Chimp Haven and other weekend events

Friday night, Mason and I had a really date night. We haven't gone out, just the two of us for dinner in awhile, so we decided to try a new Vietnamese place in Shreveport called Dahn's Garden. We were really excited to go, since it is the closest place to have Thai food in Louisiana. The food was okay. We decided that we'd probably go back, but the fried rice and Pad Thai was not up to standard. It's tough to judge since we've found a really good Chinese restaurant, and so the lack of flavor was disappointing. That said, I'm going to try a new Thai recipe this week; one I keep chickening out on making because I don't have/can't find any curry paste in this town, or the ingredients to make it. I did pick up some curry powder from an Asian market in town, so I'll try playing with that to see if I can make it into a paste.

After dinner we did end up meeting up at the Boardwalk with our friends Phil and Nicole and Nicole's brother and sister-in-law...they were going to Coldstone, so how could we turn that down. It was a nice night for a walk along the river and then we checked out the gators at Outdoor World. We were on the way to Phil and Nicole's afterwards (they live 4 houses away from us) when we noticed a large plane on the runway on base. Mason suspected that it was Air Force One, so we of course quickly ran home to get the camera and then go get as close as possible in case we saw the president. We later found out that it wasn't Air Force One, but a Boeing E-4 Advance Airborne Command Post, aka Nightwatch. It's used by the Air Force as a "survival mobile" for command in the case of a nuclear attack. We suspected it was here because of some "real-world" exercises they are doing here at base this week. This base gets cooler and cooler- the other day on the way home from work some F16s, A10s and a B52 were all flying less than 200 feet over the car as they were coming in to land- Air Force land is awesome!

Saturday morning, Mason and I ventured out with our friends Josh and Andrea, and their son Gavin to the Chimp Haven. There is a Chimp Haven about 40 minutes from base. The haven is used for study and to raise the chimps, so it's only open from 9-12 on Saturday a month. We left early to avoid the heat, but I'm not sure that's possible in the South. I had a really good time. I like chimps. The haven was completely (mainly) natural, and situated in a heavily forested area. There were two large habitats separated by a large wall, and not too much distance from the chimps and the people. we got there as a habitat was being "released" and at once about a dozen chimps came from the back of the forest right up from to the steams edge. It was funny to see chimps with a banana or two, and an orange or two in mouth or hand charging towards huge hunks of watermelon, grabbing at it to add to their collection. It was a really nice day. Our picture was even in the Shreveport Times. Our friends had a few more feature pictures, who can compete with a cute two year old, but nonetheless still exciting.

Shreveport Times Picture (we're in 16/29):
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=D9&Dato=20090620&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=906200802&Ref=PH

In other news, Mason just got his first big research paper back for his master's class and he got a 99%- woohoo Mason! He has a test everyday this week, including the larger mid-phase test and a checklist evaluation in the cockpit trainer. So, busy studying...I'm working everyday, and keeping busy, applying at schools and hoping to hear something. We just decided that we are going to Tennessee for the 4th of July weekend. We toyed with going camping/white water rafting in Arkansas, but with the heat and low water levels we decided that might be better around Labor Day. Mason's Grandma Kehs lives there (we've never met) and his dad will be there so we thought it would be a fun trip and we could go to the mountains! Hopefully the AF will approve the leave request so we can start planning more details.

Latest dish from the kitchen of Ellen was Penne Alla-Not-Ka...I loved it! Mason, not so much...unfortunatly...but there's lots of leftovers which I froze and will get to enjoy over the next month.

Chimp Haven and Other Pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030362&id=77800450&l=7544b24d52

Lt. Awesome

As most of you know, Mason got promoted last month to 1st Lieutenant. YAY! I wanted to post a picture of him in blues with his new rank, since he looks awesome! The Air Force declared that Mondays would be the day that blues should be worn base wide (post 9-11) but most pilots try to get out of wearing blues on Mondays, since they are usually flying or doing a simulator etc..., which requires that they wear their flight suits. Mason finally had to put on his blues this week, so I was able to snap away.

This week is the big PFT (Physical Fitness Test) for a lot of squadrons it seems, which means it's been super crowded at the gym lately. The PFT consists of a waist measurement, 1.5 mile run, push-ups and sit-ups. Mason has been concentrating most on his running time which he's been doing really well on. Mason goes in 3 times a week for group PT and then usually works out an additional 3 days on his own. Despite my interest in waking up early, I've been getting up and going to the gym when Mason has PT. It's nice to have my workout done by 8am, and it leaves time for a wind down walk at the end of the day instead of a hard core workout.

We usually get home around 8am from PT and Mason has to be to work at 8:30am, so I try to make breakfast while he's showering/changing. Not sure if the scrambled eggs, or pancakes post workout is really that effective for weight loss, but it sure it good! Mason and I have also been trying to make new dishes for dinner, since why get into the same old rut when there are dozens of cookbooks in my pantry. We've tried to make ribs a few times and they just haven't come out right, but with suggestions from our friend Phil, we were able to make the PERFECT ribs! I think we'll be trying Spaghetti Carbonara tonight- can't wait!

A Graduation etc...

Last week, I was home in Evanston for my baby sister's high school graduation. This made me feel really old. Could it really have been six years since Mason and I graduated high school? It was unfortunate that Mason wasn't able to come home, but he had to stay in Louisiana for academics and to work on his Master's class. Fortunately travel between Shreveport and Chicago is pretty easy. I flew out of the Shreveport Regional Airport, which is actually larger than the one in Wichita Falls; here we have about five airlines that make small hops to other places. It was about a 45 minute flight into Memphis, and then only about an hour and a half into Chicago from there. It was nice to not spend an entire day traveling. My mom had me come in on Thursday so that I could help clean and prepare, she apparently thinks I have skills in party planning/organizing.

I had a really great time home with my family. I was sad Mason wasn't there, but I was able to see some of his family while I was in town. I was glad to get some Chicago style food while I was home, there's nothing quite like it, and you can't find it anywhere else, no one can make a good deep dish pizza like Chicago restaurants. YUM! The weather was a much colder than Shreveport, but was in the 70s a few days so I was able to go out to the boat twice. It's so hard to describe the awesomeness of Lake Michigan to people who only have the Bayou as a reference.

More Chicago Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30879045&l=6cc1a4df17&id=77800450

Jill's graduation party was lots of fun, kinda like a wedding reunion for me since I got to see lots of my aunts, uncles, cousins, family friends, and neighbors who I haven't seen in a long time. I of course was inundated with the typical questions...but I guess that's fair. The actual graduation was about two hours, but it was pretty easy to spot Jill since she was near the end of the crowd.

More Graduation Photos:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030105&id=77800450&l=f247dc0567

It's nice to be back home but we're super busy! Mason has tests almost every other day, so he's studying a lot every night when he gets home. I just had my hours increased at work, since I'm going to begin testing students in the mornings. I also am now able to teach reading and math at Sylvan, so I'm hoping to be working a lot. This morning Mason and I went to the Shreveport Farmer's Market. We went just an hour before it closed, and were a little disappointed...but maybe that's because we went late. We hit up the commissary and then headed to Frierson, LA to check out this Yogie and Friends Cat sanctuary. I was glad we went on a free military day, because it was kinda ghetto. Basically someone turned their backyard into a large cat sanctuary. There were about a dozen large tigers and lions, and a few other cats. It was so hot today so we even got to see some of the tigers playing in the pool. We're trying to explore the local area more, but it's SO HOT! In the high 90s today!!! We'll see where the highlander leads us next weekend, perhaps, the pool.

More Yogie and Friends Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030109&id=77800450&l=fd913faa35

"Trust me, whether you like or not - you're gonna be a B-52 pilot"

- This was the response of one of our academic instructors when asked about the difficulty and washout rate of the B-52 training course.



So far things are going pretty good. The nervousness and instant explosion of stress really hasn't been anything like it was at Sheppard. Back at Sheppard, all I would have to do is walk through the front doors of the building and I could feel my tension level rise as I started to think of all the stuff I didn't know as well as I needed to and about all the things that could bust me on my next flight. Although things will probably change a bit when I hit the flight line, when I show up to work here, I feel like the instructors are a lot more focused on how to help me puts bombs on target rather than how they can wash me out of the program. It's a nice change to say the least.

After serving the first two of my ten contracted years with the big blue, I've earned my promotion to First Lieutenant (silver bar). Another two years of not breaking anything (that I'm not supposed to) and I should earn Captain. And since I know I'll be more busy than I am now when I'm wearing those Captain bars, I've started working on my Master's degree (which is a pseudo-requirement for Major). It sucks and I hate school. But I'm almost halfway through my first class. It's an online class, so hours of falling asleep in a lecture hall are replaced with hours of falling asleep in front of a textbook and computer screen. For a person who's job requires good vision, they sure know how to destroy eyeballs. I don't think any of the other pilots in my class are taking classes right now and a few of them have already completed their masters. I did find out one guy is doing the same program as me though, he just took a break from it during FTU (Formal Training Unit / B-52 school).

My class has four pilots in my same situation (training to be a copilot) and four pilots who are training to be aircraft commanders (AC / in the left seat). Three of us copilot students were all in the same class at Sheppard so it's nice to have the familiar faces. We also have about 9 navigators and about 5 EWOs (Electronic Warfare Officers...I think). We won't really see much of each other until our second our third flight, a couple months from now. It's uncommon for classes to have equal numbers of copilots and ACs, but it works out since we're evenly paired up for flying purposes. The crew dimensions should be interesting as we go since all four of the AC students were instructors at pilot training bases in their last assignment. We both learn the same material essentially, just from a different perspective. This course also changed recently so that as copilots, we get more familiarization with the left seat. Overall, it's a good thing because when we want to upgrade to AC down the road, it'll put us ahead.

Ellen's in Chicago this weekend watching her sister graduate so I'm trying to take advantage of the empty house to write a research paper that's due in a couple weeks. If you're wondering how it's going, just consider the fact that I'm writing a blog post right now. I should have more confusing and ambiguous pilot-talk posts to come in the next few months (although the farther I go, the less I'm able to talk about). If there's any people from ROTC or ENJJPT who are reading this and have questions about FTU, let me know. And now or you're regularly scheduled shot of the BUUUUFFFFFFF

So much to do, so little time

June 1st- 1st Lt., 1st day of FTU, 1st day Conan hosts the tonight show...these are all of Mason's big exciting milestones for the day. Mason's been active duty in the Air Force for 2 years now, which means he's promoted from 2nd Lt. to 1st Lt. not much of a difference in status, but the pay increase is sweet! Today was Mason's first day as a B52 student copilot, which means he's begun FTU (formal training unit) - basically he starts training to fly the B52 for the next 8 months. He's got a HUGE bag full of pubs and studying began tonight! I'm not really all that into Conan, so I'll keep on tooting Mason's horn since he's to busy to post. He got an A on his first Master's paper, there were pretty much only three comments in the whole paper; the most amusing, "Mason, please use the word flightdeck instead of cockpit because it's less gender specific." Seriously?

The summer schedule for work started today, which is pretty much ideal. Mondays/Wednesdays I basically work 10-12:30 and 2-4:30 and Tuesdays/Thursdays I'll work 2-5:30, so great! I've been tutoring math, which I've been actually starting to like, since I get to know the kids more and more, but I think tomorrow they are having me sit in with a reading teacher so I can start to train to be a reading tutor-oh boy! Other than that I'm planning a trip home on Thursday to see my baby sister graduate high school- where did the time go?

This past weekend, Mason and I hosted a class BBQ. Since the pilots, navs, and EWOS are kept separate for most of academics, we thought it would be fun for everyone to get together and meet people they may not have met already while on casual status. It was lots of fun- and for once we had just the right amount of food, instead of like triple the amount of food. Almost 30 people came so this was a great guess at food. A humorous moment from the evening which Mason told me later was that a new friend Ryan (a fellow pilot) was leaving and told Mason he'd left him some beers in the fridge; Mason being a non-drinker sarcastically said, "thanks man, I'm such a huge drinker." It later dawned on Mason that Ryan probably had no idea Mason doesn't drink, and actually thinks he's a huge boozer...okay maybe you had to be there for the humor effect.We also decided since it was the last weekend of total relaxation before FTU started, we headed to the Louisiana Downs Harrah's Casino Race Tracks. They have horse racing Thursdays-Sundays all summer long and on the "regular" weekends it's totally free to go watch. We met up with some friends who were more knowledgeable of the races and had a nice afternoon. The first race we watched, Mason guessed #8 would be the winner and I picked #5 (we didn't bet) and sure enough #5's horse won, but didn't qualify because just before the finish the rider was bucked off the horse and injured pretty badly. Bummer. We tried our luck at placing some bets after that race. We bet on 5 races, won the first 3 and lost the last 2, but overall came out $12 ahead! AWESOME!

As a late Sunday afternoon adventure, Mason and I drove over to the East Side of base to see if we could spot any alligators. No such luck. Maybe next time!
More May Adventures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029681&id=77800450&l=afbf804ca8