John's Birthday

"Did you marry a man or did you marry a pansy?"

This was my favorite quotation of the night from John. I was casually suggesting that if he was getting full, it wasn't required of him to eat the entire Grande Burrito from The Cheesecake Factory. I married a man for sure, since he ate the entire thing (of course). And the pictures don't do this monster justice...it takes four people to carry it to the table.

It was a full day of celebration which began in the middle of the night when the Present Fairy magically placed John's birthday goodies on the reading chair in our room. It was the first thing he saw when he woke up! John opened presents before he left for work. Good man...who can wait?!

For his birthday cake, I made John an insane double-layer chocolate cake filled and covered with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. It also had a smooth, Hershey chocolate and peanut butter frosting that oozed over the entire surface of the cake. I am proud of myself. I had to go to a bakery supply store to get the two 6" pans necessary to make Bakerella's recipe. It was quite an accomplishment to only come out of the store carrying what I went in to buy! I could spend millions in a store like that! John thought the cake was delicious, and that's all that mattered to me!

Happy Birthday, John. My litte Burrito King. I'm glad you're finally as old as me. I thought that month would never go by!

My Baby Is Sick

When most women talk about their "sick babies" in their blogs, they are usually referring to their sweet, innocent, sometimes splotchy, feverish kids wrapped up in blankets on the couch. When Micah says her baby is sick, it means her airplane is torn apart into a million pieces in a maintenance hangar. Sniff sniff.

At least this maintenance was scheduled and expected. It's called an A/B inspection and carefully looks over the airplane every 200 hours of flight time. For the past two years, we have been doing an inspection every six months because we fly so much! This year, thanks to a week home here and there, the airplane just came due for its latest inspection. We took it to the good folks at Hawker Beechcraft Service Center at Mesa-Gateway Airport. As long as nothing majorly wrong is found, our inspection takes less than two weeks. Some airplanes are in there for months while major maintenance is being performed. Their solitary (for now) hangar is packed with airplanes of all types, including Bonanzas and Barons (propeller airplanes), every version in the King Air family (turboprop airplanes), and jets ranging from Hawkers to Beechjets to Premiers. Outside the maintenance hangar, the ramp is filled with another ten airplanes waiting to get in for some loving attention. Hawker Beechcraft makes all sorts of airplanes, and I love 'em all! Thou shalt not be overly picky about airplanes!

It's painful to see no tires on my baby. How am I supposed to land that mass of metal with only one tire? Babysitting the airplane during maintenance is always fun since mechanics tend to have entertaining personalities. It must be a prerequisite to get into A&P school. At least it makes watching paint dry (literally) slightly more exciting than if I just sat there and read a book while they worked (I do that, too).

During my next visit to the hangar, I plan to take some yummy home-baked goodies. It's amazing what sugar does to ignite the fire under these guys! And they like special treatment, just like the rest of us. If it means they like working on my airplane a little more, then I am alllllllllll for that! It's no well-kept secret by now that it's my baby they are working on!

New England Visit

What a wonderful week. New England is one of my favorite destinations, especially this time of year. It was even warm enough to enjoy the outdoors! The week was incredible and just flew by. No pun intended!

We left at o'dark thirty on Monday morning towards Dallas-Addison airport with Ron and Stuart on board. As long as we have time to grab lunch, I love landing in Addison. The Clay Pit has the best Indian food in existence, and the Mango Lemonade has free refills. The waitress had to make us our own pitcher because we went through it like there was no tomorrow! If I know I am going to The Clay Pit soon, I stop drinking anything so I can have even more room for Mango Lemonade. Weeks without water is nothing as long as I get that stuff. It is one of the best drinks ever! After lunch and a few hours of waiting, we continued on a long flight to Providence, Rhode Island. I immediately regretted drinking fourteen pitchers of Mango Lemonade for lunch. We kept getting longer vectors around airspace to get into KPVD, and I was about to cry out, "Emergency," just so I could get down to the restroom! Lesson learned!

On Tuesday, we repositioned the empty airplane to Bedford Hanscom Field northwest of Boston. The weather was beautiful, and I hand-flew it for the long twelve-minute flight! Landing in Bedford also meant a delicious salad at The Cheesecake Factory. We then got to wander around the Minute Man National Park in our truck provided by Jon (the man who runs the company in New England). Boss Ron always makes sure we have transportation, and it was nice to go where we needed (including a run to the Burlington Mall because I left my phone charger in Providence...grrrr!).

Wednesday was a little chilly and overcast, but I welcome that type of weather compared to the heat and constant sun in Phoenix! It's nice to see clouds during something other than a thunderstorm! We left late in the evening for an eleven-minute flight to Manchester, New Hampshire. Manchester is such a cute little town and even better during a sunset.

Thursday came early. I was wide awake at 5:40 AM local, which is 2:40 AM my time! I couldn't fall back to sleep, so I decided to run some errands and make some deliveries to the local Center. After they were done with work there, we flew Ron, Stuart, and Jon to Albany, New York for the afternoon. Million Air is a very nice and spacious FBO. I got to drive their crew car (roughing it in a 2008 BMW 535i) to explore downtown Albany. I even found some cops on horses! At 5:30 PM, we finished our day by stopping in Buffalo for the night. We flew near the casinos and hotels of Niagara Falls, about fifteen minutes away. I went to dinner with my three passengers at the Captain's Cove. I had the chicken (the only dish on the menu that wasn't fishy...imagine that at such a restaurant!).

Friday meant a 1:00 PM departure, so we headed to the grocery store and picked up some yummy sandwiches for everyone during the long flight home. We had an awesome wind the entire time, even getting a temporary tailwind coming west! So rare! We made great time to our fuel stop in Garden City, Kansas, where I was able to pick up my "birthday steaks" from the FBO. We continued on a fast last leg back to Williams-Gateway airport, only having to dodge one thunderstorm on the way. We landed shortly past 3:00 PM and helped Ron and Stuart load their bags before taking our airplane to the Hawker Beechcraft Maintenance Hangar on the other side of the airport. It will be there for the next ten days or so during a scheduled inspection (A/B every 200 hours, for those who care). I get to babysit all the upcoming maintenance, but at least I get to sleep in my own bed for a week!

Mesa/Gateway - Dallas/Addison - Providence - Bedford/Boston - Manchester - Albany - Buffalo - Garden City - Mesa/Gateway