Oh How Things Have Evolved.

Well, My Honey is doing great in training and is almost graduated from his second phase and ready to start the actual work(not that hours of PT and endless studying isn't work). I have been busy with my work and am so glad that summer has arrived in Maine. Winter is very brutal up here and the short days are killer.

I have started gardening and here is some evidence!
There are many more pots that are growing but I don't have that much patience to show them all.

Here is Jeremy and I at his graduation... Aren't we just fantastic together?? I sure think so! I can't wait for him to get back to Maine... still have some time left down south, but he will be here before I know it :)





I will spend time down there this summer and some in Maine. I have a good schedule now for summer, so i will be really enjoying the travel and the time with Jeremy. Woo Hoo!!

WAAAaaayyyyy too long

How does there get to be such huge gaps in my posting? i think facebook takes over a bit with the updating.

Summer Summary:

I am dating a phenominal man, Jeremy. Here is our first camping trip.


We had a great time camping and have hiked all over Mid Coast Maine. I have had one of the best summers ever. He is truely a phenominal person and enhances my life in so many ways...

I have just recently got my knitting mojo back. It was a great summer and i spent so much time outside, i didn't have time to knit!! But it's getting chilly and I am knitting more and more. Starting to learn about socks and if I want to knit socks... I like it so far! :) We'll see. I'm gonna hit up the Knit Picks 40% off book sale... Got a great surprise in my paycheck and I'm gonna treat myself. it's been a hard summer financially, so I'm gonna get a little treat!! I'll try to update more often!!!

Wow! Too long!!!

Hello everyone!! It has been over 2 months!! YIKES!! I have been slacking!! But here is my latest update.

I have 3 weeks left in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Then I will be moving to...................(drum roll)

Rockland, Maine!!!

it was my first choice with Cape Air and I was lucky enough to get it. I have never been to maine, but i have done a bunch research and that one appealed to me the most... Stay tuned for more updates as the days get shorter in San Juan!!

What a day!!

So Friday at work it started a bit confusing and frustrating and I'm not sure why. Everything was bugging me and set the tone for the day. I did one trip to Tortola, and then went to Vieques...

Well I got to Vieques and the ramp agent said, "I have 1 revenue passenger and 7 non-rev's". Meaning a bunch of fellow co-workers had spent the day there. Well, I was in NO mood to deal with all of them. So I put some tunes on my headset and jammed out for a few minutes. Then they all walk out, they are yelling at me, "hey Katie" "Que Paso"(what's up?) "KATIE O" and they were all in a super good mood... I'm sure the drinking on the beach all day didn't hurt any!!!

So They pile in and off we go. We are cracking up all the way to San Juan. They totally made my day. As we were coming in to land, they all put their hands in the air like they were on a roller coaster and were hootin' and hollerin'. Then I had a great landing and they started chanting, "katie katie katie" and saying, Let's go again, lets go again... " Well it turned my day from frustrating to awesome. So I headed off for my last round trip and it was a gorgeous night. What a beautiful day!!! Here is a picture of the whole crew!!!

Adventures in taking a taxi home...

So tonight I am heading home after a challenging day of flying in the rain... it really wasn't too bad, but it's been raining down here for 3 days straight and I'm ready to see some sun!!!! But anyway back to my story.

I grab a cab on the way home and it's only about a 5 minute ride and it's raining pretty hard. We are just coming down the ramp to leave the airport and the engine shuts off. Hmmmm.... weird. Well, the cabbie mutters something in spanish, that will not be repeated here in english(yea, i know the bad words!!! ha ha ha). He apologizes and makes a phone call. I simply smile and say it's ok. I know it sucks when your car breaks down, especially bad if its the vehicle by which you make a living, I can only imagine what he was feeling. So I wait for a few minutes while he makes some calls. Then he jumps out and flags down another taxi to take me home. I thank him and wish him "Bueno Suerte" (sorry if it's spelled wrong) But it means "good luck". The 2nd cabbie dropped me off at home and I ran to my apartment in the rain... sorry its not much more exciting, but I wanted to share that with you all...

And it's still raining! Here's to sunny skies tomorrow!

Wow, Madness.

So to sum up and lead into the madness:

July 21st: Terminated from USA Jet with 30 other pilots.

August 24th: Back on the Cape to retrain with Cape Air

October 25th: Back to Detroit to pack

October 26th: Decided to crash pad out my apartment(to friends at USA Jet) so my stuff stayed safe, cheaper then putting it into storage and rent went down with a new lease(not signed yet)

October 30th, 10 am: Crash pad friends all got laid off from USA Jet. Panic sets in. 36 hours to pack and move a 2 bedroom apartment!! YIKES!!

That where madness became insanity. 2 people, packing like crazy, no help cuz they all lost their jobs. find a moving truck, find a storage unit, help!! Was supposed to leave for San Juan on Saturday! Nope! Left on Monday... everything was finished by 5 pm on Saturday, cleaned, garbage thrown away, storage unit packed to the gills and out of Detroit I went! jeez... it was awful. I hurt in places I didn't know I had muscles. My hands and feet are still swollen... pulling my luggage through the airport was like needles in my palm.

But now I am here... I'm in San Juan and it is surreal. I already did this. I already lived in the caribbean and it was miserable. Expensive, humid, I don't speak spanish(yet) and no car... I'm now a bus rat. And that's ok, just gonna take some getting used to. Plus the bus doesn't really run on a schedule... just whenever it happens to come by! argh! But I'm excited about beaches, snorkeling, fruity concoctions to be drank while on the beach, and learning spanish! Plus I love the rampies and people down here that I got to work with this summer up north, so that will be great.

Sorry, that was complete ramble... feel free to ask questions if it doesn't make sense because that is entirely possible!!

Wendy - I'm so sorry i didn't get to come visit. My intention was on Friday or Saturday and well, the last minute move kinda f'ed that up. I will be back in the area and we will have some dinner together! :)

Long time gone....

Well, lets see if we can sum up the last month. I got back from Australia and spent a lot of time enjoying the summer in Detroit area. Spent 4th of July in Kansas City for work.

That weekend one of my company planes crashed in Saltillo, mexico. The Captain died and the First Officer is still recovering. It was really hard to see my company plane crashed and basically burned to nothing... makes you really think about your job and what you do. His services were on the 18th of July. Our company sent down a DC-9 full of employee's, with all the pilots in full uniform. It is the 2nd person in a month that I've lost to a plane crash... been a little rough mentally.

Well, I was flying quite a bit, easy trips mostly to Kansas City. Gets a little boring, but at least we know what we are doing.

The came Monday.... One picture is all it takes:





Yep, let me join the ranks of the unemployed. Calling today and filing for unemployment was so dehumanizing. I don't wanna file unemployment. I wanna be sitting on call, bitching about my pager!!! But no, I sit here bitching about unemployment and the fact that I have no job in a nasty job market. I just want my job back. I was part of a "reduction of workforce". fuck that. They completely eliminated my airplane. "too expensive to operate" Bull. The damn board of directors is greedy and eliminating 40 people saved them that much each year so they have more in their pocket. If they just cut the upper management's pay by 5% it prolly would have had the same effect... except I'd still have a job. It probably means I'll be moving. not to many jobs in Detroit or any of Michigan for that matter. Hopefully try to get out west. Guess we'll see... send some happy thoughts my way... they should help.

2008 needs to be over. Its been a rough year. Ready to start over again...

Work i'm exhausted... W4 D5

Wow, work has so really beat me down the last few days. Working a lot of nights and getting yanked around as far as schedule goes. last night we got paged out at Midnight to go to Tulsa. Got to Tulsa and the freight was late... SHOCKING!! So we went and grabbed food at McDonald's, ick, but it was food. Taxied the plane over to get fuel... taxied back and then was told the trip was canceled... that was at 530am... then they made us sit at the airport for a few hours waiting for a trip. luckily Tulsair had a sleep room, which was pretty dark, so I was able to catch a few hours of sleep. Finally they said we could go to the hotel. A bunch of places were sold out, so this is where we are staying... NICE. Double Tree

I wish we got to stay in places like this more often. Bed is awesome, slept really well. Gym is super cool. Each machine has it's own tv on it! I thought that was awesome! I think I am ready to move onto week 5 of my running program... today was much better... still hard, but much better. Anyway, I'm going to sign off... time to get some much needed sleep. Hugs to all...

W3, D2!!!

So today I did Week 3, Day 2 of my couch to 5k adventure. On D1, I had to stop and walk for 10 seconds in the 2nd set of 3 min runs. Well, today I ran all the intervals... no walking, except when allowed for me!! I hope i can keep it up for next week and the 5 weeks after that.

Day 2 of recurrent training is done today and only 3 left... the next 3 are gonna be really boring... ick... only once a year, only once a year... I just keep telling myself that.

Below is a picture of Christiansted Harbour on the US Virgin Island of St. Croix. I am feeling sentimental... i was lucky enough to live here a few years ago... I miss it... Isn't it gorgeous!?!?

Yarn Thing! and Work=Boring

Today, work was boring... classroom work always is for me. I would rather be flying then sitting in a square room, listening to people yap all day.... Thank god i don't work in an office... ARGH! But anyway, I have the rest of this week to put up with that! Oh well, at least its just once a year or so.

The Yarn Thing is awesome!!! She has a hilarious podcast, which I highly recommend, and she is having a contest... go check her out! If you make it through more then 3 minutes without laughing out loud, then something is wrong with you!! She is a riot!!! Enjoy!! She is giving away all kinds of goodies!!!

Have a great Tuesday tomorrow.

Crazy week!! Couch to 5k week 2!!

So for 3 days last week, all I did was sleep, eat and fly... not kidding... everytime we got were legal to fly there was a trip for us again... so we work, get to our destination, get dinner/breakfast/lunch, go sleep and do it all over again... I'm not complaining, but man does your whole schedule and everything get messed up.

We flew our last trip, on our way back to YIP(my home airport), leaving at 1 am and getting in at 1 pm... long day... then I slept for 17 hours, with a few wake-ups here and there. Man did I need that bad!!! I'm better now...

So yesterday, I did Week 2, Day 1 of my Couch to 5k adventure... definitely harder then week one, but that's the whole point right!? I am feeling better, my legs feel stronger, my breathing is getting better when I run and my back feels better...

My insurance only covers 24 visits to the chiropractor each year, so every 2 weeks, I was aching to go to the chiro.. well, now that I've been exercising very consistently for 3 weeks my back is much better and I'm on week 3 and I don't feel like I need to go yet. So i guess that is good progress... now if the scale will move and the clothes would fit better, I would be a little happier... I'm trying to recover from my biggest weight yo yo of my life, as most of you know... and I want to make it a permanent change(I know that sounds so cliche) but i really do. I hope you all a happy Sunday...

Couch to 5k

So, I have decided to get into shape... learn to like exercise... yea, easier said then done. I ran a 5k about 5 years ago and liked the challenge. There is a program called Couch to 5k. starts out with intervals... building up your endurance to run a 5k over 8 or 9 weeks. Well, I'm going to blog my journey.

Today was Week 1, Day 2. You walk for 5 min to warm up. Run for 60 seconds, walk for 90, over and over again... then walk 5 to cool down. It wasn't too bad. It was gorgeous down here in El Paso, so i ran outside... I love the desert!! LOVE THE DESERT!!!! So each day I'm going to blog about my journey. You do the same workout 3 times in a week. They slowly get harder, with longer running intervals and less walking intervals... I hope I can do it!! i hope it can also help me lose the weight I gained again... so depressing... but I'm being proactive about it and hope to see results... I know it's working, cuz my legs hurt!! Oh with the journey!!

Have I mentioned I love the desert?? I DO DO DO DO love the desert!

T-storms and Kansas City

So I went on a trip the other day and ended in Kansas City, Missouri. We went from Detroit area to Tupolo, Mississippi then on to Kansas City. I managed to smash my hand into the Falcon and break my pinky finger... Didn't feel good.

Note to self: Don't smash hand into inanimate objects... The fingers don't appreciate it!!

Once we got to Kansas City, we stayed at the Chase Suite Hotel. Check out these pictures... this place was awesome and affordable(even though I wasn't paying).


So here is the living area. Fireplace with log, leather chair, flat screen on the wall and couch.







This is the "office" area. Desk, table with 3 chairs, there is a 1/2 bath around the corner, but look what comes out of the wall!!







A queen sized bed!! How cool is that!! I could throw a huge party with lots of fruity concoctions and lots of people could have a place to sleep... alas, I don't know anyone in KC.






Here is the full kitchen... with all accessories!!









Then!!! The upstairs is the full bathroom and a loft with a King size bed and tv. It was awesome!! If it was an apartment, I would rent it!! lol... too fun!!




Although the problem was of course, I get a trip back to D-town the next morning.. boo hiss on the trip.


But I did score this awesome video on the way from Laredo, TX to D-town... found out later, this was also major tornadic activity in the North Texas/Arkansas area. Hope everyone down there is ok. Awesome to look at, not good for those on the ground... mind you this level of activity went on for well over and hour and a half until we couldn't see it anymore.

Kansas City Here I come...

Ok, so I already went there... last week in fact. But here are the pics. Nothing dramatic happened which is always a good thing in Aviation. We went to Kansas City from Detroit. Dropped off 5100 pounds of metal sheeting, stamped out for Ford. Then we had to deliver 2 parts(all of 25 pounds) to Teterboro, New Jersey for Sprint so they could fix their cell phone tower. Here are some of my fave pics...

Here is the ramp at Teterboro... there is, I don't even know how many, millions of dollars worth of airplane in this photo... and that is about 1/5 of the planes on the ramp. Don't tell me there isn't money in NYC and surrounding areas.








Here is a multi Million dollar airplane... Gulfstream 5, or as we lovingly call it... a G-5. My first officer replied, "I would give my left nut to fly that airplane for the rest of my life." That is the love we have for these planes... they are phenomenal.




Here is a Citation 10. Another plane that I especially would love to fly. Ahhh.... smell the money of the people flying that thing!!!






And here is one of the helicoptor's in Trump's Fleet. Not his though. His is huge and all pimped out... this is just a baby!!






Last but not least, a view from my office on the way home... AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh

Here's a flickr link to see the rest of the pictures:(I hope the link works)

http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j83/flygirl_1313/March252008/

Memphis, Freight and Blizzards, OH MY

So as previously posted, I was in Memphis. On Wednesday night, I went to Marlowe's with my first officer. The cool thing is they pick you up in a pink Caddy! Check it out!!!

They have some pretty good BBQ, which is super good in Memphis. I'm sorry but the north just doesn't do bbq, like the south does!! I love doing down south, they cook some mean bbq!!






Well, on Thursday night, I put on my pj's, shut off the lights and was just getting ready to go to sleep... *do, do, do, do ,do* (that is my pager going off) I get up at 1250am and call work. Trip to Kansas City, up to Pontiac, MI and then back to Willow Run. So off we go. The bad part is that the reason we got stuck in Memphis for 4 days to begin with is a Blizzard in Detroit area. Guess what?? One was moving in... AGAIN!!! So we moved as quickly and as safely as possible. I flew my second trip as Captain, which was really cool. :) I flew the first leg to Kansas City and picked up 3 boxes(all of 120 pounds worth) of wiring harness'. The first officer flew the next leg into Pontiac. We got there as the snow started to fall, that was at about 630 am.

We threw the freight into the waiting truck(after i went and pounded on his window, twice, to wake him up, he must have been sleepy) I wasn't screwing around. I wanted out of there before the blizzard hit!! So we head for Willow Run... at 3000 feet and it's only about a 15 minute flight. The weather dropped quickly. It went from pretty good to pretty shitty really quickly!!! I was flying and the first officer was getting weather and talking to approach, etc. We got in and the weather was blowing!! There were drifts on the runway, so the braking action was fair. Yes, fair is how we rate braking action: Good, Fair, Poor and Nil... Nil is NOT good!!! We don't even try that stuff. So here is what the tower looked like from my airplane when we got on the ground...
We landed at about 745am. Talk about a long night! By the time i finished paperwork and headed home and went to bed it was about 930am... talk about screwing up your sleep schedule!



Yea, it sure wasn't cool!! Well, it was cold, but not great. Although, it is a super adrenaline rush to fly into an airport in crappy weather, coming off your first trip and getting it on the ground safely and efficiently!!! We love our jobs cuz we like the rush! That is a reason we are pilots. My mom hates to hear my stories sometime. Maybe I'll do a series of my favorite stories from flying sometime. Some scary(even for me) and some just plain old fun.

Last Doldrums topic...

For this week, go through those who've commented on last week's topic - find someone who had an idea on their day that sounded appealing to you, as well, and tell us why, or what appealed to you, and link to their blog! If you can't find someone who has a day you think you'd enjoy, find one that you thought was interesting, odd, or funny in some way, and talk about it!

I guess the closest one was Alaina:

http://idratherbknitting.blogspot.com/

She is from MN(which is where I grew up) and she spoke about being on or near the lake or on the gulf of mexico with family. I have oceans, but like the gulf, cuz it's warm with small waves. I love the lake and wish i had a boat to play on the lake with. The only thing I would do if money was no object is go see my bro in australia... he is studying there for 6 months and he said it's amazing... knowing that now, I would go there... :)

I'm anxioiusly waiting for my package... I sent my partners out on Monday all the way to Washington, so hopefully she'll like it!

I left Michigan last night in the blizzard to fly to Memphis to fix another airplane(we had a mechanic with us). It was my first flight as a captain! and it went great!! We are still in Memphis cuz the weather was too bad to go back last night and we are waiting for a trip. I go off on Thursday and my First Officer is already on days off... not sure what they will do with us!! YEA!!! 2.2 hours of Pilot in Command Jet time!!(very valuable in the pilot world!!) YEA!!!!

Car Trouble

So when is rains, you get wet. The CV Joint on my car was going bad. So Rob went to take it in to get fixed and it broke on the way. Luckily he got into a parking lot and a friend was following him. So AAA was called and the car was towed. The axle actually broke, I guess, and the car will be ready to go tomorrow for $170. Luckily, I have an emergency fund(just like Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey say to) to pull from. It sucks to have to use it, but that is what it is there for, I guess.

I'm still in El Paso. Making some progress on shawls for some family members, and made a crocheted, YES! I said crocheted Kitchen sponge. This is my second attempt and it was better then the first. My mom crochets and is very good at it and so are some of my friends... but I have not quite figured out crocheting, so I'm practicing. Gives me something to do when I'm stuck on the road for 5 or 6 days at a time. Oh well, back to the boredom.

Weekly Topic #4

So here I sit, still in El Paso, TX. At least the sun shines every day and it has been in the upper 60's/low 70's. It has helped me come out of my duldrum's... I hate the cloudy weather and no sun. That is why I loved Arizona. Sun every day of the year. It was awesome. I love that place. This leads me to my weekly topic:

"Defeat the Winter Doldrums!" For some of us, we get the doldrums and others don't. For the ones who get doldrums, what helps you get rid of them? For the ones who don't get the doldrums, what helps you keep them away?

I didn't think I would get them again, but this is my first winter in a place that gets a real winter in a long time. I don't like it. I like sun. Not for tanning, just for my mood. I never realized how much the sun, or lack there of, affects my mood. I have been in Texas for 3 days and my mood is much better all ready. Sunny every day!! NO CLOUDS!!! See previous posts for a picture of El Paso when I first got here.

My sister suggested a tanning bed(I think it was her). Again, not for the tan, but for the feeling of sun and to help boost mood. I might have to try it. but being down here has helped the mood a ton... hopefully I can carry that when I go back to Michigan. I know I am lucky and get the opportunity to travel for work. Sometimes we go to cool places(San Diego) and not so cool places(Harlingen, TX), but El Paso isn't too bad. The hotel is good to us, food and stores within walking distance and it's SUNNY!!!!

So today we decide we are gonna get a ride to Barnes and Nobel. Sweet! I have an awesome gift cert. and I wanna spend some. So 2 hours and 2 books later, we are ready to leave(we=work people in el paso also). They decide we are gonna walk back... 4+ miles later and almost an hour and a half later, we are back! whew!! It was gorgeous out, so it wasn't too bad, but wow, they were walking at a good clip! Then tonight we got a ride to get dinner and they decide we are gonna walk back again!! prolly about a mile this time. Much harder then the tread mill.. maybe I'll have to start huffing it outside!! But I can't slack on the treadmill... keeps my speed up, cuz i don't wanna look like a baby and walk slow!! Ha ha... we'll see what tomorrow brings!

Blizzards, Work and Sun

So yesterday was interesting. I got paged out on a trip and left for Toronto, Canada. Got to Toronto, picked up 700 pounds of freight. Went and took off and just beat the snow(lots of snow in the greater Michigan area). Just as we took off, Approach control called and said we had to return to get more freight. Oh Darn!! I knew there was lots of snow coming, so I wanted to get out of there before it got too bad. so we got on the ground and found out a little while later that it was delayed at the factory. So it had started to snow, so this is what the plane looked like a few hours later.

Here's another one:





Once we got the freight, now the big delay began. We had to line up to get de-iced before we took off to get all the ice off the plane and to get some protection from the snow while we waited to take off. That took awhile. You can't taxi very fast because it is super slippery and It was almost like driving into a car wash... huge board that has your tail number on it and tells you to pull ahead, when to slow down and when to stop. Then the "iceman" tells you to set your brakes, shut off your taxi light, etc. Then they roll up in huge trucks like this:



They are huge and the guy up in the lift is driving the whole truck from up there!!! It's so cool!!! so it takes about 10 minutes to actually get that part done. Then another smaller truck comes up and does the gear and the back edge of the flaps. Then you wait while they move out of the way. The "iceman" tells you what kind of de-ice they used, how long it's good for, etc. Then you have to wait in line to get out of the deice pit. Here's what we looked like after:




We got a bit delayed back into Detroit cuz of more bad weather, but we cleared customs and left for Tulsa, OK. Got fuel and continued to El Paso, TX. And this is what I got to wake up to... Hope you have a great day!!

Topic #3 and other stuff

Topic of The Week #3

Well, this is a easy topic of the week. I am interested to see what my pal has, so I can see what to get them. Just another way to get to know our swap partner!! So, 2 pics: 1 of dishcloth yarn stash and 1 of your notions you use for making dishcloths.

I will post some pics later... I need to get some pics up of my trip back to MN and from my trip on Sunday to deliver Super Bowl Champion hats to NY... long night, but kinda fun since I'm a huge football fan. I'll go get to work on those pics...
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Ok so here is what 5.774 NY Giant Championship hats look like in a Falcon 20 jet at 4 am, the same night as the Super Bowl:


Here are some photo's from my quick trip home to see Patrick(the tallest) before he leaves for Australia for 6 months. The first ones are them tickling me under my chin(I know weird place to be ticklish) and the other are us being a little crazy!!!


last one is of my little cousin... its a video and at the very beginning you can hear her saying "Oldakowski"... and she isn't even 2!!!! That's a hard last name!!! I remember having to spell that sucker in Kindergarten!!

I hope everyone has a great day!!!