Left Coast Envy…

This will have to be quick post as I leave for a meeting in about 30 minutes and still have to change into Dave “The Businessman” before I leave. I’ve spent the past four days in Seattle and I love it! What’s not to love? I think I can handle the cloudy days just because there are so many other things here that make me smile. Airplanes and mountains and crab boats…oh my! Though I have been out here on business, I have managed to cross off some sights I wanted to see in between discussing aircraft parts and plastic pellets. I saw Mt. Rainier for the first time and was completely in awe of its beauty. I’ve done the Boeing Factory Tour at the Future of Flight Museum in Everett and seen the 787 in person. I’ve tried Calamari for the first time in my life…and really loved it. And I saw the crab boat “Wizard” from DSC’s series “Deadliest Catch. The list goes on and on but I really don’t have the time to elaborate right now. I’ll do that when I return home. The bottom line is I have loved Seattle. I have a crush on Seattle. Everyone told me I wouldn’t want to leave…and they were pretty much right. Stacy and I will be planning a vacation out here soon and I will miss the sweet smell of Left Coast air mixed with a hint of Jet A until I return. Till next time…here’s a picture of Rainier to keep you entertained…

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Adventures in Mexico

I spent some time in Mexico at the beginning of April for a trade show and had the chance to do some sight seeing while I was there. Some of the highlights of the trip included: live mariachi bands (yes, plural, I think there was a band at every restaurant we went to), a Storm Trooper sighting, a trip to the heart of Mexico City where I had the opportunity to tour of the Metropolitan Cathedral, Imperial Palace and the Templo Mayor, a few crazy cab rides, some interesting new foods, the whole American Airlines ordeal, oh, and I did work while I was there too…

This was my first time to Mexico City and, luckily enough, the trade show started at 1pm each day and my co-workers were adventurous souls. After going to Germany last Fall I came to have a new appreciation for “old” cities, the architecture, the history and the way that people take pride in the beauty of the history of the city. A great example is Templo Mayor, the Aztec temple, was discovered when they were digging for a subway – absolutely incredible! Even more interesting is that the Spaniards had used the stone from the temple to build the Metropolitan Cathedral AND that they built the cathedral over part of the temple. How’s that for a religious superiority complex? Well, I think the Aztecs had the last laugh seeing as parts of the cathedral are sinking into the ground. I posted some pictures on our photo site of the leaning/sinking buildings.

On to the food….I’ve found that when I travel the “host” (typically one of our Sales Engineers) of the area I am visiting always offers up some of the local delicacies for us, the visitors, to try. I’ve had my share of squid, octopus (suction cups and all) and raw pork – I think the saying “When in Rome…” is my credo while on the road. So, in Mexico I added to my list of unusual foods cactus, which was quite good, and ant eggs. Yes, ant eggs. The conversation at the table went something like this:

“So, what is this?”
“Meat.”
“What kind of meat?”
“Meat. Just try it”

Timidly, I pick up the tortilla with the mystery meat inside and take a bite. Tastes like brown rice…then our host starts smirking….

“Ant eggs.”
“Huh?”
“Ant eggs”

Yep, so I have had fried/cooked ant eggs. Oh, and for my Aunt who asked “What were you drinking!?!?” - nothing, honestly!

As the week drew on I was alerted to the possibility that my American Airlines flight may not be coming to take me home. Great. Well, with the help of our corporate travel person and sheer luck and good karma, my flights didn’t get cancelled and were right on time. As far as adventures go, this one was great though I have no desire to eat anything wrapped in a tortilla for a while…

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Home Roasting

A friend at work has introduced me to a new, and I’m guessing extremely addictive, new hobby/culinary art – home roasting coffee. Yes, it can be done, and to anyone who has ever looked into a pallid cup of the regular swill and thought “there must be something better” you understand the drive for a good cuppa’ joe.

Dave and I picked up the essential tools for the task and, with a little help from our friend, acquired some raw beans for our first foray into the art of home roasting. I admit, I was very hesitant at first…what if I get a horrible roast, what if I start this thing on fire, or, worse yet, set myself on fire (seriously, these things can happen – but I digress). However the roast went smoothly and I ended up doing a medium roast and a second, darker roast and I am eagerly waiting for the moment I get to grind the beans and enjoy a (hopefully) magnificent cup of coffee.

Euphoria? Yes that would be an accurate assessment of the moment. Standing on the deck with my head in the colander, allowing the sweet and subtle aromas to consume me, it was absolutely amazing. Thank you Mr. Sanders.

I’m heading to Sweet Maria’s to order my first sample pack of beans and from this point forward, I’m not going back. NO MORE BAD COFFEE!

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Floatplane Flying in Minnesota…in March?

“Anoka tower. Husky amphib three-three-three-hotel-uniform is at Fox Hollow with India ready to taxi VFR for northbound departure.”

“Husky amphib triple-three-hotel-uniform. Cleared to taxi to runway niner via taxiway golf.”

It’s March 1st, 2008 in Minnesota…and we’re taxiing out to Runway 9 at Anoka County airport in a Husky A-1B on amphibious floats. Ahh…what a sight to behold. People in 172’s and Cherokees stare as we move along the taxiway. There isn’t a lake with open water to be found in a couple hundred miles but, then again, that’s why we’re on amphibious floats. It’s a gorgeous 1st of March, which certainly ensures that we will end the month with wretched cold and snowy weather. The sun is shining and it is 35°F with just a bit of wind out of the southeast. I’ve got my Zen plugged into my headset with “Far Side of the World” by Jimmy Buffet playing as Todd takes care of the engine run-up duties and checks the controls. I love to start flights listening to this song because the words pretty much describe what I’m feeling every time I strap into an aircraft.

We sit in the run-up area for a bit to give the engine a chance to warm and limber up before we ask her to propel us skyward. The powerful O-360 may not have run in two months, but she’s purring like a kitten indicating she’s ready for an adventure. We taxi up to the hold line and tower clears us to depart after a Cessna 172 touches down. Todd advances the throttle and the prop governor brings the prop in to 2,500 rpm. We’re quickly rolling and it’s “wheels-up” within a few hundred feet. Todd flips the gear switch and I watch as the nose wheels disappear into the tips of the sleek Wipline 2100’s. I look over my left shoulder and just catch sight of an eagle gliding along perpendicular to our flight path at about 200 feet. It feels good to be back in the air.

We level off at 2,000 feet AGL and make left turn northward. The air is smooth and we’re clipping along at about 130 mph (groundspeed) with nothing but sun and open air stretched out ahead of us. We fly over towns, lakes, and forests making comments along the way about interesting things we see. The lakes are dotted with homemade ice rinks, snowmobile tracks, and ice fishers. As we move north, the houses become fewer and fewer and are replaced by forest. We reach Lake Mil Lacs fairly quickly, although I’ve lost track of time as I often do when flying with Todd. With him as P.I.C. on this flight, my role shifts to scanning for traffic and enjoying the scenery. The lake looks great this year and the ice appears smooth and solid. We circle the lake and check out some of the people ice fishing below. In some places roads have been plowed on the surface of the lake to allow people to reach their fishing houses. Though the houses are gone now, you can still see the “streets” and “driveways” that mark the rows of ice fishing shelters. From the air it looks like another housing development…in a very strange location. On the north side of the lake we even see a kite-boarding gathering and maybe 30-40 kites. No chance they are having as much fun as us.

We turn southwest and head to Little Falls to grab a pop, use the restroom, and take a quick break. Small airports are the best places to stop for gas or food…period. As a pilot, you can almost always find someone hanging out in the terminal who wants to talk aviation. We land at Little Falls and taxi up to the small terminal. It’s a one story building with about four or five rooms, some couches, tables, the standard weather computer, and a pop machine. As I exit the restroom, an older gentleman is there waiting to use it and he shoots me a smile that catches me off-guard. I smile and call him “sir”. His look says “thanks” and I can’t figure out why, but I deduce in my mind that he does look vaguely familiar. Moments later he emerges from the restroom, gives a quick wave to Todd and I, and exits the terminal headed for a twin Bonanza waiting on the ramp. We find out from the local FBO staff that it was Senator Oberstar and the smile finally makes sense. Senator Oberstar is a big proponent of general aviation and I can only imagine that he was delighted to see a small airport in rural Minnesota with multiple aircraft on the ramp and pilots out enjoying the pursuit of aviation for fun on a sunny afternoon in March.

We thank the FBO worker for his hospitality and head back out to the Husky for our trip home. On the way out, Todd signs the guest book to say we’ve been there. Maybe this will help the Little Falls airport someday when the FAA tries to slash their funding. Maybe they will be able to show records of all the pilots that stop by on their weekend journeys and how general aviation is beneficial to Little Falls and to the United States in general. We climb back into “triple-three-hotel-uniform” and begin the engine start process. In no time at all, we’re climbing skyward and Little Falls is disappearing behind the tail-feathers as I listen to the Jack’s Mannequin album “Everything in Transit”.

A few minutes out of Little Falls, Todd’s voice comes over the intercom and offers me what I’ve been secretly hoping for all afternoon…the chance to become one with the Husky for just a little while. I place my feet on the rudder pedals and grip the control stick with my left hand. “Your airplane” says Todd and I respond “My airplane”. We’re somewhere just south of St. Cloud over the Mississippi, but I’m in heaven. The air is so smooth and the Husky is one of the most responsive aircraft I have flown (aside from Allyn’s RV-6…which is like flying a Porsche). Todd tells me to just follow the river and we’re currently about 2,000 feet AGL which makes this a relatively simple task. A few minutes pass and he tells me to “hold on” as he takes control of the Husky for a couple minutes. We drop down to about 500-1,000 feet AGL and he says “Now follow the river…and stay in the center of the channel.” At this altitude staying in the channel means some fun flying with lots of medium to steep turns. I’m flying from the back seat and have no view of the gauges. This is old school flying…seat of the pants…like it was meant to be. No GPS, no backup attitude indicator, no fancy-pants XM weather receiver. Just the river and the horizon to guide me home. My head is on a swivel looking for traffic, towers, and wildlife. I’m having a blast and grinning like a kid at Christmas. I use the aileron spades to gauge my altitude and manage to keep my altitude pretty steady the whole way.

As we near Anoka, I climb back up to pattern altitude and Todd takes the controls for our approach and landing. We touch down on runway 9 gently and taxi back to Todd’s hangar to put the Husky to bed. On the way, we splash through a small puddle left over from the melting snow. Though this will be the only water the floats see today, Husky Amphib three-three-three-hotel-uniform seems happy to have had the chance to get out and stretch her legs on this beautiful afternoon in March. As we push her back into the hangar, I realize the Husky has once again given me everything I needed on this particular afternoon and I secretly thank her for being there like an old friend. She may not be my airplane, but I consider her my friend.

“So while I make my move…on the big board game…I been down that Spanish highway…some things remain the same. Girls meet boys and boys tease girls. I’m headin’ out this mornin’ for the far side of the world.”

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I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing

I’ve been dying to use this line as the title of a post ever since I heard this song a couple weeks back. The title really has no connection to this post as there is no girl in a blue dress and no dancing. However, it does signal that Mike Doughty’s new album is finally out and you should really go pick it up. Like right now. Like why are you still sitting reading this? Go! It’s ok…I’ll wait until you get back.

(Waits while you go to the Electric Fetus to purchase Mike Doughty’s “Golden Delicious”.)

Ahh, you’re back! Time to throw “Golden Delicious” on and enjoy the rest of my random thoughts. So, some of you have probably already received my e-mails praising Mike Doughty’s sonic genius. This album trumps “Haughty Melodic” and I thought that album was fucking brilliant. He definitely steps back towards the Soul Coughing days on this album and the whole record just feels more “danceable” than “Haughty Melodic”. He has progressed as an artist and has managed to deftly blend a smoother more refined Mike with the crazy New-York-Hipster-Mike from Soul Coughing. And it wouldn’t be Mike without the trademark “what the fuck?!?!” moments. The song “More Bacon than the Pan Can Handle” comes to mind in this instance and this is the closest he has gotten to the non-sensical scat lyrics from the days of yore (remember “Bus to Beelzebub”?). I still don’t understand that song. Speaking of which…and I know this is a total tangent from my review of Mike’s album but…I’m thinking of using that song title on a regular basis. Here’s an example hypothetical situation…

Co-Worker: Hey Dave. How’s it going?
Me: Dude, I’m swamped right now. More bacon than the pan can handle.
Co-Worker: Dude, that sucks.
Me: Yeah, I dunno. I guess I just consider it job security.
Co-Worker: Uh-huh. Whatever.

The phrase just flows off your tongue…more bacon than the pan can handle. Mmm…yeah. Anyway, Stacy and I are going to see Mr. Doughty at First Ave. in March. We got a hotel downtown and we’re making a weekend of it and going to both shows (March 22nd and 23rd). It will be a nice getaway for just the two of us and I finally get to ride the Northstar Light Rail which, by the way, I am completely fascinated with. Don’t ask my why, but I just find light rail transit to be mind-blowingly interesting. Yes, I am strange.

In other news, I rebuilt my LEGO Starbucks this weekend and it will be debuting at the La Crosse Model Train Show in two weeks (March 8th & 9th). Now the LEGO minifigs will have to choose between the wholesome goodness of the local “Café Corner” coffee shop and the soul-crushing corporate death that is Starbucks. I just have to make a few stickers for it this week. While building this MOC (My Own Creation), the song “Busting Up a Starbucks” came on and it seemed quite fitting…although I was not inclined to bust up my recently completed LEGO creation.

Stacy built a White Castle restaurant that will also be finding its way onto our layout at La Crosse. She continues to impress me with building competency and her creations are sheer Zen of LEGO bricks. It’s going to be a bit of a marathon the next couple weeks in the evenings to try and finish the layout by March 8th, but it looks like we will make it. We might be ballasting track the morning of the show, but everything else should get done in time.

That’s all for now kids. Keep your nose to the grindstone…

“I walked up to the accident…and I chatted up the girl inside. Will you be my friend? Will you be a friend of mine?”

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It’s Been Awhile…

I’ve just realized that it’s been about 2 1/2 months since either Stacy or I last posted here. I guess time really flies during the holiday season. I wish we had a good excuse for the absence other than laziness, but we don’t. I guess we just really haven’t had that much to write about lately. And we’ve been spending a good amount of time in the evening building LEGO creations in the basement. Ahh, the joys of being able to act like a kid. Here’s the run down on what we’ve been up to the past few months…

I went as Darth Vader for Halloween this year. I wore my costume to work and had a really good time with it. I had a sweet lightsaber and my costume looked pretty accurate. I wish Stacy had been there to play the part of Princess Leia. Anyway, I accidentally scared the daughter of one of my co-workers. Apparently the “Dark Lord of the Sith” is quite scary to a 2 year-old girl. Even after I took the mask off, she still wasn’t sure whether I was OK or not. Poor kid. Hopefully she’s not permanently traumatized. As usual we didn’t get an trick-or-treaters. *sigh*

Stacy got back from Europe the 2nd of November, which was awesome because I was almost out of Mac’N'Cheese and Bass. We has a bunch of people out for a bonfire in mid-November and that was a total blast. Those are the times I really love living out in the boonies. We spent the night burning through a bunch of surplus wood we had and listening to heavy metal at high volume. We even braved the rope swing after a few cocktails. Anyway, November flew by and before we knew it, Thanksgiving was knocking on the door. We spent it with my mom, dad, and sister playing Wii and having fun (Oh, I forgot to mention we bought a Wii somewhere between Halloween and Thanksgiving).

December started with shopping and lots of it. We like to shop early so we did quite a bit online starting on “Black Friday”. December was pretty quiet and we stayed in most weekends. A few holiday parties here and there, but not too much to note. We got quite a bit of snow, which was nice. It was good to have snow on the ground for Christmas. Stacy and I were off work starting the 21st of December since we had some left-over vacation to use. It was nice to have some time off to relax. We spent Christmas with her family and got back to home sweet home on the 26th. Then it was time to open our Christmas loot. It was a Star Wars, LEGO, video game Christmas this year and I think we spent the next week playing Rock Band, Wii, building LEGO sets, and watching movies. A perfect end to the year! New Years was uneventful. We watched the “Mythbusters” marathon while building some LEGO sets and were in bed by 12:30 am.

Now it’s January and all the pomp and circumstance of the holidays is over. It was back to work for both of us on Jan. 2nd…which was tough after almost two weeks off. We’ve slid back into the groove and our next big happening is probably a trip to “The Cities” in late-February. Until then, we’ll probably hang close to home on the weekends with the occasional trip to Rochester to go climbing and see Kev. See, you actually didn’t miss much the past few months. Maybe it wasn’t laziness that kept us from writing so much as it was lack of excitement. Oh well, we’re going to try for more regular posts this year. Stacy has some trips for work planned this year and I may go along on a couple…either for work or fun. Who knows where we’ll go or what we’ll see. This year holds some exciting things for us…I’m sure of it.

“Over and under, I’m feeling the thunder take hold. Feeling it flow through my veins, rock will never get old.”

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