About a year ago I discovered that I enjoy cooking and I have since taken over the role of cooking for my family. Instead of following recipes, I just experiment until I find a good taste combination and go with it. LRH recently suggested that I blog some of my recipes, so here is my first try: a tin-foil halibut bake. (if you can stand the price of halibut, that is).

	Start off with a sheet of tin foil and cover with a thin layer of butter or cooking spray. Chop some spinach and place a bed of it on the foil (you can drizzle some flavored olive oil on the spinach). Lay the filet down on top of the spinach and surround with shrimp. Then cover with a marinade. You can use something pre-made (like the packets at the Safeway meat counter) or make something out of olive oil, spices, etc. This time I used lemon garlic sauce.
	Add a chopped green onion and a chopped shallot to the filet.
	Now for mushrooms and black olives. Cremini or oyster mushrooms work well.
	Add some chopped tomatoes and then cover with your favorite spices. I used paprika and a small amount of cayenne pepper.
	Wrap up the tin foil and bake in the oven for about 20-25 min at 350-400 deg F. Enjoy.

We went back to the range this weekend with six ice blocks. Our group had a variety of rifles this time in .308 Winchester, 7.62×51 M118Lr, .30-06 Springfield, 8mm Mauser and .444 Marlin. As appealing as it was, I resisted the urge to just empty an M14 magazine. Perhaps its the engineer in me, but I wanted to test each cartridge on a different block of ice and record the results. Surprisingly, the .30 caliber rounds made more spectacular explosions than the .444 Marlin. While we were dismantling the block ice, my two-year-old was watching with LRH safely from the parking lot. After we started the experiment she commented, “loud things break a snows Momma”. LOL.

She also commented when the guy with the Mauser took three shots to bring down the block. He was using AP rounds so they punched little holes in the ice that she couldn’t see. Her remark was, “he can’t do it Momma, Daddy do it!” Just priceless.

I had a good time at the range this Saturday. We showed up with a block of ice, placed it at about 25 yards and proceeded to destroy it with one 40-caliber rifle round. I’m going to bring 5 blocks next time I go shooting. Check this out:

The 444 is an intimidating cartridge that produces plenty of recoil. There was a small group of guys at the range and only two of them were willing to shoot that rifle. My wife walks up, chambers 4 rounds and proceeds to dismantle a block of wood at 50 yards. After she was done, her first comment was “that didn’t kick much.” Any woman who can handle a large-bore rifle is hot. Add red hair to the mix and you’ve got mega-hot so I count myself blessed!

We also brought some clays and put them on the hill at 100 yards. We had a Mini-30, Mini-14, 30-30 and a brand new absolutely badass Ruger Sr-556. Those clay zombies didn’t last long. I’m going back in a few weeks with more ice blocks and a real video camera (not that worthless thing in my iPhone). Stay tuned.

I brought my camera to the range yesterday with the intent to capture some muzzle blasts from pistol rounds. The idea was originally inspired by my friend who has a Bersa Thunder in .45 and some +P rounds. The results were amazing, to say the least.

The process is fairly straightforward provided you have solo access to an indoor range or can find a safe place outside to shoot with low lighting conditions. You’ll need a good SLR camera with support for bulb exposure, a solid tripod and some patience. Follow the tips below:

1. Choose a location where you have control of the light. Ideally this would be access to a private indoor range. In order to get a good exposure, the shutter of the camera must be depressed with ambient light at a minimum. Obviously it would be unwise to shoot in complete darkness, so dim the light just enough that you won’t overexpose but are still able to see the target. Always observe the four rules of gun safety, especially rule number 4: “be sure of your target and what lies behind it.”
2. Set up the tripod and camera near but slightly behind the shooter. Adjust the focal length to frame the photograph how you want. If you instruct the shooter to keep the firearm in an invisible box, you can try zooming in to fill the frame with more of the blast.
3. With the lights on, instruct the shooter to take position and take aim, but not fire. Set the focus to manual and adjust until the firearm is in focus. In cameras that have a live-view mode, this is a simple task since the LCD display can be zoomed in while the focus ring is tweaked appropriately. Mark the position of the shooter’s feet, so he can return to that position for subsequent shots.
4. Set the camera to the lowest ISO speed to reduce grain and light sensitivity.
5. Set the camera for manual bulb exposure and adjust the aperture to an fstop that darkens the background without reducing the muzzle flash. I found that f/5.6 to f/8 works the best in very dim light.
6. With the shooter in position, turn down the lights and instruct the shooter to fire after depressing the shutter button. A bulb exposure holds the shutter open as long as the button is pressed, so when the shooter is done firing the button may be released and the muzzle flash will be captured.
7. Adjust aperture as needed to brighten or darken the blast.

Here are the results:

LRH and I attended a photography workshop in Portland focusing on using wireless flash for creative lighting. We had a fun and learned a ton. Here are some results.

This last weekend was interesting, to say the least. I originally planned a two hour solo flight for Saturday – a quick trip to Goldendale for some practice landings on their narrow strip and maybe some VOR tracking en route. However, upon arriving at the airport, they asked me to grab my camera and instead photograph the new addition to the FBO’s flight school, a beautiful Cessna 182: N34SR. I returned home in a hurry, ignoring Siena’s enthusiastic “Daddy!!!” as I walked in the door and grabbed my Nikon D700 with portrait lens and my Canon Digital Rebel with a 300mm zoom. Batteries? Check. Memory Cards? Check. Memory Cards and Batteries installed in camera? Check! After that it was back to the airport.

We departed as a flight of two and flew formation across the Cascades, passing Mt. Hood, Mt. Saint Helens and Mt. Adams for a total of one hour. I sat in the left seat of the lead plane (a Cessna 172) and shot N34SR while my flight instructor had the controls. The windows of the Cessna open to the outside and when released will swing all the way open and stay there due to the force of the slipstream, making this particular airplane ideal for aerial photography. With one hand on the shutter button and one on the comm I verbally guided N34SR in the frame of my camera and shot away. The FBO needed photos of their new airplane to promote their scenic flights and flight school – I’m hoping they’ll be happily impressed with these:

After returning from the air-to-air shoot, I took the Cessna up for a solo flight around Mt. Hood. Pleasant, calm and uneventful described my one hour flight, that is, until I decided to land. I was at 3000 feet MSL, inbound for a 45 degree entry to the left downwind leg of the pattern for runway 25 when I noticed a shiny metallic object in an ascending trajectory directly in front of me. At first I thought it was a helicopter that had just departed from the airport, but I didn’t hear any radio calls announcing the departure prior to seeing this thing. As I approached it, I couldn’t see wings or rotors so it definitely wasn’t a manned craft. The sun was glinting off its metallic surface, which further obscured it from view. I immediately rolled to the left and the object passed by me. Whatever it was, it was fast, circular and almost hit me. I have a feeling that it was a large balloon of some kind – definitely not a party balloon. Either way, I couldn’t identify this flying object, so I can safely say that I’ve seen my first UFO.

While I was flying, one of my coworkers was entertaining guests at her housewarming party. They have a beautiful custom home right next to the runway, so I landed in front of my entire company, their spouses and significants others, and a bunch of people I didn’t know. Of course my landing was graded, as everyone knew I was the pilot of the Cessna that just touched down. I made the mistake of grabbing a beer before telling people about the UFO I spotted above the valley. After one glance at my drink, the conversation quickly transitioned into, “So, you fly drunk, huh?” or “How many beers is this for you tonight?”. Hey, at least I wasn’t trying to convince them it was a spaceship!

While my Saturday was fun, my Sunday was miserable, for myself, my wife and nugget. We all came down with the stomach flu, putting an abrupt end to our plans for post processing the pictures from the air-to-air shoot. I had forgotten what stomach flu was like, having last experienced it in Venice ten years ago. It was intense but fortunately short lived. I am finally starting to feel better and can’t wait to get up there again, maybe with a tin foil hat this time.

Living on Mercer Island provided a great opportunity to take photographs of Lake Washington and Seattle. My west deck looked out over the lake with Seattle and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. My east deck also looked out over the lake with Bellevue in the distance. Following are some photographs taken from my two decks.

As I alluded to in this post, my friend Michelle was my Maid of Honor, and looked lovely in her dress. (Be sure to click the thumbnails to view the pictures bigger.)

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Almost a year later, she attended my baby shower with this adorable gift, made by her mom out of the same dress.

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She even used the tiny seed beads and the little buttons! I was so excited to try it on my baby girl.

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So just two days after she was born, and much to the delight of the nurses, we put Siena into her beautiful dress as her going-home-outfit.

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Now, three months later, we tried it on her again and it fits much better!

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They say every bride thinks she’s chosen the perfect dress that her bridesmaids can wear again… but I sure wasn’t expecting my daughter to be the one wearing Michelle’s dress!

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As my mom put it, “That’s probably the most expensive dress she’ll ever own…at least until she’s a bridesmaid!”

Siena has been very lucky to have such a varied (and stylish!) wardrobe, thanks to many generous gifts and hand-me-downs. Some of her most special clothes, however, have been custom made just for her! My friend Michelle has given me bridal and baby shower gifts that her mom, Theresa, made for me. (Theresa also shortened and bustled my wedding dress for me. Michelle was my Maid of Honor, and you won’t believe what her mom did with her dress after the wedding! Go here and scroll all the way down.)
 

I love the full sized hooded towels she makes (cuz hoods are a great idea, but don’t they always seem to be on teensy towels?) and now that HiW has dubbed Siena our “little spit-up fountain”, we’re loving our giant bib, too.

Anyway, back when I was pregnant, I didn’t spend much time eating (unless saltines and flat Sprite count) but I did spend dinnertime online researching baby gear for my shower registry. I came across plenty of cute little onesies that would have cost over $20 with shipping and handling figured in, but I knew HiW would get a kick out of many of them with their technology puns and sayings. So I collected the various sayings and asked Theresa if she could embroider some onesies in a variety of sizes for HiW’s birthday gift. They cost WAY less that way, and he loved them!  Go check out Theresa’s site for some of her great crafts, or ask her to custom make something for somebody you love, too.

LRH’s uncle is an incredibly talented Montana photographer. Today he captured this image of a hawk sitting on a fence in the snow. Take a look at his online gallery for more great shots: http://bconnor.smugmug.com