Clear Flat Marbles

Young steers clear of vicious cycle

Blake Young is enjoying a good year by any measure.

He hasn't lost a finger. That's a big improvement on 2009.

And he hasn't broken any lumbar vertebrae or spent time in a body cast - yet, knock wood - which puts 2011 well ahead of last year.

Oh, yeah. Young also has won more so far than any other rider at the highest level of motorcycle road racing in the United States.

That's worth something too.

"In the beginning, getting on a new team, working on the new crew, obviously this was the goal, to win races and contend for the championship," said the 23-year-old Yoshimura Suzuki rider from Madison.

"I knew always from the start we had what it took. But fitting all the pieces and lining everything up right was what I was having troubles with. ... It seems like this is the year it's all started to click for me."

Young will have a chance to keep the roll going in front of a friendly crowd this weekend in the Subway Superbike Doubleheader at Road America in Elkhart Lake. The premier AMA American SuperBike class races at 3:15 p.m. Saturday and 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

A victory Sunday in Tooele, Utah, gave Young three for the season, following a sweep at Daytona on opening weekend, but he trails Josh Hayes by five points in the standings. His Yamaha rival won in Sonoma, Calif., hasn't finished off the podium and has led the most laps in all five races.

But Young isn't worrying about any of that. That's the team's job. It has the experience and the championships to prove it. So Young only has to worry about riding the bike.

Road America is the track at which Young attended his first road-racing school in 2004, made one of his first starts after losing part of his left pinkie in a crash in 2009 and ran his last race a week before suffering the back fracture in a crash in testing last year.

"One of the things I learned with injuries, being off the motorcycle is definitely not the best way to contend for the championship," Young said.

"One of my big goals this year is to be on the motorcycle every race, finishing every race, getting everything I can out of every weekend and win the ones I know I can win."

So far, so good.

After using double-file restarts for the first time on an oval in the Indianapolis 500, the IndyCar Series will try out the new system on distinctly different types of tracks in its next two races. Texas Motor Speedway is the prototypical, high-speed 1.5-mile oval, and the Milwaukee Mile is a flat short track.

Stay-At-Home-Moms-of-Etsy: Tutorial Tuesday - Photo Marbles

Time to Mod Podge. Paint a thin layer of Mod Podge on your marble, then lay your photo right-side down onto the glue. Press down firmly to adhere photo to marble and look at the front to make sure there aren't globs of glue anywhere. Try not to move the photo around after you lay it on the glue (if you move it too much, the color from the printer ink will start to smudge), just press straight down. Side note on the magnets: I used super-strong magnets which was probably a mistake. Since I was mailing them as gifts and packaging them together, the magnets kept getting stuck together and the magnets were coming unglued. An obvious solution is to not buy the super-strong ones. Or you can put them in a magnetic box or on a magnetic strip when mailing so they stick to that and not each other. Use patterned cardstock and make cute generic magnets to have on hand for a quick and easy gift Print up the letters of the alphabet in a cute, easy-to-read font for kids to practice spelling Use photo marbles to hold up important papers for each member of the family (a fridge filing system?) Buy giant marbles and make paperweights or coasters Print words and your families' names and make your own set of "magnetic poetry" Originally posted HERE by HowSweeterItIs.

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