loner’s Neighborhood

So my birthday cake making efforts met with mixed success.  The cake itself (banana cake) was really good - nice and light and just right.  Unfortunately, the cream cheese icing was too too sickly.  We just scraped it off and ate the cake naked.  Maybe a chocolate icing would have been nicer.  I'll have to do some research before I make the cake again

To Petra.  She's two today.  And  now I have to make cake.....

http://www.relta.org/browse.asp?ContainerID=testforpilotsafter11august

OK folks,

If you have a few minutes to spare and nothing else better to do, try this listening test to see if you can taxi/take-off/fly and land an aircraft safely.

Listening and looking are still the key fundamental skills required in aviation. It's called situational awareness.

Ninja

Silence Twister

Folks,

No, that's not me at the controls - I wish!

Come on, you can't say this isn't a beautiful aircraft - even if the Germans have created this Spitfire-inspired kit plane?

I'm impressed.

Ninja

http://www.pacificaerosport.com/twister.htm

Folks,

My heart's racing a bit after seeing this. Granted it's a single-seater but heck, she flies well (when have the eliptical wings of the Spitty ever faltered?).

And the price is bloody eyebrow-raising, too... in a pleasant way. The performance specs for the price, is serious value for money.

I've gotta keep looking at this as motivation to get my wings! It could be my second kit aircraft.

It's sweet irony, isn't it? That this souped-up aerobatic kit version of the Spitfire would come out of Germany in the 21st century.

Ninja

For the past couple of months, Travis and I have watched "The Seven Ages of Rock", a BBC music documentary in seven parts (oddly enough), every Monday night.  It finished up this week with a look at Britain's indie scene and the Brit Pop explosion of the late 90's.  While I'm not sure that a scene that boasts Oasis and Blur as its best moments merits a whole episode, I came over all nostalgic at the footage of The Smiths (the godfathers of indie cool) performing This Charming Man on Top of the Pops some time in the early 80's.  The quiffs, the droopy unbuttoned shirt, the waving gladioli (Morrisey's protest about having to lipsynch - he held flowers instead of a microphone), Morrisey's voice, Marr's guitar, the seedy sexy lyrics, and the general air of dissipation, - fabulous stuff.

As a teenager, I loved The Smiths for their campy over-the-top angst.  Morrisey might be the gloomy king of adolescent loneliness and awkwardness, but he's also knowing and witty and wordy, which is just my thing.
 
I'd post a video but I can't get at Youtube.  Vox is having trouble with its connections it would seem.

I thought that babies changed a lot in their first year, but I think now that the difference from 1 to 2 is even more dramatic.  A 1-year-old is still a baby, while a 2-year-old is a little girl.  Petra's baby fat has given way to a much more upright and sleek child build.  She's beginning to look the way she will for the next few years, until the ravages of puberty hit.

Here she is then - November 2008. 

Petra 2008

Petra 2009

A Petra update because I haven't posted one for a while.

She'll be two on Sunday.  Already.  This time last year, she was a fat baby who'd just taken her first teetering steps.  Now she runs, jumps, balances on one foot, climbs stairs without holding on, climbs up onto everything she can, and yesterday rode her bike down the hill at Nanny's (much to Nanny's consternation).  Petra's very poised physically and very confident about her abilities - she's only to happy to give things a go.  She might just have some of her father's daredevilry in her.

She's also a big talker.  We have long conversations about things like the helicopters that fly over and the house truck that occasionally parks outside our house (she's having a toddler vehicle enthusiasm at the moment).  She tosses out her words and phrases - truck, copter, noise, look, etc, etc - and I translate them into whole sentences for her.  We then repeat and repeat until we've thoroughly canvassed the subject.  She has a few whole sentences at her disposal as well.  The things she's figured out how to say give a nice insight into the egocentric workings of the toddler mind - "I will do it."  "I don't want it." "I will get it." "Pick up, pick up," said with upraised arms and urgent hand gestures.  "Come here" and "in here," used as she leads us round the house.

Petra 011

4 comments

Most of us call 'em leftovers. Because some people prefer not to eat food they consider "old" my mum decided to rebrand them as "plan aheads".

Homefries from Sunday, pan heated with fresh spinach and smashed garlic. It's amazing how much spinach reduces when cooked; one of my fav ways to consume my quota of green leafys.

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Today I had my first real issue my Xbox 360 in the 3 years I've had it.  It's a pretty minor issue but a big pain in the butt.

I've been playing Need for Speed Shift the past number of weeks and I have to say it's the best game I've played in quite a long time.  If you're a fan of car racing games you should definitely give this one a try.  Anywho, I started the game today and it didn't recognize my career, it would only let me start a new one.  After much poking around and restarting of the console I finally caved in and started a new career.  I had my driver level up to 40 out of 50 and I was on a pretty good run until this happened.  Now my driver level is a mere 4 and it makes me sad.

Since I'm starting with some experience I decided to up the difficulty level a bit this time around just to keep it interesting.

Here's a clip of the gameplay, it's amazing stuff.  Although right side of the video seems to be trimmed off for some reason.