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Friday, January 31, 2003
Clay and I went flying today. It was a hard landing due to leveling off 10 feet too high. A little different perspective than my last 200 flying hours. It was fun though. Clay's little girl, Jade, got to fly from my lap, and there were plenty of "Zero G's" to be had. Take care all. -KJH Last night Matilda wanted to go and look at the stars since it was the first clear night for a couple of weeks. She particularly wanted to see Jupiter, which I've been telling her is very bright right now. Saturn is also pretty clear. So we studied the southern view on the star chart before dinner, planning to go out after we'd eaten. As luck would have it, clouds covered most of the sky by the time we got out. But Jupiter blazed through the thin clouds in the eastern sky and was huge over the city. I wish I had a telescope, or even binoculars to pick out some moons. And as we walked up the cliffs behind our house, where it is has been left undeveloped and is relatively dark, the clouds opened above us and to the south, which was just the area we'd studied. The Pleiades sparkled like diamonds in a shear sack, three or four shining brighter than the rest. They must look great through a telescope. Matilda claimed see could see them, but it's hard enough to know if what you're looking at is what you're calling it, let alone if your kid is seeing what you mean. Constellation description is difficult. But through out the night Matilda only said she could see it after a while and often described it accurately. From the Pleiades we moved to Perseus, nearly straight above us. And then we turned homeward, unable to see Orion through the clouds, and without Orion we were unable to find Saturn. But we were lucky again. As we came down the cliffs the clouds thinned further in the south and I saw Orion's belt through their gauzy film. Matilda saw it, too. Orion's shoulder stars were above the cloud's edge and quite clear. Following a line up from between them we saw Saturn. It had a slightly yellow color to it and was only slightly brighter than the neighboring, whereas Jupiter's light was white and it was far brighter than anything nearby. (When I wake up it's moved to the west and I can see from my bed without my glasses on.) The clouds wouldn't let us see the Orion Nebula, which was the last thing we'd planned to see. It was nice to find the things we were looking for. I've been trying to learn about and identify stars, plants, and animals. Somehow this knowledge seems more useful and satisfying than following politics. I hope we'll have some spectacular skies camping this spring. Has anyone visited that star chart website I posted a while back? I think it is great. It's helped me a lot. Thursday, January 30, 2003
The "leave your doors open" strategy only works when you have nothing to steal in the car, even the trunk, I guess. It's pretty stupid that you can't leave your car in front of your house and expect it to be alright. I am used to never worrying about stuff like that in Lauttasaari. Hello all. Amanda and my car was robbed last night. Our HAM radio and my Christmas Leather Coat, which was in the trunk, were stolen from in front of the house last night. Oddly enough in the coat pocket there were receipts and rebate forms totalling $310 in rebates. I got that squared away though. The only thing taken that is not replacable was 3 rolls of film, also in my coat pocket. This is my second car theft. At least we left the doors open for them so it wasn't difficult. Oh well, I guess I learned my lesson on that one. Maybe it wouldn't have helped, but it wouldn't have hurt any. Anyway, great to be back in Utah. -KJH Melina made the strangest lentil soup last night. It takes exactly like the Colonel's secret blend of eleven herbs and spices, just in soup form. I started to crave for a bucket of KFC. The soup had a chicken base, so that helped, but each bit made me think even more of KFC. It was odd. As far as camping goes, Tiina and Mom will be in town early in our visit, so I don't know if that makes it a better or worse time to go. Since Melina leaves on the 8th we could go after that, unless we did it with the whole crew earlier. Well, I suppose I'll get clearer as things get closer. Lee Wednesday, January 29, 2003
Lee, that is great that you are coming out. I am going to try as hard as I can to get that time off. I will be bidding for Aprils schedule in mid March. We are adding new planes before then, so that means more pilots below me on the seniority list. That is a good thing. I will find out my schedule on March 21st, and if I don't get it off for sure I can try trip trading. So, we shall see. We left Moline, ILL in an empty plane the other day. It was great fun. My captain was very relaxed and I climbed out at high performance attitudes. The Captain also did some "Zero G's" enroute. He pushed forward hard on the yoke and we floated momentarily. I always loved Zero G's in the Cessna's. It is just as fun in a big jet. Take care all. Talk to you later. -KJH P.S. Aila, I hear you have a new computer so you can update us on the daily happenings in Ignacio. Bye. Tuesday, January 28, 2003
So it's official, we'll be in Utah on April 3rd, landing in Salt Lake at 2.12pm (with plane change in St. Louis) courtesy of American Airlines. Matilda and I will return to Baltimore on the 12th, while Melina will leave on the 8th for Indiana. Owen's itinerary is still unresolved. I know you're coming out Tiina, which is good. Will anyone have some time off work? Do you know anything that far into the future, Keith? I hope we can have a great time or I'll send you a bill for my trouble!!! Dave was the Settlers Champion tonight. He had the monopoly on SHEEP! It was incredible. Whether he needed an 11 or a 6, he got it. Final score: DAVE: 10 TIINA: 4 KEITH: 4 So at least Tiina and I got second place. Can't wait to be home for a week. Talk to everyone later. -KJH (and Tiina) Sunday, January 26, 2003
Hey Tiina, I edited your post. If you choose to edit it you can see the HTML around the word "website". To get the HTML generated click the button with above the editor window with the globe and link on it. It is next to the bold "B". Paste the address into the testbox. This will make the basic anchor tag. Write the words you want to be the link between the opening tag and the closing tag. HTML tags are always written inside "<>" for opening and "< "/" ">" closing tags (without the quotes, of course, Blogger thinks it's HTML if they're together). To open the link in a new window write after the URL target="new" (with no spaces in what you write, but separated by a space from the URL). You will see all this by looking at how I altered your post. I also put the image itself on with an image tag. You can see that there at the bottom. It doesn't have a closing tag. Tiina lingo translation: Tara, who's that? Jillian's, bowling alley or person? Saturday, January 25, 2003
Hi Everyone, Timo- I had a great time with your kids. We had a lot of fun. If you ever need me to babysit again I would be happy to. Keith is coming home on Tuesday for 6 days. He is going to try and get a few carpet jobs. He also needs to get his books for school and start studying. I think we want to go camping on Friday night if anyone is interested. Talk to ya'll Later, Amanda Friday, January 24, 2003
United's website is pretty cool. They even let you plan a multi-city "one-way" trip, which Melina will use. Their fares are pretty good right now, too. I'll try to have my tickets purchased this weekend so we can know the dates, but right now I'm shooting to be there April 3-12. Melina (and maybe Owen) would leave on the 8th to go see a friend of hers in Indiana while Matilda and I (and maybe Owen) stayed on in Utah. Last night I went to a parents meeting at the Töölö Elementary. They have a bilingual (English-Finnish) program there that Matilda will go to, assuming we're still here, which depending on the day might or might not be the case. There were many questions, including my favorite: "How can you force teachers to stay from year to year?" Timo, will you have time for Conquerors this weekend? Thursday, January 23, 2003
Hey all, It was great getting beat by Mom last night. She did really well. Next time I will not be so nice... Just Kidding. I am in St. Louis. It is cold outside. Probably in the teens. It seems like it's always cold here. The snow is that super dry, fine, crunchy powder. I read the new Robert Jordan book. It covered the next few days of the adventure. And in a short 700 pages. Million Dollar fluff. I guess I'd do it too. Next months schedule looks good for me. I will be able to get home every time after my trips. Amanda will probably come out on the Presidents Day weekend. It should be fun. Talk to everyone later. -KJH Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Well, we'll definitely be in Maryland between March 27th and April 13th since we bought tickets, but I haven't moved on anything else yet. I'll keep you posted. Tuesday, January 21, 2003
If we fly we'll be there on April 3rd or 4th, depending on which day we want to leave Maryland. We'd stay until the 11th or 12th and fly back to Finland on the 13th. Timewise flying makes the most sense. Monday, January 20, 2003
I have found a good deal on Finnair, so I think the whole family might be coming. Flying from DC to SLC is almost as expensive as flying to DC from here, but I have another plan. We might rent a car and drive out. There are a few people along the way we'd like to see as well. So we could rent a car for the whole time we're there, plus make the trip for some small amount less than flying out there. The way things stand now we'd be out there on the 6th or 7th and leave back on the 10th. But all these times and such need to be worked out for sure. Thanks for playing Amanda. Before I knew it I was dead. I'll try to be more of a challenge for you in the future. Sunday, January 19, 2003
Hi ya'll, It was fun playing Conquerors last night Lee. Thanks for playing. Well, Keith is coming back on Tuesday. We want to play some games if anyone wants to. Tomorrow my sister Noelle is coming up from Logan with her boyfriend to visit me. Anyways, not much else going on here. Talk to you later. Amanda Saturday, January 18, 2003
Hello everyone. I am in St Louis this morning. I fly to Pitsburg today for a 2 day adventure. It is snowing right now. It even snowed in Charlotte. When will it snow in Utah? I think it would be great fun to play Conquerors as a group. We could play on the Zone 4v4. I think we should each focus on developing our individual military units. For example, someone focus on Archers and have the best Archers. Someone on Infantry and have a lot of infantry. Then we could attack early, together, with a strong, well trained army. Just some thoughts for fun. Talk to everyone later. -KJH Amanda, I'll play conquerors with you, if you'd like. I will be online at 7am my time, 10pm your time Saturday night. Let me know if you'll be online. Friday, January 17, 2003
Hi all, Just checking in to say hi! School is crazy as usual. What is everybody doing for the holiday weekend? I am off from school on Monday if anyone is interested in playing Puerto Rico or Conquerors this weekend. Keith doesn't come home until Tuesday I think. I never know his schedule! Anyways, talk to ya'll later. Amanda :) Timo, will there be any Conquoring this weekend? I'm up for it tomorrow morning (a Fri/Sat arrangement), but Sat/Sun is ok, too. Thursday, January 16, 2003
If you're into starcharts then checkout the Sky and Telescope's. It rocks. Your pilot's lingo is nearly impenetrable, Keith. But never fear, the modern oracle (AKA internet) can answer all things: Missed Approach When an aircraft is caused to abort a landing after it has already started its landing approach, the aircraft has to follow a set path to leave the airspace surrounding the terminal. Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach 
The watch is still being fixed. The man said that since it was such an unusual watch they couldn't get some parts for it, so they made them. He hasn't wanted to call yet since he's following it to make sure it works properly. The price will be between 50€ - 60€, which sounds like a steal with them making parts and all. Lord Elgin's are mentioned here. Keith, you should get out to Helsinki. Mom said the price is pretty cheap. I shouldn't have mentioned a good winter last night. I woke up to +3C. The soft melting snow and dripping rain gutters were very depressing. And though the air is warmer it is wet and raw, so it doesn't feel as nice as a few degrees below freezing. Hopefully this is a short thaw and we can get back to the winter. Might as well since it won't be warm until May no matter what side of zero the temperature is on. My plans are still unclear for this spring. We don't have the money for a family visit, so I think it is likely to be just me in DC. Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Hey Lee, have you heard anything about the watch? I hear you won the other day at Conquerors. That's great. Once you get on top of Timo its easy to stay there, just ask Amanda. LOL Just kidding. Tiina's girls will have to live with a sleeping Keith. No time. Maybe Amanda and I can get out there one weekend. Maybe Presidents day weekened. -KJH We're about to get very busy. Melina will start classes next week and Matilda's busy evening schedule kicks in, too. Monday swimming lessons, Tuesday jumppa, Friday ballet. We'd meant to drop the Jumppa, but since her friend is still going and it's next door we thought it wasn't too much. Last Friday she had a trial ballet class. We all took her there and when we went through the door I thought something was strange. A woman about to take her shirt off thought so, too, and scowled at me. I beat a quick retreat. There was no sign other than the dance company sign, so how was I to know? Later as I waited for Melina to come out I saw another father dropping off his girls (obviously for the first time) go in. He came out a little shame-facedly, too. There is a men's dressing room accessed through another entrance to the building, but no one told me until later. It has snowed several times in the last week and with it has come warmer temperatures. After the bitter cold this weather seems nice and soft. Owen demands constantly to go out. He has a hard time moving in snow that often is deeper than his legs are long, but he likes riding in his sled, and playing where it's been tamped down. The whole Gulf of Finland is frozen now, so the cold should continue. That's good, since the typical Helsinki winters are gray and wet these days. This cold winter follows on the heals of the warmest summer on record. Odd how it worked out. That's funny about the ALF creator. Is he the one behind the ALF on the commercials I see too? IT's funny that ALF is still around. We saw the Two Towers. It was very disappointing. Lee was right all along. This guy is a B movie director. I got to go to see Tiina the other night. It was fun, and I will see her again later this month because I have the same 4 day trip that ends late. I've been doing a lot of flying. It has been good. The other day flying into Houston they turned off the ILS signal. We were less than 800 feet from the ground and in a cloud. We had to go missed. Stupid guys in the tower. The were getting ready to switch runways. I guess they thought we were on a visual, but we were in a cloud. Anyway, not much else going on. -KJH Sunday, January 12, 2003
Saturday, January 11, 2003
Great I will be online maybe at 6.30am my time. We have guests coming at 10am for breakfast/brunch. I think I can squeeze a game of Conquorers in. Friday, January 10, 2003
So, anyone up for games Fri/Sat or Sat/Sun? Just let me know. It warmed up to the upper 20F for a couple days. Who knew that could feel so warm? But now we're back to where we were before. Each morning at the busstop I see Venus. It is amazingly bright and huge. Mars is near it, but I haven't noticed it yet. Wednesday, January 08, 2003
Its sad news to hear about the Crash in Chorlotte. I fly there all the time. I will use that same runway 3 times on Friday. A Beech 1900 fully loaded crashed Wednesday morning, and it would appear to be an engine failure. I don't know why they wouldn't be able to control it though since that is all we practice in Multi engine training. Its sad. We shall see what comes of the investigation. The airplane was flown by Air Midwest. -KJH Tuesday, January 07, 2003
Lee, That is great you are figuring out the game. It is fun. Soon you and Timo can take on Amanda. All is well, talk to everyone later. -Keith I'm itching for a match of Conquorers. I played the computer yesterday with moderate difficult and was very surprised when his army high at game's end was 1. Not very challenging. (I played some others that were more, but I think I'm getting the hang of the game.) By the way, Timo, I must have done a minimal install since reinstalling it now lets me see the scores, etc... Not much going on here, just cold cold cold. It has been -12F or more for a couple weeks and our apartment is getting cold. Sunday, January 05, 2003
Hi all, Keith will be home on Monday evening. Timo and Mark- we were wondering if you wanted to play Puerto Rico later Monday night. Anyways, winter semester starts tomorrow :( I will be taking the bus to school since BYU students ride for free. That should save our miles on the car! Well, talk to you all later. Amanda Thursday, January 02, 2003
Wednesday, January 01, 2003
Hi everyone! Happy New Year! We miss you all! It looks like we will be leaving Atlanta tomorrow morning and I will probably go on a route with Keith. We had a great New year's playing games and eating alot of food. Today we played football with the ward here and had so much fun. It took alot of people to knock down Keith! Anyway, We both should be back in Utah by the 6th if not earlier. Talk to you all later, Amanda and Keith |
