A while back my wife and I had the bright idea that our daughter Alexandria should join the Girl Scouts. And a little over a month or so ago, we signed her up in Troop 333 of the Brownies. From the beginning we noticed that the current leader was having some trouble staying on top of things, the reasons we found out later are personal and there is no need to go into them here. Well, a couple weeks ago the troop leader asked my wife Susie if she wouldn't mind becoming a co-leader and helping her through this difficult time. My wife not being able to say no (she married me didn't she?) promised to help though she was somewhat reluctant.

Susie hasn't been feeling well, so last night I took Alex to her Brownie meeting and noticed that no one was there for the meeting. One other little girl showed up but that was it. After wondering around trying to find out if the meeting was moved I decided that the meeting had most likely been cancelled. After trying to locate a phone so the other little girl could call her parents we waited by the door for her father to show up and take her home. Just as he arrived, so did the troop leader. So we had our meeting after all, just 25 minutes late or so. The troop leader who is very nice, was clearly not ready focused on the meeting but I shrugged it off.

Then this morning Susie woke me saying "Guess who is the new leader of troop 333!?". I'm still not quite sure how that happened, but it is, of course, my wife. She's kind of nervous, but I know she'll do just fine. She has a natural ability with kids and is far more patient with them than I am and I think she'll be a great troop leader. Congratulations wife, I'm sure you'll be a great troop leader!

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Posted by Casey at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I've been kinda lax in updating the gallery lately. Sorry about that. But my wife finally "reminded" me enough times and I got everything updated this morning. There are new pictures in the Main Album as well as a Halloween 2003 album. And I forgot to take my stupid camera to Michigan with me and so I don't have any pictures of my sister's wedding or our stay in Michigan. D'oh. If anyone wants to send me some I'd be happy to scan them in!

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Posted by Casey at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What a great flight home. Even with the weather delays, it was a great idea to finally make the trip to Michigan by airplane. While we had some pretty big headwinds on the way up, but we got lucky and had bigger tailwinds on the way back. And it only took just over 4 hours flying time to make it back home. During our descent into Murfreesboro we hit a groundspeed of over 150 knots! Yeehaw!

Anyway, it's good to be home. Now for that instrument rating.

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Posted by Casey at 7:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Looks like the weather is going to keep us in beautiful Richmond, Michigan a little longer than planned. We're hoping this weather will clear out sometime before noon tomorrow for the flight back. My first "real" trip in the airplane has been pretty cool apart from the weather concerns. I really need to think seriously about that instrument rating.

Note to my mother-in-law: Sorry Sue was being sneaky about us flying. Ill take good care of everyone, I promise :)

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Posted by Casey at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK everyone that was worried about us flying up to Michigan can stop worrying for a while. We made it safe and sound despite some exciting crosswinds at our destination in Romeo, MI. You can begin worrying again on Monday or Tuesday. That's when we're hoping to head back.

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Posted by Casey at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Note: If you're not a Lord of the Rings fan, you can probably skip this entry.

I just noticed on Slashdot that Peter Jackson has cut Saruman's scenes from The Return of The King. Not only the confrontation between Saruman and Gandalf at Isengard, but the scouring of the Shire as well. Sigh. To be fair, I've enjoyed Peter Jackson's interpretation of the books, but the films are a far far cry from Tolkien's masterpiece. But knowing that Jackson has made so many alterations and is going to continue to make those alterations, I've tried to not get my hopes up about seeing things as I've imagined them portrayed all these years.

Leaving out the scouring of the Shire though... it's like a quarter of the final book! Were I Mr. Jackson, I would have certainly kept this in and then I would've added one final thing that was not in the original books. I suggested this to The One Ring.net shortly after the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, but I never heard back from them. I'm sure they think I'm just another kooky fan (which I am). I was hoping that might my idea might somehow find it's way to Peter Jackson and then into The Return of the King. But seeing as the Scouring has been cut I guess it won't be included. The idea was this (spoilers ahead I suppose):

The book ends with the Scouring of the Shire and then Bilbo and Frodo leaving for the Grey Havens to cross the sea many years later. Frodo presents Sam with the Red Book which contains the story we've just been told essentially. Sam returns to Bag End to his children and his wife Rosie and says "Well, I'm home." Here's where the book ends, but I would continue with Sam placing the Red Book on a table along with some maps. Here the camera would slowly zoom in on the Red Book and then we would see it change with age. The camera then draws back to show the book along with equally aged maps and documents scattered along a desk. The camera would twist and pull away from the desk revealing a gentleman seated at the desk along with a typewriter and a pipe sitting nearby. It's a study or a library of some sort. We'd never clearly see the gentleman. But a voice would come from somewhere outside of this room calling "Professor?" whereupon the "professor" would acknowledge the caller saying "Just a moment please", tidy up a bit, and exit the room. And at this point the screen would fade to black and the credits would roll.

I've always imagined Tolkien somehow stumbling across this lost history of Middle Earth and retelling it as the Lord of the Rings. Of course it's not true, but it's nice to think about sometimes. I think it would be just as fine an ending for The Lord of the Rings as whatever Peter Jackson has in store for us on December 19th.

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Posted by Casey at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Happy Birthday Sweet Sue! You've got one last year to go before your twenties are behind you. You'll catch up to me before you know it ;)

I love you very much!

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Posted by Casey at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Lately I've been thinking about buying an airplane again. I do this every now and and again. I looked at all the cool airplanes at Aircraft Shopper Online and play with numbers in Excel and think about partnerships and eventually I finally realize for the umpteenth time that airplanes are very expensive... I have a plan though, as soon as they get that lottery started up here in Tennessee I'll be all set. But yesterday I got a complimentary copy of Trade-A-Plane in the mail (fate perhaps? hmm?). On the front was a picture of an old Ercoupe (pronounce Aircoupe). These are cool little airplanes with a sliding canopy, twin vertical stabilizers and no rudder pedals! Supposedly stall-proof. Anyway I showed the picture to my 3 year Aaron. "Look Aaron an Ercoupe!", I said. Aaron wrinkled up his nose, "Air-poop! Ew!".

Oh that reminds me, Happy Birthday Bill. You'll always be 17 days older than me ;)

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Posted by Casey at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Transfer Tubes: This is the term used by the Pentagon to describe the containers used to transport the bodies of the servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan back to the United States. Body bags apparently didn't have quite the right ring to it, nor did "human remains pouches", which was what boby bags were called begining with the 1991 Gulf War. This according to an article in the Toronto Star.

This article illustrates the ongoing propaganda campaign aimed at keeping the messy parts of the war out of the public eye. I can almost concede that perhaps the press should be restricted access to the Dover, Delware Air Force base where the casualties of war are delivered. But why hasn't the president who said "Bring 'em on!" felt compelled to attend just one of the 359 funerals of the soldiers who have given their lives for his war? The press and administration both seem to be neglecting the 1,700 men and women injured in the war being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington and awaiting treatment at Fort Stewart in Georgia.

Then there is news of more Orwellian type activities by the White House in this article in the Australian newspaper; The Age. Apparently the White House no longer allows search engines such as Google to archive material on the White House web site. This was noticed when it was discovered that archived pages that claimed "combat" was over in Iraq have been changed to read "major combat".

I really want to believe that the current administration is simply inept or misguided but it gets harder and harder to give these guys the benefit of the doubt when they keep pulling stuff like this. The situation in Iraq shouldn't be spun to suit the presidents approval rating. These men and women that sacrificed life and limb deserve better than to be swept under the rug. And why is it that we are reading any of this in any of the supposedly "liberal media" newspapers here in the United States?

Also, I know I blogged on 1984 a while back. One of the most amazing and prescient books I've ever read. Really, if you haven't read it you really should. Some of the parallels to the events of today are truly frightening. It's available online here.

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Posted by Casey at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, he finally did it! My cousin Bill (Billy to those of you that grew up with him) proposed to his sweetheart, Jennifer, of like... a million years yesterday at a surprise birthday party that he and some friends threw for her. When Jen opened her present from Bill, it was brochures for Hawaii vacation. This naturally made her gasp.. but then she nearly lost it completely when Bill got down on one knee and told her "I don't want this to be just another vacation.... I was hoping it could be a honeymoon". There was hardly a dry eye in the place! Great job cousin! Congratulations again guys.

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Posted by Casey at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)