It was my great pleasure to serve as emcee over the weekend at Velvet Ice Cream's Ye Olde Mill... it was the annual ice cream festival and wow was the parking lot full.  The car show was awesome on Sunday and the cycles were a little damp Monday, but it seemed like great particiaption for both.  Saturday, I got to emcee a couple of events... the first of which was the Little Miss Ice Cream Pageant.  I must say when these young ladies hit the stage and realize that all eyes are on them, some of them crumble into a pool of tears.  Not this year, though.  Troopers right across the board and not one tear.  COngrats to Rosie Hill of Newark, who is this year's princess and also to Addisyn Coad, the runner up.  All the girls were wonderful...

The second event I hosted was the celebrity ice cream eating contest.  Now understand the guy who wins the open division usually eats over 10 pints of ice cream in 5 minutes... I know, that's rediculous.  Well, the celeb line up this year was impressive.  Defending champ state representative Jay Hottinger, Krystyn Hartman from 10TV (clearly the crowd favorite, Bill Kelly from ABC 6 and Fox 28, and Tom Wood from NBC 4.  I didn't realize that it was going to be as fun as it was, but for 2 1/2 minutes there was some serious chowing down.  Hottinger and Wood lept out to lead and would be the lead dogs... all the while Krystyn was daintily eating a half spoonful at a time.  Bill got a little lost given that flanking him were two men determined to win.  At the end it was Wood on top by a scoop or two.  I thought Amanda Bynes was a hot mess, but Tom was melted vanilla from elbows to nose.  Nice work, Tom!

Just a quick note to say thanks to all those who gave everything for this country... and for their families my wish is peace this weekend and beyond.

I know alot of people will be gathering at some point... we've had some great info this week to help you along.  Dan Tarpy was in Thursday with some beverage tips and on Friday Robin Davis offered some simple and delicious grilling tips.  Feel free to go back and listen to what they said on my podcast page.

Really enjoyed talking to Manju Sankarappa Thursday.  She heds up the planning committee for this weekend's Asian Festival.  Food should be phenominal and with martial arts exhibitions and dragon boat races on Monday, there will be plenty to see as well.  See all they have to offer at asian-fest.com.

I'm looking forward to the Memorial... order my badges yesterday and am looking forward to spending some time at Jack's place watching the likes of Tiger, Rickie, and Spencer Levin.  You likely don't know that last one as well, but I interviewed Spencer on the course last year along with Kevin Na and he's a good dude.  Actually he was on top of the leaderboard after 36 last year and was tied after 54.  The cream usually does rise to the top at the Memorial, but it's hard to find a group that doesn't offer great shotmaking and true entertainment.  I'll see you out there starting on Tuesday... maybe we'll something like this again!

We still mourn the victims of the Oklahoma tornado and I think the fact that the death toll was revised down is wonderful news.  But as Seth Binau from the National Weather Service told us yesterday, weather is unpredictable, so we need to be vigilant.  Meteorologist Mike Davis says we'll see storms and showers today, some of which could be strong to severe... looks like it's more of a wind and hail threat than tornados.  This afternoon is crunch time, so keep it on with Corby and make sure you have an emergency plan just in case.

See the latest radar snap right here.

photo courtesy of Ben Little via flickr

Prayers to the victims in Oklahoma...  I cannot imagine what parents must have been and are still going through.  A massive tornado ripped right into an elementary school and affected another in the town of Moore.  The pictures of mothers and fathers frantically running and searching makes my heart ache.  I've never been through a tornado, but did see aftermath once.  Back in 1997, a tornado went right over my house... luckily neither my wife nor I happened to be home.  I know it was a tornado because a guy who happened to be driving by when it came through stopped back by to see how we were doing.  The twisting of the trees... the lost roofing...  the clean up was eye opening, but it doesn't come close to what Oklahoma saw yesterday.  As with any story like this, there are stories of heroism... like the one of a mom who stayed right on top of her son to insure he survived.  Now that the storm has passed, we know the main tornado was up to a mile wide and it stayed on the ground long enough to kill over 50 and injure scores of others.

I will say that I am ashamed of of one legislator... Rhonde Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.  While parents are learning that their children are dead, while family members are sifting through rubble to find some momento of their life before the storm, while EMS and Fire and Police are responding to aide the injured and offer comfort, this jackass is on the Senate floor to rail against global warming.  You might expect that our nation's leaders might be talking about assistance and mobilizing forces to help, but no.  This giant a-hole is wasting everyone on the planet's time talking about global warming.  I imagine if he was around in 1975, he would have done the same speech on global cooling.

Oh yeah... the IRS scandal apparently was known by everyone in the administration excpet the president.  Reminds me of when Bill Clinton said he didn't inhale.  He apparently can buy it, hold it, roll it, light it and even draw it into his mouth, but it didn't pass into his lungs.  I'm sure the IRS info stopped just short as well... 

No bazinga here... a big bang on the moon.  Apparently a meteor impacted the lunar surface with such force that the flash was visible here.

I'm not sure I can adequately describe how I feel this morning.  I feel shame for my federal government... I mean Benghazi, IRS, AP phone records all hitting full blown scandal levels and all it is in DC is CYA.  New e-mail releases are out today and show the State Department's move in message, so that one's not going away any time soon.  The 'acting' head of the IRS (How conveneint that they play that up now) has been relieved of duties and the president is expressing outrage.  And as far as the Associated Press phone records scandal goes, Attorney General Eric Holder is sidestepping accuations.  Doesn't it seem we have no real leaders right now?

I see it where I live everyday...  when it's time for a decision, no one steps up.  Really a bunch of passive aggressive BS and then most people just roll over and throw up their hands.  Eventhough a person has the title, when someone within their purview makes a mistake or commits an infraction on purpose, the 'leader' feigns ignorance or claims the action was of a rogue employee.  Whatever happened to stepping up and accepting blame?  I mena we're all human and that means mistakes are inherant in our DNA.  I doubt there's ever been a country in history that's so willing to forgive and foget... take for instance the re-election of Mark Sanford in the Carolinas... take for instance that Anthony Weiner is expected to run for mayor of NYC... I could go on and on, but this country is clearly willing to forgive past transgressions.  Given that, why do politicians play the game of redirect and deny?  I imagine citizens would be much more likely to trust our 'leaders' if they came clean when they made mistakes and promised to do better in the future.  I know the federal government is a huge operation, but doesn't the president have czars that run parts of it?  Keep tabs on them and they keep tabs on their staff and it should run smoother than it is right now. 

The problems start when people do things they know aren't right and then go into spin mode....  I hate spin mode.