Monday

Tried to get Shuttle Launch viewing tickets for the causeway, but was unsuccessful.  Did have an opportunity to purchase visitor center viewing tickets, but decided if we go, we'd rather fight the crowds at Space Park in Titusville.

Work from home.

Tuesday

Work from home.

Went to the dentist in the afternoon to get a cavity in #16 (my only remaining wisdom tooth) filled.  My dentist is the best at giving Novocain shots of any dentist I've ever seen - no pain at all.

Wednesday

Work from home.

Thursday

Worked from home.

We received an invitation to watch the Shrimp Festival parade at 29 South at the corner of 3rd and Ash Streets from a couple of the volunteers that Jeanie works with at Barnabas, so we headed downtown around 5:30 PM.  Had a lovely time sitting with Georgia, Bill, Dianne and Mark.  Weather was perfect - not too hot, not too cool.  Fortunately 29 South had a couple of pescatarian friendly hors d'oeuvres and I actually drank a beer which I quite enjoyed.

Friday

Worked from home.

Jeanie drove to Darrien, GA, which is about 1/2 way between Savannah and our home, to meet Jay to pick up the three grand-nephews. 

Early afternoon, I headed to the island to get a haircut then came back home to continue working, as I had a deliverable to complete and a 4:00 PM conference call to attend.

Jeanie arrived back home around 5:30 PM.  Jeanie made a lovely Mexican dinner consisting of cheese quesadillas, refried beans, cheese dip and salsa with chips.  We had planned to take the boys downtown to watch the Shrimp Festival pirate invasion and fireworks, but it didn't start until very late (9:30 PM) and the weather was threatening, so we started watching Avatar on DVD instead.  Around 9:30, about 1/2 way through Avatar, Tyler says "I'm tired, and it's past our bed time, would it be okay if we finished watching Avatar tomorrow?"  Pretty mature for a nine year old!

Saturday

Had breakfast then packed up the boys and headed downtown to attend the Shrimp Festival.  Decided to park at one of the "park and ride" locations - Southside Elementary - rather than hassle with trying to find a parking place near center street, and having to settle for parking blocks and blocks away, then having to drag the three boys so far.  Worked out pretty well.  Was funny to sit in a school bus.  Bus dropped us off right at 8th and Center.  Went straight to the Kid's Zone.  All three boys did the bungee jumping and appeared to have a great time.  Then I took the two older boys to the rock climbing wall while Tripp went to large inflated pirate ship slide/jumpy thing.  We had told the boys they could only do two attractions, but we broke down and let Tyler do the rock climbing one more time, and let Tanner do the pirate ship thing.

Walked up to 6th and got shrimp quesadillas for all of us and sat in the shade of the Methodist church and ate.  Then walked up to 7th and bought a couple of smoothies to share from the "Friends of Fernandina Beach Aviation" booth.

Caught the bus and rode back to the car, then drove home.  We were only home a few minutes when Jay and Tricia arrived.

Ate heavy hors d'oeuvres but decided to wait to go fly as the winds/gusts were quite strong.  Finished watching the end of Avatar, then headed to the airport.

Unfortunately, just as we got to the airport, a low layer of scud appeared on the horizon.  We had to wait until it passed, then we started loading up.  First, we put Tripp in the right front seat and let him "drive" the plane to the FBO ramp.  This is quite fun for me, because the child doesn't realize that the plane is steered on the ground with your feet, so I keep my hands off the yoke and they really do think they are driving.

Shut down, picked up Tyler and Jay, and took off for some sight seeing.  Visibility was okay, but not great.  Went up to the north end of the island, then headed down south, but didn't quite make it to the southern tip before we had to turn around due to rain.  Was just starting to get dusky as we landed.  Nice smooth landing.

Put the plane up, then drove around the airport so we could look at the lighted runways (all three) then drove to Tony's for pizza.

Home, baths, bed.

Sunday

Tricia and Tanner got up early and we headed to the airport around 7:30.  Weather was beautiful.

Tricia taxied us to the run-up area, then I did the run-up and took off, then as soon as we were clear of the pattern, Tricia took the controls and flew us up to around Jekyll Island.  She did turns, climbs, descents, rudder work, and we discussed changing power settings and how that affects the aircraft as well as elevator trim.  When we got near the pattern, I took the controls back, and we landed.  Decent landing, although Tanner thought it was hard.

Put up the airplane and Tricia, Tanner and I walked over to the FBO to chat with the Sunday coffee crowd while we waited for the rest of the gang to come pick us up so we could head back to the Shrimp Festival.  A few of the EAA members were there, and they were kind enough to offer to open up the EAA hangar so we could see the new Skyboy the chapter had purchased.  Rest of the gang arrived and they came over as well.

Went to the Shrimp Festival.  I broke off from the pack and headed to Front street to get some Shrimp Etouffee before starting my noon-to-three shift in the smoothie booth.  Then headed up to the smoothie booth.  Started in the base/soda mixing position, then was promoted to the machine running position, then finally was promoted to the smoothie cup filling position.  As always, it was quite fun.  It was busy enough that we were hopping pretty much the entire time, with just a few lulls to allow us to catch our breath.  One negative was that I forgot how loud it is in the booth between the three machines and the ladies hawking, so I got a bit of a headache.  I have become much more aware of the fragility of our hearing mechanisms, and am trying as much as possible to protect what's left of my hearing - unfortunately, I don't think working the smoothie booth furthered that endeavor.

At three, said my good-byes to the gang and called Jeanie to ask her to come pick me up.  Walked up to 8th and Date where Jeanie met me and took me home.

Had left over pizza, watched some TV, then went to bed.

What a great extended weekend!

Monday

Work from home.  Went to the dentist for a cleaning in the afternoon and then drove to Jax Beach to take my mother out to dinner.  We went to the Salt Life Seafood Shack.  Jeanie and my mother had been there a number of times and liked it.  I thought it was okay, but nothing to write home about.  This seemed to mirror the sentiment on UrbanSpoon.

Tuesday

Work from home.

Wednesday

Work from home.

Left the house around 5:00 PM to go fly.  Did three full stop landings.  The second landing was one of my best ever.  Full stall at touchdown and feather smooth.  After flying I went to talk with Keoki for a while and when he asked why I had such a big smile on my face, I realized it was because I had a LOT of fun flying.

Stayed and chatted with Keoki until it was about time for the CAP squadron monthly safety meeting.  Chatted with the soon to be new squadron commander David (who is one of the check pilots and also a member of the flying club) and went to look at the new paint job on the club plane with him.

After the safety meeting, chatting with David a bit more, then talked on the phone with Andy until it was an hour past sunset, then cranked up the plane to renew my night currency.  Winds were totally calm, so I was able to use runway 26 which is good for noise abatement (especially considering it was so late).  The temperature / dew point spread was only 1 degree, so I decided to just stay in the pattern in case ground fog developed.  All three of my landings were acceptable, but I definitely find flying at night (especially when just doing take-offs and landings) to be more work and not as much fun as during the day.  Anyway, it's good to be current for another 90 days.

Thursday

Work from home.

Installed PGP whole disk encryption on my work laptop.  The timing of doing this was good, as the pre-installation involved running a disk check which meant there was lots of waiting time.

I used this waiting time to try to purchase launch viewing tickets for the next shuttle launch - STS-132 on May 14.  I started trying to access the purchase site at 8:45 AM.  I was running two different browsers on three different machines, but was unable to access the site.  At 11:30 AM I was finally able to connect to the site.  This is what I got:

The good news is: we will get another chance to get tickets.

Got assigned to a new engagement.

Went to the airport for a 6:00 p.m. special EAA chapter meeting.  The purpose of the meeting was to vote on authorizing the aircraft search committee to make an offer on a new-to-us InterPlane Aircraft SkyBoy.  Even though the chapter had been looking for quite some time to purchase a kit for us to build, this aircraft appeared to be a very good deal that would meet the vast majority of the mission parameters the membership wanted.  After the meeting, I wandered over and chatted with Keoki while he worked on continuing the sanding and painting of the fuselage tubing on his Pitts.

Friday

Worked from home.

One year anniversary of being a pescatarian.

Saturday

Went mattress shopping with Jeanie.  First off, my goodness, are those things made from spun gold?!?  You'd think so given their prices.  Second, too many choices!  Conventional spring, latex foam, memory foam, air, hybrid, fixed base or motion base, firm, plush, pillow top, eurotop, arg!!!  Long story short, we (well, I) didn't make a purchasing decision.  We also shopped for a new T.V. to replace the one in our living room that is dying.  Same problem as #2 above. plasma, LCD, LED/LCD, size, refresh rate, resolution, arg!!!  Also looked for a new home theater receiver to replace our Sony unit that is dying.  Choices are a little simpler, but the one store we looked at didn't have very good stock.  My thought now is that I'll buy the new receiver at the same time I buy the new T.V., whenever that is.

Sunday

Coffee at the airport.  Learned that the local EAA chapter had in fact been able to purchase a new-to-us InterPlane Aircraft Skyboy.  It looks like a lot of fun, and I am looking to fly it.  Hopefully, it will be in the EAA hangar by next week, although the chapter may decide to have the engine (a Rotax 582) rebuilt before we start flying it.  Stayed a while after to talk with Patrick about the Citabria.  Looks like nothing will happen for the next few weeks one way or the other.

Came home, feasted on fish tacos, then diagnosed the problem with the sprinkler head that gushed ever time the irrigation system got to that zone.  The problem was that the PVC pipe was cracked at the T connector for the sprinkler head.  Probably because I drove over it.  Went to Lowe's to pick up some parts.  Tried to fix the pipe and realized I needed some special part to enable me to splice in the fix, as there was no way to get both ends of the broken pipe into a standard coupler as there was no "give" on either stub of pipe.  Did some research on the Internet and decided I now had a good excuse to visit the new Ace Hardware on island.  As has been my experience in the past, they had a friendly, helpful person who was able to help me find just the part I needed, that being, a "Qwik Fix PVC Repair Coupling 1/2HXS"

The key to this particular part is that one end is a standard 1/2" PVC hub (female), the other side is a standard 1/2" PVC pipe (spigot, male), and the "magic" is that the PVC pipe has an internal bushing that allows the pipe to telescope 2" - enough to glue the hub to one piece of the broken pipe, and then extend the other end into the coupler connected to the other end of the broken pipe.  I was also grateful for the education on working with PVC pipe that I received from our former neighbor in Cary.  Installed a couple of stakes to help straighten the fig tree in the front yard, and one to help straighten the elm in the back yard.

Monday

Awoke at 5:00 AM to go watch the STS-131 shuttle launch with Jeanie and Tammy. Might have been the best ever - it was absolutely spectacular!  As an added bonus, 20 minutes before launch, we got to watch the Intl Space Station cross the pre-dawn sky.  Sky was crystal clear.  We left early enough that we were able to drive to American Beach.  We were the only vehicle on that part of the beach.  Beautiful deep red pillar of flame as the shuttle ascended.  Then, just about the time that the boosters cut off and it was getting difficult to see the light of the main engines, the sun, which was just a bit below the horizon, lit up not only the shuttle making it much more visible, but illuminated the exhaust from the main engines creating a beautiful "V" shaped veil behind the ascending shuttle.  By the time the shuttle dropped out of sight (which might have been as long as five minutes after launch) the sky had turned a glorious hue of red right above the horizon, stretching up to the still deep blue of pre-dawn.  An unexpected extra coolness was that several minutes after we lost sight of the shuttle, we partially heard / partially felt a low, deep rumble; as best I could tell, that was the sound of the shuttle's rockets - way cool!  Temperature was just right - had on a long sleeved shirt, a fleece vest and my black pile lined jacket and I was just right.  Thought to bring the beach chairs so we were comfy.  Got better video than last time, as I remembered to set the camera to manual focus, but our camera just isn't really good enough to capture the launch properly, and it just distracts me from being in the moment and enjoying the show - so I think it might be the last time I bother.

Got home, Wendy and Tammy packed up the van and headed back north.

I started my class for work.  The class was on a new software application that is one of the key tools I use.  The class was taught using a Virtual Learning Center web based tool.  I was a bit apprehensive about how effective it would be, but I was very pleasantly surprised at how effective it actually was.  the VLC is web based and all of the students and teachers log in.  Audio (both listen and talk) is handled either through the speakers and microphone built into the laptop, or (as in my case) using a headset plugged into the laptop.  The screen displays whatever is on the presenter's system - in our case sometimes a set of Powerpoint slides and sometimes the new application.  The VLC also allows the teacher to pass control of the display to one of the students so that if you are having a problem, you can actually show the teacher and the rest of the class what you are doing.  It really was quite cool.  In addition to the lecture portion, there was exercises that were interspersed that allowed me to actually use the tool.  The exercises were well constructed with just the right mix of step-by-step instruction and areas where you had to figure it out.  For the areas where you had to figure it out, there was a cheat sheet that you could use to help you get through if you got stuck.  And of course, you could always raise your hand (virtually) and ask for help from the instructor if you really got stuck.

Tuesday

Class.

Wednesday

Class.

Thursday

Work from home.

Some rotten spammer once again spoofed my mail domain and I am getting deluged with undeliverable mail notifications.  Fortunately, they spoofed the dealdom domain rather than the witsdom domain, so it's not interfering with my important mail receipt / delivery.  It's just a pain having to delete all the notifications.

Friday

Took the day off to do our taxes.  Fortunately, we do a good job of filing our tax related stuff throughout the year and maintaining our financial records in Quicken, so between that and using Turbo Tax, doing the taxes isn't that hard.

Before I could start the taxes however, I had to clean off the desk so I had room for all the tax stuff and so that the tax stuff wouldn't get lost amidst the clutter.  It was nice to have a relatively clean desk.

Even though I' am usually pretty well organized when I start doing our taxes, I still find it extremely stressful.  Anyway, I got through it, but decided to not actually press the E-File button until tomorrow, so I would have one more chance to double check the return with fresh eyes and a (relatively) clear mind.

Saturday

Breakfast at T-Ray's.  Jeanie had French toast, I had scrambled eggs, grits and a biscuit.  They have the best grits I've ever had.  Smooth, thick and creamy.  Biscuits are just like the ones they used to make a Biscuit King in Durham.  Oh, for a piece of country ham.

Went to the farmer's market.  Jeanie bought some really pretty Vidalia green onions.  Looked like large scallions with a small white onion bulb at the bottom.  Walked down to the marina and Jeanie finally was able to find her friend's boat that is moored in the river.  Walked over to the visitor's center and got some brochures for her parent's "vacation" at our house.

Drove to the airport and talked with Patrick for a while about his airplane.  He was going to take Jeanie for a ride, but he found an issue during pre-flight that while not major - a broken clamp for the exhaust shroud - was enough to ground the airplane.

Came home and I finished up our taxes.  Ended up having to print them rather than being able to E-File because the car we donated to NPR didn't actually sell until January which prevented us from being able to E-File.

Sunday

Couldn't sleep, so I did some research on Citabrias.  Confirmed that with Jeanie and me, both wearing parachutes, with half-tanks of fuel, we would be (barely) within weight and balance limits for aerobatics.

Coffee at the airport.  Small crowd - only Art, Joe, Keoki and Bob S.  Stayed for about 90 minutes and then walked over to Keoki's office and chatted for almost another hour.

Got home around noon.  Had lunch, then Jeanie and I loaded up the rest of the Christmas stuff that was still in the garage, along with some empty Rubbermaid bins, and went to the storage unit.  Put some of the loose Christmas items in the unit into bins, did some rearranging, got everything into the unit, then went to Wal*Mart to pick up a few groceries.

Returned home.  Jeanie ironed some shirts for me and I puttered around.