In six days we'll be qualifying at the Auto Club Finals in Pomona. In nine days we'll be racing, sorting out the year's last winners with our final eliminations ladder of 2009. On Monday, we'll all gather at the Century Plaza Hyatt where we'll get to dress up and shock each other with how we appear when we get all cleaned-up and purdy lookin'...

Then... Boom! It's over and the 2009 Full Throttle season will be relegated to the memory banks and history books, just like 2008 when Tim lost the championship on the final day. Just like 2006 when my former boss (and still great friend) Del Worsham did his double-flip/ half-gainer in the tuck position after plowing into the Pomona sand trap at a high rate of speed. Just like 2005 when we "doubled-up" at Indy and all got beautiful Wally trophies, a chance to hold the briefcase full of money, and nice bonus checks. Just like 1999 when I got to jump around and go hoarse after the first win I was officially part of, in Seattle. Just like 1991, when I entered this sport as the GM at Heartland Park. Not only does time fly, in the long run, but it absolutely screams by in the "here and now" as well. I simply can't believe 2009 is about to be over.

About a year ago, I flew down to Springfield, Ill. to meet Tim for lunch. If I was going to work for the guy, after 12 years with Del, I wasn't going to agree to do it over the phone, so I hopped on the little NWA Saab turbo-prop and flew to Peoria, then drove down to the shop and we went to lunch at Panera Bread, across the street. At the end of lunch, we shook hands and I entered a whole new phase of my professional and personal life.

10 months ago, I flew to West Palm Beach to meet up with my new team for pre-season testing. Of course, I missed my Delta connection in Atlanta and had to spend the night there, but what the heck (just a sad sign of things to come...) John Fink came over to West Palm that weekend, too, from his winter-time condo in Fort Myers, and it was at that time he decided to come along for this wonderful ride with me. Up until then, while we all tried to absorb the harsh fact that Worsham Racing and Team CSK were no more, John wasn't sure what he wanted to do, or even if he still wanted to be involved. After that weekend with Tim and the team, he signed up for more of this stuff, and that made me very happy. I think it's made John really happy, too, and that's what's important.

Exactly 273 days ago, we finally got to do some qualifying at the Winternationals, but a big black cloud formed over the race track and washed out the final session. We'd also been rained upon both Thursday and Friday, so that first session on Saturday was all we got. We were 17th after that session, and therefore started the season with a stunning DNQ. I could only hope it wasn't me...

Throughout this year I've come to know all of the men and women who make up this team. John, Dave, Annette, and I have gone from being "the new guys" to being a real part of this, real teammates, and this is now our home in every way. Annette, of course, had a jump on us, being married to Rich. She may have been working over at Schumacher's for the last few years, but she always stayed with Rich at the Team Wilk hotel and rode with our guys to the track each day. For John, Dave, and myself, this was the first time we'd ever done much more than say hi to these guys in the staging lanes.

As I look forward to next week, and the end of this season, I can only say it's been a marvelous experience. Getting to know Tim so much better, having the sheer joy of becoming real friends with Krista, and just really feeling like we're all one group now, has been beyond rewarding. It's been everything I possibly could have hoped for, and more. Winning a couple of races didn't stink, either!

All of these things I've just written are the reason why John, Dave, Annette, and I are taking the whole team out to dinner on Friday night. It's our way of saying "Thanks for letting us be a part of this" and we all look forward to doing it again in 2010. I just still can't believe the season is about to be over.

In preparation for Pomona, I did go to Bing.com to take a few "birds eye" aerial views of the track, and I discovered one fascinating thing. As I've mentioned before, when you zoom in on Bing and look at something, you can spin around and see it from four different angles. When you do that with Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, you see it not only from four different angles, but from different times in its history as well. Some of the views show the new suites atop the main grandstand, and some don't. The pic I'm including in the photo gallery today not only shows the suites, but you can tell that it was taken in either 2007 or 2008 just a couple of days prior to the Winternationals. How can I narrow it down that far? Well, the suites are there, and the Carquest logo is behind the starting line, so that narrows it down to the Winternationals in those two years. Then, you can see the big "Top Eliminator Club" tent is up, and you can see that the track has no rubber on it, but the actual device they use to put rubber on the track is out there, getting started with the track prep. I don't know if it's '07 or '08, but it's just a couple of days before one of those two Winternationals races.

I mentioned the other day that my two immediate big projects, as soon as the season does actually conclude, will be my 2009 "Year In Review" book, where I recap the whole season in one tidy publication, as well as a complete documentation of the publicity highlights we generated throughout the year. I believe I recently blogged something along the lines of "If a guy was smart, he'd start working on this stuff now..." but then alluded to the fact I've never been that smart before, so why would I expect to be that intelligent this year? Well, maybe I'm not only older but also wiser.

I spent almost all of yesterday diving into the deep end. For the publicity stuff, I have been collecting that all year, so it's really just a matter of creating a cover for the binder, making copies, and sorting it into four different sections. The first section is "Major Feature Stories" and it will be full of copies of all of those exact things. Anything that appeared on-line or in-print that wasn't one of my pre-event or post-event stories, goes in there.

The second section is full of all of those pre-event and post-event stories, all written in support of each race. Those appear in multiple places on the Web, but it seemed a bit self-serving and ambitious to include copies of all the various incarnations of each one, so I just kept copies of the NHRA.com versions.

Section 3 includes all the daily updates I send out after qualifying each day. Again, those pop up at multiple sites, but I'm only going to include one version of each. The object is not to "pad the book" but to just show the work.

Finally, the last section will simply be a recap of our social networking efforts this year. No, I'm not going to include copies of every Facebook post or every Twitter "tweet" we generated, but we'll make it clear that this new tool has been effectively used by Team Wilk, on behalf of Levi, Ray & Shoup, throughout the season.

Then, on December 16, when Annette and I fly back down to Springfield to meet with LRS, these binders will be plopped on the conference room table, and I can only hope they make a big enough "thud" when they land. Maybe I'll use a heavier stock of paper, since I'm not going to pad the book with multiple versions of each story. Nah, I don't think we have to do that. Frankly, this is the first time I've ever compiled all of my work for a year, and it's apparent I've had a lot of good stories and people to work with. The best PR guy in the world can't generate much publicity if the stories and the people aren't worthy of the coverage.

I think the thing I'm happiest about is that the first section, with all the major features, is the biggest section in the book. Section 2 is a set deal, because I write two major stories for each race (one before, and one after) and those are automatic. I know I have 48 of those in the bank. I write and "pitch" many of the feature stories, but a goodly number are simply the result of getting a reporter interested and then letting him or her carry the ball. They're all things I work hard on, and do my best to get planted somewhere, but in the end an editor somewhere has to think "Yeah, I want to run this story" and I can't control that. Like I said, Tim and this team give me a LOT to work with, and I've had a ton of great stories to tell this year.

Today, once I'm done with this blog I'm going to get back to work on those two projects, and then head back over to Target Center tonight, to watch the Wolves play the Milwaukee Bucks. If you saw the score from the other night, against the Celtics, you may have seen that the Wolves did lose, as expected. What you also might have seen was that the score was 92-90, and they even had the last shot with a second to play. The Celtics are one of the best teams in all of basketball, but our young guys really battled them and never gave up. For a losing effort, it was one of the most exciting and gratifying games I've ever watched. If they can take all the good things they did in that game, and keep doing all of that, they're going to eventually turn into a fun and talented team. I'll give 'em this, they work their tails off. If you're simply not as talented as the opposition, the only chance you have is to outwork them, especially on defense. It's not easy to keep that work rate up, night after night in the NBA, but so far they're impressing the heck out of me.

I just took a break to talk with Barb on the phone. She's on a plane ready to leave Frankfurt for London. So far, she was in New York for two days as part of a big analyst meeting her company hosted, and that deal was webcast "live" so I got to watch her introduce Lawson's CEO, Harry Debes, right here on my computer. Pretty neat to watch your wife stand at the podium in front of a room full of Wall Street analysts and experts. Can you tell I'm proud of her???

Then they flew to Milan, Italy on Tuesday night, and had meetings there all day yesterday before flying up to Frankfurt. Same routine today, having meetings throughout the day in Germany before getting on her current flight, up to London. She and Harry have two free days in London, and have some plans (other than just catching up on sleep). Harry has a niece in London, so they're all going to the theater on Saturday afternoon. Then, on Sunday there's a small chance they'll get to experience one of those things you simply have to do if you ever get the opportunity...

Before the trip, Barbara and I were talking about what she might be able to do in London this weekend, and then next Saturday when she takes another free day in Edinburgh. One of my ideas was for her to find an English Premier League soccer game to attend, but she didn't seem that jazzed about that concept. Well, when Harry found out that Manchester United was playing Chelsea on Sunday, he immediately started the gears turning to see if there's any way they can get good tickets. Man U and Chelsea is like Yankees vs. Red Sox, but even bigger. I'd love to experience that! I hope they get to go... Once Monday rolls around for her, Barb still has Amsterdam, The Hague, Zurich, Geneva, and Edinburgh left on her travel agenda. It's no wonder she just asked me, on the phone, "Is today Friday?"

It is Friday and it's a beautiful day here, especially for November, but tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer so that's my day to pinch- hit for my wife, who is usually in charge of the pruning, chopping, cutting, and general gardening that needs to get down before Old Man Winter bears down on us. I always help her, but she's the one with the knowledge of what to cut, where to cut it, and how much to leave behind, and I just follow the instructions she gives me each fall. This time I'm going to have to do it all... I've been studying on- line, believe me. Just Google "Hydrangea pruning" and you'll be on some of the same sites I've been visiting...

Okay, enough of this rambling. I gotta get back to work. I'm enjoying this new-found sense of intelligence, getting started on all this post-season stuff before it's even the post-season. That will be here before you know it.

Have a great weekend!

Wilber, out!

Yogi Berra used to say "It ain't over 'til it's over" and Charlie Brown once uttered "Tell your statistics to shut up" but for us the numbers don't lie. The Full Throttle championship is now out of reach. After a strong day on Sunday in Vegas, and our 9th trip as far as the semifinals, we got a whoopin' put on us by Robert Hight (who ran low e.t. of the universe) and our day was over.

As Tim said "We qualified 7th and went to the semifinals, so that's good. You'd consider that a pretty good day if this was May. It just doesn't seem so good in November." We are now officially in 6th place (how do you go to the semifinals and still lose a spot?) and we are 132 points behind the aforementioned Mr. Hight, who pretty much just has to remember how to get from his house to Auto Club Raceway in Pomona to wrap up the crown. For us to win it, we'd have to qualify No. 1, win all 12 possible bonus points, set the national record, and then we'd still need Hight's team to perpetrate such a felonious transgression that NHRA would kick them out of the sport. That's probably not going to happen.

The good news is the fact our semifinal appearance did help us tighten up the race in our quest to have the lowest possible number on our car next year. Fast Jack may have gone around us by going to the final, but the standings as a whole were ratcheted down tighter than a lug nut by the end of the day. We're in 6th place, but we're only 27 points out of 2nd!!! It's a total pile-up now, and there's a lot more than pride on the line. Whoever finishes 2nd in the standings takes home a check for $100,000, while the 6th place finisher earns $22,000. Plus we've had the number 2 on our car all year, and it would be great to not have to swap those decals out for 2010, if you know what I mean.

So, all that adds up to the fact we're not going to be the champions this year, and Robert Hight almost certainly will. Our goals remain the same, and the sense of importance and urgency remain pegged on the red line. We want to finish as high as we can for our pride, our own satisfaction, and the prize money, which comes in very handy for a team that watches every penny like we do.

As is always the case, it's not so much the 27 points that separate us from Ashley Force Hood's team, in 2nd place, it's the gaggle of teams in-between us. It's one thing to earn 27 points more than Ashley does (it's not an easy thing, but it's one thing) but when you also have to deal with Tony Pedregon, Jack Beckman, and Ron Capps, who are 3rd, 4th, and 5th, it becomes very difficult to leapfrog all those teams. All we can do is our best, and that's what we'll be aiming for in Pomona.

We still have more than a week to look forward to the Auto Club Finals, so today I'll stick to the "here and now" as well as the past few days. The basic theme is as follows... You know what? Las Vegas is an exhausting place.

First of all there's the air. It's so dry you're constantly dehydrated, no matter how much water you drink. I had a one-liter bottle of water next to my bed each night, and I'd take care of that before sunrise each morning, but I still felt like I was stranded in the desert. I took extra-long showers each morning, just to enjoy the steam and humidity.

Secondly, there's the cacophony that surrounds you. No one goes to a resort on The Strip in Las Vegas to "chill out" believe me. It's 24 non-stop hours of noises, bells, whistles, screams, and general mayhem. The only way to relax is to lock yourself in your room and put the iPod on, because without that you STILL hear the constant flow of fun-seekers in the hallway, all night long. When everything is that "wired" all around you, all the time, it's very tiring.

Thirdly, nothing is easy in Las Vegas. The traffic is horrible, the crowds are everywhere, and just parking your car and getting to your room is a major undertaking. It's all fun for a day or two, but by the time you leave it almost makes you miss those cruddy little motel rooms we frequent during the rest of the year. Ah, to be able to park in front of your room, or at least be able to walk through a small cozy hotel lobby and be on the elevator in 12 steps...

Finally, there's the airport. Travel is a hassle, no matter where we go, and airports can be stressful places, but you start thinking about McCarran a couple of days before you have to leave Vegas. It can be fairly uneventful (as it was for me yesterday) but it's never easy. At its worst, it can be a nightmare. I gave Jon Gimmy and Kevin Wilkerson a ride to the airport on Sunday night, and Gimmy was right- on when he said "I've seen this place be no problem at all, and I've been here when the lines are out the doors and all the way down the sidewalk. You just never know what the Vegas airport is going to be like, but it's usually never good." Exactly.

By the time I got home last night, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open at 9:00 p.m., as I watched the end of the World Series game. I was also only sharing the house with Da Boyce, because Barbara and I are doing one of our more classic "ships passing in the night" routines right now. She was getting on her flight yesterday, at MSP, right when I was getting on mine, at LAS. Right now, she's in New York for two days, then she takes off on a whirlwind business trip that would lay anyone to waste. She'll hit Milan, Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Geneva, and Edinburgh in a little more than a week, and each day on the trip will be absolutely filled with non-stop meetings and travel. She does get a couple of free days over the weekend, in London (she's going to the theater!) and has also decided to stick around and tour Edinburgh, Scotland for a day rather than fly right home, but I do not envy her on this trip. I don't know if I even have the energy to do something like that... She'll get home when I'm in Pomona, and we're both looking very much forward to Tuesday night, November 17th, when I get home from the race and the Awards Ceremony.

Looking back, once more, on the weekend, there were plenty of fun moments. With it being Halloween, it was simply more outrageous than usual, both at the track and at the hotel. It finally got to the point where you even stopped noticing the crazy things people were wearing, and what was really odd was to be there on Sunday when almost everyone was dressed "normally" again, because that actually looked odd by comparison.

Perhaps the greatest highlight of the weekend came on Saturday, when Joe "Hollywood" Endzeles, who is a member in fine standing on Daniel Wilkerson's crew, showed up wearing a classic "Joe Dirt" mullet wig. It was funny enough on Hollywood, but once Tim spotted the brilliant hairpiece, the true laugh-riot ensued. He looked absolutely hilarious, and he immediately started running around our pit, the Tasca pit, and out in the general pit area, cracking everyone up. You'll have to see the pics in the gallery to really appreciate just how great it was... I still laugh every time I look at the pictures...

I'm also throwing a couple of other pics in the gallery, just for giggles. There's my friend, colleague, and esteemed editor Candida Benson, without whom many of these blogs would never get posted. There's longtime loyal blog reader Terry Mattis, who hails from the great state of Washington (we always see him in Seattle) and each time he comes to a race he brings along a new sign he's made just for that occasion. He then spends the weekend getting it autographed by as many drivers (or in my case, blog writers) as possible. As you'll see, he once again got it covered in Sharpie signatures.

I'll also include an up-to-the-minute Pond Cam shot, to show you how fast we're slipping from autumn straight toward winter. Barbara said the wind was blowing pretty hard here, over the weekend, and that knocked a lot of the remaining leaves off the trees.

Finally, it struck me that we've never had so many different sports tickets on the refrigerator door, as we do right now.

Way back in 2002, when we first got our Twins season tickets, we quickly realized we needed to have the next set of tickets in a highly visible spot, because it's easy to forget when your next game is and you can miss a game you had tickets for (trust me, I know...) So, we made a habit of always sticking the tix for the next game on the fridge, so we'd constantly be reminded when our next game was. Same thing with our Wild tickets, and now we have the Timberwolves season tickets as well. Add in the fact Barbara found some very good Vikings tickets (for their game against Seattle on November 22), and the fridge door is at 75 percent capacity. If the Twins had only been in the World Series, we'd have it all covered at one time...

Well, that's about all the blog writing energy I have today. Time to tally up my expenses for Las Vegas on my spreadsheet, and then I'm actually going to the bank to deposit a short stack of Ben Franklins, all "earned" in the Mandalay Bay casino on various slot machines. One particular "Bonus Wheel" machine was pretty good to me, and I came home a couple of hundred better off than when I arrived in Lost Wages. Cha Ching! Ya can't beat that...

Wilber, out!
 

It's spooooooky... Actually, waking up at sunrise and walking out of your hotel room at 7:55 a.m., only to be greeted by gobs of people who are just coming in after a VERY long night, is what's spooky about being in Las Vegas on All Hallows Eve. I told John Fink this morning, after we had each had encounters with some well-worn revelers, "In all my wild college days, at the heights or depths of our debauchery, I can never remember staggering back home at 8:00 in the morning, still three sheets to the wind. I can't see how much fun you can have when you've destroyed yourself as much as these folks, but to each his own, I guess."

I can say this about our weekend to this point: You can't really ask for better weather than this in Vegas. Almost no wind (unheard of, in these parts!), blue skies, and pleasant temps. This can't be beat... I truly felt sorry for Barb when I heard that it was 33 degrees and raining at home, because that's about as miserable you can get. Hopefully, things are little better back there tonight, so the kids can get out and raid our candy supplies...

On the track, yesterday, we had a good day, but not quite great. We put a hole or two out on the first run, and were 8th after that initial session. Then, by the time we ran in Q2 and all the big numbers were starting to pop up on the scoreboards, we had already been demoted to below the No. 12 Friday cut-line, thereby establishing a temporary position in the "also ran" group. So... We put a 4.11 on the board and moved back up to the lucky No. 7 spot, despite pushing a head gasket out late in the run. It's a little warmer today, but if the track temp stays below 105 or so, some people will be out there trying to improve. That group would include us.

Of course, today the Funny Cars run after Top Fuel, and if those guys have the sort of day they had yesterday, in terms of oil-downs, we could be in for a very long Saturday. Pro Stock Motorcycle in running right now, then Pro Stock, then the dragsters, and then us. After that, repeat.

Backtracking a bit, I did get here just in time on Thursday to help coordinate the Ford Taurus program, with Tim and Susan Pollack (my colleague who works for the PR agency that represents Ford). The video crew mounted a camera on the dash of the new Taurus, then another guy jumped in the back seat with a mini-cam, and we left the track headed for Gaudin Ford. I led the way in my rental car, so that Tim could concentrate on driving the new car while talking to the video guys as he drove, but of course that plan didn't take into account my own lack of local knowledge, when it comes to surface streets and back roads. We knew we couldn't take the freeways, because on my way from the airport to the track it was obvious that I-15 was nothing more than a glorified parking lot, so we picked our way down to Sahara on other roads.

It wasn't flawless, but we got there at 4:55 for our 5:00 appointment. I call that win for the navigator...

Tim did some more video work, outside the car, then we went into the dealership and met all the people who work there. Finally, at around 6:00 it was time to head to Fremont Street for the big Fan Fest, and this time it wasn't big. It wasn't even huge. It was ENORMOUS. Everyone felt bad about it, but the line for autographs was so long the promoters finally just shut it down and had to apologize. Had they not done that, I think there would still be people in line down there...

While Tim was signing autographs, I took a stroll up Fremont and discovered that the Pro Bull Riders were doing just what we were doing, one block away. It was kind of funny to be strolling through hoards of people in NHRA stuff, then cross the street and find myself surrounded by cowboy hats and Wrangler jeans (oh, and BIG belt buckles).

After that, I took Tim and Krista back to Mandalay Bay, I got checked in, went to my room, decided to go blow a few bucks, and succeeded. Shazam!!! A couple of Ben Franklins flew out of my possession so fast I should have just saved myself the agony and thrown them out the window...

Still feeling like I was on Central Time, I woke up the next morning at 4:30, but forced myself to stay in bed until sunrise. My room on the 32nd floor (at the end of the hall, just like I prefer) has floor to ceiling windows facing east, and I laid there and watched the black sky begin to lighten, then turn pinkish, and finally orange, before the sun burst into view over the mountains. It was pretty gorgeous, to tell you the truth.

Finkster flew out here, so no motorhome for him this weekend and he's staying with us at Mandalay. I am, therefore, his personal chauffeur and we met outside the main elevators at 8:00, both yesterday and today. With tonight being Halloween (and the last day of Daylight Savings, so everyone gets an extra hour's sleep) I suspect the hotel might be a little loony. I should have started counting how many young ladies I've seen dressed as sexy (or not) nurses so far. Dozens. Some of them should have chosen something less revealing, that's all I'm gonna say. We just need some guidelines. Not necessarily firm rules, but at least some general guidelines.

After being a little lighter in the wallet after the first night, I was going to just go straight to my room last night but finally gave in to the pressure of feeling like I might just be lucky enough to win some of it back. Good thing I had that feeling, because I was indeed lucky enough, and now I'm back to even on the trip, which qualifies as a win in Vegas. Of course, I have two more nights here, so the jury is very much still out.

Lots of longtime original blog followers here... Tom and Doug Miller, Crazy Jane and Chris from Vancouver, and many many more. Erica Moon, from Becker, Minn., has been reading forever but she couldn't be here. Her folks are, though, so you'll see a special hello to Erica in the photo gallery...

There's lots more to write about, but we're pushing back for Q3 and I want to get this sent in. More later, gang... Sorry this is so short and so hurried, but I felt this was better than holding off.

Happy Halloween. Don't eat all those mini-Butterfingers at once...

Wilber, out!

So here we go... Greetings from the Sky Club at MSP as I wait for my flight to Las Vegas. Truth be told, though, I actually purposefully started this blog at about 10:00 last night, after arriving home from Target Center in downtown Minneapolis, so we'll jump back to that and then I'll wrap this up before getting on my flight.

Wednesday 10/28 - 10:10 p.m.

Okay, quiz time. We just got back from Target Center on a Wednesday night, attending our first game of the year played by a local team for which we now have full (yes FULL) season tickets. And they're GREAT seats too, in Row 7, just off the playing surface. Hmmm... Target Center? In Minneapolis? Full season tickets? Is there some new volleyball or lacrosse team in the Twin Cities? Roller Derby? Professional Dodge Ball? Nope, we are now the proud owners of two seats in the 7th row, just off the floor, for the Minnesota Timberwolves, our "rebuilding" franchise in the NBA. That's 41 games worth of season tickets, in seats that go for $125 a pop!

Did I win the lottery? Do I plan to score huge on a "Wheel Of Fortune" slot machine at Mandalay Bay? Did I lose my mind??? Answers: No, hope so, and yet to be determined.

Here's how it all went down, in just the last few days... It starts with that new car my wife just bought. Remember that? Well, she had her mind made up on that deal and was well into the negotiations when we discovered that the dealership was running a promotion with the Wolves, just for the month of October. Buy a new car, get two season tickets! I will say that although Barbara picked out her car and did the negotiations purely from an automotive and financial perspective, the thought of being handed roughly $10,000 worth of basketball tickets was sort of appealing. Ya think?

Still, I'll have to admit that both of us figured there must be a ton of fine print, a bunch of strings attached, and that the deal couldn't be that good and that easy. You know the drill: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. On top of that, the guys at the dealership were kind of foggy about the whole thing, and they just kept saying "Oh, don't worry about that. The Timberwolves will contact you."

A week went by, and nothing happened. Finally, I didn't know who to reach out to at the Wolves to investigate if this thing was for real or if we were going to be disappointed when we got a call saying "Oh no, they're absolutely free as long as you buy two more of equal value" or maybe "Well, the offer was good while supplies lasted, but we can get you some seats in Row Z on the upper level..."

Despite the fact our collective confidence level wasn't very high, we weren't just going to let the deal go without looking into it, so I went to the team's website and simply hit the "Contact Us" button to send them an email. I'm sure you know how those things work... My lone little email would be piling into some in-box at the Wolves' front office, along with others about the team, concessions, souvenirs, parking, whatever... I really didn't expect a response.

Just hours later, I didn't just get a reply, I got a personal note from Laura Meyer, the team's Ticket and Premium Seating Supervisor. She was instantly engaged, asked me a few questions (which I addressed in a reply) and by the next morning she was calling me on the phone, assuring me that the paperwork from the dealership had just arrived, and that we'd already been assigned seats in the 7th row of the lower level, in the corner. She told me that a young man by the name of Conor Noonan would be our personal staff rep, and he'd be in touch soon. Apparently, by "soon" she meant a minute and a half...

Conor was terrific, and he and I have now spoken or emailed close to a dozen times in the last 48 hours, getting it all sorted out. Since this was finalized yesterday, and Opening Night was tonight, he even agreed to meet me on the curb at Target Center this afternoon, whenever I could get over there, to give me our tickets for tonight's opener against the New Jersey Nets and for Friday night, when the Wolves play LeBron, Shaq, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. We won't be home for the game against the Cavs, but Barb is in charge of finding a good home for our tickets so that some lucky persons can enjoy seeing two basketball legends most likely dismantle our home team. I knew Barb would have a hard time getting away from work at a reasonable hour tonight, and I didn't want to have to stand in line at the Will Call window first, just to get our tickets, so we worked out the curbside delivery and Conor was standing there waving me down as I pulled in on First Avenue.

We don't spend much time in Minneapolis, as opposed to St. Paul or Woodbury, so as I was headed back home in the middle of downtown, I took an iPhone pic of the skyways that criss-cross the whole city. And no, the buildings in Minneapolis are not curved and warped, like they look in the photo gallery. That's just an illusion created by the default wide-angle setting on the iPhone camera.

By the time I got back home, a large envelope from the Wolves was in the mailbox, with the line "Welcome To The Pack" written on it. Inside were the remainder of our tickets (man, this is a LOT of tickets!) and a nice "Welcome Package" from the team.

Therefore, I've actually been all the way over to Target Center twice today. I drove over the first time around 11:00, to find Conor standing on the sidewalk, tickets in hand, as I pulled up. Tonight, I picked Barbara up from her office and we headed from St. Paul over to Minneapolis...

Conor even came by our new seats during the first quarter to meet Barbara and welcome us to the Timberwolves family. I'm tellin' ya, it's "service with a smile" and some real effort on the team's part.

Now, coming from a guy who has been the GM of some professional sports franchises that REALLY needed good customer service, I have to tell you that the last 48 hours with the Wolves absolutely pegged the meter. That was, simply put, the best customer service I've ever experienced from a sports franchise, EVER, and keep in mind we got the tickets FOR FREE!!! It's not like we personally spent a lot of money with them and they feel they have to smile and take care of us, like a casino boss would schmooze a "whale" at the poker tables.

The "let's get back down to Earth" part of the equation is that ever since Kevin Garnett was traded to the Celtics a few years ago, the Wolves have been "rebuilding" and basically starting over, trying to put a new young team together. This year, with a new GM and a new coach, they've done another major housecleaning, and are very young.

If you remember the great Lakers teams from the 80s, you remember Kurt Rambis who used to wear those thick-rimmed black glasses. Well, he's had Lasik eye surgery since then, so the glasses are gone, but he's the new coach of the Wolves, and they do have some energetic young players.

They were tonight, however, "the team that couldn't shoot straight" for nearly four full quarters. Yikes! I'm talking air-balls, bricks, missed lay-ups, wild 3-pointers taken from somewhere near St. Paul, and lots of other mistakes, but they played hard on defense all night, which kept the game somewhat close. Just when it seemed the game was mercifully over, and they were down 16 with a little over 6-minutes to play, they somehow righted the ship and went on a tear that defied belief. It was incomprehensible really, after the way they shot the ball up until then, but win it they did. A "dig deep" and gutty "never say die" effort, to say the least...!!! It could end up being the highlight of another difficult season, but you take what you can get.

During the game, the front office does a GREAT job of making the games entertaining. They have a constant flow of funny and interesting contests and promotions going on, many of which reminded me of my indoor soccer days. All that sort of stuff is sorta "near and dear" to my heart, as you might imagine.

One of their nightly promotions involves allowing two fans to sit in a pair of overstuffed recliners for the game, courtesy of a sponsorship from a local furniture store. I had to say to Barb "Neat idea... 15 years ago!" Back in the mid-90s with the Kansas City Attack indoor soccer team, we worked with a local radio station and furniture store to award two fans a spot on a big plush living-room couch (complete with end-table and lamp!) right behind the goal. We called it our "Couch Potato" promotion, and one of the winners was so good at razzing the opposing goalie we actually brought him back for all our playoff games. Worked like a charm.

The Wolves' halftime entertainment (this is one of those "only in Minnesota" moments) was actually a Chinese gymnast who rode a huge unicycle around while she kicked a series of about a dozen bowls onto her head, until they were all stacked neatly there. She actually was great... The Wolves' mascot, Crunch, is great too. He struts around with a tough Wolf-like attitude, but the kids love him, and I sorta caught a blurry shot of him flying through the air on a slam-dunk...

So anyway, the Wolves miraculously won, although they are sure to be on the short end quite a bit for a while before this young team gels a bit and adds some more talent with some more draft picks. Bottom line, we had fun (that's important) and we're absolutely honored to be full season ticket holders for the Minnesota Timberwolves, with GREAT seats. We're going to support them and try to give back a little effort to thank the team for the great service and the warm welcome we have received.

As for tomorrow, I'm packed for my flight but it's been an adventure doing it. Because my original flight schedule was altered when Delta and Northwest integrated their schedules, I now get in at 1:20, which is an hour later than my originally scheduled flight. That means I'm going to have to hustle to get to the track to hook up with Tim for all our promotional stuff, so for the first time in a long time, I'm not checking a bag. I found my old US Smokeless Showdown roller bag, which fits in the overhead, and somehow cut some corners, left a few items out, and rolled everything tightly to get it all to fit... This will be interesting. And if you see me on TV and my clothes are all wrinkled, you'll know I failed.

Okay, time to take a hot-tub and then go to bed. And hey, I was talking to Conor Noonan about what I do for a living, and he promised me that if any blog readers want to attend a Timberwolves game, I can send them straight to him for discounts and great seats. So, if you want to head to Target Center some night, for a little NBA action, just drop me a line and I'll hook you up with Conor.

Like a guy from New York, I can now say "Whoa! Don't buy those tickets from TicketMaster. I got a guy at the Wolves. I'll hook ya up." It's always good to "have a guy."

Thursday - 10/29 - 9:30 a.m.

Okay, back to my seat here at a work cubicle in the Sky Club at MSP. This whole carry-on thing had me a little out of my routine, and I kept wondering what I was forgetting... Turns out, I remembered as soon as I heard my car beep behind me, signaling the doors were locked, here at the airport. I forgot to bring a jacket. That might not be a big deal out in Vegas, although it does get cool at night, but I'm not really sure what the weather forecast is for here, when I return... Might be a chilly ride home if the temps drop, but the fact it was foggy and 53 when I loaded up the car made me forget I may want to warm up when I get back. Oh well...

Hey, I have another "first" to report, on top of the basketball tickets. I currently have 74,405 elite qualifying miles in my Sky Miles account for this year, and the target level to become a Platinum member is 75,000, so this flight to Las Vegas will put me over that goal and for the first time ever, I'll move up from Gold to Platinum. I probably wouldn't have made it if not for those 15,000 bonus miles Delta put in my account not too long ago, unless I would've headed to Europe for a weekend or something like that. One would think it's going to be nice to be Platinum...

I'm in the front cabin on this flight, and the return on Monday, as well as both directions when I head to Pomona. How'd I do that? I booked these two trips as "cash plus miles" by buying the ticket at a coach fare, but adding in 15,000 miles each way to guarantee myself a seat up front. These long flights to Vegas and L.A. tend to fill up with Platinum flyers, and since I'm not one yet I wanted to make sure. Three and a half hours in an airplane seat is a long time, no matter where you're sitting.

Looks like we're on time, so I should be off the plane and on my way to the rental car facility in good shape, once we get to the other end. If we don't fly right past Las Vegas by 150 miles and then have to circle back. I'm just sayin'...

Hey, here's something funny and coincidental. Remember that long and winding story I told a few days back, about Jayson Werth of the Phillies and how he's the stepson of my old buddy Herbie Werth, and he's the nephew of Dick Schofield, and the grandson of Ducky Schofield, thanks to the fact his mom is Kim Schofield... Well, a few hours after that was posted, I got a voice mail from Krista Wilkerson who said "Oh my gosh, I was just reading the new blog and I had to tell you. Tim and I went to school with Kim Schofield! What a small world."

Miniature!

See you Vegas. Send money.

Wilber, out!