Random Thoughts Thursday 466
- We had a video call with Dunja and fam on Sunday and talked a bit about their trip out here in August (they live in Germany). I’m so excited. I love having things to look forward to on the calendar.
- Steven’s official private pilot license/certificate came in the mail from the FAA this week! Woo hoo! (He had a paper one in his wallet until this one came.)
- My blog server issues seemed to have fixed themselves. I didn’t have any issues for a couple weeks… further convincing me it’s my host and not me. Then on Tuesday when I went to my blog it had an “install wordpress” screen. Sigh. When I contacted my host they asked me what I changed. Sigh. NOTHING. All that to say, thanks for your patience in reading and commenting!
- I don’t like a lot of my tops and decided to try Wantable. I filled out the entire survey, said yes and no to a bunch of items then clicked around on their site a bit after, looking at different premade “style edits.” Apparently me doing that signed me up for the “How to Blazer” style edit, so I received two blazers, a pair of pants, a pair of jeans, this sweater below, and two camis, even though I asked for tops so… I don’t know what I am doing, only liked the camis but not the price, and returned it all.
Don’t talk about it, get over it
My mom, snister, and I are all reading Kristin Hannah’s The Women right now. It’s about a young female nurse, Frankie, who goes to Vietnam in the late 60s as an army nurse, and her experience there and after returning home.
I haven’t finished it yet (I’m almost to 80%), but four thoughts to share:
- It’s funny, you think you’ve read some 5 star books recently, then you read a Kristin Hannah book and it blows everything out of the water. Maybe she’s just in a league of her own.
- I can see myself doing a Vietnam War deep dive after reading this. Something similar happened after we watched Chernobyl on HBO – I became very interested in the incident/how nuclear power works and read several books about it. (IT WILL FOREVER BLOW MY MIND THAT NUCLEAR POWER IS CREATED TO SPIN TURBINES. It all goes back to turbines.)
- (Slightly spoilery?) Could our girl Frankie just get a freaking break PLEASE? GAH I AM DYING OVER HERE. This book is heavy. (No spoilers for me in the comments please)
- And finally, the theme of the book, which seems to be “don’t talk about hardship, move on and get over it.” I knew that was the mindset of older generations, but listening to this book has made it so clear to me, and so clear how toxic that is. I can’t wait to talk to my mom and snister about it. You know, if we can get Mom to talk about it. Ha.
TIL
TIL = Today I Learned. And truthfully, it should be FIL because I learned these things Friday. Ha. But I have to share two things I learned for the first time Friday, that probably most people know.
First, cake balls are not just cake baked in a ball shape.
I had never had a cake ball before! My snister brought me four when I saw her last week, and I loved them, and loved that they were doughy but wasn’t sure if they were supposed to be.
But my snis confirmed they are – they’re crumbled cake mixed with frosting, (purposefully) giving it a dough like consistency. I had no idea (neither did Steven – he thought the same as me)! I’m a fan!
Second, aqua socks are different than aqua shoes.
I thought they were the same thing, and people used them interchangeably. But no, aqua socks don’t have as sturdy of a sole, and are more like, ding ding, you guessed it, socks.
I never thought about this. I’ve always had the shoe type. I bought some to take to Rachel’s with us (to wade through the water to get to her boat (we have aqua shoes but left them at the river)) and was surprised when I opened them and they were like socks. I really liked them though! They’re so much easier to get on and are perfect for when you don’t need a sturdy sole.
So, big learning going on over here. Yep! Ha ha.
Summer send-off
We had such a lovely day yesterday! We took the day off work, flew to Rachel and Kevin’s house in Edgerton, WI, hung out with them on their boat, ate lunch at a restaurant on the water, then flew home!
It was such a beautiful (hot!) day – temps in the high 80s, clear blue skies. Lovely for being on the water (hot in the plane when it’s not moving, ha). Thank you Rachel and Kevin, for your wonderful hospitality!
On the flight back, Rachel texted me this timehop photo and said “It’s our friendiversary!!!!!” Aww! I had no idea! We met 12 years ago running the 50K at the North Face Endurance Challenge. We were blogger friends but had never met in person. I’m so glad she came up to me that day. We instantly hit it off, and we’ve been good friends since then. She’s someone who always fills my cup and leaves me feeling energized!
I’m putting all the flight details under the “read more”! Because you know me, it’ll get long. But there was an exciting part on the way there so you may want to keep going.
read more…Reading Update (2024 #58-60)
[58] Colton Gentry’s Third Act by Jeff Zentner
Fiction / Southern, heard about from Knox at The Popcast, audio
Synopsis: Colton Gentry is a second-rate country music singer who drunkenly spoke out about gun control at a concert and got himself canceled. Now he’s out of rehab, freshly divorced, and back in his hometown, trying to get his life on the right track.
Review: This is such a wonderfully earnest redemption story. I really enjoyed it. It’s hard NOT to root for Colton because he accepts all his faults and is trying so hard to do what’s right. The story goes back and forth from present day to his time growing up in his hometown (in… I already forgot [insert small southern town here]), and some of the characters from his youth make a reappearance. I’m usually not a “second chance” romance fan, but so much of the backstory was built up that I really wanted them to reunite. This book takes addiction and the struggle with it very seriously, but will leave you feeling good. And bonus, how can you not love a book that has only two footnotes and they are to tell you that the super senior dog Colton adopts will NOT die in this book?
Recommend? Definitely yes
[59] Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
Fiction / Romance / New Adult, Anita told me it was overrated and I should read it and tell her what I think, audio
Synopsis: Two serial killers fall in love over years of playing a “who can kill the bad guy” first game.
Review: I was worried this would be too graphic and torture-y, and thankfully it wasn’t. There were very clear trigger warnings (if you can call them that? more like warnings) in the beginning. This is basically a romance, but the two main characters are killers. You still have them being unsure if the other likes them, taking way too long to get together, a dark moment, etc. I think the sex was supposed to come off as extra kinky? I liked listening to it because the main male character is Irish and had a lovely accent, and the female did a great job too. However… it was a bit slow moving, and kind of boring at times. And there wasn’t enough background (for me anyway) that explained why these two kill bad people for fun on the side. I think that concept just generally doesn’t do it for me.
Recommend? Nah
[60] Powerless by Elsie Silver
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, third in series, Kindle
Synopsis: Jasper and Sloane have been friends since childhood, with her always have a very obvious (seemingly unreciprocated) crush on him. Now, Sloane is about to marry someone else but leaves that dirtbag behind in the church after an anonymous video is texted to her. Jasper gets her out of there, and now they have a chance to be together… if they’ll take it.
Review: This was not my favorite from the series, but I still enjoyed it. I didn’t like these characters as much as those in the first two books, but there’s nothing wrong or unlikable about them, I just enjoyed the chemistry in the first two better. The “I haven’t liked you your whole life but now I do that you’re about to get married and aren’t anymore and are available” is a bit sus but it’s addressed by Sloane, who calls Jasper out on her bullshit. The sex seems were pretty steamy, so there’s that!
Recommend? Sure
Random Thoughts Thursday 465
- I feel like people drive so much crazier/riskier since the pandemic. We see something bizarre every time we drive (on Monday we saw a left on red). When Steven leaves to go to work, I always say “watch out for f*ckos!” All that to say, on Steven’s drive home yesterday, he saw a truck get t-boned and fly up in the air. The truck landed on its side, and the driver was trapped. The passenger door wouldn’t open, so Steven and three others bent it open wide enough for the driver to climb/crawl out. Both drivers were thankfully okay and the cops showed up right away to help. BE SAFE OUT THERE FOLKS! WATCH OUT FOR F*CKOS!
- We were discussing times for Steven to do a night currency flight* and were checking sunset times and were shocked by how much earlier there were going to be over the course of the next few weeks. Science and math, baby! Winter is coming. In three months. (*Steven can fly by himself at night, but to fly with a passenger (me!) at night he must have completed 3 takeoffs and landings at night in the last 90 days)
- Last year we had plans every weekend in October. It was fun but we were exhausted! It looked like this October was going to shape up the same way and then slowly almost everything was canceled or postponed (or declined) and it feels so good. I know you get me!
- This is one of those weeks where I had something going on every day after work. Props to those of you who that is your regular week because it exhausts me! I know I could get used to it… I just don’t want to. See above bullet about liking free time.
- Do you ever think “I wish I was less needed at work”? Sigh. I am glad I have such an amazing team who can handle things for me when I take time off.
- When Val was here she commented on how good I am at taking photos when we’re together (thank you!). The funny thing is, I’ve been trying to use my phone less, so I have to be way more purposeful about it now. I’m actually feeling like I need to take more random shots of my day to day life (like this Tuesday run photo below).
Long story short (maybe?), on Tuesday I texted Steven “Wow! Great memory!” and he said “Lol I’d better screenshot that part about my great memory” (since I am “typically telling him he can’t remember things” that I told him). Flash forward to Tuesday night when he asks if I saw what he added to our digital photo frame – that screenshot. “I was going to print it and frame it, but then I remembered I can add it to the digital frame.” Ha ha, right?
But wait! There’s more! I said “You know, my mom looks at every photo I add to our frame and is going to ask about it.” It’s an Aura frame and she can see on the app when I add photos. Sure enough, she asked about it Wednesday morning. Ha. It’s even funnier because it’s a memory of something that happened to me and my mother that I told Steven about. Which she and I don’t remember as vividly as Steven. Ha ha ha ha ha. I started a group chat so Steven could explain it to her.
Three Questions
For you to answer!
- Are you over summer (specifically, the heat)?
- Have you starting snoozing/unfollowing/whatever people on socials because of election madness?
- When you use GPS, do you use north up or course up?
1. When we flew to Rochelle on the 8th I wore jeans. JEANS! And I felt great! Last Friday when we flew with Val I wore shorts and when Steven was doing steep turns I felt sweat trickle down the back of my leg. Ick.
It’s still summer but UGH. I’m over the heat and looking forward to cooler days. Apologies to my southern friends who will not be getting a break anytime soon.
2. HARD YES.
3. Okay, so I’ve always been a north up girlie with GPS. That’s just how my brain operates – on a grid with cardinal directions. That’s all good in the car.
But when we fly I have north up on ForeFlight which works amazingly for wayfinding, but I am STRUGGLING when I encounter traffic and need to tell Steven where it is on the clock (for example, traffic at 2:00, 2 miles out, 500′ below). I need a clock on my airplane icon OR I need to try course up. Steven, we need to look at this before Friday!
Val’s Visit!
Val was here midday Wednesday through this afternoon, and we had such a wonderful time together!
Before this trip I assumed we’d spend most of our time painting rocks, but we did so much more!
Wednesday
I picked Val up from the Milwaukee airport, and we went to the Third Ward to eat lunch and check out the shops. We got some new drawing books to try:
Val remet the indoor cats, then met all the outdoor cats. When we were outside the two planes that Steven flies flew over our house one after another. Val is SUCH a trooper for all my aviation talk this week. Eesh!
We painted, toured Steven’s warehouse, then got El Famous for dinner (naturally).
Thursday
We ran at Van Patten Woods. I love showing people our amazing preserve system!
It’s so lovely to run with a friend! It was cool when we started, then quickly heated up (it’s been in the 80s for a while here). We both already had headaches, but finished strong and rehydrated later and felt better.
Then more painting, and a picnic at the beach! The beach was gorgeous in the shade with the lake breeze.
We stopped at Starbucks to get the Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai. Have you had it? SO SO GOOD.
Then we were off to mani/pedis! Val’s got done before mine so she sat and chatted with me and Lorena for a long time and I loved having two of my fave people meet each other and hit it off!
We had crunchwraps for dinner then painted a bit more and called it an early night because…
Friday
We went to the 5:00 am Lower Body class at WWM! Val kicked major butt. I’m proud of her! She loved class and wishes she could come more often (but… she lives in Denver, CO). I do too. I’d love if she found something like this by her. WWM is really special, but there has got to be more amazing places like this around the world.
After class we cleaned up and met my snis for lunch at Wildberry! She was in town for work in Chicago the night before and drove up to Libertyville to see us. We had a great time eating then doing some shopping. Our fun time together made me even more excited for our November Seattle trip together (with Tiff too!).
We had a little bit of time at home (painting!) when we got back, then left to meet Steven at the airport. We had originally planned to take Val on a flight Saturday am but it was showing that it would be windy, so Steven moved our reservation to Friday night.
We had a beautiful (although hazy) flight. We flew down to the city,
then along the state line to show Val what our neck of the woods looks like from above. It was fun pointing out the places we’d gone to from the sky!
We were so excited to have our first passenger!!!!!!!! And Val loved it!
We got pizza for dinner, then hung out and painted a bit.
Saturday
Since we no longer had Saturday plans we slept in a bit, then just painted all morning until I drove Val to the airport around 2:30! It was a perfect end to the trip, just sitting and chatting for most of the morning.
I’m so grateful Val came out. I suggested this trip to her because her husband Steve was flying out here for a skydiving event, and I was like “you could fly together and he’ll go to his thing and I’ll pick you up!” But then she booked a separate flight to a different airport, so she could get in earlier and fly to the airport closest to my house. I appreciate her so much! Our time together is always wonderful and this time was no different, except we were missing our other Musketeer, Tiff!
But really. I always feel so relaxed and happy when I am with Val (and Tiff) and after our time together. I’m so grateful for our friendship.
Reading Update (2024 #55-57)
[55] Never Lie by Freida McFadden
Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, gift from Dunja, paperback
Synopsis: Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. They’re checking out a remote manor in the middle of a blizzard and get stuck there. The house belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a famous psychiatrist who’s been missing for years. As Tricia explores the house she finds a room full of tape recordings from Dr. Hale’s sessions, and learns more about what happened to her, and becomes increasingly concerned they might not be alone in the house.
Review: Okay, I have to admit, the twist got me on this one. I was reading it thinking “come on Tricia, this is OBVIOUS” then I was like, “Oh! I see.” I enjoyed this book. The writing is elementary, the characters are unlikeable, and the plot is full of holes, but it’s fast-paced and fun. I’m wondering if this author ever writes likeable characters? The characters were also highly unlikeable in the other book I read of hers. Usually that puts me off but I was here for it, hoping bad things would happen to them. Ha.
Recommend? Yes
[56] Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
Fiction / Romance / Workplace, saw in Libby/heard about from Jamie at The Popcast, audio
Synopsis: Rue and Eli decide to meet in person after matching on a hookup app, but their meeting does NOT go as planned. Then Rue goes to work the next day and Eli is there – as part of the company that bought out the loan where Rue works. She is instantly defensive and suspicious oh him and the company, but the attraction is still there.
Review: Ugh. This audio style is different. There were dual narrators, but they do their own voices for the whole story, meaning the female narrator does Rue’s voice during Eli’s chapters, and vice versa. For all my complaining about narrators doing crappy voices for the opposite sex, and my love of Graphic Audio, I am surprised to say I didn’t like this… but I think I just didn’t like the voices the narrators were doing, period.
Okay, all that being said, the business side of this story was hard to follow (on purpose? to be secretive?) and mostly boring. On The Popcast Jamie went on about how spicy this was but it was a bit meh for me – I guess because I didn’t really care for either of these characters?
Recommend? No
[57] Wild Eyes (Rose Hill #2) by Elsie Silver
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, second in series, Kindle
Synopsis: Superstar singer Skylar Stone is escaping to small town Canada to record new music and get away from toxic LA and her controlling and unloving parents. She meets Weston (West) Belmont immediately on her way into town, when he saves her from a black bear she was taking a selfie with. He leads her to the recording studio – literally next to his property – and since the housing there isn’t set up yet, she stays in his bunkhouse, and becomes very familiar with West and his two kids.
Review: The story took me a while to get into, which surprised me – I had read the first chapter of this at the end of book 1 in the series and was stoked. But it was a bit of a slow build after that. Skylar has so much healing to do – she pretty much found out her entire life is fabricated and isn’t sure who she is or what she wants. The more time she spends at the ranch, the more she discovers herself, which was great to see… but I wanted the romance to happen faster. Ha. I’m impatient like that. I really enjoyed the second half of the book though!
Recommend? Yes
Flying by Big Boy
Any steam engine enthusiasts here? No?
Yeah, us either. 😂 But when we were doing preflight at the airport today, the person who checked the plane out to us called and said “You’re going to Rochelle, right? Someone just posted on the board that some historic steam engine is going to be there today.” And Steven was like, “Oh, Big Boy?”
It turns out Big Boy is currently on an eight-week Heartland of America Tour and Rochelle is one of three spots Big Boy is on display. We know who Big Boy is because we were in Iowa when he went through several years ago. We didn’t see him in person then, or this time. But we did see him from 1000′ above today, which is close enough for me!
There was a ton of traffic going into town we when we flew in. People are SUPER into Big Boy. And the place we were flying to – Flight Deck Bar & Grill – was full of train enthusiasts (we played a fun game of “who’s here for Big Boy and who’s here for airplanes/skydiving?” using clues like someone wearing a train conductor’s hat or a “Heartland Tour” shirt or carrying flight gear or wearing a loud skydiving outfit to guess. Okay, okay, and age played a MAJOR proponent of this game).
But back to flying! We’re flying once a week so Steven can stay current and keep learning. I’ve been so excited for this part of his flying journey. I love going along. And I was telling my sister, it’s the same frequency he was flying before, but he’s no longer paying a CFI (certified flight instructor) so it’s like he’s saving money! #girlmath
Gosh, I swore this wasn’t going to be long and drawn out but here we are.
So we made a spreadsheet of local places to fly and check out. A lot of airports have restaurants at the airport, and this one wasn’t too far away (62.6 miles), and actually had some fake meats on the menu. Usually these places have NO vegetarian options, so that was pretty exciting.
The airport (RPJ – Rochelle Municipal Airport/Koritz Field) is an active skydiving place, so Steven called the airport Friday to ask about procedures for flying in with skydivers. They told him what frequency to listen to, where the skydivers land, how far to stay away if there are skydivers, and told him to never overfly the runway. We had no issues landing and taking off.
There was a long (hour+) wait for a table because of all the Big Boy people at the restaurant, but we enjoyed sitting outside and watching the skydivers until a table was ready. It was such a beautiful day! Then we ate and headed out, flying over Big Boy when we left.
It was so much fun! I’d love to go back (with friends?). I can’t wait for our next adventure, with Val next week! We tested out the passenger headset we got today. We’re all ready for someone to fly with us!
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and am employed by the federal government. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
