But who's counting, right? I'm back home in sunny Minnesota where it's about 50 right now, so that's only a 25-degree swing from where I've just been (although the 34-degree temp when I got off the plane last night was a bit refreshing). Anyway, with the huge backlog of stories to tell and photos to share, I decided to get right back at it this afternoon.

For the record, I slept late. My excuse was that my body was still on Pacific Time, but the truth is my body was still on the "really, really, tired" setting, and I just needed to recharge. Even on Sunday night and Monday night, out there, it was all still "on" and the sleep was never up to what I was looking for in either quantity or quality. Once I got home last night, and then joined both cats and my wife on the sofa to watch a little "Dancing With The Stars" it was off to bed and some total relaxation.

I spent a short morning (they are short when you sleep through half of them) wrapping up my expenses, printing out a few clippings, and answering 2,000 pounds (that would be a "ton") of wonderful emails, and then I took the dry cleaning up to Woodbury Cleaners and let the girls there know that I was dropping off the LRS shirts and the black slacks for the last time this year. I then went next door to Subway for lunch (Subway Club, toasted, with American cheese) and one of the regular guys behind the counter said "I was watching on ESPN 2 Sunday night, and I think I saw you. There were Funny Cars racing, so was that you?" It's possible...

Anyway, it's basketball night tonight (hapless 1-10 Wolves vs. the 6-5 Houston Rockets) so Barb will be home soon and we'll turn around and head for Target Center in Minneapolis. Then, we have Wild tickets (vs. the New York Islanders) for Friday night, which is also neighbor Nichol's birthday, so we're trying to figure out whether we'll have pre-game or post-game festivities in downtown St. Paul. On Sunday, our all-sports-all-the-time weekend will conclude when we attend our only Vikings game of the year, at the Metrodome versus the Seahawks. This should be a lot of fun.

Barbara and I are still debating whether we're going to try to get away for a few days, at any point, this winter. Sadly, the London trip now seems impossible. With all the grueling travel she's just been through, there's no way she wants to fly that far without being certain of a seat in First Class (okay, call us both spoiled rotten but until you've flown as much as we have you might not understand how totally unappealing a 10-hour flight in coach sounds) and for us to get guaranteed upgrades the full coach fare is well over $1,200 apiece. London sounds great, but that ain't gonna happen.

So, today I nosed around a bit for fares to various places we enjoy, and right now we're analyzing the options. Barbara is taking all of next week off, but I really don't feel I'm able to do that, so we're looking at someplace close by, with good food, and lots to do. Austin is on the list, as are a couple of other fun destinations, but we might just stay home and enjoy Thanksgiving with the Jacobsens and their large extended family. After all of the airports, airplanes, and rental cars we've endured this year, staying home sounds kinda nice...

Basically, my next deadline is December 16 when Annette and I will meet with LRS, down in Springfield, to recap the season from our marketing, PR, and hospitality perspectives, and then discuss how we can change, improve, or make any of it more efficient next year. For that meeting, I need to have all of my post-season review stuff done, and I feel the need to come up with an outline of the bullet points I want to talk about, so I can't be messing around too much over the next few days. This guy's got work to do!

And... The next work item on my agenda is this blog. Today, I'll go back to the weekend, and we'll wrap up all the racing news and photos. On my next blog, I'll show you the sights and describe the fun of the Awards Ceremony. You will no doubt enjoy seeing us all dressed up. I know we did.

I won't go into our on-track results in any great detail, other than to say we ran pretty well in qualifying and ended up 6th on the ladder. That brought with it a first-round match-up with our buddy, Fast Jack, and we knew that was going to be tough. What was also facing us, square in the eye, was the wide range of possibilities for where we'd end the season in the points. We entered the race 6th, with Ron Capps just a couple of points ahead of us, then Fast Jack and Tony Pedregon were 4th and 3rd, respectively. They were both less than a round ahead of us, so getting around Jack was a mission we had in our own hands, but we'd need someone to beat Tony and Ron if we wanted to get by them. Same thing for Ashley Force Hood, who was 27 points ahead, in 2nd place, when we started the race. 

Well, two out of four ain't bad.

We beat Jack, Matt Hagan beat Tony, and in well fell swoop we moved up from 6th to 4th. Ron and Ashley won, too, so we were still on their tail but running out of time. Sure enough, we beat Robert Hight in the next round, but Ron beat Hagan on a hole-shot to keep us at bay, and when Ashley won we knew she'd have to lose in the semifinal and we'd have to win the race if we wanted to retain the number 2 on our car for 2010.

There was a way for that to happen, and it went like this: Ron would have to beat Ashley in their semifinal, while we beat Mike Neff. Then, if we beat Ron in the final, we'd end up in 2nd place. Easy, right!  Well, not so much, actually. Ron lost to Ashley, we lost to Zippy, and we'll have a 4 on our car next year. Hey, how many other Funny Car teams would trade their number for a 4 next year? My guess would be all but three of them...

Other fun stuff...  My nephew Ewan now lives in So Cal, working for Pitney Bowes, and his sister (my niece) Lauren just happened to be out there visiting, so they came to the race on Sunday, bringing along Ewan's buddy Dave, who is a huge NHRA fan. It was great to see Ewan and Lauren, and to meet Dave, and it was even better to give them some backstage access during driver introductions, and let them see and experience what it's like to win a couple of important rounds on Sunday.

We also wanted to get our picture taken, as a group, so I grabbed the closest guy who ought to know how to work a camera and asked him to take one. Who was that? Well, I figured the Editor of National DRAGSTER and NHRA.com should be up to it, so I asked Phil Burgess. Dave and Ewan then said "The picture will be nice to have, but the real story will be telling everyone who took it!" Yup.  And, for the record, Ewan is a former high school and college basketball player so, no, I have not recently been reduced in size. He's about 6' 9" or thereabouts.

In case you missed it on TV, the Budweiser Clydesdales were also there, and that's always a thrill for a St. Louis boy like me. On Sunday morning, as we walked up the staging lanes toward the stage, the horses and the Bud beer wagon were getting ready to go, and two different people came up to me and said "Kenny doesn't know yet, but Budweiser is giving him a Clydesdale!"  My first thought was "Huh?" followed by "I guess that's pretty cool..."  It was cool, and talk about a heckuva gift!  I wonder if the Sheraton allowed him to take the horse to his room that night?

Rachel Wilkerson, my best buddy, saw John Force on Sunday morning and he took off his Castrol hat, autographed it just for her, and gave it to her. She was jazzed, as you might imagine. The autograph even said "John Force. Love you!"

Tim went up to his lounge to get his fire suit on before the introductions, and he came out wearing a Mike Edwards Pro Stock World Champion t-shirt. We all thought that was pretty cool...

As I mentioned in the last blog, once the day was over I just didn't have it in me to go to the post-race party over in Morgan Lucas' pit, despite the fact he got In-N-Out to bring over their mobile store (it's a truck with a kitchen, I guess) and he served 400 Double-Doubles. Instead, I got a good night's sleep, then took Finkster to the airport in the morning, and finally drove back over to the track. As promised in the last blog, I have included a "morning after" pic of the pro pit area. Plenty of trash, some teams (like ours) completely gone, some packed up and pulling out, and a few pit areas that had barely been touched yet. It's always a weird thing to see...

Then, as previously mentioned, it was off to the Hyatt via the scenic route. The first stop was to exit the freeway at Katella Ave. so that I could drive over to Angel Stadium. When I worked for Converse Shoes and had to call on the Angels, that stadium was one of the least appealing in baseball. Originally, when it was built between 1964 and 1966, it featured grandstands that only extended to the foul poles in each corner, leaving an open outfield, and that allowed them to place a gigantic A-shaped structure with a halo around the top of it, out in left field. The scoreboard was placed about one-third of the way up the big A structure.

But, when the Rams football team moved to Anaheim they "closed the loop" by fully enclosing the stadium, and at the same time they really did nothing to make it feel like much more than a giant concrete bowl. And, because the new part of the grandstand blocked the old giant "A" scoreboard, they moved it out to the edge of the parking lot so it could be seen from the 57 Freeway.

A variety of things happened to change all of that. 1. The Rams moved to St. Louis. 2. A major earthquake seriously damaged the upper deck of the newly enclosed part of the stadium, above the baseball outfield. 3. Disney bought the Angels.

Put all three of those things together, and what you got was a total refurbishment of the stadium, including the removal of the newest part of it out in the outfield (returning it to its original design, with an open outfield) and lots of cool new features, including the scenic rocks beyond the outfield wall and a lot of other stuff. Disney has since sold the team, but the new owner continues to spend money to make what is one of the older stadiums in the game seem fresh, fan friendly, and fun.  The giant "A" is still out by the freeway, but I'll never forget where it started, nor will I forget those classic old hats the original Los Angeles Angels wore, with the white halo stitched around the top... Where have you gone, Bobby Knoop?

I also drove over to the other side of the freeway, to Honda Center where the Anaheim Ducks play. My buddy Rachel Kaizoji (who used to work for NHRA) works for the Ducks, but I hadn't called to see if she was around so I didn't bug her. I just took a pic of her workplace from the parking lot. I'm sorry, but it's pretty odd for me to see an NHL hockey arena surrounded by palm trees...

Well, that's about all I have time for right now. I have to finish up one more small project, then get ready to go watch the Rockets destroy the Wolves, even without Yao Ming.

I'll be back tomorrow (at least that's the plan) with tales of the Awards Ceremony...

Wilber, out!