Lisa and I went up to the Del Mar fairgrounds to see the dog show.  We are interested in getting another dog at some point in the future, but want to find the right breed for our lifestyle.  We thought going to a dog show would be a good way to meet a lot of different types of dogs.  Plus being general dog lovers, we thought it would be fun.  We were particularly interested in seeing the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers.  We had arranged to meet a breeder up there to meet a few of their dogs.

While we were there we met a nice Golden Retriever breeder and took a look at some Samoyeds too.  Here are some pics from the day:

Lisa, Rob and I headed down to Petco for the Padres Fan Fest.  We are getting geared up for the season to start in a few weeks and were psyched to be at Petco on a great day.  We took in some sights and got some autographs from some of the players.  Here are a few picture from the day.

Back in december, I came across a groupon from Corporate Helicopters advertising the opportunity to take an introductory helicopter lesson for an unbelievable price.  If you think flying airplanes is expensive, double that and you get helicopter rates.  Yikes.  Anyway, I have always wanted to at least try it out and be able to be that one logged hour in my log book, so I purchased the deal.

This past weekend I schedule the flight and got up in the air.  The day started with some ground training on the systems of the helicopter, basic aerodynamics, and maneuvers.  After that I spent a good hour in a simulator getting used to the controls and basics of flight.  After that we pre-flighted a Robinson R22 and got up in the air.

We flew up over the cost and beaches to the Del Mar Racetrack, then up to Rancho Sante Fe, over Miramar and then back to the airport.  The flight lasted about and hour.  To my (and Jeff’s) surprise, I did almost all of the flying.  Jeff got us off the ground and also helped me out with the approach, but other than that he was pretty much hands off for the entire rest of the flight.  Apparently that typically doesn’t happen until the third lesson or so.

After we got back to the airport we did a little practivce hovering.  This is definitely the most challenging part of the initial training.  Being able to maintain precise control in three dimensions while hovering only a few feet of the ground is not entirely easy.  I wasn’t great at it, but managed to get a little better by the end.  Again it typically takes several lessons to “get it”.

All and all it was a ton of fun.  I am not going to run out and get my heli license.  I still have a lot of work to do in airplanes before I even consider that.  I think helicopters might be a little more fun, but they are definitely not as practical.  The case more, have less range and can carry less.  I am totally glad I did it though and it was a great experience.  I didn’t have my camera with me, but here is a shot of the actual Helicopter I flew:

In a somewhat sophomoric moment, I decided to have a GRE Book Burning session.  To be fair, I was building a fire already, and just happened to have the book on hand.  A little puerile for sure… but definitely gratifying.

GRE Burning Video

Well, I got my online application in to SDSU last Friday. Today I finally finished updating my resume and sent that over as well. The GRE scores should be arriving over at the school (and online so I can see them) some time this week or early next week. I need to call the admissions office to see if I can track down my RIT transcript which should have been delivered to them quite some time ago.

Other than that I think I actually got everything in one time. Fingers crossed… I will keep everyone posted.