Beijing Bound

Well, the Browns are Beijing bound. This morning we said a tearful goodbye to my cousin (like my brother) Glenn, his wife Sharon and their two girls Alex and Jenessa. Glenn has accepted a great promotion with the oil company he works for to basically take over the Beijing, China office and pretty much oversee their Asian operations.

Glenn has been back and forth to China a few times since the beginning of 2007, and the whole family went for two weeks in March to scope it out. They already have a place to live, the girls are registered for school in the fall, and their personal possessions were shipped by sea container in early June so they should be delivered to their new home shortly after they arrive this week.

While I am sad I won't see them likely till Christmas, I am extremely excited for them - for all the adventures, learning experiences and opportunities that lie ahead. We are a very close family and will miss all of them very much.

Fire up the emails and web cams to keep in touch!



By the way, donations are now being accepted for Mel's Beijing Plane Ticket Fund!! LOL!!

Crack Ice Cream

Ice cream. There’s not much else like it. It can bring a smile to most anyone’s face, and when combined with chocolate, heal the brokenhearted. Oh wait. That’s a different book.

My friend Susan lives about 10 paces from a 7-11 where she purchases her seemingly daily dose of Ben & Jerry’s. I was in awe when I visited Austin and we went to her 7-11. Much to my surprise, each person in our party chose their own flavor - four pints of Ben & Jerry’s. Whoa. To my amazement, they were something like $2.50 each. Here, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s will cost ya $6.69 at the grocery store. It’s more at 7-11. Now you understand my amazement!

So I was at the grocery store today looking for those addictive little Dibs, and they had none for the second time in a row. It’s getting hard to find those little critters. There must be something in that Revel-like coating that makes them addictive. Maybe crack? I don’t know.

Well, no crack for me tonight. In lieu of the bite-sized ice cream and chocolate crack covered wonders, I decide I’m going to splurge and get me a $6.69 pint of Ben & Jerry’s. I choose my flavor. It was tough between Tortoise Shell (known as Turtle Soup south of the boarder) and a Chocolate Fudge Brownie concoction that probably would have healed a broken heart. I went with Tortoise Shell, mainly due to the cashews.

I put the pint in my basket and walked a little ways down the freezer aisle. They had the “regular” Lucerne Ice Cream in the half-gallon boxes on sale - two for $6.00. Now some may call me crazy but I know when I’m getting shafted. Sorry Ben. My apologies, Jerry. Your stuff may be "premium", but I came home with a box of Tin Lizzy Cheesecake and a box of Mint Chocolate Chip – eight times the ice cream for 69 cents less!!

Maybe Ben & Jerry think they are selling crack to Canadians.

Mark Aumann

I missed the Cup race from Daytona last night due to a family deal. I came home and went to Nascar.com to see who won. Way to go Jamie!!

So then I saw an article about Kyle Busch already on the outside looking in at Hendrick. I clicked to read. The auther was Mark Aumann, another Nascar.com writer I guess. I had never read anything he's written either, so when I saw his picture, naturally...

Doofus Sadleroo

Friday night's Trackside show on Speed was probably about the funniest piece of television I have seen in a while. Hosts Steve Burns, Jeff Hammond, Larry McReynolds and Elliott Sadler had a lot of laughs with guests Columbian Juan Pablo Montoya and Australian Marcos Ambrose.

Juan Pablo told of golfing in his house (with his golfing simulator) and getting a golf ball stuck in a wall. This really seemed to intrigue Sadler (I think he is a bit of a golf fanatic but I'm not real sure about that...).

Marcos Ambrose brought along a kangaroo hat that each host took a turn wearing. There was a lot of laughter, to the point of tears being wiped away because they were laughing so hard.

The epitome of "Work Hard, Play Hard!"

I think this most recent episode of Trackside trumps my most favorite episode of Inside Nextel Cup. I don't remember when that broadcast was, but it was back when Alan Bestwick was still hosting (miss ya Alan!) with regulars Michael Waltrip and Ken Schrader, and they still sat behind the "news desk". They were talking about Darryl Waltrip and had a question that only he could answer. So Micheal called his brother Darryl up on his cell phone. Mikey held the cell to his lav mic so Darryl could be heard. Darryl wouldn't stop talking. It was about the funniest thing I had ever seen. I guess you had to be there...

Anyway, my dear friend Robin was in New Hampshire and attended the taping of Trackside Friday night. She comes home sporting this prize photo, capturing the doofus-ness of Sadler, and the fun had by all on the show. I love it!

Doofus Sadleroo

Will the next Sadler Foundation Charity Auction item be a kangaroo hat? Hmmmm... Brett?