This week's favorite thing is my pair of split ring tweezers. This is a tool I use when making jewelry and it has become indispensable. The pair I have is made by Bead Smith and is made of stainless steel. These tweezers are used to open split rings so they can be attached to other components of the jewelry. Prior to purchasing these, I would attempt to open the split ring by using a finger nail or anything else I could find to wedge in there. Unfortunately, I was going through split rings like crazy because attempting 
to open them without the proper tool was causing me to distort their shapes and render them unusable. The price for the tweezers ranges from $4 to $6, and was well worth it considering the profits I was eatting up with marred split rings.
My sister's border collie Rori gave birth to a litter of 7 puppies on Tuesday, 12/01. The sire of the litter is their male, Tyri. The litter is made up of 4 females and 3 males. Both the dam and sire compete in Flyball, and hold several titles. You can check out additional pictures and find more information on my sister's website by clicking here. I'll be sure to post more pics as the puppies start to move around and open their eyes. Aren't they just adorable?!
The dam - Blast Off Rori
Dave and I headed down to Homestead on Friday, 11/20/09 as part of our annual trek for NASCAR's Championship weekend. We've been going to Homestead for the past 6 years to watch the last race of the season for all three divisions (trucks, Nationwide Series, and Sprint Series). People are surprised when they find out I'm the big NASCAR fan...Dave enjoys it, but not nearly as much as I do. I am thankful he indulges me and shares this weekend with me! We decided to stay at a different hotel this year. We normally stay in the Keys, Islamorada specifically, which is about 50 miles from the track. This is the closest we've been able to get a hotel that we a
ctually like (stayed in South Beach one year, but hotel had centrally controlled A/C that was on 65 degrees all the time...I froze. Stayed in Miccosukee Casino one year...way too smoky...especially for non-smokers and there was no way to get to the rooms other than going through the casino). The hotel we stay at raised their rates this year and while we've always liked this hotel, it wasn't worth what they were charging. I searched for other hotels and I guess because of the economy and less people going to the races I was able to find a less expensive hotel that was nicer with better surroundings 25 miles closer to the track! Yay! That meant less drive time for Dave! Friday night was the Camping World Truck race, and I'm happy to say my favorite driver, Kevin Harvick, won the race in his own truck (he's a Sprint Cup driver for Richard Childress, but owns his own
race company, Kevin Harvick Inc, which has trucks and Nationwide cars). And in addition to that, the driver of his other truck, Ron Hornaday Jr, won the series championship which also gave Kevin Harvick Inc the owner's championship. Nice to see that he did so well. Silly me didn't videotape the double burnouts Harvick and Hornaday did after the race...I was so into watching it!!! On Saturday, Kyle Busch won the Nationwide race, and the series championship. Now, Kyle's a great driver...no doubt about that, but his attitude needs a major adjustment. He is definitely the driver that fans love to hate, which is really sad considering his ability. He's the driver who will wreck someone and say they're whining when they complain, but the following week he'll get wrecked in the same manner and whine about it and that should be okay. He can 
definitely dish it out, but can't take it. Sunday, was the Sprint Cup Series race, which was won by Denny Hamlin, but Jimmy Johnson won the championship. Johnson actually set a record as this is his 4th consecutive championship. While that's an incredible goal, he's another one who's not one of my favorites...he tends to play it safe and is very commercialized. People are talking about him being one of the greatest drivers of all time, but I don't think that fits. Granted he's a good driver, but I'm not ready to call him one of the all time greats. His wins come from a combination of things including luck and a crew chief (Chad Knaus) who makes really good decisions...but that's just my humble opinion! In between races we spent our time walking around the many displays and the vendor trailers and tailgating out at the truck. Luckily this year we brought the pop-up canopy and the really comfy chairs. We met some great people while we were tailgating and had lots of laughs! All in all, it was a really great weekend. I'm ending this post with a video of the national anthem and flyover. This is a tradition at all NASCAR races, and I get goosebumps every time! It's not the best video as we just bought this camera and are still learning how to work it, but I think the point comes across well!
