Two Pilots & an LSW: Christmas

It was a really good Christmas. The weather was nice, and that helps because you can do more. As I mentioned before, the Cherry family came up and spent a few days with us. And then when they left, I made it back to the store for more food, and then my Mom & Ernie made it up for a couple days too. I got and made too much food, but I just felt like it. A brunch with bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, dinners of chicken breasts and stuffing and snow peas one night, ham and my "famous" mashed potatoes and corn another night. We have leftovers, and tonight I had a plate full of them, and they were still quite tasty. Steve said he couldn't make fun of my cooking too much any more because most of the stuff turned out pretty well. The vegetables need to not be in the freezer quite so long before we eat them. The chicken was good and juicy, even re-heated. The potatoes, I've used a recipe the last few years that I really like. It takes me over an hour to make them, but I really like them. Kaylee's friends liked them too--they requested my potatoes for Thanksgiving. :) So we had lots of good food this week. Too much good food, but hey. As someone posted, it's not what you eat between Christmas and New Year that matters, it's what you eat between New Year and Christmas. So right now I'm eating a little aggressively, but once everything is cleaned out, I'll start behaving a little better again. ;)

Christmas Day was nice and quiet and enjoyable and peaceful. We had our brunch, cleaned up, chilled for a minute, then opened presents. I think everyone was pleased with what they opened. I appreciate everything that was given to me, and so did Steve, and Kaylee. I even more appreciate being able to spend time with family. It was a good year.

Kaylee received some great get-ready-for-college gifts from both sides, and the main gift her parents got her was Apple AirPods. Here's a funny story for you though. Her small side-gift from us was a personal alarm type thing. It works as a flashlight, and also has a 'pin' you can pull that will set of a huge, shrieking alarm. It's a personal defense alarm for areas like campus. So I bought her some. They came in the mail, I wrapped two of them, and gave them to her for Christmas. Steve later said "You know those came from me, right?" I said "No, I bought those." He said "No, *I* bought those." Come to find out, we'd both bought the same thing without discussing it. I had no idea he'd even seen them, he had no idea I'd even heard of them. His had arrived in time, mine hadn't. He was so confused as to why I was acting like it was from me, and why I knew all about it, when he was the one that ordered them. It was pretty funny!

Something I found for him was a heads-up display for driving. He hasn't had a chance to try it out yet, but hopefully soon, and hopefully it works well. It's always a crap-shoot on technology whether it'll be worthwhile or a pain, but if it works as advertised, it should be interesting. Shows the road, and your directions, etc. on the windshield in front of you so you don't have to look down at your phone while you're driving to get your directions.

He surprised me with AirPods too. He saw me admiring them. I listen to music a lot, all the time, in planes, in the car, on corporate trips when I go for walks around, etc. So I use my ear phones a lot, and I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of these. I'm guessing the technology will continue to improve though, because one funny thing about them is that they can currently do less than their wired earphone counterparts. On my old technology ear buds, I can pause the music by one click on the button on the wire. Two clicks will take it to the next song. Three clicks will send it back to the previous song. I can take open the camera and take photos "remotely" with my ear buds in by clicking that headphone button. I can turn the volume up and down on that button on my earphones. And I can talk to Siri through them and have it do stuff. So on the new AirPods, you can only have two of those functions, and you choose which one you want to work, one on each ear. I chose "previous song" on my left ear and "next song" on my right ear, because that's what I use the most. I can pause the music by pulling one of the buds out, so that's close enough. But my favorite part that really cracks me up is that they now sell cords to attach your AirPods together with a cord so you don't lose them. Making them look an awful lot like the old wired headphones. Heh. But there are still reasons I like them better. Not having the cord means I'm not attached to the phone and can still enjoy music. I can pair the earphones with other devices. And, a biggie, I can still charge my phone up WHILE I listen to music, something I haven't been able to do since they got rid of the round charging port. So I can listen to it on road trips in the car, for example, and keep my phone charged up, plugged in and providing directions, and listening to music. That's great for me. I've been using them in the car the last few days, and I like 'em. :)

Christmas Eve was a beautiful weather day, so Kaylee and I went up in the T-6 for about half an hour. She wanted to do some aerobatics, so we went up to do that. She gave me a nice compliment at the end of it, said it had been a long time since she'd done any aerobatics with me, and that I was very smooth, told Steve I did a nice job. She's not a pro on aerobatics, but she can tell if something feels good or not at least. :) She said she likes going over the top on loops, because when she's upside down, she lifts her arms and floats and feels free and light. I know what she means.

This afternoon it was back to work for the first time, did a cross country with a fellow. I want to get 3 more flight hours in within the next 5 days, and I'll have an even number of flight hours for the year 2019, which is like ending your gas pump on an even dollar amount. It's just the right thing to do. ;)