In the fall of 2019 Jack Daniel’s released the fifth bottle in their Tennessee Tasters’ series, Barrel Reunion #2, Straight Tennessee Whiskey Finished in Oatmeal Stout Barrels.

This week I got out on my first work trip, since probably August 2019. I started a new job last year, about a week after the world shut down for the pandemic, so work trips have been on hold for quite some time, that and the last employer stopped my travelling, so I hadn’t been on the road for work in quite some time. It was great to get out and meet some fellow employees and customers face to face.

Fortunately for me the trip was to Franklin, TN, which isn’t too far from Lynchburg, so I turned the work trip into a little fun too. Before heading down, I signed up for the Angel’s Share tour on Thursday morning. Wednesday after the work meetings were over I drove around Franklin TN a bit and did some whiskey hunting, checking out the local liquor stores to see what I could find. I ended up picking up a bottle of Wheeler’s Raid, which is a local whiskey out of Nolensville, TN I believe, on the recommendation of a coworker.

Two Years ago I was in Emporia Kansas for the Dirty Kanza, riding 100 miles on gravel for the first time. It wasn't easy, I was slow, and spent most of the second half helping a buddy get through the ride while he was having some serious cramping. Overall we had a great weekend of riding and I made it a point to try to get back. Last year things didn't go as planned, and I sure as heck wasn't trained and ready for a 200 mile bike ride if the event had occurred, but I was planning on 2021 being the year I rode 200 miles. Earlier this year I failed to start training/riding early, and ultimately spent about 2 months dealing with some heart issues that I wasn't planning on having to endure until much later in life.

So here we are, it’s 2021 already and you’ve hopefully started autocrossing again. We have had the car out to one two events so far.

The first event was back on April 11th, a few days before we started writing this post (and are just now getting around to finishing). Tom S is codriving with me at most events this year, not sure how many out of town events he will be at, or heck how many out of town events I will be at.

How to setup a GitHub action to allow for continuous deployment for your DNN extensions, modules and themes, to production websites.

The 2021 Season is off to a great start here in St. Louis, with 150+ drivers at the first event. As we shoot additional events we'll add the slideshows to this page. Visit my photography blog to see some of the shots.

The Jack Daniel statue at the Cave Spring placed in September 2000

So what’d you do this past weekend? Did you ride The Mid South? They shifted things up this year, went to a virtual “incredibly socially distant” version of the event.

Everyone is getting 50% of their reg fee refunded starting today. It might take a few days to deposit so be patient!
We are physically mailing out your Mid South swag bag with t-shirt, water bottle, and more to your front door! It will be there before event weekend.
If you’re signed up for the race YOU’RE IN. All you will need to do moving forward is join the Ride With GPS challenge page and upload your ride/run. You must ride/run and record your activity on one of the dates between March 12-14.
Our partner bike shops are creating 50k, 50mi, 100mi routes in their areas for many of you to be able to ride/run. Sponsors will be sending swag to each of these shops for you to win on a first come, first serve basis after you’ve completed their specific Mid South partner route.
If you don’t live in one of the partner shop areas you can upload your own course/activity from your backyard to the Ride With GPS challenge page. You will not be able to win swag from the bike shops BUT you will be entered to win from a list of GRAND prizes. We will be drawing names from the complete list of all participants that uploaded their ride/run from the event weekend on Monday March 15th. Prizes include a Salsa Stormchaser, 5 free entries to Mid South 2022, free bike shipping to and from Mid South 2022 AND a free entry to the race courtesy of Bike Flights, and our biggest prize of all the “Eternal Entry.” It lasts forever. More details soon.

In 2018 the Boston Red Sox won another World Championship, Jim Beam released this special bottle to celebrate.

Just in time for the #DNNSummit conference (https://www.dnnsummit.com) there is a new release of the DNN Platform, version 9.9.0.

https://github.com/dnnsoftware/Dnn.Platform/releases/tag/v9.9.0 

Most of you are probably surprised to see that DotNetNuke is still around, well be surprised, it is still alive, well, and vibriant! 

Be sure to join the DNNSummit conference to get some of the latest tips and tricks on using the platform. 

I will be presenting on Thursday the 25th of March, on the topic of "Configuring your DNN development environment"

Hope to see you there!

Over President's Day Weekend we went with the Chesterfield Falcons to the Kirkwood Ice Rink to take part in the 2021 President's Day Jamboree, as well as a pair of games in Webster Groves

Check out some of the photos from their games.
 

In getting ready for this post I realized this is the first time I’ve actually blogged about Blackened. I’ve had a few bottles over the past couple of years, and will document some of those later on, but for now, here’s batch 106.

2020, the year that most people want to forget. It started out like any other year, a week into it though I was unemployed, getting let go for the first time in my life (that was’t a bad thing though, trust me). 8 weeks in, the world was starting to wake up to the realization that there was something going on with this virus thing. I was flying to/from Orlando at the end of February. I recall going through the airports thinking that anyone wearing a mask was over reacting, that being said, I wasn’t getting too close to anyone back then.

Before the car was blue (painted in the summer of 1998 in Sedalia, Missouri), it was red.

It was a deep red, with a little sparkle to it. The car came this color when we acquired it in 1993(94?) in Fairfield, California. I honestly don't recall what the original color of the car was, likely a red or orange, but not the deep sparkly red it is in these photos.

These photos were most likely taken after I had washed the car out in front of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity house in Rolla, Missouri.

You can see the bra that I had on the car, I believe it was on it when we acquired the car. When was the last time you saw a bra on a car? If you need one for a Porsche Boxster I happen to have one, new in box here in my basement.

If you look closely at the hubcaps, you can see I painted them. I completely forgot I did that until looking at these photos. You'll also see a silver pinstripe on the car, it is just vinyl, something acquired from an autoparts store and applied. That was most likely the first vinyl I ever applied to a car, lots more since.

I am still looking for this car if you happen to see it, let me know! Chassis Number: 1332543365

In 2018 and 2019 it was the Heritage barrel releases, in 2020 Jack Daniel's Special Release is a Barrel Proof Rye. 

I took some wood fiber infused filament and made my own barrel tree for the holidays!

Today is November 16, 2020, why is that an important date? If you registered for the Dirty Kanza in 2020 and chose a deferral option, today is the day that deferral users have the ability to sign up for the 2021 race.

Check out your email for details on registration for Unbound Gravel 2021.

One side note: Personally we received an email saying that we had deferred to 2022 and wouldn’t be receiving a registration link today. Hopefully that was just an error and they’ll get it corrected today. I know personally I am planning on riding 2021.

Have you started your training yet?

-Chris

Update: 11/16/2020

The marketing director from LifeTime posted in a private Facebook group acknowledging that some deferrals were errantly attributed to 2022, and they will be emailing those impacted with registration information for 2021.

Vote for me in the St. Louis Region Sports Car Club Of America elections!

Freedom comes with new branding

With a limited number of National events for the 2020 season, local autocross became the focus for many drivers around the country. In St. Louis we've had 8 of 9 events. 

RainbowMarks has been able to shoot photos at a variety of these events, below you will find photo galleries of some of those events.

July 26, 2020

September 20, 2020

October 4th, 2020

October 10th, 2020

Three bearded guys take on the Katy Trail across Missouri