Hey, my name is Kayleigh Nicole also known as the person who runs this website’s daughter. I’m sure you have heard of me a couple times. My mom is so awesome and I always read her stuff on here. I’m in band I play the prettiest instrument (flute). I live in Marion, Arkansas(Ar–Kansas ). You probably already know this to but I’m 12 and hating most of it. WARNING : MARION MIDDLE SCHOOL, TOO MUCH DRAMA. My besties and I try to stay away from it!!!!!!! I really can’t think of anything else I will probably write another one some other time I’m just doin this cuz im bored and my mom is takin a bath and of course it is Saturday so my dad is GONE!!!!! He went to Helena to a bike rally. BUH-BYE. Oh and im usually on myspace!!! LOL : P

Normally I pull for the underdog, but there have been many cases where larger companies buying small companies - or two companies merging has worked out well for me. And some that haven’t.

My opinion differs daily regarding my employer. Sometimes it’s great that Jabba the Medical Device Hutt devoured us - both most often I feel like we are treated like step-children. The medical benefits do kick some colossal ass (srsly), but getting stiffed on bonuses because we didn’t meet unattainable quotas was really crappy. Meanwhile, Jabba keeps buying companies. I’m sure I’ll get screwed out of a bonus once again this year. 90% of my daily job woes revolve around the corporate office not responding to our needs in a timely manner because we don’t seem to be important to them.

Suncom AT&T Cingular AT&T Wireless. They haven’t f’ed up my bill too badly. Lately.

XM Radio and Sirius. Believe it or not, we are a split household. I have Sirius, natch. Hubs has XM Radio. I hope the merger works out well for everyone.

Rhapsody and Urge, Yahoo Music everyone else. I have an ax to grind with … someone! Yahoo Music isn’t being supported any longer and who knows WHEN we’ll get the notice that the account has been migrated to Rhapsody. I wouldn’t care except Yahoo Music has been acting strangely and - you guessed it - there IS NO SUPPORT AVAILABLE.

I can’t think of any large legitimate business that doesn’t require drug screening upon hiring, subject to random drug testing afterwards… What is the big deal? I’m truly surprised that NASCAR doesn’t have a more stringent policy. While I joke sometimes that a driver occasionally acts like they are on recreational medication during a race I was really shocked about the whole deal with Hmiel and then Fike. I don’t need to go into the whole “how could you throw away an opportunity like that…” It’s more like “look at how many drivers you could have potentially killed while you were feeling no pain…”

Stupidity boggles the mind.

or

What happens when server/site maintenance moves from local to corporate office:

(1) Have program code that you need to test in the development environment (different from “test” environment or production environment)

(2) Have a rather short amount of time to get the testing done (or the sky will surely fall)

(3) Try to sign into the development environment only to be given an error message.

(4) Attempt to DO THE RIGHT THING by submitting a service request to the appropriate department.

(5) Get tossed back and forth, dept to dept. Feel like a hot potato.

(6) Get asked - ‘Why are you testing in dev? You should test in test. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah”

(7) Watch everyone play pass the buck.

(8) Watch your deadline pass you by.

(9) Keep asking for an update only to be met with silence.

(10) Come into work the next Monday and begin sending a deluge of emails - to everyone - and do not stop until you get satisfaction.

(11) Get asked for the 100th time, “Why are you testing in Dev anyway? Shouldn’t you be in Test?”

(12) Some brilliant soul actually LOOKS at the problem and spends all of 3 seconds applying a fix.

(13) Get into the environment, two days late and begin testing.

Ahhhh, the story of my life lately…

I’m watching the NCAA Basketball Championship, in which my alma mater is playing. We are down at half-time so I’m hoping Coach Calipari can help them regroup! So far, the game has kept me on the edge of my seat!

Still trying to get the Scrapbook back online. I have to recopy all of my files to the server in order to access them. Was hoping to get that done tonight but I have to stop while hubs is on the other PC or he starts whining about how slow the internet is.

My web host has new owners - this is a good thing

There’s been a server move and we are still trying to get it all straighted out…

We’ll be back in the groove soon!

Apparently I’m not the hardcore Smoke fan that I thought I was (read: sarcasm). People had camped out Thursday night so they would be first in line when Tony began signing autograph 2pm Friday at Mark Martin’s Fan Appreciation Day in Batesville, AR. Call me silly, but there would need to be more at stake than an alloted one autograph per fan for me to pitch a tent in the parking lot. Maybe a couple of beers (Schlitz, of course) with the guy and a game of pool?

My daughter and I left the house at 9am, grabbed some McDonald’s sausage biscuits, some 93 octane, and hit 64 highway to Batesville. Soon we left the flatlands of eastern AR and crept into the hills and valleys going west. We viewed some of the devastation caused by flooding. Trucks attached to empty boat trailers littered the sides of the highway in places. No doubt people checking on their own property or helping others who needed it.

We arrived in at Mark Martin’s Ford dealership around 11:30. Lots of people milling around. About the same number of people entering as leaving. Parking was free. The guys directing the parking were aw-shucks courteous (as good southern men should be). We walked around looking at the show cars and dirt races cars. (parking was free)

Inside the museum (which is also free), Chocolate Myers was there broadcasting live for Sirius Radio.

Outside, there were people, as I mentioned earlier - who had camped out all night for Tony’s autograph. I stood in line for Mark Martin’s and Ken Schrader’s (who I didn’t see there before I left) autograph. The line went rather fast - he was happy to sign anything and as many things that were placed in front of him. He stopped and patiently smiled for any lens - camera or camera phone - that people put in his face. The gentlemen helping manage the line were courteous and friendly. I got Mark’s siggy on my Schlitz hat (my official race-watchin hat). He asked if they even still made that beer anymore. Haha!

About 30 minutes into waiting in the line for Tony’s autograph, I did some cypherin’ in my head (maybe that is where the headache came from). Based on the amount of people in line ahead of me and the Tony time factor, I figured it would be standing in that line for 3 more hours. I looked over at my daughter, who had been extremely patient with her goofy NASCAR-crazed mother, and decided not to put her through all that for an autograph.

We put the convertible top down, found the nearest McDonald’s, (I’ve never in my life seen a McDonald’s with two drive thru lanes…) then headed home. The wind was still harsh, but the temperature was still warm enough to enjoy the trip. We got home 2 1/2 hours later and I didn’t realize it, but I got sunburned! My neck and my arms! (does that mean I’m a redneck?)

No, I’m serious - where does it go? I checked under the cushions of the couch. I checked around the dryer thinking maybe it’s hiding with all the socks I’ve lost. I checked my dog’s favorite hiding places.

Why can’t I do like the cell phone companies and have roll-over minutes to use when I need them? Want to post a blog entry? Suuuure - just grab some rollover minutes. Want to sleep a bit longer on a work day? - cash in the rollover time. Grrr.

Oh yeah, I have excuses galore for not blogging. My meds make me tired. My job is time consuming. Too much housework. Blah blah blah. What it boils down to is that we make time for the things we think are important. Does that mean I don’t think my site is worthy of my time? No, that’s not it. I think that my priorities have simply shifted a bit.

There was a time a 3 or 4 years back when the only thing in life that made me happy was my site and being a part of the community of internet acquaintances I had at the time. Maybe one or two of those people are still even worthy of my time (or air to breathe, for that matter). Not to be a complete snot, but really - so many people out there these days are complete wackos.

In the time that I divested myself of the lunatics, I’ve learned that the NASCAR community, while having it’s share of crazy people, have a bigger contingent of intelligent, awesome, and all around fun folks. That goes for real life peeps and internet peeps.

Recently, I contemplated shutting this blog down. Backing up all the Smoke pics and cancelling the server service. Why? Because I felt like it was a task on my to do list that was never getting done. Articles weren’t getting posted to my furl account. Pics weren’t getting posted in my scrapbook. Posts, while written out in my head, were never making it to the site. It seemed like it was one more thing I needed to catch up on.

But, I relented. Nah - I like piddling around with this place when I get the time. Perhaps in compromise, I won’t worry about posting articles on Furl. I save only my fav Smoke pictures to the scrapbook. I’ll find a subject to post on once a week to satiate my desire to simply write. That sounds like a plan to me.

As far as Smoke news goes, if you want to get the best that the net has to offer, tsrfan.com is without a doubt the best site out there!

*Waves* to Antonia - wherever ya are

I never get tired of seeing Smoke interact with children…

This morning I found out that a neighbor’s 16 year old son died after months in ICU for a mysterious illness. All signs point to the Superbug staph infection we keep hearing about in the news, yet it never was formally announced as the malady.

Not long ago he was a typical teenager… Worked at Wendy’s. Had a minor fender-bender with a brick fence. Doing all the things a healthy teen does. A few times I drove him to school before he got his driver’s license.

I’m still in disbelief. I’m so sure I’ll see him hot-rodding down the street with his friends