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The Formula 1 Austin Track design is revealed. It hit our local paper yesterday morning, the design layout and the elevation drawings for the new track. It looked good to me and I was rather excited to see the drawings. It looks like there was a lot of thought put into them and with lots of turns and a few nice wide areas for passing. It is getting more exciting with international racing coming to Austin.

Apple did a press conference about their Apple TV and IPod products. It looks like they are trying to bump that market up. It’s a pay per program model, with Apple behind it, they may redefine the program viewing market. I think there is going to be a major shift away from traditional pay cable TV and Satellite coming, but the sales numbers are still showing people like the simplicity of a cable/satellite provider. I still love Hulu, but since I am a bit tech and without having to worry about hooking up to a television set, watching on the computer is just fine by me. Television isn’t a large part of my entertainment: just a few shows a week on broadcast TV and a few series I watch on Hulu.

I am looking forward to the long weekend. I thought I was going to be heading out on a short trip, but this morning I got an email that plans had changed. It will leave me free to come up with some other options.

I got back from yoga and grabbed a book: I was lacking in the rest department and decided to take a break instead of heading to the lake. I’ll save that trip for another weekend. There wasn’t any racing on to distract me and I got restless in the late afternoon. Saba and I headed down to Lockhart, TX for some barbeque. I picked out my treats and then we headed to a local park. I find the restaurant loud and busy with activity: I prefer to head to the park where Saba can run and I can enjoy the food with out the background chatter. It was a lovely evening: a shower had come through and dropped the heat down to a reasonable level. I watched as a flock of birds did there thing, Saba ran through the park and I enjoyed some fresh barbeque.

It was a nice way to end the weekend and start fresh for the week ahead.

I headed out to the hill country for a special yoga class yesterday. I love the studio and I love the instructor. It makes for a special treat for me once in a while. I did get a bit turned around on the way out: I thought I knew all the turns without the directions. I managed to be a bit late, but lucky for me they were just getting started when I arrived. It was a full two hours of relaxation: some restorative poses that feel wonderful and set the mind at ease.

I headed out to Thunder Hill Raceway next for an exciting but shortened evening of racing. When I got there, I found that K-Mac wasn’t broadcasting the race: they had a big football game down the road. I headed into the stands and I watched the qualifying and some of the main events. I confirmed plans with my racing buddy to head out to Houston for some races. My phone rang during one of the races and of course I couldn’t hear it. I picked up the message and after a couple of calls back and forth, I ran back to Austin early.

This morning I am getting caught up with some of the normal house chores, heading out to yoga and then thinking about a drive with Saba this afternoon. It is the winding down of summer and I think he and I need to celebrate the cooler weather.

Catfish: A film by Rouge Pictures (www.iamrogue.com/catfish or on Facebook/catfishmmovie)

It’s a lesson in social media put to film. The documentary style shooting of the film pulls you into the story. Its one you have heard about from your friends, neighbors and heard talk about at work, boy meets girl on the internet. Nev meets Megan. They used Facebook as their platform, the site, your mother, your father, your siblings and your pet have pages on.

The film explores the expectations of a relationship with an unknown person. The feelings Nev gets when learning about Megan. The excitement of finding a whole new “Facebook family” as they refer to it in the film. It explores how Nev becomes intertwined with Megan’s life. Then an “ah ha” moment comes when the information doesn’t seem correct. The film tastefully explores what happens after the truth starts to unfold. I found myself emotionally draw into the moments, watching the drama unfold on screen. There were some ”oh gosh I have done that” laughter, I left the theater glad I saw the film, glad someone has put the online world on film.

Thanks Rouge Pictures for the free invite to see your movie. I would recommend seeing this film when it gets released on November 17th, 2010.

I ended up counting the receipts; I couldn’t remember how many times I made the trip this weekend. The good news is that the drain lines are now hooked in properly, that took a bit of figuring out but I accomplished it. I managed to get the dishwasher in place but now there is another problem. I am not sure what I knocked loose moving the machine back and forth, but now it will not fill with water. I checked the waterlines, checked the electrical connections to the pump and I gave it a whack with the wrench. No luck. There is one other piece I pulled out to clean the machine and I read on the internet that not having it seat correctly could stop the machine from filling.

I stepped away from the project in the afternoon. My patience was shot and I needed a break. I started with a book for a couple of hours and then attempted to look at the machine again. More frustration with not understanding what is causing the problem, I had to step away again, so I grabbed the phone and called an old friend from home. She is doing much better and her husband is making progress with his illness. We got caught up with what’s going on in each others world. She handed the phone over to her husband; he had a couple of things for me to check on the dishwasher before I call in a professional. I will try them tonight and see if I can get it working. I headed out and grabbed some take out with Saba: he wasn’t able to make the trips to the store with me because of the heat, so we took a short adventure in the car once the sun set.

I do feel like I accomplished a lot this weekend, I learned a lot about plumbing and managed to work on the electrical connections. Each time I do a home improvement adventure, I learn something. Sometimes they go smoothly and sometimes its six trips to the store.