It happened March 20, 2008

This is an email I sent to friends and family about an utterly amazing experience I had in March.

I didn't think it was possible. In today's society of rush, rush, rush... I didn't think that my local McDonald's (or anyone's for that matter) could make me a sandwich that looks like it came off the TV commercials. I know you all know what I'm talking about... You open your wrapper to find at least half your sandwich sticking out of your bread. Of course, since it's been sitting for a little bit (especially if you get it "to go"), the cheese has congealed and you cannot push the contents of your sandwich back in to the bread without sacrificing the bread. But BEHOLD! I have received a perfectly symmetrical sandwich from McDonald's just this morning, and I offer up to you the picture of it as proof. Had I not been so hungry, and I had my digital camera instead of my camara phone, I would have taken more pictures from different angles (OK, you can say it... I'm obsessed). Maybe they don't want us to know that they can achieve this level of perfection (but come on... it's not rocket science. It's just putting stuff NEATLY between 2 pieces of bread) but now that we know they can we must DEMAND the same quality each and every time. Have I inspired a McDonald's revolution? OK, maybe not... but it's still pretty amazing...Which is sad, considering my above statement that this isn't rocket science and that our product that we pay for SHOULD look like this...

And so it begins....

I met my husband when I was still in High School in Utah. We met online through AOL, and after a month, decided to meet face to face. He took me to Airport #2 in Salt Lake City for our first date, where he kept his airplane. I thought it was so cool that he owned an airplane. He had a Piper PA-20 Pacer, called "The Rebel." It had a smiley face on the front and a picture of Pepe LePue in a red scarf on the side. It was such a cute little plane. We didn't go for a flight then, he just wanted to show me the plane and do a little bit of work on it. Afterwards, he took me to his apartment where he wanted to cook me something. I do not remember what we had for dinner, but I do remember he tried to bake a cake. It was supposed to be a German chocolate cake. He was mixing it in a quart measuring cup with a tablespoon. There was unbeaten egg running throughout the cake. It was pretty gross. After it baked, he immediately tried frosting it. Well, of course, it was still hot and the frosting melted all over the place. He would not allow me to help in any way throughout the whole process. After a bit, we attempted to eat the cake. You could see yellow ribbons in the chocolate. We now refer to this cake as "scrambled egg cake." Needless to say, it wasn't very good, but it was unbelievably sweet of him to try.

For our second date, we did go flying. It was the first time in a very long time that I had been in an airplane. We went flying so often after that, I can't remember where we went the first time. I think we went up to Heber, UT, but I could be wrong. My husband probably remembers better. I do remember that it was unbelievably freeing to be in the air. I loved flying over the mountains and seeing the city lights at night.

The First of Many

I have just discovered blogging. I know, in today's day and age, how can I just now have discovered blogging? I could say, I'm pretty busy. But to be honest, I'm pretty lazy. I just haven't cared before. However, I have since viewed my sister-in-law's blog about her family and I was inspired.

My blog is named "AviationFamilyinAK" because I belong in an aviation family and I have made my home in Juneau, AK.

I married a third-generation pilot, being decended from a pilot myself, with several uncles and cousins on both sides of our family also being pilots. So, it's pretty safe to say that my life revolves around airplanes. I can fly, but I am not a pilot myself. My husband has trained me, but I do not hold a current medical and really only enjoy it when we both fly around together. I'll take the yoke at times on long flights to make it easier on him and it has been a challenge for me. I can say, "Yeah, I can do that," but I do not have the same skills as my husband.

I'll try not to let this blog be completely about airplanes. We do have interests outside of aviation, like kayaking and hiking. We have a dog, Noni, who bears a remarkable resemblance to ZZ-Top. Those will come in future posts.