Monday - Tuesday

Normal work from home.

Wednesday

Worked from home in the morning.  Our dear friends Bob and Wendy arrived late afternoon.  They brought their new puppy Brie, a Maltichon (AKA: Maltese Bichon Frise Mix).  Wendy also referred to the "breed" as a Coton de Tulear, but a quick bit of research leads me to believe this is an entirely different breed.  Regardless, Brie is a really sweet dog, and is as cute as can be.  Unfortunately, I guess we didn't do a good enough job of socializing our dogs, as they were a bit aggressive towards Brie, so they ended up spending the majority of the week locked in our bedroom.

Thursday

Had a great Thanksgiving with Bob and Wendy.  Had a yummy Thanksgiving meal. Was able to resist the Turkey we cooked for Bob and Wendy, and really didn't miss it. We all took a nice walk on the beach. And if all of that wasn't enough, we watched the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle streak across the evening sky just before 7:00 PM. We truly are blessed, and grateful for our bounty.

Friday

Bob and I flew to Jekyll Island and walked around the Jekyll Island Club.  The girls drove to Jacksonville to shop.

Saturday

Great day with Bob and Wendy.  Drove down to Daytona for a car show.  Left the house around 8:30, got there just before 11:00.  They didn't allow pets, so Jeanie and Wendy stayed with Brie while Bob and I walked around the car show.  The show occupied the entire infield of the Daytona Raceway, but unlike Charlotte, there were no cars on the track itself.  Left Daytona around 3:00, did a quick pass through St. Augustine on the way home and then took A1A and the ferry on the way back from St. Augustine.  We lucked out and got to the ferry just as it was starting to load, and got to see the last of the sunset from the ferry.  Played "restaurant" for dinner, watched an episode of "White Collar" then called it a day.

Sunday

Bob and I went to the coffee at the airport, then we all drove back down to St. Augustine.  Drove down Heckshere, took the ferry, then took A1A.  Had lunch at Cruisers Grill.  Bob and Wendy had grilled chicken sandwiches, Jeanie and I had fish tacos.  It took a bit of effort, but Jeanie was finally able to convince the waitress to make her fish tacos with crisp corn tortilla shells rather than the soft flour tortillas.  Bob and Wendy said the chicken sandwiches were okay - nothing special, but not bad.  Our fish tacos were about the same.  Walked down St. Georges street.  Stopped in the usual shops.  Drove home via US 1 which allowed us to drive past the St. Augustine airport.  Got home just about dark.  Had home made vegetable soup and salad / sandwiches and went to bed early, as Bob and Wendy were going to try to be on the road by 6:30 AM.

Monday

Worked from home in the morning.  Around 1:45 PM, Jeanie and I jumped in the Durango and headed to American Beach.  We found a nice place to park on the beach, set up our beach chairs, grabbed our binoculars, and watched the launch of the space shuttle at 2:28 PM.  The weather was as clear as a bell, and the visibility was very good.  It appeared that the trajectory of this launch was more east or south than some of the others we have seen in the past, as in the past, the shuttle has appeared to be "coming towards us," whereas this time, it appeared to be "going away from us."  Nevertheless, it was cool to witness in person.  After the launch, we sat and enjoyed listening to the ocean and feeling the sun on our faces for a while, then we took a walk to the bathrooms at Burney Park.  On our way home, we made a quick pit stop at Publix to see if they had any Peet's Decaf Major Dickason's Blend in stock (they did, on sale, so we got three bags) and then took our obligatory run by the airport.

Tuesday - Wednesday

Normal work from home.

Thursday

Worked from home in the morning.  In the afternoon, the co-worker I had worked with earlier this year and his friend dropped by the airport on their way home from their hunt on Cumberland Island for an airplane ride.  The plan had been to give them a tour of Cumberland Island and Amelia Island, but the weather did not cooperate, and we were only able to take a lap in the pattern before I decided the weather was not conducive to sightseeing.

Friday

Worked from home in the morning.  Went with Jeanie to take my mother to her follow up with the surgeon from the implantation of her neural stimulator.  The surgeon indicated that the incisions had healed nicely, but was at somewhat of a loss as to why my mother is not getting better relief now that the device has been turned on.  He said that it could just be that the device's programming needs some additional tweaking, or even though he's never had it happen before, the placement of the leads might have shifted from the target.  To check, he ordered some x-rays, which caused what should have been a quick doctor's visit to end up being an all afternoon event.  After we finished at the hospital, we took my mother to dinner at the Mill House Restaurant, near JAX International.  Jeanie had their pan fried crab cake appetizer as an appetizer; it was absolutely delicious - well seasoned and tender, with just the minimum amount of binder to keep it together.  For her entree, Jeanie had their firecracker shrimp, which she said was "okay," the primary issue being it hadn't been what she had expected from the description on the menu.  Jeanie also had a couple of glasses of their house cabernet, Coastal Vines, that we both thought was quite good.  Mom had the fillet mignon and shrimp scampi, which she said were both wonderful and started with a caesar salad which she enjoyed.  I had a ceasar salad which was fantastic - not too big, with just the right amount of really yummy dressing.  For my entree, I had the mussels appetizer.  I can't remember the name, but they were served in a large metal bowl in a broth of garlic and Italian herbs and seasonings.  The mussels were sweet and tender, and bountiful - there were about two dozen in the bowl.  The dish was similar to the  Jerk Fired Shrimp at Bahama Breeze but not quite as good as the broth was not quite as flavorful.  Jeanie, who typically isn't a mussels fan, thoroughly enjoyed sharing them with me.  The service was excellent and the price of the meal for the three of us, with a good tip, was a reasonable $61.00

Saturday

Jeanie and I went to the Farmer's Market on island.  Jeanie bought a couple of eggplants and a couple of red oranges.  We walked down to the marina and looked at the boats, then drove to Sandy Bottoms for lunch.  As usual, you couldn't beat the view (we sat outside) and as has been the case during its various incarnations, the service was mediocre at best.  Now that KP (from the now defunct KP's) is their head cook, the food was pretty good.  Jeanie had red beans and rice (which she shared with me and which we both liked) and an order of onion rings that were a bit too done and which I thought had a funny tasting batter.  I had the fried calamari which was very tender.  It was served with a marinara sauce and I would have preferred a spicy sweet/sour asian sauce, but it was still pretty good, although quite salty.  On the way home, we stopped at the grand opening of Scott's Jewelers.  I looked at their Reactor watches, but I wasn't impressed for the price.  Our plan had been to rent a U-Haul trailer so we could move Jeanie's chair-and-a-half from the storage unit to the house, but the local U-Haul place didn't have any small trailers and by then we were tired anyway, so we just came home and vegged the rest of the day.

Sunday

Went to the coffee at the airport.  Jeanie cooked a yummy spicy asian stir fry for lunch.  After lunch, I took a nap, then spent the rest of the afternoon taking a first pass at straightening up the office.  This consisted mostly of throwing a bunch of empty boxes in the trash, taking some more empty boxes up to the attic, and then putting various "stuff" into storage boxes and getting the boxes back in their respective spots on the wire shelves in the office.

The final task of the day was updating the Blackberry Desktop software on my work PC to version 5.0.1.

My latest addiction is Peet's Coffee.

Since my trips to Europe, I have realized that I really prefer a dark roast coffee.  I have also had to accept that I am very sensitive to caffeine.  This makes things a bit challenging, as there are not that many dark roast decaf coffees out there.  I've tried a few, including Starbucks, Cafe Bustelo and various blends of Maxwell House.  None had the depth and richness of the coffee I had in France or Italy.

Recently, our local Publix started stocking Peet's.  Jamie has been a Peet's fan for a number of years.   One of the selections they stock is Major Dickason's Blend - in decaf!  As Peet's describes it, it is: Our most famous blend. Combines the best coffees from the world's premier coffee-growing regions. Very full-bodied, complex, rich, and smooth.  I wholeheartedly agree.

At the moment, I am drinking 3-4 mugs a day  (6-8 standard 5oz coffee cups).  Usually 2 in the morning, and one or two in the evening.

Normally, Publix sells it for $1.00 per ounce.  At the moment, Publix has Peet's on sale for 80 cents per ounce.  Unfortunately, the Publix doesn't always have the decaf in stock.  They went almost a month without the decaf, so I  signed up to be a Peetnick.  That way, I have an alternate supplier.  It's always good to have an alternative supply, lest you find yourself suddenly "out" and then have to deal with the joneses.    Peet's standard online direct price is $1.12 per ounce (shipped) - 87 cents before shipping -  but, I got my first two pounds with free shipping, plus got a free pound of their Holiday Blend, so the first order was a good deal, even relative to Publix's sale price.

Even though it is quite expensive, I have decided to allow myself this indulgence.  One rationalization I supposed I could use is that my three to four cups a day are still less than one cup purchased at Starbucks - and infinitely better.  Or, I could take a line from the old L'Oreal commercial. "it's expensive, but I'm worth it."

One other negative consequence of my pound a week Peet's habit is that I am also going through a quart of half and half each week - which translates into almost 200 calories a day.  I've started cutting the half and half with some lactose free non-fat milk in an attempt to shave a few calories, but, I guess I am just going to have to increase my exercise or reduce my caloric intake elsewhere, as I think it will be a while before this addiction subsides.

Monday -  Thursday

Normal work from home.

Friday

Work from home in the morning, then my annual physical in the afternoon.

Talked with Vic, a co-worker I had spent a few months mentoring on an engagement earlier this year in Plano, Texas.  Vic contacted me to let me know that he was going to be passing through the area on his way up to Cumberland Island, GA, arriving on Saturday, and if possible, was hoping we could get together for dinner.

Saturday

Left the house around 9:00 AM to drive up to Savannah to attend the Taekwondo belt promotion exercises for our two oldest great-nephews.  Our eldest was going for his black belt, and our middle was going for his black belt candidate qualification.  It was an absolutely beautiful day and there was no traffic on I-95 - even for the stretch that is under construction.  Jill led us right to our niece and nephew's house, and we had just enough time to say "hello" before it was time to drive over to the dojo.  I enjoyed watching the kids perform their forms, spar, and break boards.  It made me nostalgic for my senior year in high school during which I had taken Taekwondo under the direction of a black belt who had studied with Grandmaster Duk Sung Son - 9th DAN - President and Founder of the World Tae Kwon Do Association at his dojo in New York City that was only a few blocks from where I grew up.  In fact, I was awarded my yellow belt by Grandmaster Son.  Were I to be given a "re-try" at my life, one of the things I would do differently would be to start martial arts training much earlier in my life, and to keep at it throughout my life.  I think it is a wonderful way to build confidence, discipline, self esteem, and to stay physically and mentally fit.

After the exercises, we returned to Jay and Tricia's home and had lunch.  Tricia was incredibly thoughtful and had remembered that Jeanie and I are still meatless and had ordered us a couple of veggie subs in addition to the large party sub she had ordered for the rest of their guests.  I was also reminded of how artistically gifted Tricia is when we saw the sheet cake she had designed to celebrate Tyler's achievement of his black belt.  Around 4:00 PM we said our good-bye's and headed back home.

Around 6:30 PM we received the call from Vic letting us know he had just passed through Jacksonville.  We ended up deciding to meet at Boston's at River City Marketplace.  I had a personal cheese pizza that was quite good and Jeanie had the halibut and chips which she thoroughly enjoyed.  Vic's friend Allen had driven up with Vic, so he joined us for dinner.  We had a great visit and all too soon, it was time for Vic and Allen to get back on the road for their last leg of their trip, and for Jeanie and I to head back home.

Sunday

Coffee at the airport.  Atlantic Flying Club monthly meeting. Had planned to do some CAP proficiency flying after the club meeting, but I received an email from the squadron D.O. that the CAP aircraft was having electrical problems and was grounded.  Went home, picked up Jeanie and went to Wal*Mart to pick up a few items and then to our storage unit to start retrieving some of our Christmas decorations.  Changed clothes, then moved a number of suitcases that had accumulated in the garage back up to the attic.  Moved the stuff from the Durango to the house.  One of the two coach lights in front of the garage hasn't been working for quite a while, so I finally got around to changing the light bulb.  Unfortunately, we learned that the problem wasn't with the bulb, but apparently with the fixture.  I guess we'll be in the market for a couple of new outside fixtures now.  Washed the dogs and clipped their nails.  As usual, Cali was the "good child" and Diego was the "bad child."  From now on, Diego will be getting his muzzle put on prior to starting his bath.  Watched some TV and called it a night early.

The accepted practice for affixing the various patches, badges and grade insignia to a flight suit is to use Velcro.

Most of the items can be ordered with the Velcro (also known as hook and loop fasteners) already affixed to the item.  Typically, the "hook" is already affixed to the item, and a correspondingly sized piece of "loop" (sometimes called "pile") is sewn to the flight suit in the proper location.  The significant exception to this, at least for the Civil Air Patrol, is the grade insignia, which are encased in plastic.  The options are to either sew the plastic directly to the flight suit, or glue the hook Velcro to the insignia and sew the loop Velcro on the shoulders.

I believe that overall, the use of Velcro is preferable to sewing the items directly onto the flight suit.  This way, when you need to launder the flight suit, it is easy to remove all of the items so they don't get messed up in the wash.  Also, it is easier to deal with changing the insignia due to promotions.

So, the challenge I faced was finding Olive Green - or as we used to say, Olive Drab (OD) - Velcro.

I ended up finding a number of sources:

www.flightsuits.com (Gibson & Barnes) does not sell Velcro through their web site - but you can call them at  800-748-6693 to order it. They stock different widths - 1/2", 1", 1.5"", 2", 4" - and they sell a minimum of one yard.

Emdom USA have widths from 1" to 4" ranging from $1.00 per foot to $3.00 per foot.

Williams & Williams sells 2" x 4" pieces for $0.50 and sells 4" wide Velcro for $2.00 per foot.

The Hock Shop offers 2" x 4" pieces for $0.30 each.

Vanguard Industries sells 4" x 12" sheets:
One 4" x 12" sheet of male (hook) Velcro is $2.35 (part number CAP0599W )
One 4" x 12" sheet of female (loop) Velcro is $2.35 (part number CAP0599X )

I ended up going with Vanguard, since I've dealt with them before to purchase various CAP items, and I've always been satisfied with them.

I did read some discussion online regarding whether Olive Green or Sage Green more closely matched the color of the green Nomex flight suit. I guess I'll see when the Velcro arrives.

UPDATE: the order arrived from Vanguard this week and the color matches perfectly.  One other thought for the future is that even though for my needs at the moment, the 4" pieces will work fine, for those applications where I truly only need a 2", 1 1/2" or 1" piece, it is probably better to order it as such, as that way, the pieces are properly edged; when you cut a larger piece down to size, you end up with the pile going to the very edge, which I imagine might cause it to unravel a bit vs. using a piece that has finished edges.

Monday

Flew with one of the CAP Instructor Pilots (IP) to prepare for my Form 5 in the morning.  We didn't get to launch as early as I had hoped, as one of my team members scheduled a team call for 9:00 AM even though I had told her that I had something personal to do in the morning.  It worked out okay though, as the sky was overcast and the ceilings were low early, and didn't start lifting and breaking up until around 10:30.  I had gotten quite frustrated that my Form 5 had expired in September and I hadn't been able to renew it due to either me not being at home, the weather being bad, not having a CAP aircraft available locally, or not having an IP available.  But, fortunately, the stars aligned, and I was able to fly my prep.  In the afternoon, I did normal work from home stuff.

Tuesday

Normal work from home day.

Wednesday

Normal work from home day, until our Internet access died late in the afternoon.  See this post and this post.

Thursday

Tried to get the Internet issues resolved and tried to work.  Thank goodness for my cellular modem.  Jeanie took mom to the hospital for the implantation of her neural stimulator that will hopefully relieve most of the pain she is still experiencing due to her back problems.  In the evening, I affixed the various required items (leather name badge, CAP patch, American flag and rank bars) to the flight suit a really generous and nice CAP member had given me when I had gone to the Craig Composite Squadron a number of months ago to help them with some training.  I also took my on-line annual Form 5 test, and completed the other paperwork for my Form 5 evaluation.

Friday

Took and passed my Form 5.  Had fun, even though the check pilot worked me hard.

In the afternoon, went with Jeanie to pick mom up from the hospital after the implantation of her neural stimulator and took her back to her place.  Jeanie and I ended up having dinner at the Chipotle Grill at St. Johns Town Center.  We had tried three other Mexican restaurants, but we couldn't find the first two even though we had Jeanie's GPS (our guess is they had recently gone out of business) and the third - Cantina Laredo - looked much too expensive.  After dinner, we returned the 2Wire Gateway to the Best Buy and then went to Costco to return a couple of books and pick up a few items.  While we are at Costco, I looked at watches and found an Invicta (Speedway model) that was nice looking, but it was very heavy so I didn't purchase it.

Saturday

Attended the CAP monthly squadron meeting.  Afterward, went to look at the club plane with another club member to address a squawk that had been reported.  Went home and changed and then went to Shuckers Oyster Bar for lunch.  Jeanie and I shared a seafood combo consisting of fried shrimp, fried grouper fingers and deviled crab, french fries, coleslaw and a hushpuppy; and two appetizers: fried squash and fried okra.  The food arrived hot and tasty overall.  The best by far was the grouper.  The shrimp were fine - large and not overcooked, but a bit heavily breaded, the deviled crab was okay, but not as good as some I've had.  The french fries weren't as crisp as we would have preferred, the okra were standard frozen okra and the squash was a bit oily.  After lunch, went to Staples to purchase a new DSL Gateway - a Netgear DG834G.  I used the Staples Rewards money I received as a rebate from the purchase of my new Sharper Image rolling backpack briefcase a few months ago.  We returned home and watched some TV, and then after Jeanie went to bed, I set up the new gateway.

Sunday

Jeanie and I went to the Jacksonville Sea & Sky Spectacular in Jacksonville Beach.  Left the house around 9:30, stopped at the Parkway Grille to get some takeout breakfast, then took Heckscher into Jacksonville.  I should have taken the ferry, but didn't so we ended up having to drive the long way.  Paid $20 to park in a church parking lot about four blocks from the beach, which was a lot better than paying $20 to park at TPC and then having to take a bus.  Got to the beach around 11:30.  Found a good spot to set up our backpack beach chairs, not too far from show center, which was the pier at 5th street.  It was crowded, but not claustrophobically so.  Missed the first few acts, but did get to see a lot of cool stuff including an A-10 Warthog demonstration, a B2 fly-by and of course the Blue Angels.  The precision of the Blue Angels pilots is awe inspiring.  Even though the Blue Angels were fantastic, the highlight of the show might have been the Red Bull helicopter.  It did loops and rolls and all sorts of other things that I don't think helicopters are supposed to be able to do.  Absolutely amazing!  After the show, we took some side streets north, then jumped onto A1A and took the ferry home.  It's a short ferry ride, but I always enjoy it anyway.

There was one last challenge that I encountered with the installation of the new Netgear DG834G Wireless-G Router with built-in DSL Modem Gateway.

The challenge was the connection speed of my AT&T Network VPN Client to work.  The speed was horribly slow.  I was seeing connection speeds of 5 kbps rather than the normal 150+ kbps - IF I was able to maintain a connection to the network resource at all.

I had a funny feeling that this issue might also be related to the NAT loopback issue, so I went ahead and installed the DG834v4/DG834Gv4 Firmware Version 5.03.16 (for North America) that I downloaded from http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11882

Long story short. after the upgrade, connectivity to work worked like a charm, and, as an added benefit, I am now able to access my web sites from the local area network without having to add hosts entries to each PC on the network.

Jeanie also reports that Internet access is much faster from her laptop than it was on either the old or new 2Wire gateways, and, I think that the administrator interface is much better on the Netgear; plus I really like its ability to allow you to back up the gateway's configuration to a file on the PC.

I have struggled the last few days to overcome challenges with our Internet access.

I noticed on Thursday that we had lost Internet connectivity.  After doing just a bit of problem determination, I realized that the problem was that the 2Wire HomePortal 1700HW gateway that AT&T had provided four years ago had died.

I called AT&T and began what ended up being a very frustrating experience.

The agent I talked with told me that I would have to purchase a new gateway for $70.  I said okay. Next thing I knew, she was telling me it would arrive "next week."  I told her that was unacceptable.  She told me the order had already been placed and she had no way to edit it.  I asked her to cancel it and told her I would purchase one locally.  She said she couldn't cancel it, and the group that could was gone for the day.  She offered to call me back the next day and connect me with the group that could cancel the order.  I said okay.  In the interim, I searched for a local AT&T store using my work laptop and the tethered cellular modem mode of my Sprint Blackberry.  There was one on the island, but when I called, they said they didn't stock the 2Wire gateways.  I searched more and found one in the River City Marketplace near the airport.  I called them, and they said they had them in stock.  So, Jeanie and I drove there, only to find out that they did NOT in fact have any in stock, and if they did, it would be $100 - not the $70 quoted by the telephone agent.  I decided to try Best Buy, and they did in fact have the 2Wire for $100.  They also had a number of other Combination 4 port switch/wireless access point/router/firewall/DSL modems, but I decided to go with the 2Wire, since I had been told by AT&T that was the only unit they supported.

We got it home, and the setup wizard worked well, and in no time, the gateway was working - sort of.  There were two primary problems: 1. the wireless kept "dropping," and I couldn't get to my web sites from the local area network.  Strangely, I could get to them from outside of the house (I knew this thanks to the Blackberry).

I did a bunch of Internet research, and found that both of these issues were widely known problems with the 2Wire.  By now it was late, so I decided to call it a night.

The next afternoon, I called AT&T technical support.  That turned out to be a joke.  The first person with whom I spoke was level 1, and all she could do was read the script to open up the ports in the firewall to allow access from the Internet to the web server - which of course I had already done.  I asked to speak to Level 2 and ended up on hold for a total of almost an hour, getting bounced to four different agents, none of whom could help me.  I decided to call back, and was basically told that if I wanted level 2 support, I would have to pay for it.  I told the agent "no thanks."  My Internet research indicated that at least one of the problems was related to the software version of the 2Wire, and apparently, there was no update available and no indication of when, or if, there would be one.  I decided I would return the 2Wire and purchase another brand of gateway.

The agent from Thursday did call back in the afternoon, only to tell me that there was no way for AT&T to cancel the order, and my only option was to reject the shipment when UPS delivered it.  I asked what if I wasn't home when they delivered it and she told me I would have to call UPS to come pick the package up and that I should write "rejected" on the box.  Arg!

On Saturday, we went to the local Staples and purchased a Netgear DG384G Wireless-G Router with built-in DSL Modem.  The installation using the wizard was very simple.  I did have to make some edits to the network configuration, as the Netgear used a different IP address and gateway address than the 2Wire, but it was fairly straight forward.

Unfortunately, I experienced the same problem of not being able to access the web sites on my web server from my local area network (LAN).  After doing some more research, I discovered that the problem was that the gateway was not running NAT loopback.  Turns out there were two possible fixes.  The first one I found was fairly simple: just edit the hosts files on my local machines (/etc/hosts file (*nix) or C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (Windows)) to include entries for each of the three web sites I host (www.blogdom.org, www.witsdom.com, www.dealdom.com) - found at http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-390461.html  The other was to update the firmware on the gateway to a version that supports NAT loopback - http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11882.  There was actually a third option - http://www.nikrivers.com/2009/10/26/netgear-dg834g-and-nat-loopback/ - but it wasn't necessary given option 2 that added the NAT loopback support.

I chose to implement option 1 for now, as it was quick, and I didn't want to have to hassle with reconfiguring the gateway after the software update.  Maybe I'll do that in a few days.

Monday

Flew from Jacksonville to South Bend, Indiana for some follow up work on the engagement I did last year.

Tuesday

One of the co-workers I worked with last year became a friend, and started learning to fly.  Even though we have gone on to different engagements, we touch base from time to time to talk about airplanes and flying.  He joined a flying club in South Bend, and found a flight instructor that he likes.  In a really cool "alignment of the stars" we ended up getting to fly together in the morning.  I started out in back, with him and the instructor up front.  The weather wasn't great, but good enough for us to stay in the pattern at KSBN.  After a few laps, I got the opportunity to fly, which was really cool.  KSBN is a great airport.  Controlled, but not too busy.  I ended up making two nice landings, which was nice, as I was a bit worried about that.  The FBO, Atlantic Aviation, was really nice - beautiful facility and great coffee.

After flying, we grabbed a quick lunch with the flight instructor, and then headed to the client for some meetings.

Wednesday

Spent the day working on my current engagement in my hotel room.  In the evening, my colleague and I had a dinner meeting with one of the client's consultants and afterward, we spent some time discussing strategies and approaches for his current engagement.

Thursday

Got to fly again.  This time, the ceilings were a bit better, but the winds were much worse.  45 degrees off of any of the runways at KSBN, and strong and gusty, which was a bit much for my friend.  The instructor suggested we fly to Andrews University Airpark (C20) in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which had a runway more favorable for the wind direction.  The runway direction was more favorable, but it was much shorter than he was used to, much narrower, and the terrain created some interesting wind shaping which made the landings really challenging.  After a couple of landings from him, I took the controls and flew a couple, which ended up being two of the most challenging landings I've ever flown.  Then it was back to KSBN, where I dropped off the rental car, attended a teleconference, and then had to take three flights (SBN-CVG-ATL-JAX) to get home, leaving at 6:00 PM and arriving back at the house around 1:00 AM.  On the plus side, the return trip home was enough to put me over the threshold for Platinum status on Delta.

Friday

Normal work from home day.

Saturday

Drove to the in-laws for a visit and to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.  Since Dad is still recovering from his quadruple by-pass, rather than having a big party, it was just Jeanie's brother, his wife, Mama, Dad, Jeanie and me.  We went to dinner at the Cedar Lane Supper Club.  Mama and Dad had the prime rib which they appeared to enjoy.  Jim and Jeanie both had the catfish, which was tasty but didn't have much meat, Kim and I had the seafood platter which wasn't too good.  Oysters were fishy, scallops and shrimp were tough, hush puppies were cold and didn't have much flavor, french fries were battered and too salty.  The deviled crab was very good, as was the salad bar.  I should have just had the salad bar.

After dinner, went back to Mama and Dad's house and talked for a while.

Sunday

Jim and Kim left after breakfast.  I set up Dad's laptop that we had bought him 6 months ago for his birthday.  Nice laptop - Toshiba with Microsoft Vista Home Premium.  Unfortunately, their old PC had massive capacitor failure, so it kept rebooting itself, so I couldn't transfer the old data to the new laptop.  We didn't have room in the car, so we just left the old PC there.  Next time, I'll at least get the hard drive out of the PC and try it in a PC at home.

Left their house around four and got home a bit after 8.