I was going through yet another hard disk of photos to find an appropriate “timeline” image for Facebook. Had a lot of fond memories of a geology-themed vacation through southern Washington and central Oregon. The first stop was at Mt. St. Helens, home of the ‘sploded volcano from 1981: Mt. St. Helens - needs a little TLC Very close by is Ape Caves, a really long, dark lava tube you can go in. We walked the south (easier) segment. I wanted to extend the trip to the north end with my more adventurous, younger daughter. We went about 500′ into the section before coming to a huge pile of rocks we’d need to climb over (and then back) — great stopping point. ...

After finishing my commercial pilot rating, I was really hankering for owing my own airplane to avoid all of the randomization with renting and, ultimately, _go someplace far. _That destination would be Oskhosh, WI, for EAA’s Air Venture. For various reasons, not limited to prolonged time being unable to use the restroom and wanting to spend more time with the grandparents, my wife and kids flew out commercially to Chicago. This meshed well with my evil plan of not actually flying into the controlled chaos of EAA Oshkosh. Bwuhahaha. ...

About three years ago, on the way to our summer camping trip to Mt. Rainier, I launched a travel bug: George is young, enthusiastic, and poor as a student George’s stated (and optimistic) goal was to visit its eccentric cousin who spends his days in Concourse A of Terminal 3 in Cincinnati’s airport doing street performance art for spare change. The Concourse has had a rough couple of years, being closed in 2010 (because Delta and Northwest merged) before being reopened in 2011 as its sibling, Terminal 2, closed. ...

I did my initial flight training at an uncontrolled airfield outside of the Austin city limits. It was very relaxing to go out after work once a week and fly in a random direction to Palacios, San Angelo, Waco, College Station or wherever I could get to and back in about three hours. There’s a lot of empty space in Texas, and the eastern part is very flat. Clear nights were a great time to fly. ...

For my birthday, I took a cheese making class at PCC, the local organic food chain. While I’m a little frustrated at eco-snobbery vibe, it’s close and the classroom facilities are nice. If it were as fun to shop in as Whole Foods is on an empty stomach, I’d be in a far worse financial situation… They publish a quarterly-ish catalog of their classes. Lebanese cuisine filled up before I could decide, but cheese making was experimental cooking enough that I thought I’d give it a try. ...

Despite scant information on ganglioneuromas (many just repackaging the NIH blurb in a different style sheet), I wasn’t losing sleep while waiting for the pathology report. However, it was still great to get the official phone call confirming it was, in fact, the most benign of -omas. Because this sort of thing is pretty rare, no fewer than four pathologists were involved in “Dude, check this out.” Hey, I would have done the same. ...

Finally had surgery for the thing. Here’s a recap of the last few days. Day before (1/11): 8:30 – last solid food. Though it was slightly tempting to have a celebratory Twinkie, I opted for steel cut oats and bananas. Going without food the rest of the day was a lot easier than I thought it would be as I was permitted “clear liquids” like black tea, Gatorade and all the tap water I wanted. ...

During last month’s Stone Concert, the CT scan showed two unexpected somethings. Dramatic reenactment: The noisy TIE fighter? It is the least of your worries. I went into my primary care physician ask what, if anything, I should do about them. Because I’m generally feeling fine, the gallstone can be ignored. (Update: Until next year.) I will probably have to cut back on the butter fried bacon twinkies smothered in bacon, wrapped between a pair of glazed donuts, sprinkled with Oreo bits, and surrounded by a moat of heavy whipped cream. (I really have never had such a thing, nor would I really want one. I have my bacon-limits.) ...

I’ve gotten into a nice groove where my daughters’ evening dance classes have provided an excellent excuse for me to bike to work. If I leave my car at the park & ride, I’m only 2 blocks away from where I need to pick them up. I get to bike (versus a commute of similar duration), my spouse saves 40 minutes of driving, and the kids get their Nutcracker fix for the season. Everybody wins. ...

As GPS-enabled phones become more popular, there have been a lot of geocaches placed by people using phones. Many of these will have serious “adjustments” to their posted coordinates because the person placing it just took a single reading, using whatever their phone was reporting and called it good. Usually these adjustments are anywhere from 50-500 feet, but that’s a lot when you consider the cache may be the size of a pinky and located in an area with a lot of hiding places. Like a forest, perhaps! ...