Oddly

I seem to only post in Vermont. It's kinda funny because this is the place with the most other stuff to do. But I already went swimming and walked around the mall and used my Borders gift card from CORPS (Thanks guys! You're always the best!) and ate dinner and mourned the Sox losing yet again to the Yankees (At least the Rockies swept them). When I am done here, all I will have left to do is work out and go to bed early enough that I will be awake to fly home at 4:30. I still haven't found where they sell maple syrup yet.

For those of you interested in my bits of flying: Today was pretty cool. The weather was the exact opposite of the last time I did this trip flow. Got to see all of Long Island as we flew over it, and only saw patches of the Green Mountains as we broke out of the clouds at 700' over the runway. I even got to make the full "1000 feet, Instruments and altimeters crosschecked, No flags" call before we went visual. Why we say all that instead of "1000' instruments checked" is beyond me.

Horror!

I haven't posted for over a week!! Mostly because I've been really busy finding an apartment and getting settled in and trying to get to Stacey's wedding without losing my job and so on... Oh, and my power adapter for my computer died, so I have a very limited amount of battery juice left before I am disconnected from the world. HP has been super great about getting the problem fixed though, I'll have a cord waiting for me in Indy whenever I find the time to go get it.
I've read some cool books recently, most notably C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce. Wonderful author. Also perused was The Human Comedy by Iforget Who. I'm in the hotel lobby in Vermont now. Great state. Anybody want me to bring them some Maple Syrup?

10th Vermont Mountaineers

Now I am in Vermont after a very odd day. Just got back from a nice (but expensive) meal at Outback. Have you noticed how all of my sentences start and end with different words? USA Today writers haven't figured out how to do that yet. I just read an article that ended sentences with the word "says" three times in a row. Bleh. But, on the bright side of things, I FINISHED A WHOLE CROSSWORD PUZZLE TODAY!!! It's like the first time I've ever done one without about half the words coming from somebody else. My joy had to be dampened however, because I just received an email telling me about the first CORPS rally that I am going to miss this year. Oh well, at least there are a ton of Awesome Christians out in Bean Town. Well I should probably go to bed now so I can get up at 4:30. Night y'all.

P.S. Vermont's Mountains are super cool to look at when breaking out of the clouds at 7000'.

Canadian Biscuts

I have now been in a quarter of the Canadian provinces by adding New Brunswick to the list tonight. I also went into a new time zone! But probably the coolest part about this trip was the hotel. We get to stay in a Crowne Plaza that is super nice. I was afraid I wouldn't fit in the bed though. With seven pillows and a relaxation CD already on it, there wasn't a whole lot of room. SEVEN PILLOWS! little overkill there don't ya think? The scenery one can view from 23,000ft along the Atlantic coast is simply amazing. I would have taken some pictures, but I was rather terrified of moving while we were in flight, but maybe in a couple weeks I can. Here's a few from Billings:



Airplane on the ramp.

Nice big engine.

Me and George?

Looking over a mountainous sunset.

More of the sunset. That's smoke from forest fires, not the ground below the horizon.

International Pilot!

That's right folks. I'm an international pilot now! Go to use my passport and radio license for the first time going to Quebec City. It's just Canada, but it might as well be Europe for all the foreign languages spoken here. But, I haven't got much time to type and this post is going to be all business so you can quit reading now if you want. I hope to have to to do a real post sometime soon.

This is the fruit of my apartment search: I got to look at three places and I tried to take pictures the would show the size and quality on the rooms. I'm going to start with a description of my impression and notes and do some quick labels on the pics. So here goes...

House #1 Real, entire house.
It's a 2 bedroom place for 1200/mo not including any utilities which run at about 100-150/mo in the winter. It is two stories with an unfinished basement containing laundry HOOKUPS and a small backyard (8'x5') It's walking distance from the T. 456 Revere St. I believe. Driveway for a trapped two w/ additional parking on street.

One bedroom. Kind of cool wall shelf deal, small closet.


bathroom of the smallish variety.


All I could get of room #2 by standing in the corner. It's actually bigger than it looks here, although the closet again is small.


Kitchen was the best of the three houses with new stuff all around.


Living room, which for us would probably be a computer or additional quartering room.

Ok, House #2 In an Apartment building.
2 bedroom for 1150 Heat and Hot water INCLUDED! 10-15 min walk to bus- ride to blue line.
Up 1/2 flight of wide stairs so furniture is no problem. Rooms biggest of the three. Located on Fenne St. Parking for two cars provided, more cars extra.

nice kitchen, compact but usable


Big living/computer/ additional quarters room


Giant closet in big room #1


Other wall of room #1


Room #2 from just outside doorway


Big room #2 notice the closet. enough space for 80 pilot shirts.


Bathroom, small and without light at the moment.

House #3 Third floor of real house.
Up two flights of rickety and VERY narrow stairs. big furniture would be a problem. 2-3 bedrooms for 1000 no utilities (again 100-150/mo in winter) being on the third floor, we can look at an small overgrown yard, but that's about all. Does have a nice deck though. Close to Princeton and Putnam.

1-2 rooms: one on the right has a doorway to the kitchen with no door and anybody in left room would have to go through right to get out. Also room on left is about as big as it looks.


small rooms. very small. one side of room #3


Nice closet though. other side of #3


Big Kitchen, little dirty, but spacious.


Nice deck, Mass law says grills have to be the driveway though :(


Bathroom Kinda small with no tub, but who cares?


Okay guys, That's about all I saw, but the my nice realitor (seen in kitchen of house #1) told me about an apartment in Winthrop that's 1300, but it includes all utilities and is bigger than the place #2. Comes with Living/dining room combo, 2 12'x11' rooms with a deck, backyard and 15 min walk to the blue line. Also has dishwasher, fridge, gas stove, and hookup for washer/dryer. (the other places included the machines you saw. Can be viewed at http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/nfb/398336026.html
Send me your votes now.

It's Here!!!!

And I am typing on it!! I ordered a laptop from HP and it finally arrived yesterday afternoon. Finally was probably the wrong word to use there because my computer wasn't even supposed to be shipped until the 9th, so they did a really super job of getting it out fast. I suppose you all want to see what it looks like right? Ok. I'm going to go get my camera and take a picture of it. Now I am going to slide my memory card into the little slot on the side of my computer and click import pictures. ooooo look it's working! Now I will just add an image and there you go!




As you my have noticed I am still calling her "my computer." Nicole suggested Ashley when we had to come up with a name right away to hook into the wireless network, but (no offense to her or anyone named Ashley) that just doesn't seem to fit very well. And since I am as good at naming stuff as the guy who named his kids "Espn" and "Espn Two" I thought I would open the floor to hear all of your great suggestions. Soo Start Naming!!! and I will announce the winner when I put up my airplane photos from my most recent trip out west. I might do that tomorrow or I might be a couple weeks because I just called my scheduling department and they said that my five moving days start tomorrow and then I get a line to fly at the end of that, and a bid to prepare every two weeks for the rest of my immediate future. So I'm sitting here telling myself that I need to pack like NOW but I am having a hard time pulling myself away from my sweet baby. ok. I'm done. I really have to quit. Now. JUST GET OFF THE COMPUTER JOSH!

I start my last IOE trip today

I get to fly 2576 to Lewistown and Havard where I will spend the night and come home in the morning. Where I go from there I have no idea. I'll probably head home and start packing to move to Boston and wait for a call from management. If I manage my flights home right I might get to go to a pie bake I heard about :) If I don't I could end up sleeping in an airport again. Though now I have phone numbers for friends in several cities I could connect through, so hopefully that won't happen. The FOs in the current ground school get their orals tomorrow, so we'll get to see if Purdue can keep its 100% passing rate going.