Say What?

We've been in contract talks with the FAA management since last July and this past week the talks came to a halt and an impasse was declared. This isn't the end of the world but it does signal the end of status-quo. We've enjoyed several years of prosperity as air traffic controllers and now management is looking to get back some of our gains. Where it will hurt most is in our retirement pay as any pay raises we see for the next five years will be seen as bonuses paid out in lump sums and not to be used as part of our base pay for annuity purposes—boring stuff so I'll stop writing about it. I've been finding my form on my bike...I went out for a 70 mile ride yesterday. My Edge 305 has been good at helping me squeeze more out of my workouts. The poll numbers continue to fall for Bush. So let's see, continued negative reporting and nothing but hate-Bush-talk from the left. Hmm, I'm not surprised. Not to compare President Bush to Jesus but Jesus also suff...

Okay, I've been neglecting my blog...sorry. I got a Garmin GPS unit for my bike last week and I've been playing around with it. It's an Edge 305 and it's such a cool toy. I've got to be careful to keep my eyes on the road and not spend too much at looking at all the gee-whiz stuff it's showing. It's really something how it tracks my slightest movements. Check out this photo —the red line across the top is me returning home, heading from right to left. You can even see where I got into the left turn lane to make the left turn...pretty cool. Here's a Google Earth file of the ride I took on Saturday. You'll need to download Google Earth to be able to view it. Once the file opens you can press the play button toward the left and watch the ride unfold. I love this technology.

Rachel suggested that we go out to DQ Friday night to celebrate her 14th and a half birthday...hey, it's as good an excuse as any. We used the same reasoning the next night to celebrate my 48th and a half birthday by going to dinner and then the Third Day/David Crowder concert at Target Center. Actually, the concert has been in our plans for a couple months. I was able to get out earlier in the day for a brisk ride in mid 20-degree temps so as not to feel too guilty when I over-ate at Chillies. Tammy's sister, Theresa, also went with us. The concert had a 7pm start time so we wanted to be at the restaurant before 5:00 and before the crowds. We got seated right away and began to ruin our appetites with a basket of tortilla chips and dip. Fortunately our food came before we could actually do that . We arrived at Target Center and parked in the ramp across the street on the 4th level...we wouldn't realize until later how big of a mistake that was. We had some time to kil...

We've been pretty busy around our household as we try and get the windows in the kitchenette of our basement done before the warm weather moves in and I find it next to impossible to do stained glass with all the bicycling I'd rather be doing. Tammy did some very nice design work to get the ball rolling on these. In case you missed a previous post of mine, here are the designs once again... left window , middle window , right window ; and here's where they're going  above the cabinets in the cutouts. Once we got the designs finished the first thing we did was work on the background glass. We're working with some beautiful Youghiogheny stipple glass we found at a shop in Minneapolis. We got the only two sheets they had and it should be enough but trying to find just the right piece for transitions between areas is still tricky at times. We laid out the background for all three windows together by placing them in our family room windows so we could view all of ...

We've been busy working on a stained glass project for our basement. I was hoping to be a little further along than we are but it's very tedious work with no way to rush it. Once we finalized the  last of three drawings it didn't take long for us to get busy. Tammy cut all the pattern pieces out and I got busy pasting them to the glass and cutting and getting cut. The hardest part so far has been trying to get the background glass to flow from one area to the next. I bought some beautiful Youghiogheny stipple glass for the background and I would think that two sheets would be enough but I'm finding that it's still a challenge finding just the right glass for the right area. There are so many tiny pieces but I like working that way as you seldom if ever see anyone else work that way. It takes a lot more effort but for something which will be around for years or decades to come, a little extra effort isn't such a big deal. I hope to have the first window done thi...

It was great riding weather this past weekend but I couldn’t partake in it. I locked myself in our shop and worked on getting some drawings done for a window project we’re about to start in our basement. I’ve got some sort of chest cold so I figured it was a good time to not worry about riding and focus on the drawings. I’m a believer in the zinc nasal spray called Zicam. I still get my occasional colds but I think this stuff helps to lessen their severity and length. Maybe it’s all a placebo effect but that’s still fine. Rachel’s avoided the bug so far but Tammy and I haven’t. Usually, it’s the other way around. I noticed Rachel was up in the middle of the night on Thursday for quite some time in her bathroom. I didn’t wake Tammy as I figured she’s a big girl and if there’s a problem she’ll let us know. I mentioned it to Tammy early the next morning and thought that she may want to check on her before she left for work. It turns out that Rachel thought she heard her alarm go off a...

I hadn't been on the ship more than a few months when we crossed the equator on our way to Brisbane, Australia. I think we got underway from the Philippines or somewhere in that vicinity and traveled south. It was probably a couple weeks of port and starboard shifts so having the initiation thrown in was a nice diversion. The night before the crossing we held a beauty contest made up of a Wog from each division. I was the junior guy in my division but moreover,  the most beautiful and so I was chosen to represent OI division. I have to mention that the negligee I'm wearing was courtesy of Pete Alford. He bought it in Hong Kong for his wife...at least that's the excuse he gave us for having it. My boss, OS1 Corey , had been saving some eggs in the overhead panels of the 1st class mess which he'd gotten in port a month earlier. By the time of the crossing, they were ripe. How I escaped having one of them placed in my mouth and then broken I'll never know. And som...