Conquering the tiny plane

One of the top 10 fears: flying in a small plane or prop plane in general. Another in the top 10: being trapped in the middle of nowhere with no cell service. Did all 3 in 24 hours the other day...a good victory :-)

First was a 5-seater single engine prop plane that did a flyover of Devils Lake, ND (seen below). I got to sit in the co-pilot seat and wear nifty headset to talk to the pilot. It was a pretty smooth ride...only few things that flipped me out - the turning radius of one of those itty bitty planes is very small, so you can bank pretty hard to turn, and basically look directly down at the ground as you turn. Didn't like that so much... Other thing - hard to keep things level when you take off & land, so the wings shimmy a lot, and keeping the line straight for landing is a bit difficult. But other than that swinging back & forth, it was neat to watch the landing from head-on, seeing the runway #s and touching down on the zebra stripes. (I tried to catch a picture of that, but my memory card was full. I also forgot to turn off the B&W feature of the camera, so everything came out old-school. See pictures below.

Cockpit view of my seat.

Icy lake overflight (those are roads cutting through the lake. White portions are ice on lake.

Second prop plane was from small town, ND to Minneapolis. 30-person prop plane. Not so smooth, we were flying on a very high wind day, so I think it was worse than the little plane. We got swung back & forth & up & down so much it felt like we were on a rollercoaster. Spilling drinks and giving whiplash and whatnot. As we were coming in, the pilot tried to keep steering on course, but the winds were so high that only 1 set of rear wheels initially landed, then the other side of the plane slammed down, since the wing (on my side of course) was still tipped up to a significant degree. Not so much a fan of that.

A little background on the whole "trapped in the middle of nowhere" issue...Devils Lake, ND, only 1 commercial flight comes in per day. So the 5-seater was in the clear air-traffic wise, but we couldn't necessarily fly direct into there. Grand Forks, ND (90 miles East) was where we flew in/out of. The road is straight between the towns, nothing along the side of the road except brown fields. No gas stations, no pull offs, no houses. 1 rest stop with a bathroom in a little house. Just mile markers and flat land. To start off the day, as we drove back down to GF, a loud knock came from under the hood when we were about 45 miles out, near absolutely nothing. The engine started to make this high-pitched sound which was really disturbing since I had no cell service out there, but at least my coworker did. It stopped feeling like accelerating at times, maybe it just didn't feel like it anymore...damn Dodge Avenger. 25 miles out of GF there is another clunk clunk clunk and we actually see a part of the hood bump up with each clunk...oopsie...doesn't look good. Then several alarm beeps go off in the car, red lights flash, and the oil light comes on. The car wouldn't accelerate; when I tried, it just revved the engine, then another clunk and the sound was gone...thus, a call to Hertz asking for some help...we basically crawl into the airport, Flintstone-style...though making it in time for the prop flight from hell, of course. But, we did survive...which makes me all the happier to be home...and to get a new cell phone that has service in the sticks of North Dakota. Cross some of those fears off the top 10, and bring a few more into the fold.

The pup is back...

my 13-year old lady...

Sweet puppy paws...

Pineapple upside down cake

I think I experienced a little piece of heaven the other day while eating a pineapple upside down cake, recipe from a well-known chef in Hawaii from the Hali'imaile General Store. Fantastic recipe...anything with 4 sticks of butter, 4 cups of sugar, 8 egg yolks and a whole pineapple clearly will open your eyes with an out-of-body experience. (It was recently re-named the "heart-stopper" as a result of its ingredient list. Seriously.)

Man cannot live on Peeps alone...or can he?

Who doesn't love peeps? Sugar-coated marshmallows with cute little eyes made of icing...they're nothing and everything all at once - a bit of heaven separated from the world by a flimsy sheet of plastic wrap. I can eat about 6 little of these bundles of joy at a time, so the little bunny and ducky easter packages go rather quickly. I sat there the other day, savoring my 5th, and thought "oh crap, I bet these things are really unhealthy, so only 1 more now until next hour's portion". I went to check the package to see how badly I was clogging my arteries or contributing to Type II diabetes, causing brain cancer, etc. and to my surprise, I found the label below:WOW - these are actually healthy! There's nothing in them - it's like eating air! Pink and yellow marshmallowy air! By my calculations, humans really could live on peeps and be ok! If a serving size is 4 bunnies, and that serving size has no fat, 110 calories, barely any salt, ~28g carbs, and no cholesterol, then one on a 2,000 calorie diet could conceivably eat 80 peeps per day, and consume no fat (and get enough protein)! You could eat a peep every 10 minutes for 12 hours, with a few extras to snack on here & there. (If you happen to be on the low-carb diet, then cut back to 40 peeps per day.) The sugars aren't a big deal....I mean, the brain runs on glucose, so at least that will function if it's a peep-only diet. You might consume more sugar than usual, but doesn't that compensate for the lack of fat consumption?

Save a kid or send me a dime...

Thought this was a good one: charity sends me a nickel in an envelope to solicit donations. Note, however, that on the front of the envelope, it mentions that this nickel would certainly help a lot of people. So, I am led to ask, if it could help save a child, WHY DID YOU SEND IT TO ME instead of saving the kid?? Think of all the nickels out there you could have used to further the cause and not bother me for money. How many kids could be saved per mailing? I don't think I would donate to this charity if they aren't really going to help anyone, but will only take the money and mail it out to others.
Yes, I took the nickel. I'm saving it with the other 7 cents that I've received in the mail over the past 2 months.

Practicing crap

My client from Nevada gave me some dice to practice playing craps with so that I can actually win some money when I go back there. Long live the Fandango and the Nugget casinos (affectionately referred to as "the Nug"). I now have player cards at each, thank you very much. Every time you sit down for a game, they swipe your card, and give you points. I already won a free lunch buffet in a smokey casino for losing money playing texas hold 'em. Not bad for my first time round.
These are cancelled dice, have no idea why one says Leo.

Other "natural" flavors

I bought this stuff that I thought was going to be oatmeal-like, but crunchier. Supposed to be: Simple Harvest, multigrain hot cereal. Good for the heart, good for the chute, good for the soul, or something like that. Maple brown sugar with pecans. Sounds good? You'd think that has some taste, right? Hmmmm....not so much. And it's even "naturally flavored with other natural flavors". Interesting way to say that it's got other random stuff in it, that at some point in time came from nature. Though I actually figured out what the other natural flavor is that naturally flavored the cereal: Dirt. This stuff tasted so awful it was astounding. I don't think I've ever eaten something of this consistency and this terrible tasting. It was one of those things where it's so bad, you can't even swallow it. Note to self: never trust anything that is naturally flavored with natural flavors...might end up to be processed chemicals that bring that natural "mud" taste out.

Aloha: R.I.P.

After more than 60 years of serving Hawaii, Aloha Airlines is no longer operating. :-(

MAHALO NUI LOA - ALOHA OE

July 26, 1946 - March 31, 2008

Mmmmmmmm...chicken salad

Yum.

1 whole roasted chicky, minus drumsticks, wings, and 1 breast

3 big handfuls of roasted almonds

2 carrots

plain nonfat yogurt, 3 dollops

black pepper

pesto sauce
(in the pesto:basil, parmy cheese, pine nuts, a whole mess of olive oil, garlic, really a lot)

Mix together, looks like this: