaffer and Hoover families get together, this is always a fine line we walk. We did pull off a fake birthday, much to the surprise of my dad. Surprise Birthday "Parties" work best when it's not even the person's real birthday... SURPRISE!

Anyways, here are some pictures from the weekend.

Mmmm... Nicky Hayden's watch advertisement. (Pardon Shelly's finger)

An "Alice" Ducati!

Our "Birthday" picture at Benihana. Shelly and I could not stop laughing about how well we got away with the whole situation.

We were disappointed when we had to give the instruments back.

Worth noting is that this is one of the very rare occasions you will ever see me wearing a baseball hat. Although recently I have taken a fondness to wearing Cardinals or White Sox hats out to Wrigleyville for any Cubs game, just to ruffle some feathers.

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

MotoGP

I just woke up from my last "sleep in" of the summer, and boy did I go overboard. I woke up at 11, only because a picture frame fell off my wall, and then promptly realize that I will from now on be getting up at 9am every day (Still early for me, people, I am after all on a college schedule) and went right back to sleep for another two hours to savor it while it lasts.

For the last three years, my cap off to the summer has been heading up to Indianapolis for MotoGP. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's more or less just REALLY HOT (and quite often foreign) guys racing around on street bikes (My favorite being the Ducati, of course). So here's a little summary of what I'll be up to tonight and tomorrow:

(Nicky Hayden of Owensboro Kentucky, right next door to my own home city of good old Newburgh, IN, if I do say so myself. I'd like to think that this Ducati rider would make a nice future husband.)

Now just throw in plenty of beer and "Hoovers" (Red Bull and Vodka. Or make it Jager for a "Little Hoov"... that's me) in honor of my dad who unfortunately is traveling on business and will not be able to make it, and you've got my weekend!

College, Round 3.

Dear GOD! I am clearly no good at keeping up with these things! I'm sure I've said I'll make an effort to do so multiple times in previous posts, but maybe this time it will actually work.

SO I find myself in the beginning of "ICORE", the infamous semester of INTEGRATED Core classes the Kelley School of Business is known for. The students often refer to this as the hardest semester, and I've definitely got to hold my A game up to keep my head above water, but so far so good. I'm excited to finally be taking my first college-level Marketing class. Even more excited at my recent discovery that if singly majoring in Marketing, I'd have WAY too much extra time on my hands. So for a mere five extra classes I can tack on a full Operations Management major as well as an Economics minor. Operations is more for practical purposes, but I'm actually looking forward to the Economics minor. The subject isn't something I'm ENTIRELY intrigued with, but it's definitely practical stuff that can be interesting and definitely is useful in day to day life, and not to mention business practices.

Another recent revelation in my life is my ever growing love for motorsports. Now we all know I've always been into Indy Racing and Formula 1, and I've been to a few MotoGP races in Monterey and Indianapolis. However, the MotoGP race we went to in Indy last weekend has me completely gung ho for the sport! I think I ultimately like it better since the races are a little shorter and in turn offer a more intense spectating experience. Not to mention the fact that the Kentucky Kid Nicky Hayden is a total babe. ;-) Hey, I'm a girl, what can you really expect??! Now I just need to remember to set some races to record on SpeedVision (A CHANNEL I RECENTLY DISCOVERED WE HAVE!!!) and I'll be good to go.