YIKES!
"Uncle Tom" Saladin...





...is the husband of Tom Sr.'s sister, Mavis. He is well known in Cincinnati medical circles, both as a doc and hospital administrator.

For as long as I can remember (40+ years) he has been called "Dr. Duck." It is a term of endearment for his good humour, big smile and an excellent impression he does of Donald Duck -- it always lifts the spirits of anyone present, young or old.

A little lift of the spirits is probably due Aunt Mavis, who has had a tough bout with illness of late. But she seems to have beaten it, and we are all very pleased to hear from Dr. Duck that she is recovering well.

Uncle Tom (one of at least five Tom's in Leslie's and my immediate families) is one of the few people who forwards email jokes and cartoons that I actually look forward to opening, because, unlike most such forwards, they are almost always good! His latest follows:


For all you parents out there (this includes all "wanna-be"and "could-have-been-but-chose-not-to-be parents")...repeat after me....

I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again ........ I will never complain about MY kids again I will never complain about MY kids again ........... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again ...... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again I will never complain about MY kids again ........ I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again ........ I will never complain about MY kids again I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again ...... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again ...... I will never complain about MY kids again I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again ........ I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again ....... I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again .......... I will never complain about MY kids again ......... I will never complain about MY kids again . I will never complain about MY kids again....

QUOTE/UNQUOTE
Courtesy of our...

...good friend Peter Huston, on perseverance:

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." -- Thomas Edison



"Al" (as he was known as a youth)
Edison at Ogden Mine, in northern
New Jersey, in the 1890s.

CHALLENGER DEADLINE LOOMS
Nice, succinct article...

...from the BBC today, albeit with a bit of a British bent, that spells out the current prospects for AC 32 Challengers. I still expect one or two more challenges to be filed before the deadline this coming Friday. Click here for the story.



First challenger to file (the "Challenger of Record")
BMW ORACLE Racing racing first-time African
challenger Shosholoza at the Marseille Louis Vuitton
Act 1 last September.

LA VOZ DE LOS DESAFIOS
An article that was written for...



...the Spanish national newspaper El Mundo by the Chairman of the AC 32 Challenger Commission, aka the editor of the EFB, is now posted on the Challenger Commission blogsite here.

RIP -- LOL
No comment necessary...



...on the "photo" above, courtesy of Peter Reggio (USA), our good friend and America's Cup Prinicipal Race Officer. "Luigi," as he is known in Cup circles, has another important Cup job -- he cheers up those of us who get a little grumpy from time to time over some probably minor issue that seems, or seemed, like a big deal at the time.

Click here for a recent photo/story about Peter on the Challenger Commission blogsite.

SHOSHOLOZA UPDATE
Another nice story about...



...the South African entry into the America's Cup, what Team Shosholoza could mean to the country socially, sailor Ashton Sampson (RSA), and the interest he has sparked in Long Beach, California this week during the Congressional Cup appeared in Wednesday's Long Beach Press-Telegram. Click here for the article.

By the way, after three days of racing BMW ORACLE's team skippered by Chris Dickson (NZL) is at the top of the leaderboard with ETNZ's Dean Barker (NZL).


Congressional Cup

BRO PAUL EHMAN "CHECKS" IN
One of my internet search engines...

...returned an article containing the name "Paul Ehman" in an article in the Saipan Tribune newpaper a couple weeks back. So I checked it out and, sure enough, it was Brother Paul....



http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=46108&cat=2

So I sent Paul an email about the Saipan article, and he wrote back and sent these pics which the EFB has interspersed below:

Tom,

I saw the article in the paper the morning the volcano north of Saipan went off and it got lost in the clean-up, the noon sky was as dark as midnight, flights were cancelled, everyone stayed inside until evening, etc. We were covered with ash. No pictures of me, just an article leading the week of XTERRA coverage...

Just before Saipan, I took the kids to Lake Tahoe to visit Todd Jackson and ski. Nalu and Roxane are really good skiers and followed me through the trees, moguls, black diamond runs, back country runs, and of course to the hot chocolate lines. It snowed almost every day and the kids got their first real "face shots" doing powder runs in snow that was chin-deep.





They also learned how to shovel the driveway at Todd's!





[Obviously, they also took in a bit of SFO either before or after Lake Tahoe; these shots must have been taken between the Golden Gate Yacht Club and Fort Mason, at or near Cressy Field.... TFE]





I'm now off for a tech scout of Nevada for our new event: Nevada Passage ( www.nevadapassage.com). Check out the TV trailer on the website. We'll have to drive some 1100 miles in SUV and snow mobiles to plot crew movements and camera positions for our shoot in May. Then it's back to Vegas for a week of the Miss Hawaiian Tropic International photo shoots and pageant. May 3rd back home for knee surgery to repair cartilage and meniscus (recommended 10 years ago) before limping back onto the XTERRA trail May 6th for our first U.S. event this year in Temecula.

We're working up plans for the summer stop in Michigan end of June/July so if you know anything about your schedule please send it along.

PE

Since Paul sent no pics of himself, this is a perfekt opportunity to run this one of Paul I recently found on the web....



Who, other than Paul, can ID it? Hints: (1) 1979-80, (2) the three-letter name of an Australian animal, and (3) the title of this post.

VALENCIA-AREA CUP PHOTOS
Check out this photoblog...

http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com

...with excellent shots of the AC teams and their temporary bases at the Yacht Club and in the town of Gandia about 45 minutes south of VLC, and of the new permanent bases taking shape in the AC Harbour (aka la "Dársena Interior).

GOOD-BYE ISH, HELLO...



Yesterday was the appointment with the admissions staff at Valencia's Caxton College. Last April, Fresh and Shelly Burns and I had been the first Cup-family visitors to the school. After doing the due diligence on Caxton and the other area schools, the Burns kids were enrolled and have been attending since January.

On the strength of their good experience so far, and that of other Cup families at Caxton, and the excellent impression Meg and Leslie have of the staff and facilities, Meg was enrolled there yesterday. She will begin the September term, though may do summer sports and Spanish camp in July and/or August.



Admission staff.


Valencia's Cup.


Fine facilities.


1100 students -- toddlers through high school.


Yet another IT room -- checking the EFB?


Uniformed.


Another "Caxtonian" -- Claire Ulvr-Green, daughter of BMW
ORACLE colleague Matthew "Mugs" and Josephine Ulvr-Green.


Finally, I don't recall having this service at Dexter High School!

GOOGLE SATELLITE MAP
Check it out...



...at http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=42.424393,-83.910656&spn=0.042830,0
.045404&t=k&hl=en.

Portage Lake and surrounds, near Pinckney, Michigan. Home of the Portage Yacht Club.

HOME BASE
The new BMW ORACLE Racing base...

...in the la Darsena, or America's Cup Harbour, is rapidly taking shape here in Valencia, along with the other team bases. This was a photo taken a couple days ago...




...and here is an artist's rendition of it when completed....



For more nice pictures around the new America's Cup Harbour, updated weekly, check http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/.

APPOMATTOX DAY
Not surprisingly, the Happy Holiday...

...hunt was handled overnight by Peter Huston. His email this morning correctly identified that April 9 is Appomattox Day. It celebrates the ending of the U.S. Civil War in 1865, when Lee surrendered to Grant. http://www.nps.gov/apco/

"With his army surrounded, his men weak and exhausted, Robert E. Lee realized there was little choice but to consider the surrender of his Army to General Grant. After a series of notes between the two leaders, they agreed to meet on April 9, 1865, at the house of Wilmer McLean in the village of Appomattox Courthouse. The meeting lasted approximately two and one-half hours and at its conclusion the bloodliest conflict in the nation's history neared its end." http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/appomatx.htm

HH image (upper right corner of the EFB) courtesy of: http://www.johnpaulstrain.com/art/new-day-at-appomattox.htm.



Peter Huston, 1989 Ensenada
Race aboard the Swan 57
Ms Blu.

HAPPY HOLIDAY
So what does...

...the HH pic in the upper right-hand corner celebrate this week?

THE DAILY SAIL
The long interview...

...I did for them, as the Chairman of the AC32 Challenger Commission, is now posted on the Challenger Commission website here.

VALENCIA RECON -- Week I
We will try to get Meg to...

...blog something about her first week of "recky" in VLC, checking houses, apartments, restaurants, shopping, etc., here in the home of the 2007 America's Cup. Next week is more recky, including the American School of Valencia, Caxton College and Cambridge House.

The week in review:


Sophie Kaiko, Alex and Olivia Davidson,
Meg at Pizza Roma, the new "find." There
is a nice group of early-teen kids in VLC
for AC32 with more to come.


House hunting coffee break at the
Los Monesterios "Club de Campo"
(Country Club). Kelly and JB Braun, the
realtor, Leslie, Meg.



A feature of one house favored by Meg.



Checking out the Puzol Pizza Parlor. Shelly
Burns, Meg, Chloe, Taylor and Guthrie
Burns, Leslie. Puzol is the village near the
preferred "urbanizacion" (suburbs) of
Alfinach and Los Monesterios, where
the Burns clan and a number of other Cup
families are already nicely settled in.

WHAT’S IN A NAME
Lauren Bush, the niece of...

... President George W. Bush is enjoying a highly successful career as a model, even landing the front page of Australian Vogue. Part of her private life is the strong relationship she is developing with David Lauren, who runs the marketing department for his father Ralph Lauren’s clothing and other businesses. The only cloud on the horizon would appear to be this: if they marry, she will become Lauren Lauren. Courtesy of www.valencialife.net.


Meg's older sister?

LORD RUMPUNCH
BMW ORACLE colleague...



...Richard Slater (AUS) has arrived in Valencia this week. You will have seen him blogged before on the EFB (Farr 40 Worlds in Sydney last month). Richard is our afterguard rules and tactics coach/advisor, similar to the job that Henry Menin did for us during the last campaign. Henry is now back on the Jury (he was as well in the 2000 Cup). Last go around Richard was with Alinghi. He knows how to win the Cup!

As to "Lord Rumpunch," he assumed this marvelous title by paying 28 GBP (pounds) for title to one square foot of bog in Glencairn, Scotland. This makes him a Scottish Laird, or English Lord.

"Rumpunch," well, that will be obvious to sailors who enjoy their Mount Gay Rum, but one hears the bit of bog purchase was conceived in the Caribbean, and, like so many other hair-brained schemes, in conjunction with copious consumption. Cheers!

NEW HOCKEY GOAL?
Bit of a shock for...

...traditionalists, but an interesting concept that will be presented at NHL meetings in Detroit next week. And this is not an April fool's joke....



Click here for the full story, courtesy of our friend Peter Huston.