Summer Fun

Today was the first day of swim lessons for the season. The boys
enjoy this time of the summer. As S wrote in the previous post, it’s
been a little cooler and wetter than we’d like for late June.
You can only imagine what a pool feels like at 10 in the morning
when the weather hasn’t been in the 80’s consistently for weeks. :-)
The boys did a good job of staying warm by keeping in constant
motion. At least there was sunshine! :-)

Lightning Gets 1st Win At Rt. 106 - 6/27/09

J&D Racing Fans,

June has been a very overcast & rainy month. Not great for racing and consequently the event for 6/22 was rained out at SMS. However, weather cooperated for us to get in the 2nd race of the Saturday Night Live Series at Rt. 106 Racepark, Concord, NH.

J qualified 2nd out of 8 karts with a time of 9.55 seconds. J was able to take the lead on the first of 30 laps and hold on to it throughout the entire race. There was one caution, but J was able to get a good start and maintained the top spot. Lapped traffic helped him out at the end of the race as it slowed the kart that was in 2nd place and catching up.

This was J’s first win at Rt. 106. Congratulations on your 1st win in NH!! Its been a long time coming.

Next race is scheduled for tomorrow, 6/29, at SMS, weather permitting.

New Neighbors

My mom recently bought me a fern to hang on our front porch. Well, a young couple has decided that it's perfect place to settle down and start a family. :-) I think it's so funny that the male is sitting in the tree across from the fern and possibly 'telling' her how to build the nest. :-) Whenever she flies off to get more building supplies, he goes with her. They've been at this for two days now. Even if he's being a little 'bossy', his words are sweet to the ear well...maybe ours. :-) I'll try and post the short video I got of his "instructions". It really is a beautiful sound. I hope they stay around for awhile. :-)

The "worker".


The "supervisor".


Listen to the "supervisor" sing.

Our Middle-Schooler

Our oldest, J, is now 'officially' a 6th grader. He and his brother, D,
(going into 4th grade) just wrapped up another year of home schooling.

Where has all the time gone?! It seems like yesterday when I
was teaching him (J) how to read and dealing with the tears when it
was time to sit down to practice writing (and the tears were from
both of us). :-)

It's truly been an honor to be your teacher, J. I look forward
to our continued journey. :-)

Lightning Strikes Twice at SMS - 6/8/09

J&D Racing Fans, Monday, 6/8 was another good night for J&D Racing. The weather was nice - temps in the 80’s in the afternoon and the high 60’s as the feature races were taking place. Neither guy set new personal lap times but both ran well.

D started 5th of 7 in the first heat race. He fell to 7th on the first lap and ended up finishing there. He stayed up with the pack but wasn’t able to make a move on anyone to pickup a spot. His 7th place finish put him in the 2nd feature race starting in the 5th spot of 7 karts. D fell to 6th on the first lap, but picked up 5th spot on lap 5 and 4th spot one lap later. The first three karts had pulled too far away for D to challenge any of them for a podium finish in the remaining 4 laps. A good job though to take advantage of the situations when they presented themselves. D is now 9th in the point standings. Keep up the good work D!!

J started 7th of 9 karts in the 6-lap Tiger A heat race. He moved up to the 5th spot on the first lap and up to 4th on the next lap. He and the #43 kart battled for 3rd for the next three laps. J crossed the line with that position with one to go, but bobbled in turn 1 and fell back to 4th coming out of turn 2. Going through the center of turns 3 & 4, J got his left side tires into the dirt and lost his momentum. He ended up getting passed just before the finish line to finish 5th, so that is where he started in the feature race. Watch the video to see how it turns out.




Great Job, J!! Congratulations on your 2nd win. You’re 2nd in the point standings. Keep it up!!

Next race is 6/22 at SMS.

Fun with science

The boys have been taking an on-line science
home school class. The class is about
the science of smell. They have learned
how the nose and brain work together to help
the body recognize smells. They've even
done a couple of experiments. This
is one where they try to tell which
is the lemon and which is the lime.
They've also learned how to make
scented water. Will post those pics later.

Oh, they both correctly identified the
lemon and lime.

On another science note, our frogs
did not make it. We did get to
see some changes as the tadpoles
were growing into frogs. For now,
we'll stick to butterflies and
Bettas. :-)

J&D Racing Update - 5/30 & 6/1

J&D Racing Fans,

This past weekend was a busy one for J&D Racing. J raced in race #1 of the Saturday Night Live series on 5/30 and both guys raced in the 3rd race of the season at SMS on 6/1. Weather for both days was 70’s during the day and about 60F at night during the feature races. Overall it was a good weekend for J&D Racing.

J is racing in a 5-race series at Rt 106 Racepark in Concord, NH called the Saturday Night Live (SNL) series. Each race of the 5 races is scheduled on the last Saturday of each month, May – September. D won’t be racing in this series since there is only one group of Tiger Sprints (A & B classes together). This series does time-trials instead of heat races to qualify for the feature. J won the pole with a time of 9.52 sec. Starting on the pole of the 8-kart field, J worked his way out to an early lead of the 35-lap event. Unfortunately, many cautions in the middle of the race took away his lead and eventually, one of the karts got around him. With two laps to go, J was planning to make his move to try to win, but lapped traffic got in the way. Check out the video for some good racing action. People were still commenting on Monday at SMS how good the race was at 106 on Saturday. Next SNL race is 6/27.




At SMS on 6/1, J started on the pole of the 6-lap heat race with 8 karts. He was suppose to start 3rd, but the karts scheduled to start 1st & 2nd didn’t make the race. He took and kept the lead for all of the 6 laps despite a caution flag on lap 3. So starting on the pole for the feature, J fell to 3rd on the first lap. The race stayed green for all 12 laps and he ended up finishing in 3rd. J has changed his line around the track and has reaped the benefits of faster lap times. The last 2 laps of the race, he ran his fastest times ever at SMS - 17.62 sec per lap. His kart is tight into turn 1 and so he scrubs off speed through turns 1 & 2. We are working on that for the next race. J is now 3rd in the point standings.

D also started on the pole for his 6-lap heat race. There were 18 karts signed in for the Tiger B class, so there were 3 heats with 6 karts in each race. He fell to second and ended up finishing there. This earned him the 6th starting spot of 9 karts in the first of two 10-lap feature races. D held his own and finished in 6th. D also ran his fastest laps ever at SMS, by finally recording two laps of 18.91 sec each. This is the first time D has run under 19 sec. D is 7th in the point standings.

It was a good weekend for J&D racing since both guys ran their fastest laps ever & J brought home 2nd & 3rd place finishes. We are hoping for another strong run on Mon. 6/8 at SMS. Unfortunately, weather may be factor. Stay tuned!!

J&D Racing,
S, B, J & D