The picture across the top of this site is of the aircraft I flew in the Marines, a Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion, refueling in flight from a C-130 Hercules. In-flight refueling in a helicopter is a delicate operation. More than a few pilots have earned new call signs by cutting off the refueling probe. There’s a picture here that shows just how close the two aircraft are during the refueling process.
As if trying to finish up my dissertation wasn’t enough, over the past week and a half I’ve been remodeling my kitchen. Thankfully, my brother is an electrician and he came down from upstate NY (Harris, NY if anyone might be reading this and is curious) to help with the electrical work (and a whole lot else). We tore the place down to the studs and the subfloor and rebuilt it from there. It’s still a work in progress, with some tiling to do on the walls and most of the trim work remaining to be done.
In the meantime, I was working on a paper for the ASONAM conference. I don’t feel like it was my best work, but it was decent. I got it submitted before the deadline on April 15, so at least it’s on its merry way to the reviewers.
The big task at this point is trying to get my committee together for a meeting. One of the members answered my e-mail right away (he’s always good about that), but I haven’t heard back from either of the others. After giving them two solid weeks, I finally proposed a date and time and sent it to them. Hopefully that will get them to respond. I need some feedback before I go much further if I’m going to finish up my dissertation and defend it this fall.