Swarming Warhawks

I've recently finished editing my second book for Squadron/Signal Publications. This one traces the developmental history of one of the more frequent fighters of WWII, the Curtiss P-40. It became most famous for its use by the American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, but it was much more prolific than that.
The book was written by Richard Dann, and you can see profiles of the plane in various incarnations at his Web site.
Here's a video of the early-war workhorse from History Channel's "Dogfights":

Happy Birthday, Zoe!

Well, my little girl turned 2 last weekend. That's her on the left with a fistful of lollipops. Her BFF, Becca, seems to enjoy the pops, too. The seemingly incessant rain we've had in North Texas stopped, and we had a party with many friends and much fun.
It's hard to believe it's been two years since my life turned upside down and the most important thing in it emerged.
What a beautiful day.

I didn't make this up ...

Zoe's already putting on her own makeup.
Those are some kickin' eyebrows, little girl.

We're here

I know it's been a long time. Hush already.
We're here, and life is great. Ticla and I moved to Richardson, just minutes from my parent's place. And it's a blessing. We never could have done it without them.
Ticla is working as an office manager and I'm editing books.
Right now I'm working on a book about a Cold War Russian jet, the Su-27. It's an outstanding plane.
Here's a clip of it performing what has become known as Pugachev's Cobra. It's not really a tactical maneuver; it's more for show. But it's cool nonetheless.
Now, here is one of the Russian Knights:

Tao for today

"Throw away holiness and wisdom,
and people will be a hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won't be any thieves.

"If these three aren't enough,
just stay at the center of the circle
and let all things take their course."

Ice storm

Well, we got hit pretty hard. But after six days, the ice is starting to melt.
Many people are still without power, but we were fortunate. We only lost power for half a day.
Trees are down all over town. The National Gaurd is here, which is fitting beacause many neighborhoods look like war zones.
But it's a nice sunny day today. Things are warming up, and the sounds of transformers exploding and trees crashing have been replaced with the sounds of ice falling off of everything. Of course, this weekend's forecast calls for 4-6 sinches of snow. So here we go again. Sheesh ...