Kiwi Holiday

Anyone who looks at this probably looks at my Facebook as well so I'm not going to waste any of my precious and expensive bandwidth uploading the same pictures again. Instead I'll just fill in what has been going on for the last week. Starting last Thursday:

I left McChord around 9 p.m. on a six hour leg to Hawaii. We had this aeromedical evacuation crew on board doing training so it was a little cramped with them and all the cargo. After a two hour stop at Hickam we continued on to Christchurch, a 10 hour flight. Because the aeromed guys got off in Hawaii there was a lot more room to stretch out. It was a much better ride then last year when I went down. Once in New Zealand we had a short brief, collected our bags and cleared customs, and spent the night downtown at a nice hotel. That evening those of us who had been here before took the other guys out to a few bars and got a very tasty dinner. There is seriously nothing to eat here that isn't good.

The next day we went in to the shop to get our plane ready for the next day's mission to Antarctica, take over the tool kit, and send the guys we were replacing on their way home. After they had left we were able to head to The Peppers Clearwater where we would be staying for the next month. This place is clearly wasted on me as I don't play golf, but the room accommodations couldn't be better, especially considering the length of the stay. There are country roads and trails close by that are perfect for bike riding which I've utilized a few times already.

Monday's mission went off well and we had Tuesday off. Since we are here so long no one has been in a huge hurry to get out and about. Since Lindsay is going to be here for almost 10 days and I've been here before I'm waiting for her. On Wednesday I flew down to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. I had been there before, last year but that time I went to Pegasus Runway, which isn't that close to McMurdo. This time I got to go to the Antarctic outpost, which was originally a Navy Station and is now under the control of the National Science Foundation. Raytheon provides the infrastructure and support for the scientists, and as such they outnumber the boffins (local slang for eggheads) 3 to 1.

At McMurdo we were driven around the town and got several good picture opportunities. It was pretty warm out, especially in the sun when there wasn't any breeze. From McMurdo ski planes fly all over the continent and during the summer an Ice Breaker comes in and they get resupply ships. The runway we landed on will be open water in about a month. In fact, the ice was only 8 feet thick and held a 450,000 lb airplane. You could actually see the ice bow in underneath the weight of the aircraft.

On Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner at the Clearwater which was nice but not quite as nice as it would have been with Lindsay. Luckily she will be here soon and we can start touring about. Since we only fly 3 times a week there will be plenty of time off to go see stuff. Oh, and I'm getting $104 dollars a day extra just to be here.

Been Awhile...

Okay, I can see it has been over a month, but the truth is I'm lazy. Facebook is just so much easier to use/share/get into. Anyway, today I replaced my venerable VW Golf with a much nicer, faster and powerful derivative. I got a brand new GTI, which you can now get in a four door, something that wasn't an option in 2002. I won't bore anyone with the specifics, but I have to say that this car is pretty bad-ass.

The understatement of the design is a hallmark of GTI's. What looks like an ordinary hatchback is anything but.

Inside it has all the cool bells and whistles befitting a new car. My favorite features stem out of what I never liked about my old car. The cup holders are in a sensible place and don't interfere with radio operation, and there is an auxiliary input for the radio. I can actually control my iPod through the touch screen faceplate.

I also went with an automatic to better facilitate driving in traffic and on stops on steep hills, somethings that I seem to find myself doing more and more often. Also, this car gets good mileage like my old one which is nice, and so far has already proven to be very fun to drive.

Pointless Contest of Wills

Last night Patrick and I made a bet that the first person to turn on the heat this autumn loses. Naturally, the bet's off once it gets around 50 degrees in the house - we do have kittehs after all. The stakes: if I turn on the heat, I have to go skiing for the first time. If he turns on the heat, he has to go have sushi with me. Neither of us wants to do these things, but have been urged by our other halves to "just try it" for a long, long time.

This morning the thermometer reads 61 in the house. I'm enjoying my last cup of coffee in front of the open slider door. Patrick is upstairs wrapped in blankets. Game on.

Wicked...

Last Saturday we went and saw Wicked at the Paramount in Seattle. It was really good, and since there may be those out there who will want to see the musical, read the book, or watch the inevitable movie, I won't get into plot details. But I will say that the music was good, the costumes and set design were terrific and overall there were lots of funny moments... which brings me to the problem.

The lady next to me had the worst breath I have smelt in a long, long time. I can only imagine the turd sandwich she must have had for lunch was garnished with a bit of poop on a manure bun. So every time something funny happened, which was fairly often, I had to choke on the wafting fumes of halitosis coming from my right. At least we weren't seated next to the enormous fat guy on the end.

But that is a small thing to complain about in what was otherwise a lot of fun.

A Few Updates...

So Maggie and The Pickle have been much more well behaved after a few days of solitary confinement and herbal cat calming drugs. This picture is from a few days ago and Maggie is out of the cone now. They have been very nice to each other as of late, but Maggie has been extremely clingy. Below is the birthday cake I made for Lindsay.

As you can see, it was pretty big. I made Andi's buttercreme frosting as well, and the whole thing was pretty tasty, if not a little messy looking.

Lastly, here is the latest, a repeat of the Oktoberfest I made last year. It turned out phenomenal. We've been out of the blogging routine here for a little while, so just bear with me and hopefully there will be more posts in the future.

Our Weekend in Oregon

We carried out our entire journey to Bend and back under the watchful eye of the stalwart Jacques.


There was some beautiful scenery along the way; lovely mountains, valleys and gorges.


Bend, OR is located on the shore of the Deschutes River, and hosts a number of great breweries and a pleasant downtown. We started off at McMenamin's Old St. Francis School. Good beer, better atmosphere. The interior of this pub is beautiful, and we had our lunch here Saturday before exploring Bend. From McMenamin's we walked down Bond Street and ended up at the Bend Brewing Company. We both had the Metolius Golden, and it was delicious! We also visited Juniper Fiberworks, but left empty-handed. They had a nice selection, but were too low in stock to supply me with enough of anything I liked. We drove down to the Deschutes Brewery, but since their tours are small (15 people) and they only hold them once an hour, we just enjoyed the gift shop/tasting room.


After a short nap we headed out in search of dinner. The Deschutes Pub was far too crowded to wait for a table, but we did stop for a pint before moving on. I really liked the quote on their chalkboard, pictured above. It says "Teach a man to brew and he will drink for a lifetime."


We went to Ciao Mambo for dinner, had some moderately authentic Italian delivered to us by the world's cheeriest waitstaff, and took a walk down to the river. Drake Park is named for a land developer that helped settle the area. We saw a wedding party getting their photos taken here.


On Sunday we drove up to Multnomah Falls, just east of Portland. They have a pretty nice setup there. There was a scenic highway skirting the Columbia as we drove towards the Falls, a nice little restaurant at the foot of the park, and a short walk to a pedestrian bridge that faces the falls. There were more trails in the park, but we enjoyed the scenery and were on our way into Portland.


The first stop in Portland was a yarn shop called Twisted. I found this yarn for a sweater I've been thinking about, and the staff was kind enough to wind it for me - using an automatic winder made of Legos, who they referred to as Mr. Roboto! After this we made a trip over to Voodoo Doughnuts, but were put off by the line (not to mention the average weight of the people in the line), and ended up at Deschutes instead!


This particular location of Deschutes (we'd been to all 3 at this point, for those of you keeping track) had been recommended to us on the merits of its crazy huge urinals.


It was at this point that I reasoned with Patrick that we couldn't just come to downtown Portland and not go to Powell's. The books would know if I didn't visit them! We came away with a very reasonable purchase, but it's always worth the trip.


All this time we'd been driving, Patrick had been cursing and fuming about his hatred of the Subaru wagon. The Outback, the Legacy, they could all burn in hell! The driver of the Subaru above almost redeemed the others.


So we were only gone for two days, but the cats managed to drown a beloved toy to show their displeasure with us. We are being, in turns, deliberately ignored and pestered for skritches now. All in all, it was a great weekend trip!

The Ongoing War For Territory

Maggie loves this armchair. This is a picture of her discovering it for the first time. She and it bonded deeply, as is evidenced by the permanent dent in the squishy back cushion.


There is usually a blanket of some sort there to cushion her further, and for a long time this was her exclusive spot. If you were looking for Maggie, there she was, and if you were looking at a cat in that spot, it was Maggie.

Until...


When The Pickle first came to live with us he was three months old and just a little bit smaller than our "full-grown" Magpie. At that time he would frequently cuddle up next to her for warmth, comfort, and the occasional inexplicable suckle. But he didn't stay small for long, and the war for territory began.


Now that he is so much larger than she is, he's realized he can sit wherever he pleases! The fight over this armchair didn't start until about two months ago, and didn't start in earnest until today when they both decided to sit there.


Maggie's advantage is not so much in her size, but in the size of her butt. She is the mal-proportioned J. Lo of the feline group, and she wields her back half with terrible accuracy. The Pickle is quite oozy though, so he was still not ready to relinquish his spot here!

The war for territory rages on.

Poor Yorkick...

Today Lindsay made the label for my English Pale Ale while we brewed Not Quite Dead Guy. It is a direct reference to the start of the second act of Hamlet. The line is commonly misquoted as being, "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well." The actual line is much longer. Lindsay took a picture of my hand holding a Halloween skull, and after printing it traced the major lines. Then with a scanner and some Photoshop trickery, she was able to put this together in just a few hours. I think it looks pretty damn good.

Garage Floor Done...

This weekend I finished epoxying the garage floor. I used a Rustoleum kit that was large enough to do a 2.5 car garage in two phases. I had done the right side first, and when that had set up enough I did the left side. I think we are still about a week from parking on it, but it is fine for foot traffic and putting the stuff back where it goes. The kit was a two-part epoxy, and is speckled with paint flakes (if you want to use them). I started last Tuesday and applied the left side yesterday. The first park is cleaning the concrete with a stiff bristled brush and an acid solution. Then you need to let the surface dry overnight. After that you mix up the epoxy and roll it on. It all cost 100 bucks. It looks great now but the real test will come when hot car tires are parked on it.
In other news, yesterday I brewed my English Pale Ale and here it is today fermenting away.

The Rest of Vacation...

We came back from Wisconsin on Monday and I still have the rest of the week on leave so I've set about a few projects to fill the time. First off, I'm in the process of epoxy sealing the garage floor. Because this is a process that is going to take days to complete I needed to start right away. I scrubbed, cleaned, acid etched and rinsed the first side yesterday, and allowed the concrete to dry out overnight with fans and a heater. Then today at noon, I mixed up half of the kit and rolled it out. I opted to use the decorative paint chips to dress up the gray. Below is a side-by-side of the finished part and the other side that needs to be done.

In Wisconsin my Mom had an old bird bath that was being used as a Succulent garden. It looked really cool and we happen to have and old bird bath so yesterday I made this (below).

I assume that the plants will creep towards the edge but in the mean time I just put some mulch in to cover the dirt. The bird bath was shaped more like a stew plate than a proper bowl so the sides were pretty shallow.

And now, for some experiments with macro-photography using a Cannon Powershot. Above, the Succulents.

A pretty purple flower that has continuously bloomed all year. The way the blossoms open up is pretty bazaar compared to most plants and when the petals fall off what's left looks like a nettle.

I'm pretty sure this is an African Marigold but I could be wrong. I tend to pick flowers out based on "ooh, pretty!". Whatever it is, it has looked great the entire time we've had it.

The lush tufts of Irish Moss. I would love to have an entire lawn of this stuff and it would never need to be mown. Too bad you can't walk on it.

And lastly, this morning I bottled my Honey Brown Ale (named Hundred Acre Ale, and yes that is a literary reference to the works of A. A. Milne). Since that was done I started my next beer with the all too-important yeast starter. This is for an English Pale Ale that I'm going to dry hop with Cascade to boost the aroma. It shall be called "Poor Yorick" and yes, that is a literary reference to the works of Bill Shakespeare.

Time Off...

Okay, so the Air Mobility Rodeo is over. I realize that most of the people who read this already know how we did, but in case you are unaware, we kicked ass. We won the top prize: Best Air Mobility Team, as well as other major awards Best Airdrop Team and Best C-17 Team. Specifically for maintenance, we won Best C-17 Basic Post Flight. All this means that the Wing brass lost their minds with glee on Friday and now we can all finally take a rest.

I'm taking some leave so today I got the garden back in order. We had some Forget-me-nots that had become infested and died a few weeks ago and today I replaced them. I also trimmed and pruned some of our more aggressive plants.

These are some pots that we've had going for about 2 months now and they are doing great.

This is a plant that we have no idea what it is, does anyone know?

Here is the big planter with all the new flowers. There were two lavender plants in here that got pretty big and I transplanted them to the main beds. To make space I pulled out two grasses that were overgrown and not very nice to look at. They had been one of the first things we planted and had outlived their welcome. Hopefully the current heatwave breaks so all this doesn't die while we're away on vacation.

Cat TV

Since Patrick built that beautiful arbor, we decided to try out a bird feeder. Something small that would attract and feed the locals...and entertain our cats. Between the bird feeder and the bird bath we have had a few visitors, and it is not unusual to find the cats parked in front of the boob tube, as it were.

Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout...

Tonight I tried Barney Flat's Oatmeal Stout, from the Anderson Valley Brewing Company in California. This is a seriously good Oatmeal Stout. I made an Oatmeal Stout once, and it is a pretty complicated affair for the Home Brewer. This Stout is just as the bottle claims, "An intensely rich experience with a gratifying bittersweet finish." Oatmeal Stout: It is not just for breakfast anymore.

Another From Rogue...

Tonight's fare is another from the incredible Rogue Brewery in Newport, Oregon. The Chocolate Stout, in Lindsay's terms, is an "explosion of delicious flavors." I'm not crazy about dark beers, but the Chocolate Stout is really good.

Two More...

You can probably guess why we bought a bottle of Orval Trappist Ale. There are only about 8 actual Trappist Monasteries in Belgium and this is one of the few that makes an ale for export. Belgium beers will seem a bit odd to a North American palette, but they generally have a complexity and character that is wholly unique and seldom copied. I first had Orval in New Zealand where it was served in the very specific Orval glass (most Belgium ales have their own glasses) that is designed to heighten the drinking experience. Where the Kiwis totally screwed up is that they served the ale ice cold. At first sip Orval was no good. As it warmed up to the appropriate serving temperature the Orval got better and better, with flavors coming out and aromas presenting themselves. This confirmed my belief that a good beer will be as good or better at cellar temperature (55 degrees) than when ice cold. The only thing that is better when ice cold is a mass market American Macro-lager, and that is because the cold covers the shitty flavors.

The other new tasting was Great Divide Brewing's Yeti Imperial Stout. This was a high quality stout that was both smooth and complex. Stouts are easy to make but a truly high quality stout is somewhat of a rarity these days. Colorado's Great Divide Brewing seems to have managed nicely. We are running out of new and interesting beers. Perhaps we will need to make a pilgrimage to Seattle's Bottleworks next.

Capital Doppelbock...

Last night's new brew was Capital Brewery's Dopplebock. Dopplebock is German for double-bock and the style is among the stronger lagers in the world. If the capital on the bottle looks a little familiar to some of you it is because Capital Brewery is in Middleton, WI. It was good, but a little too high gravity to be a session brew.

In other news, today we went to the Olympia Farmers Market to see it they had any interesting plants and we came across a pair of nice creeping vines. It turns out that they were hops! The variety is Bullion, which I had never heard of. It is an older English strain and less than 100 acres are grown in the United States. Apparently old recipes books contain styles with Bullion, and it can be used in things like I.P.A.'s. Time will tell if I use them for brewing.

So since we got some hops, I needed to put something into the pergola/trellis thing I made yesterday for the vines to climb up. I quickly made the lattice work and we planted the vines on one side. We also got a bird feeder for Maggie and The Pickle.

Later we decided that the other side looked a little naked without any vines so we went to a nursery in neighboring Yelm. There we got a Star Jasmine vine and planted that. Hopefully within a month or two the hops and Jasmine will manage to get high on the lattice.

The Missing Piece...

Above is a shot of our garden from Memorial Day in 2008. I had finished the big planter box and all the major landscaping, but I never got around to building the trellis (or whatever you call it) that I had originally envisioned. Today I was able to complete the last piece.

Since our garden is long and narrow, it needed a vertical element to bring in some balance. A tree is out of the question so we went with a bridge trellis over the large planter box. It took about 5 hours to build, start to finish and cost maybe $85 dollars in materials.

Next we will try and figure out some sort of climbing plant for the sides and top. I may have to put a lattice in between the legs to provide holds for a vine. We will also get a bird feeder or two to attract some entertainment for the cats.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier...

Tonight's beer comes from Bamburg, Germany. Rauchbier is German for "smoke Beer." In this case it is quite literal. The aroma is not one of hops, but bacon. You might think this would be disgusting, but the rich, smoky flavor is actually quite good. You can learn more about smoke beer here. As Lindsay put it: this would be the perfect beer to pair with pulled pork sandwiches. And below, is a picture of the absolute greatest potato chips ever. If you are lucky enough to come across Tim's Pepper Jack Cheese Kettle Chips, I suggest you buy every bag you can.

Scene From Our Living Room

Me: "I think the Iranian government killed Micheal Jackson to take the American press coverage off their country."
Patrick: "I think Kate Gosselin killed him. Same reason. I don't think the Iranian government has the resources to take out Micheal Jackson, but if a woman can raise 8 kids she probably could."

Maggie's Nemisis & Kells Irish Lager...

Tonight while watching an episode of Top Gear and eating dinner we heard a hiss from the slider to the deck. Maggie was all bushy and staring down a neighbor cat. In the last half hour they haven't taken their eyes off each other and occasionally we are hearing some very angry cat noises. Luckily the screen has remained unharmed.

In other news, today we tried Kells Irish Lager, from the Rogue Brewery in Oregon. Like everything Rogue makes, this was excellent; a true session brew. Unfortunately like most of Rogue varieties, this is only available in the 22 oz size but is well worth the trouble it takes to find it.

Gravity Beer...

Yesterday we went to Gravity Beer, Olympia's only bottle shop. They have about 600 varieties, including some East Coast stuff and a lot of international stuff. We picked out 6 each and tried two of them today while brewing Oktoberfest. More reviews to come (hopefully).

The one on the left is Red Chair IPA from the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. It was one of the best IPA's I've ever had. It wasn't too bitter, didn't numb the tongue, and had a huge hop aroma. Plus the label art was beautiful. On the right is Banana Bread Beer from the Wells & Young's Brewery in England. This one was good by the 4th sip (our measure of whether or not something is good, sometimes it takes four sips), had a steady banana aroma and a great after taste. It was interesting and as Lindsay put it, "a great brunch beer."

Yesterday I bottled my Bavarian Helles, which is light (in color) lager in the traditional Munich style. And in the Bavarian tradition, this one is called Mad King Ludwig in a tribute to the crazy king of Bavaria. As you can see, Lindsay made another great label.

Pickle Lost His Shadow...

Yes, just like Peter Pan, The Pickle has lost his shadow. It does follow him around occasionally. In other news, this morning we got a new coffee pot, or as Lindsay would say, "a proper coffee pot." It has a timer, grinds its own beans, and has a 12 cup capacity. Right now we're trying some Dunkin Donuts coffee and it is good.

Yard Pictures as Requested...

After I made the hose reel, the last problem was that when winding the hose up it would still make a huge mess of the mulch and get in the gravel, a basic problem with my landscaping design. So to fix this I planted this purple ground cover that blooms continuously and spreads pretty extensively. So far this has worked really well.

Here is a salvia that is blooming, with the corner box and some new lilly-esque plants that replaced the transplanted lavender after that proved to be a mistake.

Our pots which had thrived on neglect for two years needed some help after the recent hot spell turned all the moss orange. I filled them out with a bunch of plants that I can't name, but look pretty. I can name maybe 30% of the plants in our yard.

Here is the big box now that things have started to get bigger. I think we may realize we didn't think things fully through as these start to reach full size and the while thing becomes an over grown mess.

Lastly, here is my newest beer tool, a stir plate. In the flask is a magnetic bar that spins around because of another magnet on the stir plate. This keeps the yeast in suspension, greatly increasing the yield of the starter. This, in turn increases the amount of yeast pitched into the beer and that makes for a quicker and more complete fermentation. As I am making a honey brown ale right now in a few days I should be able to tell you how much this has made a difference.

Beer Marketing...

I touched on this a bit on Facebook, but something that pisses me off is the marketing departments in major macro-breweries. I bring this up because Miller (my hometown scrud brewery) is advertising Miller Lite (not really a true Pilsner Beer, but we won't get into that) as being "triple hopped." Well that doesn't really mean anything. Some beers have more hops than others, it all has to do with the recipe and the style. And to further break it down, does "triple hopped" mean three times the hops? Because if so, not necessarily a good thing. Or does it mean three types of hops? Well that could be but again, that doesn't really doesn't mean a thing. Another term that gets thrown around is "cold brewed" or "ice brewed". Well, beer is never brewed at cold temperatures, in fact the brew process is a boil. The fermentation may be at a cold temperature, if the beer is being lagered, which is kind of the point of lagering. My favorite was a beer I saw in New Zealand that was "Flame Brewed / Crash Cooled." That is the basic goal of any brew process. But I guess the marketing people count on ignorance.

New Computer, New Pillow...

I've just upgraded on both fronts and let me say that the Tempurpedic Symphony is well worth $100. I know some may be thinking, $100 on a pillow? Well, eventually I'll spend between 25-35% of my life in bed. Would you buy an $8 pair of pants or a $12 pair of shoes that you'll wear ever single day for a year? Or ten years? No, once again my logic is flawless. Also I got a new laptop to replace the crappy one I got after the "coffee incident." It is fast and sexy.

On another note, we saw The Hangover yesterday and that movie was frigging hilarious. Not for the squeamish or easily offended but definitely worth the hype. The day started out with some laps at the track; I've got my mile and a half down to less than 10 minutes, max points for the PT test are below 9:36. Then we went shopping and spent some gift cards left over from Christmas, so to the people who gave us the American Eagle and Ann Taylor gift cards, thank you for the pants, shorts, and shirt you got us for Christmas last year. Then it was to "The Rock" where we sampled some of the IPA and Porter, had some good greasy food and generally enjoyed ourselves. Luckily The Rock is next to the movie theater so you can guess how the rest of the day went. Oh, and there may have been a 24 oz bag of peanut butter M&M's. The details are a bit fuzzy... All in all, a pretty good Saturday. Sunday I had to work.

Why Couldn't I Make My Own?

The weekend before last we got a new hose reel very similar to the one pictured above. It was a complete piece of shit. The thing was way too light, the hose popped off on it's own, and really didn't look all that great. After a few days I couldn't even remember why I wanted to replace the old reel anyway. Of course, we did pick out a pretty cheap reel. Anyway, I started wondering, "Why can't I just build a better version that is also more attractive?" So this morning, I did.

I took the guts out of the unsatisfactory reel and fashioned a box around them with pressure treated 2X4's. To make a smooth rotation I made bushings out of some PVC pipe and used the spool from the old reel, as well as the crank.

I also fixed the problem of the hose popping off, and with the bulk of the framework the new reel is much heavier so it doesn't move at all when I pull the hose out. As an added bonus, I think the new one looks pretty good.

Weekend Projects...

So I had to do some digging on various computers to find an original picture of our meager yard space before anything had been done and this was the best I could do. Two years ago I had just built the deck, and nothing else had been landscaped. We threw down some pavers to make a half-assed pathway to nowhere and eventually planted a few things.

Fast forward two years. Today I added an element that has made the small space even more enjoyable... an umbrella. We happen to be situated in such a way that the deck gets hit with sun all day long. Being the fair skinned types we are, this seemed like a good idea, and enables laptop use outside (which is where I am now) since you can actually see the screen in the shadow. We got the umbrella at Target and I made the hole for the pole using a bit of drain pipe held to the deck frame with U-bolts. I only had to bore a 2.5 inch hole in the deck so when the umbrella is put away it is very unobtrusive and we don't need to mess around with a movable base.

Below is a picture of the small planter and trellis I made last year to fill out a boring area. It was okay, but that corner always bothered me. A few weeks ago to solution came to me, and yesterday I made that plan happen.

Here is the new and improved planter. I especially like the corner shape, the angle at the back and the larger, more proportioned trellis. Where the old framework was made from some leftover crappy pressure treated fence wood, this one is made from real cedar, and the much larger clematis plants survived the transfer, albeit with a few injuries. I think they'll be fine.

Lastly, here are a few wild lavender I rescued from a construction site down the road. The smallest one on the left I found growing as a weed in our front yard. Hopefully they survive the transplant. If they don't, not a big deal, they were free and would have been killed anyway.

Since there is a 10% discount at Lowe's and Home Depot this weekend for military, I may come up with a few more projects. I want a better hose reel and hose for one, Lindsay wants a nicer bird bath, and I still have about half the beds to mulch. I also haven't fully lost the idea of a massive arbor over the large planter.

Next Year...

So last Thursday the promotion results for Master Sergeant came out and sadly I was not on the list. It was my first time testing for it and since I'm only at ten years in I'm still way ahead of the average. Ultimately this is what hurt me the most. Since most of the people who read this probably don't understand how the Air Force promotion system works, I'll try and explain it here. Each year eligibles test for the ranks of SSgt, TSgt, and MSgt and the total scores are made up of several factors.

A) Time in service points: every year points are accrued based on how long a person has been in the Air Force. I had significantly less time in service points than other people in my career field but there isn't anything I can do about that.

B) Time in grade points: same concept as time in service, except based on how long a person has been in there current grade. Since I was testing for Master for the first time I didn't have that many points.

C) Medal Points: Medals have points associated with them, and I have 7 points. The average of people selected for MSgt was 12. For the length of time I've been in the AF I'm pretty much on track as far as medals go, but again this is lower based on my relatively short time in the Air Force.

D) Enlisted Performance Reports: The last five EPR's are taken into consideration and a point value is assigned. The maximum is 135 points, which I had.

E) Professional Development Guide: This is one of the only portions I can control. The PDG is a test of 100 questions based on general Air Force stuff like leadership, discipline, history, dress and appearance and other stuff that is universal regardless of career field. The maximum is 100 points and I scored about a 72 which is above average. I had hoped for more like a 80.

F) Specialty Knowledge Test: This is like the PDG except based on career field. I scored 69 which was above average.

So when all my points were added up I had 323.03. The cutoff for the career field was 323.9. I ended up missing MSgt by 0.87, and if you think that is pretty bad, there were 16 people in my career field who missed it by less. On the bright side next year I should have one more medal point thanks to the Rodeo Competition I'm part of right now, plus more time in service and grade points. Additionally I hope to do better on the PDG and SKT tests. In general I'm pretty disgusted by this since I studied really hard and would have much rather spent that time doing pretty much anything else. But the fact is had I gotten one more question right on either test I would have made it so maybe I didn't study hard enough. Oh well, next year....

Update on last post...

Okay, so it turned out to be a bomb scare. A suspicious package was left in the lobby. It turned out to be nothing but they were cautious and handled the situation the way they were supposed to. We tried again last night and Star Trek was pretty cool.

In Which We Were Like, "WTF?"

So tonight we walked out of a movie, and that movie was Star Trek. Not because it wasn't a good movie, because it was. Not because it cost 30 dollars to see it on the IMAX screen and popcorn cost 12 dollars more, which is highway robbery. No, we walked out because at about 40 minutes in, when Kirk was having sex with that girl with the green skin and red hair the screen froze. What was especially weird was that when the screen froze we could see people already filing out of the theater.

The manager, a Mr. Zephyr Ragweed (if that is his real name) announced that everyone needed to leave and he wouldn't say why. Outside they were giving away free passes with no regard to how many or whether or not the people had even been in the theater to begin with. There were two cop cars outside but I didn't see any policemen. After a minute outside it was announced that everyone needed to move at least 100 feet out from the building. Rather than wait around we left and the whole thing was very weird. I plan to check out the local news sites in the morning to see what happened.

The prevailing theory is that there was a bomb threat. Given how the theater lost business for the later showings, how many people took large numbers of free passes who hadn't purchased them, or passes for the much more expensive IMAX movies I would guess that the theater lost a lot of money tonight. We'll try again tomorrow night.

Catching Up...

So the last 2 weeks or so, all has been quiet on the Patrick and Lindsay front. There is a good reason for this. Last Saturday I left for the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center in Michigan for a week long mobility exercise. The whole point of this was to practice generating missions in a contingency response, setting up an expeditionary airfield and sustaining operations under attack and in a chemical environment. Lastly we had to be able to pack up and get home in a reasonable period of time. The whole week sucked. The best I can say is that we had decent weather and the planes flew alright. Other than that it was a lot of exhaustion and discomfort. I still get to do this two more times this year. In other news....

We've added a few more plants to our garden and done some more finishing touches. This entire process has taken about 3 years to achieve, with last year being the major phase of construction and planting.

We mulched the big planter and added some small bits of greenery to balance out the area. There was also some minor weeding and a lot of pruning to do.

Today we added two more hanging baskets to go with our one and filled in the small planter that was a vegetable garden last year. Since we couldn't really maintain that before we decided to put non-edible stuff in there this time around. Below is the topiary Lindsay has wanted for at least 5 years and a hydrangea that will hopefully get a bit larger. Also I am pleased to see the hostas that I thought were completely dead have emerged from the soil and look like they will be much bigger this year.

All these pictures were taken with my new phone, a Google G-1 Android. My old phone had become embarrassingly outdated and since my birthday is coming up I decided to upgrade. I am pretty impressed with the picture quality for a phone.