Birthday!!

Hey all! I hope you got a good laugh out of my truck story...I know I still think about it and laugh too :) But, I wanted to share a little something with you all about something that is coming up (and rather too quickly I might add) MY BIRTHDAY!! :) Yeah, I know, it isn't that big of deal. I'm turning 27 this year, slowly marching towards 30. But my AGE is not the point of this blog...no-sir-ee...I'm not going to complain about getting older, I'm just going to enjoy the chance that I have to live another year and learn a little more and give a little more to the world. But what I am going to do is say "Come Celebrate With Me!!" Especially if I haven't seen you in forever! My friend Amy and I are throwing somewhat of a joint Birthday Party shin-dig on July 12th. (I know, one day after my birthday, but thats because we are going to a Cubs game ON my birthday). So anywho, the get together will be at my friends condo at 1645 W Ogden Ave #316, Chicago at 1900 (thats 7 pm for all you non-military types) You are not required to bring anything but yourself, not even gifts (because seeing you is enough of a gift...) but if you really really feel like you must bring something, you can bring food or drink and an extra large smile on your face :) All I ask is that you send me an email at mheussner@Hotmail.com to let me know if you plan on coming. (please let me know by the 8th of July at the latest!!). Thank you again being a part of my life (for those of you who are!) and I can't wait to see all you family and friends when I come home to Chicago next month!

New Ride

So I went test driving, and I'm not sure if that was a good idea, or a bad idea, but it was fun! :-) Before leaving, I mapped out all the locations of the dealerships that I was interested in. Then, it was off to Portland in my cool little KIA Rondo (note the massive amounts of sarcasm in that last statement!) Now, I'm just going to skip the story of stopping at all the different places, but I will list all the cars that I did drive that day: Dodge Charger, Mini Cooper S, BMW 135i, Chevy Malibu, Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, Acura STX, and the Jeep Cherokee SRT8. I also walked trough the VW and Honda dealerships, but didn't really see anything that caught my eye.

After that long day of driving, I went back home with all my info and started trying to decide what vehicle to get. Now here's the funny story... About a year and a half ago I was down in San Diego and I got to ride in the back of a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, and I remember saying to myself "I should get one of these!" And then, just a few months ago I go the chance to drive around a normal Jeep Wrangler when I was in Hawaii (I say normal cause the Unlimited has 4 doors). And that was quite enjoyable. Then, the week after Hawaii, I was down in Florida and driving around a Mini Cooper, which I have to tell you, is like driving around a go-kart everytime you get in it! And that, again, was another car I told myself I needed to get. So, is it any wonder that the two cars that I came down to as finalists for my new ride were the Mini Cooper S and the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited?

So, although I really wanted the Mini Cooper S, I decided that the Jeep would be a bit more practicle for me...seeing as how I could get stationed anywhere between Kodiak Alaska and Tampa Florida. So that was my final decision, and to be honest, I love it! It is a ton of fun to drive and with the two 90 degree days that we had this past weekend, it was great to roll around with the doors and top off and just enjoy the sun and breeze!

Well, now that I've passed that on, I'm off to get ready for work, but if ay of you are around in Oregon and ever want to go for a cruise, just let me know! (not only would I enjoy riding around with you, but it would nice to see you again! [or meet you for the first time!])

My Crazy April...

Yes, I know its been over a month since I've put something up, but I believe I deserve a little bit of leeway on this one... Usually I don't have any really new things to put up on my blog, but this month is quite different. Lets just say I've had a pretty shitty month, all told....so here we go.

The month started out alright, telling april fools jokes and enjoying a short burst of nice weather. About a week into though, I had what some would call a falling out with a really good friend of mine that lives here in Oregon. And honestly, it was my fault. I crossed a line that shouldn't have been crossed, and I paid for it. Luckily for me we've been able to work though much of our issues and I foresee the freindship continuing to grow and improve.

Now we move into the sad part of the month. On the 19th of April I was at home in the afternoon just taking care of things at the house. Then, the fire department pager went off saying that somebody had been thrown from a vehicle and had a broken leg (for those of you who don't know, I'm on the fire department here in Warrenton). So I ran out to my truck, started it up, started down the driveway, and I was off on the call....but I never made it. As I was pulling out of the driveway, I happened to look in my side mirror and saw my cat Ginger (aka fuzzy) on the cement and I could tell immediately that something was wrong. I thought that maybe I had run over her leg or something because she was kinda limping around. I stopped and went to her and as I got near, I knew it was much worse. I don't know exactly what happened, but I am assuming that somehow the truck and her met, and she lost, and I think broke her neck. So I sat there on my driveway and watched my furry friend pass away. It didn't hit me at first what had happened. I went to the truck and called my friend who works at the vet to ask what to do with a dead animal. Then I went back and picked her up and sat in my truck and just cried for at least 20 minutes. I won't go into too many more details about the night but it involved crying, guilt, and needing a hug so badly and not being able to get one from anyone. I think that Fuzzy was one of the coolest cats in the world. She was so loving and soft and was willing to investigate anything and say hi to anyone. I can't think of anyone that knew her that didn't love her.

So after that tragic day, you'd think my bad luck was over...but no. As people say, bad things usually happen in 3's. Well, there was a third to this one as well. So I go out to my truck to head in for duty on Wednesday, and when I remotely unlock my truck, nothing happens. The locks do not go up. So I unlocked it myself with the key and went on my way....no big deal right? When I got off duty on Thursday, a couple buddies of mine from work ask me to video tape some stuff on the beach because they were making a skit to make fun of one of our fellow pilots for a Dining Out that was coming up. I said yes, and we headed off to the beach. Again, I had to use the key to open my door, and so I thought I would get it checked out one of these days if it started to bug me too much. We get to the beach and as we are driving down the sand I turn my stereo down (cause if you know me, you know I like to listen to it loud) and I hear static coming over the speakers..."great, my speakers are starting to go. Looks like I'll have to spend some money on those too" :-( I park my truck next to everyone else's vehicles, leaving it in 1st gear as always, and since we were on the beach, I set the parking break...not like it was going anywhere anyways. Oh, and I also had it in 4WD, not that it really matters. But I hit the lock button and what happens...nothing. "Great, now my doors won't lock either". So I head over and start talking with the guys about what the plan is for taping...and this is where it gets good.

But first, a disclaimer...although you might find it hard to believe that the following events took place, I swear that what I right next is the complete truth.

About three minutes into the conversation, my alarm starts to make funny sounds, I look over and the first words out of my mouth are about three explitives. In front of my eyes I see smoke in the cab of my truck...not good. I run over and open the door and look, and there are embers falling down from behind the driver's side dash. Yikes! So what do I do, I do the only thing I can think of...I grab a few things out of my truck, and I call 911. They say they were going to send the fire department. Mind you, I'm ON the fire department. So two minutes later, I get a phone call from a friend on the department that says "Mark, you at home, what are you doing?" I reply, "no, why?". Back to her, "we got a car fire call!" And me, "No SHIT! its my truck! GET YOUR ASSES OUT HERE!" Of course she didn't believe me, but the second time I told her she kinda got quiet and said, ok, and hung up.

Now the weird stuff. After I got off the phone with her. We were sitting there watching, cause thats about all we could do....and out of nowhere, my truck starts itself up! No joke, the engine startrs up!! and like I said earlier, 1st gear, 4wd, and parking break....truck begins driving itself from where it is parked (or WAS parked) toward the frickin' OCEAN! It made it about 50 yards into the shallows of the ocean and it stalled out (whether that is luck or not, I'm not sure). And yes, you can all laugh now if you weren't already, cause we sure as hell were. I couldn't believe it, and if we all weren't there to see it, I know we wouldn't have believed it either. I just wish we had the camera out already and got that part on tape. Oh well, better luck next time. After that it settles down. The FD shows up, I talk to my fellow fighters, they kinda chuckle with me, bust open my hood to cut the battery leads, and then hose down the inside of my truck. Then they tow it back up the beach away from the water and head on out. Well, what else am I to do, so I finish the taping with my friends while in complete disbelief about what had just happened. After we finished, one of my FD friends came back with his truck and we towed my truck back to my house (after scraping some soot of the inside of the window).

So as we sit now, I'm still waiting to hear back from my insurance agency and I've been spending some time online looking up a bunch of cars that I might want to get (cause from what everyone tells me, they will probably total my truck). So, does anybody have any ideas as to what kind of car I should get, cause I could use the ideas. But I am going to Portland tomorrow to test drive a bunch of cars, so wish me luck!

Well, I hope that kept your interest and you enjoyed my story. I'll try to keep you updated as to what vehicle I decide on (if they decide to total my truck that is). And like I said, give me some ideas (looking in the 20-30 g range!)

Peace and love to all, miss you much!

Off again!

Hey all!

Just wanted to put up a quick update for everyone since I've been reminded by a dear friend of mine that I haven't put up a post in over a month and I guess that makes her worry about me ;-) Anyways here we go:

In the last month I have saved my friend Krista's ass at her restaurant (she owns the little cafe I work at). I think two or three times she's asked me to "Please come work" because there has been a string of emplyees getting sick and not being able to make it to work. Must be a virus, and I'm glad I didn't catch it! I can't give her too much crap though because I made a few extra bucks because of it, and she is also watching my cats..thats right, the word was plural. I recently added a new little feline to my family to keep my other one busy and hopefully get her running around the house so that she can lose a little weight! Cute little bugger too if you ask me :) I've also done quite a bit of flying because I'm working on upgrading to First Pilot. Hopefully I should be finished by the end of the month. Also by the end of the month I hope to be qualified as an entry level firefighter so that I can begin responding to calls. Wow, it actually seems like I was just a little bit busy in the month of February! (probably because it was the first month that I've spent entirely at home since who knows when!)

But I do have to admie that staying at home didn't last very long. As I am writing this, I am looking out the window of a condo on the 25th floor of the Admiral Thomas builing in Downtown Honolulu. How sweet is that? I'm visiting my aunt for a few days (from the 10th to the 19th) and I really can't complain at all. So far I've been to a couple beaches, gone out to the bars, met a girl or two (hey, what happens on vacation, stays on vacation, right?), and enjoyed the sunny and 80 degree weather that almost a constant state here on the islands. I wish you all could join me out here because it really is paradise!

Alright, enough typing, I'm off to enjoy the night life here, and who knows, maybe I'll actually get some sleep one of these nights!

Lots of Love!

WOOHOO!!

Well, I'm back again! Nice to see you have all decided to keep reading my blog as I post. Well, I'm just guessing that you're reading it because I never get any comments...but I'll just be positive and assume. :-) (yes, thats a slight nudge in the direction of leaving me some comments because I'd love to hear what you think!)

Its the beginning of February and I'm finally back in Oregon, and hopefully I'll be staying here for a while too. By that I mean that I hopefully won't have to travel anywhere for at least a month. (And then I think in March I'm going to Hawaii to visit my aunt!)

Anywho, I left off back at the end of January. Lets see, the last week of January I had to head to Newport News, VA for a Weight and Balance (W&B) conference. For those of you that don't know anything about aircraft, W&B is basically the process of making sure that the aircraft isn't too heavy to fly and that the weight is in the right places so that it is stable in the air. Ever wonder why on smaller commercial airplanes where they ask someone to move from the back to the front, or when there are a bunch of empty seats on a plane that they said they couldn't take any more passegers. W&B is the reason. If its too heavy, the plane won't take off and you go boom at the end of the runway. If the weight is in the wrong places, the aircraft is unstable and it is possible to get into a situation that is unrecoverable, and you go boom into the ground. Not that I'm trying to scare you! :-)

Now to continue after my discourse, I cought the red eye out on Sunday night because flying from the west coast to the east is a pain, and I would have had to leave my house at like 3 in the morning if I flew out on Monday. But, I'm rather glad I did because three awesome things happened during my travels to the east. First off, when I got to the airport, I went to sit down in the terminal and some no good-two timing-meanie head of a girl tried to steal the outlet that I was about to plug my computer into. Actually, I'm lying. A wonderful young woman named Amy happened to sit down accross from me and proceeded to entertain me for the next 45 minutes or so until my flight left. Turns out I THOUGHT I was sitting in the right place, but I was actually at the gate for a plane going to NY, and I was stopping in Chicago. But it turned out alright because since then I've become quite good friends with Amy, and the more I learn about her, the more I like her. Hopefully we'll get to be friends for a long time!!

Now after that, I hopped on my flight and luckily enough I was able to sleep for about three hours on my trip back home. Landed in Chicago about 515 in the morning, and because I have such wonderful parents, they picked me up from the airport and we went out for breakfast. Awesome thing number two! The third thing that was great, was that when I landed at Richmond, I got to hang out with a friend of mine that I haven't seen in almost 5 years. Originally we were just going to grab lunch together because she was working, but she surprised me by taking the afternoon off, and so we were able to get lunch, and walk around the city, and just spend time together. We had a ton of fun. Always great to get back in touch with friends you haven't seen in forever!

Then the conference went pretty well. Nothing too much to report on there. But one of the days I did get to go down to the CG aircraft Depot and see the new modifications that we are going to start receiving in the field at the end of the year. The MH-60T model. WOOHOO. It comes with some new parts, but most of all, it is an all glass cockpit. So basically there are just 5 screens that hold all the navigational information. (see pic). Doesn't really mean much to most people, but to us aviators, we can't wait to start playing with it!

Then I got to see Emy again on my way out of the city. We ended up going to see Mamma Mia together in Richmond. I know, what a dork I am, but hey, ABBA's cool :) And it actually was a really cool show! Then I flew back home to wonderful rainy Oregon to get back into the grind again.

I must say that I do believe I'm improving on my social scene though. I have started to meet a bunch of people that live around here, and I've been trying to get out more and more. Although I am thinking about making a pact with myself to stay single until 2010 just to make sure that I don't go rushing into things and that I make sure I'm ready for another serious relationship. Either way, I'm planning on just staying with the dating scene for quite a while as of now.

Well, I think that about covers it for now. I know this is a long one, but I wanted to share my trip out East! Enjoy the rest of your day and week and I look forward to hearing from all of you!

Look...two blogs in the same month!!

Hey, I'm back again, and its only been two and a half weeks! How nice is that. I figured since I had a few minutes I'd throw up a few words about what is going on with me. (I'm currently sitting in my favorite little cafe in Warrenton...more on that in a few minutes) To go back to what I ended my last post with, I have some pictures to put up that depict my latest adventure. (darn digital photos...take forever to develop). About two weeks ago, I was one of the lucky crew members who got the opportunity to perform the flyover for the Seattle Seahawks playoff game against the Washington Redskins! Not only did we get to fly really low over the city and the stadium, but then we also got to go to the game AND go onto the field! I must admit, it was pretty sweet :-) Here are a few pics of it. On a completely different note, I've begun to establish myself a tad bit in my community. Instead of being a person that moves into a city, lives there for four years, and then leaves without making much of a dent...I've decided to become a part of the community by interacting with others and being involved (as much as I can while doing all the work with the Coast Guard). So, I think I've mentioned it before, but I've joined the volunteer fire department, and in that single move, I've gotten to know a ton of awesome people in the city and have started feeling like I'm a part of the town. In about another month (hopefully) I'll finish up my training period and will actually be able to start responding to emergency calls (imagine me riding on the back of a fire truck!). I've also decided to take up a second venture (or a third job as some would call it) by working at a local cafe :) (see the first sentence of this post). I never really pictured myself as a waiter, or a server, but its actually a lot of fun. At least being in my position it is. The best part is that I am getting the chance to really get to know a lot more people (because this particular diner is like the best little place to eat in the town). And of course, the extra money in my pocket never hurt anything! Well, I think I've put more words up than I already planned to. So I'm off to get back to work because my lunch break is over. Oh, and if anyone that reads this is in the newport news area of Virginia, give me a ring because I'll be there from Monday till Friday morning of next week! Peace, Love, and lots of great big hugs!

Christmas Travels!

Hello again all! I've talked to a lot of you that read my blog (ok, maybe just a few of you), and you expressed your enjoyment at reading my blogs and keeping up on how I'm doing. So one of my new year resolutions (other than getting back down to 200 lbs) is to be a bit more consistant with my blogging. So I thought I would start by telling you about my trip home for Christmas! To begin any travelling story during the winter months (especially near the holiday), I was delayed a whole lot on my trip home. Supposed to end up in Milwaukee at 1730 on Friday (that 5:30 pm for those non-military types), but ended up getting into Chicago (O'Hare) at 0200 on Saturday. Luckily for me, my parents and brother were nice enough to come pick me up. And surprising enough, O'Hare airport was a parking lot at that time in the morning...the cars were literally at a standstill getting into the airport. Nuts! But finally I made it home and headed to bed around 2 in the morning, only to be woken up by my most adorable niece at about 7. She was so cute....up until the point she realized that I wasn't her daddy. Then for the rest of the week I think she was a bit frightened of me :-(

(and I just have to throw in this picture of her because she is so cute!) Later that day we headed off to my Aunt's house for our famed "Hohs Family Christmas." It was quite the blast. All of my aunts and uncles on my mom's side of the family got together, along with all my cousins. (And I actually think they were all there!) It was a ton of fun because I got to reconnect with a bunch of my cousins and to talk catch up with my aunts and uncles, and then, of course, it is always awesome to see my grandparents again. After the party ended, we went back to my sister's house to pack up, and then Mike and I headed down to my parent's house to spend the night there. We did that, because on Sunday, we went downtown to Soldier Field to watch the Bears kick the Packers' ASS!! WOOHOO!!! BEST GAME EVER!!! Although I do have to admit, it was rediculously cold that day, with the blowing snow and all. Brrrrr. The rest of the week almost turned into a blur after that. Although there are some things I do remember. I got to see my dad on Monday night when he came to my sister's for X-Mas Eve dinner with Mike's family. Then X-mas morning my parents showed up and we got to open presents with the family there. It was so much fun watching Jessica open her presents. She was so distracted by all the new toys that she didn't know what to do :-) (oh, and did I mention she is SOOO spoiled, hehehe). Christmas night we ended up going to my Step-Grandma's house for dinner, and met up with the Kent's. As always, it was great to see them again too. Oh, and since I know you'll probably be reading this Bonnie...tell Art he got me hooked on Nintedo DS. I ended up getting one before the week ended and I still can't put it down! Friday we finally got some snow, but it still wasn't enough to go boarding. So it turned out I brought my board for no reason. Oh well. Hopefully one of these days though, Mike will be able to come out to visit and I can bring him up to the mountain and teach him how to board. Then on Saturday, we had a farewell dinner where a bunch of friends came over. Including the newly engaged Mike and Jess....I'm so happy for them! I know they will have an amazing life together for a long long time. B & K were also there with Sean, which was really nice. Definately fun to watch Sean and Jessica interact. That was pretty much the end of it. I ended up flying home the following day, getting back to my house (again) at 2 in the morning. If there is one thing I missed while I was home, it was getting together with my other friends, the ones I don't talk to all the time, but miss all the same. Hopefully the next time I get home I'll be able to see them too. Some of you might think this weird, but I did do two things that I wanted to (other than see the family). Eat some good ole Chicago Style Pizza, and get a brocolli and chedder in a bread bowl from Panera. I know, kinda weird, but I miss that stuff when I'm out here on the West Coast. Well, I think thats about long enough for now. I don't know why I insist on writing a ton all the time. But for my next blog, I'm going to put some pictures up from my recent Coast Guard adventure :-) Have a great day!