A Boy and his Mac

Anyone that knows my son Nik knows how much of an Apple fan he is. He has had an iPod for over 4 years. He has dreamed about the day when he would also have his own Mac. Both Catie and Alex have over the last couple of years purchased desktop PC's because they wanted a computer and the PC's were cheap. On many an occasion I told Nik if he really wanted a computer he could afford a PC right then. But Nik knew what he wanted and he wanted a Mac laptop. He as been saving for one for over 2 years. Well, after all the graduation gifts were opened, and all the money counted he realized he had enough to get his dream machine. So, on the Sunday after graduation Chris and I drove Nik over to the Apple store in Eden Prairie. There he worked out the specification of the Macbook he wanted, even getting a student discount and some rebate savings. He walked out of the store the proud owner of a white Apple MacBook laptop. It's so beautiful, I totally have laptop envy every time I'm using my IBM Thinkpad and Nik is tapping away on is MacBook! Congratulations Nik on the reward to sticking with your dreams and making them happen!

United States Grand Prix - Race Day

The 8th running of the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is completed. Wow, what a race. It was everything you want in Grand Prix. The high drama of McLaren veteran and two time reigning World Champion Fernando Alanso, fighting it out with rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton. In all three practice session and in the first two qualifying sessions Alanso had the upper hand over his less experienced team mate. However, when it really counted in the final minute of final qualifying, Hamilton topped Alanso by a less that 0.2 second. Then today, with the whole racing world watching, Lewis held off repeated challenges for the lead from Fernando and held on for the win. It was his second win in the last two races and the 7th time in his 7 race F1 career finishing in the top three. Amazing! The racing was clean and close the whole way. With the Speed TV broadcast coming in on our race radio's and the diamond vision screen in front of our grandstand, we always knew exactly what was going in at all times during the race. I am know waiting patiently to see of the Speedway ownership and F1 management can come to an agreement on a long term deal for the future.

Update to Niks' Video

As some of you may know, the video tribute I did for Nik's High School graduation has not been available on my family web site. What happened is that we exceeded our data transfer limit on the site because of all the people trying to view it. The good news is my cousin Dana Mueller was able to host it on his web domain so it's now back up and ready for viewing. Click Here to link to the video for viewing.

United States Grand Prix - Day 2

It was a sunny and very hot day in Indianapolis today. We had a high of 95 degrees and lots of humidity. We arrived at the track in time to watch the morning practice for the Formula 1 cars. Fernando Alanso was the fastest in the session. Afternoon saw the knock out qualifying that F1 is famous for. Each 15 minute session eliminates the slowest 6 cars with the final 15 minutes having the fastest 10 cars fighting it out for the pole position. The final 2 minutes of Q3 were fast and furious. Fernando Alanso who was fastest in all three practice sessions, was beaten out for the pole by his team mate Lewis Hamilton. The rookie claimed his second pole in as many weeks. The second row was all Ferrari. The race tomorrow should be pretty cool.

United States Grand Prix - Day 1

I'm back in the motorsports capital of the world, Indianapolis Indiana. My friend Tom Ayres and I have her for our 8th annual pilgramage to the United States Grand Prix Formula One race. Today we saw two practice sessions, with the drivers getting their cars set up for qualifying tomorrow. The Mercedes-McLarens are on top of the charts, with reigning world champion Fernando Alanso fastest in the first session and his team mate rookie Lewis Hamilton quickest in the second session. The weather was quite hot today with temps in the low 90's. We are looking forward to qualifying tomorrow. The picture of the day is of Scott Speed, the sole American in Formula One.

Nik Wunrow - High School Graduate

I am proud to announce that our oldest son Nikolas walked across the stage in his cap and gown this past Thursday June 7th, as a graduate of Minnetonka High School. Nik's journey through High School as been an interesting one. He started his Freshman year at Valencia High in Valencia CA. He spent his Sophomore and Junior years at the brand new Golden Valley High in Santa Clarita. With our move to Minnesota last summer he completed his Senior year at Minnetonka. At each school he made the most of his opportunities and left a lasting impression on all that had the privilege of knowing him.

My Dad and his wife Bonnie drove up from Milwaukee to attend the graduation ceremony. We were also able to get extra tickets so that Catie and Alex were able to attend. The ceremony was held at Grace Church in Eden Prairie. With over 600 kids graduating and each kid getting 4 tickets for family, there was an obvious need for a very large auditorium. Grace church fit the bill. The school did a really nice job of putting together and running the 3 1/2 hour event. Of course being a "W" Nik was 6th from the end so we had to wait patiently for our chance to cheer. When we finally hooked up with Nik afterward, we all hugged and shed a few tears of joy. I was sweet to see that Nik was as proud of his accomplishment as we are. In his tear chocked words, he is now "Permanently Dismissed from High School"!

On Saturday, we celebrated Nik's accomplishment with family from the Twin Cities area as well as my brother Dave's family and sister Julie's family coming up from the Milwaukee area. My Dad and Bonnie stayed in town from the graduation for the party as well. It was great to be able to celebrate such a mile-stone event with so many family members. This is something that would not have been possible in California. After dinner I premiered my "Tribute to Nik" video that I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. We had a slight technical glitch with my DVD player about 2/3 of the way through the show, so we had to move the show in groups back up stairs to the office. I've also put a streaming version of the video online if you'd like to watch it. It's about 25 minutes long and you will want to have a box of tissue handy.

Yesterday, Nik counted up all his gift cash, added his savings total and realized he had finally reached his goal of having enough money to fulfill his dream of buying an Apple MacBook laptop. So, we headed off to the Apple store on Sunday afternoon and Nik made the purchase of his dreams. We spend an hour transferring all his account info from my Mac to his and getting all his software install and he's know up and running. He is so excited he's almost beside himself! Thanks to everyone who attended Nik's graduation weekend. You have helped make this tremendous event even more special for him. I have also created a photo page on the family web site to share some of the highlights of the weekend.