Things are going well, I'm insanely busy at work, which is good. We had a huge off-site meeting and poster presentation/contest and I won!! My presentation: HPV typing of samples from China by GP+ PCR. Which probably means nothing to anyone here. I am lucky because I get a lot of independent research 'on the side' projects that are intellectually interesting and give me good material for posters/publications. I might even get a paper out of this, considering most of the other work I do is confidential and proprietary since it is company product related.

The weekend of 11th-12th I worked the WERA races at Summit Point. This year I got 2 of my little sisters to come out and help at the track with me, and its been a BLAST. Saturday my sister Amy and I worked together as captain and pick up....After the restart of a red-flagged heavyweight novice solo 20, I predicted a bad crash as it as 100+ degrees out and the red flag wasn't a long enough delay for the riders to go to the pits- so they sat on the grid in their leathers for a good 5-7 minutes. Unfortunately I was right. As the leaders were coming towards my turn (not yet my turn) I glanced into the turn before mine and noticed a bike sliding on its side in the middle of the track. The rider (luckily) was on the side of the track...I said to my sister "they need to stop the race" as a bike in the middle of the track is a reason to stop the race...the person in the turn before me wasn't really 'on the ball' however and the next thing I see is bikes and people flying through the air....I waited a few seconds to see if the person who was 'responsible' for that turn would call in for a red flag and when he didn't I did. I am still beating myself up about it because I didn't want to step on someones toes (it wasn't my turn/responsibility and thus not my call to make) but I keep thinking that MAYBE some of the damage could have been minimized if I had called sooner- but HONESTLY when I think about how fast things happen I SERIOUSLY DOUBT the end would have been different. The first crashed bike (and subsequent crashes) were in an odd place in the track..the first crash happened because of a really late, almost saved high-side in a difficult turn. The bike slid a LOOONG way- up a hill into a 'blind' spot for riders picking up speed on a small 'straight'. Its a really fast section of track, and the only reason no one could see the downed bike is because it was over the top of a hill where (almost) no one crashes- so expecting an open track and hard on the gas- 3 other people crashed in one of the most spectacular motorcycle crashes I've witnessed-