It Ain't Every Day...

...that your flight instructor makes the first story on the nightly news. Yup, my flight instructor made the news...he was on a training flight with a student when the aircraft they were flying lost power and they had to make an emergency landing. And that landing was in a bean field....a wet, soggy bean field which caused the plane to flip on its top. Both the student and instructor were fine. I remember when I was training about all the emergency procedures we practiced. I am pretty confident that if the situation would arise, I would be able to put my plane down safely. It's a sobering thing when something like this happens to someone in the pilot community that you are a part of...at least for me it is.











A view from the air of how the plane came to rest.











A view from the ground, you can see the front nose wheel bent back toward the main gear. When landing on soft ground conditions and the nosewheel digs into the earth, it wants to flip the plane.

Muffin-Top Monday #2

And for this weeks installment of Muffin-Top Monday we have this:

I Got Nothin

Yup, that's right, I got nothin'. I'm sitting here drinking my coffee, trying to figure out what I want for breakfast: banana almond muffin, or egg sandwich on toast.... think I'll go with the egg. I scored another cabinet job, a wall of cabinets around a fireplace, floor to ceiling. It's a rather easy job, four cabs, bases and uppers, with a bridge above the fireplace and crown molding. I've got a design and estimate to finish today for some more cabinets/bookcases around a fireplace. Something I can get creative with, which I always like. A cabinet install job I looked at in June is about ready to start, and I've got another estimate for garage cabinets due on thursday. Just a little busy. And that's a good thing.

Why?

Why are people assholes? I just got off the phone with my brother. He called to ask me if I had his wife's key to her Harley...No, why? Because it's gone...somebody stole it! At first I thought it was at my parent's house where she had it sitting out for sale(they live on a busy highway, easy place to sell vehicles). But he said she brought it home(out in bumfuck Indiana) to wash it and it was sitting behind the house. I could see it getting lifted from a high density highway, but not out in the middle of nowhere. Why do people have the need to steal stuff? It wasn't even my bike and I'm ready to go on a manhunt. Some people just need a good ass kickin'!

Muffin-Top Monday #1

Welcome to Muffin-Top Monday...My attempt at displaying the unsightly fashion sense that results in the muffin-top.

I will now constantly be on the lookout when I am out and about for muffin-tops, and try to capture them on film(or go to jail trying).

Muffin Top

Just have to share. I was driving home from a meeting this morning and saw a jogger. This was in a more affluent part of town, not that that has anything to do with it. Anyhoo, she had on the sports bra and tight stylish name-brand running shorts and she was sporting.....the muffin top. After seeing this, I couldn't stop thinking about the muffin top. So I got on wikipedia and searched. This is what I found:

Muffin Tops is slang for people who wear both tight fitting low-rise jeans/pants, and midriff-baring tops. In many people, the resulting spillage of skin is said to resemble a muffin top.
The appearance of muffin tops has increased dramatically in recent years due to the popularization of stretch-pants, as well as low-rise jeans. Jeans are usually considered a slimming article of clothing, but when improperly sized give the illusion of being fat.
On an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Stacy London (host of TLC's What Not to Wear) noted the muffin top as the number one jean-related fashion crime. Oprah called it "Dunlap syndrome" because "That's when your stomach done lap over your jeans".
In an attempt to avoid the Muffin Top, and to appease the gradual shift away from low-rise, manufacturers have introduced mid-rise jeans which come up higher on the waist and eliminate the Muffin Top. Mid-Rise has proved popular across North America and manufacturers have also introduced fresh styles of High-Rise jeans.

I also found a story in the NY daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/330221p-281994c.html

Am I fascinated by the muffin top? Maybe, but more in a Seinfeld kind of way, "it's hideous, but I just can't look away". And I'm not ripping on the muffin top, I'm far from being buff like mr. universe...it just fascinates me that this is now some kind of fashion trend. So there you have it, my muffin top story. Maybe I should start a Muffin Top Monday posting.

I would so love it if y'all would share your muffin top stories, it would make me feel so much better.

Losing It

So I've been working at my grandma's house the past couple days. She has this 5'x6' add-on space where her woodstove sits, and the ceiling needed replaced. So this morning I go to finish up the trim and some touch-up painting. When I got there she had been on the phone with a relative, I think a cousin of my deceased grandpa. So she tells me about a member of the area(I live in the middle of nowhere, so there is no town...so I'm calling it the area) Bill P who passed away. And then she tells me again about 30 minutes later...and then she tells me it was someone else 30 minutes later, Bill W...and then it went back to the original person, but it was his wife Judy P...then she was on the phone with my aunt and she told her Judy P, at least she thought that's who was dead. All the while she says she can't remember because they were talking about Bill P and Judy P, and Bill W lives close by...and every few sentances she says she's losing it.

So anyhoo, I am confused and I don't know who died. That folks, is my grandma, Bless Her Heart. I just know she used to not be this way, but one of my aunts is always telling her she is losing it, so I think she has started believing it. I think a lot of it has to do with the guy she remarried a few years ago. This guy is starting to rub me the wrong way. He owns a small campground/fishing pond and whenever my grandma is over there she is mowing or doing some other kind of work for him. Not exactly a problem, but here's the rub- he can't even bring his sweet-ass zero-turn mower to my grandma's house to mow her yard--it's too difficult to load and unload the mower onto the trailer. So my 78 year-old g-ma is out there mowing her acre of yard with a push mower. I was pretty pissed at hearing about him and the mower story, so I mowed her yard for her today. I try to distance myself from getting involved , but today I just got rubbed the wrong way. I'm close with my whole family, and I don't like it when people fuck with them and treat them like second-class.

All right enough of my rant, I feel better now. Time to go mow my yard.

Wine Hangovers

Wine hangovers suck! Had a wine party this weekend. Lots of fun. Total of 13 wines, I think...I lost count after number 5. I made mini cheesecakes, a big white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, and hot crab dip; and some gouda, sharp chedder, brie and camembert cheese. So here's the rundown, as best I can recall: Blackstone Merlot, Fetzer Gewurztraminer, Chateua Grand Traverse Semidry Reisling, Sutter Home Moscato, Elk Plains A Little Peachy, Bowers Harbor Cooper, Traverse Bay Cherry Ginseng, Beechwood Mansion(French Lick) Catawba, Oliver Soft Red, Oliver Soft Rose, Easly Reggae White, Elk Plains Concord Beauty, Elk Plains Strawberry, Some winery from Florida Blueberry. I couldn't pick a favorite, because so many were soooo goood!


The first five...






















The second five....











Minis...














Awesome Crab Dip...













Other snacks..wiped out!

Another weekend...

..down the tubes. I went to an orchard on Friday, a guy I met through a construction discussion board has an apple orchard, and peaches! So I went and bought a bushel o' peaches, What am I gonna do with a bushel 'o peaches?? Well make wine of course! So I've got the wine started. The last peach wine I made turned out verrrryy alcoholic, and not so peachy. This time I'll get it right. And speaking of wine, one of my wines got a bronze medal at the Indy International Wine competition. This is the second largest amateur wine competition in the nation, where they grade the wines on a points system. However many points you get determines your placing. It's pretty cool.
Went canoeing on Sunday, always fun. I'm considering getting a kayak...tried my friends kayak out and it was a lot of fun. But of course today my shoulders are tight and achy. It's all good. So how was your weekend?

August 3 HNT

As per some suggestions, here is my arm in all it's glory... sporting a farmer's tan. Happy HNT!!