Howdy y'all!

I'm back from my trip to Texas...did ya miss me? I had a great time in TX, it was hot, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Of course the extent of my time outside was spent walking to/from the car and a few hours in a Cessna, so maybe I'm not the best judge of exactly how hot it was. G's doing great and settling into his job with the airline just fine and still playing Navy a few times a week. He hasn't changed a bit since I saw him last year; save for his accent. It's so strong now that I had to give him crap about sounding so Texan (he used to pride himself on his non-accent).

Once I got to TX everything was fine, but getting there had some interesting moments. On the way to LAX Monday morning I heard that Houston had a bit of flooding and by the time I was boarding my flight, that "bit of flooding" had shut down HOU which is where I was scheduled to change planes. So we're all snug in our seats and the Captain gets on the PA to tell us that we're flying to TX but he's not sure where we're going to land with the most likely candidate being Dallas but Austin as a backup. Hmm....okay, I guess Dallas and Austin are closer to where G is in CRP than LA is, but when it took us 3 months to sync our schedules up for these 4 days, I was pretty close to panic mode. Luckily, by the time we got to HOU the runways and weather had cleared so we were able to land just a few minutes behind schedule and I was able to make my connecting flight to CRP (last onboard so I was stuck in the middle seat...yikes).

My first impression of Texas is that Texans are about the nicest people I think I've ever met, chatty, but very nice. I'm not really one for chatting up my seatmates on flights, but can just about tell you anything you want to know about the four people I sat with on my flights (all Texans) . Yup, the two people I sat between on the way to CRP sure had a lot of info to dish out. We covered the differences between property taxes in Flour Bluff and the Island (mind you I didn't even know what Flour Bluff and the Island were), the weather, the booze cruise (only $10 on Tuesdays and not worth more than that), the corrupt CRP government, the drama the new Wal Mart caused, why the Bennigans closed, whether or not a visit to South Padre Island is worth the drive, the best way to get to Ingleside from the airport (I never mentioned Ingleside, but the information was provided anyway), since my friend is a pilot why wasn't he flying us from HOU to CRP, was my friend picking me up inside the terminal because they had a few questions for him (????) and lastly, since I'm from LA, do I know anyone famous. Did I mention the flight from HOU to CRP was about 38 minutes? Yeah, are you feeling my pain yet? Luckily, Jim the flight attendant felt my pain and provided me with two vodkas to help make my flight a little more enjoyable ("sweetie I think you could use these" and "your money is no good here")...have I mentioned how much I love Southwest lately?!

So my next impression of Texas is that it's really big and really flat. And I mean flat. G and I went flying and I think the highest point in CRP is the freeway interchange just outside the airport. Speaking of flying, G let me fly for about 25 minutes which was so much fun. It took me a few minutes to get the feel of the plane but after that I was good to go. My turns weren't all that impressive though (couldn't keep my altitude and turn at the same time) but G said I did very well for my first time...nice compliment coming from a flight instructor!
Here are a few pictures I took of my Texan adventure:
Not quite Hawaii, but still nice:


Downtown Corpus Christi:

Thought all my pilot friends would appreciate this. We took the uh, "scenic" route on the way back from CRP to HOU. We got spun for a bit due to weather, then vectored around the darkest storm clouds I've ever seen.

Scenic route courtesy of FlightAware.com and Mother Nature:

Animal Planet hates me

Why do I do it? The Animal Planet channel is trying to do me in with a broken heart. I had to block the channel a few years ago after surfing and settling on a show about an orphaned baby elephant trying to join another herd. The herd rejected him and kept shooing him away and would have nothing to do with him; the last scene was of the baby elephant walking into the sunset with his head and trunk down. Come on now...how is anyone supposed to recover from that?! I haven't blocked Animal Planet since I got DirecTV awhile back, but that may change soon. There's a new show called Meerkat Manor that I'm addicted to (narrated by Sean Astin for you LotR fans) and already on the second episode this little meerkat is bitten by a snake and he's struggling to survive. I'm warning you Animal Planet...I've got the DirecTV manual out and know how to block you, if little Shakespeare dies...you're gone too.

So other than desping Animal Planet, I'm officially on vacation until the 26th...what a wonderful feeling. I don't leave for TX until Sunday but I took a few extra days off just because I felt like it. Good thing too as I managed to break a toe (insert collective groan here, yes again, in fact it's one of the toes involved in the infamous ER visit of Christmas 2002) so I'm hobbling around a bit. Hasn't slown me down too much, but still a hassle to deal with.

Work is well, work. The visit with the East Coasters went smoothly which is good since they 're the ones paying me these days. Well, I think it went smoothly but they've invited me out to Wash D.C . this August so maybe they weren't all that impressed with my operation and are hoping to get rid of me through heatstroke. I'm sure August in D.C. will run a close second to the crappiest weather I'll deal with this year.

That's about it from here. I'll check back in after my trip. If anyone sees a blonde limping through LAX, Houston or Corpus Christi in the next week...stop and say hello!

Heatwave!

If I had a dime for every time I heard "hot enough for you" this weekend I could retire.

LA's in a bit of a heatwave at the moment, the temp in Long Beach was 88, which for 99% of the nation's population would probably be tolerable, but not for us who call L.A. home. As I native Californian, it pains me to say this but we're wusses when it comes to weather. Seriously. I've never been to another part of the country where a 1/2 inch of rain is cause for "Storm Watch" news coverage. And my bet is the local news will begin with a story on the heat with gripping accounts of "what did you do to keep cool today". I know what a few thousand people did already based on the traffic in my little enclave; they came to Long Beach and Shoreline Village specifically. Drastic countermeasures had to be used just to get my regular spot on the Tequila Jack's patio.

Other than that, not much happening here. Back to work tomorrow where I have to brief several visitors from Wash D.C. which means I have to have my gameface on at 7:00 a.m. East Coasters aren't very tolerant of a minor detail called a timechange. They'll be ready to go at 7:01, want to break for lunch at 9:00 and then finish for the day by noon. We'll of course comply with their requests (ever seen an East Coaster get cranky? It's not pretty) but I hope the marine layer comes in so they get to enjoy looking at June Gloom for their afternoon off!