I thought we skipped spring

and went straight to summer yesterday, because it was so warm out. It was great cruising to work with the windows down and singing along to American Pie. I tried to patch my bike tire that blew before spring break and I found the ugly piece of metal that punctured it, but my patch wouldn't take. So I guess I will have to get a new tube sometime. Work is great! They did an "Extreme Makeover" to the breakroom and put in some nice tables and a couple decks of cards, so now I can get a good euchre game after I get off.

AND NOW>>> the ultimate shocker>>> I bought pork ribs!!!!!
sure they were cheaper than ground beef, but still after I slather them in barbecue sauce and grill them up nicely, they will sure beat my usual chili or spaghetti or potatoes.

This morning we finished up our Karate training, so now I can destroy anyone who tries to push or punch me with either hand. Good thing I didn't know this stuff when Caleb and I used to fight.

Well I think I found out

that I will be going home for the summer (after maymester) because even though my job up here pays better than any other job I've had, I have no chance for getting the 45 hours a week that I need to match the 50 per week that I can get in Indy. This means I will probably be able to get any time off I might want for trips a lot easier. Also, I can get free housing and might be able to sub lease my room to the soonest bidder! I better head off to bed now so I can fly well in the morning.

I've been pretty busy

If you hadn't guessed already. I went home this weekend and saw Stacey one last time before her birthday. I've been conversing with Matt Filbert recently about going on a summer mission trip. I have to decide between a three week $1000 trip to Seattle, going to our presbytery family conference for one week (and being a counselor?), or staying home and working so I can pay for my college and hit the mission field sooner. These all seem to be great options, but I'm not feeling any strong leading towards any one of these over another, and if I go to Seattle I need to apply like right now. So pray that I would see God's will and be ready to follow it. Work is going really well. I learned in Indy so good ways to be open about my faith, so I'm working on putting them into practice up here. Pray that God would be merciful and bless my co-workers. When I was back at home we were talking about the way Sam's runs their employee shift scheduling and profit tracking and stuff, and our conversation went kind of like this:

Me: Yeah, all our sales info and stuff get sent to headquarters and if we are doing something wrong they call us up and are like "Hey, send some people home early or you will start losing money."
Stacey: Kind of like Roller Coaster Tycoon with the little bar down at the bottom telling you how much money you make?"
Me: Yeah, the Waltons sit in their bunker in Texas and play Sam's Club Tycoon
Dad: Do you see little pinchers come over and drop a guy with a mop when a kid makes a mess?
Stacey: And then he wanders around and bumps into shelves until he finds another mess to clean up.
Me: And when I take too long of a break the little pinchers come and grab me back out to my station.

So we thought it would be fun to make a Sam's Club Tycoon game. You could have different settings where you could run just one store in a city, or you could run the whole network and oversee shipping operations and building new stores and product selection and everything.

This morning was so cool!

I was flying co-pilot first this morning and we did our normal routine with an engine failure and all, but on our missed approach, we got a fire bell! It scared my captain to death but I hit the bell cut-out button and everything was good. When I got around to captain, I was already expecting the engine fire and I did a pretty good one engine approach to one of my best landings ever! My ILS was a bit wobbly, but with only one of three engines running, I think it was alright.

wow

It's only my second day back at school and my schedule is already way too full. I have about five things competing for tomorrow night. It's all good though. I would really hate being bored. I'm so used to a full schedule I wouldn't know what to do with the extra time. I must go and sleep now so I can fly in the morning. hope I don't do as badly as two weeks ago when I was all over the ILS. It was like I totally forgot what flaps were for.

Spring Break was AWESOME!!!!

Praise God for His wonderful creation and for the great leaders He has put in the Lafayette church. The world needs more people like them.

Finally Packed

ok so I thought I would have more time this week, well I guess I did, I just used it in more important tasks. We had another martial arts lesson this morning, so now I am the ultimate fighter!! I think we get one more after break. I will have to be careful not to accidentally kill people after that. In other news, I think we should all move to South Dakota or at least visit a lot. Maybe if other states see a spike in S.D.s population and commerce, they will try passing some good laws too. I totally got a 94 on one of my tests last week! The average was 83 and I got a 76 on the test before that, so the 94 was really a blessing. I did mess up and put my first name in the last name box, so that was rather embarrassing. I'm all packed for SKIING IN COLORADO!!! except for my socks which are in the wash.

I'm so glad this week is all but over

It was probably my toughest week since when I was taking 21 credits. I had an exam in almost every class and two papers and one major and two minor homework projects and three or four quizzes including one where we had to research all the material ourselves because the prof wouldn't talk about it. Oh and then I had a MIT assignment, four shifts at work, trying to get out of four shifts at work and my general sanity to maintain. That's enough to drive a man to drinking. I probably had more soda/caffeinated beverages than I had all last year combined. I'm going to get another root beer right now. Which reminds me... Last night at work I was finishing my first of three Sam's cups full of soda upstairs in the break room...It was root beer and I downed it pretty fast and the break room was empty so I let out a very decent belch and was in the process oh the finishing AHHHHHH when a lady came around the corner. So I kinda did an AAAHH*xcuse me with a really weird look on my face. Fortunately she thought it was kinda funny. Last night I watched Hair with Andrew editing. It was kinda sad to see how really messed up those years were, and I would not recommend watching it without an editor cause apparently it was a lot worse than what I saw. This morning Jared Olivetti talked about schooling over doughnuts and coffee at church. He talked about the proper foundation and the pros and cons of all the different types of education available.

One of the guys I work with was stationed in Saigon for six years. He was in charge of 142 men and a defensive perimeter. He was one of two men on that perimeter to get to return home. That must be really tough. If he's there on Friday I'm going to see if he will come to church with me. Maybe God had a reason to spare him in the midst of all his buddies.

Exam time

This morning saw two of my best two and three engine approaches except I went missed on me three engine one because the runway visibility was dropping like a rock and my instructor called me a wuss. At least I didn't try to land and end up going off the runway and killing people. But all the rest of my classes today have exams so I am studying.