Marie's Birthday

Veda made arrangements for a dinner to celebrate Marie's ninetieth birthday.  We met at the Panda Inn in Centralia.

It was great getting to see everyone, it had been a while since the last get together.  Left to right, Gus, Dean, Kelly, Marie, Veda, Loren and I.

Here is a little better angle of Gus and Dean, Vera's nephews.

This is Vera and Kelly as we were ordering, Kelly is Gus's wife.  The food was great and lots of it, I have enough left over for lunch or dinner tomorrow.

We came up on Jackson Hwy. and we went back the same way with a stop at the field to see what was going on.  There were still four club members there so we visited for a few minutes until we got cold.  It was a nice relaxing drive home.

Michelle's Birthday Party

Friday was Michelle's fiftieth birthday, Mik arranged a party for family and friends at the Backstage Cafe on Saturday evening.  I didn't hear any comments about turning fifty, just the black lettering on the cake, so she got off pretty easy.  I didn't count the people, but there was a good turnout and we had a great time.

Mik, James, Henry, Jim, Kyle and Kim were having a good time before everyone sat down to eat, lots of laughter over there.

Michelle commented that there were three generations wearing red, quite a coincidence as no planning went into it.  I had fettuccine Alfredo which was delicious!

Thursday

First thing this morning we headed to Kelso for a few things at Safeway.  On the way we stopped by our friend Steve's house to look at an airplane he bought at a swap meet last Saturday.  He gave Vera a tour of his model car collection and his airplane storage room.  I had seen them before but it was interesting seeing them again.  A few things turned into an almost full cart before we got out of Safeway.

Some Safeway bonuses turned into a dollar off per gallon of gas.  

Not long after we got home, Harper came over and showed off her cast.  She broke a bone in her foot and will be wearing it for six weeks.  She can cover ground pretty fast hopping.  I did some work on the P-39 this afternoon, I got the top of the wing coated with the second coat of epoxy and I got the canopy fitted to the hatch.

Wednesday

I had a busy day, "Coffee with the Pastor" group this morning.  I picked up some new flexible sandpaper on the way home and then used it to sand the fillets on the P-39's tail.  After lunch I applied a second coat of epoxy to the fiberglass I had put on the bottom of the wing, this coat was to fill the weave of the cloth.  While that was curing I decided to mow the lawns.  FedEx brought some batteries I had ordered so I got them labeled and put into the motor home.  Then I repaired the leads on one of my chargers, they were not making good contact.  I did a little rearranging in the new shop closet and put one of my F-4s in it.  I put a new receiver into the Model Tech P-51 and programmed it, I was going to fly it Memorial Day but discovered it was on a transmitter that has issues and was home on the bench for repair.  I started to come in for the evening when I noticed it was nice and calm so I put a flight on the little DR-1.

Memorial Day Flying

On the way to get the motor home out this morning I spotted this baby rabbit.  I went back to the house, got the camera and took several pictures, this is my favorite one.

Vera and I were the only ones at the field for the whole day.  Here I am, doing what I love to do, getting my picture taken by the one I love.

This picture was taken a little after 1:00, the sun was out and it was really comfortable.  I am checking to see how the batteries on the charger are doing.  This is my bigger DR-1, still not real big but it flies great.

While we were at the field Jackie sent this picture of Cora with a big smile, she is sure a cutie!

Ready for takeoff with the MXS-R, I flew it and the convergence the most today but the yellow Extra 300 on the table could easily become my favorite as it flies great.

While Vera and I were sitting in the shade talking, she spotted this cloud that looked like a face.  I took several pictures of it and while we were looking at them on the camera it disappeared!

Mt St Helens still has lots of snow on it.  I never get tired of the views we have at Herren Field.

I sure enjoyed the day, I got in twenty four flights.  These are some of the batteries I used today along with the three transmitters.

The last thing I did before loading up was put the six planes and one helicopter I flew today on the runway for pictures.  It is kind of neat that I got a real plane landing in the background.  On the way home we stopped at Papa Pete's and picked up a pizza I had called in.  Then we sat in the parking lot and ate it.

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday I got a call from Buford a member of the Cowlitz Valley club.  He bought a Convergence like mine and wanted me to check it out.  After checking over the programming I took it out for a test flight.  It acted really strange and we finally decided there was a problem with the flight controller in the plane.  He is going to call the factory next week.

Vera took some pictures of the iris we have blooming, I didn't realize there were so many, these are next to the bigger pond.

These are hidden away behind the lilac bush.

I programmed this DR-1 into the Hitec Flash 7 transmitter this afternoon and then took it out for a test flight.

I put a couple of flights on it and our neighbor James came over to check it out.  I got the V-Hawk out and put in one flight with it for him.  I need to close my mouth when Vera is taking pictures!

Sunday we went to church, afterwards they had a slideshow by a couple who had just been to Israel.  When we got home I went over and let Sam out, I have been taking care of him all weekend while Auna was at State track.  It was too hot for him, he wanted right back in the house, Saturday evening when it was cool, he had played with the ball and branches for quite a while before wanting in.

Mowing and Flying

We made our usual Friday morning trip to the Toledo field to check on the mowing and do some flying afterwards.  Dan had just finished the runway, pits, parking area and race track when we got there.  He had to leave early for an appointment so I took the mower and mowed Mrs. Herren's lawn.  The picture is of me on the way back.

It turned into a pretty warm day and before long there were three canopies set up in a row.  We had a good time visiting with everyone.  We also flew some more Slow Stick Combat, I got two good hits on the streamer but couldn't cut it.  We also did some formation flying, it looks pretty funny when four Slow Sticks are all trying to loop at the same time.

Here is a picture from a couple of days ago of Cora standing up.  It looks like she is ready to take off walking.