summer sweatin' (and a cake recipe)

I went outside this morning with the full intention of going for a run, and then I almost drowned.  Not because I fell in the pool (puh-leeze!) but because the humidity was about 1,000% and the air was so hot it felt like someone opened the door to the steam room and threw me in.  So.  Gross.  Soooo yeah I didn't go running.  HowEVER I did convince Scot to run the Firecracker 5K with me last Thursday (happy birthday, 'murica!) down in Sanford at the community college.  He decided to get a 3.5 mile warm-up run in the day before (which I found out the reason it ended up being a 3.5 mile run is because he missed his turn on the route) because he hadn't run AT ALL since Thanksgiving, when we did our last 5K together.  You can imagine how this turned out.  My warm-up run the day before was 5 miles and I felt great, actually ran the Firecracker twice around, for a total of 6.2 miles that day.  He finished his 3.1 about 5 minutes after me and was completely incapacitated the rest of the day.  HAHA.  But he's in Phoenix now  for a week to work on some stuff with the Airbus or whatever so I'm actually kind of sad.  And his legs are still sore.  But that makes me laugh.

We trekked over to Dallas for my family's annual reunion last weekend, too.  My great-grandparents had 3 kids, and now we have 66 family members, all from them ("Ya'll are just a real fertile bunch" Scot has said to me on more than one occasion).  58 of us were there- this was the 33rd year we've done the reunion and believe it or not, we all look forward to it!  Everyone gets along, no one's in jail, there's no drama, everyone has some class....it's quite a nice time!  I snapped a pic of my grandparents in the hotel lobby- they have 2 kids, 5 grandkids, and 3 great-grandchildren and they're the best ever!

Scot and I wandered around the town of Grapevine, TX where we were all staying and stopped at this wine bar for a late lunch- it was called Into The Glass and it was fantastic!  I had sea scallops on a bed of farmer's market vegetables and an amazing wine that I've posted a picture of.  I can't find it anywhere so if you see it (probably in Texas) mail me a bottle or 3!  Part of the vegetable on my plate was called "fiddle ferns" which are actually just...ferns.  Baby ferns.  Like, before they uncurl and look all fern-like.  I was hesitant to try it, but I actually discovered that I really like ferns!  I don't think my WalMart carries them, though...

 Buy me this.  Seriously.

Look at the widdy biddy ferns!  

This year the 4th of July was of course on a Thursday, which is a work day for me so that was super-lame.  It was hot and windy and disgusting so I was glad to get home and enjoy some of this cake I made.  I've posted the recipe below- you can probably change the jell-o colors to work with any holiday- strawberry and lime for Christmas or something like that.  Easter colors.  Whatev.  But it was delicious!  I had my former co-worker Doug along with my boss and his family up for fried chicken and watermelon with this cake, before we walked down to the park for fireworks.  It was nice.  Hot, but nice.  On the other hand, we did book our cruise for September.  60 days to go.  I hate the fact that we have to get through August.  It's all fun and games til my shoes melt to the blacktop out on the aircraft ramp.  

Try This Cake

Cake ingredients

1 pkg white cake mix plus required ingredients (use egg whites)

2 3-oz pkgs of Jell-o (I used strawberry and berry blue)

Whip cream topping (because using Cool Whip is pathetic)

1 pint heavy whippin' cream

2 capfuls of vanilla extract 

2 TBSP sugar

Bake the cake in 2 9-inch rounds as directed on the box.  Let it cool in the pans for about 20 minutes then poke holes all up in it with a fork or a skewer or whatever.

Mix the jellos separately with 1 cup boiling water each, stir to dissolve, add 1/2 cup cold water each, then pour the hot liquid over the cake so it gets all in the holes and runs over the side.  The cake will absorb it all up so don't worry if it's runny.  

Put the pans in the fridge overnight to let them...uh, marinate.

Next day, make the whip cream

Beat the crap out of the pint of heavy whippin' cream, the vanilla, and the sugar with an electric stand mixer.  It'll get all thick and fluffy.  Taste with with your finger when it's done.  Uh huh.

Assemble and frost the cake, store it in the fridge.  Top with fruit and stuff.  It's just the treat for a hot afternoon!  Enjoy!

cinderella needs new running shoes

So, today was The Day.  I actually pulled out the ol' Visa and registered for the Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon!  I did that AND one further- as a spur-of-the-moment decision, I registered for what's called the Glass Slipper Challenge.  The Challenge is the half-marathon of course, but it also includes a 10K race the day before as well.  Because apparently I'm sick in the head.  The whole event isn't until February so I've got plenty of training time, as long as I take advantage of it!  I've got the Tower Of Terror 10 Miler in 4 months, so it certainly seems do-able.  Here's the thing, though- I haven't run in almost a week.  

We've had this little "rain event" hanging out over the state this week and they're calling it Tropical Storm Andrea.  I haven't heard from the news exactly how many inches of rain we've gotten, but any memory of the dry season this winter and spring is long gone!  I went outside tonight to clip some parsley from my herb garden (Tangent: Scot wanted me to make some alfredo pasta with "the fancy cheese" -aka parm reggiano grated into curls- for dinner so I decided to grab some garnishes as well.  Tangent over.) and the pool is almost overflowing!  The water is level with the top of the coping!  All day it poured rain and we had some pretty gusty winds, too.  The eye of the storm passed north of us so we didn't get the really strong winds, maybe 40-45 mph at the worst, but lord have mercy did we get some rain!  This storm sucked so much moisture up from the Gulf and dumped it on us that we've had some local flooding and the past 2 days have been consumed with tornado watches and warnings.  I was all prepared to hide under the front desk as work today if I had to.  Yeah, I was still at work.  Bonus points for you if you can guess how much I actually got to get paid.  (If you said "zilch" for flying and a couple piddly hours of ground school, you'd be right.  God bless Netflix on my Kindle!)  Hence why I haven't been running.  We are officially into the rainy season so I'm going to have to figure out how to get some runs in if the weather looks bad.  I'm too much of a princess to run in the rain!

I've found a new running path in the fancy-pants neighborhood of Baldwin Park in Orlando.  It's literally like a mile from work so all week I've been super prepared with my bag and clothes and shoes and stuff, Clif bar and energy water included, with plans to run after work.  It happened once.  Then the rains came.  Anyhoo, the path goes 2.5 miles around a lake with plenty to look at and lots of people, so I feel quite safe.  I can do 2 laps so far, with the jog from and back to my car, for a total of just under 6 miles.  The thing now is that while I have the breath to run more, my legs are just too tired after that distance.  I totally had plans to go ride my bike on Monday to work on my leg strength, but since I'm pretty good at falling off of it in good weather, it was probably a good decision to keep it in the garage and out of the rainy weather!  Fingers crossed this stuff blows out of here tomorrow.

cruzan towards the weekend...

Um, when did May get here?  I'm still back in March somewhere.  Before St. Patrick's day.  Lord help me I think I must be getting old!  We've been on the crazy spin cycle since spring started, and here it is, Memorial Day weekend, and I can't keep up.

Scot and I escaped for a few days down to St. Croix (which I had to look up to find out where it was after I bought the tickets) to get some quality beach time away from Florida.  Living in a tourist-destination state does mean we have our own little piece of paradise, sure, but being here and working all day every day really makes you wanna leave the mainland for a bit sometimes.  This trip kinda-sorta coincided with his 32nd birthday and also our 'round-about 3 year anniversary so there were plenty of excuses to skip town.

St. Croix is US territory, but is the least touristy of all the Virgin Islands.  No WalMart, no chain resort hotels, no big highways even.  It was great!  Except the fact that those crazies drive on the left side of the road.  I'm glad we didn't rent a car, we wouldn't have made it out of the parking lot before running into someone.  We stayed at a little beach resort, did a few tours, got some good sun, met another couple from Minnesota there and made some new friends.  The only thing we didn't get to do was sleep in because the sun comes up at 5:30!!!   

Some of my favorite things we did: 
Jumped off the empty cruise ship pier- a 15 foot drop into crystal clear waters you could see the bottom of, probably 30-40 feet deep, or however deep a ship needs.  It was absolutely amazing!
Fed the beer-drinking pigs at the Domino Club bar up the the rainforest.  The pigs have been switched to non-alcoholic beer these days because a 950lb shit-faced pig is a bit difficult to deal with.
Catamaran tour out to the beach and snorkel and Buck Island.  Buck Island is a national landmark that is 95% underwater with the reefs and all.  Again, the water was so clear and the beach part we went to was so clean on the bottom it was like standing in the swimming pool.
Tour of the Cruzan Rum Distillery.  $5 for the tour AND 2 drinks at the end?  Yes, please!

Some things I'd wish we'd skipped:
The sunburn.  No matter how many coats of sunscreen I put on, I turned into a lobster and shed my skin like a snake.  It was gross.
The mosquitoes.  Holy sheet, ya'll my legs are still covered in bites!  And because there's no WalMart on this island, I had to drop $9 on a tube of hydrocortozone.  
My kayaking adventure.  We borrowed some from the resort and went out on the waves.  It was all good and well until I decided I wanted to see if I could surf a kayak.  Spoiler alert:  I can't.  I drank a gallon of seawater and lost my towel and my paddle.  I totally think it could have worked if my center of gravity hadn't been so far forward.  Maybe next time.

Enjoy some pictures!

 Our beach!

 Taking the plunge, so to speak

 And of course, Scot doing something insane

 Walking on air!

 I tried to upload a video of the beer-drinking pig but it wouldn't work.  I have it on my Facebook page if you're so inclined.  I think it's hilarious.  Until it spit beer all over me.  Asshole pig.

 Buck Island- see?  Swimming pool!

 Lizard friend

Rum, glorious rum!  This is only a fraction of the total barrels

 Iff'n you're looking for a good drink recipe...

COME ON, HOW IS THIS NOT THE BEST PLACE EVER?!?

A couple days after we got back in town, my parents flew in to visit us as well!  They stayed for 4 days and we got some good visiting time.  We did a couple touristy things like the Orange County Regional History Center, which is fantastic, and went to see the movie "The Great Gatsby." (GO SEE IT.  NOW.)  The day they were due to leave, my cousin Sarah and her family got in to Orlando off a Disney cruise.  I knew they were going to be in town (they live in Tennessee) so I arranged for them to meet us for brunch before Scot and I had to go to work and my parents had to go to the airport.  We met up Peach Valley cafe (love me some chicken and waffles) and I didn't tell my mom they were going to be there.  She was so surprised and thrilled to see them, which made me feel pretty awesome too.  However, 8 people in a booth built for 6 is going to end with a mess.  And we didn't need the 2 kiddos under 3 to help.  

So Memorial Day is this weekend and I think we're going to plan to do absolutely nothing.  My mother told me I don't relax enough on my day off (true- we have yard work and projects and places to go) so I think a good run followed by a dip in the pool followed by some sunbathing is in order.  

run, maggie, run

I made an impulse buy today.  I bought an entry into the Tower of Terror Walt Disney World 10-Mile run.  I've never run more than 5 miles together in my life.  Let's back up for a second, though, and I'll try to explain what's going on.

The idea of doing a half-marathon popped into my brain a couple months ago when I was out running the Gemini Springs trail down to Lake Monroe in Debary.  I'd quit my gym membership right before Christmas because I just wasn't happy with the classes, it was inconvenient to try to get to it, and I was sick of paying out the wazoo each month when I didn't even have time to go.  I figured I could just do some running- I'd always wanted to be "good" at running, whatever that means.  Partly it meant NOT taking 45 minutes to run a 5K.  (That's 3.1 miles for you non-runner folk)  I still remember barely making it through a 5K in high school (back then I just did them for the t-shirt) in over three quarters of an hour with a stitch in my side and shin splints.  So not good.  I never really tried to improve, and gave up on running altogether for many years because, come on, it hurt and I sucked at it.

Anyway, I'd do a little running every now and then when I was having a "fat day" but never more than a couple miles.  I've done a few 5K runs over the past couple of years for work and Thanksgiving turkey trots and that's it.  I decided to run the trail to Lake Monroe because we'd walked it before and rode it on the bikes but I had no idea how long it was.  Something about 4 miles was floating around in my head, so, with no watch and no means of telling distance, I started out.  I had zero concept of time while running/taking breaks to walk and I figured it must have been about an hour and a half.  So, maybe 8 miles, I was thinking.  That's when the idea of doing the Disney Princess Half Marathon first manifested itself.  I was hanging in there out on this trail, I can do 13.1 miles!  I smiled at the thought- running through the Magic Kingdom, feeling good, I mean, I'd already run about an hour and a half so what's just a little more?

Until I got back to the car and looked at the map.  And the clock.

I'd run a total of 4.8 miles, and it had only been 50 minutes.

I felt like a balloon that just got stuck with a pin.  So much for my grand idea of a half-marathon, I was whupped.  And disappointed.  And stubborn and more determined than ever to MAKE IT HAPPEN.

I ran the trail a few more times over the next few weeks, with less walking breaks and more running.  I used www.mapmyrun.com to measure out some distances around the blocks from the house and found that what I now call the "big block" is 1.7 miles, and the "little block" is 1.2. I've done 3 laps around the big block twice now, for a total of 5.1 miles each time and am holding steady at 57 minutes.  If I can build up my stamina to get any farther than that, this 10 mile run that I've already registered and paid $150 to do won't be a total embarrassment!  I'll post some more on my progress and it gets closer, and hopefully I'll show some improvement along the way.  Registration for the Princess Half hasn't opened yet so I'm waiting for that announcement.  I'm also going to try to track down some 10K runs this fall to get used to the race environment- not much happens in that department in the heat of the Florida summer!

(By the way, I jumped in the pool for the first time this year when I finished my run and it was effing freezing.  As in, 72 degrees.  Brrrrrrrrr.)

So the Tower of Terror run isn't until October, so I have some time.  It's at night though, 10pm start time, which should be really awesome.  I guess it's okay to be a little excited, we'll see how I'm feeling about it come September.  

One more thought- the magician Houdini could work his way out of a straitjacket while hanging upside down and handcuffed, but he NEVER had to try to wriggle out of a tight-fitting sweaty sports bra.  He ain't got nothin' on me!

lawn ornament take-over

HEY GUYS!!!  MY NAME'S PINKY AND I'M HERE, AS THE NEW LAWN MASCOT OF TRUMBULL STREET, TO SHOW YOU THE PROGRESS THE KIDS HAVE MADE ON THE BACKYARD!  PLUS I TALK IN ALL CAPS!  BECAUSE I'M SUPER-EXCITED TO BE HERE!  AND I LOVE YOU!  I LOVE EVERYONE!

(Don't you just adore him?)

Excuse me while I reel Pinky in for a minute...

Yes, we've done a lot with the yard so far this spring.  The weather in Florida has been stupid this month though- 80 degrees, 35 degrees, tornado, 60 degrees, drought, fire, freeze, sunburn.  It's driving me batty.  Ready for summer already!  Anyhoo, Scot's relatives from Finland and his mom are all coming to visit next month so we've been working on getting the house looking like 2 mature, respectable adults live here.  (btw, if you know 2 mature, respectable adults who can step in for us, let me know...)  Anyway, I came home from work the other week and Scot was digging up the backyard rambling on about putting in plant beds along the pool screen and fence and whatnot.  So we did!

CHECK OUT WHAT THEY DID, YOU GUYS!  IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY TO BE HANGING AROUND OUT HERE IN THIS BRAND-NEW FLOWER BED!!!  IT'S AWESOME!!!!

 Before- board for the beds laying about haphazardly, power tools scattered about (those aren't normally there, but the dead-looking grass and color-less lawn is pretty accurate)

After!  We put 17 croton plants along the pool screen (right), and grounded the corners with pittosporum bushes.  The bed stretched along the left side beyond the veggie garden, and I put in some colorful flowers and handing baskets under the newly-mulched area under the tree

 Here's a better view of my tiny little veggies- hey I planted everything from seeds this year so it's taking a bit longer.  That's broccoli in the back...

The flowers!  

THAT'S MY FAVORITE PART!!!  I LOVE FLOWERS!  AND I LOVE EVERYONE!!!

Easy there, hang on to your mouse ears, Pinky

Before- equally pitiful area behind the pool screen.  Not much more to say there

CAN I DO THE NEXT ONE?  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CAN I TELL THE LOVELY READERS THAT I LOVE SO MUCH ABOUT THIS ONE?

Fine.  Knock yourself out.  Use a rock if you need help.

OKAY SO THE GIRL HUMAN FORGOT TO MOVE THE BAG OF MULCH BEFORE SHE TOOK THE PICTURE (Pinky!  Focus!)  OKAY OKAY, BUT HERE'S THE AFTER!!!!  THE PRETTY PURPLE PLANTS AND LOROPETALUM AND THEY MAKE AWESOME PINK FLOWERS THROUGH SPRING AND SUMMER!  I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM AND LOOK AT THEM ALL DAY LONG!!!

HERE THEY ARE AGAIN!  PURPLE PLANTS!  PINK FLOWERS!  IT'S AWESOME AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH!  I LOVE EVERYONE!

OOOOO CHECK OUT THE GIRL HUMAN TRYING TO GET ALL ARTISTIC WITH THIS CORNER SHOT!  I'M SO HAPPY I GET TO LOOK AT THE POOL ALL DAY TOO!  IT'S SO PRETTY!!!  YAAAAAAAAY!!!!

I'm exhausted just listening to him.  Pinky, time for bed.  

BED!  I LIVE IN A BED!  A FLOWER BED!  GET IT?!?

Good God.

Anyway, I got some more inspiration from the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival yesterday (where I bought you-know-who) and everything was really lovely and we had a fantastic time.  This year they added food and alcohol to the festival so I had lots of frozen vodka drinks, sparkling wine, and some pineapple soft serve topped with gold rum.  Lawd it was a good time.    I mean, I may have gotten some garden inspiration, but I was also inspired to want to drink sparkling wine with elderflower liqueur and mint for breakfast every morning.  Which got shot down as soon as I remembered I fly airplanes for a living and they frown on that sort of thing.  

 

13 years and still alive

January marked the 13th anniversary of my very first training flight in a small aircraft.  Cessna 172 out of the Downtown airport in Shreveport.  I immediately got hooked and never looked back.  I went to a 4 year college and majored in aviation, got my private license, my instrument rating, my commercial license, a multi-engine rating on top of that, then high-tailed it to Florida to work on my flight instructor certificates.  None of my training came naturally to me- I had to work very hard and fortunately I'm very stubborn, else I know I would have quit.  It took a long time for me to pick things up and understand concepts (a lot of the time I didn't understand most of it anyway) and I went through so many different flight instructors and got so many different points of view and opinions that no one ever sat me down and explained WHY I needed to know certain things.  Just- here, memorize this.  Why can't you?  It's easy!  (Uh, no it ain't buddy.)  I decided that when I became a flight instructor, I'd never forget what it was like to NOT know anything about flying, and to always explain the reasons behind the maneuvers and procedures we do to my students.  I admit, sometimes I get a little frustrated with a student but then I sit back and think about something I know absolutely diddly squat about- sailing and boats.  If someone put me out in a sailboat and tried to explain what all those damn ropes were for in a half-assed sort of way, I'd be hanging on to the tail (or whatever the back of the boat is called- see my point?)  

The thing with flying is, during training we always drill emergencies- what to do, where to go, what to say, memorize memorize memorize!  The idea is that, when the shit hits the fan, you react quickly and automatically as you were trained.  But you never really know how you're going to handle something until it happens.  So, for your reading pleasure, I've listed some crazy shit that's happened to me while flying, and I've detailed a few incidents below that stand out:

Oct 31, 2008
My first big incident.  I managed to get away with 8 years of little drama (a few scary night flights with bad weather, but nothing to write home about.)  I remember this because it was on my birthday- the basic story is I was with a student practicing landings at the Deland airport north of Orlando and the nose gear of our retractable-gear Cessna 182 folded up on us after landing.  The airplane went ass-up and skidded down the runway while the propeller continued to force its way around a few more times, making a screeching, thumping, grating metal on concrete noise for about 500 feet before coming to a stop.  It only took a few seconds, but I remember clearly what I was thinking- holyshitthisisnotreallyhappeningisit?  It was totally surreal.  When the aircraft came to a stop, my student and I sat very still, then silently and calmly cut off the fuel and electrical systems, unbuckled our seat restraints, and (very awkwardly) crawled out of the aircraft.  The ambulances and firetrucks showed up a few minutes later, I had to make some phone calls to the FAA and fill out some paperwork.  No one told me how to handle this situation or the aftermath of legal crap, but I managed it okay.  I had to keep myself together and project confidence because it would be a disservice to my customer for me to be rattled or to pass any feelings of discomfort onto her.  I had responsibilities to take and to this day I don't think I could have handled any of it better.

August 2012
This incident happened on a Sunday- I remember because my boss is off on that day.  I was doing a rental checkout for a customer in a brand-new aircraft we'd gotten on the flight line...a light sport Cessna 162 Skycatcher.  I had maybe 4 or 5 hours in this aircraft and thought it was one of the most fun little airplanes to fly.  I still do!  It's so light weight, about 1,200-1,300 lbs when loaded up and has large doors that raise up under the wing on pneumatic arms so that you can taxi it around on the ground and still get a nice breeze with them open.  It was my customer's first flight ever in this little airplane, so we took it nice and slow and easy getting it started up, practicing the taxiing, and I explained some of the differences on this aircraft as opposed to the Cessna 172 he was used to flying.  We got cleared for takeoff in Orlando from runway 7 with instructions to do a left-hand turn to the west afterwards.  We shut the doors and headed out and up.  Everything was showing normal after takeoff when we leveled off at 1,100 feet on our westbound heading when BAM!!!  I felt a scrape on my arm and a big rush of air and the loudest bang I've ever heard.  Immediately, my hand went to pull the tightening strap on my shoulder restraint.  I looked over and at first thought the window had blown out.  My hair was blowing about and it was windy in the cabin.  And then I noticed that the WHOLE DOOR was missing!  I was able to look straight down to the ground and that view made my stomach turn.  I don't remember my exact words but they were probably along the lines of "what the fuck?!?"  I then noticed that my door wasn't missing but had blown open from the front latch only and had peeled backward and was now bent out at a 90 degree angle- the plexiglass window had shattered and pieces had blown into the cabin and were sitting on the dash- they had scraped my arm when they blew out.  I took control of the airplane from my customer immediately, reduced the power, and called the tower and told them I was landing immediately on the crossing runway, which we were perpendicular to at the time.  The airplane handled, as best as I can describe it, really wonky.  When the airflow is different from one side to another because you have a giant drag element sticking out of the right side, it tends to make things a bit unstable.  I managed to limp the aircraft down onto the runway and get it back to the flight school, where several people had heard my distress radio conversation with the air traffic control tower and had to come check out the damage.  The door was eventually repaired, and a secondary latching mechanism was installed to prevent this from happening again.  After it was all over- again, it happened so fast and my reaction was so immediate- I couldn't think of a better outcome.  This was reaffirmed by the approval of how I handled everyhing from my coworkers and boss.  Of course, more paperwork!

Yesterday:
Yeah, yesterday.  I was with a student again in the Skycatcher (a different one this time) and we'd been doing landings at Orlando for almost an hour.  After our 6th takeoff at about 800 feet, just as he was making a right turn perpendicular to the runway and still climbing, the engine started shaking, sputtering, and vibrating so badly it sounded like it was about to rattle completely apart.  His first words were "wait, I didn't do that what'sgoingon?" and I knew something was majorly wrong.  I reduced the power, started to make a u-turn, and again radioed the tower that we were landing immediately on the crossing runway.  The same one I'd made my door-less landing on.  The engine vibration stopped when I pulled the power out, but got much worse when I played with the throttle and tried to add it back in.  I figured I didn't want to damage the engine so I completely cut the fuel supply and shut the whole thing down.  We were now gliding with zero power toward the runway.  There was no doubt in my mind that we'd make it just fine, but the thought that was going through my head was "Dammit this is my favorite airplane and now it's going to be down for maintenance for a really long time!"  The propeller completely stopped moving before we touched down, but I managed to glide in, execute a perfect landing, and roll down the runway, through the intersection of the main runway, and coast to a stop.  The entire experience from the initial vibration to the aircraft coming to a stop safely on the runway was probably about a minute.  Again, when we came to a stop and I assured the tower controller we were okay and requested assistance to tow us back to our tie-down spot, I shut everything down and turned my main concern to my student, who was in complete shock.  He turned to me and said "That was awesome, thank you!!!  You...you saved us!"  Once my leg stopped shaking a bit, I gave him a calm smile and said "Well, it's my job to keep your ass alive."  (More paperwork ensued, but I think it was an amazing lesson for my student)

Yesterday's incident got to me the most out of everything for a few reasons- if we hadn't been as close to the airport as we were when this happened, we could have literally had to land in a swamp, a golf course, a lake...our options would have been a lot worse than runway 13.  And there's no telling the outcome of any of those scenarios.  Also, it could have been ANYONE else in that airplane- a solo student pilot, a renter...anyone!  I'm not saying I'm Super Pilot (although I sure as hell felt like it), I just don't know how anyone else would have handled this situation and we're very fortunate no one was in any real danger of being killed.  I've known people who have been in aircraft accidents, I've known people who have been killed in aircraft accidents.  It's part of this industry- if you don't know someone personally, you know someone who does.  I've been very lucky to have been doing what I do for the amount of time that I've been doing it.  As I get older, I do become more aware of my own mortality, but not so much as to have it scare me out of the skies.  I admit I was a little nervous when I went up in the air today, but doing that is the only way to move past this.  

For anyone who's doing flight training though- LEARN your emergency procedures!  Memorize them.  Train for them, take them seriously.  Do some research, read up on some accident reports- see what has worked for others, see what hasn't.  Hopefully you never ever have to experience anything like what I have, or worse, but if you do you'll be glad you worked so hard for your privilege to fly.   

i blame bobby flay if my ass gets huge

Oh, Food Network, how I love thee and hate thee at the same time!

It's Chocolate Week, if you haven't heard (the foodie equivalent of Shark Week on Discovery Channel).  Most of the shows are centered around my second drug of choice (You know my first.  Oh you don't?  Uh, what blog are you reading, again?)  Anyway, my man Bobby has this show "Throwdown With Bobby Flay" where he challenges cooks who are really good at cooking pretty much just one thing, to see who can win over tasters more.  Tonight, it was 2 women making huge-ass 5 ounce chocolate chip walnut cookies vs Bobby and his thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies.  It all looked good, my mouth was watering, I was annoyed because Scot had eaten the last of the bag of Hershey's chocolate chips I'd hidden behind the flour jar on the counter (note to self, find a better hiding spot), and I was really craving dessert.  Alls I had for dinner was some leftover Velveeta shells and cheese and a slice of peanut buttered bread and I needed something sweet to tell the tastebuds "Aight, that's enough, eatin' time's over."  

I'd seen a recipe online before for a 2-cookie chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Like, that's all it makes, a perfect portion.  So I found one and decided to double it because I never eat JUST 2 cookies.  Well ya'll, doubling this recipe made 6 of the biggest damn cookies I'd ever seen in my life.  I couldn't imagine eating 2 of the regular recipe, holy crap!  Take a look...

(Imagine the following in Paula Deen's voice)  

That is a reg-u-lay-tion- size cooling rack, ya'll.  

Butter.

Mayn-aise

Ooooo don't that look goooooood son!

Ahem.

(Again, Food Network, you haunt my dreams!)

But for realz, yo, look at the size of those cookies!  I admit by the time I took the pic I'd, uh, eaten one already, but you can see the normal-sized bite I took out of the right one there.  I only ate 2, and that was a struggle but hoo boy they were delicious!  Stick with the regular recipe, which I have provided below, for the perfect couple servings of normal-sized cookies.  

Makes 2 of the biggest damn cookies you ever saw, or 4 or 5 normal-sized ones  

2 Tbsp butter

2 packed Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp white sugar

pinch kosher salt

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup flour

3 Tbsp chocolate chips (I cut up Baker's squares, like I said, Scot at the chips)

Oven to 350

In a small glass bowl, melt butter til soft

Stir in sugars, salt, vanilla with a regular spoon

Add egg yolk and stir

Add baking soda and flour and stir

Add chips

Recipe says to make only 2 cookie dough balls and put them on the baking sheet lined with parchment.  I DARE you.  Then show me a picture of what they look like when they're done.  

I baked mine for about 12 minutes- make sure they're spread far apart because these things get HUGE.  Cool on a rack.  

Busy weekend ahead- it's time again for Mardi Gras so I've gotta get to cooking all my Louisiana food.  Which I haven't even remotely started shopping or prepping for yet.  Bought another bottle of Rose from World Market today so that should help with the impending stress ;)

Laissez les bon temps rouler!