Yesterday's Sunset

Good evening my dear friends!!!

It is SUCH a gorgeous evening, I decided to take a bit of time and lay on the hammock, read my latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and listen to some Kenny G as I watch the sun set.

Look how beautiful it is:

Now...if I only had my sister's wide angle lens....?! (I couldn't help it-this was just such a beautiful sunset)

While Chris is off gallivanting across the skies with a student, I am enjoying a quiet evening at home. I have gotten to enjoy one of the most wonderful and memorable weeks in a long time.

As many of you know, this past week was the annual Air Race Classic competition. We had a team from K-State Salina compete. While they did not win the race, they did well. They ended up 19 out of 32 teams and 5^th out of 7 collegiate teams. I am SO proud of them!

Not only did they get the opportunity of a lifetime, they gained valuable friendships and experiences that will forever change the way they fly. Air racing to me has been the pivot point of my aviation career, where I learned the most about both myself as a pilot and gained the confidence I needed as an instructor (and those of you who have instructed know that each flight with a student is an adventure!). I had countless memories and good times. Each one of them is priceless and has helped mold me into the pilot I am today.

This post is just a small tribute to the countless air racers across history, starting way back with the first “poweder puff derby” through 2009.

Thanks especially to the person who first inspired me to race, Carole Dawson.

Additionally, many thanks to the air race ladies from 2006 who helped make my first race so memorable. I have and will always hold a special place in my heart for the air race, those that competed, and the countless individuals that helped along the way.

So this evening as I fall asleep, I will be dreaming of my next race and also for a safe return to all those that raced this year.

Lunch with some Air Racers!

Today I had the privilege to have lunch with ARC 2009 Team # 16!! I was just leaving the office for lunch with my friend Lisa-when Chris texted me:

An Air Race Team just landed and is taxiing in

!!!!!

I nearly jumped out of my car. I was so excited! Lisa and I headed to the Stillwater terminal to find our new friends. We arrived and scoped out the area...no racers.... : (

But these ladies were just in the rest room : ) aha! (I should have known!) They had been flying all morning from Iowa and stopped to refuel, use the restroom, get some chow, and head off again.

I introduced myself and my friend, Lisa, and how I was related to the race (I was helping the K-State team and was a previous air race competitor) Luckily for me, there was some weather just south of Oklahoma City and the ladies agreed to have lunch with us. Just MY lucky day!

I have been following the racers all week and it was such a honor and privilege to take these ladies out to lunch. Chris was able to join us and we all had a nice time. It turns out that I had raced with one of these ladies before-! In 2007-the year the race was to Canada, one of these ladies was racing that year. It was also the year we were disqualified, but a race is a race, and it was a blast anyway.

These ladies finished the race successfully and had a good time. They are en route to Texas this afternoon. Well, maybe-I think they are going to Oklahoma City and hanging out there until the weather passes...but either way-Texas is their final destination.

Thanks ladies for such a wonderful surprise. : ) What a wonderful lunch!

Space Food?

This morning over my breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, I decided to flip on the TV and check some weather...but got distracted with the NASA channel-who would have thought-me get distracted with NASA?!

Today's edition was talking about space food and what the astronauts eat and how the scientists decide what to send up and also about how far food technology has come in the last few decades. It was really interesting to watch. The astronauts actually go to the food lab and sample a number of foods to pick out a personalized menu so that the astronauts can enjoy what they are eating in space. Kinda cool. However, I would hate to pick an item like orange juice to have every day for breakfast...and then get to space and not like it. See next paragraph to explain this more.

The show also discussed how there is a fluid shift and sometimes people have different food preferences in space. They discussed how to make up for that is to provide a variety of foods and also offer hot sauce and stuff like that. I just kept thinking-I wonder if i would be able to eat hot sauce in space?! (as I can hardly stand most hot foods, that would be a feat to eat tobasco sauce in space-and not blink twice!)

Who knows...maybe my taste buds just need a few orbits to be able to handle hot foods?!

Combines...combines...combines!!!

Here's what I miss seeing on a regular basis:



Last weekend, Chris and I had the privilege of going to harvest with his dad's friends who all used to "custom harvest" together. Terry harvested with this crew for 4 years. While I am not a harvester myself, I could see how much fun he had with the crew, as these were some of the best times he had, not to mention he met Carol during this time. The group Terry worked with would harvest from Texas and travel to Canada, cutting crops for farmers.

I don't think I have ever seen a combine-ok-well not in "real" life-but I had the opportunity to DRIVE a combine!!! This was pretty exciting for a person who has never really spent much time working on a farm.

Here's Chris, myself and Terry in the combine:



I have only heard stories of "the good ole days" of custom harvesting, and it was a pleasure to have FINALLY met the people of these stories. When Chris and I travel to England some time, we will get to visit them more and have a good people to stay with.


From left to right:
Robin, Theresa, Carol, Terry, Chris, Charlie, Robert (the Laws call him Bert)




PS: I have made a link to this on the right, but here is the link to the K-State girls' Air Race Classic blog:
K-State ARC Blog

You can also click on the right side of my blogger links-and see it there as well : )

Air Race Classic 2009...!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

As many of you know, I am an avid Air Race Classic fan and previous competitor. This year, I have the distinct privilege to be the “updater” for the Kansas State University Salina team! So-I will probably be slacking on this blog, but please stay updated on the status of the team via their blog at:
KSUS-AIR-RACE-CLASSIC-TEAM

Also, see the current race route:
AirRaceClassic2009

Chris and I may get the opportunity to harvest….so if we do, look forward to my first harvest experience!

Happy Birthday Chris! (Yesterday)

Life has been SO busy that I didn't even have a chance to brag on Chris on his birthday! (although his mom did write a nice blog post about it!!)

Yesterday was Chris' Birthday and it was a good one. Despite my best efforts, he did find out about almost all of the surprises I was trying to do for him for his birthday! Being the good husband he is, he was only doing what I told him to-and cleaned off the table for dinner-and found a receipt with items that included:
hen
brownies

Need I say more? He found out that I was going to bake him brownies and make chicken and noodles. DRAT! grr! If he weren't such a good guy and so meticulous about receipts! I should have known!

Needless to say, he did not find out about the Phi Delta Theta picture that I attained, courtesy of our friend, Delton. This pic was of the "founding fathers" of the Salina, KS chapter. It is really a nice pic that I was able to copy/reprint and I even got it framed. So, after all my efforts, at least I did get to surprise him on SOMETHING!

We even had a small party at the flight center for him-I took brownies and the secretary out there brought ice cream. : ) It was good to see him smiling and feeling so special-as I don't get to spoil him all that often.

At the end of the day, I did make chicken and noodles...not QUITE as good as either his mom's or Delton's....but not bad for trying a new recipe...that measures ingredients in a way that I have never measured before (Chris said it's "precise" as it was handed down from his grandma!). There was one part of the noodle recipe that said something to the effect of:
If dough feels too wet, add flour-but not too much

oh-and my favorite part was something about measuring the milk-like 2 and 1/2 shells of milk per egg.

I have never measured quite like that before, but estimated and called it good...I guess that's the "good ole way" to measure?!

I bet I will have to try the recipe a few more times before I get it right...but don't get your hopes up!! It's awefully HOT outside for chicken N noodles on a weekly basis!

Well, dinner did end up ok and was in fact pretty tasty. We had a few friends over and enjoyed the evening with good food and good company.

Happy Birthday Chris!!!

Going Cross-Eyed Today

Today seems like the end to a VERY long week...I don't know what made it SO long...but maybe just waking up early today did the trick?

Today we had "grandparents-U" where grandparents (I think they were all alumni) and their grandkids came to the university and participated with different departments-kind of like a camp. Chris and I were up with the sun and off to the airport for flights. Like most days where there was a "plan" to go on a flight...the weather decided to creep in. A storm was brewing and lingering just north of Stillwater. Luckily for us, we all got out of town before the big ghost of a storm "slimed" us with rain, hail, lightning, and thunder. However, we all returned to the news that there was around tennis ball sized hail...! (and nearly all of us had hail damage on our vehicles!)

On the positive side of things, we did get about 1/2 the fleet of planes out before the hail hit...so that means 1/2 of the fleet IS dent free from hail! Lucky us!

Other than that exciting news, we got a call from "grandpa" Willis the other night-Chris' gpa. SO-since I have been slacking on the blog lately, I thought I'd send a quick update.

Tomorrow is a baby shower for a dear friend of mine. I am SO excited about the present I am giving her...! But I will not reveal the present until AFTER the shower! But it is SWEET! Ah the fun memories!

Well, over and out-they are shutting the office down and I think that is my cue to get outa here!

Thanks for the MANY birthday wishes!

Yesterday was my birthday!~!~! Thanks to each of you for the many birthday wishes I received!!

In addition to my birthday, it was also the first day of my new job. I went from being a full time secratary to a part time employee. My new title is: Graduate Assistant to the Facilities Manager. YAY! Now what does that mean?(I have no idea-but it will sure be fun to find out!!) Well, ok-so I kind-of know what I will be doing...but it will just take a few weeks to settle into the position and figure out where we want to go from where we are at now.

Last semester I had a course on quality management-including it's principles as well as several different tools used in quality. On a short note, quality is all about making a quality product-and striving to get the product perfect every time to a given set of standards. That is one version of the definition. The part that I think is most facinating is using different processes to make a product-but simplifying the process it takes to make a product---creating a process with less error-or fewer mistakes.

So basically-I have my mission of daily tasks-and from the little I know now in my new job, I get to refine this current process and change it in any way that is reasonable to make the process more efficient, and essentially easier to use. I am excited as I LOVE to create things and figure things out. So I look forward to the daily challenges that await me.

Additionally, while I am starting a new job, Chris is doing some "administrative hours" at the flight center-where he gets to assist them with the programs and tweaking them to make them even better. I know he's excited about the whole project and challenges that lie ahead there as well.