Back at home

Tired. Very tired. Two days off and I fly out on Saturday.

Fry's had 300 GB Maxtor hard drives on sale....picked up on for the Media Center. Running great now.

New camera works great.

Flying at 40,000 feet was fun.

I made 2 really smooth landings and one...eh...landing.

Time to rest.

Christmas Day

So Christmas Day 2007. I am in Indianapolis, Indiana. Why? Because I am working. I am staying at a very nice hotel, The Hyatt Place. The hotel is very new and updated. The rooms are very nice with warm colors, nice wooden furniture and a 42 inch Plasma HDTV with actual HD content! For Christmas dinner I am having a Subway sandwich. Very tasty. Kelli and I knew going in we would likely not spend too many holidays together.

 

The Sims 2 ....very liberal

So I have spent the week playing The Sims 2. I am having a good time. I actually took a Character thru College....graduated, married, had kids, took the kid to College, the main Character died, I then took the kid thru College again and married. Apparently the Sims 2 is quite liberal. I was playing around with a female character and low and behold....she kissed a girl! Heck the game allows same sex dating, kissing and even whoopie! I only tried with a female character. Took her thru college, married and had her "hook up" with a guy just to get preggo and then back with her girlfriend. Quite the game.

Thursday.....

So I was a little off on when I was leaving for Chicago. I leave Saturday afternoon for Chicago. I stay in a hotel overnight and start flying on Sunday. Sunday is going to be a busy day. I leave Chicago at noon for Cleveland. We touchdown at 2:20PM and take off again at 2:50PM back for Chicago. We touchdown at 3:25PM and get a "break" until 5:05PM when we leave for Detroit. We arrive at 7:25PM (there is a time change) and leave again....30 minutes later. We get back to Chicago at 8:20PM with an hour break and leave for Oklahoma City at 9:25 arriving at 11:30PM. Long day! The next two days are much easier with just 2 flights per day. I do spend Christmas Day in Indianapolis. I arrive at 10:30AM and don't leave until 6AM the day after Christmas. I am done on Tuesday at 11:30 AM. I have a 1PM flight back to Dallas. Hmm.....that's only an hour and a half difference. As long as the weather is good it shouldn't be a problem.

So I was past my Amazon free trial period. I ordered a few more things and then sent an email asking if I canceled now would I get anything back.  Well they did something unexpected. They canceled the Amazon Prime account....even though I had used several "benefits". Nice I guess. I didn't say I wanted to cancel...just "what if". Oh well. The camera (Canon SD1000) arrived last night. Very nice camera. It's both easy to use and VERY customizable. One thing I don't like. The battery has to be removed from the camera to charge. The last camera would charge with the battery inside.

The Media Center is having issues. While watching TV it will pause, have lots of hard drive activity, then either skip ahead or lock up. There are no errors in the error log about hard drive failure. I will likely just buy a new drive and have it dedicated to recorded TV.

Holiday Shopping

So I have had my eye on a new digital camera for a while. The Canon SD1000. It is a small, full featured point and shoot camera. I wanted a camera that was easy to use, fast start up and recorded video at 640x480 with 30fps.  This one fit the bill. It was on sale for $150 the day after Thanksgiving...but I missed it. Since then local stores have had it for $180-$250. Amazon has had a fairly steady $165.  Speaking of Amazon...popular items have several different prices throughout the day. I also wanted a Zune. The price fluctuates over a $20 spread most days. Anyways I finally ordered the camera last night. Some time in the past I signed up for a free trial of "Amazon Prime" that gives huge discounts in shipping in exchange for a yearly fee. I am still in my free trial period. I got overnight shipping for my camera for $3! I ordered some shirts and socks with free 2 day shipping. Shirts and socks? Yeah Christmas gift to myself. I actually need white undershirts and black socks.

I am almost done shopping for Kelli. Three gifts down...one or two to go.

American Eagle announced massive openings yesterday. This isn't a growth spurt. It's the results of a mad rush to the exits. There are over 200 openings at American Eagle right now. All on jets. The pilot shortage is here. I talked about getting in the flying years ago after reading about the predicted shortage.

I think I leave Saturday. I am going to call the training center today and firm a few things up.

For now....The Sims 2.

Good day at work

I had a good day at work. Less than a week until Christmas and I only have one gift for Kelli. Not sure what else to get. We are spending less this year given our smaller household income.....plus we don't really need/want much.

Next August is rapidly approaching. My payoff on my car will be $15K. The trade in will be around $18-19K. I will likely buy it.....or buy a car with 0% financing. I dunno. I have pretty picky taste on cars. We will see.

I have the next few days off. I start work in Chicago on Friday. I will be flying up there on Thursday. My first time flying will be out of Chicago....in the winter. Can't wait.

The following photo was taken from in Montrose, Colorado yesterday. I downloaded it from my aviation blog with the webmasters permission.

Going up

Today is my first time on the "real plane". I won't be flying it though...just observing. I will be sitting in the cockpit as the 3rd man. I will be observing 4 flights today. I will observe a flight to Oklahoma City and back and then to Montrose, Colorado and back. First flight leaves at 7:25 AM and I should be back by 3:45 PM. I should start flying for real tomorrow or Wednesday.

Weekend was okay. We went to Kelli's Christmas party Saturday night where she proceeded to get drunk and then some as she does every year. This year was the pinnacle of her drinking though. That's all I will say about that.

I realized I didn't have any black shoes last night. Well I have black shoes....but they are scuffed up. I bought a new pair. Not sure how happy I am with them......will see.

I don't have my parking pass yet so I have to park in regular people parking. I should get my pass tomorrow.

Let's go to the airport.....to work.