The TrueCar web site - source of inspiration and potential free tickets

Right up my alley, I thought. I love IndyCar, I love being creative, I love Photoshop, and I’d sure like to meet IndyCar driver and British hottie Katherine Legge (note: both Katherine and I are engaged, presumably to other people). The last time I saw her race in person was 2007 at Road America, the year after she had a horrifying crash at the same track. After that, she raced in German touring cars for three years, then spent most of last year trying to get an IndyCar ride.

Thankfully, TrueCar’s site design is incredibly simple – Big main picture, tagline, and testimonials – leaving lots of room to… be creative. My first thought before I even saw the site was to base my concept around IndyCar, and the idea gained traction with the testimonial on the bottom from “Michael C. “.

So I opened up Photoshop, pasted in the screen shot (a technical term. No, really.), and off I went.

For hours. On a Friday night and an earlyish Saturday morning. I Googled photos of Katherine, former Apprentice contestant team owner and former IndyCar champion Michael Andretti, and 2011 rookie of the year James Hinchcliffe. Separated each photo from its background. Tried to line up faces and match skin tones. Checked TrueCar.com’s CSS files to match the font and color.

Finally I decided enough was enough, especially since it was nearly impossible to match the pasty white skin tones of a Brit and a Canadian to two perfectly tanned models. So, after several moments of self-doubt with my mouse hovering over the “Post photo” button, I clicked it and walked away. St. Pete was less than a week away.

The winning Photoshop. Changes highlighted for your pleasure

Then I waited.

And waited.

Monday was a flurry of hitting refresh on Twitter and Facebook. Finally, a tweet at 1:45 p.m. – “final judging, results in an hour”. And then, 90 minutes later, I saw the red “1″ on my Facebook status notification.

“There were a lot of wonderful entries to St. Pete tickets, but Ed Marsh on Facebook made us laugh hysterically! Congrats Ed!”

I was going to St. Pete! My last open wheel race was the Champ Car series’ swan song in Long Beach in 2008. This year, there are new cars and new engines, and even with the end of winter teasing us in Jersey, a guaranteed few days of warmth and sun.

Meeting Katherine

IndyCar driver Katherine Legge. Some bald dude.

I’ve been a semi-professional stalker of drivers autograph seeker in the past, but I never really got a lot of time to speak with the drivers. As a writer, I always like to have my questions prepared in advance. But when it came to asking Katherine just the right question, my mind came up blank all week. So a bit of stagefright ensued when Katherine finally walked up and said hello. She’s very pretty close up. And my dad was standing there. And I’m not too good at pointless small talk. And I felt like an idiot. So it was really nice, but slightly awkward, and of course way too brief. But she was friendly, and laughed a bit more as she signed a print of my entry.

Kat on Track, a.k.a @KatonTrack

Unfortunately, with a brand new car and engine, and only half a day of testing under her belt, Katherine’s IndyCar debut wasn’t what anyone hoped. She crashed in qualifying. In the race, her car had mechanical problems, stalled twice on-track, and she finished near the back of the pack.

All photos by Ed Marsh

You can make this. Yes, you. The one who doesn’t have a lot of time, or a lot of ingredients. If you can set aside 15 minutes and get the produce, you will like this.

Seriously.

The best part about this recipe is you don’t need much more skill than being able to cut things in half, and know how to use a stovetop and oven.

Seriously.

Here’s what you need:

Brussels sprouts. How many? I don’t know. How many people are you feeding? I think I bought a little less than a pound for two people as a main dish. Cut off the stems, then cut each one in half. You should probably give them a rinse, too.

Two shallots. Or garlic. Or a medium-sized onion. Or scallions. Do you see where I’m going with this? If you can, dice them. If not, cut them into discs, then cut those in half. It doesn’t have to be pretty.

Hazelnuts. About a handful. Cut them in half.

Sausage. Any kind. Or bacon. Or vegan sausage. You see where I’m going with this. We used Trader Joe’s bratwurst, which were decent. Cut them into thin discs.

Balsamic vinegar. We happen to have fancy peach Balsamic, because there is an incredibly awesome brewpub in the same town.

Dried cranberries. Or golden raisins. Or black raisins. Or currants. Again, I’m going somewhere with this. You see that.

Vegetable stock. Or chicken stock. Or water. Or another flavorful savory liquid you like. Beer will add too much bitterness. Save it for the cook. Maybe a quarter to half of a cup.

We made our own veggie stock with mushroom stems, the bad green ends of scallions, limp celery, and a carrot past its prime. Cost: 20 minutes. You can’t beat that.

Olive oil. Or canola. Or grapeseed. Or butter. Fat, OK?

Salt and pepper to taste. Unless you’re my mom, who thinks salt is more of a societal evil than gay marriage.

Steps

1. Toss the sprouts with oil, salt, and pepper. Roast them in a 350 degree oven until they’re done, about 20-30 minutes.
2. Heat a pan on high heat, then add some olive oil and the shallots. Cook them until they’re translucent, then add a bit of salt and pepper.
3. Add the sausage, and cook until golden brown on the outside. If you’re using pre-cooked sausage, this won’t take long.
4. Remove everything from the pan, then remove the pan from heat and deglaze it (fancy word for “pour some acid into the pan”) with some vinegar. It will steam and smell; take a step back. Make sure you loosen all those brown bits in the pan; those are flavor!
5. Add the vegetable stock, and let it reduce a few minutes.
6. Add everything to the pan, toss until coated.
7. Dinner!

1. The horizontally buttoned bottom shirt button. This button goes against established tradition by buttoning from top-to-bottom, instead of right-to-left (unless you’re a girl. Your backwards buttoning is just weird). This lowly button makes you think extra hard at 7 in the morning just to put on a shirt. There’s no possible benefit to this. Just stop.

Why no pockets?! Think of the children!

2. Lack of a shirt pocket. An egregious error. If you don’t carry a cell phone (that’s mobile for all one of you European readers) to work, most likely you carry some sort of ID. Where to put them? Both in the same pants pocket? With your keys? C’mon, clothing companies, it’s almost 2012. Know your audience.

Surely you also have clothing pet peeves. Also, Happy New Year.

 

Our Disney history

Spaceship Earth. The most well-known thing in Epcot. Also one of the crappiest rides.

My family went a few times when I was growing up. Now that I’m an adult and actually had to pay for it (good thing the airfare was cheap), I am thankful we went even once. My parents also managed to take us to Disney World in the fall, during the school year. Nicely done, Mom and Dad.

The trip I remember most was 1982, a month after EPCOT Center (sorry, I think it’s just Epcot now) opened. Due to teething problems we were stuck in Spaceship Earth and Universe of Energy, which was actually less fun than it sounds.

My last visit to Disney was in 2001, chaperoning the middle- and high-school marching band I taught. It was a lot of fun, but not much of a vacation.

The woman know as S’s entire experience with Disney was a few hours in California’s Disneyland when she was six. Disneyland?! That doesn’t count. Clearly, she needed to experience the Happiest Place on Earth™.

Staying in the resorts

Sure, you can save money by staying outside the park. Your savings then goes toward renting a car, fuel, and $14 a day in parking (which is still cheaper than parking at Giants, er, MetLife Stadium). You also skip the free ride to and from the airport, deal with traffic, and miss out on the Extra Magic Hours that are a benefit to those staying on the property.

Coronado Springs resort, convention center, and during the busy season, small metropolis.

If you’re lazy, drink heavily, or even want to be green-ish, stay in the resorts and ride the buses that run until 2 a.m. They’re arctic-cold, and a fantastic sociology lesson.

We stayed in the utterly massive Coronado Springs resort and convention center. It is Mexican themed. It has four bus stops. Their on-site restaurant didn’t get great reviews. Like a cheap hotel, each room contains an Ethernet cable, and charges you $10 for 24 hours of Internet service. And no wi-fi (barbarians!).

DisneyTech

The Card. Don't leave your hotel room without it.

The Card – When you check in, you get a card that’s valid as your room key, park admission, Fastpass (see below) credentials, and charge card everywhere in Disney. That’s right, charge card. On your day of departure, you don’t check out; they place the bill on your doorknob, and you wake up on your last day in The Happiest Freakin’ Place on Earth with sticker shock from a few pages of charges.

Fastpass – Holy crap is this genius. Instead of shuffling forward in lines for the most popular rides inch by maddening inch, you get a ticket (using The Card), go do something else, and come back at the time specified. This is even more easily organized with…

The App! – If you ever needed to justify the purchase of a smartphone, this app is the reason you need one. It uses GPS to find where you are in each park, and lets you know the wait time and Fastpass return time for each ride. It also has dining and show schedule information. Like the rest of Disney, the attention to detail (even on Android) is fantastic. Technology is wonderful.

The Magic Kingdom

I once wanted to be married here. Then I heard how much it costs.

This park felt smaller than I remember. Fantasyland is tiny, and had exactly zero interesting rides. Since I can drive (and crash) a race car at high speeds on my computer, we also avoided the “freedom” of driving the “race cars” on rails in Tomorrowland.

But Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad are still incredibly awesome. S. screamed and laughed hysterically on each ride, which just made it even more fun.

The Hall of Presidents is actually enjoyable as an adult, not a 20-minute nap between rides, and boy do you feel Proud to Be an American afterwards. The truly exceptional Americans applaud their favorite Animatronic president when they are introduced.

One of the best things about being without child, besides staying out past midnight and leaving the hotel room after noon, is that you can breeze past the things you don’t want to see. “It’s a Small World”, with its brain-numbing theme song and 65-minute wait(!), was optional.

The EPCOT World Showcase

Dramatic, no?

I was looking most forward to the Epcot World Showcase. I was curious to see just how ‘authentic’ the Germany pavilion would be since we went to Germany almost exactly two years ago. In 2001 as a chaperone of a horde of middle-school kids, this part of the park was just not an option.

I was rather disappointed that each pavilion was little more than food opportunities and shopping, but at least it was consistent with the rest of our experience. I was happy that each country served beer.

Of course, the folks working each country, who are all from each respective country, were very nice and probably a bit naïve in thinking their Disney experience is indicative of the rest of the US. A wonderful young girl from northern Germany was only in the US for four weeks, but noted that she would never have a random conversation like we had back at home, as most people walk with their eyes turned down. Afterwards, I considered goingback and telling her that’s not too much different than it is in New York City.

Overall, the part of the trip I was most anticipating just made me want to travel to the actual countries the represented.

The Food

I ordered a goat cheese terrine salad, laden with fresh raspberries, toasted walnuts, and a cranberry compote at the Raglan Road Irish Pub in Downtown Disney’s Pleasure Island. The terrine was a warm disc of gooey goat cheese, coated with breadcrumbs and fried. It may not have been as healthy as I’d like. But it was salad!

“This is one of the best things I’ve had since I’ve been here”, I told the waiter. “That’s because we’re not a Disney property”, was his snarky retort. “Disney uses Sysco”.

This conversation really summed up how we felt about the food choices. A lot of the food in Planet Disney is simply good, not oh wow fantastic as we expected, especially at the prices we paid.

The infamous Scotch Egg at Epcot's UK pavilion. Yes, it's sausage-wrapped.

That said, the Scotch egg in the“UK” (note ironic quotation marks) was nothing short of a miraculous guilty pleasure; a hard-boiled egg encased in sausage, enhanced mightily by grainy mustard. As a child, I remember my parents raving about Scotch eggs in the pub. They got this one right, too.

Most of the places in Downtown Disney are good to very good, with Raglan Road the best in that area. We also our fair share of vegan goodies at Babycakes NYC.

For many, I’m sure this is a lot of fantastic food outside of their comfort zone, but like the World Showcase, it left us wanting more.

The Booze

The best part about being over the legal drinking age and not toting around children of all ages, is being able to drink where you want, when you want.

Except in the Magic Kingdom.

I suppose you don’t want throngs of the Happiest People on Earth riding Space Mountain with a few drinks in them.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to see adults walking through Epcot Center with drinks in their hands. And since the last time I was there, they installed a Tequila bar in Mexico:

Mexico pavilion's Tequila bar. In order to complete my Beer around the World mission, I only had one shot. And it was mezcal. And it was good!

It took two trips to Epcot, but I completed “Beers around the World”, having a beer in each country. This is why we spent very little time in Hollywood Studios on our final day.

The happiest place on earth?

I can’t deny we had a terrific time (great company had at least something to do with it…). The attention to detail is outrageous, and one of the things I appreciated most as an adult (did I mention the booze?). There is definitely a Magic of Disney. People are drawn to this place like a drunk to a case of Piels. Even the employees hailing from Brooklyn and Queens are nice.

But for us, it was a little too sanitized, and entirely too commercial. There’s a gift shop literally at the end of every ride. The food, while good, was not worth the price we paid.

For those not obligated by offspring, it is definitely worth going once, especially during the off-season, when the prices are cheaper, and lines and children are much fewer.

But now that I’m one of 10 20 x million fortunate early adopters, I get to “reset”. At first I thought OK, I already live a lot of my life in public, I’ll just extend that to Google+ and let everyone in.

And then I reconsidered.

Do I really need to make Google+ the same firehose of people’s lives coming at me? Soon enough, people will tell me what freakin’ Zynga game they’re playing, and asking for someone to pull their goddamn weeds (isn’t this a form of entitlement? it’s farming socialism!), or to shuck harvest their melons, or join this crew or, for God’s sake, just enough already. We all know that as much as we love that rascally group from the class of 19-X-ty X, we’ve seen enough photos of their damn kids, and we didn’t really know them all that well other than that one party at Mike’s house.

And in return, do all of those people really need to know even more about me? Do I really need to let the tech writers I’ve met solely on Twitter know that I’m having a beer at my favorite bar? Do the people that I used to teach in marching band really care about links to the techie things I tweet? When is enough, enough?

So, what’s your Plus strategy?