Wow

I got up at 4:45 a.m. and was at Kokomo Airport by 5:40 a.m. for a flight to St. Louis Downtown Airport. Went from there to Piedmont, MO and back to Kokomo (for a total of 5.3 hours of flight time). I got back, was completely out of gas in my Jeep, so I ran out to get gas and the first food of the day (I got back after 3 p.m.) and make it back in time to wait for the Bonanza clinic guys to start arriving. Ground school for formation flying started at 6:15 p.m., and I had locked up the place and was on my way home just after 9 p.m., almost 16 hours after I left this morning. It was dark when I left the house to go to the airport, and it was dark when I left the airport to go back to the house. When I woke up at 4:45 a.m., I turned on the TV and The Wedding was playing. When I had some ground time in St. Louis at 10 a.m., all three TVs were locked on to The Wedding. When I got home at 9 p.m. and turned on the TV to relax, The Wedding was on. Good grief!

The flight was fairly uneventful. I got to watch the sun rise, even though we were headed in the wrong direction, and we had just broken out above the clouds, so it was quite pretty. Piedmont, MO was a nice little airport, but it was also a black hole. There was a sign on the door that said "Squawk VFR", which is how pilots would know what the code was to get into the locked building, but would mean nothing to non-pilots. Once inside, there was a computer and a TV and a phone. I pulled out my cell phone--no service, even the 3G wouldn't come up with any networks. I tried the iPad--nothing. No connection at all. Phoo. So I went to their computer. Nothing. It wouldn't even boot up. Phoo. I turned on their TV. It didn't work. No vending machine. No water fountain. So, you know what I did while I was on the ground in Piedmont? I stared out at the hills and trees surrounding the airport on all sides, or the wall, that's what I did. ;) I wasn't there too long though...

All of our trip airplanes are down for maintenance right now, so I took the Bellanca Super Viking on this trip. It was faster than the RG by a good amount, but it has its quirks. One of the more irritating quirks for me is the fuel system. Not just how to use it in the plane, but getting fuel at a fuel stop. First, it has four tanks and four covers. Each cover requires a screwdriver to get into, and two of them then require an additional tool in order to open it. When they fill the tank, it has bladders that take awhile for the fuel to trickle through, so it will look like it's full when it's not full. Therefore you have to stand there and make sure they fuel it slowly, and come back to each tank and finish filling it up after they've moved on to other tanks. Afterward you have to use the tool to put the two caps back on, then use the screwdriver to put the four covers back on. You have to be there for the entire fueling process, every time, in person. And it takes awhile. This is onerous. At least compared to calling up and saying "I need to top off the airplane" and having it be done when you get there, it is. It's a unique airplane, it's light and fast and sporty, it's a good airplane, but that part does get on my nerves. So anyway, I needed fuel at St. Louis Downtown, but my guy had wanted to park at the Jet Center instead of the General Aviation ramp due to people he was meeting there. We were quite the spectacle there, our tiny little Bellanca on the ramp next to a bunch of huge corporate business jets. When it came time for them to fuel me up, I waited and waited and waited by the plane, and finally I saw this tiny little baby fuel truck coming around the corner. Their normal fuel trucks were Jet A, and massive, but they had this baby truck for idiots like me who went to the "wrong" FBO. It was cute. I almost went back inside to get my camera just to take a picture of this baby fuel truck that came to fuel my baby airplane. ;) It took the poor guy 20 minutes to fuel four tanks for a whopping sale of 25 gallons. I couldn't stop smirking...

Tonight Kaylee told me a story that I think some of you might appreciate. Apparently she was joking around about something at school, and her teacher asked her "Was that Jesus-like?" Kaylee pipes right back with "Sure! Jesus has a sense of humor!" Apparently her teacher was not amused by that response. I can't help it--I am. Jesus DOES have a sense of humor. Trust me. ;)

Well, today started way, unnaturally early, and tomorrow will start a little too soon for my taste too, and last until very late. So, I will save doing all my pictures from today for another day, and try to get some sleep...

Bright

More rain, more wind, more canceled students; another week of not getting much, if any flying in. *sigh*

I went out and got a bunch of things done, packages shipped, missed items picked up from three different stores, including the hated Hobby Lobby again, got done banking, and so forth. I even ran out to Kokomo and got the two iPads to bring home and update, and got the parachute information ready to go so I can get them repacked quickly coming up here.

Kaylee spent a little time next door with her grandparents, a little time on her math homework, and a fair amount of time working on her diorama that's due Friday. Steve has spent a fair amount of time on it too. Kaylee brought her shoebox home from school, where she had hand-made a castle and a waterfall, and you know what, she did a fine job on it. The fact that now it has to become an adult project too because that's what the others are doing is kind of, I don't know, sad I guess. I don't think the adults need to do these things, I think the kids need to, and make them realistically what they can do for their age group. Now we've got a store-bought castle and a big box and a whole lot of work on covering the space and making it look as fancy as possible because the small box with handmade items wasn't good enough. Mmm. Although, she was embarrassed by it, and now she's really excited about the one we're doing together, and that's worth some extra time and money. If we have to do it anyway, might as well look on the bright side of it. :)

Glenndale is in trouble-it was already flooded and we're getting hit with even more rain all night. I hope the folks living out there don't float away, and I don't know how long it's going to be before we can fly out of there again, but I can tell you it's not going to be any time soon...

Frission

I spent an hour at Hobby Lobby Hades today. Kaylee has a school project. It's a pretty big project, with twelve different Due Dates for different parts of the project, which in my opinion is a stretch not only for 4th graders but for their parents. One part coming up is a diarama. We got her a shoe box to take in like we were supposed to. Today she comes home and tells me that her box is the smallest out of all of them, that she's embarassed by what she's gotten done so far, that it's lame and that it's going to be on display at the end of the year with everyone's and it's just not any good at all. So we went to Hobby Lobby. Where I spent an hour trying to find what she needs, only she doesn't know exactly what she needs, and I don't know exactly what she needs, and after an hour I was about ready to curl up in a ball and suck my thumb. We finally got some stuff, then went to UPS and picked up a bigger box, and she's happy, but this is all due on Friday. I hate this stuff. I mean, really and truly detest it. Couldn't stand it as a kid, hated it worse in college, was so glad to be done with that stuff, and now it's back. I just hope we can pull off something decently good for her project. At least Steve is pretty good at it. I'd be in trouble without him. *sigh*

You know it's going to be a rough morning when you wake up, stumble into the bathroom, slip on your glasses, look in the mirror, squinting in the bright light, and see this:

Yes, I really did think "Party On, Laura" when I first saw myself this morning...

Universe

You know, I think God HAS to have a great sense of humor. Besides, he created us in His image, so I guess that explains some of us, though I'm not sure it explains all of us. ;)

I was reading through my aerobatic book again these last few days--I always need the refresher, and I'm about to go back up and do some more serious work on that end of things, so getting things fresh in your mind on the ground first is always a good plan. I'm reading along about loops. Entry speed around 2.5 times stall speed, yep, that works out about right with what I remembered, line up with two ground references, one to stay straight on and the other at the 90 degree point on your wingtip for reference, got it, initial entry should be between 3-4 Gs on the first 45 degrees of pitch. Here's where I quit reading, and the thought ran through my head, "Hey, I have a G-meter in there, I could look down and monitor that and make sure I was pulling as hard as I'm supposed to be initially". The next paragraph starts with "Do not be tempted to spend time monitoring the G-meter. Look at the horizon, by which you can quite accurately assess the pitch rate and the rate at which cloudy stuff, or green stuff, is whizzing past." I started laughing...Busted. The book was also describing three types of loops. Perfectly round as seen from the ground for contests, a pleasure flight loop with minimum G forces fit for passengers, and the third, an 'air show' loop, he described as "a loop started from ground level, where you want to live to tell the tale." Another place he describes how to do a "Granny Loop", which is a low impact loop for aerobatic wusses who want to do a loop but don't really know if they can handle it or not so you just make it as easy on them as possible even though it makes for an ugly, non-round loop. Granny Loop. Heh. I just like this guy. (Alan Cassidy)

Kaylee got back her yearly state-equivalency testing results today. It took us all awhile to figure out how to interpret them. This does not reflect well upon our intelligence, which is, well, a little ironic. ;) Bottom line is that her best category was "Reading", not a surprise, with "Mathematics" and "Social Sciences" being the next best two. Her lowest category was "Language", which really surprised me, considering her vocabulary and writing skills, but it was clear in every sub-category of Language that it was her weakest area. Last year science was her weakest area. Year before that it was math. She is at least not consistent in her weaknesses. ;) Overall though she got 21 "High Mastery" marks and three "Moderate Mastery" marks and tested with a high of 10th grade equivalency in reading.

Last night I had Kaylee set the table for us for a more formal dinner. When I came in to check on it, I found she had placed our dinner napkins under each person's glass...just like they put little napkins under glasses in restaurants. This tells you that perhaps she is at a restaurant a little too often and a more formal dinner table a little not often enough. ;)

The quotes that hit my inbox today were all about "Resolve"...which isn't bad timing either. :)

"Resolve says, 'I will.' The man says, 'I will climb this mountain. They told me it is too high, too far, too steep, too rocky and too difficult. But it's my mountain. I will climb it. You will soon see me waving from the top or dead on the side from trying.'" ~Jim Rohn

"People do not lack strength; they lack will." ~Victor Hugo

"There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul." ~Ella Wilcox

"Resolve to be a master of change rather than a victim of change." ~Brian Tracy

"Have the guts to change things if you find that necessary." ~Emory Bullard

He Is Risen

Happy Easter, and Happy Birthday to Richard!

We kept things pretty low key today. Steve and I both woke up with headaches, and spent the morning relaxing and recuperating so that tonight we could enjoy a nice dinner with family.

Steve cooked up some chicken, and I fixed some corn on the cob, rolls, spring green salad, baked potatoes, and for dessert a birthday strawberry shortcake-style cake. Yum. :)

Meanwhile Kaylee had blown up a bunch of balloons and passed out some party favors so that we could sing Happy Birthday properly to Richard, then got out her electric guitar to bust out "Happy Birthday To You" in style.

Trey got up a video of our flight together in the T-6 the other night. You can see it at http://vimeo.com/22803091, and you'll need the password "Checkertail" to see it.

Easter is a time of hope, of rebirth, of renewal, of new beginnings, new life, and of miracles. Happy Easter...

Warbird Weekend

The weather cooperated just enough for us today so that I could take the T-6 over to Muncie while Nathan took everyone else over in the Cheyenne. I was supposed to go with Tre, but she decided not to go, so I had the plane to myself. On the way over I did a fly-by of Indian Hills, followed by Nathan doing a fly-by there, and we were on our way to Muncie for their fly-in today. The winds had picked up to the low 20 knot range, but fortunately it was fairly close down the runway at both places and wasn't a big deal. There weren't a lot of planes there today because of the winds and the scattered thunderstorm forecast. Last year our three planes were the ONLY ones there, and two of the three had to file IFR to even get in there, so this year was a definite improvement. :) We had lunch at Kacy J's, hung out and walked around and had a good time until we saw some weather moving in on radar and beat it out of there. At Muncie, Jay (Of Kacy J's restaurant) told me he'd give me a free dessert if I'd fly over the people on my way out. I'd have done that anyway--free dessert is just gravy. ;) So I requested a "left turn-out" with the tower, it was approved, and away I went, staying away from flying right over their heads, but flying by and wing-waving goodbye. The Cheyenne took off right behind me, and it didn't take Nathan long to blow past me. :) I half expected him to join up, but he was outta there...

When we got back, the guys worked on the Mustang and a gear door issue. Once they got that halfway resolved, then the winds blew up to 30 knots, and while we were waiting for that to calm down, there was another question on something on the Mustang. Finally everything came together okay, and Duane got to solo a Mustang for the first time. Nathan, Trey, Carol and me took a golf cart out by the runway, while Steve stayed back at the hangar with a hand held radio. Trey took photos and a video from a camera he stuck inside the canopy, and I took a few photos from by the runway. Not too many folks get a chance like that, it's more special than I think people realize. It's a big deal, and opens future door possibilities all over the place. That first step is the hardest one to get. So congratulations to Duane, who is now officially a fighter pilot. A prima donna fighter pilot, in fact. ;)

We celebrated his 3 solo takeoffs and landings in a Mustang by him buying us all dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Works for me. ;)

I got a few photos from today that are up on my site. In the meantime, here's a self-portrait of me in the T-6 on the way home today...

You're Fired

We had a couch guy come this morning to fix the cushion and recliner on one of our couch seats. We got back tonight after a long day, and he'd put a bunch of dirty, greasy parts all over our white carpet that we just spent some decent time and money on to get professionally cleaned, leaving grease spots all over the place, which we have spent a lot of time trying to get out of the carpet again, not fully successfully, tonight. He also broke the table in the middle of our couch, put the drawer in funky and wrong, didn't put the additional padding in the seat like he was supposed to, and the recliner part of the chair is still not working properly. So for the money we gave him for a house call, he ruined our carpeting and broke our expensive leather sectional in several places, while not fixing the original problem. Fan-Tastic. They'd better make this right.

It actually hasn't been all that great of a day on several levels, for several people. We did go celebrate Jamie's birthday with everyone tonight and had a nice time there. He's 12 now, which sort of floors me. He's a year away from being a teenager and Kaylee's only 18 months behind him. Yikes...

One Nice Day

With the pretty weather day I had flights scheduled from 9-11, 11-1, 1:30-3:30, and 3:30-5:30. The 11 a.m. person had car failure and couldn't make it, so I got lunch and a small break after all, but everyone else did, which is good; then from 7-8 p.m. I also rode in the back of the T-6 as the insurance provider and instructor rust-protector. It was a busy, productive and enjoyable day!

The T-6 flight was at dusk, with the sun shining through some clouds. It was a little breezy, but not bad, and we went up and did some stalls, some loops, rolls, wingovers and maneuvers around a thin layer of localized clouds, then back down for three takeoffs and landings. Trey had a helmet video cam on the whole time, so I look forward to seeing how that turns out--I'm guessing it'll be pretty good video in that light. Duane was out there and he took some still shot photos too that I look forward to seeing. :)

We didn't all leave the airport until about 9:15 p.m. or so. I was supposed to bring some food to Glenndale for lunch tomorrow, so I went to GFS to pick something up. They were closed. So I ran over to Sam's Club. They were closed too. I went to Meijer, and they were open, but they didn't have big frozen food options, just individual servings. That's dumb. By now I was out of gas, too, so I stopped at the gas station on my way to Kroger, which I KNEW had large freezer serving sizes. Got what I needed, and finally made it home sometime around 10:30, in time to empty and refill the dishwasher and do a load of laundry for tomorrow.

*Yawn*

Windy Wednesday Wanderings

Kaylee came out of her guitar lesson and told me that her teacher had said she'd done a great job, and he was making her "Student of the Week". So she got her name up on the board as Student of the Week this week. :)

I flew Chuck, Steve, and Nathan over to Muncie in the Baron today. We had three missions. First, to bring the Cheyenne home. Second, to play with the new Garmin 750/650 combo that Kenny had set up in his shop on demo mode. Third...lunch at Kacy J's, of course. ;) The new Garmins are pretty cool. We played around with them for awhile. They're pretty intuitive, responsive, and easy to use, with some pretty handy features. Even though they are touch screen, they still have manual backup for entering frequencies and airports, which I thought was important. Very nice!

It was windy and a little bumpy today. When we were on our way home, Chuck and I took off first, and Nathan and Steve took off right behind us. They caught us about half way home, and my traffic warning system was yelling at me as they got closer and closer in. I was twisting around in my seat trying to spot them, but was unsuccessful. Pretty soon it went to "TRAFFIC! Same altitude, Zero Miles" and their yellow dot was right on top of us. I started laughing, told Chuck that I couldn't see them but I knew they were right on our butts. He said something about them being up our rear ends, not just by them, and I cracked a joke about sniffing. Chuck keys the mike and makes a body function noise over the radio, after which I can't quit laughing for awhile. He then says "So you guys are close enough, did you smell that?" Heh. The Cheyenne came up on the left for awhile, then we swapped sides before I came on in to land. I have to say, the Cheyenne looks really good up close in the air. It just looks...fast/slick...even though it was slowed down to my speed.

There have been worse ways to spend gray, windy, cold Wednesday afternoons. :)

Fires

Man, for a rainy day there was nothing but one fire after another to put out. This has been one of those days! The type where you do one thing but don't finish because something else pops up and needs done RIGHT NOW and you do that and here comes the next problem and it must be fixed NOW and so forth. I ran around like a headless chicken today, All Day Long, and so did Steve. Even after I finally got home for the day I was working on several problems at once, and Steve drove up to northern Indiana to work on a big problem up there.

I'm finally trying to relax tonight and watch the season finale of a show, and we've got a storm moving through, so after the first 10 minutes of the show the tv channel takes over and spends the next 90 minutes and counting talking about the weather. Sending reporters out with plastic bags to show how windy it is. Showing the radar on a permanent loop. Talking about how rainy it is. Oh no, it's a STORM! With thunder and everything! I...hate...that. I can't stand how they use "Tornado Warnings" when there isn't even a tornado around. That's what Tornado Watches are supposed to be for-when conditions are ripe. Warnings are supposed to be "there she blows, get down!" I can't stand how they set off the sirens when there's no rotation, scaring my daughter over nothing. How everybody around starts freaking out because it's storming and the TV people are talking about tornadoes. Did anyone actually SEE a tornado anywhere? Nope. Can people get the weather on the weather channel, the WTHR weather channel (among others), 4,000,000 places on the internet, on your smart phone, or on local radio stations? Yes. So the point of that constant "coverage" was... (I actually went online and complained to them about it, where I saw a lot of people agreeing with me and other people saying things like "but think of the children!" and that just irritated me more. I think it's time to relax now before Steve pokes at me again and gets me going on it again. ;))

Kaylee was of course concerned, particularly when the sirens went off. She started texting her cousins, who made her feel better by praying for us. :) She wouldn't go to bed, so I let her lie down on the couch with all her stuff out here with me. I had the cats in sight and was ready to take everybody next door to the basement should the need arise, but nothing I saw made me feel the need to do that.

Steve on the other hand had his own adventure. He was about 90 minutes away up north working on his project, and was driving home right when the worst of the weather was hitting. He said it was very foggy, and when the lightning would flash, it would white out everything. He called me once and the rain was so loud on the Jeep that I couldn't really hear him. But his bigger problem was that he hadn't gotten gas earlier, was almost out, and the last two little towns he drove through...the gas stations were shut down that late. So he called me to tell me he was driving on fumes, in a storm, at 10:45 p.m. on the backroads of nowhere, Indiana. G-R-E-A-T! ;) The next call I get is that he's made it to the next town, and they had a gas station! Yay! And he starts pumping gas, sits in his car, starts to text me that he has gas, and the whole town loses power. I Kid You Not. Gas station and everything around it went completely dark. So he left with whatever gas he got in his tank, and he did make it home on whatever couple of gallons he got.

What a day!!

McHuh

What do you know-for once the weather was wrong in our favor. ;) It was supposed to be nasty all day, and it was decidedly not. So I ended up flying for over 3 hours today with a couple different students, unexpectedly.

Funny how that one sentence takes up your entire day. Basically I took Kaylee to school, came home and got ready, went out to Glenndale, flew for 1.7 hours, hit a drive-through and went out to Kokomo, took pictures of the Saratoga, finished up in time to drive back to Glenndale and fly for 1.3, get back in the car and run and get Kaylee from after care at school, take her to McDonald's and home in time to work on some stuff around here. Her school project, her math homework, and my own work projects that need done. Now wasn't the first paragraph more interesting and succinct both? ;)

I've had trouble several times in a row with the same McDonald's though. Last time I ordered at the speaker, and she lost it and I had to reorder it there. No big deal. Except I got to the window and she'd lost it again. So I reordered it for the third time. I had to pull forward and wait for it. Okay, but when I got it, there were no fries in it, so I had to go inside and wait 3 minutes for the fries to be done. I get it home, and Kaylee's sandwich was all wrong. Today I wait at the speaker and nobody talks to me for a very long time, though they ARE talking to the empty speaker behind me. Finally they take my order, I get up there and pay with a $50 bill. She hands me my change, and as I pull up to the next window I look at it, and out of a $12 order I got $7 back out of a $50. *sigh* I tell the next window the problem, but on my receipt she says I only gave her a $20. I get to park the car again and take my getting-cold-food in with me, and Kaylee, while they pull the drive-through girl out and count out her drawer. They come back and say they are only $20 over, and is that right. Well, let's see, geniuses, My order was $12.97, I gave you $50. Suddenly the manager comes out saying "We found $10 more, is that right?" Yes, it was, but two cashiers and two managers couldn't figure out what my change should be until one of them broke out a calculator, even when I told them. When we left, Kaylee got in the car and said "Mom, even *I* could have figured that one out in less than a minute." Fifty minus thirteen is Just Not That Hard, folks, it just isn't. Let's see. I think I feel better now. ;)

Kaylee got to play her guitar for her grandparents for the first time-I don't know what she played exactly, but I'll bet she's ready to go for her lesson tomorrow now. She likes the TV show "Chuck", so we're all watching it together. Family TV time. Over and out. ;)

Satisfying Sunday

Man, this wind will not give us a break! Big ole 10-knot gust factors, winds up in the 30s, still in the 20s even at night--I think it's a conspiracy. ;)

Something else that is a conspiracy--Ben & Jerry's has a new flavor out called "Boston Cream Pie". It is evil, and designed with me and my expanding flight suit in mind. They're just lucky I'm not willing to let my taste buds suffer out of discontent with their political leanings, or their stock would drop...

I've been mildly impressed with myself and what all I've gotten done today, none of which would interest anybody, but all of which makes you feel better when it's done and caught up.

One thing Steve got done today was Spider Spraying. He took this stuff all around the inside and outside of the house and deck, kept the cats locked away for awhile, and hopefully has made major strides in keeping the creepy crawlers out of the house.

Tonight around 7 pm the winds finally got down under 20 knots, but I was home and comfy and not in the mood to leave. I looked up the weather, where I found that tomorrow has a 60% chance of thunderstorms and high winds. Tuesday has a 50% chance of storms and high winds. Wednesday too. Thursday is the first non-stormy day. Friday back to 50% chance. By Saturday I was supposed to be flying it somewhere else, with maybe one day to get the first flight in on it since maintenance and my first flight in it in five months. So I left my dinner in the oven, threw on my shoes, and hoofed it out to the airport for the 45 minutes before the sun went down. By the time I got out there, the winds were down to 12 knots, and it was a pretty nice evening. I flew around the airport, monitored everything, made sure it was running well, ran it for about 20 minutes just around locally, then came in to do some takeoffs and landings. I got about four landings in when I knew that one more and I'd have trouble seeing the pins (for making sure the gear is down and locked), so I ended on a wheel landing and tucked it away for the night. It was good to be back.

Non-Stop Food

There was a lot going on today; Steve was out of here by 7 a.m. and on his way to Glenndale. We were supposed to fly the T-6 (and other stuff) over to Purdue this morning for their breakfast, but the weather made it just not happening. That made us able to attend our own breakfast though. Kaylee and I got there about 8:15, and we stayed there until sometime after 11. Pancakes, biscuits and gravy, fruit, waffles, sausage, orange juice and coffee. The guys did a good job with it! Kaylee and Steve went out to Kokomo and I joined them a couple hours later, and we stayed out there until it was time to go back to Glenndale for the first of our monthly ice-cream evenings. We ended up with over 40 people at the breakfast, and over 20 some who came out for ice cream on a rainy cold dreary Saturday, so that was pretty good. :) Afterwards we'd been invited to go out with the Davis's to meet up with Tre's son and his wife at dinner, so we had dessert first and then had dinner. With all the things we ate today, it may very well be a few days before I'm actually hungry again...

Spiders and Sixes and Sweating and Song

We've had a rash of spider sightings in our house. Last night I was getting ready to go to bed, and as I was walking I looked down and saw a fairly large black spider by my foot. I, of course, hopped around on one foot as far away from it as possible with that little strangled almost-scream. Steve, who had been asleep in the chair 5 minutes earlier, walked past bleary-eyed, got a paper towel, squished it and tossed it and went to bed. But as we were laying there talking, he started wondering exactly what kind of spiders were all over our blasted house. So he Googled them on his phone. He couldn't tell without looking closer, so he got up, got the spider out of the trash and dissected it on the kitchen counter. I, by the way, stayed out of there. Like I need to see that. Come to find out it is a common "trap door spider" or something like that, and non-poisonous or "low risk". Good to know. Seriously, since a friend of ours just had her leg amputated below the knee after 8 years of surgeries and problems from a spider bite on her ankle. No joke.

Yuck.

Anyway.

So this morning dawned windy as all get-out. It was still high winds in the middle of the night, and didn't get any better this morning. Jon and Trey worked until about 9 p.m. on the T-6 last night, and Jon was back at work trying to get it finished up this morning before the rain hit. I'd been tempted to try to take it out for its maintenance test flight even though it was windy, but that decision was taken out of my hands when it wasn't ready until after the nasty rain/weather hit anyway. I probably wouldn't have done it anyway. ;) I skipped lunch at Glenndale to help Jon clean up the hangar area then move the Baron, help move the Mustang and the T-6 out onto the ramp. Some long-legged guy had been in there last, but it didn't take long to fix that. When I first started it, there was some white smoke, some burning oil smell, some roughness with the engine...and then it smoothed out and started purring like a tiger. As I watched everything go into the green and smooth out and sound goooooood, I started grinning. I looked up and Jon was on the side grinning back at me. No leaks, no visible problems, and she sounded good. Boo-yah. Sometime around 5:30 p.m. I got a text that said she was all completely buttoned up, fueled up, oiled up, and ready for her first test flight. *grin*

I spent several hours this afternoon in the SMA Support storage area. It used to be organized. And then a couple times in a row folks pulled everything off the tables to use the tables, and all the stuff got piled up in the middle of the floor, and new stuff was put where it would fit, and, well, it needed help. I went through pretty much every box, tossed out expired Vivonex and such, emptied some boxes that had just packing stuff in them, and got things in much better shape. I threw out old chairs and old desks and an old vacuum and old computer monitors, none of which were mine in the first place, and whomever they belong to must not need them very badly. I've got some seriously large and heavy boxes in there, and tonight my muscles are feeling it a little bit. It was good exercise, I'll give it that. Steve had said "we" need to go organize the room. I see how the "we" works. ;) It's always a little hard going through some of the things and knowing the kids they have been to and back from... The worst part, other than sweating, ;), was the spiders. Again with the stupid spiders. I was moving a box and there was a fairly large black spider that looked a lot like the one I almost stepped on last night. MAN I hate spiders. I ended up seeing a total of four of them in a very small room with me. I really really really wanted some Raid. Actually, I really was creeped out and just pretended like I didn't know I was sharing a small space with an unknown but too-large quantity of arachnids. I had to kick or jiggle all the boxes before I opened or moved them and hope it would just scare things into hiding where at least I didn't know they were there. Steve informed me that if I'd killed them I wouldn't have had to share the space with them. You don't understand. Killing them entails getting close enough to them where they could jump on you. Not gonna happen. :/ Anyway. Other than needing a vacuum cleaner or shop vac of some sort to clean off the floor, it's looking pretty good in there. And I've got some stuff to send out too, which means even fewer boxes in there soon. :)

I stopped at KFC for a white-meat-chicken-dinner-with-yummy-sides and got home a few minutes before Steve and Kaylee headed off to a concert together. :) They headed off tonight to see Michael Kelsey, a guitar player, and I look forward to hearing how it went!

Thankful Thursday

I still couldn't fly first thing this morning--I got Kaylee ready then went back to bed until 11 again. But this time when I woke up I was feeling close to human, and made it to lunch for the first time all week.

Today was another beautiful one. I had a flight at 4 p.m., and it was sort of my test flight to see how my head would do. It was turbulent down low, almost a direct crosswind gusting up to about 18 knots or so, so it was good practice for the student. As for me, my ears popped a bit, but that's a good thing. :) I was fine.

We had a Flying Squirrels meeting tonight-meeting up with the teenagers and some of their parents and a few of us instructors who will be working with them over the summer. Kids ages 14-18 can get 6-8 hours of flight time in a J-3 Cub for free flight instruction, free ground school towards the written exam, and basically the cost of fuel per hour on the plane. Nobody can learn to fly cheaper than that. Anyway, the meeting was to start at 7, and after sitting there awhile I was getting sleepy and bored, so I got the Citabria out to take it up for a break-it-in-for-another-hour flight. Alas, I got a bad mag check, so I shut her down, pushed her away, and texted Chuck to let him know, hoping it was just a fouled plug and nothing serious with the new cylinders. Less than an hour later our meeting starts, and I see Chuck walking through the door and out to the plane. He was like an Indy Car Pit Crew, man; showed up, zipped through, cleaned the plug(s), buttoned it up and done before the meeting was over. :)

We were done at 7:30, and the sun didn't set for another hour, and the plane still needed another hour on it, and...I grabbed my iPod and headset, and this time got a good mag check, and away I went. I found all of the little grass strips again, so I could be sure to not forget where they are. I had to laugh though-they seemed kind of far apart in the Chief, it felt like it took quite awhile to get to each of them, but at 2000', I realized that I could see all of them all at the same time if I knew where to look, and that I was arriving at all of them quite rapidly in the Citabria. That extra 43 horsepower is really nice. ;)

When my hour was up and the sun was going down, I came on in to land, but as soon as I got down to about 1600' it got surprisingly bumpy. I glanced at the wind sock and it looked like it was a pretty much direct crosswind, like when I left. The lower I got the more I was tossed around until on base to final I realized I was going from this nice, peaceful sunset flight to actually having to concentrate. :) I hit what felt like wind shear coming over the wires and down, airspeed fluctuating 25 knots up and down, felt like I was dealing with a pretty stiff tailwind when I leveled off, glanced at the windsock again, and had one of the more interesting-feeling approaches to landing I've had in quite awhile. I could see I'd make it down so I didn't go around, but it was definitely quirky. After we put the plane away I called AWOS, which was saying the winds were 070 at 18 gusting to 22. While the windsock was showing 090, reality down there was a little different. I'm glad it was the Citabria and on grass though, because a 22 knot quartering tailwind in some taildraggers would be...let's just say "extra interesting".

At 9 p.m. I got a text that the T-6 was now back together, buttoned up and ready to be test flown. Jon and Trey worked on it all day long, into the evening. I'm supposed to do that test flight tomorrow, but the weather is calling for 80% chance of thunderstorms and rain, and high winds. It looks like I might have a rain-free window fairly early in the morning, if I am able to function properly in the morning after Kaylee goes to school, but the forecast is also calling for moderate clear air turbulence and winds anywhere from 25-35 knots, and of course it's not supposed to be down the runway. Urgh.

It felt so good to not feel so bad this afternoon. I hate being sick. I'm glad to be almost back. ;)

Eagles

After pawning my all-day tailwheel endorsement student off onto Ty and getting Kaylee ready for school, I spent the morning sleeping again. I'm bound and determined to sleep this thing off, and finally it seems to be working. Somewhere this afternoon I turned a corner and at least was able to get up and out and about. A little medicine helped. :) I waited until it was time to get Kaylee from school, grabbed her and her Awanas stuff, and went out to Kokomo where I was supposed to be hosting two Girl Scout troops for Young Eagles rides. I got Steve to do the talking, and three volunteers did the flying, and about 2 1/2 hours later all 15 kids and a couple moms got their rides in, their certificates in hand, and were on their way content.

The tailwheel guy finished his endorsement today, a student went on her First Solo today, and 15 young ladies got to go on their first airplane rides. I didn't get to do any of the flying, with that whole being sick and medicated thing, but I would still call that a successful day in General Aviation. :)

Meanwhile, Kaylee needed to say eleven sections at Awanas in order to qualify for a sleepover the beginning of May. She only had two weeks to do it. She got them all done in one night. When she wants to accomplish something, she can. It's getting her to want to accomplish it that is the challenge! She did well, and was very excited--she's wanted to do this sleepover since she first heard about it.

Here are some of the kids this afternoon at the airport. It was such a beautiful day to fly...

Ladies & Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Me, I was just sick today, nothing exciting there. Started running a low grade fever, which as I said to Steve, means that it's not just allergies or a head cold, but probably some virus. So I canceled my two flights, stayed in bed until 11 a.m., took the next 3 hours to get up, medicate, get ready, and then go out to the store to get dinner stuff. It occurred to me around 4 p.m. that I hadn't eaten a thing since a portion of a salad the day before at lunch, but absolutely nothing sounded good...I literally sat in a parking lot for 5 minutes trying to figure out, unsuccessfully, something that didn't make me scrunch my nose up to think about eating. That's kind of a weird one for me. I love food. ;)

Much more interestingly, Kaylee's class had a field trip today to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to celebrate its Centennial. Steve drove Kaylee, two of her female classmates, and a grandfather (who is only two years older than Steve, heh) down in the Jeep. (The school does have a bus but it wasn't available for this trip, so it was up to parents). The Indy Motor Speedway had "Education Stations" set up all over, and the kids would stop and learn about various things. They got to go to the Pits, the beginning of Gasoline Alley, and Kaylee even kissed the bricks, played with flags, went through the museum of the history, all the cars, etc. She had a good time. Steve survived. ;) Pictures are up on Kaylee's Site. It's always a game of chance when you give Steve OR Kaylee a camera as to whether or not you'll get any actual pictures, but they did get some. ;) Also, WISHTV took some video and photos, and interviewed a couple of the kids. It didn't end up on the TV news, but it did end up on their internet news site, which is kind of neat.

Steve's Mom & Dad made it back today! I went out and got some good steaks that Steve fixed, and I made some corn, scalloped potatoes, got some rolls, and good Breyer's ice cream, and we had a welcome back dinner. Because of my low-grade fever, I could be contagious, and the last thing anyone needs is to get sick, so I stayed in the other room after Lysoling the main surfaces and not touching the actual food bare-handed. But I did take a small plate with me to enjoy in my solitary confinement. :)

Was supposed to fly all day tomorrow. Isn't gonna happen. *sigh* And yes, I am taking my vitamins. ;) Well, the last two times Steve got sick and I didn't, so I guess I was due...

Boring Health Whine

I've been having trouble sleeping at night lately because my nose has completely stopped up and I can't breathe. If I try to take a normal allergy med before bed, it doesn't work. If I take a Zyrtec, it works like crazy, I sleep like a log, and then I'm a zombie most of the next day...and it's not legal to fly on. That zombie thing is probably a good reason why it's not legal to fly on. ;) Last night was particularly bad, and I woke up early, unable to breathe at all without gulping air through my open mouth, and when I got up I felt terrible. I got Kaylee's breakfast, was sitting at the computer and used a tissue on my nose, and all of a sudden (don't read if you're squeamish) I had a bloody nose like I haven't seen in a very long time. I couldn't staunch it at all, and both bathrooms were in use, so I just stood over the kitchen sink. I don't know how much time went by in total, but I know it was at least half an hour that I was tracking the time. By the time it was time for Kaylee to be taken to school, it still wasn't slow enough to use a tissue or paper towel even on, so Steve had to take her, and I was actually getting light headed and weak, and really really wanted to lie down. I was leaning/laying against the sink as best I could, broke out into a cold sweat, knew I wasn't going to be on my feet a whole lot longer here, and was trying to find something in reach I could use so I could lie down...and finally it decided to taper down. Just in time, whew! (Even when I was a kid and in better shape/health, I'd have to sit on the floor after awhile when that would happen.) I stayed on the couch for a few hours after that, the weather canceling my flight students so I didn't have to, and found a place where I could breathe, and immediately fell back asleep, hard. Haven't felt right all day. Not just allergy stuffed-up, but...bad. I ate a small side salad for lunch, and haven't been able to eat anything else the rest of the day. Now THAT'S not like me. ;) I did take an iron pill, and I stopped at Walgreens and bought some Claritan D to see if that would help. I do feel less weird at least, and I can sort of breathe, so it's an improvement. Now I'm wondering if it's allergies or if I'm actually sick. And thus ends the long boring whine on my health. ;) Besides, I can't actually be sick, because i have two very busy days coming up here...and a busy Saturday, too!

Tonight I had a school board meeting, Kaylee had a good first day back to school, we have a giant spider on the loose in the house that we can't find and Kaylee won't sit at the kitchen counter until it is found, and Steve has been running around doing his returning-phone-calls-putting-out-fires thing. I'm tired and droopy and boring, so I'll go do that... ;)

Grass Strip Hopping

It was 84 degrees today, sunny, and windy. Ty and I were going to go flying today, and around 1:30 I got the text "I think we should go". The winds were only gusting up to 25-27 knots and we were in a Mighty Chief, so why not? ;)

Ty was helping me figure out how to find these places out in the middle of nowhere, and by jove I think I've got it. ;) We made the rounds of a lot of places. Tudor's East/West strip with very tall trees at one end, Tacket's North/South in between tress, nice and wide, Duncan's North/South, with a big upslope and phone lines at one end, then on to Indian Hills, over to Glenndale, and back to Kokomo for a few. We took turns trying to get a decent wheel landing out of it, and much merriment ensued. Ty nailed one at Glenndale, meaning it was my turn and I didn't have a prayer. When we got to Kokomo, all my attempts ended up three pointers, and all Ty's attempts ended up bouncy, and I'm pretty sure we looked crazy from the ground. In fact, I know we did, because Ty's student was watching, came up to us afterwards and pretty much let us know we looked crazy. But hey, it was a fun way to spend a few hours this afternoon. :)

Here's a video I made of our journey around these places today...

Girls' Day Out

As Kaylee's last official school day off for Spring Break, when we went out to Glenndale for Friday lunch, she was able to hook up with Maggie and Hannah for a few hours, until Hannah went to go do something special and Kaylee and Maggie went over to Grace's to jump around for awhile on the trampoline outside.

I piled the girls in the Suburban and we headed to the mall, where the ladies all picked out a nail color, including me, and we all got our nails done. The place there does such a great job with kids' nails. If they pick out a color, the nail "artists" will add designs and colors to that base color. Kaylee got a neon green with black and white polka dots on top, which she loves so much that's how she wants to redo her room walls. ;) I don't know what color I picked out, but let's call it "shiny brass". There ya go--a sentence you didn't expect to hear from me anytime soon. ;)

All the girls got into a photo booth to pose for a photo strip, picked out one 'fancy' cookie each, and Kaylee and Grace wanted to try out a "Hurricane Booth". It's a booth you stand in that will simulate winds up to hurrican force speeds, supposedly. I know it was loud, but I quit looking at the wind speed read-out after 79 mph, so I don't know how high it actually went. We stopped for a drink and came home to play for awhile. The girls would have played until midnight, but we had some company coming over around 7, so we did one final trampoline run and called it an evening. I've got photos up on Kaylee's site.

I'd say Kaylee enjoyed her day, and hopefully the other girls did as well. :)

Clean

Sometimes it would be nice if Mother Nature would make up her mind. ;) It was supposed to be nice today, so I had three flights scheduled. I woke up to low IFR. First flight, out. It was supposed to get better, so I hung on to the next two flights. But it didn't really get any better, so I canceled the next flight too. Within an hour it cleared off. That's actually okay with me; I don't feel all that well today anyway. Flight #3 fellow didn't look all that eager and ready to go take to the skies today either, feeling a little under the weather, etc., so we canceled that one too. A day full of flying became a day full of Not.

Kaylee went with Steve while I went out to Glenndale, two banks, the post office, the gas station, the car wash, you know, "stuff". We're getting all of our carpets professionally cleaned today, so we are sitting on the deck with our laptops listening to the roar of the machinery. I dislike the noise level, but it will be nice to have done. Once I got back here, Steve took off to go get my motorcycle battery, get the seat on the Corvette looked at, all that guy errand stuff. :)

We must have been pooped because as soon as the carpet guy left, I crawled in bed with clothing, pillows, guitars, camera stands, and anything that had been on the floor in a 3-room radius, and fell asleep for over two hours. Later Steve passed out for several hours too. Must have just been the day for it. Nothing exciting today as you can see, but keeping busy returning phone calls, emails, errands, paperwork, I've been catching up a few SMA Support things, house things, and just being productive while I've got the days to do it. We're likely about to be plenty busy pretty quickly here...

Easy Breezy

The winds today were even more impressive than yesterday, meaning of course it wasn't going to work well for my poor primary students for where they are in their training. We're all still on Spring Break, so we took our time this morning. I got the billing in the mail, we met up at Culvers for lunch, Steve did a lot of phone call returns, and so forth.

There was also a guy on his Instrument checkride today. The winds at the surface were around 31-33 knots, and the winds at 3000' were at almost 50 knots. That's a lot for trying to track needles, do holds, and get the job done for a checkride. He did well though, and came away with his Instrument Rating, so that was a good bonus for the day!

No sweat, right? ;)

Spring and Fire

Good Morning America has had a couple of "Spring Fashion" shows now, and they are all about 70s fashion (disasters). Body suits? High waisted pants? Giant bell bottoms? Really? Didn't we already re-visit the 70s a few times now? But high-waisted pants? Even the rail-thin model wearing them looked fat and strange! I'm already very high-waisted all on my own-I would look utterly ridiculous dressed like that. First they make jeans so low that if you don't stand perfectly straight you'll be showing plumber's crack, and now they bring the waist up to your armpits. Man "fashion" irritates me sometimes. Then later the same day, while Kaylee was making me cuddle, we had Oprah on, and she was doing "couples" makeovers. One couple was all t-shirts and jeans and tennis shoes, and then the wife said her husband cut her hair for her, and at that the whole audience gasped out loud in horror. I started snickering. Yeah, so? ;)

On the serious, I've been closely following the journey of Kyle & Amanda Franklin. They were performing a wing-walking act when he had an engine failure; she got into the cockpit at the last second, he made an emergency landing, there was a post-landing fire, and she was trapped. The updates are really...disturbing...even though they are putting the best spin possible on it. With over 65% of her body having 3rd degree burns, she doesn't have enough remaining skin for grafts on all the areas that need them, and if she survives she will likely be immobile, she's lost all her fingers, she will be unable to bear children (which she was planning on starting next year) due to the severe scarring on her abdomen, she will be severely disfigured, undergo dozens of terribly painful surgeries, therapies, and procedures...IF she survives. I just...she just really needs your prayers, a break, something. My heart goes out to her, and to her husband, who has the hardest job of all--being helpless to save his wife from this terrible journey.

Back to the mundane, we're half working and half taking some time off while Kaylee is on Spring Break. Today I had a flight in the morning, and Kaylee and Steve went out to Kokomo too, after sleeping in a little and taking it slow. My flight was on the bumpy end of things. The winds might have only been in the low 20s, but there was some definite gust action going on. Nathan and kids came out to the hangar today, and it was sort of like a Saturday. They had to delay a departure for a Real Spring Break due to weather, so the kids played outside or in the other hangar all day, Chuck worked on the Citabria, Nathan, Jon & Cusick all worked on various airplane things, we had lunch out at the hangar, and had a nice day. Even if I was awake until 2:30 then woke up on my own at 7:11, exactly when I normally wake up on school days. Ah, well! I got some stuff done today off and on while I was relaxing, got a lot more done after we got home, and now it's looking like kick-back-and-watch-TV-time. :)

Hairy

This morning I deserted the lunch crew in order to go get my hair permed. Kaylee went to lunch with Steve, and she filled me in afterward on all my friends in shock that I was getting my hair done, and how they wished they knew where I was so they could show up and sit out there and watch. If you saw my head covered in green and orange curlers, under a plastic bag, with cotton wrapped around my head, you would know why I am really glad I didn't tell Steve where exactly I was going to get this done. The thought of 8 Glenndale Guys showing up, where they would have had a perfectly clear view from just the front door of me in all my curler glory at all times just makes me shake my head in some version of fear. That is NOT attractive. It's funny, but it's not attractive. I would have been so embarrassed. They'd have gotten me. Whew.

Kaylee has a project to do over her Spring Break. She has to come up with a fantasy world of her own, create a map, a history, characters, the whole ball of wax. The funny thing is, this is Kaylee's forte. She OWNS this kind of thing. But because it's an assignment, she's struggling with it a little. I reminded her of all the worlds she has already created, rules and characters and all, and told her this was hers and to have fun with it. It's actually a fairly big project, she's already written a two-page report so far, and has an assignment every single day of her 10 day break. She hasn't said anything, but personally I think that's kind of mean to make kids have homework every single day of their Spring Break. That's the POINT of Spring Break--to take a break from school, from homework. But so far she's doing okay...

I think I may be almost done with billing here, after I print out some letters, collate, fold and stuff and lick and stamp. Such a fun job, the paperwork. But: "working on billing...tedious. Actually getting paid...priceless." Or something like that. ;)

Flights canceled for today due to weather, including a checkride; we'll see about tomorrow. Lots to do still!

Brief

Wow, we had highs in the upper 70s today! If we wouldn't have had 40 knot gusting winds too, it would have been a perfect day. I ran out to Kokomo to take some photos, then made the rounds to finish some errands while Steve drove Kaylee on an excursion bringing the Corvette home for the Spring. They ended up running around for over an hour and having a nice 'Vette time. I ended up taking a walk through the park today-the wind even felt good in my face when it was that warm.

Other than the usual weekend fare of housework, I've been slowly cranking out the billing for March, too. If I was smarter I'd have finished it tonight to get into tomorrow's mail, but I'm not that smart. Rather, I'm sort of sleepy. ;)

We've got some bad weather coming in for tomorrow, so maybe I'll get this finished off tomorrow...

Novella

In my "math is important, Kaylee" pitch for today:

I had to order our fried chicken for lunch Friday. When I did, I asked them if they took orders in increments of 8, or basically how many pieces came per order. She said yes, 8 pieces per order. I said "Okay, I need 48 pieces please." She paused for a long time, and then said "Well, actually we have a 32 and a 64 piece." Now I paused for a second. I said "You still sell them in increments of 8, correct?" "Yes" "Okay, then I still need 48 pieces. How about a 32 piece and a 16 piece? Or two 8s if you don't sell a 16?" "Oh, okay, I guess that will work", she says in a confused voice. Aye-Carumba!! When I got there, I noticed a sign over their heads that said 8 piece for $x.xx, 16 pieces for $x.xx, 32 pieces for $xx.xx or 64 pieces for $xx.xx. The fact that they didn't sell a specific 48 piecer threw her for a loop for a minute there...

What's really kind of funny though is that Kaylee's math at the beginning of the year was reviewing from last year's math, and they had to take a number like 24 and come up with all the ways you could get to that number using multiplication, division, etc. So the third graders could have helped the lady come up with all the various ways to get 48 pieces of chicken in increments of 8. ;)

I recently had a flight at Glenndale, which I realized after I got out to Kokomo. ;) I made it back about half an hour late, and he was sitting in the plane watching the Champ take off and land with a direct crosswind of about 14 knots. That's actually a decent crosswind for that little Champ, and it made for a good ground object lesson considering we were about to go up and do our own crosswinds. We went up and did engine-out emergency practice, did some side slips and forward slips, and then came on in for the takeoffs and landings. By that time the winds were a direct crosswind at 17, and the Champ was still going. We got three landings and a "this-isn't-going-to-happen" go around in, and by the time we were done the winds were up around 23 knots directly across, which is plenty for a pre-solo student, and time to give him a break. ;) The Champ quit too, and as Jim came inside to get the fuel sheet, he looked over at me said said "Boy, it's a little tricky out there today!" It was a lot trickier for him than me in that light little plane, but yes, in our plane we called it "sporty". Good practice, good practice.

At one point while we were working on the engine-outs, I gave my usual speech about no matter what, fly the airplane all the way to the ground, end up with your wings level and under control, it'll be just like landing on a rougher Glenndale, and you'll likely walk away; how the fatalities are those who panic, stall out high trying to extend a glide to make a certain field, who try to turn around and make a runway they don't have the altitude to reach and stall out, etc. He said "That's not very encouraging." I told him that while it's not exactly a pleasant topic of conversation, I think it IS encouraging to know that most of the time (around here anyway) your ability to walk away from an engine failure is in your own hands and that as long as you keep your head on your shoulders, know what to do (which is why we are practicing it) and keep flying the plane all the way to the ground, your biggest problem will be getting somebody out there to pick you up and paying for any damages to the plane from the unusual landing surface. Most of the time I'm pretty much Miss Positivity when it comes to people learning, but when it comes to this, and I told him this, ignorance is not bliss, and it's important enough that I'm not going to pull punches on it. Bring it in under control all the way to the ground and you'll likely walk away. Don't, and you almost certainly will not walk away. Period. A most important lesson for anyone who wants to be a pilot...and a good reminder for all of us. I know I'll take the reminder. It's easier for people to listen to the little survival voice in the back of their brain that says "I don't want to go down there so pull back!" when pulling back is the exact wrong thing to do. So you train, and remind, and prepare, and hopefully a pilot will never need to ever actually implement it. Probably the majority of them never will...but if they do have to, at least they will be as ready as possible. :)

Anyway, off of the serious. I also smiled today to see all the news feeds of photos of blue skies and sunshine and a lot of people showing up for Sun-n-Fun today. The show went on, the Blue Angels and Fat Albert (and I even knew a guy who rode Fat Albert today, which is neat), folks walking around the puddles and having a great time a day after a tornado runs through the place damaging/destroying at least 65 airplanes and making a mess out of a whole lot of ground areas at last count. Which, like Oshkosh and all the flooding we had last year, reminds you once again that pilots are willing to put up with about anything for a good fly-in, and thus just a bit crazy. ;)

Kaylee went to see "Hop" today with a friend, and got to go play afterwards for a couple hours, so that made her day. She wasn't thrilled to have to come home, but she would be satisfied to not come home at all most of the time unless she could bring a friend with her! Something tells me that after watching "Hop", we are going to get inundated with "But I want a BUNNY!" whines again. ;)

Kaylee also did a turn-around on her hair. She started off uncertain about it, and now she won't quit talking about how much she likes it. Sheesh! Girls! ;) It helps that quite a few people have told her they like it, but this also tells me that I think I see why some ladies get different hairstyles all the time--they enjoy the attention. Miss Kaylee may be hooked now anyway. Heavens... ;)

Steve went and picked up Kaylee, then came and got me, and we had dinner at Applebees. The Final Four Championship game was playing on all the TVs around, and Butler (from Indiana) was playing. Every once in awhile a large portion of the restaurant would break out into loud cheering and clapping. It actually made me jump once, which cracked up the family. Butler won, which made everybody there happy (as underdogs, I kind of like it too, as much as I care about college basketball...)

I think a good day was had by all. :)

April No-Foolin'

We don't prank each other around here. My sense of humor is good in some ways, and weak in others. I'm not a good person to prank, in general. ;) Kaylee likes to pull jokes on people, but fortunately so far she isn't real versed on how to properly go about it...

Today was the last day of school for the next ten days. Hello, Spring Break. Kaylee was a little hyped up today when I got her from school, having gotten to wear high heels to school for a dress-up day, having no homework, being out of school for 10 days, and overall having a good day. We finished off the good day by getting a sweet tea from McDonald's and getting our hair cut. Me, I just got my hair evened out from when I cut it myself. Kaylee, however, decided to go short. She's still trying to decide whether or not she likes it. It was getting pretty long, down her back, so it was a big change for her. She's a bit afraid she looks like a boy. I told her it looks sassy. What do you think?