Mountain Biking - October 2, 2010

Saturday in the P90X workout schedule is supposed to be Kenpo X (kickboxing?) but we chose to go mountain biking instead - Diana's ankle is getting better and the weather is so nice!  Check out the bushes - the leaves are turning colors!  Diana rode her bike up to the park from her house.  I drove all the way and parked there.  7 a.m. felt so early and the uphill feels so hard.  I pushed the bike a bit and especially up the really steep hill.  Nice view and a huge accomplishment for a girl who only rode the long straight FLAT route to and from work this summer.

It was a fun ride down.  I'm a wimp, but this was not as scary as Tuesday's ride down the steep neighborhood streets.  Diana was pooped - she got in twice the workout.  Good girl!

Now pop in the shower before General Conference begins...

backcountry.com updates - September 30, 2010

A couple months ago, James' immediate supervisor got a new position in Backcountry's Park City office.  James applied for (and was interviewed for) the supervisor position.  They hired an 'outside' guy named Kendal - who has been very well trained by James and the rest of the inbound receiving crew. 

At the time, James and the crew were a bit disappointed that they'd hired from 'outside'.  But since have come to like Kendal and his style.  Now Kendal has just applied for and been hired to do the evening shift manager position.  So they're looking for another in-bound-receiving-supervisor. 

This time, James has decided not to apply.  We're going to focus on school.  If we work hard this summer (summer job for James in AK?) and save up enough, maybe James can go to school full-time during the fall and spring semesters next year.... and the year after that? Maybe he'll be a flight instructor.... (These sweet glasses were out of the SCHWAG pile - one of the lenses has a tendancy to pop loose, hooray for super glue.)

The SCHWAG pile is basically a random selection of items that were shipped to Backcountry by mistake, returned to Backcountry by customers for whatever reason and can't be resold.  On seemingly random occasions, employee's are given SCHWAG privledges and can choose out an item from this pile of stuff.  The above sunglasses come from the SCHWAG pile and James' ski poles came from the pile.  On his last pick, James brought home a pair of barely used, twice drilled, pair of skis.  Then sold them to Jed.  And now....

James told me he picked out a one-peice that looked like a 'clown suit'.  Brand new, perfect size, nothing wrong with it.  Backcountry had ordered some different one-piece suits from this company and this one was sent by mistake.  Instead of dealing with the return shipping (the company is out of Norway), they let Backcountry keep it.  Backcountry put it in the SCHWAG pile and James brought it home.  I tried it on, it is a bit too big for me.  The sleeves are too long and the legs, but it fits James perfect!

Every month, Backcountry has employees of the month - the warehouse employee is called the "DC Steezie".  James was nominated one month last year and was the NOVEMBER 2009 DC STEEZIE.  He got nominated again for September 2010 - didn't get the grand prize with the designated parking space and indoor scooter use, but he did get this lovely certificate.  Oh, and the crazy one-piece 'clown suit' from the SCHWAG pile.

We're very grateful for our jobs and grateful for SCHWAG and hoping that it will snow soon!  I want to take pictures of James and that suit in action!  He says it will DEFINITELY keep out the snow...

Working out with Diana - September 28, 2010

Yesterday, I started working out with a friend from church - Diana.  We've done fun things together as couples, but this is work.  6:30 a.m. in exercise clothes to do P90X workouts with a little bit of weight lifting and a lot of sweating. 

Tuesday is supposed to be the P90X plyometrics workout.  Lots of jumping and lunges and stuff.  But Diana hurt her ankle last weekend and doesn't think it is strong enough for plyometrics.  So she suggested riding bikes instead.  We rode from her house up the hill and up the hill and up and up and up and up the hill to a little park.  The plan was to ride the trail from the park into the hills (more up), but we'd run out of time just getting to the park.  Whooops.  Still a huge, huge, huge workout.  I always breathe so hard!  And my shoulders are sore from yesterday.  Nice morning though - hope the weather stays nice for a while.

Baby Shower for Emily & Marcus - September 22, 2010

My co-worker, Emily, and her husband, Ramon, adopted a baby boy - Marcus!  He was a super-premie and was in the Newborn ICU in a hospital in California for the first 3 months of his life.  But he's finally home and we threw a baby shower for them at work today.

I LOVE those chubby cheeks!

(MOM - everybody was so impressed with the cute little "run to the store" diaper bag that you made.  Emily loved the fabric (the black one with the white fabric & butterflies on the inside) and especially the blue flower on the outside - good work!  I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was a hit!  I put a wipes box and a modified cloth diaper and nursing blanket inside.)

He can hover! - September 16, 2010

Let it be known on the 4th flight lesson in a helicopter, James is able to hover. 

It just clicked and now he is working on the 'practice makes perfect' part of things. 

He gets to do lift-off and landing without help, practice runway approaches and traffic pattern stuff.

WAY TO GO!

Miller Motorsports Park - September 11, 2010

Hooray for free tickets!  We got really, really good free tickets today.  They were for the "Suites" - which meant we had access to an area just above pit row - can you see the pit crew changing the tire!?

And our tickets included LUNCH! And sodas and water and some small snack food - like swedish fish and m&ms and mixed nuts. Yum.

Right when we arrived, they were prepping for a race.  We walked through and picked out "OUR CAR"for the race. It didn't win, but it wasn't last either.  And we could stand just above their pit and watch them change tires and drivers and refuel.

We wandered around the course a bit to watch them go round, and round, and round, and round... from many different perspectives.

There is a driving school at the MMSP - for racing or for defensive driving.  The school did free "skid car" rides.  The only catch was that you had to listen to the spiel while riding and their guy had to drive.  So we went for a ride.  They even let Hudson ride - but the spin outs were VERY mellow for his ride!  The small wheels are part of a hydraulic system that actually lifts the back end of the car.  So when the driver chooses, the car can make some SERIOUS donuts!

We had to leave in the middle of this car's race, but I cheered for it - the only pink car I saw all day!

We ended our day at a ward BBQ up in Big Cottonwood Canyon with burgers and salads and s'mores and chatting around the campfire.

Flight School - first helicopter flight - September 9, 2010

There was a mandatory Open House at the helicopter flight school, Upper Limit Aviation, on Saturday, August 21st.  They needed the students to do paperwork, get paired with their instructors, get their passwords for the online scheduler and other helicoptery stuff.  They also provided burgers and dogs for lunch and there were some chips, but lots of hummus and vegetable finger foods.  Trying to keep the pilots skinny!

Salt Lake Community College doesn't own the aircraft or employ the instructors, but they do keep the money.  All the money required for training goes onto James' SLCC OneCard and then as he flies, Upper Limit debits his account.  This makes the lenders happier because if Upper Limit were to go out of business suddenly (like some private flight schools have done), then the flight school won't disappear with all the money.  Another good thing, James will be getting his ratings AND working on his associates degree at SLCC.

Upper Limit Aviation is just down the street from Life Flight.  After I got off work today, I hopped on the bicycle and pedalled over to Upper Limit.  They let me hang out in the lounge with a window onto the tarmac and watch for James and Jason to land at the end of the first lesson. 

Here are the helicopters in the hangar - James was the only student flying at the time, so the rest of the tiny little choppers were hangared.  The two beginning training helicopters are the R22 and the R44.  The R22 is cheaper, smaller and lighter.  The R44 is a little more expensive, a little bigger and can carry a little more weight.  Lucky for us, James and his instructor are light-weights and James can train in the R22 and save us some money.  He'll have to transition into the R44 for his instrument training, but that's not for a couple more semesters.

This is on the ground just outside of the hangar door.  (Bottom right corner is tarmac asphalt, upper left corner is the hangar wall and hangar floor and the door track)

This is the very first helicopter James got to fly.  It is tiny!  That is the fuel truck behind it.

James and Jason - Jason is from Alaska too!  Kodiak and Anchorage.

According to James, "Hovering is hard." 

It seems a lot of flying in a helicopter is similar to flying in an airplane.  He's able to keep it level and fly in a straight line and make turns and do radio traffic.  But hovering is tricky.  You have to use your feet and each of your hands independent of each other to do different things.  One hand controls the forward and backward movement.  The other hand controls the elevation.  The feet control the spin of the helicopter (keeping it facing in one direction).  So far, when the instructor keeps control of one thing, James is able to do the other two just fine.  But if James has all three parts, then the hover gets a bit rowdy.

One instructor told him, "A helicopter is inherently unstable and wants to fall out of the sky."

James thinks, "GREAT, the helicopter is trying to kill me."

James has now flown with three different instructors (due to scheduling conflicts) and each of them are encouraging - James has good instincts and just needs to practice the new stuff.  Each time, it is getting easier and more automatic.

P.S. Happy Birthday Nick (Sept 8)!  Happy Birthday Carter (Sept 9)!