Let's talk Jaguars. Not the team, not the cats. The cars, people. The. Cars.

What do you get when you combine one amusement park, multiple drivers including one very excited car-loving blonde and a bunch of sleek new Jaguars?

 Answer?  A whole lot of fun. Also called The Jaguar ALIVE Driving Experience.
  It wasn't easy to find my way into the closed park. Thank goodness a Jaguar passed by me slow enough to follow. We made a nice little parade. My XKR following his XF.
 The check-in at the hospitality suite was quick and painless, and soon we were ushered into the outside tent (drizzly weather had just stopped) for an introduction to the vehicles, prices, models, features, all the stuff a brochure would tell you more succinctly than I.  Check it out here.

 Next up was a quick talk about Jaguar Technology, like Dynamic Stability Control, AWD and three separate driving modes, plus the one no one wanted to hear about.... the Automatic Speed Limiter. But talk wasn't enough. You have to drive it to feel it. There were car choices of the XF and XJ, both with AWD.
I teamed up with my new Jag loving pal, Tyrone and we got to run through some hazards in different modes, testing the accident avoidance features. There was a slippery hill, a skidding turn, a bumpy road and some twists and turns. All fun, and in the extra long XJLR, it was a luxurious way to enjoy backseat driving, unless I'm driving, then hold onto your cucumber water!

 Tyrone said that last year at the same event there was more driving, both on the track and around town,  and more cars. Later we learned that due to some sort of internal costs things had been cut back. I wondered if anyone ever tried or succeeded in stealing a car from the event— then I wrote a story in my head where someone did.

We made our way to the next tent for JAGUAR DYNAMICS, where we were able to drive two cars, XKR and XFR all 2014 models. I drove the XKR coupe.  It was pretty cool to hear, "OK. Now floor it! Pedal to the ground!" instead blue lights and sirens. That was one smooth trip from 0 to 60, and a few heart pounding turns back to the tent.

Where I went along for a two-fer ride in the XFR with Tyrone at the wheel first.

This is my face after he told me he gets his "ya-yas" out by driving race cars every weekend. It was probably also his face when I drove one-handed and got yelled at by the instructor.

This is the dash and the backseat. I love the two tone interior and clean dashboard.

By the way, no one had to tell Tyrone to put the pedal to the floor.

 Next up was the one we were both waiting for: PERFORMANCE and a bevy of F type convertibles to choose from. ( it's what's under the hood that will really make the difference.)
*From Jaguar site:

YOUR F-TYPE

There are four models in the F-TYPE range. While each offers its own distinctive characteristics, all are equally at home on mountain switchbacks, on the highway or in the city.
The F-TYPE is designed to deliver pure driving pleasure.
The F-TYPE S adds greater power and sophisticated suspension technologies for increased balance and performance.
The F-TYPE V8 S Convertible provides exotic-car performance and greater levels of dynamic capability and control.
The F-TYPE R Coupe delivers supercar levels of performance combined with advanced dynamic technologies for the ultimate driver focused experience.

Most impressive non-performance feature? The z-fold bootless roof. I drive a convertible, but mine has a boot and the roof takes a little more than 12 seconds to go up or down. Not in this baby. Course, mine is also a bit larger... Here. Hold my purse. Leave the golf clubs at home.

 WHEW. That was awesome. Then it was back inside for goodie bags and snacks.
Of course, they had to pull me away from this beauty.

Yes, You're seeing the JAGUAR XKRS GT.
 Here she is up close.

Don't get your hopes up. There will only be 25 of them released in the USA. You will probably never see one in person, and definitely not be allowed to lean all over the spoiler.

Thank you JAGUAR ALIVE. I had a wonderful day on the track, enjoyed meeting new people, and learning what's new for this brand that in my opinion NEVER went out of style.

 Hey, this has been on my Christmas list since I was two.

 Are you listening Santa?

October. That pink month of football.

 A whole month of men in pink? From football stadium to football stadium? This is what I have to say.
ENOUGH.

We get it. You want us to think you care about women, are socially aware and are behind the movement to find a cure for breast cancer, to provide medical care, and the resources needed, to encourage early diagnosis... blah blah blah.
 According to the article by Amanda Hess that ran in Slate four days ago,

"A Crucial Catch’s annual effort includes stenciling football fields with breast cancer ribbons, recruiting star athletes to don baby pink in commercials supporting the effort, and selling fans on rose-tinted team-branded gear. Some of the proceeds of those sales are donated to the American Cancer Society, but “the league declines to say” the percentage it’s actually forking over—and either way, the apparel conveniently promotes the Giants and the Cowboys (and specifically encourages female investment in those brands) alongside women’s health. One particularly grim stat: Ticketmaster capped its 2012 A Crucial Catch donation at $40,000. That’s just $1 for every woman who died of breast cancer in 2012; one study found that patients with metastatic breast cancer cost the U.S. a combined $12.2 billion annually in direct and indirect costs.

  Read that again, The league decline to say the percentage it's actually forking over.... really??
Truth is- YOU ARE HOGGING THE MONTH, stealing limelight for other charities, lining pockets that, hell, are mink fur and gold lined already.
 And more than that. The pink is annoying, and bothersome. How many plays were missed when we thought that flag was someone's dropped towel?
  My thought is this. Pink does not equal a breast. What about pale hairy men with breast cancer? African American women? Don't make me list all the different kinds, colors, shapes of tits out there. Please, please, email me one if it is hot pink.
 I know, I know. I read all about the ribbon, the color choice, the background ((you can read it here) but what about the other choices how the fashion industry wanted to make a bull's-eye, how someone else suggested the upside down purple ribbon with the tear shape?  You want men to promote and back breast cancer awareness? Maybe we need to have a beautiful healthy breast be the symbol. Hats shaped like boobs. Make your own shirt. Wear your bra on the outside of your blouse. Have men see what a mammogram looks like, how it feels. Send around self- check cards, posters, post the HOW TO in a humorous way. These shirts are better than the ribbons.

 Come on. 

 More than early diagnosis, is the need to educate women on prevention. Healthy eating, exercise and maintaining a low BMI, plus reducing the daily intake of alcohol all play a part in reducing the risk of breast cancer. Europeans have been promoting this type of frontal attack on the disease for years. ( They have a single day of BREAST AWARENESS.)

 I learned more about breast cancer prevention and statistics in a European 3 minute video than I gathered from 16 convoluted pages of American medical literature, where blame was placed on genetics, cigarettes, hormone therapy, radiation in the work place, birth control pills, oh yeah, and some non-conclusive dietary and physical activity habits.

 Give back the pink. 1980 is calling.

 Step up to reality. We want to be taught, not accessorized. 

I'd listen more if one football player told one story each Sunday about his experience with breast cancer.

Especially if he was wearing these.

In a crazy world, we love our crazies.

 Yes, they are not really crazy. Crazy talented maybe. More than likely, mislabeled. Because that's what we do, right? We don't understand some one, we call them crazy. That's one way to end the discussion, and lately there appears to be enough crazy going around for all of us.

You've got your crazy "spy" character.
  Today's update. 

 And your even crazier Southern cook with her friend. Trying to make apologies for being herself... not the persona she created.
 Hello??

And yet, it's the crazy people who change the world... and make it a much more fun place to live, right?
  So get out there, take some risks, challenge yourself and go... a little crazy.
 Not celebrity crazy though, ok?

One Thing That Didn't happen This Weekend