A year ago last May, a lady from Brisbane Australia contacted us about the blog post where we off loaded Apsaras from the AAL Dalian - the ship that had brought her home from Panama. Kaye wanted permission to use one of the photos from that post to make a quilt. Today she sent pictures of the quil…
Blog posts : "2015 Back Home In The USA"
Spike goes on a mission
Its hot here in Seattle. Like really hot. Yesterday the high was 84. And we about died trying to go to sleep because our new apartment faces south and has big windows. As I write this its currently 89. And its only going to get worse:
So it was time to buy a portable air conditioner…
Website Rearranged
We've rearranged the home page of www.svapsaras.com a bit. Because blogging is minimal, we've put an index of the most interesting blog posts at the top to make finding stuff easier. And because most folks that come to the website are now doing to see what our recent voyage was all about as oppose…
Spike Back In The Air!
After finally getting the repaired engine back together again, getting the final sign off from the mechanic, and then a trip to Arlington to get the transponder calibrated, and the plane is legal to fly again! Whoo hoo! Dave spent the whole weekend flying around. He took Melissa's Dad for a burge…
Dave Gets A New Toy
Hooray for Alendronate
Three years ago Melissa insisted that her doctor run a bone density scan because there is a history in her family of severe osteoporosis. Normally the first bone scan is run on women at age 50. Melissa was only 45, but felt an early scan to have a good baseline was wise. What they found was that …
How not to dispose of an old engine
Since Melissa starts a new job on Monday, she has spent the past few days racing around running all the errands that she thought she had another week of freedom to accomplish. One of the items on her to-do list was to dispose of an old engine block that has been stashed in the hanger. Dave and Cur…
We love desiccant
What is desiccant? Its that packet of stuff you find inside packaging and pill bottles that says "do not eat". Its designed to absorb water so that items in shipment don't get damaged by mold or moisture. You can buy them in industrial sized packages designed to protect giant shipping containers.…
Dave is now where? Czech Republic?!
Dave left Monday on a flight to Czech Republic (Melissa had to look up the spelling). When they landed at the airport, one of the guys got a ticket for picking them up at the wrong place. They had to pay an $8 fine on the spot. Wonder how much of that actually made it to the government coffers...…
Nirvana Now Scuttled
One of the boats (Nirvana Now) Dave helped with some electronic systems issues while we were in Panama, headed out weeks ago to cross the Pacific on their way to French Polynesia. Unfortunately they had issues with both their sail and rudder. And its now been reported that they had to scuttle t…
What McGyver is good for
Ok, thanks to a friend, Miklos, we now have the best description of McGuyver's skills to date...
Note to myself: if the zombie apocalypse does hit, get Dave’s current address. He sounds like a useful guy to have around for everyday tasks, like when we will need to install a self-driving module in…
Fun with the GPS tracker
Today Dave went to the track in Shelton to race about in his Infinity. He had a GPS tracker in the car with him and was able to graph his speeds and location. In the picture below you can see how accurate the GPS location is - and the shape of the racetrack in Shelton. The graph on the left shows …
One stinkin' email
Back in February when we knew we would be coming home Melissa started emailing everyone she knew to let them know she would be back in town and looking for contract work. About 100 emails later, she figured she might help Dave start to look for a job too. So she looked up his favorite avionics man…
New Toy
Ok, we couldn't resist. We have visited enough friends who have one of these gadgets, so we finally had to break down and buy one. We love the little sucker. It's a Keurig K45 unit. And dang if it doesn't make great coffee...
A new place to live
Originally we had decided not to look for a permanent location to live till we both found jobs so we could minimize the commute. But today we came across a one of a kind place - top floor with 20 foot ceilings in a central location. So we couldn't resist renting it. Move in day is April 2. And t…
Annual St Patrick's Day Concert
One of the fun things about being back in Seattle is that we can take advantage of the music and arts scene. So one of the first things we did was to attend the annual St Patrick's Day concert in Kirkland by our favorite local artist, Geoffrey Castle. Complete with Irish dancing girls and a rendi…
The box is more fun than the present
Our good friends Valentina and Mark hosted us when we returned from Panama for a week. As a thank you, Melissa ordered up some steaks and cheesecake from the Chicago Steak company and had them shipped to their doorstep. Apparently Valentina decided the dry ice that came in the box was more fun tha…
Spike needs some attention
Last week Dave started working on getting his airplane, affectionately known as Spike, ready to fly again. Spike was put in mothballs two years ago when we left Seattle. He needs a full inspection which means Dave has to tear apart the whole airplane to get it ready for the mechanic to come and do…
Jobless and Homeless
We continue to interview for jobs... well, Melissa continues to interview for jobs. Dave is hopeful he will see an offer here soon for a job he is super excited about. So he is hanging out working on his airplane while Melissa continues to look for a job. Interviews used to be intimidating. That …