Tuesday

I got my new phone charged up, switched over, all my contacts added, my old phone cleaned off, and ready to play before I went to bed last night. I really like it, it's easy to use. I just have a few things left to do like put up the photo of my choice for the exterior screen. You know, important stuff. ;) The outside touch screen works well for calling and texting similarly to how I used to, and the inside keyboard is nice, big buttons, easy to use, etc. So far I give it two thumbs up.

I drove the Jeep out to Kokomo this morning because I knew the back roads were going to be slick. The schools were on a two-hour time delay for bad roads, so Kaylee got to sleep in a little bit, much to her pleasure. The airport itself was cleared off pretty well. There was a light dusting of snow, but they'd been out there since we left yesterday around 4 something working on the runways and ramps, and it was in pretty good shape. We landed at Muncie and I was pleasantly surprised that the "braking action poor with snow and ice" originally reported ended up being not there. It was fine. Nathan hopped out to get in the Cheyenne, we fired up, called the tower and found the field had changed to IFR. The practice won't hurt. We both sat in our respective planes and used our cellphones to call and file a flight plan, and as soon as my new phone sent me a text message from FlightAware that my flight plan was there, we left. I have to tell you, technology can be awesome. In the old days you'd have had to go inside, call on the phone, and probably wait 15-30 minutes and not know if your flight plan was ready to go or not until you asked for it in the plane. Anyway, the photo is my first new cellphone photo, of me sitting in the Baron waiting for my flight plan to come through pointed out at Nathan in the Cheyenne doing the same thing. Ah, it's a lovely winter wonderland, isn't it? ;) See what I mean? Even the sky is white. Have I ever mentioned I'm not that fond of the winter? I didn't mind the flight home IFR though; it was quick and yet it was a decent day to hand fly a real-ish approach.

I got home in time for Kaylee to go to her delayed school, and when she came out of her room to go, she was dressed in black pants with multi-colored polkadots, a horizontally striped shirt with pea green, blue, gray and white, and hot pink floral socks. It was...stunning. Usually I let her go even if something isn't quite perfectly matching, but that was a bit (lot) much for even me. So she goes back in her room and comes out wearing the same striped shirt, but pink shorts. SHORTS. Take a look at the above photo. Anyway. So I send her back in one more time, and finally she makes it out with gray pants that DO match the striped shirt and will not give her frostbite. At this point she's now mad at me, and I think I'd be tempted to let her wear those shorts and deal with the consequences of her choice if her school wouldn't possibly call Child Protective Services on me. ;)

When I picked Kaylee up, she had a box full of bags-she had gone Christmas shopping at her school. They set up tables for $4, $3, $2, and $1 items that the kids could buy, and I set her up with some money and sent her to school. Originally she was going to buy three presents. She ended up with ten of them. She went shopping crazy. She also bought one for herself, and then she realized that she was one present short for people she wanted to get. She started to put her own thing back, which she's wanted for the last two days, just so she could make sure she got a present for them. Then she realized if she got one thing for the couple to share instead of one each, she could let them know she was thinking of them AND still get the thing she wanted for herself too. So she did. Not a bad compromise for someone her age.

Steve and Nathan are heading out to watch a Purdue game over in Lafayette tonight, and Kaylee and I are hanging out here. We keep trying to get Steve to wear his IU stuff to the game, but he just doesn't seem interested for some reason... ;)