Pilot Friday Faves

Good morning, everybody! It’s the pilot. I’m here to give my beautiful bride a chance to catch her editorial breath while I offer up all the unsolicited pilot favorites you never knew you needed. I hope this provides a little bit of entertainment while we all work to get through these challenging times. I promise that the Fitnessista will be back shortly with actual meaningful content. For now – enjoy!

Watch

– Never Have I Ever:  There might have been times in the past when I would watch a show with my wife just to spend time with her even if I’m not completely pulled into the plot or character development. This is certainly not one of them. The show’s writing is witty and multi-generational. I wonder how many younger people watch this and appreciate it from the perspective of the high schoolers while I often found myself identifying with the struggles of the parents (while still laughing at everyone’s dialogue). Full disclosure:  I might have got a little misty-eyed during the end season finale. A particular flashback scene caught me way off guard and reminded me of time spent with my kiddos, and that was that. Anyway, good luck not doing the same. You’re gonna love it.

– I really enjoy a good stand-up special, so I’m just going to list out a few of my recent favorites. Tell me who I need to add to this list:  John Mulaney, Iliza Shlesinger, Nate Bargatze, Joe Rogan, Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, Whitney Cummings, Patton Oswalt, Pete Holmes, Jen Kirkman, Hannibal Buress, Ali Wong…okay you know what. This list is going to get out of control, so I’ll just stop there. If you happen to randomly find yourself stuck in your house for a few months at a time, I highly recommend spending some time checking these folks out.

Read

– This is sad, but for me, reading usually involves aviation-related tech orders or regulations. My memory’s anything but photographic, so keeping up with two different aircraft takes some time. Equally not cool is the fact that any reading outside of that usually rotates between memes, short comics like Nathan Pyle’s “Strange Planet”, and random articles on Facebook. I’m super deep.

Photo source

As much as I’d love to recommend a favorite author to pass the time, I really don’t think now’s the best time to dive into Ray Bradbury. Life feels weird enough already right now. However, if you’re looking for a little peace and stability in all this chaos, you can never go wrong with Tao Te Ching, pronounced kind of like Dao De Jing (to save you from that particular type of annoying person that corrects people when they say “fo” instead of “fuh” for pho). Anyway, it’s been a source of serenity since I was a young lad. I might judge you on your preferred translation, though. Kidding. Mostly.

Eat

– There’s flour again in our grocery store! Gina’s making delicious sourdough. The range of my cooking abilities; however, is fairly limited to things on the grill, executing with explicit instructions from a Sun Basket meal, and cereal, but I can make a fine pancake. There’s always an inflated sense of accomplishment when you make something from scratch, so here’s any easy one I like for the girls. There’s ton of them out there. The questions is:  HOW DO YOU MAKE THE FIRST BATCH LOOK AS GOOD AS THE SECOND?? Scientist have studied the phenomena of the first weird pancake for years…probably. My technique has been to wipe the butter (or greasing substitute) away with a paper towel, and start with higher heat initially. Share the secret if you know it! Alton Brown, what say you?

Distracting Your Children so You Can Stare Mindlessly at Instagram for Ten Seconds for Your Sanity (don’t judge me)

– Disney Singalong 2. Not too shabby. Who doesn’t love belting out some Disney classics. Slightly off topic, but let me just ask you this? How do you feel about the movie remakes? I’ve been impressed with a lot of them. They certainly stand on their own, but it just feels like the magic is missing. It’s probably because I haven’t been 10 in like…20 something years, but I just don’t feel that same whimsy. Am I alone on this?

Exercise

– I’m not even going to pretend to have any credibility in this field. All I do know is that it feels good to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. I’ve never regretted a few minutes with the sun on my face. We manage to take a stroll through our neighborhood once or twice a day, and it’s always good for the soul. If you’re able, make the effort. You’ll be thankful you did. Unless you run into a swarm of murder hornets, then I take no responsibility for your choices. That’s what you get for abandoning the soothing warmth of Netflix. You get murder hornets.

Cool. Well, that’s it for me. Thanks for letting me share this random hodge podge of faves. I hope you all stay safe and healthy. Talk to you next time.

The Pilot