August Recap

Pretty much any evening that the weather cooperated, we hung out on the porch for a bit with a drink. The doggies certainly didn't mind all the extra outside time.

Our fig tree kept growing like crazy; this might be the biggest it's ever been.

I was able to get back in the air again with my student; it might have been hot and steamy, but at least we were making some progress.

Mark wanted to replace a couple of our toilets, so we went to Home Depot to pick out some new ones. I wasn't sure that they'd both fit in his car, so I suggested just getting one to start and coming back for the second one. He insisted that they'd both fit, and I think it made his day to prove me wrong.

I spent a bit more time deburring some parts; the one with the forked end was made of thicker metal and was especially tedious.

One of the guys Mark works with gave him a couple passes for a free wine tasting at Bull Run Winery, so we headed up there to check it out. It was really good...

...and seemed to have a nice area set up outside, too. It started raining right as we were leaving, so we didn't stay to check it out.

One of our favorite games, Overcooked, came out with a new version. We started playing it as soon as we could; it was a lot of fun!

Here and there, I was able to catch nice sunsets at work.

Bacon tried to help Mark eat his pizza.

We had some more crummy weather...

...but I didn't mind too much because Zach came to visit again and we played a whole bunch of Overcooked 2.

I don't quite remember how it started, but Mark started emptying out the liquor cabinet at one point. That's not even the whole collection!

We got a new couch and some new kitchen chairs. We actually wound up getting the same exact couch that we already had. I tried to convince Mark that we should keep the old one, too, and have Supercouch, but he was unimpressed.

We had more crummy weather; at least with this storm, we got a small rainbow.

Mark and I had a random extra day off during the week, so we went to Old Town Culpeper for a snack and a drink.

We wandered through a couple stores, too, before heading back home.

We spent an afternoon working in the hangar, too. Mark rewired some stuff in my Mustang...

...and I snuck out for a short solo flight. I hadn't been flying very much with all the crummy weather, so it was nice to buzz around for a bit.

I even found Old House Vineyards; it's not too far from our house.

Mark brought me a pastel de nata one day. I forget where he found it, but it was tasty!

When Zach came to visit earlier in the month, he brought me a couple succulents, then we went to Home Depot and Lowe's and I picked up some cacti. I had recently lost a plant I'd had for a few years, so it was nice to have something green in my office again. (Little did I know what this would snowball into over the next couple months, lol.)

The weather finally cooperated for a bit, so I was able to get my student in the air again.

I think I took this while walking the track at work; I thought the texture in the higher layer of clouds looked really neat.

Mark and I were driving out near Rixeyville one day and randomly found a monument that we'd heard mentioned in a lecture a few months earlier at the Graffiti House.

We spent some more time hanging out on the porch...

...and hung out inside when the weather didn't cooperate.

I had one really good flying day toward the end of the month, even if it was hot and hazy and steamy. I did slow flight with my student...

...then filled in for another instructor and did maneuvers and a few landings with another student.

There was a gorgeous sunset at the airport to end the day.

I did some more deburring; I swear, most of building an airplane seems to be deburring so far.

Mark and I found all these guys eating our dill one day out on the porch. They were absolutely inhaling it! It was pretty neat to watch.