Our Newest Member of the Family, Gracie!

Here are a few pictures of our little Gracie. She is super sweet and a perfect companion! Especially when Dave has to go on trips. Dave really loves playing with her and taking her for walks. We love our new baby!

Thanksgivin' 2009

So it's been awhile.

Our Thanksgiving was great this year. I was lucky enough to get the time off which was an adventure all in and of itself.

My dad is finally retiring for good at the end of the year. Well, technically a little into next year. Right now, he is the Director of Safety and Environment for Crystal Cruises, based in Los Angeles. We have all taken full advantage of his 10 years at Crystal through the very generous employee discount.

You see, Crystal is not your every day cruise line like Carnival and the like. Crystal is like staying at the Ritz Carlton and then dining at the finest restaurant in the city. What I mean to say is, it's really expensive. And the only way we would ever go on a Crystal cruise is through his discount.

Add to that, most of my extended family on my dad's side was joining us. We don't see them very often so it was pretty significant.

The cruise was a round-trip to Miami and included several Caribbean ports. Click here to see the full itinerary. My sister Ellen and her boyfriend Steve found cheap tickets from NYC to Atlanta so they flew down and the 4 of us made the drive down to Miami around 1:45am early Sunday the 22nd. We couldn't get on the ship until 3pm so we were trying to time the drive for around 12 hours including stops.


Steve at the helm.

We made good time, parked at our interesting pre-paid parking garage and got the shuttle to the ship.


Allison and the Serenity before we embark.

Now, I could do a daily breakdown of what we did but that would take forever and you'd probably stop reading at some point so I'll give you a single paragraph summary.

We had 3 days at sea and 3 port days, which alternated the whole cruise. The sea days were spent relaxing, going to the guest lectures, enjoying team trivia, afternoon tea and, of course, FOOD! On the port days, the activities varied. This was mostly because we had such a large group. A majority of us went either snorkeling or scuba diving on the 2 Caribbean-port days. In Key West, we all did walking exploration that included the Ernest Hemingway house. It is now home to some 60 or so cats, some of which are descendants of a 6-toed cat that was given to Hemingway by a ship's Captain. Of course, all ports also included a little souvenir shopping; local beer, rum cake, playing cards, etc.


Allison snorkeling in Grand Turk.

There are more underwater shots from my Uncle's waterproof digital but this is the only one I have so far. There were disposable film cameras too but I hear the shots didn't turn out very good.

So on that note, below is a link to all of my photos from the trip. For the family that was on the cruise, if you see one you like, please let me know and I'll email you the full resolution version.

Click here to view the photos. I suggest viewing them full screen in slideshow. Enjoy!

Anyone seen my walker?

If you didn't know, my (Dave) birthday was this past Monday, Sept. 21st. This year was "significant" I suppose because I turned 30. I'm supposed to feel old now, right? I guess. It doesn't really bother me so it's more a "oh man I'm 30 now ha ha but I really don't care" mentality. Does that make sense? Okay good.

So what did I do? Nothing special really. I mean that in the sense that I didn't do something crazy in the vein of I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm not getting older. I flew to LA to visit my parents. Allison didn't get to tag along for various personal reasons mostly involving school and work overload.

But it was all for naught because of the rains in Atlanta of Noah's Ark proportion. Up until this past weekend, it had been raining pretty much every day for almost a week. Highly unusual for Atlanta. Apparently my birthday was the worst day and caused some pretty major flooding in and around Atlanta. So she didn't have to teach Tuesday or Wednesday and her college class was cancelled on Monday night. Oh well.

Allison and I are safe. There were some roads near us that were temporarily closed in certain sections where there was a creek or some body of water nearby. By the time I got home early Tuesday, the water in those isolated areas had receded. But there are areas that still have water up to rooftops, mostly directly to the west of Atlanta. There was a picture on the news of a wooden roller coaster at Six Flags that was completely submerged in the lowest parts of the track. Yeah. Not going on that ride EVER AGAIN. That is, if I ever even go there again.

Anyway, below is a link to some pictures from my short visit to LA. The captions, as usual, will explain what you're looking at. My dad took off work on Monday so he and I went on a "photo hunt" in downtown LA and ended up spending our entire 2 hour parking meter time at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Frank Gehry architected it so it presents quite a photographic opportunity as you'll see. I usually don't post as much of my artistic photography as I did this time. Oh and I posted some of my dad's photos too.

(Hint: They are the ones I'M in :-)

Click here to see the photos.

Sacrificed Sons

Walls are closing
Anxiously
Channel surfing
Frantically

Burning city
Smoke and fire
Planes we're certain
Faith inspired

No clues
A complete surprise
Who'll be
Coming home tonight

Heads all turning
Towards the sky
Towers crumble
Heroes die

Who would wish this on
Our people?
And proclaim
That His will be done
Scriptures they heed have misled them
All praise their Sacrificed Sons
All praise their Sacrificed Sons

Teach them
What to think and feel
Your ways
So enlightening

Words they preach
I can't relate
If God's true love
Are acts of hate


We will never forget.

Lyrics by James LaBrie, Dream Theater NYC 2005

Update!

Okay, not really. Well, maybe. A little bit.

Let's see, uhhhh....Allison and I are relaxing with a little TV right now. She's been REALLY busy with work and grad school and this, that, and the other.

At my work, the busy summer flight schedule is winding down. What I mean by that is instead of an average of 900 flights a day, we can be as low as 500 a day in the fall. That means I haven't been going to work as much lately. So I've had a lot of time at home all by my lonesome.

I'm excited that football season is starting soon. And that means cooler weather with that "smell" of fall in the air. One of my favorite times of the year.

I guess that's it right now. Just a quick update.

N Y C -- Now With Photos!

Allison and I went to New York this past week. I had vacation and she had a break between the end of her Master's summer session and teacher in-service starting.

I will attempt to keep these day breakdowns concise.

** Day 1 **

Flew into Newark. 2 reasons. The flight loads looked the best and it's the only NYC airport Allison had never "experienced." But it probably takes the longest of the 3 to get to Ellen's apartment in Brooklyn. We rode the New Jersey Transit train from Newark to Penn Station in Manhattan. Then we transferred to the subway and arrived at Ellen's right before it started raining around 2:30pm.

We hung around for a little while, waiting for the rain to pass. Then we headed into Manhattan. Ellen had a couple errands to run. And we shopped around at Fishs Eddie but didn't buy anything this time. Then it was uptown a little to meet up with Steve when he was done with work. We had a small meal at a nearby seafood place, can't remember the name.

The Ziegfeld Theatre was our final destination that night. We saw the newest Harry Potter movie. Afterward, we walked by nearby Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.

** Day 2 **

The Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island/great weather day! I hadn't been out to Liberty Island since 1986 and never to Ellis Island that I recall. Allison's never been to either. We had a little adventure getting to Battery Park where the ferries leave from. One of the subway lines we were going to use was shut down because of a dangling cable along the tracks. Hmmm. So we were all sweating buckets down in the sauna that is the summertime New York subway, all while transferring to different trains. Eventually we made it out to the 2 islands and enjoyed a leisurely pace.

Later, we met up with Steve after he finished worked. This time it was Lombardi's Pizza in SoHo. They claim to be the original New York style pizzeria. Wow was it good. Although I think I might still be partial to Grimaldi's. Afterwards, we walked around Little Italy while enjoying some gelato. We also strolled down one street of Chinatown as well.

** Day 3 - Allison's HELL Day **

Allison had a previous engagement for Saturday and Sunday in Houston. So we woke up early and I helped her navigate the subways out to JFK airport. The flights looked horrible. She made a flight out of JFK to Rochester, NY where we hoped should could easily make an ASA flight from ROC-ATL. WRONG. My friend Tyler, who lives near Rochester, ended up driving her from Rochester airport to Buffalo airport where she later made a delayed flight, finally arriving home to our house at 2AM!!!

My day was quite a bit different. Ellen and I lazy-d around for a little while, got ready and went to the New York Transit Museum nearby in Brooklyn. We spent about 2 hours there before heading into Manhattan to meet up with Steve. Lunch was a big pastrami on rye at Eisenberg's Sandwich shop, right next to the Flatiron Building where Steve works.

We spent the rest of the rather gloomy day at the Natural History Museum. We were tired and ready to get off our sore feet. When I went to bed, Allison was still technically in the state, having just departed Buffalo for Atlanta.

** Day 4 **

Governor's Island Day. Excellent sunny day. Ellen and I lived on Governor's Island from 1984-1986. It was "owned" by the U.S. Coast Guard from 1966-1996. The city has been working to open it up to the public as a national park and historical landmark. And now it is. We rode out from the same ferry terminal on one of the same ferries we rode when we were kids. I was really excited. We couldn't go into our old building but got to walk all around the outside and re-live some memories. The historical portion of the island is open as well as the perimeter. Check out this map.

** Day 5 **

Time to go home. I left Ellen and Steve around 9AM and headed out to JFK. Once I got there and saw how bad the standby list was, I checked in with the gate agent as a jumpseater. This means that as long as I am the first one to do that, the Captain approves and there are no empty seats in the cabin, I ride in the cockpit jumpseat. A mainline Delta pilot can walk up at anytime and bump me and take it for himself. For all other airlines, it's first come, first served. Good thing I did it because not a single standby made the flight.

Allison arrived from Houston just before I did and met me at my arrival gate. She drove us home. I slept for most of the ride. Apparently all the activity emptied me out!

Now for some photos! I took 539. Narrowed it down quite a bit.

Click here for everything but Governor's Island
Click here for Governor's Island

Crystal Cove

Allison and I went to LA for Mother's Day this past weekend. We headed out on Friday night and came back early on Sunday morning. Made both flights no problem.

On Saturday, we told mom that we'd do whatever she wanted to do. Her latest favorite place is Crystal Cove, down in Orange County. Beach, hiking trails, cottages and food. The best part is the cluster of cottages they have, some of which are in quite a state of dis-repair. There is an alliance responsible for restoring the cottages. The ones that are restored can be rented like hotel rooms. My parents have stayed there before, but they are VERY popular and hard to reserve.

We spent the day down at the beach, wandering, relaxing and enjoying the weather. We all had lunch at the "Shake Shack," which is operated by the Ruby's diner chain. Then we did a bunch of walking along the cliff and then back along the beach. There are tide pools you can explore, but we didn't find much of anything. Just a few small shell crabs and anemones.

We got scolded by the State Park police guy for having glass bottles. It's not posted anywhere and none of us even thought about it.

Here are some photos from the day.

Lowes Loves Us. Home Depot Too.

Us: "Hey hardware store, want some of our money?"
Lowes: "Uh, duhhhh."

Allison and I are doing our part to stimulate the struggling economy. The most amazing thing to me is how little use I had for Lowes and Home Depot.

Until I became a homeowner.

It all started last Sunday when I finally bought a 20 foot extension ladder. I've had uses for one for ages but had to borrow a friend's truck in order to get it home.

One of my projects involved our rain gutters. The front ones required the taller ladder. While I was at it, I decided to cover our "problem" gutters over the deck. They clog with leaves quite easily. I'm all excited for it to rain again so I can see them in action. Here's some pictures:







Another project we decided to undertake was tinting the small windows around our front door. After a bit of frustration figuring out the best technique, I'm fairly satisfied with the results. Here's a shot a third of the way through. The left window is finished. Note the difference.



I'm beat.

Happy Birthday Ellen! :-)

Doughnut?

Yeah I don't know what I was thinking. We have a stand-alone Krispy Kreme Doughnuts less than 10 miles from our house. For some reason we thought we didn't. Maybe because we don't drive past it regularly. Or maybe it was just an excuse to go get them when we were in Idaho. Either way, I'm glad I checked. We are getting some this morning. :-)

New Blog

Following in my sister's footsteps, I've created a separate, topic-specific blog. I mentioned possibly doing this in our last entry about Idaho.

The title of the blog, Acey Driver, is another way of saying ASA Pilot. Our call-sign when talking on the radio is "Acey." And pilots often use the word "driver" in reference to the type of aircraft they fly. For example, I am a CRJ driver. Or you could be a 737 driver, etc, etc.

Most airlines use their name as a call sign. Here's a few like us that use something different:
U.S. Airways is Cactus
British Airways is Speedbird
China Airlines is Dynasty
AirTran Airways is Citrus

And without further adieu, here's the link to my new blog. Bookmark and enjoy!

http://aceydriver.blogspot.com

Greene 3rd Annual Idaho Ski & Family Trip

This past weekend, Allison and I made our way out to Merdian, Idaho to visit her brother John, wife Michelle and our niece Reganne. It was also our first time to meet our newest niece, Zoe (pronounced Zoe-y). Coincidentally, Allison's parents were also going to be there on the same weekend so it was like 2 visits in one!

We woke up at 4am on Saturday morning to try for the 6:50am flight to Salt Lake City.

Didn't make it. As in, no seats left.

So we went and had Dunkin Donuts and enjoyed each other's company for a while. The next flight, which looked worse, was at 8:10. We casually made our way down to the gate with the attitude of, "hey let's go humor ourselves" because we seriously didn't think we'd make it.

Wrong. The next paragraph is highly detailed in order to help you understand how "fun" it can be sometimes to use your employee travel benefits. Maybe I should start a pilot/travel blog like my sister started a cooking blog. Hmmm.

Anyway, the gate agent lined us (stand bys) up against the wall in priority order and then sent us down the jet-way one by one to find the first available seat. We found overhead bin space for our 2 roller bags at row 10. Allison continued back while I hoisted the bags up. She found the last seat left in the last row. A flight attendant coming forward said to me that there were no more left.

So there I am, standing 48 rows away from Allison with the gate agent and a flight attendant at the aircraft door while they called for the next upgrade to move from coach to the only seat left on the plane in first class.

At this point, I notice Allison and the guy in the seat next to her both standing and looking at me. I interpret this as she explained to the guy the situation. Luckily, the upgrade is in another non-bulkhead aisle seat. I head all the way back to Allison and tell the guy the open seat. He gladly moves way up to the front and we head to Salt Lake.

We made our connection to Boise and arrived around noon. The hotel told us to take a cab and they'd pay for it due to the lack of a van driver on the weekends. Allison's parents arrived around 1:30, got settled, and we all headed over to John and Michelle's.

Allison and I met our new niece, took our "old" niece for a walk and some play time at the park, and headed back for dinner.

The next day, John, Allison and I headed up to Bogus Basin for some skiing. It snowed the whole day up on the mountain, which gave us deep powder conditions and low visibility. Allison said it was her favorite skiing experience ever!

We arrived to the hotel around 3:30pm, showered, changed and headed back to John & Michelle's. We all headed out to eat at a local brick oven pizza restaurant. After dinner, we ended up back at the hotel for a little swimming at the heated indoor pool. Reganne found herself trying to escape the sea monster (Grandpa Dave) and the shark (Uncle Dave). Reganne spend the night at the hotel with Grandpa Dave and Grandma Pat.

On Monday, we treated ourselves to a little Krispy Kreme. We don't have stand-alone KK's in Atlanta so we thought what the heck. Reganne enjoyed Uncle Dave wearing a KK hat like hers that came with her kid's pack. Then it was off to the airport to head back home.

We made both BOI-SLC and SLC-ATL no problem. That's always nice. :-) And what trip
would be complete without pictures? Enjoy...

Beach Time

Allison and I went to L.A. to spend the weekend with my parents. It was also an excuse to get to the beach, which, in a way, we did for Allison's birthday. Dual purpose trips are the best.

I've been avoiding blogging about it for some reason. I think because I have a hard time typing really short blog entries and my usual ones kinda take a while to do. Plus, the slew of photos I normally have to upload and caption also takes a while.

So here we go...

We attempted to make the 5:30pm flight on Friday. About 4:30pm, Allison was to the gate and I was getting back from the work flying I'd done. Well, the flight looked full AND scheduling sent me on another short round trip to Chattanooga. Rats. The next flight to LA was at 7:05pm and I wouldn't be back in time for it. No matter, we wouldn't have made either of those. I finally met up with Allison around 8:40pm for the last flight to L.A. at 9:15pm. We made it! Poor Allison sat there for about 4 hours.

Saturday, we started with a small breakfast at home, then headed out to Randy's Donuts. This is our second time there so it's now a tradition. Their coconut donut could bring world peace. Yes, it's that good. Then we drove around, went shopping, and Dad showed us a new park he had biked to that had good views of the valley. Lunch at Baja Fresh.

Later, my parents dropped us off at the north end of the Venice boardwalk. We enjoyed all the weirdness that is Venice as we walked south all the way to the Marina del Rey jetty, about 3 miles. My parents picked us up and we headed home for dinner. My Dad's latest kick is cooking. So he prepared a bunch of small dishes, a la tapas style. Everything was excellent.

Sunday, Allison headed back to Atlanta on the 1255pm flight. A short visit. I had Monday and Tuesday off so I stayed a bit longer. After Allison was on her way, my parents and I got ready and headed up the Pacific Coast Highway. Our destination was the Pt. Mugu State Park and the La Jolla Canyon hiking trails. I had my
In N Out fix on the way up. Nothing like a Double-Double for some hiking energy! We hiked about 3 hours and then drove back home.

I came back on the 7:35am flight Monday morning and arrived home in Kennesaw around 3:30pm. Gotta love that 4 hour flight plus 3 hour time change!

I've tried to get in a habit of posting pictures throughout the blog post but I got lazy this time. Click the link below to see the photos from the weekend. Allison, my dad and I are the featured photographers. :-) Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TRIP PHOTOS

Snow Day!

We finally had our "yearly" snow event in Atlanta today. If memory serves me correctly, it has snowed at least once every winter since I've moved to Georgia in 2004.

Last night we tossed in a fire log. I think Vincent enjoyed it more than we did!



I had to go sit at the airport today from 8am-4pm. Another ready-reserve shift. On inclement weather days, the chances of me going flying are actually pretty slim. They cancel a lot of flights and have those crews sitting around. Those crews will get the flying before I will.

It was a mess. The snow started to fall at the airport around 10:30am. Here's the view out the window of ASA Ops at gate C32 at KATL. Sorry for the cell phone cam quality. Didn't have any of my cameras with me. Doh!



The crew lounge, as well as the concourse upstairs, were full of people all dressed up with no where to go.

Scheduling called me at 2:14pm with an assignment. I was deadheading up to Nashville to pick up a stranded airplane. Deadheading means I am a "must-ride" in the passenger cabin like a regular passenger. They will bump paying passengers to give me a seat. Long story short, they canceled the flight. This was around 3:20pm, about 40 minutes before I was originally supposed to go home. Another long story short, I was released from duty at 4:15pm and headed home.

Here's my car when I got to the parking lot. About 3 inches on the windshield.



And of course, when I got home around 5:20pm, I snapped a few shots of the house to commemorate our first time to see snow on it. Allison took a phone pic earlier in the day and it's already melted significantly. The south side of Atlanta saw about 6 inches and our area only about 2.



Oh, and I meant to post this pic the other day. The bees were going crazy for one of the trees that hugs up against our deck. It has some small flowers blooming on it already. You could literally stand there and listen to the hum there were so many bees attacking it.

The Glamorous Pilot Life...

Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love what I do and couldn't do anything else. But it has it's days. The worst ones are always weather related, either a massive snowstorm or thunderstorms galore. Yesterday, it was a summer-like day in the south with regard to thunderstorms. Wind, rain, lightning, tornado warnings, you name it.

My day started in Des Moines, Iowa. We arrived to the hotel the previous evening around 11pm so I slept in a little until around 9am. We were scheduled to leave the hotel at noon for a 12:55 departure back to Atlanta. I got ready early and went for a stroll around the downtown skywalk. Many of the buildings in downtown Des Moines are connected via a network of enclosed, elevated walkways. Perfect for the wintertime. Here's a view of my hotel on the left and the Capitol building from one of the walkways.



I had an early lunch and headed back to my room. After checking the status of our aircraft, I learned our plane was still taxiing for takeoff in Atlanta. So I called my crew and told them we'd be pushing back our hotel departure by 30 minutes.

Our plane arrived at 1:11pm with a full load. After unloading, swapping crews, getting the plane ready, and boarding back up with a full load, we pushed back at 1:46pm. We arrived to Atlanta at 4:52pm, 46 minutes late. We were scheduled to leave for our next flight at 5:10pm. That works great if we hadn't been late arriving. We also had 4 passengers needing wheelchairs so we had to wait until they were taken care of before we can re-board. As is typical in Atlanta, it took a while.

The First Officer and I grabbed what would be our "dinner" at Atlanta Bread Company and headed back to the gate. 1 passenger was STILL waiting for a wheelchair upon our return. Lovely. It arrived shortly afterwards and we gave the gate clearance to board for Gulfport. On top of all this, there was a storm headed towards the airport so we were trying to get out before it shut everything down. We pushed out at 5:35pm, only 25 minutes late. Not bad all things considered.

Luckily we were only about 5 in line for takeoff and got off the ground before the storm hit. We had storms on both sides of us as we climbed out to the west. Then we played dodge the storm all the way to Gulfport. Here's our flight path including the radar return of the weather. You can see the storm just south of the Atlanta airport in the top right.



And now the real fun begins. We arrived to Gulfport at 6:06pm local, 32 minutes late. There was a Delta MD-88 already there that was supposed to have left at 5pm. The gate agent told us that since it was already supposed to be gone and would potentially leave first, they had transferred all our passengers to that flight and that we would go back empty. Good news for the flight attendant!

3 hours and 9 minutes later, we pushed back empty for Atlanta. The Delta MD-88 pushed back only a minute before us. So they sat for nearly 5 hours.



Delta hogs the jetway that we normally get if they weren't there.



My flight attendant and I "enjoying" our break.

Due to large number of aircraft around the country in the same situation, it takes a while for air traffic control to coordinate a massive plan to get us all back to Atlanta in an orderly fashion once the weather clears. So in order to fit us in to that big plan, we were re-routed from our original, more direct route, to one that would take us northwest, then north, then northeast, then finally towards Atlanta.

This means calling my dispatcher (aka flight planner) in Atlanta with the new route and more importantly, a new fuel load. The Delta flight was given the same route. Since they had passengers and were originally due out before us, they launched and we followed 5 minutes later.

Here's our flight path back to Atlanta. The big deviation over northeast Alabama is essentially a holding pattern without the hold. Air traffic control often does this in lieu of holding. It's more work for them to hold everyone than just give us vectors, as you see here. You've probably done this before on a commercial flight and just didn't know it.



We touched down at 12:01am and pulled into C42 at 12:07am. The airport was still busy with passengers waiting to leave on severely delayed flights. Our plane continued on to Lexington, KY and arrived there at 1:49am, right about the time I pulled into the garage at home, ending my glamorous day as an airline pilot. :-)

Timber!

Our friend Bill brought over his trusty chainsaw and helped us get rid of our dead "V" tree. You can see it on the left side of this photo from this past Fall.




It was one stump with two main trunks splitting off right at the bottom, forming a V. The video below is the second trunk bidding adieu to the world. Thanks Bill!

Nuestro Viaje al Ciudad de Nueva York 2009

We finally made it up to NYC to visit Ellen and Steve this past weekend. They've been living there since October 2008. Both fell victim to the economy while in San Diego and had to find new jobs. Doh!

Anyway, for those not familiar with my family history with NYC, here's a brief summary. We lived there back in 1984-1986 on Governor's Island which is located just off the tip of lower Manhattan, near the Statue of Liberty. Click here to learn more about the island and it's history. If you don't feel like it, the key highlight is that from 1966-1996, the United States Coast Guard used the island as a local base of operations. My Dad was in the Coast Guard. So we were stationed there. :-)

Also, right before we moved, President Reagan re-lit the torch of the restored Statue of Liberty from the southwestern tip of Governor's Island during the massive July 4th shindig. Neil Diamond was there as well. Put on a big show and everything. I have yet to see more fireworks at one time again.

Later, after college, my sister Ellen got her first publishing job and lived there for 3 years. She moved on to another job which took her to San Diego until late last year.

So now our trip. I'm not going to bore you with the details. Instead, I'll give you a summary and then show you pictures! Here's a list of some of the things we saw, did, etc.

-Staten Island Ferry ride (takes you right by Governor's Island and the Statue of Liberty and it's free!)
-Katz's Deli
-Central Park
-The Cloisters Museum
-Penn Station/Madison Square Garden
-B&H Photo/Video Megastore
-Various Shopping
-Grimaldi's Pizza under the Brooklyn Bridge
-Brooklyn Heights promenade

We all had an awesome time! Friday evening to Monday afternoon just wasn't enough time. But hey, we can't be on vacation forever!

Click here to view the photos. FYI, I took close to 500 shots but present you with just over 100. I know some of you wouldn't mind looking at all 500 but the amount of time it took to do just 100 was ridiculous. You can thank ASA for giving me an 8-hour ready-reserve shift and not using me to actually fly. I just sit in a recliner at the airport all day waiting to be called to fly. Yes indeed. Look how much fun I'm having:

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

That's a mouthful to say.

So, over Thanksgiving 2008, Allison and I took my parents on a hike up nearby Kennesaw Mountain while they were here. Unfortunately the weather was foggy that day so they missed out on the good views.

Ever since then, I wanted to head up to the top of Kennesaw Mountain via the quick, hike-avoiding paved road. I didn't want to carry my camera all the way up there via hike.

Well, it's been an unexpected chore. Four things have prevented this until today:

1) My camera had to go back to Canon twice for the same problem they didn't fix the first time. It took a month in total.
2) Once I had the camera back, I rushed over on the first nice day and, what the heck, the road to the top was closed.
3) Then the park and mountain road were closed for the holidays.
4) It's been either foggy or raining for the last week until today.

These were primarily taken to show my parents the view but it'll also give you an idea of where we live if you haven't been here before. FYI Kennesaw Mountain was the location of a big Civil War battle between General Sherman and General Johnston. It's 4.6 miles in a straight line from our house to the top of the mountain. Anyway, here are the photos. Enjoy!

Click here to view the photos.

Happy New Year!

In 2008 people had a lot of hard times and others have had many blessings. We are happy for the people who have good memories and hope that things will improve for those with bad ones.

We hope you have a wonderful 2009!

CRJ 900's

Delta gave us (ASA) a Christmas present of sorts 2 days ago. We found out we will FINALLY be getting 10 CRJ-900s starting in April of 2009. 8 of them will be factory new from Canada.



Skywest CRJ-900. Photo via airliners.net

The 900 is a stretched version of the 700 which is a streched version of the 200. I like to call it a CRJ on steriods. They are seriously long. And they've been flying for over a year so we are excited to finally be getting some. Long overdue.

CRJ 200 -- 50 seats (what I fly currently)
CRJ 700 -- 70 seats
CRJ 900 -- 76 seats (config of 1st/economy varies, don't know what we'll have)

What does this means? Well, growth for one and ASA will finally have planes with a First Class section. We were supposed to get first class this past year but it fell through for reasons too detailed to post here. Nearly all the other Delta Connection (aka DCI) airlines already have some aircraft with 1st class.

The only "gotcha" part of the deal is that ASA has to lose 20 CRJ-200's worth of flying by Spring 2010. But that's an eternity in this industry so ASA will likely find a home for those aircraft somewhere other than Delta and it'll be a net growth transaction. We can fly for anyone b/c Delta no longer owns us.

In the last year or so, we've lost some of our flying to other DCI carriers b/c of our lack of 1st class so we're hoping we might get some of it back, namely the international stuff. Turks and Caicos, Belize City, Monterrey to name a few.

This is good news in light of current economy. Now to decide if I want to stay on the 50-seater or try something new, assuming I can hold it relative to my seniority. We'll see.

Christmas in HD. Sort of.

Allison and I bought each other a new TV for Christmas, taking advantage of the huge discounts on, well, pretty much everything right now. We've been looking at flat screens for I don't even know how long so we're happy we finally got one.

We also decorated the house for our first Xmas here in casa del greene. A little fake garland and a real tree and wreath. I find excuses to use the front door now just for the smell.

Back to the TV. We bought a wall mounting deal from Costco yesterday and I installed it this afternoon. Allison helped me hoist the beast up to the mantle and then up onto the bracket.

I have a 4-day trip starting Tuesday the 23rd so it will be the first time I'm away on Christmas since I've been an airline pilot. :-( I will spend Christmas Eve on the riverfront in Cincinnati and Christmas day in Oklahoma City. I've never been to OKC. Allison has plans to be with Patrick and Lydia in Nashville and then her parents' in Dallas while I'm away.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas 08'. We'll see you on the other side!

Click the picture to see more pictures.

Thanksgiving Week 2008

***UPDATE*** Original post updated to include photo link at the end of the post on 12/1/08.

We hosted it in our new house. It was so much fun but boy we are ready for some rest now. (o;

Monday my mom and dad drove into town from Texas around dinner time. We ate at El Nopal a Mexican restaurant down the street from our house and then they met a few of our friends.

Tuesday mom came over and we started our shopping list. We headed to Target to buy just a few items and noticed we could get pretty much everything. So we had a Target Thanksgiving. Also we took a little trip to Trader Joe's for a few more things. Just after we finished shopping Pop and Polly (my grandparents on my mom's side) drove into town from Ohio. We met up with some Georgia relatives and ate at Olive Garden.

Wednesday my Mom, Polly, and I started cooking. We got Mother Cheeker's dressing and the sweet potatoes ready. Then we took them to see our old apartment in Smyrna and my school and then ended up at our local coffee shop Cuppy's. Just as we ordered our coffee Patrick and Lydia text us saying "We're minutes from your house." So they just met us at Cuppy's where Dave met our nephew Adam for the first time! Then Dave rushed to prepare a wonderful BBQ meal but had to run get his parents from the airport. So the rest of us ate his yummy meal.

Thursday Turkey day! In the morning Dave and I tried to start the turkey and realized he was too grossed out by the smell and I was grossed out by the look. So Dave's Dad saved the day and helped us get the bird started. Then everyone came over. We ate appetizers, snapped some pictures of Adam in leaves, and cooked. Almost everything was on time. We ate about a hour later then planned and the turkey had to be microwaved just to make sure it was ready. Otherwise everything tasted great and everything went smoothly. Tom even helped us barbecue the ham and a pumpkin pie because we didn't have enough room to cook everything. :-P Pop, Polly, my mom, and Pat worked very hard on cleaning dishes and putting things away. Everyone pitched in and it was wonderful! That evening we sat around playing with Adam and playing games.

Friday Black Friday Dave and I found some great deals on athletic shoes and some other items. Then we met more Georgia relatives and went to eat at a Chinese restaurant not far from our house. The two girls wanted to play our Wii. So I set them up and they had fun. The Greene's and I went hiking on Kennesaw Mountain to get some of the turkey burned out of our system. That evening we all had leftovers and Patrick and Lydia worked very hard to help set it all up for us.

Saturday For breakfast we went to the Holiday Inn Express where we said good-bye and hugged everyone. After that Dave and I took Tom and Pat to see some more sites in Atlanta in the rain. We ate lunch at one of Dave's favorite places by the airport: Which Wich and then they were headed home.

Now we are just being lazy and quiet. It was fun but a lot of work!! (o; We were sooo happy that so much family made it. We really missed the other family members that didn't come. We'll be vising most of them soon though we hope!

Click here to view the Thanksgiving Photos.