Kaden Flight Simming

Kaden has taken a large interest lately in playing flight sim with me. The past week or so, we've put in several hours. He like to yank and bank more than anything, but what more can you expect.

Either way, they make for cute pictures...

2006 Exercise Totals

Here are some details from my running log that I keep at Cool Running:

Running: 61.2 miles
Time: 9h 49m 24s
Avg. Pace: 9:38/mile

Cycling: 21.3 miles
Time: 1h 41m 34s
Avg. Pace: 4:47/mile

Swimming: 0.1 miles

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These are all starting on October 29th, so they aren't very much. I started running a bit before this, but not much. Today was my last run at 3 miles in 29 minutes outside in the rain and 47F with winds 17G25. Yuck.

Anyway, my 2007 running goal is 500 miles. We'll see how that goes.

Toledo Italian & Jazz

Tonight, Laura and I dropped off Kaden with grandma and grandpa and headed up to Toledo meet up with Corey & Kelly for some food and fun. We got some of both at Zia's at the Docks and then headed over to Murphy's Place Jazz which is a club downtown.

It was a great night and was loads of fun to get caught up with C&K again. It's been awhile since we went up last.

Whitney & I Fly To Fort Wayne

Whitney and I took Justin's laptop back to him in Fort Wayne today. I needed a reason to fly and this seemed as good as any. Whitney came and we turned it into a sibling breakfast visit. It was nice to fly over and then relax at Bob Evans and then get the nickel tour of Justin and Crystal's house. It's looking good!

The flight there and back were great with some fog over some of the landscape. Check it out for yourself in the photos.

You can view all the photos by clicking here.

Friday Room Addition Update

I haven't done an update lately because not much has happened lately. Once they finished the roof and wrapped the outside in "home saran wrap", the next thing to do is windows and siding. Well, these aren't coming in until next week, so this week they've done some work on the overhang for the 24' x 18' deck. As of this morning, the can lights were in and the ceiling fan mounts were in as well. Also, the base boards for the deck are mounted on the house.

This weekend will be time to run some speaker, network and TV cable. Can't wait to get moving!!

Check out all the updated photos by clicking here.

Christmas 2006

After many parties and not many photos, Christmas time is over for one more year. We probably ended up doing about six or seven parties, but it was good to see family and friends again.

Check out all the photos from the holiday by clicking here.

(Not So) Fat Brandon

I just wanted to post, for posterity sake, the day I weighed under 220 pounds again. I came in just under, but it counts. It seems eating healthy and exercising 3-4 times per week works.

Why didn't anyone tell me before!!! :-p Kidding.

Kaden And The Tree

Here are a few pics of Kaden and the Christmas tree and a few of him outside with his shades.

You can see all the photos by clicking here.

Monday Room Update!

Well, it is pretty much resembling a room now with a floor, four walls and a roof. They put up the roof today and put down the tar paper(?) and is ready for shingles tomorrow. They are kicking butt and taking names with this room addition.

You can check out all the updated photos by clicking here.

3.1 Of Arrow Time - Oh Yeah!

Since my birthday is tomorrow, my present was to get to do a big day of flying. I started this morning out by picking up Laura's brother and his son for a breakfast flight to Mansfield (MFD). We loaded up the Arrow for an uneventful flight to the Flying Turtle. We were the first ones there, but by the time we left, there were nine planes on the ramp with more incoming. Busy!

We made it back to Bluffton to high winds, but landed safely. I pushed the airplane back in, dropped them off and got Laura to the airport. We loaded up and launched for a late lunch in Muncie, IN (MIE). Vince's Restaurant is fantastic and I can't wait to go back. The food is awesome and the view from the restaurant over the ramp is great. We poked around some new airplanes sitting out there (Archer 6XT, some LSA and a TBM-850 - YUMMMM) and headed back to Bluffton. Since we were going about 100knots GS on the way to MIE, we were coming back at a solid 190 knots GS at 5500'. I beat the wind gods today!

Anyway, you can check out all the photos by clicking here.




That 201 knots GS on the GPS is while we were descending into Bluffton. We were getting about 190 knots GS solid at 5500'. Sweet! That's 230mph for the normal people.

More Kaden Photos

Here are just a few photos I took of Kaden this morning. He was in his chair eating and I was just playing with the camera.

You can see them all by clicking here.

Friday Room Update

I know I'm doing a lot of updates on this room, but they are cruising! Yesterday they had the floor done and before I left for work this morning, they were nailing up the first of three walls. The second wall was pretty much built as you can see in the photos. Won't be long!

Check out all the building photos by clicking here. There are three new ones.


6:05PM update: Getting home from work, they have all three walls up, plywood sheets on all three sides and some braces across the roof area. It seems that the trusses are here and ready to go! It won't be long now.

Sat. 9:22PM Update: The latest photos can be found by clicking here. Here is a teaser.

Kaden Pics

I uploaded a few new photos of Kaden from the past few days. What a cutie! You can see them all by clicking here.

Room Addition Update

Today they put the joist(?) across the center and then build the floor on top of that. It is starting to look like a room more than a hole now.

Check out all the room addition photos by clicking here.

Night Flight

I went up in the Arrow tonight to log a little time. I haven't flown it in almost three weeks. I felt like I was going to get rusty on flying complex before even getting going on it. The winds were 190 @ 17G24. That made it interesting, but nothing I couldn't handle. It was turbulent in the air, so that made it a little unnerving.

Either way, I logged a whole .5 and got used to the extra lever and the gear handle again.

[video coming soon]

Fat Brandon

I went digging through some of my pictures from 2005 and found these three that really show how fat I got. Yikes! I'm sure one of these has me at my highest of 250 pounds, give or take a pound or two. I am just posting these as a reminder while I continue my exercise and healthier eating regiment. I am currently at 224 pounds and have been exercising for a couple months now. My goal is to get below 200 pounds and stay in the 190's - my pre-career weight.

And now, for posterity sake...and to scare myself next time I want another slice of the oh-so-delicious pepperoni pizza:

More Room Addition Photos

I added some more photos to the room addition album. You can view them by clicking here.

As of this morning, they were filling in dirt around the new foundation walls. Rain stopped their work a little early, but they are cruising along!

Kaden Likes Cheetos

Laura let Kaden have some Cheetos tonight for a snack. Looks like he likes them enough!


Check out all the photos by clicking here.

Home Addition Begins

At 8am this morning, the builder showed up and started on the room addition on the back of our house. We're planning a 22'x24' addition to be used as a living room/office. Here is the "before" photo when they showed up to remove the concrete slab outside the back door:


You can view the progress during the whole time by watching this Gallery Album.

Prayer Flight

Today I flew the Archer in a prayer flight setup by Kenny from the BFS at 5G7. There were eight airplanes (Archer, Arrow, Cheetah, Sierra, Saratoga, C-195, C-172 and another). We took up about 20 passengers to pray over the area - about five or six counties. I ended up flying over Wapak and St. Marys.



Before the flight, I took the Archer over to Ottawa (OWX) for a couple touch-and-go's. Check it out below on the GPS track map and altitude graph.



If you use Google Earth, you can download the track by clicking here. (Be sure to look at it from the side, as you can see the altitude change.)

Kaden Sporting Some Shades

Kaden found some of his sunglasses and was attempting to put them on. After a few eye pokes, he was looking cool.

Swimming Laps At The YMCA

I tried doing the lap thing at the YMCA today after work. I heard that swimming is great cardio. After 150m of being without oxygen, I agree. I also found that I'm not quite ready for taking on swimming as a form of fitness. I was dead after three laps. I sat in the hot tub for awhile and called it a day.

What a waste of time. I should have taken some normal clothes to work out in. Bah.

3.5 Miles Of Pain

Today I decided I would do the circumference of the two reservoirs for my run today. The total distance on this one is 3.5 miles and I have done 3 miles a few times over the past week. I loaded up Kaden and took him to my parents to watch while I ran. Conveniently, they live right next to the reservoir.

After 36 minutes had passed, I was 3.5 miles further and back at my starting point. Today was a huge mental challenge as I felt like stopping about 20 times. Usually it's about five. It was windy up top and my feet were hurting (blisters on blisters). No matter. It felt great when I was done.

Kaden Cooks

Coming out from the office, I saw Kaden up on a chair helping Laura cook some food for the family gathering later. He seemed to be stirring something until I got closer and found that he was working on opening a bag of Reese's Pieces. Thata boy!

Airport Visitor - Extra 300L

Kaden and I went to the airport this morning and there was an Extra 300L parked on the ramp. It was tied down and chocked, so I figured the owner was no where around. I was right.

Either way, we went out and poking around - looked, but didn't touch. It was spotless and was all setup with parachute and GPS holder. Pretty sweet!

I'm going up in one someday...

Fun At Donna & Ed's

We headed over to Donna & Ed's tonight to watch some Broncos football on the NFL Network (grrrrr) and see Renee and the kids. They all seemed to have a lot of fun running around and playing on the floor. Eventually I decided to give horsey rides. My knees took a beating (strawberry, anyone?), but I think they had fun.





And, yes, I gave a horsey ride for the daring. He seemed to like it. To see the video, click here.

3 Mile Run

I've been trying to do three miles for the past week or so at the YMCA, but due to the new shoes (Nike Air Pegasus Climafit), I couldn't seem to get there. They've been making my feet hurt and giving me blisters, so I've stopped at 2 miles. Today I was feeling an outside run since the YMCA is closed and the weather is beautiful (sunny at high 30's). I decided instead of doing the "neighborhood 1.5 mile loop", I'd do the 3 mile loop around the reservoir. I got my new "sweat fabric" clothes on and my mp3 player loaded up.

About 35 minutes later, I was back home and 3 miles further in my quest for the 5K. Here is a post-run photo while I was stretching my calves on the curb.


Remember, you can track my running at Cool Running by clicking here.