Going Pink

With the introduction of the new site, the Pilot Wives Club will also be more involved in community service projects, on a national as well as local level.

For October, we are Going Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.

As many of you may know, the incidence of breast cancer in women in the United States has increased to 1 in 8, or about 13% [source: breastcancer.org]. You may have been touched by this disease personally, or through a family member or close friend. We have several ideas to offer you, as ways we can help to fight this disease.

One of the things we are doing is to participate in Lee National Denim Day, on October 2. Join our team and wear denim on this day. Donate $5.00 or more, and get your friends involved. We have a goal to donate at least $500 for this cause, and it would be great if we could meet/exceed it. You can join our team or make a donation here.

Another thing you can do is to combine together with other pilot wives in your area to participate in the various walks/races across the country. As of the time of this writing, there is already one planned for the Phoenix area! Go Phoenix Wives!

We will also be selling certain items on the site, the proceeds of which will be donated to cancer research. If you are interested in purchasing any items, please check out our site store at www.pilotwivesclub.com. We expect that area of the site to be operational in a week or so, so if it's not there, either wait a few days or contact me and I can send you pictures of what we are offering so far.

As wives of pilots, we have the unique situation of being many things to many people. In most cases, we are the one constant for someone. We are the ones who keep our husbands grounded. We are the stability in our children's lives. We all know how important early detection is to beating breast cancer. This is why I encourage every one of you to get a mammogram, if you haven’t already done so.

Thanks!

Jen (Tripacerchick)

Keeping up appearances...

So, you will have noticed that there's something different about my blog... I was tired of the "blah-ness" of my website (yes, I just made up a word there... deal with it), so I decided to do something about it while I am working on the new design.

The picture at the top was taken by my husband while we were on vacation this summer. We were at Tacoma Narrows airport, getting ready to fly to McMinnville for the next couple of days... I believe that the words going through my mind as he took this picture were "Just take the *&#@$^ picture already and get your butt in the plane!" I think my facial expression conveys that message, LOL... It was starting to get hot and I don't do heat very well.

The background is rather boring... I couldn't find a background to go with the picture on The Cutest Blog on the Block, so I decided to go without for now. Don't worry... I will have a new background up (hopefully) by the end of October. With the changes for the PWC and an upcoming meeting for work that requires travel, I'll be a little busy for the time being.

On a personal level, I tried curling my hair last night... I'm sure my husband won't like it when he comes home and I am sleeping in curlers, but what are you going to do. I'll probably try it again tonight, and go to work like that tomorrow, and get some opinions other than myself through the mirror. I just don't trust my own judgment when it comes to my appearance. I tend to just ignore it, rather than do something that could make me look like a fool. But, with everything that I have to do for work, and the fact that I am a grown woman (as much as my mind still thinks I'm 18), so I should take better care of myself and at least look the part. Do you think I could "challenge" Stacy and Clinton to come to Juneau and help me find something appropriate for a board meeting with only what is available here? Probably not, but it's a nice thought.

Oh so boring... but then again...

So I started designing a new background/layout for my blog, but then stopped... I spent WAY too much time on it last weekend. I'll revisit it at some point in time. I've been working on a way to do my personal logo as a background, but I haven't been able to get it to cooperate. I guess I'll have to break down and buy Photoshop... Until then, enjoy the "oh so boring" background and layout you see now...

In other news, the new Pilot Wives Club website goes live today at 8 central (5 o'clock, Alaska Time). Yay! Many thanks to Summer for all her hard work in bringing it from planning to fruition. We'll be on the site tonight to answer questions and give prizes! It is an exciting time for the PWC! We will have a public site, so people can see what we are about, do a little shopping and have fun. If you want to be a member, it is free. You will then have access to our main (private) site where we have our discussions and such.

If you get a chance, come on over to the Pilot Wives Club! Also check out our page on Facebook!

The joys of food poisening...

Ok, there really are no joys to food poisening. I had made some
meatloaf while Aaron was home, and ended up with a lot extra, so I
decided to freeze the extra to eat later.

Last night was the night for meatloaf. I paired it with some mashed
potatoes.

Well, it wasn't the best idea. I figured I was in for some indigestion
from the onions (which immediately started to give me problems) but I
was not prepared for the rest of it.

I was up every hour and a half last night and had a pretty severe
migraine on top of it. It is almost impossible to take medicine for a
migraine when you are throwing up pretty regularly.

I finally got some ibuprofen to stay down, which took the edge off the
migraine, but I wasn't able to go to work until 2:00 this afternoon.

Dinner tonight was some chicken broth with some plain rolls dipped in
it. Yummy!

Sleep Deprived...

I am an insomniac... I usually can't go to sleep until around 2 am, no matter what time I REALLY go to bed... It is frustrating, especially when I have to get up to go to work the next day...

Well, this weekend, I was working on some personal projects (some for this blog, some for PWC) and was up later than usual on Friday night, then last night, I was up until around 8 am (that's this morning...)

Time just travels faster when you are working on a project, and it was 3:45 am before I knew it... Ugh...

I decided that if I had any option of getting some sleep before work on Monday, it would be best to stay up as late as I could and then go to bed early...

Well, that didn't happen... I fell asleep around 8, and woke up around 2 pm...

It is now, 11:00 pm, and as soon as I get done with this post, I'm going to bed... Here's to hoping that I fall asleep immediately and wake up rested...

Wednesday Metallica...

Thanks to Nicole for finding this and bringing it to my attention... It is so HILARIOUS!!! I couldn't stop laughing... I love the guy who is doing the "drums"... His intensity is so funny!!!

Another month down...

As much as I love my husband, and love having him home, I can't help but feel relief as he leaves for another shift. He's gone 15 days at a time, every month... It was no picnic when this particular "shift" started about a year ago (as prior to this, he worked locally and was home every night), but now I'm used to it... So used to it, that I begin to crave the independence and self-reliance that is forced upon me in his absence...

There is no one to ask "What do you want for dinner?"... If I want a bowl of cereal, or cheese and crackers, there isn't anyone there to say, "But what's REALLY for dinner?"...

There is no one to have to ask what his plans are, or argue about what to watch on TV... No one to yell at to pick up after himself or rinse out the sink after he's used it... No one to tell me to move over in the bed after I've gotten comfortable and dozed off...

This shift is particularly bitter-sweet... I have seen my husband more in the last month and a half, that I am SOOOO ready for him to go back to work... We had our long vacation, where I had his presence from July 21st to August 24th... Then he came back home after a short shift, on September 1... Thankfully, he left this morning to go back to Bethel... But I am used to him being home, so I'll miss him more this month than usual...

Noni will have to re-adjust as well... She's so used to having people at home... With family coming to visit, and Aaron being home as often as he has been... She didn't want me to leave the house without her this morning... Poor little girl... It always takes her longer to adjust to Aaron being gone than me...

I think we both enjoy the "breaks" we get from each other, every month... He gets to go be a "bachelor" and be gross, living with other men in the pilot house, not having anyone nagging at him to do something (and I'm a champion nagging wife, if I do say so myself)... He actually enjoys himself for about the first week or so... Then he starts to miss home... Oddly, I've been on that same schedule of reveling in my solitude, and then missing him the last 5 days or so...

Absence really does make the heart grow fonder :)

Boring Saturday...

I spent most (ok, all) of my day either sleeping, or playing on my computer... You know, farming does take a lot out of you... And if farming on FB wasn't strenuous enough, I had to spend a few (ok, 4) hours playing 1701 A.D. on my computer.. Aaron got me the game while we were in Hawaii, and I enjoy it... So far, I don't play it with the pirates, or the other (computer) people in the game that you have to compete with for land, trade routes, etc... I just go with my communities. I figure that, until I can figure out the best way to sustain my own communities, I shouldn't take the time or the money to train for and go to war... Every time I do, I bankrupt myself...

Tomorrow is not panning out to be as "relaxed"... We have an old friend coming to visit, and my house is a mess... We will spend the day tomorrow with the motto "Divide and Conquer"... Hopefully we can get the house to the point where I won't be embarrassed...

Easy Deep Fried Halibut Recipe

So, Aaron was paid for flight instructing with halibut yesterday... Fresh off the boat yesterday... Yummy! Although, by the time I knew about the halibut, I was 1 hour into a meat loaf, so I wasn't about to stop cooking that to trade up...

So today was halibut day! Yay!

In the past, I have not had any good luck making halibut... Any time I tried to fry it, the breading would fall off, it wouldn't cook right, etc... I pretty much just gave up...

Since then, I have been very successful in making Sesame Chicken. The breading for it is also the marinade, and couldn't be simpler... I vowed to try it on halibut the next chance I got... Who knew it would be years later until I would be able to try it...

I decided to use the "fried fish" recipe in the same book my Sesame Chicken recipe came out of. It was easier, and I figured I'd try it first, and if I didn't like it, then I'd resort back to the sesame chicken breading...

Take 1 egg white, 2 tsp soy sauce and 1 Tbsp corn starch and mix thoroughly to combine, slightly frothy (I also added a splash of white wine to add a little flavor, and to help the marinade...) Cut the fish into 2"x 3" pieces. Add to the egg/soy sauce mix and gently stir to coat the fish. Cover and marinate for 30 minutes. While it's marinating, heat some oil (it calls for 4 cups...) to 375. When done marinating, stir gently again (I found the marinade separated a bit in the fridge) and fry the fish until golden brown. I served it with rice. Fries would be OK too - for Fish & Chips... The soy sauce doesn't make this an overly asian-type recipe... It was mild enough to be served with whatever you wanted it to go with. The recipe says that after frying, you can braise the fish in a tasty sauce... Let your imaginations fly!

Blah....

I've been so on edge lately... It seems that everything is pissing me off... To go with my rant about the lack of customer service in this world, we can add stupid, inconsiderate drivers to that list... We got our first "highway on/off ramp" here in Juneau last year... It seems that people don't know what to do when a car needs to merge into traffic, unless they think they need to speed up to race the car that's trying to merge, all the while flipping them off, etc... In that case, they're doing it right... Nice, huh?

I also had some irritation at work today involving our "local" office supply company... I can go online to order, but about half of the time, they replace the item that I really want with one they usually keep on hand (one crappy brand, by the way). Usually, I don't care, because it is generally cheaper... However, the last time I just "let" them substitute one item for another, they did not give me the equivalent... Long story short - they substituted "small" binder clips for "mini" binder clips... Not a big thing really, except to my boss, who won't use anything but the mini ones... Then I had to go through the hassle of exchanging them for the correct size... (sigh)... I didn't want to have to go through that again. I wanted paper clips this time, and they did substitute again... I prefer the smooth ones to the "non-slip" ones, and the substituted item didn't say one way or the other which it was... So I decided to call the customer service desk here to have them clarify before I finalized the order... I got the freaking run-around ON A FREAKING RECORDING for a LOCAL COMPANY!!!! Boy, was I steamed... It was during office hours, so it wasn't like they were closed or anything... It kept telling me to enter the first 3 letters of the name of the person I was trying to reach (at this point, the store manager) and it said that person didn't exist and my ONLY option was to leave a message in the general mailbox... No "hit zero for the operator"... Nothing but irritation!!! Just add this to my list of areas where customer service is lacking... Talking to a stupid machine that won't let you do anything when you need a person... Oh, and if you are wondering, I call this number all the time, and this is the first time I got a recording... So I guess it's "new". I may just go down there at my lunch time to give them a piece of my mind tomorrow...

On another note, I usually like to change the look of my blog every few months or so, especially to change with the seasons... I hadn't changed it all summer, due to the schedule I was keeping, between work and vacation... It is now fall - no, really, it is! The trees are turning orange :) - so I wanted to change back to what I did last fall... I am having trouble getting my background to show up properly, and I can't find the picture that I used last year for my header, so you'll just have to bear with me while I'm in transition... I'm trying to decide if I want to try to mess with the "old" one, or if I want to change to a new, fall inspired, background/header... So, until then, it will be "blah"...

Customer service... or the lack thereof...

I have noticed, over time, that customer service in this country is lacking in pretty much all fields. Or, at least, that's how it is here...

I have noticed that the "cashiers" don't even say hello or look you in the eye anymore at the local convenience store...

I have noticed that the waitress doesn't come to check on you very much anymore, and tends to forget things, like your drink order...

I have noticed that when I have to call someone to take care of something for me (computer related, cell phone related, etc) that I get either some uppity teenager, who is there because she can't work anywhere else and is going to give you attitude about it, or some person who you can't understand because they don't speak clear english... I'm all for people immigrating (legally, of course) to this country and everything, but these people should not be answering the phones for anyone until they have a good grasp of the english language to the point that other people can understand them (this means you too, ebonics speakers...)

My first several jobs were all customer service related, and it wasn't that long ago that I worked for them. Places like WalMart, where I learned that customer service was above all else (it's not anymore, BTW... just look at your local WalMart), or doing phone customer service for companies like AT&T or eBay... Seriously... Are we as consumers not valued by these companies enough to earn good customer service? I guess not...

And to the waiter or waitress that gives me crappy service... Your tip is a direct reflection of the job you perform. I do not give out the "suggested" tips that are now pre-printed on the receipt for my benefit... If you do well, I tip well (as much as 50% in some instances)... If you suck, then you get a nickel... Why a nickel? Because that shows you that I didn't forget to give you a tip... I actually put thought into the service you provided me and I gave you your tip accordingly... It has been a while since I've given more than 10-15% of a tip... Which is abnormal for me...

This rant is being fueled by my frustration with our waitress tonight, who only checked on us after she gave us our dinner when I said "excuse me, but I never received my Diet Coke."... It's not like it was busy... I can excuse that... There were 2 tables occupied by the time we got our dinner...