Car Watching - Lamborghini Aventador

 Behold, The Aventador!

Forget what I said the other day about the rarity of a Lamborghini sighting.  Still, it's not every day that you see one in the wild, but I've been lucky enough to catch two in a week.  And this one...well, this one is something special, even in the world of Lamborghini.

See that face?  It's coming to get you.  The air intakes under the headlights are going to scoop up your Yorkie and eat it.  The Aventador, a very special bull, is a monster of comic proportions.  Yes, it's roof does not even clear the door handles of the SUV that it's parked next to.  Yet, it's half an inch wider than a Chevy Suburban.

Scoops.  Wheels the size of sewer lids.  The Aventador sports Lamborghini's second generation V12, an engine that puts out 700-ish horsepower.  It's a 10-second quarter mile machine on it's way up to 220 miles per hour.

And, when your cruising the highways at 200+ miles per hour, you'll be really, really happy to know that you have The Creator's own brakes and all-wheel drive.

Remember those scoops in front?  Forget eating Yorkies.  The side scoops would swallow a Labrador, or your toddler.  You need a LOT of air to feed your 6.5 liter V12, which means big intakes.

Rear shot, even meaner than the front.  That center-exit exhaust is not for show.  It sounds positively evil.  And yes, the engine is behind the driver.  And yes, they encase it in glass so plebeians like you and I can gawk

Gawk?  Don't mind if I do.  Looking in on greatness.  For nearly a half mil, you can do more than gawk.

Rex - Funny Dog Positions

This dude can seriously chill.  I can't ever think of a time that I was so relaxed that my arms and legs spread out like that.  And I'm sure if my ears were that big, they wouldn't do...that.  He can stay like this for an hour.

What the hell?  He chose this position to view the back yard.  Every now and then, the hair would raise up on his back and his ears would stand at attention.  But he never would actually move.

After quite a while, he got bored with it.  May as well sit on the couch like regular people, I guess he thought...maybe watch a movie or something.

Classic Rex.  That's my neck pillow that I usually use for one of my arms...you know, bad shoulders and all.  Trouble is, Rex likes it a lot.  He always finds a way to either cuddle up to it or fully lay on top of it.  He started pulling the stuffing out of one of the ends.  I'm pretty sure I won't have this one very long.

And, the new one.  Hiding in the closet from the storms.  I've found him in there a lot lately.  During Saturday's storm, there was a laundry basket in front of his access door shown here.  I don't know how he got in, but I would hear him every now and then sneezing or shuffling around.  He finally came out around midnight.

Car Watching - Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 Roadster

 It's not often that one gets to see a Lamborghini automobile in the flesh.  But on a recent trip to an upscale auto body establishment, there it was.  A Murcielago.  And, it was a roadster, which is more rare.  Pity that the top was up, because it looks like a hastily laid blanket atop a rocket ship.

This incredible piece of ego-enhancing metal is not to be trifled with.  A V12 of muscle car size, 6.5 liters (a convenient 396 cubic inches!) sits behind the driver and blasts up to 210 miles per hour.  I mean, Batman drove one in The Dark Knight, although it was a hard top.

I wanted to take more photos, but sometimes it's best to cut and run before someone asks you what the hell you're doing near the Lamborghini.

Poor Rex is Afraid of Storms

I hadn't seen Rex in a while.  I searched the house for him.  Nope, not under our bed, his favorite hiding place.  Not sleeping on the couch.  Not looking out Hanna's window.

Where could he be?  I started putting laundry away and what did I find?  Rex, behind the low hanging clothes in our closet.  He is terribly afraid of storms and it was thundering and threatening rain most of the night.  I have never seen him hide in this particular spot. 

He stayed there until midnight or so when the danger had passed.

Oh Yes - Bagel Bites

Anyone that knows me well knows of my high-performance diet.  Let me tell you, when the hunger pains strike after a long day at work and an evening of riding, nothing says high-performance goodness like Bagel Bites.  Look at these things.  Just look at them.  They're little pizzas.  On bagels.  Bagels!!  I'm getting the faux tomato sauce on the keyboard right now.

Happy Mother's Day!

 It just so happens that Mother's Day this year falls one day after May 13th.  That's the day in 2004 that Deanna and I went on our first date.  This photo is just a couple months after that at a Cardinals game.  We look exactly the same.  Right?  Right??

 This is Eli at 7:30 am.  He got up extra early to make Mom French Toast and a smoothie.  He's a darn good kid.

 Instead of getting together with the family for a Mother's Day brunch, brother-in-law Jim made a fabulous spread for all of us at his house.  There was bacon, sausage, fruit, pancakes, waffles, chocolate chip gooey butter cake, and made-to-order eggs.  It was a smashing good brunch.

It was a very pleasant way to spend the day.

Hanna Makes the Sports Page Twice in One Week

Some people go their entire lives and never make it into the newspapers until their obituary is published.  Hanna, on the other hand, made the front page twice this week.  She's in the green on top (and I think her eyes are closed!) and she's in white on the bottom.

Crowded Day at Creve Coeur Off-Road Trails

I was trying to catch the mix of colors and the photo came out absolutely incredible.

I don't usually ride my mountain bike locally on the weekends.  I'm pretty averse to crowds and prefer to open the four-barrel when there are open trails and blue skies.  I got my blue skies today but I paid for breaking the weekend rule.  I sort of thought Creve Coeur would be sparsely populated today since the lower part of the park is still flooded.  Indeed, everyone just migrated upward to the off-road trails.

On one lap, I know I didn't get a full hundred yards without passing another user.  On foot, on bike, with dogs, with kids, whatever.  It was nuts.  I won't say I didn't have fun, because not only was I going strangely well, but the other users were unusually nice today.  I even threw in a couple of runs up the gravel service road to up my elevation and encountered a nice lady talking merrily on her cell phone each time I passed.  It was quite a sight at the bottom of the gravel road...water, water everywhere.  Quite a flood, that.

I was suffering a bit.  My aforementioned wrist is still pretty touchy, but my Garmin told me when I got home that I was mostly faster than I've ever been at CCP. 

I'm a Danger to Myself

Two weeks ago, I bent down at work to pick up something and when I stood, I cut my head on a brake lever.  It never really hurt but it bled quite a bit.  Lack of hair makes it easy to display.

Continuing my efforts to destroy myself, I fell at Lost Valley a day later.  I failed to release from my pedal and plunked over on my right side...and subsequently hurt my left wrist.  I cannot explain it.  But I could hardly move the left wrist and it got all dark purple and yellow as if something horrible had happened.  It's much better now but it's still sore.

I have always amazed myself and others with an uncanny ability to hurt myself .

Eli and the Legends Baseball Team Win!

 After an incredibly busy day at work, I drove up into the northern reaches of St. Louis county to see Eli play baseball with his Legends team mates.  Apparently, he had a stellar game.  I caught him during his last at-bat.

He went two for three with 3 RBI's.  This time around he was out at first bit this was one of his RBI's.  He pitched and played short stop and I was able to see him make a cool play to first under some pretty good pressure.