Labor Day weekend (August 30 & 31) Katherine and I went up to Cleveland to see the airshow with her family. Despite early morning clouds on Saturday the weekend turned into perfect weather for an airshow. All of the pictures are available on mbond.smugmug.com

Sean Tucker and the Collaborators put on a great show. I was most excited about seeing Sean Tucker, and he didn’t disappoint at all. That man loves to fly and it shows. After the show was over Katherine and I saw him head out again. Sunday afternoon, which was even nicer than Saturday, we saw him randomly flying around a good ways away from the airport. He must have headed out just before the blue angels went up.

Katherine really like Bob Carlton in his Sail Plane. Watching unpowered aerobatics is incredable, takes energy management to an extreme.

Jon Mohr was incredable in his stearman. His aerobatics were easily as good as Sean Tuckers, and watching him do them so low in a stock stearman is amazing.

Of course the blue angles were there as well, doing what they do. They put on a great show as well, but honestly, i’d rather watch the guys in the piston aircraft all day … I love the jets too, but there is something much more ‘magical’ about watching people who love to fly, fly their GA aircraft.

On sunday Katherine and I went back to check out all the static displays. Walk through the airplanes, see all the Nasa stuff, talk with the pilots that were around, etc … We got there around 10am, just as the planes started taking off again and got to see all the acts that we really enjoyed first thing in the morning.  Its nice standing in line waiting to get inside a C-130 and watching a B-17 fly by with their huge radials.

I hope i get a chance to learn even basic aerobatics someday.

Below is a skit that Senpai Kennedy and I have been developing for a couple years now. Saturday, August 23rd 2008, we will be performing the newest version of this demo. This video was taken Friday night at demo practice … the way we work it, each time we perform the skit we alternate who “wins” … this allows us to add a little bit of length to it each time, usually 2 or 3 movements.

Senpai is using a Boken, a wooden sword that resembles a katana, and I am using a Pair of Sai (short metal swords, think Raph from TMNT).

The video is the same thing twice, shot from 2 different angles. Thought I would share this, i’d like to hear some feedback on it. Does it look good? This is the first time I’ve seen it since its first version, I see a couple places where it can be improved.

Many things have changed in my life in the past few months about which I have failed to update friends and family.  I suppose I should begin with my new job.  As of June 16, 2008, I am the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Health and Human Resources, Bureau of Children and Families, Region 1.  To break it down, I am an Assistant Attorney General for the State of West Virginia.  I am assigned to work for the Department of Health and Human Resources in the Bureau of Children and Families (BCF).  BCF handles child abuse and neglect reports, adult protective services, foster care, daycare licensing, etc., and welfare benefits for eligible families.  I am the legal counsel for BCF in Region 1 of West Virginia.  West Virginia’s BCF is broken up into 4 different Regions.  Region 1 is the northwest quarter of the state.  I represent DHHR offices in 16 counties.  My primary responsibility is to provide legal advice on any issue that arises during the daily operation of BCF.  I also represent DHHR at grievance hearings (if a person is contesting DHHR’s finding that the person committed maltreatment of a child or an adult).  My duties also extend to representing DHHR on appeal from Circuit Court juvenile abuse and neglect cases and representing DHHR workers if they are pulled into civil case matters (mostly as witnesses).  After one month, the job has been going well. It is interesting and there is always something new to do.  Hopefully, I will continue to enjoy it.

My new job led to the next change in my life which is that I have moved.  I no longer live in Keyser.  I have moved to the “big city” of Fairmont, WV.  Fairmont is about 20 minutes south of Morgantown.  Mike is happy because now he only has to drive 20 minutes to see me on the weekend instead of an hour and a half.  It is much nicer living in Fairmont than in Keyser.  Fairmont does not have a lot of entertainment itself, but it does have restaurant choices.  Plus, Morgantown is within distance for a night on the town if one is so inclined.

What else is new?  I got a new car back in May of 2008.  I now have a Mazda 5, which is a mini-minivan.  The lease on my Mazda 6 was set to expire this October and I needed a car that has room to transport my poochies.  The Mazda 5 has more cargo area with the third row of seats down than a station wagon.  So far it has worked out well.  I like it.  It’s red.

The most recent and biggest news and change is that Mike and I got engaged this past weekend (Saturday, July 12, 2008).  We’ve set the date for the wedding as October 10, 2009, which is a Saturday.  We’re planning on getting married in Morgantown.  We are going to have my judge (the judge I clerked for) perform the ceremony.  Beyond that, we have not made any other plans.  I intend to write another post with more details about the proposal and pictures of the ring in the next week or so.

Life’s been busy lately, as you can see, so I haven’t had time to work on the site a lot.  I’m going to try to add more content, but I can’t promise much as half of my house is still in boxes.

Checked the mail this morning and I FINALLY got word on my N-Number registration. Effective May 27th, N325MK is mine. I will have to renew it every year now until it is painted on the side of an airplane, but it is officially mine now .

Several people asked me “why ‘N325MK’? ” … seriously, just think about it a little while and it might come to you .

This is a cross posting, linking to my other website where I posted about testing in martial arts this past weekend.

Topics like this, i have trouble figuring out which site to put them on. Martial Arts is a big part of my life, as such I know it takes its toll on Katherine and our relationship and belongs on this website.

At the same time, I find Martial Arts to be deeply personal (I’ve never invited anyone to one of my promotion ceremonies, and very rarely invite anyone to a demo where I will be performing). 

Katherine has been hugely supportive for me with my martial arts training, and I know that it frustrates and angers her at times. That support makes me love her and want to be with her even more.

 Anyway, here is the direct link to the other posting on the-forgotten.org:

 http://www.the-forgotten.org/2008/06/03/karate-testing/

While we were in Florida we went to a crab place for dinner. Hating any and all sea food I ordered hot wings (the hottest on the menu) and a burger. Katherine ordered gator bites as an appetizer. She then asked if i would try them, and I politely said no (read as: “Hell NO!”). After the wings and the gator bites came out Katherine asked again, and I said I would if she tried one of the wings.

At the time i figured i was going to hate the gator bite and her mouth would be on fire. Regretably, The outcome was that I liked the gator bite and her mouth was on fire.

Gator bites taste a lot like veal, so if you like baby cow you’d probably like a gator bite. There isn’t a fishy smell/flavor to them at all, which surprised me. I still feel kinda bad about her taking that wing …

I’ve uploaded all the vacation photos i have to SmugMug. Check`em out.

This is one that my brother took, i like it the best i think:

An N-Number is the identification numbers assigned to American aircraft. Think of it as a license plate for the sky. When you make radio calls you always prefix your call with your N-Number.

This morning I reserved one for the plane I plan on building. Been trying to find a good one that wasn’t already taken for a while now. When i’m done with the plane I don’t want some random, meaningless, number painted on the side of my brand spanking new aircraft.

N325MK has been submitted to the FAA for approval. In 3 weeks or less I should find out if the FAA approves of my request and get my information. Then all I need to do is actually build the thing .

(For the uninitiated, that N-Number is read as “November 3 – 2 – 5 – Mike – Kilo”)