I don't know about your local grocery store, but when I head up to Kowalski's Market in beautiful Woodbury on just about any weekend day of the year, a variety of staff members are positioned all around the store, handing out free samples of products they have on sale or are simply promoting. You can sample chips and guacamole, then turn the corner and grab a mini-slice of pizza, and before you're done, you can try out various cheeses, juice drinks, and even hot slices of bacon or cheddar brats. Ahhh, sample day! Makes my mouth water...

Well, today is "Sample Day" here in my office, and a big sample day it is. I know a LOT of blog readers, Wilk Warriors, and just plain drag racing fans will be excited to take a peek at this photo...

Now before you get too excited and start to whip out the credit card or check book, remember I said today is sample day. This sample proof of the LRS Shelby Mustang arrived on my front porch yesterday, and another landed at LRS headquarters, where Shannon Heisler and her marketing staff will take a look before we either approve or ask for more changes. Made by Motorsports Authentics, it's a fantastically well-detailed car, and I know it will be a great addition to anyone's collection.

We had hoped to have the actual first shipment of cars by now, but the artwork process took a lot longer than I had hoped, and I learned a few lessons along the way, in terms of making that process more streamlined in the future. The company didn't have the digitized artwork for some of our associate or contingency sponsors, and it took a while to round up actual decals and ship them off to them so that their people could scan and digitize the art. Finally, I was told, the best thing to do was to get these samples made, even with a few "empty holes" where yet-to-be-digitized decals will go, because the sample production process takes a while and the cars have to come from China. So, that's what we did, and I'm hoping the last few missing logos will be on there when the actual cars are produced.

I'll keep you posted, as to production, shipping, and projected arrival, and we will set up a system for selling these through our timwilkerson.com website. At least we're making progress, and I think a lot of folks are going to be excited just looking at this photo of the first sample.

Another eagerly awaited package arrived on my doorstep the other day, as well, and it was fun to open and get excited about. Once the Seattle race was behind us, I knew I wanted a couple of really good professional photos from the big win, so I went online at AutoImagery.com and perused their massive selection of pics. Dave Kommel and Richard Shute, who take the pics and run Auto Imagery, have been shooting photos at national events since Fred Flintstone's first foot-powered Funny Car was on the track burning rock (as opposed to rubber), and between them and another great pro photog, Les Welch, I've purchased dozens of photos over the past decade.

I love it when one of the guys keeps his camera aimed on the crew in the hope he'll be able to get a great "reaction shot" from us when the win light comes on, and the Auto Imagery guys did just that. Those shots are priceless, because you can instantly feel the thrill again, just looking at all of our faces. I also figured a good solid winner's circle pic was a necessity, seeing as how this was my first win in an LRS shirt. Dave Kommel was even nice enough to send me low-res versions of the two photos I ordered, so that I could include them in today's blog. If you're ever in the market for great pics of your favorite car, driver, or team, you now know where to go... And they're great guys, too.

Heading back to the last blog I did, where I mentioned it was a beautiful day in Woodbury and even included a pic of the bright blue sky over the front pond as proof, today is just about the opposite, but in a sense it too makes for a beautiful day in this part of Minnesota. When Barbara and I awoke this morning, we heard the strangest and most alien sound. What was that? What's happening? Why do we want to sleep for five more hours??? Oh, wow. It's RAINING!!!!

We are so dry here, more than nine inches below normal, ponds are drying up, creeks have disappeared, and all sorts of plant life and wildlife (that would also be known as flora and fauna) are struggling. Granted, I travel a lot, but I cannot recall another single day similar to this one in 2009, when the rain is coming down gently, but in good quantities, and the ground is having time to soak it all up. We've been saying for months that we need some good long "soaking rains," and that's what we have today, so despite the fact it's gloomy and overcast, it's actually a beautiful day in Woodbury! Let it rain...

And how lucky are we that this rain arrived today? Yesterday, after months of planning and organizational work, Dave put on the big annual fundraiser golf tournament to benefit the Woodbury High girls hockey team (of which his daughter, Alexa, is a stellar member). Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous with some puffy clouds and temps topping out around 80 degrees, and we had a wonderful time playing 18 holes of scramble golf and raising a lot of money.

After the round (Dave, his wife Nichol, his brother Jeff, and I were a foursome), we had a fantastic dinner in the banquet room at Eagle Valley Golf Club and then raised some more money with a silent auction of some fantastic items, all donated for the cause. In the end, I ended up bringing home an Easton Synergy hockey stick, five coupons for free Papa John's Pizzas, as well as a photo and puck autographed by one of the most popular players on the Minnesota Wild, Cal Clutterbuck.

I actually wanted all three auction items, but I also wanted to make sure we ran the price up a bit to help the team out, so I was pleased to write the check for the total amount and bring my precious items home. The stick gives me one more reason to actually do more than just talk about skating this winter, the free pizzas will always come in handy (large pizzas, too, with one topping), and the Clutterbuck stuff was meant to head directly to Barbara's office. Like a lot of fans, she loves Cal and thinks he's one of the toughest and most high-energy guys in the league. Not blessed with phenomenal skills, Cal has devoted his career to simply skating as hard as he can the whole time he's on the ice and hitting anything with an opponents jersey on. You probably wouldn't want to sit behind the Wild's bench wearing a San Jose Sharks jersey because he's apt to fly right over the glass and lay a huge check on you.

As for the actual golf that preceded the dinner and auction, that was more of an adventure. Not only had I not touched a club all year, I'm pretty sure I didn't touch a club all of last year either. In baseball, I always found it interesting that the first day of spring training, and my first round of batting practice, was always way better than I expected, and I think it was because all of the bad habits you invariably fall into with your swing have disappeared and you're back to operating on instinct alone. I was hoping the same thing might hold true for golf, but I forgot that pesky little detail about how you need to have played enough in your life to actually build up that instinct. Oops...

I hit a small bucket of balls on the range (and some of those little white orbs actually moved in a forward direction when I hit them) and we then dove right in and hit the first tee. I'm not going to go into the gory details, but let's just say it started off horribly (thank goodness Jeff was there to carry us early, and Nichol drained a couple of long putts), but lo-and-behold, my game started coming around on the back nine. Usually, when playing golf, I start off strong but then the wheels come off around 12 or 13, and by 18 I can barely play at all. This time, the more I played the better I got and the same went for Dave, who found his swing pretty quickly. On the back nine, I was actually quite pleased with my stroke and was playing okay, and we used more than a few of my shots in the scramble format. For the record, we ended up 1-under par, but the winning foursome (made up of four Woodbury High girls hockey players, who all play for the golf team as well) was something like 9-under. A grand old time was had by all.

And that's the beauty of golf. No matter how bad it can be, it always throws you enough bones and gets you just enough excited to make you want to come back. And we raised a good bit of money for the girls hockey team, too, so it was all good. Go Royals! And, as an added bonus, when we got to hole No. 10, I was stunned and pleased to see that Dave had bought the hole sponsorship there on behalf of Team Wilkerson. Pretty cool to see our TWR logo on the tee-box marker!

Well, with the rain still coming down steadily I'd love to keep cranking on this blog, but frankly I've run out of material... Hmmmm... Other than the fact that by the time you're reading this, it's highly likely the Minnesota Timberwolves will have announced that Kurt Rambis will be their new head coach. Yes, that Kurt Rambis. It's not official yet, but all signs point to it, and I think that will get Wolves fans excited. If you're a Lakers fan at all, you know all about Kurt Rambis.

Guess that's it. When I'm reduced to writing about Timberwolves head coaching rumors, I should probably hit "Send"... LOL.

Have a great weekend everyone, and I'll keep you posted on the die- cast progress.

Wilber, out!