A happy birthday, Kalamazoo in Thunderstorms, and other things

I had a few days off so I got to go home for Dad's birthday. We got him a Wii so now he can play sports in his living room even during the thunderstorm that I flew around yesterday.
I got out of Cincinnati just ahead of it, but we still got a bit of turbulence for it. We got ground-stopped in Kalamazoo, because apparently they had to send everybody into the tornado shelter in Cincy for awhile.
It was really neat flying last night. We took off into the clouds and when we broke out of the side at 27,000' you could see the whole expanse of the storm and the giant billows of cloud. It was just dark enough to see the lights of other planes in the sky, and it was really awesome to see just how minuscule they appeared next to the giant cumulonimbus. We were like little particles in a lava lamp, trying not to be swept away by a rising mass of air. My last few trips have all been with captains who have less than 100 hours in the left seat, so they have to fly all the legs. :( I hope I get to fly once this month.