Blowing the dust off...

Man - I'm getting about as bad at keeping up with this blog as some *other* people I know, but I won't go naming any names. I'm sure their reasons are as good or better than mine. Speaking of, what exactly have I been up to lately? Well, a lot actually. Read on...

The week of June 12th thru the 15th, Christy, Christy Lake, and I enjoyed a getaway vacation at Myrtle Beach and also visited my folks in nearby Florence. Christy Lake loved the beach! It appears that this will have to become an annual trip for us - at least to some beach destination. It had been several years since I had been to Myrtle Beach, and a lot of the area had changed dramatically. For once, it didn't appear as though MB had become Ohio - meaning, I saw a lot less of Ohio tags on vehicles than I did when I was back in high school and college. I guess the high price of gasoline has really changed where people vacation. Still yet, there were many out-of-staters there - MB has been a tourist destination for many for a long time, and will be for many years to come. It still amazes me that so many would find it to be such a sought after destination, being only 1 hour's drive from where I grew up (Florence).

Boy it was very hot and humid - we had Alberto to thank for that. Alberto moved thru the area on Tuesday, and dumped its fair share of precipitation upon us. At least it was nice and sunny a day or two while we were beach-side. The visit to Florence later in the week was nice, as my brother had vacation that week as well. We all got to spend some quality time together, including watching my nephew Cameron play his last t-ball game of the season.

The rest of June was business as usual for me - I have been very busy with real work and work associated with Eaglesoft. There has been some really interesting developments with regards to Eaglesoft over the last few weeks as well, most notably being the partnership with Mindstar Aviation for an authentic representation of the GARMIN G1000 avionics package. It will certainly be the pinacle of GA aircraft avionics for the foreseeable future.

News surrounding FSX has been a bit on the dry side lately, but I have a feeling that this spell will soon be replenished with more tid-bits of goodness to wet the palate of the most eager anticipator of ACES studios' latest production. Some have been dissapointed with the lack of new info to come out of exhibits such as the Canadian Aviation Expo and IFC Denver. Speaking of IFC Denver, a great review of it can be viewed over at SimHQ. Many say that MS just hasn't come out with any other good news or let users experience anything other than a few missions at these recent events - very similar to the user experience at E3 back in May. Well, these recent avation and sim related events happened to occur in the particular "window" of development for FSX. I expect to see much more at EAA Oshkosh (more on this later).

This weekend, we are hosting what is known on my wife's mother's side of the family as "Thanksgiving in July." It's essentially where everyone gets together and enjoys a nice meal and conversation, but without the Turkey and dressing. Usually it's hamburgers and hot dogs - but I think this year everyone is being asked to bring a "salad" of some sort, because according to Mary Lake "...it's too damn hot to cook." Works for me, as I would be that "cook" if we were doing hamburgers and hotdogs, so salads it will be! It appears that the weather is going to be great with lower humidity levels - guess I need to get the grass cut between now and then, ugh!

Well, that's just about all I can muster for right now. I'll do my best to post more often than I have lately. I also will post images of Christy Lake as soon as I get them uploaded too - I've had several people give me a hard time for not doing this - I'm sorry!

Until next time...