Father/Daughter Dance

Caties school put on their annual Father/Daughter dance last night.The theme this year was a formal Ball. Catie was so excited, she began planning her outfit over a month ago. She had a beautiful pink dress and found some cute acrylic high healed shoes to go with it. On the day of the Ball she went and had a full manicure/pedicure in pink to match her dress. Chris did up Catie's hair, found some cute Cookie Lee earrings and wow, my little girl looks so grown up! I put on my best dark suit and my now famous party tie. The Fair Oaks Elementary school Multi-Purpose room was all decked out in streamers and balloons. A live DJ was on hand to play a fun variety of fast and slow dance music. There was also a limbo contest for the girls. Catie was so cute, she is really getting to be such a good dancer. Too bad her Father has two left feet! I think all the acting and ballet has really helped to develop her confidence around other people. We met up with Caties friend McKenna and her Dad, also named Jeff after the dance at our local McDonald's for an ice cream treat. We both had a very memorable evening together. This may be our last formal dancing until Catie gets married. Wow, that really puts things in perspective! Catie, thank you for a wonderful time. I love you very much.

Formula One 2006 Predictions

Wow, what a great start to the 2006 world championship chase. Qualifying is pretty interesting, although there was definately less drama in Malaysia than in Bahrain. I think as the season wears on there will be fewer suprises in the first two knock out rounds. However the third round should consistently give us some exciting results. It's so nice to have an extra team to fill out the grid. Go Super Laguri! Hopefully someday we may see 24 or even 26 cars on the grid again.

Well, now it's time for my predictions on how the season will pan out for both the drivers championship and the manufacturers championship.

2006 Drivers Championship
1. Fernando Alanso
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Jenson Button

So, Alanso will win his second championship by at least 10 points over Schumacher. Michael will get at least 1 win but I still don't think he breaks Senna's pole record it will remain in the history books as a tie. The battle for second in the championship between Michael and Jenson will go down to the last race. Kimi will win at least 3 races, but his lack of consistency will relegate him to 4th in the championship. Consistency is what wins drivers titles and Kimi doesn't have that. Perhaps a change of scenery to Ferrari next will help him to mature, but I fear he could be a driver similar to Michael Andretti that has all the talent in the world but is cursed with bad racing luck.

Other driver thoughts. Like I stated in a previous e-mail to you guys Ralf will still suck this year. He will loose his drive at Toyota at the end of the season and ride off into the sunset to watch all Brady Bunch re-runs! Nico Rosberg is a future world champion. He will get at least one podium this year. He will be the driver that gives Frank Williams his next world championship, no later than 2008. I still feel like this will end up being Michael Schumacher's last year. Kimi goes to Ferrari.

2006 Constructors Championship
1. Renault
2. Ferrari
3. McLaren

Renault should win this one by at least 15 points. McLaren will have more podium finishes, but the consistency of Ferrari will give them the edge for second place.

Well that's it. Going to be hard to beet my record from last year, but hey that's the fun of it!

Formula One - Gettin' Ready for round 1

With the start of the Formula One season less than one week way, my thoughts are now firmly fixed on the World Campionship. I typically don't like to make a prediction until after the second race of the season. By then I've had a chance to see the cars through a couple of practice and Quali's and have a much better feel for how the teams look. However, sight unseen there are a few things I think will happen

- Kimi will sign with Ferrari, as Michael retires.
- Filipe Masa will get at least one podium finish.
- Nico Rosberg will finish the season ahead of Mark Webber in points.
- Ralf Scumacher will still suck!
- Toyota will not ever reach their potential until Jan Brady, err I mean Ralf Schumacher is gone...Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

Does anyone else remember that the last time the Super Aguri car (aka Arrows) raced was in 2002?! Good God that's 4 years ago! How slow are they going to be? Any chance they won't be lapped at least twice at every race? I doubt it. The single biggest wild card for the championship is how many front runners Taku will take out fighting to not be lapped. That more that any other dynamic will determine the championship this year.

Also, I've heard about the latest talks between Kevin Kalkoven and Tony George regarding a reunification of Champ Car and IRL? Robin Miller broke the story on Speed news last Sunday, but I haven't seen anything written anywhere else. Funny how even though Tony has the Indy 500 he knows that Champ Car is eating his lunch. I really hope they can petty politics aside and create one really strong series. CART in the 80's and 90's was arguably a much better show that F1. I'd love to see us get back there.

5 days until P2 on SpeedTV...oh man I'm soooo freakin' ready!